Having New Eyes

April Challenge completed on April 24th

Here's the April challenge results passing muster with my QI.  Obviously, JJ and the new owner of the quilt approve.  Thought you might like a closer look:

It's the storm at sea pattern from a precut kit by John Flynn, all batiks and batik like fabrics.

I used a 28 weight (!) black cotton for the top thread - it's touchy, but with a loose enough tension and a top stitch needle, it worked out fine.  I used polyester fleece for the batting and flannel checks for the backing.  I rolled the backing to the front for the binding - and no, it doesn't match!

I quilted with a light weight white thread in the green borders, loosely following the patterns in the paisley batik.

Quilted Business Cards?

Every Monday I go to Champaign to visit the grandkids and teach piano.  In between, I like to spend 45 minutes or so at Borders or Barnes and Noble and peruse the magazines, especially the one put out by Stampington.com that are full of mixed media inspiration.  One project I saw which really captured my imagination was one where a lady made homemade business cards.  I've made inchies, ps inchies, atc's - so why not the little 2x3.5 inch business cards?  While I have beautiful business cards for my Simply Music piano lessons, I'd like to teach people to quilt, whether contemporary or traditional, hand or machine, and for local use, I put these together:

These cuties are OFFICIAL QUILTS having 3 layers stitched together.  There is no paper in them - 2 layers of cotton fabric and a batting layer of stiff interfacing.