A Finish That is NOT a UFO

Tucker and I have a good morning routine. After he has breakfast at 7:00 he snags my sewing chair for a morning snooze while I drink my coffee and use the computer in another room. This was the look I got when I claimed it was my turn this morning...

Oh I Think NOT!

I conceded gracefully, did some tidying up and settled down with some hand binding to watch the Vikings lose to the Packers. Can I tell you how I adore Adrian Peterson? Love him. 

Instead of posting about UFOs today I'm going to show you a finish on my family room table. But before that, let's talk about what has adorned that table for several years. My first quilt!

I took a beginning quilting class in January 2002 during our first winter here in northern Minnesota. We were given a copy of "Start Quilting with Alex Anderson" and had our choice of 3 quilts to make: Rail Fence, Flying Geese or Friendship Star. All 5 of us picked Rail Fence, in my case because it had no HSTs and I'm guessing I wasn't alone. We were turned loose in the quilt shop to pick a border print that we loved. Great advice that I still use today! Then our teacher worked with each of us to choose 3 color families and 3 values in each family. Let's just say there were bolts of fabric everywhere. Good times. I still love that border fabric and this quilt.  

One of the Other Crafts (per my blog title) that I enjoy is making mosaics. Here is a close-up of a tray made of tiles cut from dishes and a center cut from a dinner plate. I got into mosaics in 2004 and for a couple of years I sold mosaic tiles on eBay. One day next spring I will show you my mosaic room in our garage, projects I've made and my stash of dishes. You will laugh, because I have LOTS of dishes.  

Batik Pinwheels is finish #13 and is not a UFO. This was the project I started when I began quilting again after my 3 year hiatus in September. I bought this as a kit from my LQS within the last year thinking it might jump start my quilting mo-jo. The pattern is "A Little Twist" by This & That.

Beautiful batiks and simple quilting. I'm looking forward to trying this pattern again in a different palette as I really like it. And, it's a perfect fit for this table.

On a side note, I'm kind of fascinated by how the angle of the two photos of the quilts on the same table makes the table look like it's two different colors. Into the light (Rail Fence) is golden light and with the light at my back/side (Batik Topper) is pale light. I've got so much to learn about photography.

I'm linking up to UFO Sunday@The Free Motion Quilting Project and Sew Darn Crafty@Sew Many Ways.

Fused Glass Art

I've been pretty light so far on the "Other Craft" part of my blog title. Since my quilting has been going so well I just want to keep at it I guess! However, I did take a beginner's fused glass class at a wonderful local studio a few weeks ago. I've worked with stained glass before in mosaic projects and had seen fused glass art back when HGTV used to have a few crafty type shows so was excited to give it a try.

We spent an evening learning about fused glass and of course making a project. Basically what happens is you lay out a design on glass and then use an adhesive to hold the layers together. The art piece is fired in a kiln which makes the glass layers fuse together. Then it goes back into the kiln using a mold for shaping or "slumping" as it is referred to.

Here is how my design looked at the end of class. It's a 6" x 6" square of white glass with a mixture of glass pieces glued on top.

Our instructor did the firing using the mold of our choice and a few days later this was delivered by one of my friends who attended the class with me. All of the edges are totally smooth. I can't wait to go back to the studio and play some more!