Starting Off the New Year - a little late!

Good Morning! I've finally launched my blog - bear with me while I sort out my technical shortcomings please. I suppose I should explain the name of my blog - a thread from the edge - - - for now, suffice it to say it implies no emotional instabilities. I hope to use this space to share with you my love of quilting, a dash of knitting and all things food - cooking, eating, drinking and "farmer's market-ing".

Jumping right in - I wanted to show you the Christmas gift I made for the incredible women in my quilting group, Layers: Art in Stitches - you'll learn more about them as the blog grows. Coming up with a gift idea for these five women can be a lot of pressure - they are all so talented. I was scanning www.etsy.com for an idea when I happened upon http://www.etsy.com/shop/SeptemberHouse - Corinne of September House was selling blanks of 2010 fabric calendars - that was it! - I would purchase the fabric blanks and personalize it with my touch.

Our upcoming Layers' challenge for the year is bird related so I decided to use a bird as the focus for the calendar. I allowed the striped ribbon which sets the horizontal line to dictate the color of my composition. I practiced my quilted feather (and clearly need a lot more practice!), silk screened "sweetly sings the bird perched high in my quilted tree", used ric rak to trim the movable wing (why movable? where is the bird going? - maybe I am closer to the emotional edge than I thought!), added touches of wool for the leaves and the small birds at the bottom of the quilt, and sewed a button on the date of our birthdays - done, hope you enjoy!

Again, bear with me as I refine my ability to post my blog entries.