Cheers to a New Year!

On this final day of 2009, I am thankful for good health, a wonderful family and the possibilities for the coming new year. Happy New Year!

The Healing Tree

There was an old maple tree that stood for many years, on a dirt road in NH, long before our house was here. It grew to tremendous stature, weathered and aged, then fell in an ice storm last year. I have looked out my windows at that tree many times, and in my mind, I see it still, like the people who have passed through my life. Some people are gone, but they stand here still, in my mind's eye, forever there as an influence on my life. Gone for the moment, never forgotten.

Stamping and Pattern Board Quilting

I just completed this piece that feels a little oriental to me. I used a stamp that I won on a give-away from Ruth Powers website. Instead of my usual intuitive freehand quilting, I used a pattern board with a spiral square. When I finished, my thought was, that anyone could have created this piece, because it doesn't, " look like me." This makes me wonder if there is the same level of satisfaction for people when they use patterns or stamps that they have not created? How do you feel that it is your own work?
I am a long arm quilter who quilts only my own pieces. I did a few customer pieces when I first got my machine, but in truth, finishing someone elses work, does nothing for my own creativity. I feel that my pieces have to be totally my own, based on my own drawing, from my own photo, from my own imagination. Do other people feel this way?

It's Snowing in New Hampshire

We have snow flurries today, after unusually warm temperatures in December. I am working on small pieces. I just finished this piece which may become my fiber art grab bag gift for an upcoming Christmas party. Would you like to pull this out of the grab bag?
Back to sewing!