Hey folks. Well, I just finished playing with the beer cap beads that I made, and had a blast. I'm thinking about doing a lot more, since I do have two jobs and want to give all the girls something for Christmas. Since the last post, I melted embossing power and put them on the beads, and it changed all the colors and made the beads look elegant. I totally LOVE them. Did I mention that I totally LOVE them? First I made pair of earrings for my darling oldest daughter (since she was skeptical regarding the results....) and then I made a bunch of pendants with the domed beads for the girls at work. I strung them on sari silk ribbons and used a few silver Tibetan beads and I even impressed myself. Check it out...I think you may be hoping you are one of the girls I work with. Well, I do have some other friends that need presents, so I think I'm going to have to make some more.

I'm working on a few quilts at the present and have some awesome ideas for several more, but you will have to wait to see them.
Until next time, carry on and keep quilting...

Okay, I couldn't wait to get home from Houston so that I could do these. I had the most fun, as a non- mixed media person could have... I read an article in cloth, paper, scissors-nov/dec 2011 ( by Laura Ryan) regarding making beads from beer caps and since I had many of friend save me caps (sorry about the alcoholism folks. I finally used a few. It didn't make a dent in my stash but oh well. I had to order a few supplies that I couldn't pick up in Houston and got started yesterday. Oh what fun... Here are the pix.

I first punched holes in the caps then domed some (way fun). I didn't follow the directions because it wasn't working for me, so I soldered the caps together, then applied a little rice paper and then tissue paper.

 

I now have used newspaper, stamps, old magazine pages,and whatever else I could find. I then used paint, stamps and lots of other things to make them pretty. I love them (mostly), I thought that the alcohol inks and walnut inks? were too dark. So, here are the pictures.

I have now moved on to earrings. I didn't dome these and still need to add glitz and glimmer but that will have to wait until my next day off. So until then, keep on quilting my friends.

Ok guys. I'm here in Houston at the International Quilt Show. I believe it's my seventh year and it still amazes me. I get to rub elbows with the best of the best. I recognize faces that I see every year and in the quilting mags. I was on the airplane with Sharon Shamber. I was in the booths with Pat Blair and Anna Buzzalino. All this creativity is making me want to go home and get back to quilting.. and painting...and making cool stuff..The quilts on display are amazing as usual and they continue to raise the bar.  The classes are also amazing. I took a beading class with Nancy Eha- here's my beaded dragonfly.Way cool.

I also took a two day class with Esterita Austin on how she does her portraits. I didn't finish mine but here it how much I got done. Will work more on it when I return home.

Today I had a photoshop class with David Taylor. My daughter is going to be very happy when I can photoshop my own photos and she doesn't have to. Love you, Casey, and thanks in advance. Tomorrow I have a class with Mary Ellen Kranz called Photos + Words + fabric = Poster Quilt. Should be interesting. I'll keep you informed.

Until then, remember.....It's all about the quilts.