New Year, new projects

Happy New Year! There's a lot going on, with wrapping up the old year and starting the new.

I love the lacy pattern of these dried flowers growing in the dunes on Tybee.

We spent the weekend on Tybee Island, with my sweetie keeping our restaurant on track and me taking pictures and otherwise trying to stay out of the way. We had a nice time visiting with friends while we waited for the fireworks at midnight. And I wore my sequined shoes, which everyone loved.

And I even got in a nice walk on the beach Sunday morning, despite a chilly breeze.

I used the Lumiere paints to fill the quilted flowers on this sample
piece. I'm going to do  more quilting, then paint some more.

I brought along a sewing machine and quilt to work on, but decided Saturday to take the chance to go shopping in Savannah, so made the trek in to JoAnn's and Hancock's Fabrics. I was so glad I did. I've been looking for quite a while now for Lumiere paints, and was about resigned to ordering online. JoAnn's had their fabric paints on sale half-price so I took a look and found the Lumiere. At half price, plus an extra 10 percent off, I bought about every color they had in the opalescent and several in the opaque.

I couldn't wait to try them out, so last night I pulled out one of the small pieces I'd quilted during demos at our quilt show. The colors are gorgeous against the dark fabric. I'm going to add some more quilting, then paint the rest of it, and see what I come up with.

Other than that, I picked up some topstitching and metallic needles, to see how they do with the specialty threads I've been using lately. That was my first visit to that Hancock's store, and I was impressed by how big it was. I found several really nice batiks (my weakness) on clearance for $2.95 a yard, so three of them had to come home with me.


There's lots more going on, including my studio reorganizing project and a couple of challenges, so more later.