Renewable Energy, Texas Sunflowers

This is my entry for the International Quilt Festival 2012. Tomorrow it will go off on it's journey, and I'll see it again in a year. During that time I may forget a little how it looks, so it will be a nice surprise when it returns. This is much easier than sending a child off to school.

 Tiny Details, grouted in chocolate brown. Inspired by slides of microscopic life.

 Jewel in the Garden

 Path in the Woods

 Key to My Heart

Grandson Ted's capital T

 Tiny Details, part of the themed mosaic series. This shows an up close look at little designs that may not be seen at a glance, like a microscopic slide.

Jewels in the Garden, theme mosaic series. A hummingbird tile  illustrates the gem like quality of life in a garden.
Numbers 147, 148.

Two new bracelets, made for a class at 212 Arts. Numbers 145, 146.

A New Man, first in a series of themed mosaics.

 Long Hot Summer, second in themed series.

 Beach Delights, third in theme series.

Path in the Woods, not yet grouted, fourth in theme series. Number 144 for the year.

8 year old Jack made this, see the smiling face?

12 year old Ted made this. He will grout it soon.

This is the bluebird of happiness, grouted.
I am up to 140 pieces made this year.

  Turtle mosaic, grouted.

White lily on dark red, grouted.







                                                                           Central Posy, grouted.

A new turtle mosaic, made today. It will show up better after grouting. The board is partly painted, and doesn't show contrast well now. It's about 4 by 8 inches.
I made more progress on basement today. It's about 25% done being organized. I have to go through a lot of fabric next. Today I worked on the paper arts area. Got rid of another couple boxes.
The first day I worked on all the accumulated things we stuck downstairs when we didn't know where to put them. There is more to do there too. And I want to go through all the holiday decorations, and edit. And the long ago moved out kids stuff, and the toys, and knickknacks, and my mom's sewing stuff,...
Maybe it's only 10% done.

 This is most of my glass collection, cleaned, cut and contained.

 This is my mosaic work table, now clear enough to use. You should have seen it before the clearing session.

This is how I celebrated my progress, by making a bluebird of happiness.

More basement cleaning today. Just by putting things on shelves, it looks better. There was a big mess on the floor. Again, not much tossing out, but lots of organizing. How hard it is to decide to get rid of some things. I may never do paper art collages, but I have a pile of stuff, just in case. And I have a game called Dictionary Trivia, which has cool pieces that look like the Thinker statue. Probably will never play it, but the cards are interesting too, with absurd words and definitions. Maybe I'll keep the pieces, and give the board and cards to another stuff archivist. Tired back, sore feet.
Did another section of the bird house mosaic.

I spent a couple hours cleaning the basement today. Specifically, my mosaic work room aka the furnace room. I took out a bag of trash, mostly from the rubbish can that has been there for a while. Two cardboard boxes are now empty, and can be recycled. The tabletop has an area open for working. I already made use of it, distraction is my middle name. I started my bird house challenge, which is not due for months.
I have a long curvy gourd, snakelike, that needs a home, and someone to paint it. Know anyone like that?

I spent hours today cleaning and cutting mosaic glass. I was given some, and while sorting it, I decided to do all of my glass. All the pieces bigger than 6 inches, I cut down. And I am using plastic boxes with lids to keep it all clean. Now all I have to do is clean the workroom, so I can put it away. This showed up some holes in my rainbow of colors. I will need to get more reds, and oranges, and black.
I am feeling like I'm being swallowed by clutter. If I don't post for a while, send me a note to see if I survived it.

I think Sam the Elf is about done now.

This is the fairy tale mushroom house that got me started. It was a fun fast project.











Then I made a little cottage for an elf, who was scolding a dragon above it. There was a giant caterpillar in the garden, and the dragon wanted to get it.








An elf musician serenading a mermaid was inspired by an old book of fairy tales.











Then I decided to make Sam the Elf, who gives my grandkids treasure hunts, with candy money as the prize. He is not yet done. There will be a bunch of leafy branches above him. 133-136

I made the moon on a red sky. Ted made the rocket, Jack made the castle. They are my grandsons. We used a box of tiny scrap glass pieces.
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