Does Absence Make The Heart Grow Fonder???????

 I have been absent from my blog for too long.  Did you miss me???   I probably won't be doing the Tea Cup Tuesday every week as my life has taken me in other directions.  But I do hope to at least do a blog post every week.

I am on a HUGE mission to finish up some sewing, quilting, crafting and more projects over this year.  I completed a quilt and it is now waiting for binding.  I have another quilt at the long arm lady's shop and it should be returned to me in a couple of weeks.

When they are done pictures will be posted.

I have been working on the Altered Books I have created over the past 20 years.... YEP... 20 years. Most are fully done but I discovered a few that I never really put finishing touches on to make them complete.

The reason I am inspired to do that is that a good friend and I recently attended the most amazing art show at a nearby college....  It was held at Penn College in Williamsport, PA.   It was actually a double art show.  The formal show in the main gallery was called  BOOKS UNDONE.   The art of the altered book.

Click on the links below for the brochure and the catalog of the show.

Brochure:

 Catalog:

In addition there was another show in the main part of the library called Old Books, New Lives featuring altered book art created by students and faculty members using books that were ready to be discarded from the library.  To me this part was the best and here are some  pictures of work I REALLY liked.    I am showing some of the items since their pictures were not included in the catalog and I think these are really terrific.

What a fun way to use books that are scheduled to go to the shredder!!!  Good recycling.

I hope you will come back again next week to see what I am up to.... perhaps I will have the quilt bound and ready to show off.

Altered Art and Christmas

Getting packages wrapped and in the mail and working on Christmas Cards has slowed me down in my hobbies and my blogging.

But an altered Art lady named Mary Ann Moss has saved the day. I am so excited about a new project class I am doing with her. My good friend Anne is taking the class too so we have each other to encourage and push on.

I have finished the Artist Class I was taking and the 12 Days of Christmas projects I signed up for.
So now, once the cards get out in the mail I will have time again to Play. Unless my antique shop gets too busy, which I doubt, since Christmas time is NOT my busiest time out there.

This is an early Christmas present from my husband. He is getting his hobby stuff for his gift from me. The class is called Mary Ann Moss' Remains of the Day: A Shabby Journal of Scraps. This class is going to stretch me quite a bit, not in the usual realm of things I do ... But hey, that is good for me. The first lesson is to make the cover. I have finished the inside and today will work on the outside of it. My sewing machine will get some use beyond doing mending.

A few months ago I bought a huge amount of scrap material from a home decorating fabric shop near me. I am pulling that out of my stash today to start selecting the pieces I will use for the outside of the cover. I have already used a few pieces for pillow but that is all.

I will report in tomorrow on the results of today's play.