more Christmas projects complete, new art begun

and here it is -- a garden hat!

hoping to help protect my son-in-law's head from the sun and the heat while he grows some more of those hot chili peppers next summer

oh yes, and note the colorful top stitching in the brim that matches the embroidery on the front of the hat too



and you may be wondering what that paper is that is under the hat that looks like a blue print

it is the full size pattern for the next project

and these are part of the next project too

now that I have all of the pattern put together I'll be working on dying some fabrics for the background of this piece -- one light blue dye pot, one terra cotta dye pot

and these threads are for the redwood trees

the idea is to digitize the redwood "leaves" (they are really more like fat, soft pine needles) so that I can create some of them with the embroidery program on water soluble stabilizer -- then they can be attached to the quilt only at the stem end -- sort of like a real tree would be with the "leaves" loose and moveable

(Ok, I'm probably not explaining this real well, but I can see it in my head!)

Progress on other Christmas projects is going well, and I've also been working on the hand bag I've been improving and started on the next beaded architectural piece.

Oh yeah, and working on Christmas cards --- just rolling along!!