December Dash

Yes, it's begun- and it's at least some of the reason I haven't posted much lately.  But so far, I've managed to keep my equilibrium and notd become hysterical over what I'm not getting done, since there is always some of that with our schedules.

I have sent two boxes off- and it's actually fiber related.  I finished Christmas stockings for both sons and their families/significant others, and shipped them Friday.   The box that went to Chicago also had a completed memory quilt made for my son's girlfriend.  They've seen the picture, and said they love them both.

The stockings are based on ones my mother and aunt made for our families when I was a kid.  They just glued the felt pieces on the stockings.  I'm guessing that glue no longer exists, because the one I found (specifically for felt, mind you) was clearly not going to hold the pieces on.  So I stitched around them too, and quite liked the effect it gave.  I also did some beading, another thing my mother did not do!

I realized I forgot to post our last photo for the Interpret This challenge- so here it is.

 

This will be a pleasure to work on in the midst of winter!  I love all the greens, and it has such a serence atmosphere about it.  I've decided I want to get back to trying to abstract, so I've been running ideas through my head.  The December pieces won't be posted until mid-January thankfully- so I have time to sketch, maybe even play with my watercolors to come up with a design.

And I'm thinking about what I want to accomplish with my art in 2011.  The Interpret This group will be ending, but I will be working with three other members during the year.  The way we are setting it up, we'll each be working from our own choice of inspiration, and are only committing to four pieces.  I'm glad I've kept up with the monthly pieces for a year, but I knew I couldn't do it again.  I want the time to be able to put more thought into my work, and with my schedule I need more than a month.  I also want time to finish some UFO's that have been taking up too much space in the studio for too long.

And, what would the holidays be without baking?  With me watching calories, I won't be doing a lot of traditional baking.  But I am trying some revised recipes that I can eat guilt free.  I just took a cheesecake out of the oven- it's intended for a work party tomorrow.  It uses nonfat yogurt chee.se and Splenda instead of cream cheese and sugar.  If it works, I'll post the recipe- it came out to less than 200 calories per serving!