July Swaps .....

Well, I'm just not very good at this .........
as this lovely Zentangle should have been at the bottom of this post! However, here will be just fine. Lise Pederson from Alberta, Canada tells me she has just started drawing these, so thought she would make a card and send it with my swap, which is below. Not bad for a beginner!! (I really am kidding, honest)
Now this little beauty is an ATC and was sent to me by Margeeth in the Netherlands.
Margeeth says it is Evolon, a non woven fabric, and she used transfer dyes to create the colours.
She also says Sifra's cat hairs are an additional embellishment that shouldn't really be there!

This is the ATC I sent to Margeeth to complete the swap. It is made from hand dyed silk rovings with black chiffon over, then stitched around and about, a lot!

I did another swap with Suztats (she of the gorgeous tatting). What about this Seahorse then - isn't she just lovely.

This is what I swapped with Suz which I called Neptune's Daughter! She is worked on dyed velvet and her hair is dyed scrim!

Now, Unlimited Textiles swap for July was a 7" Quiltie 'Carnivals Festivals and Events' and this Carnival Mask I made for June, who I must say was delighted.

This wonderful Quiltie I received today from Lise Pederson who lives in Medicine Hat, Alberta Canada (who sent me the delightful Zentangle card at the beginning of this post) In it Lise writes:

'For my July Block I chose to do a crazy quilt block to represent our celebration of "The Stampede" which is the last week of July. The rider on the horse represents the events that go on, such as calf roping, bull riding etc. The picture of the Indian Chief represents the name of our City "Medicine Hat". The legend is that a Medicine Man lost his headdress near the shores of our river "The South Saskatchewan River", and so hence the name chosen for this City. The yellow and orange flowers are wild flowers that grow in the prairies and the wild roses are the flowers that represent our Province "Alberta". The pines are for the hills of Elkwater Lake which is about a half hour from our city. Hope you like it. It was fun making this.'

Nah! I don't like it - I absolutely LOVE it! If you enlarge the picture you will notice a tiny charm of a horseshoe and riding crop on the bottom left of the rider picture, an Indian spearhead to the left of the medicine man, a howling coyote (I think!) just under that in the middle of the quiltie, and over to the left just above the ribbon roses a tiny Alberta badge. Oh yes, and there is a Canadian Flag (badge) flying among the pine trees! The hand embroidery of wild flowers etc. is just amazing, and the beading is beautiful. I'm a very happy bunny!

Hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I do.......

Till next time .....