cosmos finished

Today, I finished the cosmos piece, adding a backing envelope style and sewing the hanging sleeve onto it. It is the first time I've used this method for a hanging; I didn't think I wanted a binding on it. I will be putting it in my shop in the next couple of days.

Last night, I also added a sprinkling of French knots here and there in white.

I'm wondering how many sewers out there use finger cots on the index finger when they're sewing. It is one of my favorite tools, enabling the thread to slide through the project like butter. It means you don't have to squeeze the needle so hard and thus your fingers don't get sore. Wonderful for arthritic hands! we do get lots of jokes about them though.

My husband was working home today which enabled us to get out for a snow shoe. It cut into my studio time, but one shouldn't pass up the chance to get out together and get fresh air and exercise too.

While I was musing about what I should work on next, something new or something old, I got a newsletter email from Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine with a little tutorial about collaging a background with paper ephemera. Instead of using white glue, they fused all the bits down onto fusible web, added paint, pealed off the backing paper and fused that to fabric or paper. It is sort of like paper cloth I guess, but there will be little bits where there is overlap that are not glued which I will get with some free motion quilting later. I didn't get to the painting part yet. Who knows it could be a disaster. It was fun to try it though. I'll let you know how it turns out.