A quiltie giftie, a discourse on pink, and a sneak peek

So where are the photos of the We 3 play day? Well, it didn't happen yesterday. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to postpone the play date until today. Hopefully everyone will be OK and we can have our solder day.

I'd like to answer a comment left by Donna who said I must like pink. Actually, pink is one of my LEAST favorite colors. You won't find any pink in my house. I tend toward the cool colors, mostly blue and green. So why all the pink in my art? I guess because I'm always trying to find that perfect red that won't turn into pink. One example is my anniversary pages made with Staz-on reinkers. I used their bright red reinker, which turned pink when mixed with the 91% alcohol. I have some really red dye and pigment ink pads that turn into pink on the pages or the stamp, and the red fluid acrylic I bought is on the pink or warm side of the spectrum. I also bought a box of used cheap bottle acrylics at a garage sale once, and when I got them home, six of the eight were pink. So, although I don't care for pink, it seems my supplies appear to make it seem that way.

When the play day didn't materialize, I wanted to stay busy. I had made a quiltlet for Cindy McMath months and months ago, but she never got it. It's the first thing I've sent her that didn't arrive in Canada. For those of you who don't know Cindy's work, she is known as the Queen of Bingo. I used all the bingo material in a swap and on her lost quiltlet, but Kathy had some, and gave me enough to make a replacement for her. I put the material away and forgot it, until I ran across it a week or so ago. Now was the day to take my mind off the missed play day and create something that was long, long overdue. I began by layering the bingo material, some of the hand dyed table cloth, and hand dyed cheese cloth. Next I needed a bingo card.

Color is OK, but the card is too big. It swallows the background.

Better size, but it's square, where the quiltlet is rectangular, and the "white" on the bingo card is not the bright white of the material.

Much better. this color is great, the red compliments the background, the white is better, but it's still too big. So I scrounged through my stash of supplies until I stumbled onto a gem.

It was the same design as above, but smaller. It was just what I was looking for. That's when I got caught up in the process and forgot to continue taking pictures.

Here is the completed piece. OK, pink again, but this time by design. Cindy's studio is called "Pink Bird," so why not honor her bird? I had no pink embossing powder, so mixed red and white trying to make pink. Such irony: since I try hard to get rid of the pink in my stash, all of a sudden I'm trying to make pink. I also used pink pigment ink to stamp the bird. The large red "chip" at the bottom was punched and colored with red fluid acrylic (by Golden). See how "pink" it looks up against the lovely red bingo card and the red bingo number in the upper middle?

Here is the back, hand dyed using scarlet dye and an old striped blouse. The sentiment tells it all: Cindy is the Queen of Bingo and I am the Queen of Free. I hope she likes it, because I put a lot of love into making it.

OK, here is a sneak peek of the second set of anniversary skinny pages. I finished them yesterday also, and "packaged them." You'll just have to wait till Monday to see the finished project. By then, all the swaps should be on their way to me.