My favorite rose, "Alchemist". I've babied this rose along for 3 years now. When I received it (I ordered it from Canada), it was about the size of a pencil; a bare root rose. It only blooms once a year, but it is worth it!

Detail of "Alchemist"

This is a bracelet I made last night. I used silver wire, a purchased length of silver jewelry chain, mother of pearl and shell "beads" and crystals. It measures 7" long, including the clasp.

A closeup.

Here is a REAL closeup photo of the zipper in the quilt (photography by Richard Uhlhorn). Amazing what professional photography will do... So now you can clearly see the zipper and some of the bead work. There is a purple crystal at the center of the spiral.

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Here is the paper template I drew as a pattern for my latest quilt. I put it on my kitchen floor to cut it out. The kitchen and dining room floors are the only ones in the house without carpet (besides bedrooms) and I didn't feel like moving the dining room table and chairs - so the kitchen, while small, will have to do!

The paper template after I cut out the spiral. What a mess! Now to straighten it out...

And finally the paper template placed on the fabric so I can draw the spiral design.

And, finally, here is the finished quilt. "Rock the Casbah" measures 53x43" and is made of hand dyed African fabric (the saffron colored fabric), commercial cotton fabric (the red), purple silk organza (the purple circles) and 6 yards of black zipper. This quilt was an exercise in 1) sewing a spiral design, and 2) including a zipper in the design.

Another detail shot of the quilting and sheer silk circles. I used Sulky rayon thread for the quilting on the front and cotton thread for the bottom. The black "trim" around the spiral is the zipper.

Here is a detail shot. The purple silk organza circles are sheer. The center part of the spiral is heavily beaded with all different sizes of red beads, with a few purple and orange ones thrown in.