Where has the Time Gone?

Well I last posted on Feb. !6th. I can not believe that much time has passed! I certainly have been busy enough. With my husband an over the road trucker, who is gone for two weeks at a time, I have many responsibilities. I am thankful he was not a trucker when we were raising our children! I think I would have lost" it" a very long time ago.

  Anyway, responsibilities, I would prefer not to have! It snowed and snowed and snowed some more. I shoveled and shoveled, and shoveled some more! After sleeping all night, I woke up to more snow than I could ever manage! I called the guy we used a few  years ago to come and plow me out. He was so busy.... he called someone else, and that guy came and plowed me out. The local pennysaver had an article about all the snow and the official snow count on Friday was 27" which does not include the snow that fell all day Friday, and all day on Saturday. I was plowed out in less than ten minutes, for $25. So, I am still breathing ! I had shoveled a path from my front door to the mail box, only to discover that the mailbox its self was buried underneath the snow. I gave up and went inside and made the telephone call for help, after all the time it took to shovel just a narrow path, I would have been out there all day and well into the night! I had other work that was calling my attention!

The other work I had, that was calling my attention, were these custom ordered towels. They look so bright and happy, and warm, I could have gone out and picked some myself, if it was not 30 degrees out,with ALL that snow on the ground.

So with the towels completed, I started on my next project. This was a delightful, whimsical custom ordered piece, which is what I absolutely   love to do! My customer wanted a pin cushion with a palm tree on it. So I thought and thought about, went to the fabric store for inspiration,sat at the computer and researched what palm trees actually looked like,  and came up with an idea.
I stacked a gusseted 8' square that I tufted in the middle (I made this out of some tropical fabric with palm trees and surf boards, tropical flowers and  waves) on this came a tropical blue, eight petal flower shape that I also stuffed and tufted, then I made a raspberry pink fro-fro, on this I made another eight petal flower shape only smaller and this time in green and also tufted. Then I made a large coconut out of some fabric that had some nice texture to it,I used a large doll needle and crochet cotton string, to string all these pieces together. Then I made a cardboard platform and covered this in green and put a tropical blue ruffle around the edge,I glued this to the top of the large coconut, to this I glued my palm tree. The palm tree is made from felt, I used my very own pattern for it, and added some coconuts, out of the same fabric as the large one. Then I made some pink and raspberry colored flowers, and the leaves, and glued them around the pincushion in cake decorating style. Then I added a lamp work monkey shaped bead to the tree. I bought the bead at "Shipwreck Beads" in Washington state while I was out west a while back.

 This project took way longer than I had wanted it to, but the time was well worth it! I so love this piece, sure hope my customer does also, it is on its way to California. My customer has a glass cabinet she keeps her pin cushions in, hope mine is not too tall that it will not fit on her shelves or be unworthy of the honor.
 I am proud of myself with how the palm tree came out, and I could not resist hanging the little monkey lamp-work bead from the tree!