Break from the Quilt

First thanks to those who commented on the Memorial Quilt. It is progressing, though not as quickly as I had hoped and I thought I should take a short break to regroup and recharge. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I have some very dear friends who have inspired me off my quilt path! (Have to blame someone!) Barbara and Victoria Adams Brown of Ribbonsmyth showed off their altered Cigar Boxes. They made them into Bead Boxes to hold beading projects complete with a beading platform (the inside of the lid) and are beautiful beyond words. They did some beautiful Silk ribbon Embroidery and used lovely laces and silks. They looked very vintage. I just HAD to try one or two of these myself so I bought a few cigar boxes and started to play. Here are the results--strangely there is no (or very little) hand sewing in on mine. Wonder why. I call them treasure boxes--wouldn't they be a great place to store all those ATDs and ATCs?

The background fabrics for both are silk I literally threw dyes at then soaked in diluted Lumierre paint, scrunched up and then let dry. Love how the paints and colors migrate to and from high and low spots in the fabrics.

The Mermaid picture is a stamp on clay embellished with pearl-ex powders. I dyed the laces of course. The sea horse is from a mold I made of a pin I have then used it with clay. The shells are real. The stamp is from http://stampcamp.com/ and is #S298 Mother of Pearl. The edging on the lid and box corners are the actual box.

This box has a stamped panel (Stamp from Michael's) stamped on silk organdy then embossed with gold. The panel was tinted with easter egg dyes and placed over a small piece of pink confetti dot placed over a piece of wide lace netting. I dyed all the lace . The dragonfly is a pin I made a mold from then cast in UTEE transluscent mixed with Gold. Love the effect but it is very brittle.

I also made small panels covered with the fabric for the sides of the boxes so you wouldn't see the Surgeon General's warning and all that other good stuff. All the panels are edged and sealed to the boxes with dimensional paint. The knobs are filagree gold beads.

Enough procrastinating. I am off to work on the quilt. If you don't hear from me in for a while, don't worry--just means I am working hard (hopefully!)

On another note, my Neptune's Daughters class is set to begin April 17th. anyone interested can sign up through http://www.fabricaddictions.com