Holiday greetings to all who observe them!

Cameron and I have a tradition of spending our holidays up to our elbows in projects. Our first December together involved a massive snow storm and many gallons of paint! This year it’s the lessons of wood working as well as an art quilt that I just finished piecing together.

We learned a lot from this first project. We received really helpful feedback from some YouTubers about the mistakes we made with the planing, we learned that we needed a round nosed down cut spiral bit to minimize tear out on the CNC, and that these particular woods, while very pretty, are not well suited to cutting boards due to the open grain. I’ll use it for bread but it doesn’t seem wise to use this for meat. Also, the epoxy dyes used are less than optimal. It’s another education, for sure.

I just finished piecing an elephant pattern called The Matriarch by Verushka Zarate. I’ve been working on it since mid November and have yet to pull out the paper, re-press, square it, create an artful border for it, piece together a backing, make a giant quilt sandwich, quilt it, re-square it, bind, and mount. So a lot lies ahead but the hardest part for me is done. She will be 55” square when completed.

The border I see in my head will involve the laser. I have to test it first to see if it will work.

That’s all from here for now. I hope everyone traveling has arrived safely and is in the throes of festivities to which they’ve looked forward!

Dana