take a look at my bra

Oh how I can't wait to see how many spam comments I get for that post title...

I am one tired redhead. I have been working too many hours, my brain is unsure what it did to deserve this punishment. I should be heading off to bed now but I feel determined to have some kind of life that doesn't involve calculating things to within one hundreth of a millimeter so I am going to blog.

So there.

On the art front, there has been much stitching. I am always happy to donate artwork for charity fundraisers. Especially when it comes to the American Cancer Society and other cancer support/research related organizations. (By the way, all three of my collages were acquired during Collage Mania (thanks!) and the event itself raised over $18,000 in three days! Woo!)

A few weeks ago my friend Michelle asked me if I would make an art bra to be auctioned off at a local Relay for Life event. I agreed quickly, I've done one before and it was fun so I set off to make this:


(If you've not heard of an art bra before, its become a common fundraiser for breast cancer fundraising events. You basically take a bra and do something wild with it. Its a unique way to put a new spin on the normal fanfare of artwork donated.)

I haven't done crazy quilting in a while although its how I started out in fiber arts (which explains my need to embellish the snot out of everything). It was a challenge to piece on a curved surface but hey, that's what silk ribbon embroidery and tatting are for. Its not perfect but I'm pretty happy with it. All the fabric is silk, which gives it a nice depth which unfortunately is lost in the photo.

I felt very odd taking photos of it. Don't know why. Especially when I took these up close shots:




That butterfly is a cigarette silk from the 1800s. It wasn't until I had stitched it down that I realized the irony of this. (Here's where I geek out on you about crazy quilt history...) When CQ was popular, the cigarette companies devised a marketing ploy to help sell more product. They included these very pretty silks that women began using in their CQs. So they would nag their husbands to buy more cigarettes in order to get the silks. I consider it a balancing of karma that one of these is now being used to help in the fight against cancer.

I didn't embellish nearly as much as I would have liked. Or even stitched as elaborately as I usually do but I ran out of time. *sigh*

But it gets handed off tomorrow and hopefully it does some good out there in the world.

On the westie front, we are still struggling with eye issues. This is what a sedated westie looks like:



Little man had an appointment wednesday evening to check on how his eye was healing. He looked fine when I left for work in the morning and when I came home his eye was all mushy and red.

Apparently he decided he needed to be tortured with treatment for at least another week. He scratched it again (don't speak to me of cones, we have tried it many many many times and he's so violently against him that it does more harm then help to try to get him to wear one) so he is now boarding the sleepy train for several days.

Hopefully his next check up goes better or I may just start to pull my hair out, I'm getting pretty close, so much worry about him.

Tomorrow should be a slower more peaceful day. Perhaps I will give the needles and yarn another try. I still have Babette blankets to assemble. I've been thinking about finishing those off, mostly because I can't stand the sight of the pile of them on the end table anymore. We'll see if I can prop my eyelids open long enough tomorrow to do it...