A little bit of everything

I went to a lecture last week, the guest speaker was Sue Spargo http://suespargo.blogspot.com . I love her work and am very inspired by it. She works with wool (dyed by her sister), velvets, cottons, beads, and trims etc. She does all her applique by hand, with a lot of layering and bead work. Please check out her blog. The following are just a few of her pieces. A winter table runner.

One of her wall hangings. She has patterns for sales for all these pieces.

Another wall hanging.

I especially like this piece, this was one of her childhood homes in S. Africa, with her story appliqued around it.

I also went to a fund raising dinner last weekend. It was titled Potters for Peace, Nicaragua. This non-profit group has developed a water filtration system to help people have drinkable water. This is a small sample piece of what the pottery filter looks like. The potters from the different villages make the filters. To help raise money to buy kilns for the potters to fire the pottery filters in they had a pottery sale, the pottery was made in Nicaragua by the potters. (I hope this rambling makes sense).

This is how the filter system works, you pour the water into this cup like insert, the water filters through and come out the hole that has a spout attached. Such a simple system that could save thousands of lives around the world. And since it's usually the young girls that walk and haul the water home for the families, this may free some up so they can go to school.

This is some of the pottery that was for sale.

And a few hand-woven baskets.

There also was a "Taste of Nicaragua" dinner, with traditional Nicaragua foods. This old Nicaraguan water picture was on the buffet table.

This was the piece I bought. Doesn't this look like me?

Back to Laura's cottage where my girlfriends and I wrapped leaves in silk scarves and steamed them. This is Laura's printed with white birch leaves she picked on her walk. She added on a beaded edge along the bottom. Beautiful.

This is a quilt in progress, when ever we go to Laura's cottage we all make her an Exquisite Star block with the fabrics that we were working with while there. Then write a message on one of the squares. It's always fun to look back at the top and read it, what memories it brings.