Sweet Charity

There are people out there that think there is absolutely no money in crafting. Ha! Laughable! Look at this — I made a picnic blanket, and I donated it to my friend’s ‘new music’ ensemble to auction off at a fundraiser they had, and I get to write it off on my taxes this year as a charitable gift! So there, neigh-sayers! You see that?! That’s money right back in my pocket next April… I mean, I don’t know how much that will be… I’m not really even clear on what a tax write off is… and I’ll probably have to do something fancy to “claim” that (or whatever you do with it), so I’ll have to upgrade from the free edition of TurboTax, and that will probably cost me more than what I will be able to save from writing it off, so… ummmmm…  still… there’s money going into the plus column somewhere… and it might even be enough to cover the cost of the thread I used to embroider the thing…

Here’s the picnic blanket.

It’s about the size of the top of a queen-sized bed, so it probably fits two people on a picnic. It’s freehand machine-embroidered, using a Janome machine with a free-motion quilting option.

The figures (closeups below) are based on the artwork of my dear friend Kendra Portier. Looking at her work makes me wish I could draw. Since I’m not very good with a pen, I decided I would try to draw with my sewing machine. And so freehand machine-embroidery has been the obsession du jour for the last few months. Trust me, you’ll see more of it here…

OH — I will be making something to be auctioned at the Berkshire Fringe Festival‘s Gala Event next month (I think… I need to check on that…) and they are looking for more hand-made items for the auction, so if anyone wants to go in on some TurboTax software with me for next year… email me… we’re talking big bucks, people…

.a