Thursday, December 29, 2016

New Endeavors

I have been up to some new and quite interesting things lately.  For a while now, I felt unchallenged by quilting and was having trouble coming up with new projects to sink my teeth into.  I was talking to a friend about this, and a general lack of interest in other things as well.  She suggested that I look for a way to combine my two loves, quilting and animals.

This was a great idea, so we brainstormed for a while and we came up with doing pet memorial quilts for people.  I started by coming up with designs and doing research on photo transfer products.  I made up samples of the designs and shared them on facebook.  People liked them!  Great!

I forget how we got into the next phase - thread paintings - but I tried to do a thread painting of one of my dogs.  It turned out pretty good, so I did a few more.  I kept sharing them online and people really liked them.  Soon, someone asked me to make for them.  Whoopie!  So, while the photo transfer quilts are great, these thread painted portraits really took off.

I named my new endeavor DogGone Memories - Sue came up with the name, so I need to give her credit. I am currently working on a website with my gracious brother's help. Now that the holidays are over, it is time to focus on that so we can grow into the next phase of this project.

I love new projects and this one promises lots of learning and growth.  Classes in techniques, learning how to market the project, exploring, designing, and creating.

This is just one example of a thread painting I have done.  Isn't this puppy just the cutest?  This is going to be fun!