And the Winner is....not me.

Congratulations to Lynn Foley who won the ArtBeadScene and Margie Deeb Turquoise Color Challenge with these pretty lampwork beads.

I think glass will always trump polymer and I do know that lampworking is in my future. I do however like the piece I created for the challenge and I'll be putting it up for sale in my Artfire store later today, so hopefully someone else likes it too.

I spent my weekend shopping for fabric with the goal to update and refresh my waning closet.  I have almost finished the first piece, a long drapey tunic. I'm hand sewing as I much prefer it to lugging out the sewing machine which feels more like work and takes away the relaxing enjoyment of sewing.  I got into the habit of hand sewing when I was quilting as it gave me the accuracy needed for competition.

When I'm buying clothes in a boutique I'm often approached and asked if I'm a buyer....this is because the first thing I check is the cut and the second is the seaming. Seaming is so important to me as the standards seem to have dropped drastically in the high end clothes.  With the introduction of the overlocker French seams tend to be a thing of the past and I love French seams. For anyone not familiar with these, it's a technique which encases the raw edges of the fabric into the seam and was always used on sheer fabrics once upon a time.

It's why I find it hard to buy off the rack clothes, well, that and the fact that by the time the designer's latest designs make it to the department store they've been watered down so much for the masses they loose the thing that made them special.

Anyway, the things I am making definitely make me feel I'm getting my style back and I'm enjoying making them.