exchange ... to and fro

February is nearly gone.

(though it's a very special February this year :

with one (leap) day extra !)

It certainly is time
to send my felted piece for this month's exchange !!!

For the exchange

I received a wonderful package two days ago.

It was wrapped up like a real gift

Something like that can only contain

a true treasure ...

... and there it was : a new jewel !

Thanks very much Jolanda : love it !

*

The piece I had to make this time

has the theme 

  nocturnal  animal  

The plan I had for this one, was on little sketches

right after I made the "Baba Yaga house" piece in January,

but then my "Challenge House" took over

And then,

when I was working on the water soluble making butterfly wings,

an new idea emerged for the nocturnal animal theme !

a  moth

(a butterfly of the night)

It took some time

but today at last, my moth was ready to fly !

Here it is slowly growing ...

and there she goes

... to the light !

(and she's in the mail)

last but not least !

Today, though it wasn't really day eight,

the last presents were unpacked.

The first was a painted cardboard basket

(of which I showed a sneak peek ages ago)

that contained all the presents

but which was wrapped from the start !

The design and the beginning with a Neocolor crayon

Then I painted with white acrylic paint

one, two, three (and sometimes four) layers

to get a good white image.

Four sides ....... all year round

The last present took most of the time making ...

this little Birth Quilt

(48 cm   x  38 cm)

belongs to a series or three,

one for each of daughter's children

and for every one of them I chose a bird for the center section

The grebe is a wonderful bird that we often see in the water

next to our garden.

It is so cute to see the tiny ones get on to the back of the parent

so they can ride along safely when they're tired.

(the youngsters swimming around are of course the older sister and brother) 

Mom : isn't she a beauty ?!?

(YES, we think she is !)

I made this one because it is the Year of the Dragon

Above the dragon is written "roots  and  wings"

(which is written on every one of the three Birth quilts)

meaning :

give your children roots

so they know where they come from

ánd where they can always return to,

give your children wings

so they can fly out into the world and live their life.

There are some extra wings on the top

(and when you look closely you can even see a little bit of magic thread !)

The first Birth quilt ever,

for the oldest daughter

and the second one,

for the (now) middle one, the older son

Making these little quilts for the children was a lot of work

but worth every moment of it