Carma results -$985.00

Wendy just called me and told me that between the postcards and my wall hangings, $985
was given to Wellspring . Isn't that great? They also sold quite a lot of larger quilts and though they didn't make as much as last year, with the economy the way it has been this past year, they did very well. I am very proud to be part of the efforts to raise money for the
Wellspring projects. Especially right now and especially when the wonderful cards you
sent me in Rob's and My name did so well.

I am hoping to donate more of my quilts next year. Thanks to Wendy for doing such a
great job organizing the auction and sale.

Monday morning

I just thought I would drop by to say hello. Life is not too great right now,
but that is to be expected. I am doing okay.

I just heard from Wellspring and they did quite well with the auction of
the quilts. Our donations certainly were good. Over 300.00 for the post cards
and $550. for my wall hangings so I think we did make a difference. Wendy
was so appreciative of all the postcards -- and I wan't to thank you all again.

I hope to get back to normal in the next month or at the most 2 months-
Until then, I will have to 'play it by ear'

I found some pictures that I have taken over the years of Alberta --
I took this picture of one of our beautiful Alberta skies last year - It was spectacular .
I will post a few more pictures of my home Province in the next few days. Shirley

Wellspring -Carma House -sales - 2009

I just heard from Wendy -- they have made over $300.00 so far from the post cards and will sell the rest at the Christmas party on Saturday. I am so thankful for all your cards.

They have also sold 2 of my wall hangings and I will have a table At Carma house on
Saturday, so I hope to sell a few more. It comforts me to be able to help Carma House
right now, and I am looking forward to being at the Christmas party on Saturday.

I haven't been out much, due to being sick, and no energy -so it will be great to get a day out.

There was the most beautiful Chinook Arch over the Rockies yesterday, so today is
very warm and feels like spring! grin.

I hope you are all happy and content and have eaten lots of turkey!

I won't guarantee how much I will be around in the next while, but will try to drop in.
Things are not getting better here, and I know they won't be. I hope you will continue to
keep my son and I in your prayers. Shirley

H A P P Y T H A N K S G I V I N G

to my American friends! We spent 9 winters in Arizona and I miss your Thanksgiving
celebrations. I hope all my American friends have a wonderful day, and don't get too
crushed on Black Friday - grin.

(For those who are
not familiar with Black Friday -- it is the busiest shopping day of the year - the day after Thanksgiving.
People line up for hours and there are some wonderful bargains.)

I have so many happy memories of Celebrating
Thanksgiving at the park where we spent our winters.

Have a lovely day, with Turkey and all the trimmings!

POSTCARDS FOR CARMA HOUSE -success!

I just got a phone call from Wendy at Carma house and she just got home from
working at the display in Gulf Canada Square -- she says that people are so
intrigued with all your cards and they are selling quickly - for between 5.00 and
l0.00 per card. She says that just about everyone who walks by is so impressed, and awestruck at all your work. She is going to try and get a photo taken of
the table with the cards on it.

I am so pleased that all of beautiful cards I received from all over the world are
raising funds, and introducing the wonderful work to strangers who are
so very impressed. I hope to be at the auction next Thursday at the display,
and then I will be at the "Christmas for Carma house party" on the 28th where
I hope to sell any cards that are left over, as well as 3 or 4 of my wall hangings .

I will keep you all informed . Shirley

Another artist in the family! My grand daughter Hayley

This beautiful child is my grand daughter- she is nearly 6. She is an excellent artist
and has an wonderful imagination. I am so proud of her. Here are l0 cats she
drew for us. What a joy she is!

Postcard sales for Carma house

I just heard from Wendy at Carma house! Here is her message.

"For the past two days, I have been in Bankers Hall with Therese, promoting the event, I have attached a photo of the display that was taken today. Your postcards are on the table in front.

We have been selling them for $5 or $10 and have made $110 in two days! I wanted to let you know that there is great interest in what we are doing and I am confident that we will have great success at both the Bankers Hall auction and the Wellspring Calgary Christmas."
===========================
I am so pleased that the cards you all sent me are doing so well for Carma house.
She just told me that people were very intrigued and interested in the postcards.
They have set up the quilts and cards in Banker's Hall which is a business center
right down town.

----
Once again, I want to thank all of those who donated cards for Carma house in my name and Rob's name.

Tutorial - Christmas projects, 2009 Nov/09

I found some of my drawings that I did when I designed the table topper that is on the header. There are two or three different 'patterns' Please forgive me as these are
just rough drafts, but I think you might find them useful.

The first photo shows my drawing of the table topper - You
can make your blocks whatever size you wish.
Mine are approx. 6".

In all these cases I made the log cabins first and then used the size of the blocks to
make the center block.

I thread painted a candle on a pieceLARGER than the blocK would
be and then cut it to the size of the other blocks. Then I stitched the 3 rows side by
side with the motif I chose, satin stitched to the center block. You can either
use the timtex or a good stabilizer - cut it out, then satin stitch it to the white
block, making sure it is small enough so that when it is cut to size the motif fits
nicely in the block. I then sandwiched the whole table topper and quilted it -
following the straight lines in the log cabins and used a quilting pattern
(you can choose which one). It is important that the quilting over all the
table topper is even - you don't want some close quilting and some larger quilting.
I then found a pretty Christmas fabric, backed it (you can put a sleeve on in in
case whoever receives this gift might want to hang it - or neglect the sleeve and
use it just as a table topper. I then bound it in Christmas fabrics -- it is an easy gift.
You could also use other christmas blocks if you want. Voila! you have a table topper.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-I did this table topper exactly the same way using smaller blocks
I made three of these, One with a pointsettia and holly - the second
with a fairly tall pine cone pattern, the other with a candle on the
top and holly on the bottom square. Very pretty and much
appreciated gift - easy, fast and fun.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

here are two different table runners - the third 'pattern'
uses quite a few motifs and another pattern for the pieced blocks - one I did with rows of Christmas fabric, - Any 4 or 5" block will do.
I then did small motifs - One I did with holly on all the open
blocks and the other I did with Pointsettials and little candles
placed in the white blocks.

You can vary the blocks in the first one with one of your
table runner patterns and incorporate two blocks which
show thread painting motifs - The possibilities are endless.

Forgive my poor drawings. I just found these old work sheets and they do give
you some ideas as to how to do the projects. I can't take a picture of any of the
finished table runners as they were given away as gifts and I can't find the pictures
of the finised projects.
========================
You can also do coasters and hot plates using the motifs - I use heat resistant fabric
underneath the top layer, and then thin batting. I usually change my ironing board
top once a year and cut them up for these projects. You can cut the blocks
individually, or quilt a whole piece of the cover to fit the project - then quilt it.

Use your imagination! I hope you will send me pictures of your projects to
painterlady2@shaw.ca

Have Fun everyone , Shirley

Christmas CANDLE - other alternative

I just realized that the example I showed of the candle was not done in straight lines.
I used a zig zag and covered the candle without following any pattern, and THEN, did the darker edges and the wax drips. There are so many ways to thread paint. I have had
the example picture for some time. Just make sure you fill in the candle but make sure you don't go over and over it. That is why it is a good idea to use the basic candle color
underneath so you don't have to pile your stitches up. You might go over it twice, but
no more. Shirley

Tutorial -CHRISTMAS PROJECTS - PINE CONES

One motif I often use is the little pine cones and needles -- It is so useful for
Autumn or Christmas gifts. here are some examples. You can draw an
egg shaped oval, then color each egg with a medium brown, (use a coppery
brown). Once you have the cone covered, then take a dark brown or black thread
and put in the layers - click on the photos so you can see what I mean.

I usually draw a fairly wide branch, and put the cones on it. then cut it out
as mentioned previously, then satin stitch around the trunk and the cones.

ONCE YOU HAVE ATTACHED THE BRANCH AND CONES- then using a
very fine satin stitch, or zig zag or even a straight stitch in dark green- go up
and down from the trunk, behind and beside the pine cones - make your
needles quite long. go over and over changing the spot of the needles so that
it appears to have many many needles. Then change to a satin medium to
dark thread and put a few needles on top. This is a great little project to
decorate any Christmas project - you can make them as large or small as you
wish.

------
I HOPE YOU have enjoyed these three little projects and that you do use them.
Shirley

Tutorial - Christmas Projects - CANDLE

Here are two different patterns for the candle.
You can click and pull the pattern over to your desk top and put it into your image program then
make it the size you wish. My candles are usually no larger than 5-6 inches tall and 3/4" wide.

I would not put the holly in until you are putting the
design together. Note: I used a blue fabric and attached it with 505 spray to a piece of timtex,
(a heavy web for making bowls). I then draw the design on the blue fabric and we are ready to thread paint. You can also use, other
colors for your candle -this candle can be used for other projects too.

You will need a medium to dark thread for the outside of the candle on both sides and a lighter color for the center, with a very light color for the drips. Here is how it will look.

Remember, we are just doing the candle. Using a narrow zig zag, with the dark thread, stitch up and down each side as well as behind the flame. Change your thread to medium blue and zig zag with a slightly larger stitch, up and down, working towards the center (you do not have the holly on the bottom, we will add it later. Once your candle is thread painted, take your light thread and fill in the little drips (grin) following the shape of the wax-
You will now do your flame. -- I usually use two colors, a yellow and an orange yellow. You can do the center with the orange and if it is too orange you can do a medium zig zag over the orange in yellow, and carry it out to the edge of the flame with a tighter zig zag-- doing it this way BLENDS
the two colors---
You don' t want to stitch ACROSS any part -- follow the shape. You will find that
it doesn't pucker at all when you are doing it on the timtex - that is why I do most of
my thread painted objects on the timtex. IF YOU can't find the timtex, you can
use fabric the color of your fabric and use a good stabilizer.

Once you have finished your candle (without the holly) do a medium zig zag all around the candle. Cut it out - and put it in a baggy (You will satin stitch it on your project later ) - once again, I make two or three or more -sometimes I take a day and make 4 or 5 candles and 4 or 5 pointsettiasso that I have them for my Christmas projects.

----------
HOLLY - Holly is very easy to do -- here is a good example of a holly branch - you can make individual leaves if you wish (I often do) -I make a small branch with lots of leaves for
the bottom of my candle on a good stabilizer -- I use green fabric for the leaves - It makes it easier to use the basic color of the project. - you thread paint the leaves very much like you thread painted the pointsettia - either fill the leaves in - making sure there are sharp points along the leaf with a vein up the center. Once you have your leaves done, take a red thread and thread paint small circles as shown in the first picture if you are doing a branch-
If you are doing holly for the base of the candle or with a pointsettia, you can either do the leaves or 3 or 4 leaves and berries together in groups and then cut them out, after doing a small zig zag around the leaves - when you are putting the candle and holly together, you use a medium satin stitch and attach the candle to the background -THEN add the holly at the base and satin stitch with a narrow zig zag after you have cut them out.
OR -do individual leaves - place them and once they are added to your project you then put your berries directly on the piece (this is easier I believe). This is a very easy project and so effective. Give it a try. I will be doing the 3rd part today or tomorrow which will cover the
pine cones and pine needles - see center of header table runner.

I also plan on showing you my working sketches for a table runner or table top showing two different ways of making the table runner. The possibilities are endless! Have fun ladies! Shirley

EXAMPLES OF THREAD PAINTING FLOWERS.

#3 HOW TO SHADE YOUR POINTSETTIA

SHADING is the most important part of thread painting. Think of your sewing machine as a paint brush. In the pointsettia I start with the wine thread and using a narrow fairly close zig zag I thread paint the BOTTOM sections of the flower, starting at the stem. On the top
petals you only do a very small section and make sure you finish each row (nearer the Point) about l/3 the way up, unevenly -

- DON'T ALLOW A LINE ACROSS THE PETAL. See
example in the photo in other post. Then you take the DARKER RED and do the petals which lay on theBOTTOM OF THE FLOWER. THESE petals are underneath the top petals. See the example with the printed flower on the purchased fabric. Carry the thread painting up from the petal, to the point. Stitch a dark line up the center of the petal and using the example included in this post, thread paint your petal. I have included drawings of
different shaped flowers for your information. You will note that ALL the stitches start at
the stem.
You will note the rosebud which I colored - that is the basic way you shade all your flowers. Darker underneath, lighter on top.

I then do two or three of the UNDERNEATH petals in green - dark green vein - dark green around the petal (underneath ) the top petal - then fill the center in the lighter green, using the same pattern as in the example above.

You are finished with your Pointsettia -- that wasn't so hard, was it?

I have taught quite a few tutorials on thread painting over the past year and one important
post shows many different thread painted subjects - it is the post on SEPTEMBER 6 and you might want to print it off for future use. Just go to the archives for Sept. I will be teaching an ongoing thread painting class
starting in the New year in learningfa and we will be doing many different examples of threadpainting and how to include it in our landscapes , table toppers, etc.

I will give you a couple of days to do your pointsettias (I would recomme nd you do a few different sizes, and put them in a zip log bag for incorporation into your Christmas projects. I hope you have fun with this.

The next 'tutorial' will be a Christmas candle , holly and a branch of pinecones and pine needles.

======
Note the header picture on my blog -- I thread painted a little pine cone and designed
a pretty table topper using the log cabin blocks around the edge- I use it every year- I have given many of these types of table toppers, coasters, larger pieces as hot pads etc. It is
unending. Once you know how to do the holly you might want to incorporate some with your pointsettia, or make a group of hot pads with different designs on each one.

Please comment if you have found this little class interesting and useful. Shirley

Tutorial #1 - POINTSETTIAS

#1 -- This picture gives you a good idea about the shading and shape of pointsettias. Note the different shades.

#2 - Is my drawing of a pointsettia -- to use as an example. You will note from boththese examples, that there is more than one of each color. For the petals you
will need 3 shades of red (Bright Red, a lighter Bright red, and a wine color) You will
also need 2 shades of green for the leaves and the berries.

Tutorial - Christmas projects (thread painting)

I am going to teach 2 or 3 tutorials on how to thread paint Christmas Subjects,during
the next few days.

They are easy to do and I thought the blog might be a good place for people to
drop
by and follow these instructions.


I will start with #1 POINTSETTIAS, #2 A CHRISTMAS CANDLE. #3HOLLY AND
PINE CONES. (I will walk you through each project and I hope you will
use this tutorial when you are doing your Christmas projects.
-----------------------------------
BASICS OF THREAD PAINTING -

The basic idea of thread painting (free hand) on your machine is to accentuate
or
fill in all the portions of the subject.

We are going to start with the Pointsettia. You can use these beautiful
thread painted flowers for many different Christmas projects. I usually thread
paint 5 - l0 different sized pointsettias and keep them in a baggy until I
am ready to use them.


A BIT ABOUT THREAD PAINTING.

Free motion embroidery is done much the same
way as free motion quilting. Your feed dogs are dropped and you use a special foot.
Some machines have a special sliding foot which slides over the top of your
fabric and you free motion embroider with it. I use a 'spring' embroidery foot or
a darning foot which I find the best way for me personally - Possibly because I
am used to doing it this way, and haven't taken the time to try to use the other foot from
my new Husqvarna Saphire 870. I used a medium value Husqvarna freesia for 8
years of constant thread painting. The main thing is you want your feed dogs dropped
so
that your foot can easily slide in every direction over the fabric.

HOWEVER - recently I have read 3 or 4 thread painting articles where the feed dogs
weren't dropped. If you have an older machine which doesn't allow the dropping of
the feed dogs, you might wish to try it.

DIRECTION OF STITCH IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR IT TO LOOK NATURAL.

FLOWER PETALS are many different shapes, but all of them are attached to the stem.

You stitch from the stem out toward the end of the petal - some petals are wide, and you
have to stitch from the stem outward and go
up and down always meeting in the center at, or above the stem. See the examples
in this post.

STITCH TYPE

I use two different types of stitches -- very narrow zig zag for corners etc. Larger zig zag
stitches for fill in -- I don't use a satin stitch except for around the edges when I
attach the motif to the project.. For veins (flowers and leaves) I use a very fine
close together zig zag.

I use a wider, fairly close zig zag for filling in the project.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!

never thread paint across a shape - in otherwords follow the shape of the subject.
If you stitch across a leaf it will not look realistic. If you shape from the stem to the
outer petal it will look better.

---
I also use a straight stitch at times so it is entirely up to the person doing the
thread painting-

----
\There is also the thread painting that doesn't fill in the whole area - instead
you can use your stitching to accentuate, rather than completely cover
the project.

-----------
I hope you will enjoy the following tutorial -- I will do one motif every two days
and I hope you will incorporate the information in your Christmas projects.

It would be very helpful for me, if you put a comment about the different
sections -- I will read any questions and answer on the blog.

Below is an example a thread painted flower I did on a piece of printed fabric for a
friend - take note of the direction of the stitching, it is what makes the
subject realistic.

REMEMBRANCE AND VETERAN'S DAY 2009

PLEASE go to the following link.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

Take a few minutes to read the story of Flander's fields - Shirley

Miriam Gogarty

from Dublin, Ireland, is visiting Ontario with the Irish patchwork Society. She is a member of the learningfa group as well as some post card groups. I would love you to take a trip into their flickr album and check out the beautiful Irish quilts made by their members.

Miriam is the designer of "Emma's Tree" which I discussed on my blog this past week.
she is the one without a wall hanging inthe picture of her class and their wonderful 'Irish Landscapes" I understand they took Miriam and a few friends on a tour around and the
weather was good - I hope the trees were still showing their beautiful colors. Miriam has
become such a good friend.

Verona's quilt

My friend Verona from Revelstoke just sent me this picture of her latest work in progress.
She does the most beautiful work and we exchange pictures each time we finish something. This quilt is my absolute favorite of all the pictures she has sent.
She is going to put red and blue borders on this quilt.

She is such a good friend. How fortunate I am with my friends.

She organizes the Big Sky retreat in Olds, and
there is lots of room if any of you would like to attend a June retreat. I can vouch for how well it is run and what fun we have. It is in Olds Alberta at Olds College. The work room is well lit, lots of room and each of us can have either a single room or share one with a friend. The girls who attend are great and the atmosphere is wonderful. I would strongly recommend it. There are lots of people from all over who come each year. Some from BC. some from Oregon, Boston, Atlanta, Manitoba, and lots from Calgary and Edmonton.
If you are interested in attending email me at painterlady2@shaw.ca and I will send her your request - She will then send you information on the retreat. I would love to meet some of you there.

Emma's Tree

Hi everyone! The girls in the learningfa group have taken on a project to make 2
"Emma's Trees. One of our Irish Members, Miriam, designed and made a
tree in memory of her
daughter Emma who died of Cancer a few years ag0..

The trees are quite simple to make and we decided to make two
each, one for
ourselves and one to give to someone else. People from all
over the world
are making these in honor of Miriam and Emma.

I just finished my first tree, and have not decided to make it
into a square
wall hanging, or leave the tree as is. It worked up very quickly
and I am ready
to cut squares for the second one tomorrow. I used two
fabrics, a blue
snowflake pattern and a navy blue sky pattern which has
stars on it.
Once I got it put together I used silver thread to highlight
the squares.

Miriam's trees are hung, as is, but I am thinking of putting
mine on a
square wall hanging and decorating the border with thread
painted
Christmas decorations. I haven't decided for sure yet. I
would love to
have some idea whether you think this should be left alone
and hung
as is , or whether I should make a square wall hanging with
pointsettias and
pine cones and needles around the edging.

MY MACHINE QUILTING on my 'Sunset"

Please click on pictures to get a close up.

















I am very impressed with Leah's blog on 365 different machine quilting samples. I have been doing a variety of different stitches on my borders and in my wall hangings for some time but with this piece I incorporated 3 or 4 of her samples in the piece. I thought you might find it interesting to see how I incorporated many different directions and stitche in the piece - especially in the sky and the border. It really sets off the scene and I am planning on using her different stitches in my work from now on.

The color of the sky is a bit 'off'' the sky photo - it is much more orange. I hope this helps you
make your borders more interesting - especially wall hangings.

Sunset

I have been working on a new wall hanging that I think will be donated to Well spring for the quilt auction. I have done some tryouts of different
quilting patterns some which I knew and some which I took from the 365 days of quilting designs. I have shown a couple of close ups of the quilting as well as the finished wall hanging below. I still have to
put a backing and sleeve and label on it. It is nice to be slowly getting back to doing some of my work.

With all the things going on with the family, I haven't had much desire to do much until this last week or so.

Things are in a holding pattern with my son -- he is doing much better than expected time wise which
has been such a blessing. I am feeling much more relaxed as the first couple of months were
horrendous, but he is getting Cancer treatment, and pain meds which make his life so much better.

I hope you like my sunset. It won't be the final name -- I hope to donate it to Well spring for sale at their open house or the quilt auction in November. I hope to do a scene of one of the most popular mountains in this part of the Canadian Rockies - and I have other wall hangings I have made over the past year. We sold all the wall hangings I put up for sale last year. If you are interested in seeing
pictures of the ones for sale in November, let me know - If any of you are interested in a wall hanging
75% of the sale price will go to Carma House for Cancer Support.

They will also be selling the l07 postcards donated by my wonderful friends to be given to Carma House. I will be at the auction with a table showing the cards and wall hangings. I would love it if you comment on this piece. Such fun to do. Shirley

NEW CLASS ON LEARNINGFA GROUP

I have decided to teach a class on Learningfa (my yahoo group) (click on the name) called Horse
Country -- This is a really good way to learn how to make sure you have the proper perspective as far as distance, as well as how to put buildings and animals in your piece. There is a lot of thread painting as well. If you are interested - I believe that there are a few spots open for new learningfa members.

We have some great classes coming up. I will be teaching a new series on thread painting this winter as well- it is a series of lessons to show how to thread paint different subjects and working into scenes.

=========================
We have had a month of lovely late summer weather. It is supposed to rain today and I do believe it will be welcome by the gardners and farmers although I hope it doesn't last too long as the harvesting is about to begin.

I do hope you will join learning fa if you don't belong, so that you can take some of my classes. We will also be doing quite a few traditional classes as well.

365 ways of machine quilting

I just read one of my yahoo group digests and one of the girls suggested we look at this link.

It is really worthwhile visiting, as each day there will be a new quilting pattern. For me, it is great as even though I don't quilt large quilts, I am always looking for patterns to do my borders for my art quilts.


EVERYONE who quilts should check out this site and follow it each day. Enjoy- Shirley

Bubble jet set for printing

I have used this quite often before I found the packaged individual sheets. It works very well, but is time consuming and a bit messy. Once I have printed on the fabric with BJS I use the rinse which I bought at the same time.

I pre used the BJS -- I usually did about a yard square (or meter) and then I cut it into page size pieces (8.5 x ll") and pressed the fabric onto a piece of Butcher paper. Make sure you press it onto the
butcher paper so that it sticks, especially at the corners. The print your picture on the sheet - and once you have removed the completed picture (after waiting at least 30 minutes, carefully rinse the printed fabric with the BJS rinse.

Once I found the sheets I started using them and only use the Bubble jet set if I don't have any sheets
of photo fabric. It is so much less work, and if you make sure you use up the whole sheets at a time with different images (see the post above) it isn't really that much more expensive.

I do a lot of sets of different subjects. Including buildings, old houses, (pictures taken on our trips around Calgary - animals, - whatever I need. The peony filled a whole page and I plan on doing a group of smaller ones on a page. I have already printed some of my 'anniversary roses' I received for my birthday from my family - and will include them in the floral wall hanging (at least that is what I plan on doing now -)grin.

Printed fabric information

Tricia -- regarding your comment here is the way I do it.
There is not a lot to it. I take a picture and enlarge it, or decrease it to the size you want with your photo program (I use photo shop) - I use one of two different kinds of
photo fabric for inkjet printers (I believe there are different types for other types of printers)

#1 Printed treasures - which has a fairly stiff paper backing. I try to do a group of pictures that I will likely want to use -- I usually do 6 anmials to a sheet , but in the case of the flowers my large peony took up nearly a whole page. I also did some 4" roses and managed to get 4 to a page as the printed fabric sheets are a bit expensive. I keep a file with my printed fabric photos and use them when I need them.

$2 Photo Fabric sheets "Crafter's images" The fabric is quite soft once the paper has been removed. I rinse the fabric once it is completely dried from the printing and when I remove the paper. Some images are on fabric sheets for some time as I leave them on the paper until I am ready to use them. Always rinse the printed fabric in cold water. The only time I don't rinse it is if I am going to thread paint the majority of the subject.

You can then use your printed fabric images 'as is' or do what I do and that is thread paint the image - placing the printed fabric on a heavy web (timtex or peltex) and thread paint the colors shown on the image. The timtex doesn't allow the picture to pucker.

You can see in the one picture ("Poppies and Wildflowers) how I incorporated the poppy into a wall hanging. The eagles were done for my son - I have done one set fully thread painted and the
example was drawn by hand using press n seal, and then painted and thread painted. I hope you find this interesting. Shirley