I have long thought of myself as something of a quilter.  I had a few minutes yesterday to stop by a quilting shop in a nearby neighborhood - on National Quilt Day, no less.  Holly's Quilt Cabin seems to have it all: an enormous selection of quilting fabrics, patterns, kits, notions, threads, books, gifts, classes and more.  It was overwhelming!  And, yet, I didn't see anything I wanted to buy.  A friendly clerk approached me with the question, "Are you a quilter?".  I realized very suddenly that the answer was, "Not really".  

I recently came across the book, The Uncommon Quilter, by Jeanne Williamson.  (Crown Publishing Group, 2007).  The author explores small art quilts created with paper, plastic, fiber, and surface design.  Now, this is more like it!  The small piece pictured below is a recent experiment.  I finally found a use for a partially finished knit scarf from years ago, and a scrap of rusted metal. 

Yes, I am a quilter - an uncommon one, anyway.

I've continued to work on one of the new Range Walkers over the past 10 days.  Sometimes the process goes rather smoothly and sometimes not.  As soon as this 30" tall figure was standing (and glued in place) I knew I had misfired a bit in creating his stance.  Please click on the photos below to see the whole picture!

He is really leaning forward.  I decided to work with this by making it look like he is leaning onto his walking stick.  I built up the skinny body with my paper mache process and then dressed him in multiple layers of garments.  The full raffia pony tail adds volume, too, and texture.  I used the narrow end of a rib bone to make the forearm and hand and then added an upper arm of wrapped wire covered with scraps of a white kid glove.

I am still experimenting with the details of embellishments.  At the moment his ponytail is held in place with an antique pin with a few feather tucked in.  It sticks out from the back more than I expected, but it is firmly glued in place!  The "eyes" would show up a little more if I darkened the inside of the vertebrae bone "head" just a bit.  The silver button is gone ... for now, anyway.