This week will be a saga.

The next week and a half will be action packed. But first, my first independent study piece is done (except for the hanging). I stitched up all the edges with white on all the pieces first and then used more white on the last four, beige on the middle four, and brown on the first four. The first pass with white made the darker colors of the first pieces stand out too much so I had to cover it with something darker. I think they turned out nicely and Christine agrees.

Here's the first panel (cave paintings) with the finished edges:

And here they are stacked up again with finished edges:

Now I'm working on the second piece. This one is about how personal handwriting can be and how the digital age is robbing us of that personal touch. First, I asked 11 of my friends for a picture of their writing hand. Then, I asked them to write some phrase or quote that was significant to them. I took these photos and phrases and layered them in photoshop. I then printed them out on paper-backed fabric that went into a regular printer. In case you're interested, I used Crafter's Image PhotoFabric and it worked perfectly.

Here are two of the printed pieces:

Now I plan to cut each to 8x8 and sew them together in a quilt fashion. I'm not sure whether I'll need some sort of stitching or other decorative element on top of that, but I'll have to see once everything is together. I think they turned out pretty well, even considering I used a mediocre camera.

As for the action I mentioned, this week is not only the ending of summer classes, but also my trip to Asheville. That means that I have to finish all three pieces, a midterm, an article review, a discussion board, and pack for a trip. Oh, and go to work. Action packed!