The Eyes Have It - Jacomina de Regt - "The Eyes Have Had It'

The Eyes Have it- Jacomina de Regt- "The eyes have had it"

This has been a challenge with a series of challenges along the way.  I knew immediately what I wanted to show, a line from a poem, which would require that I do reverse applique.  So, with a Craftsy class ( Stitch and Slash, taught by Carole Ann Waugh) I was well on my way to learn and practice on the class project pillow case, in my sister-in-law's favourite colors for her living room.  Smart thinking, right?

Took a second class on improvisational piecing because I had been at this quilt artist's lecture once and wanted to get a bit closer.  She, Cindy Grisdela, is wonderful. https://cindygrisdela.com/blog/ Turns out I do a lot of improv piecing; seems to be my favourite way of putting fabric together, but she is great with solids and I hardly ever use solids.  In preparation for this class, I went through my drawer of orphan blocks and came across this pieced block of left over suns and moons with distinct eyes.   

But live intervened.  Church required sewing of banners children had put together, my Bernina gave up, a machine on loan. The orphan block became the background.  

 The night time theme of these celestial bodies as well as my own prep to take a quick trip home to the Netherlands inspired the tired eyes ideas: closed eyes, red eyes, animal night eyes, and sleep masks. 

The end result with the sleep masks just did not make me happy so I incorporated one more random find from a bike trip in the Netherlands and a stop at a most old fashioned notions store: holographic thread to embroider one open eye. 

Now the lingering question is whether to cut off the elastic bands or not?