Twelve Twelve Twelve a mixed bag of things

I have been behind and dragging a little.  Not surprising, but none the less. I did this little piece to participate in Karen Musgrave's call to do 12" square pieces in honor of 12/12/12.  I got mine done except for the quilting (why is it that we think it is done if it isn't quilted? It's only halfway done!!!).

My piece is painted on canvas.  It has the sun in the center as supposedly 26,000 years ago, the sun aligned in the center of the galaxy, which it does again in December 2012.  All the wording around the piece is the word "twelve" in various languages.  I machine quilted it with swirly patterns and zigzagged in a limey green around the edge.

I have been trying to follow through with quilty things I say I am going to do.  One of the things which I signed up with and did not do well in following through is the Free Motion Quilting challenge.  That's OK as I am playing catch up now, and it doesn't matter if I qualify for the prizes as the whole point of it for me is to re-learn free-motion quilting with my hands which don't want to work or feel and my funky eyesight.

So, here is the piece which I was supposed to do in January...that is if I had known about it in January.  I didn't sign up for the project until March.  I learned something very useful in doing this 8" piece....I have a tendency to go very very fast and I actually quilt better now if I take it slow.  I also noticed on the 12-12-12 piece that I forget what I am doing.

I'm a frantic to practice my quilting as I have a quilt I am working on for a deceased friend..I've taken far too long on it.  I quilted it, and realized that my tension was off and I was generally unhappy with the quilting....so I kissed my seam ripper and ripped ALL the quilting out of it and I need to get started and get it done...as I want to give it to her husband to give to their son for Christmas...and it is particularly important as she died December 26 last year.  Stitch rippers, or seam rippers, or the unsewing tool is my beloved friend as it gives us a second (or third) chance to "get it right."

Now, for the last little bit, here is my collection of  netsukes...or at least part of my collection as I have I think four more.  I meant to put this up on my 12-12-12 face book page...but didn't get to it.  Netsukes are miniature carvings which were originally made to secure bags or boxes to the obi or sashes of Japanese men's garments.

Mine are all modern and probably all made in China.  I am not even sure if they are all hand carved anymore, but they are finely carved and I delight in their images and the way the wood feels in my hand. Several of these pieces, particularly the rodents are for prosperity,  several such as the old man and the dragon turtle are symbols of longevity...but mostly I choose them because of their shape or carvings.  The deer in the back was just gorgeous.  The horse in the front (the darker one) was graceful.  The funky one in the front row laying on its back is a bat, which is a good luck symbol in Japan.  The sheep? Well, I have a thing for sheep as we used to raise them.

Sadly, I meant this to be in the Off-The-Wall Friday linky, but I discovered that I had lost track of time up quilting...and oops...the linky closed!  Better luck next week. :)

Now...I'm putting up another photo....so you can see just how important quilting is to adding to the piece...