Ocean Waves

This is what I've been sewing ocean waves blocks. I decided to make all the blocks at the same time instead of one at a time. So all 36 part 1's done and I'm working on attaching them to the center square. I'm also running through a bunch of HST every chance I get. This quilt will need quite a few. I still love this quilt!!!

Ocean Waves

This is what I've been sewing ocean waves blocks. I decided to make all the blocks at the same time instead of one at a time. So all 36 part 1's done and I'm working on attaching them to the center square. I'm also running through a bunch of HST every chance I get. This quilt will need quite a few. I still love this quilt!!!

Slumbering Spring

Can you feel it?

That quiet quiver that's happening right now...

under the earth, and in each tree...

that wondrous life affirming energy,

gearing up to soon burst forth...

Yes! Beautiful, blessed Springtime is just around the corner!


I don't know about each of you, but there is no doubt that I am hugely effected by the seasons, and February comes close to doing me in each year!

But hooray, for today is the last of February, and tomorrow ushers in March, which also ushers in springtime... for which I am profoundly grateful! (Tomorrow is also my eldest daughters 22nd Birthday, another reason to celebrate!)


I can almost feel the ground move. Worms waking up, and grass blades preparing to turn a sweet green. Very exciting!!


Now, I had originally intended to sell this "Slumbering Spring" quilt in my shop, but as I was taking the photographs I noticed a very small hole where some threads had broken in the fabric. Ugh.

After staring at it for a bit, I thought maybe I could darn it. Not a brilliant idea, (I realized a bit too late) as now I still have a tiny hole, but it's much more noticeable. Double ugh.


Sigh. If only this was one of my patched quilts, the solution would have been a no-brainer, but I really didn't want this to be a patched quilt. I like it as is.

BUT... I think that maybe the hole is a good thing. While it's keeping me from offering it for sale, it is making me think of other options... such as creating a pattern to sell for this quilt.


This has been something that I've been entertaining the idea of for awhile, (but also avoiding). I think this quilt would be perfect for such a project. What do you think?

Last Day of February

Wow, I can't believe tomorrow is March 1 already. Spring is hopefully coming soon and I know I'm ready for it.

The photo above shows some progress on my latest quilt. I didn't get a whole lot done in the studio this weekend. It seems like it's more challenging to work on quilts or projects when hubby is home all day on the weekends.

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

In other news...I added some of my journal quilts to my etsy shop. Tomorrow (March 1) is the next Twelve by Twelve group quilt reveal. Our color palette this round was sage/blue/brown.

Have a great day!

Landscape Series

 These fabric landscapes were made as a wedding gift and the theme was burnt orange. It was my first commission (embarrassed blush). I think I am still rather overwhelmed by the fact that people like and want my work hanging on their walls.

The bridal couple own a lodge on the northern coast of Mozambique (I think) and are passionate about the Mozambique coast hence the inspiration was the Mozambique coast. Fortunately I have been to Mozambique twice on holiday now so had many photos to work from.

All the fabric in this photo were hand dyed by me - my first forays into the wonderful world of dyeing my own fabric

In the third photo I used a combination of my own dyed fabric with some Shweshwe (the bright orange) and some other hand dyed fabric I have.

Beginners class excitement

Recently a good friend of mine and I offered to teach a beginners quilting class at the church we go to. We both love to made quilts and wanted to share our skills.  We send around a sign up sheet and were surprised to find that we had 14 people interested. In my mind, I expected about half of those who signed up to attend the first class. But to my surprise, most of them showed up.

At the first class I did an overview of the course and I told them of some of the things they could expect to learn. We talked about some of the supplies they would need and we talked about choosing fabric for their projects. Then Stephanie and I did a show and tell of some of the quilts we have made. We also included some of the quilts that the ladies who took the class the last time I offered it had done. As we showed the quilts we told them the stories of why we made the quilt and some of the things we learned doing the project. It was so neat to see the excitement in their eyes. I could tell that they really wanted to learn. We planned to meet once a month for six months and at the end of the classes the students would have a small project completed. As I was talking with the ladies it was neat to hear of some of the reasons each wanted to learn. One lady mentioned that she was struggling with a smoking addiction and she really wanted to stop. She thought that she might be able  to quit by having something to keep her hands busy. Another wanted to make a quilt for her daughter. Another just thought it would be a good skill to have. Another felt that she needed to get out of her comfort zone and learn something she new nothing about. One lady remembered a quilt that was made for her by a family member out of clothing her family wore. Since she made a lot of clothing for her children, she wanted to make a quilt with memories like the one she had been given.

We just had our second class. To my surprise all the students were there.  A couple of ladies even brought friends and another her mother. Our small classroom was full to bursting.  At this class we talked of quilting terms and they learned how to find the 1/4" on their sewing machine. They learned about using a rotary cutter and about strip piecing. And we had a lesson on pressing. The time just flew by. It was really nice to see some friendships starting.  I loved how when one student grasped a concept, they helped another who struggled.

When one of the ladies announced that she didn't have a sewing machine but really wanted to learn to quilt. One of the visitors said that she liked to hand piece and she would be please to show her how to do it. The visitor had come for moral support. But, she had brought a hand piecing project to work on. She showed her project and many were truly amazed that she had done it all my hand. So this evening, when others were wizzing away on their sewing machine, these two ladies sat peacefully in the corner piecing by hand.

I've spoken to several of the students since that second class. The lady who didn't have a sewing machine came to see me. She found an old sewing machine.  Her friend's husband fixed it up and her friend was going to show her how to use it. Others were meeting sometime in the month to work on their homework. And several others just told me of their excitement starting this journey into quilting.

I am hopeful that these ladies will not only learn a new skill but will make some lasting friendships.

Projects

7 more Dear Jane blocks done. All though I think I might redo a couple of these yet. The light tan one was challenging and still not as good as I would like it but, after 3 tries it might be as good as it gets. And don't look at the light green one.

I did some project calculating. So far this year I finished 1 quilt and started 4. So I'm working on 43 quilts right now. Better then it was.

4 quilts only need binding

3 quilts I'm hand quilting

1 quilt ready to machine quilt

22 finished tops (flimsies)

13 quilts I'm piecing

Projects

7 more Dear Jane blocks done. All though I think I might redo a couple of these yet. The light tan one was challenging and still not as good as I would like it but, after 3 tries it might be as good as it gets. And don't look at the light green one.

I did some project calculating. So far this year I finished 1 quilt and started 4. So I'm working on 43 quilts right now. Better then it was.

4 quilts only need binding

3 quilts I'm hand quilting

1 quilt ready to machine quilt

22 finished tops (flimsies)

13 quilts I'm piecing

Bargains from Ross

I just wanted to share the photos of my bargains from Ross since my blog friend, Trish asked.  The rug is actually a very good size and the shower curtain is fabric (I only like fabric ones :) )  The shower curtain is a pale blue pattern with cream in it, the rug is several shades of cream in it.

Here is something I want to share that was posted at The Well called How Bright is My Light?  I think Heather at Heathersblog-o-rama shared this site with me and her followers.
Here’s the Message Bible verses 14-16:




Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

The Well is having a linky to see who wants to memorize it. I think I may join in.  May your day be filled with happiness.

Coffee & Cream

It was  gorgeous sunny day today here in North Georgia.  I had several errands to run but was so excited when I found a shower curtain and rug for my bathroom today at Ross.  What a bargain too, I got both of them for $11.
Now for the crafting news...
I made a vintage look card for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Coffee & Cream. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Journal Quilt #8

Anemone Blossoms (journal quilt #8)

Commercial and hand painted cottons, painted paper towels, Mistyfuse, free-motion quilting, pre-programmed machine stitches

I'm so happy that I found enough time yesterday to get my journal quilt done. And did you notice? I didn't use any orange.

I Know I'm a bit Slow

Last Sunday was so much fun. 30 excited women packed into Amitie for a class with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably. It's taken me a week to actually find the time to blog about it.
Everyone had their own design walls layed out like a concertina down one side of the store. We all worked in a frenzy because Kaffe said not to think - just cut! Fabric was flying everywhere.

26 people chose to use Kaffe's and Brandon's fabric yet every design was different.

This one is mine. I didn't have enough of their fabric and am trying to restrain myself from buying so I bought lots of my old retro, kids fabrics to work with.

I met bloggers that I have been chatting to on line....

That's me on the left with Cathy from Cabbage Quilts and Andi from Patch Andi .

I have a video of the intro we got from Kaffe Fassett. It was taken on my iphone and I lost the sound for a bit but it really gives you the gist of what the class was about.

  

Brandon was the life of the party and really got involved with everyone and everything.

Kaffe was more serious and took himself off to the corner to work on his tapestry or have a cuppa every once in a while.

 It really was a wonderful day.

Now I have to finish the diamonds!

Red and Indigo Shweshwe Rag Quilt

Rag quilts are fast becoming one of my favorite quilt designs. I love their soft and cuddly look..... I had some log cabin blocks left over from from a log cabin quilt that I am trying to finish. This is the result... I love it....

Moving On

Although these two mini scrap quilts, (which I just listed in my shop today) aren't proof positive,


as they are part of the small batch of quilts I stitched up several weeks ago, right before my creative dry spell hit, (so technically they don't count)...


I think I'm beginning to slowly move out of my creative funk and move on to brighter days.


Hoping to have some brand new work to share sometime next week. (That is if the house doesn't blow away... the wind here is blowing so hard I'm starting to feel like Dorothy in Kansas, and I swear I just saw a cow fly by.)

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm Into Flowers

Yesterday I should have been working on this week's journal quilt, but I just couldn't motivate myself to do so. So I'm hoping to work on it today and share it with you tomorrow. Crossing my fingers...

What I did work on yesterday was a little sketchbook flower design, some ink work on a new quilt in progress, and I also have been painting on brown paper each day (not shown).

I've been averaging one painted brown paper surface every day. I'm working my way through a large pile, trying to get caught up with that. I also needed to use up some paints that were starting to age. It seems a shame to buy them and then let them go to waste. So I'm trying hard to not do that anymore.

I pulled out my Prismacolor colored pencils recently and have been playing with them in my sketchbook. That is what I used to add color to the page above.

Okay, I'm off to play in my studio....gotta make a journal quilt you know!

Zentangle Challenge #10

This week's Zentangle challenge from I Am The Diva, was labeled "The Space Between". Our challenge was to leave white space with no doodling. I didn't find this challenge too challenging and therefore I liked it. Tee hee! I like the white space and find that I don't have too many Zentangles I've created that are completely filled in with design.

But I have to admit that I found it incredibly difficult not to fill in those loopy loops in my design.

Fabric Dyeing again

As I have mentioned before, fabric dyeing is a wonderful excursion into the world of semi-unpredictable creativity. Well, maybe it shouldn't be so unpredictable but it is such fun. I needed some backing fabric to finish off a couple of quilts. Mmmm, when do I find the time to rush off to the shop to buy some backing fabric...wait a moment, I can dye some fabric. Here are the results...

Dark plum fabric for the back of a purple Trip Round the World quilt was first up on the to do list. I had a sample of premixed purple dye. So.... on with the dyeing process.....One thing I learnt is that if you don't mix dye powder properly you get spots of the primary colours that are used to make up the secondary colour - not necessarily a bad thing. The results are a bit like snow dyeing- I love the results.

 

The next photo shows the blue fabric I dyed. I needed backing for one of my stash busting cot quilts so.. I started with a medium blue and then decided that it was too light so I over-dyed it with a navy blue. This piece of fabric will now serve 2 purposes....backing for the cot quilt as well as a stormy sky for a fabric landscape that was commissioned - that is another story for another day

The last photo is an attempt at dyeing a piece of burnt orange fabric  - not a success. It came out too brown. I used 4 parts yellow dye, 4 parts red dye and 1 part black dye powder. Any ideas on how to improve the colour?

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Love will keep us together...

Do you remember that old Captain and Tennille song?  Love will keep us together?  What a great old song.  Over at Scrap It with a Song Blog, the challenge is to pick one of the songs and create something.  Well I created this card with sweet birds to show how Love will keep us together and to link to Scrap it with a song blog.

Hope you have a wonderful day!  It is nice and sunny today, here in N. Georgia. I cant wait for Spring :)

WIP: "Spool Play" is finished!

Time to stop spoolin' around. You've seen the close-up:

So now it's time to see the whole quilt:

I'm still thinking of doing a quilt-along in late spring if anyone is interested. If you don't have a collection of selvages and couldn't care less about starting one, don't worry, there will be a couple of non-selvage options as well.

I'm off tomorrow morning to an annual quilting retreat in the mountains. If I don't go completely bonkers by the time I get my templates and all the gazillion little pieces cut get my act together, I hope to make some progress on the Single Girl quilt-along.  I'll be back Monday with pictures. Have a great weekend!

Ribbons & Buttons

Handmade Card with lots of Ribbons and a couple of buttons, a birthday wish. It has lots of stripes too, just for the challenge at Simon says Stamp and Show.

linking to: Card Cupids Blog Ribbons or Buttons Challenge

It's Tuesday and we had octopus for lunch

Naw, not really. But when my friend made this with her granddaughter, I knew Charlotte and Levi would enjoy it too. Candy and Courtney called them spaghetti dogs. Charlotte and Levi called them octopus. Maybe it was because they just spent the weekend at the coast?

Just stick that spaghetti through cut-up hot dogs,

 boil,

 and eat!

And while I hesitate to post these pictures to all you still buried in the snow, before lunch we went outside and spent a few minutes playing with the bubble guns that Grandpa found for them this weekend.

Come back tomorrow morning for the big reveal of the spool quilt. See ya then!