Thursday, May 28, 2015

DitG Pink Birdhouse


Here's the second birdhouse stitchery from Leanne Beasley's stitchery quilt, Down in the Garden. Now that it is summer it so nice to be able to take things out and photograph them in the sunshine. What a difference!


Although it is not this obvious in real life, you can see in the photo above that the green Pigma micron pen that I used to mark the stitching lines did run a bit when it was painted over with the pale yellow Tsukineko ink. I have read complaints that the blue Pigma pen tends to run as well. I assumed that there was some chemical in the Tsukineko ink that was to blame, but maybe it is just the blue Pigma ink that is unstable. Anyway, I don't mind it here, I think it adds to the atmosphere a bit.


The flowers are simple chain stitch lazy daisies with long anchoring stitches, and the buds are also short, round detached chain stitches.


I really like the curling vines on these birdhouses. It's a lot of flowers! But I made a push last night so I could get it in just under the wire for WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network. Why? Because this week will be Monika Kinner-Whalen's last week running it, and next week, I have agreed to take over! Yes, another Monica. I am excited, because I have a lot of ideas for it.

Out in the backyard, our young lilac is putting on its best show so far:


And, while I was out there taking photos, this butterfly came to visit:


Lucky shot! Except for the blog name (and resize), the photo is completely unedited. Don't you love that combination of lilac and sky blue?

Monday, May 25, 2015

Last 9 Stars


The fun thing about a charm quilt like this is admiring all the fabrics. I absolutely love this green fabric! I may use this colour scheme in a future quilt. I have no idea where I got it, which is rare. It must have been from a show, maybe back in California.

Most of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics are from Glorious Color. They provide very good service, and I love that they have all the fabrics in all the colours.


I'm pretty sure these are both discontinued now, but sometimes they re-release them in new colours. If anyone from Westminster is reading, I'd love to see the Star Flowers come back! And the Lichen, that looked amazing in quilts too.

Anyway, here are the last nine stars:


Next stop, flimsy!

Saturday, May 23, 2015

In the Groove


This was on the radio the other day, and I've played it quite a few times since then!


I was pretty rock'n'roll when I was younger, but these days I mostly listen to dance music. I like the happy upbeat mood of dance music, and I think I'm too old for all that rock'n'roll angst.

I am really enjoying my new "one at a time" approach to my projects. It's so much easier, and a lot more relaxed. Less angst. As I mentioned in my last post, I've pared it down to one hand sewing and one machine sewing project. My machine sewing project is an old one, Collector, started back near the beginning of this blog in 2012.

In January I was re-evaluating all my UFOs, and I decided to make this one smaller than originally planned. Just nine more star blocks would be enough to finish it up. Here they are!


This one is my favourite. Remember this old Kaffe Star Flowers design?


What an edgy mix of colours!

These went together pretty easily, and I already had so many other good fabrics pulled, so I've decided that I have room for 9 more:


Then that really will be it. The original plan was for 9 x 9 of the light blocks, which would have been about 76" square. I realized that would be an awkward size, too small for a bed and too big for a lap quilt. The new size, with the extra 9 stars, will be 9 x 7, about 76" x 59".

The alternating dark squares are also all cut now and ready to go:


It's going to be fun to see how it all looks together!
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