Having a little play time

I took some time off from my landscape (doing some pondering on it at the moment) and had a little play with my new embroidery templates that arrived in the mail the other day and came up with a couple of postcards....

You should be able to embiggen the photos

if you'd like to see more details.

The templates are most definitely a huge success and I highly recommend them to anyone wanting to ensure your stitches are evenly placed.  And they don't have to be used strictly for crazy quilting either!  If you want further information about these great tools, you can have a look at my post HERE.   Thank you again Janet for sending these for me to test out!

Today's quote..."Eat the cake.  It's someone's birthday somewhere"

More fillers

Here are some more of the fillers I used in Block 7...

My next post will feature the entire block.  And then it's on to the finishing (which I'm working on now).   

It's finally turned warm here - almost too warm, and a shock to the system.  Yesterday the temperature reading in our car was 32 degrees Celsius.  Now the plants and trees are really growing fast (as my allergies are fond of reminding me!).  

Today your quote is from Anthony J. D'Angelo...."Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine"

Question and some fillers

First of all, can anyone help me to identify what this sewing machine foot might be called?

Some fillers from the final block...

Today your quote if from Confucious..."He who learns but does not think is lost.  He thinks but does not learn is in great danger"

Block 5 - complete!

A few days ago I was showing my courtship blocks to a friend and she asked how many hours each block would take - and how much I would charge if I were to sell my work.  She was rather surprised when I laughed.  I knew she wasn't interested in commissioning a piece so I shared that each block takes me about two weeks to do - that would add up to five hours per day x 6 days a week = 30 hours (and that's a conservative estimate of the time).  Multiply that (at least in the case of the courtship project) by seven.  And that's just doing the blocks and not the finishing that's required.

Now, on to the last two fillers on Block Five....

And, here's the completed block..

Today your quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson... "Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine"

More fillers

Above you can get a better look at the flower beads

and below you can see the word I choose for this

block.

Today your quote is from Budda.... "What is the difference between "I like you" and "I love you"?  Beautifully answered by Budda...When you like a flower, you just pluck it.  But when you love a flower, you water it daily.  One who understands this, understands life"

Filling, but not fattening!

Over the weekend I started working on the fillers for Block 5 of the courtship series...

I can't share these patterns with you because they aren't truly mine.  As you can see from the picture above, I've stuck to my plan of having a rose on each block, and from the picture to the right you can see that I've also included the heart.  

You'll see the word I used in my next post.

Today your quote is from Mandy Hale... "You don't always need a plan.  Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens"

A finish!

This afternoon I finished the little wall hanging project and thought it would be a perfect day to show you because it's bordered with green  (happy St. Patrick's Day!).  

Of course it was yet another dull day here, so photos aren't that great, but at least you can see what I did.  The pretty fabric blocks were made using a set of Moda 2 1/2" fabrics that I won from Baa and I added extra plain embroidered flower blocks.  There were enough fabric squares left over to make the prairie points in the lower corner.   I quilted in-the-ditch and then added the buttons in the centre of the fabric blocks.  It measures approx. 20" square overall.

Here's another of the entries in the autograph book (this one is dated Aug. 19, 1938)...

It's easy enough to be happy 

when life flows along like a song,

but the person worthwhile

is the person that can smile

when everything goes dead wrong. 

A decision, and some progression too

Thank you to those of you who weighed in on the question of what colour to use for the embroideries to go along with these...

Grey seemed to be the one I felt happiest with and a search through my embroidery floss stash came up with a greenish-grey that seems perfect.  I didn't want an in-your-face colour that would detract too much from the fabrics and, since the flowers I'm embroidering are mostly ones found in the summer, I didn't want to limit myself to making it look too much like 'spring' (if that makes any sense whatsoever).  So, here's one of the flowers..

Hopefully you can tell the colour fairly well from the picture (although it's yet another dull day here and photos are difficult).  There will be seven different flowers - each embroidered in the redwork style and worked on a 4" square of fabric.  

Another of the entries that appeared in my mothers autograph book; this one dated Apr. 29, 1939...

All the luck the horseshoe ever stood for,

Every wish a wish-bone ever knew,

And by every four-leaf clover's magic,

I am wishing that it all may come to you.