A virtual quilt show

This past weekend was our local quilt show and I managed to remember to take pictures of some of my favourites from the show.  So...this week I will take you on a little tour along with me!  First I will share the quilt and below will be the credits.  Enjoy! (you may click to embiggen all the photos so you can see more details).

This shows the raffle quilt along with a glimpse

of one of my landscapes which was also one

of the raffle prizes...

and now, to the show itself....

Today's quote is from Dr. Seuss...."The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go"

Same, and yet different

I've started working on a new landscape, this time featuring a grain elevator.  As the post title says - same, and yet different.  This one is a winter scene so I have to play about with trying to create snow.  This is the original photo I'm working from...

Original photo by Dale Stewart,

used with his kind permission

And this is where it stands now....

This weekend is our local quilt show, so several of my landscapes as well as a couple of my crazy quilt pieces are on display. Hopefully, if I can, I'll try to take a few pictures of the show to share with you.

Today's quote:  "Stop waiting for Friday, for summer, for someone to fall in love with you, for life.  Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for it and make the most of the moment you are in"

Done, done AND done!

T'is done!

FOR SALE

Better?

Adapted from this amazing photo,
and used with the kind permission of 
John Phillips....

This one is for sale - contact me, if interested!

The quote, from Eugene Delacroix...."Artists who seek perfection in everything achieve it in nothing"

One step forward....and one step back

I don't know about you, but I often consult the color wheel (or a version thereof) when I'm stumped with where to go next with a project.  Oftentimes I haul it out when I want to know what fabric to use to border one of my landscapes and this time is no exception.  My favourite is the 'Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool' by Joen Wolfrom.  (published by C&T Publishing, ISBN 978-1-60705-235-7) and from it I learned (quite surprisingly!) that orange would be a great color to put against the blue sky in my landscape.  Orange??  Really???  I would never have come up with that idea on my own!!  So...a perusal of my stash of orange-ish fabrics turned up one what looked pretty good for creating a narrow inner border.  That worked.  And then.....then.....I did this.....

.....and thought adding a navy blue (and somewhat shiny) wider border would be perfect.

Not.  

Don't like it.

It's too safe....too predictable. 

(Resident Chef doesn't like it either)

So I have hauled out the stitcher's best friend

(better known as a ripper!) and we'll

see what happens next. 

Some progress

There has been a small amount of progress on the latest landscape which I rather doubt is going to be too obvious in the photo....but....because I have nothing else to show you, this will have to do!  

The wall on the right side looks wobbly here,

but it IS straight!

Grateful

I hope all the mothers out there had a lovely Mother's Day weekend.  I was blessed to receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers, was taken out for breakfast, and the Resident Chef made me a special loaf of bread.  Pretty spoiled!

Today's quote..."One small crack does not mean that you are broken.  It means that you were put to the test and you didn't fall apart"

And......the obsession continues......

I really don't think my obsession is going to stop anytime soon because there are just far too many great buildings out there that want to be immortalized.  So....

The start of attempting to do this...

Original photo by John Phillips and used with his kind permission

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE
THIS WEEKEND!

The quote is from Mitch Albom... "Behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begins"

For a little change of pace!

I really don't know what else a grandma is to do when confronted with evidence that her grandson just so happens to be in like with dinosaurs at the moment.  I don't know how a grandma wouldn't spend considerable time scouting out patterns to make one....or how a grandma wouldn't then spend time searching the internet to find a copy of the pattern.  Yes, how can a grandma NOT make one of these...

Pretty much every little boy likes T'Rex's, so this is my version, from a now out-of-print McCall's pattern # 2577.  Oh....and this guy just happens to measure just about two feet tall.

Your quote for today..."You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you"

Kinda yeeewwwww....at least the process.

Sometimes my stash just does not yield what I'm searching for (really a surprise because most times it does!).  Anyway....I need some storm-ish looking sky for my next landscape and decided perhaps I could create my own.  I remembered playing around with shaving cream dyeing a number of years ago and thought it might just work for this.  A trip to the dollar store yielded the shaving cream and some more folk art paint.  Alas no 'proper' fabric dye available here OR in my stash.  So I goobered a bunch of shaving cream onto a garbage bag, mixed some paint with some rubbing alcohol and smeared it about on the cream using sponge paintbrushes.  Ever so scientific!!!

Shaving cream, awaiting paint

Forgot to take photo of paint, but this is the fabric lightly pressed down on top

The end result.

Another anonymous quote for you today..."When thinking about life, remember this...no amount of guilt can change the past, and no amount of anxiety can change the future"

Mystery solved!

And the mystery is solved!  Here is what I made using those two round robin crazy quilt blocks I showed you the other day.....

These two little zippered bags (using 11" square blocks as their base) are handy for so many things.  I recently purchased some nice short sock-knitting needles which I have discovered tend to go AWOL on occasion, so I decided a nice little bag to carry my sock project in might be something useful.  Not only did I get a couple of nice little bags but I used up two blocks that had been lurking in storage for far too long.  Definitely a win/win!!!  Even better?  Everything came from my stash!

Today the quote is from C.S. Lewis..."You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending"

Tah AND Dah!!!!

And.....another landscape is finished!  Have I mentioned that I just might be a tad obsessed with old buildings???  There are worse things I guess.  

Just to refresh your memory, here is the photo I worked from (kindly shared by Dale Stewart - thank you Dale!!!)....

Barn in Alberta - original photo by Dale Stewart
Permission for use granted

And here is my quilted version...

FOR SALE

and a couple of close ups that I THINK you can click to embiggen....

THIS ONE IS FOR SALE - contact me, if interested!

Just a wee bit of trivia for you - it seems I've been giving you quotes since sometime in 2014.  Hmmm....maybe you're tired of them by now?  Here is another anonymous one for you..."When you start taking care of yourself you start feeling better, you start looking better, and you start to attract better.  It all starts with you"

Not quite

I would have liked to show you the progress on the latest landscape but it's soooo close to being finished that I decided to make you wait for a big reveal later in the week.  In the meantime, I have another 'puzzler' post for you.  What do you suppose I might be planning to do with these crazy quilted round robin blocks??  If you want to take a guess, go ahead (no prize I'm afraid, but fun to see the responses anyway).  B'sides, who knows if one of your guesses might spark an idea for a future use-it-up block project?

Today's quote is a Chinese proverb...."If you don't want anyone to find out, don't do it"

A couple of you have wondered how I come up with ideas of what to add/do with a project and quite honestly there is no real answer to that.  I spend a lot of time staring at it and finally I just dive in and hope for the best.  Doesn't always work, as you've often seen already!!  

In the case of this landscape, you have noticed that I haven't been happy with the grass area on the lower right, feeling that it was too much 'out there'.  I was happy with the colour, but just not the depth of colour (if that makes any sense).  I added two layers of off-white tulle which helped but not enough....so added another layer.  To my mind, it's still too much.  I use my 'fancy' stitches on PMS Albatross in varying shades of green to stitch the grass so in the case of the offending area I will use a lighter color of thread in the hopes that it will tone it down.  Stitching closely together should (in theory) help with that too.  I also plan to add some embroidered flowers in that area which will also help to take the eye away from the background somewhat.  I think.  Maybe.  Or...maybe not??

Gosh, I wish I knew what I was doing!!!

and a close-up of the trees....

Another anonymous quote for you..."Don't stress the could haves.  If it should have, it would have"

More progress

As you can see in this photo, there has been some progress over the weekend...

I added the 'trim' to the grass, tried to tone down the

too-dark grass area on the right (still not sure about it)

and started adding the trees.  

Definitely still a work in progress!!

Happy Easter!

God loves each of us as if 

there were only one of us

(Saint Augustine)

a little change

There's been a little progress on the latest barn - as hopefully you can see from this picture....

Today I hope to work on the barn roof and see what happens.  Have decided, too, that the clump of grass on the lower right has to change.  It's just a bit too in-your-face, even though I do plan to embroider that area.

Today's quote is from Hugh Sidey..."A sense of humor is needed armor.  Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life"

And....it begins again......

I started another landscape on the weekend.  Do you think maybe I'm just a tad obsessed??  This is the image I'm working from....

A wonderful old barn and chicken coop from somewhere in Alberta.  Image used with the kind permission of the photographer - Dale Stewart.  Thank you Dale!

This is where I am so far...

Doesn't look like much at this point!

Today's quote..."Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world.  Constantly color your picture grey and your picture will always be bleak.  Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor and your picture begins to lighten up"

Mystery solved?

On Monday I asked the eternal question about what I might be planning to do with the three crazy quilted blocks I showed you.  Well....here 'tis.....

Are you still no wiser???

Perhaps - if I were a REALLY mean person, I should make you wait until Monday for a further reveal?  What do you think?

Oh, oh - I can hear you from here!  All right, all right - I'll reveal the rest of it.....

I added a bit of embellishment to the three 

blocks to finish them off and put them together

as you can see above.

Then....I made myself a new 

crochet hook holder!!

I think you can click to embiggen the photos.

The hooks on the left are my collection and the really fine ones on the right belonged to my maternal grandmother who crocheted lace that she often used to trim pillowcases.  She also knit very fine lace for the same purpose.  Alas, her knitting needle collection wasn't passed down to me.  

So there you go, mystery solved!

Today's quote...."Life is partly what we make it and partly what is made by the friends whom we choose"

Silly Grandma!

What's a grandmother to do?  Especially when she comes across a really cute pattern?  Or when there's a special request from her grandson's daddy?

Yesterday I played with toys.  First of all I finished working on a wee monkey....this one....

Our littlest grandson loves the first one I made him and carries it around and sleeps with it.  There have been a couple of close calls when his monkey went awol, but luckily he was found.  Our son thought it might be a plan if there was a replacement in the wings, just in case.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that a new monkey wouldn't be as well loved as the old! 

Pattern is found HERE.   

And, I made him this, just because I wanted to!  

Grandma has a resident dragon in her sewing room that oversees all she does, so our little guy needs one too.  See?  I can justify anything when it comes to grandkids!!!  Pattern for the dragon can be found HERE.  

A condundrum

What do you suppose might

be happening with these?...

You'll have to stay tuned to find out!

Today's quote is from Frank Tyger..."Be a good listener.  Your ears will never get you in trouble"

Drum roll......

Tah Dah!!!  The Louisiana Church is done!!

FOR SALE

Below is the original photo of the church in Chackbay, Louisiana - photographed by Euvah Bryant and used with her permission.  Thank you Euvah!  I hope you like what I've done with it.

This church has since been torn down - such a shame.

THIS ONE IS FOR SALE - contact me if interested!!

Today's quote..."The two most important days in our life are the day we were born and the day we find out why"

More additions

You hopefully can see the results of two days work on this now...

A close-up of the embroidery, and the sweet wee bunny applique.  I had a precious scrap of bunny fabric and this is the last of the little bunnies.  Wish I could find some more!

Some things just make me wonder.  I recently had to purchase a new printer and just bought my first new ink for it.  I thought I should read the directions (for once) and was rather astounded to see that the first caution (and in large print no less!) said 'Do not drink'.  Ummmm - wonder who would think it was wise to try to drink printer ink - to say nothing about the logistics of sucking it out of the cartridges!

Instead of a quote.....

Many people give their sewing machines a name - some of them really cute.  I, however, have never named a machine, why I don't know.  After spending pretty much all day on Saturday swearing at mine I have decided that a very apt name is 'PMS'  with a middle name of 'Albatross'.  She woke up on the wrong side of the bed and hissy fits (both hers AND mine) were the order of the day.  She snarled and she tangled and she grabbed hold of the fabric with her little teeth and refused to let go.  I cleaned her....I untangled her.....I rethreaded her.....and she still wasn't happy.  She didn't like the way that bobbin was threaded, and this one wasn't any better.  She didn't like a new needle either, thank you very much.  Sigh.

However, perhaps you can see that in between the hissy fits some of the quilting was actually completed.  Sort of.  

And here is a close-up (clickable to embiggen I think) of the grass and the church where hopefully you can see how I add texture by simply using some of the 'fancy' stitches on PMS Albatross (when she cooperates, of course!)

Today's quote..."Do not listen with the intent to reply, but with the intent to understand"