Wedding Wallhanging

I finished my son's wedding quilt Sunday with a wedding message and quilt info label on the back. Yeah! just in time to drop it off at my parent's house before the drive to Florida.

This little quilt was a lot of work for me.  First I was trying to use each one's favorite color, red and teal.  Found some red scraps with teal batik.  I used this as a starter fabric after many other tries and pulled colors from it.

The other problem was just me.  One of the side effects of my medicine is dropping off to sleep while doing ordinary things such as talking.  This effect can take up to a year to start.  I've been on it a year with great results until now.  It's very dangerous dropping off to sleep while using a sewing machine not mention all the frog chorus afterward. (Rip it, Rip it)




I started with piecing the quilt and then used raw edge and needle turn applique.  The lettering under the house was done with the feeddogs dropped and a zigzag stitch.



The Distelfink bird was the good luck and happiness bird of the early Pennsylvania German settlers. Overall, the design symbolized "good luck and happiness" for all. I used my own stylized version as this is where my heritage starts.

Next I used Shiva paint sticks for the first time.  I put leaves the tree and stones for the walk.  I cut a stencil out of paper and laid it on the quilt to protect the rest of the fabric.  I could see these being a very fun and useful addition to my art.  The leaves didn't show up quite as much as I would have liked. Great fortune!I amidst the small scraps people gave me at quilt guild were two 2 by 3 inch floral scraps with leaves I hadn't noticed. Just a perfect size.





Finished with lots and lots of quilting, a bit of hand stitching, beads and buttons. and finally  mitered binding and tabs.  Hope the like it!

Double Wedding Ring

Finished my double wedding ring table runner yesterday.  It's a house warming gift for my son and new Daughter in law (well in 4 more days).  Anyway I thought it was pretty. The quilting is unmarked freemotion quilting.

Zentangled Cane

Okay - so if you have to have one it ought to make a statement! Especially for an artist.
Here is my zentangled cane.

Picture of the Day!

New rabbits in yard!

Gurney Journey: Three Years of Daily Doodles

Gurney Journey: Three Years of Daily Doodles: "Larry Roibal has been doodling portraits of famous people on his newspaper for three years now, and posting the results on his blog. ..."

My shoes aren't quite so boring now!

Having way to much to do this morning, and not knowing whether to start with my studio and clean so I could get my sewing done, or scrub the fish tanks, I started a new project  Here are some pictures of my zentangle tennis shoes.

 right shoe

 Left shoe

 Back

front

Now, I'm scrapping down my cane again.  I might do zentangles on it too!

Sunrise Photos

Just getting around to posting my other sunrise photos.  These were also taken at about five minute intervals n a beautiful but chilly February morning.

Look what I found

Well after finding the crocus Monday, a tornado Tuesday, today I decided to scrap off some of my leaf mulch in case something else was starting to grow.  I found two anemic yet hearty hyacinths under about 5 inches of wet leaves.  I think with a little sunlight they should green up and bloom nicely.

Under all the leaves - spring

under the leaf mulch
green shoots raise their heads
first heralds of spring

Spring came sooner than I thought.  I found fully bloomed crocus under the leaf mulch I had not yet cleared off my garden.

February's Scrap Challenge

February's scrap challenge color was red.  First I choose a photo of one of my roses.  I decides to select a portion of it and make a kaleidoscope.

 I started with looking through my large and small scraps for lights and darks.

Next I sorted thread for various red shades.  It is unfortunate that as soon as white is added to fed you get pink or if yellow a peachy shade.  I decided to only use the reds.

Here is my pizza slice wedge based on the flower contours from a small section. I started with red satin, but scored it.  I found a darker cotton and utilized what I could of the satin scrape for the applique pieces.

Below is my finished piece.  After lots of applique and then quilting I finished the piece off by going around the edges twice with yarn and a zigzag stitch.

You may be able to see some of the free hand quilting  by clicking on the close up.
Unfortunately, i was not happy with my results.  I think when i have time I will do a realistic read rose.