Spring Fever!

Spring has sprung in New England... Things are beginning to change and the swans, hopefully, will visit the pond at the end of the road.

The peepers were out for the first time, yesterday.

I love the sound, soon they will get louder and louder.

The swans hang in my longarm room where I don't have a window. I made the quilt several years ago and my intention was to make a series..... another UFO. The water and sky are painted fabrics, the weeds are yarns and fibers, the swans are made from bridal satin and then painted. The trees are various thread play, fused fabric and snippet techniques.

Oh -and in case you were wondering.....baseball season is nearly a week away.....

Happy Fever

Kids Can Quilt!

-Blueberry Fields Forever-

My 11yr old son's -Kids Can Quilt -entry for MQX.

Blueberry Fields is made entirely from scraps and he used a simple panto (Daisies) to quilt it.

The scraps are from dear Caroly's stash of fabrics. After Caroly's passing, her daughter, Susan, went through her fabrics and scraps. Knowing there was more than she could ever use in her lifetime, she began donating and giving her mom's stash away. Fellow Guild member, Glenda, (who BTW never lets a scrap pass through her fingertips), scarfed up a haul of fabrics. As Glenda sorted her new found treasure she found several orphan blocks that Caroly had pieced and left in scraps. Using the orphan blocks and additional scraps, Glenda pieced this top. She brought it to Guild to pass to another for quilting. I took the quilt.

Along came the ad for MQX kids entries. I talked to Thomas about entering a quilt, he liked the idea. And of course the notion of winning a prize, sealed the deal. However, we agreed - should he win anything, we would match the prize and donate it to a charity. We went through some of my UFOs and some of his and nothing really seemed appropriate. There wasn't going to be enough time to start from scratch - I piece at a snail's pace.... Then, we remembered the scrap quilt! We took it from the stack and opened it. The threads of the story all came together with the unfolding of the quilt. There, on the quilt, was blueberry fabric! This was going to be the quilt for his entry.

With fondness, Thomas remembers the sweet day we spent blueberry picking with Caroly, her daughter (my dear friend) Susan, Susan's daughter and her friend. It was a good day.

So, this quilt was quilted by Thomas. It was fun to watch him negotiate the loops and curves, and feel all the same things I felt when I did my first panto. And of course, there was that feeling of excitement when we took out the last pin from the canvas leader and the quilt was beautifully quilted!

I'm proud of Thomas and he is proud of himself. We call this quilt the Pay It Forward quilt. After the MQX show this quilt will be donated to comfort.

(not sure why the photos aren't posting...... drat. I'll have to check into that later.....)

fixed photos

The straightened bird quilt and the pieced block for the Guild quilt, from the previous post.

Catching up.....

---Go ahead and lie down to look at this picture. I can't get it to go straight---

ugh.

This is my little MQX challenge entry. I have had fun with it. You may remember I posted a drawing and some of the beautiful fabrics, awhile ago. Challenge requirements were- to use the fabrics and a Victorian theme. I went with a crazy patch border, broiderie purse (sp) and a birdcage. Still adding beads and of course the binding waits to the nth hour and I know I will be stitching that down as I'm driving to the post office to mail it out.... So typical.

True confessions.... I ripped the quilting out of the back ground, I think- three times. It's going to a machine quilter's show.... I have to show some knowledge of machine quilting, don't I? .... And that's probably why I can't get the photo to straighten out - it's just mirroring the permanent crick in my neck.

I totally missed posting about this adorable ATC, I received it when the computer was messed up and I lost the first photo.... anyway, I traded cards with Terri. Go to her blog and check out her ATC swap collection and all the other cool stuff she is up to. In the future, I would love to host an ATC swap. They are truly little gems.

Julie sent me this nice piece of framed art for leaving a comment on her blog. She used pretty stitching and textured materials. The art is inside a glass frame; the reflection doesn't show the piece very well. Check out what Julie is up to here.

I've been chewing over some designs for my Guild's raffle quilt when this came to me one night. I had to get up and sketch it out. I'm pretty sure this will be my final decision with some feather fill work around the applique panels. One of the panels is shown in a previous post and the borders will be pieced triangles. Isn't it funny when you can think about something forever, and then all of sudden what you were looking for comes to you? I will practice out this design to get it to fit, my mission is to get it to be continuous as much as I can.

I have a picture of the pieced block. It's pretty, I'll post it when I can.

Good Stuff

Isn't the color of this blue fabric gorgeous? I had been admiring Vicki's hand dyed fabrics for awhile. When our Guild's butterfly challenge was announced I contacted Vicki to see if I could purchase one of her blues, it was going to be perfect for what I had in mind. Vicki suggested a barter, so we did. Bartering is a good thing.

I enjoyed making Vicki this sewing, treasure book. It has little pockets to keep sewing notions. (You know-the little kits that hotels used to offer back in the day...)

Our Guild went on a getaway weekend last weekend. Our friend and former Guild member Sharon from NC was not able to come up for the weekend. It was silly to make a Flatsharon doll in her honor. (Like Flat Stanley goes to Washington..... Flatsharon goes on a getaway.) I put Flatsharon's name in the drawing in place of mine and we won the pretty fabrics above! I am going to make Sharon and myself aprons, a journal cover for Coral (who made our weekend plans) and I may use the leftover scraps to embellish a jean jacket similar to one I saw here.

There are a million things in the fire, I have lots of longarming to do, also and with spring right around the corner......there is no rest for creative minds. It's all good.

(and yes, I did this blog entry from the stairmaster. those who asked know what I'm talking about.... and no, when the laptop crashed, it wasn't off the stairmaster, it was off the table.)

Enjoy your creative day!