I knew...

...the lily would open.

And I wasn't far off the mark when I imagined aliens emerging from the nuclear blue.

Colors of the week.

~This morning's sky blue~

~Jack's well loved blue and white~

I don't know Jack, but he sent me a cute picture of himself asking if I could rescue his blanky. I'm turning it into a little quilt for him.

It won't be too much longer, Jack.... I know you're waiting....

~Bright Primary~

One of the finishes from this week. This fabric is darling. It's from the Very Hungry Caterpillar collection.

~Nuclear Blue~

The pool water this morning- It's been upgraded from black to blue. Progress. Weird though, every time I look out I expect steam and aliens to emerge.

~Topsy Turvy~

A Mother's Day gift and everyone is watching, will the delicate, yellow flowers be next and then the tomatoe reds? I think so.

~Water Lily~
First of the season.The sun will hit it later, it will open- it's pink and yellow inside.

Can't wait.

And last but not least - basic black.

Patrick Henry posing in the Wax Museum. The hat and jacket were made by him using his own sewing machine (braggin' here). When the button on the desk was pressed, he stood and recited info about himself. Well done Patrick.

~Mermaid Jacket~

A jacket I made a few years ago. The mermaid is hand painted and appliqued. Her hair- layers of thread stitched to water soluble stabilizer, soaked and stitched to her head. The seaweed- attached using the opposite side of the fabric and stitching over drawn lines on Totally Stable. A technique learned from Linda Schmidt. The edges were satin stitched on the front using various fancy threads. The scenes are not stiff as no fusible was used.

The treasure chest- created using a drawn image on white muslin and painted with puff paint. (Yes, the old fashioned stuff we used to paint sweatshirts and t-shirts with.) By not allowing the puff paint to puff completely, it looks like weathered wood. When dry it was painted and assembled and stitched using both invisible machine and hand stitching.

There are loads of beads and hand embroidery. I was playing around with some camera settings in these photos.... when I get that figured out, I'll post additional close ups. I don't wear this jacket, but it is one of my favorite pieces. I loved making it.

What's Doing....

~Quilting~

~Growing~

~Watching~

~Detailing~

~Trusting~

Happy Memorial Day!

Can you see the rainbow?

Button Embellishment

Awhile ago, I started to embellish a denim jacket with a variety of floral fabrics. I left the fabric edges raw and used the machine blanket stitch. The waistband is covered with fabrics and the back has random patches. Sitting at my son's baseball game today was perfect for stiching on some of the buttons.

The best part was reaching into the bag without looking and picking the next button to stitch.

Simple pleasure, I admit.

Oh, and speaking of which. It looks like, Turbo, the summer frog is back for the season. There he was, croaking loudly, sunning himself green again.

Collections

A fellow 'Sistah', JZ, went to Brimfield last weekend and scored this selection of vintage buttons for me. Brimfield is a fabulous antiques market hosted in Brimfield MA, 3 times/year. If you are into that kind of stuff, check it out here.

Asked "What will you do with all those buttons?" Nothing is started, but I have something in mind-using my vintage gloves and buttons. I use the buttons occasionally, on different pieces. But mostly, I just collect them for now. I don't collect fabric, like most quilters....I like to collect vintage sewing stuff.

Shadow boxes filled with my husband's grandmother's sewing notions and 'stuff.'

The pictures aren't great, but the tatting pieces you see, are little scraps found in her sewing machine drawers. I never found anything larger, so I only have the scraps; which are just as beautiful as a finished project, in my opinion.

So last night was Guild night and we had Jeanne Williamson as a guest. Between 1999 - 2005 she completed a self challenge where she made one mini quilt/ week. Her methods were non traditional, it was interesting to see how she changed and developed ideas through the weeks/years. She also used non traditional items to stitch on, print with or paint over. She had some really neat ideas as we look into 'greener' ways as we create our fiber art. Her blog is here and from there you can find info about her projects.

Hopefully, you will get to do some creating, collecting, relaxing, reflecting or whatever you enjoy doing, over this Memorial Holiday weekend. I plan to do all of the above with lots of baseball mixed in.

Yesterday

-On the screen -

-At the feeder-

-On the ground-

(who invited the furry guys? seriously.)

-In the garden-

-At the machine-

(making his Patrick Henry social studies costume. Using his new Janome Jem he won from his Kids Can Quilt entry in MQX!)

-In the Pool-

Oooops..... Pool water gone bad. With some good advice from a friend, hopefully, I can have that cleared up.....

-In the tree-

I'm reminded of when the eldest at 5yrs. or so, collected thousands of caterpillars in a coffee can. He insisted on taking them with us on a day trip and we were going to let them loose. Driving along, I look back and he had fallen asleep - how sweet. ohmygosh! The lid was off the can and they were everywhere!

Prom Night

The bouquet.

The colors are more vibrant in person. It's wrapped with a beautiful organza ribbon and hooked with pearl pins. So pretty and fresh looking.

Looked perfect with the dress.

And the tux, of course. : )

Spiral Bracelet #2

Second edition spiral bracelet. The spirals were taken apart and linked together with a bead connector. I used gold wire through the bead as I didn't have the gauge in silver that I wanted. My son picked the pretty blue beads and I like how they look with the gold wire.

Spiral Bracelet

This is the first edition of my spiral bracelet. Given the nature of wire, it doesn't dangle like I think it should. I think I'm going to play around with it more, unwrap the spirals, reconnect them differently and add some beads for color. I liked playing around with the wire.
But, for now.... back to quilting.....

Perfect Practice Piece

This little bag is the perfect size if you need to practice out a quilting design or just want to quilt up some scrap fabric.

It has a removable clip and is intended to hang on a golfer's bag. For something fun, a quilted zipper pull was added.

The opening is the perfect size for a hand to slip in and grab a tissue, bug spray, snack or the score card and pencil.