Circle complete

I' m back from Hershey, Pa and Quilt Odyssey. I had a great time. The workshop was great and the first lecture was so inspiring. The orange and purple optical illusion circle was the result of the workshop. The homework that we had brought with us, was cut, sewn, cut again, then finally sewn together again to make the circle. All the corners should meet, (don't look too close at the photo). The process was really fun, I will probably try it again, after I finish some projects.


The butterflies in the next two photos were from a quilt by Sharon Schomber. She spoke about organization in your studio and creativity, birth order does matter in her opinion, Great speaker and such a great quilter. She designed bridal gowns, and one can see the detailed work carries through in her quilts. She often paints the pictures on the fabric then quilts. Beautiful long arm quilting that the is enhanced with bead work. Best of all, we could touch the quilts. No white glove required.

The bodies of the butterflies are three dimentional, like stuffed animals attached to the quilt top.

The second lecture did not hold my attention. The lecturer was late, then had to arrange the slides in the tray before she could begin to speak. Oh well, always next year, but we have decided that family will probably come first then.

Ready to go

I am ready to leave, homework is done. First photo shows the project half way completed. The sewing wasn't that difficult, but the pressing was not easy. I pinned each end to keep from stretching, then gently pressed it the entire length.
This photo shows the completed work, four panels and what is left of the second spool of thread.

Oh, yeah, I might be ready to leave, but unfortunately not until tomorrow at this time. Oh, well, off to work I go.

Is your homework done yet?

Well...No. Excuses as follows:.

I have started it.

I don't need until I leave Thursday morning.

I've run out of thread--Purple- Why did I choose to use purple? I hate purple.

I need to go the the fabric store for that purple thread, but it is waaaay to hot to go shopping.

If I finish it, I will have to Iron it. See above for the reason.

Cutting fabric strip 3/4" wide is not fun. Then try sewing them together.

As I said, see #2 above, I am going to Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, Pa for two days. I am taking a class called Circle of Illusion by Andi Perejda.

I am off tomorrow, so shopping, sewing and ironing is planned. Oh yes, maybe I'll run the cleaner.

Fluffy & Patches

I am happy to introduce my newest 4 legged nieces- Fluffy and Patches the Boodles. They are designer dogs- Bisheon and Poodle. They are about 6 months old. Their human family just moved to a new house that was adapted for doggy use, a fenced in backyard and a new doggie door which they use constantly. I'm sorry but I can't tell them apart, one has a black spot near the tail, the other does not. They like to jump and are soooo very soft.

Painting for socks

I tried to paint my own sock yarn this weekend. Following the directions in the new Knitpicks catalog, (I could not wait for my order to arrive) I knitted together two strands of an off white sock yarn that I found in my stash. I made the strip about calf width and just knit in a stockingknit pattern on size 8 needles unil I ran out of yarn. The finished length was about 4 feet long, I did not worry about the rolled edges. I laid out the wet panel on a piece of plastic on the kitchen counter ( For safety reasons, I know its not a good thing to work in the kitchen, but it was way too hot on the patio). Then, I began to paint the first rows of blue stripes about 3 inches apart. In between a put a red stripe, then between those stripes, I filled in with yellow. You can see in the first photo that the yellow has begun to move into the blue creating green.
I steamed the plastic wrapped panel for 1/2 hour. Let cool and hung to dry. Drying the panel on the back fence only took about an hour. I took the dried panel to my nephew's graduation party, where my mother-in-law helped seperate and roll into two balls.
I worked yesterday, but it was very quiet in the morning, so I had time to knit. I almost always use an afterthought heel in socks- that's the white stripe. The fun part will be knitting the next sock to see if it really matches.

Clean House

...too bad it is not mine. It is the bird house in the photo. This house was a birthday gift from a co-worker last year, so this is the first year it's been up and verrry busy. First there was a pair of bluebirds checking it out for several days, but I knew they would not nest there because it is not the correct location. Early spring there was a family of sparrows. I couldn't tell how many babies, but if all the noise was any measure, there could have been at least a half dozen. Next a pair of barn swallows moved in. They had two sets of babies with a total of about six little ones between the two hatchings. The swallows were fun to watch. Each night, while I soaked in the hot tub, they were flying and diving above me catching insects. They are very skillful fliers, very acrobatic. It is amazing that they never flew into each other, as sometimes there were three or four birds flying at the same time. Last Wednesday, while I was at work they moved out and I haven't seen one since.

Today when I came home, I found this pile of feathers around the base of the pole. They were all a brilliant white probably from the tails of the swallows.

Obviously, some one else was cleaning out the house. Tonight while I was in the hot tub, I saw the new resident, a house wren. Now, I know the male will build several nests and let the female choose the best one. For several weeks a wren has been singing about the nest he built in a Williamsburg pottery house by the front window. It is fun to watch him singing about his creation. However, this is not a good location- no shade- in the direct sun most of the day, probably over 1oo degress most days. No female would pick this nest. I know this new house is a much better choice. Good luck, Buddy. I hope to hear some little ones soon.

Yearly Water Lily

My red water lily bloomed today. The plant is about 5 years. It puts out many leaves, but has only bloomed once each year since I've had it. By mid to late June I look every day to see if the flower has appeared. Finally, today, lucky I did not miss it.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY QUILT

I've always wanted a quilt that I could hang up during our annual picnic. This year it will be on the the 5th, because I have to work on Friday. This quilt was made for the guild's annual picnic as a DIY challenge. Each month we were give a new assignment, such as 12 inch center square, a plain border, a piece border and an applique border and then one of our chose. Patterns and colors were our own choice. It was a very fun project.