Friday Finish!

I love to work with wool and when I saw Rebekah's book, and the projects that others were doing, I knew I wanted to have her book. When I saw a blog hop with a giveaway of her book, I had to enter. I couldn't believe I was the lucky winner of her book and even more excited when I saw all of the wonderful projects in it. You can see her book and other wonderful wool patterns at Rebekah's Website. She also sells kits and wool if you want to get the time worn look of her pieces.

I decided to start with the cat pillow and I have finished the top, so far. It will be set on another piece of wool but I wanted to look at it and decide if it is ok, as is or if I should change anything, before I make it into a pillow. What do you think? Of course I changed a few things and used buttons for the eyes. I wish I could get the colors better, I tried using dark and prim hand dyed wools from my stash. I used DMC for the stitching.

Of course the colors do not look right in the photo, the background is a darker brown shade and the spots of blue or yellow are markings I made, so those will get washed out.

I won the book from Doreen of Vermont Harvest Folk Art, who is a wonderful artist in her own right. I love her unique pumpkin men and the pieces she creates. She also has wonderful patterns and PDF patterns so you can buy and start working on it right away.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I am still trying to decide on a trip for tomorrow, so a new adventure and hopefully more foliage now that a week has gone by.

Friday Finishes and Win!

Did any of you follow the 100 Blocks giveaways? I didn't win a magazine but I was the lucky winner of Barbara Cline's book, Diamond Chain Quilts. I have to admit, I was a bit intimidated by her quilting and all of that piecing, but once I read her tutorials and watched the video, I realized, even someone like myself, can make beautiful quilts like this.

I received my copy of the book and she has wonderful tutorials and photos that show how to make the quilts along with beautiful quilts to make. I love how she uses colors and turns them into quilts that have a 3D look, something I would love to try. I also love irish chain quilts and this is a wonderful new take on chain quilts.

 This quilt shows the effect of using color gradiations to get a 3D look, I would love to make this for Christmas. Be sure and visit Barbara's blog, Quilting Gal and learn how she makes these fabulous quilts.

Another thing I started this week was a garden angel. Wendy of Ravenwood Whimzies is having a challenge using her free doll pattern. She supplies the pattern and then you can design her with a gardening theme. Sounds fun and you have a month from today to finish her. I hope you can join in, on the fun.

I made my body so I can stare at her and come up with ideas before I start. I am thinking simple and using some flower material for her clothes and accessories. I am not the best doll sewer, good thing she will be covered in clothing;) I used tea stained muslin, so the dark stripe is how the material went on that section.

Another thing I finally did this week was to paint my bench. I wanted to do a painting on top, but I haven't had the time and I just wanted it painted. Of course I realized I had no light blues so used what I had, a bit bright and for some reason it did not want to sand down. I gave up and antiqued it and left it as is, later I can let my husband resend it and repaint it. For now it serves it's purpose, a foot stool in the bathroom.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We are getting rain but it looks like we will have breaks, long enough to get out for some walks.