Friday Finish!

 This week I worked on my bed quilt and was all excited when I got it all together, then I saw it is too short. The guest bed is a long, so I need at least two more rows, then with a border, it should be the right size. Luckily I found some more old fabrics that I can add to what pieces I have enough of, to blend it in.

At night I do hand work and finished a little mat to put on my old bench. It was from a Need'l love book with a Christmas theme, so I changed it a little to make it more Americana.

I also finished the rose I was working on. As usual, I over painted it by trying to follow the instructions and made more of a mess, so I gave up. The next one I am working on is a design I redid from a photo I took.

I have also been working in my gardens. My DIL gave me strawberry plants a few years ago and this year they are finally producing. Some are growing strangely and a lot have bites out of them, but I still get a few for myself.

On nice days we are getting out for walks. The bird sanctuary is one of our favorite places. Always a nice walk and lots of birds. I caught an Eastern Towhee along the path.

At the end of one point, you can see an Osprey nest. I am not sure what they were doing, but the dad was moving a large stick and the female was helping. 

We also stopped at the ocean to check out the waves and caught this fishermen, coming around on the rough side of the rocks. 

With rain on and off during the weekends, we get out when it stops. We went to another bird sanctuary that is down the road and enjoyed walking around the pond. Lots of birds in the area, but none sit still or are hiding in the bush.

I hope you all enjoyed your week and have a good weekend. I need to get going on old projects and now I have to get ready for a trip in two weeks. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary this year, but keeping it simple by going camping. 

Friday finish and starts!

 

This week seemed to go by too quickly and as usual, I didn't get as much done. More time spent getting ready for Easter and getting out on nice days.

I did put a new piece together, I have had it for years and decided it was time to make it. I have most of the pieces cut out, so I could make sure I got the layout right. The design is by Crane Design, called Lighthouse Landing.

I also painted some new rocks. I enjoy doing happy pieces that make me smile and hopefully, will make others smile when they find them.

Last weekend we took a drive to Connecticut. A few nice walks at a few parks.

One park still has the old farm buildings left.

And lots of birds at the parks, but as usual, they hid or flew away when I got the camera out. I found an owl in a tree, he stayed still.

During the week we spent time at the beach, in the afternoon. The tide was always coming in, but I still found some nice treasures and got nice walks in.

Today we got out for last minute shopping and spent the rest of the day, at the beach. This is a Long Beach, so we got a nice walk in and found some nice treasures, which are in the 4th glass photo. We walked as far as we could go, which ended at a rocky barrier. Next time we will have to find a place to park and walk all the way to the lighthouse area.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and a Blessed Easter Day. 

Friday Finishes!

This week I finally got the time to finish one item and make something new. It seems that I spend more time cleaning and taking Bean out, he really is an energetic pup and if i don't wear him out every few hours, he spends his time indoors, annoying me.

My great niece got a giant dollhouse last Christmas and so far she has decorated it with Barbie items, so i wanted to make her a rug for the house. I picked an antique design from Kopp's book and kept the colors in pink and blue, since those are her favorite colors. I wanted to use 3 strands of floss to keep the rug in scale, but it was way too much work and repetition, so I jumped to 6 strands for the background. It gives it a bit of a raised effect and it is not what I envisioned, but I am sure she will love having a real rug for her doll house and maybe someday she will get real furniture for it;)

If it were me, I would spray it with walnut ink, but she is a girlie girl and bright it will be. The rug is 7 1/4" x 6".

Another idea I had, was to make little tea coasters and stuff them with balsam. I thought a small piece like that would fit nicely into a thank you card and I could give them out as little gifts too. I used one of my photos from the trip and printed it on printable fabric, but I misjudged the size and they have become little pillows. I do like how they look and still a nice gift idea. I don't really like the stiffness of the fabric paper and I really do not trust the inks if it gets wet. I did heat set it and then run under cold water but I did notice a bit of red ink. It is a nice idea to use with photos to make pillows or even a mini quilt from your favorite trip.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. We have the annual art show in Wickford and the folk art music festival in Newport, so hoping to get to the art show, I haven't been in years.

Friday Finishes!

Another slow week, I spent more time thinking about what to do, so I didn't start until later in the week.  One project I started was an old topper that my friend Kelley sent me. She made the top and I added the green edge for the border and binding. I thought the piece had a Christmas look so I can use it for the holidays.

I was going to practice my machine stitching with it, but decided I needed a simple hand project to work on while I do other things. I am using pearl cotton on this one and a simple stitch in the ditch with an X in the middle for the smaller blocks. They are 1 1/2" in size. The larger block is 4 1/2" and I am doing a stitch in the ditch around the edges, then an X and in-between that I am doing a diamond shape pattern. I thought that it would be simple enough and give it a bit of a snowflake look.

The red is a darker red and the materials are a mix of cotton and brushed cotton so it has a nice look on it's own, which means I won't be antiquing it. But you never know with me;)

 Another project I started is a Christmas piece called "Hand the Stockings", by Joann Mullay. My friend Karen has gifted me with her older patterns and I love using them, fun and quick to do. I have all the pieces ready to place and sew.

Fall Table Runner Finished!

We had a beautiful weekend but as luck would have it, Bill and I seem to have gotten a flu bug so we sat on our butts and watched tv all weekend. The good thing was, I was able to stitch all day and I got the quilting done on my table runner and then today I finished the sunflowers and binding.

The bad thing is, my brain is messed up and I cut from the wrong point of the quilt and lost my black border and it had to be double folded to make a binding instead. All in all it came out ok and looks nice on the table.

The fabrics were from a charm pack called Posh Pumpkins by Sandy Gervais and the leaves are from one of her older fabric lines. I used the same sunflowers that are in my scarecrow hanging since he will go on the window in this room and now they will match. The fabric was a prize from Sauder's Fabrics and if you visit now you can enter their contest for their 40th anniversary.

And here is a close up, bad stitching and piecing, so you can see, I am definitely not a perfectionist;)

Repurposed Table Mat!

My friend Kelley sends me boxes with scraps and stash and I decided to make a table topper with one of the scrap pieces she has used on another project. The nice thing was, the blocks were already put together, I just added a border. Then I hand stitched the squares with a simple outline stitch in the blocks, then went across with an X in each one. for the outer edge, I used a reverse blanket stitch to edge the line and give it a little added touch. I had some old material that was given to me, that had apple prints, in a large and small version and thought that would make a nice theme for an appliqué. I used some scrap wool I have in a drawer and added the apples in each corner.

For the border, I always make it a big larger so I can fold that to the back instead of using binding. This time I used a mahogany stain, gives it a slight reddish brown tint, so an aged look without being too dark. Now I think I need to make one with Easter colors and a matching appliqué. It is fun to make small mats with your scraps and something you can use on a side table to change with the seasons.

I just added a few things for display, but this will go into the fall box once I make a new one for spring. I was thinking it would be cute to add an A+ in each apple and use as a teachers gift, you are welcome to use the idea.