Wanderings and Works!

This weekend I made up some new angels to do and finished the second one today, but I still have to make them into pieces. They are both from the North Pole Christmas Craft pages. I think they will keep me busy all year.

I wanted to try some fun and bright angels, one is stitched and the other I colored in with Faber Castell artist pens, then stitched around that.

On Saturday I wanted to go for a walk but not drive too far, so we went to Rome Point which is down the road. I love to walk there, it starts on an old road, goes through the woods along trails and comes out to a long beach.  Once we walk down that beach, we head back up and then go down the other side to the point, then back through another path through the woods. It is a good hike but enjoyable and easy going since we stop and enjoy the views. We were lucky since no one was on that side and we could let Bean run loose and he loved it. He stayed with us, so it is a good place to train him to stay with us and come when called.

I didn't realize that I had pulled the sharpness filter too far, so I reversed it by blurring a bit, so hopefully the photo looks alright and not too bright. The colored angel was bright but once the ink dried, it faded in and the black threads really made it pop without being bright.

On Sunday we had another nice day but the wind was gusting, so we decided on an inland hike. We went to the boy scout camp which has paths, that go around the pond, so we took the easier routes since I didn't want to over do it. We still did a bit of climbing but I had Bean going full gear and pulling me up the hills.

We went half way around the pond and headed back and went up a couple of other paths that led to another pond, on the other side. I was surprised at how many camps there were in each area and the last one led to a spot where you could go out and enjoy the views from the rocks.

Tonight I could not get the photo window to open up and I know a few of you have had that problem with blogger. I have my photos on the desktop and just picked it up and dropped it on the page and it took, so that is an option if you want to use photos, not sure if you can drag and drop on windows, I am on a mac.

Tumbler Baby Quilt!

I finished Nicolas' baby quilt last night and took it to him today. I was going to take a photo of him on it, but I was too busy holding him;)

I used the leftovers from the first quilt and material from the curtains. For the stars and circles, I used fusible and raw edge. I used variegated thread and a blanket stitch to sew them on. I decided to quilt by hand, using a medium blue floss, which I think, makes it look more fun. I would have liked have quilted stars on the border, but I wanted to finish it, and went with a simple border stitch. The binding was done with a vintage satin material that I had bought to make curtains. Never made the curtains, but found a great use for it.

The fabric is Down Under, that I won from Henry Glass & Co.

Here is a closer look at the stitching. As you can see, I am not perfect, I missed the edge on a few places but that is ok, he won't mind;) I like how the variegated thread looks, but the lighter color makes it look like I missed a few spots.

And for you new moms and grandmas, I found a wonderful tutorial for making a Mei Tai Baby Carrier. After seeing the ones you can get now, I thought this was a wonderful carrier, for those of you who can sew and read directions, unlike myself. It is in a PDF format, so you can print it out.

Baby Quilt Top Done!

I finally finished the top. Lots of piecing and fixing and stitch ripping and machine acting up, but it all worked out and I finished the top. It is not perfect, I cannot keep my blocks straight, no matter how hard I try, lol. The original pattern came from Connecting Threads in their free patterns. They had the nine patch in the corners, but I decided to add a fussy cut kangaroo, too cute not to use.

Now I need to figure out how to quilt it, suggestions are welcome. I want to keep it simple so wondering if I should just stitch in the ditch and maybe X's across the large blocks and maybe a interwoven design for the border?

I am going to mix the solid blue with some of the solid yellow or all yellow for the binding? The pieces are not long enough to go in one straight line, so I would have to sew pieces together and think it would look nicer with mixed, than solids that are sewn.

I was thinking of using blue thread for the quilting? I still have material to make curtains, so that is next and then enough to make another quilt, so I might use the green shades and do a chisel or tumbler with the dots and then the animal print for the borders.

Here is a close up to show the colors better. This is such a cute print and I do have larger animal prints that I can use in a second quilt, can never have too many.

Reproduction Block Quilt!

Recently I saw a posting on Barbara Brackman's blog about dogs in quilts. I loved one of the blocks with the polka dot dog and bird and had to try one for myself. Of course I wanted to make it into a mini quilt, so I added my own touches. My brain was off this week, so things didn't all come out as planned, but it was fun to make and gave me some practice with hand quilting.

The piece measures 20" x 16".

My bunny buddy has been visiting me every day and night, he knows a good thing when he sees it;)