Working on Friday!

 I am still working on my summer quilt and making good progress. I did outline stitching around the sailors and will decide if I want to go around more, after I finish the other sections. I am also thinking it would be fun to, put little ties at their necks and a couple of buttons on the shirt, since it will be a wall hanging.

It has been a rough week, I lost my friend after a long battle. She was a dear friend and I will miss her. I was able to get out for a hike on Sunday, a good way for me to reflect and find my inner peace. 

We walked on a new path which was nice, but I did have to remove a few ticks that tried to crawl up my pants. I guess I need to stay off paths that have too much brush. It is land that had a few homesteads, so we found a lot of remnants of homes and the people who lived here.

It also had a few streams and a hike up a rock for a view of the surrounding area.

We also went back to the refuge that we took the boys too. This time we hiked the entire trail and a side trail. A beautiful place to walk that is close by.

Today we went to another bird sanctuary. This time it was teaming with birds and wildlife, so I was able to get a few shots of the birds.

We also met up with some critters, as well as more birds.

One of the older nests was being occupied by the female, while the male watched over things in a nearby tree. 

Here is a close up of the male. 

I also wanted to have something to remember my friend by, and her favorite color is purple. I saw this lilac bush and it was perfect. It was a nice way for me to process my pain, the day I heard and something I can watch bloom every spring.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have rain coming in so maybe some shopping and relaxing with my project. 

Friday Finish!

The presents are done, the cards are out, though I didn't do as many as previous years, I did what I could and now it is time for me to relax and enjoy working on Christmas projects. This year will be my Christmas year, I will be working on larger quilts to put around the house. I still like to do small projects and they are nice to do at night while I watch tv, so that is what I did this week.

This is an older pattern that a friend gave me, called I Believe by Country Stitches. For this one I used 3 strands of floss, so it would stand out more. No antique medium on this one, I wanted it to be lighter and bright, something the kids will like when they visit.

The pillow is 11" x 15". The filling is a mix of battings, mostly from a pillow I bought. I needed a smaller sized pillow for my whale, so I bought a pillow form, took out stuffing, till it was the right size, then sewed it up and cut of the excess. A great way to get the size you need and there was a lot of stuffing, enough to fill another pillow.

Another project I will work on after the holidays is a quilt for my ocean room and now I have another one to make that I can enjoy, as well. My friend Karen sent me this piece that she had started. And she sent the material she bought to use with it. I am going to add more border to it and make it into a quilt, maybe even some extra appliqué around the first border area. I also have some whale and seagull fabric, so if it matches, I may use that.

Not the best photo, the fabrics look so much better in person, love the colors and fabrics. This will be a fun one to practice quilting on, something with a nautical theme.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I am in the mood to find a new Christmas sweater to wear, so hopefully I can find something this weekend. My closet is filled mostly with black, which is my favorite color to wear, but I think it is time to wear something more festive for the holidays.

The Boatman Punch Needle!

I finally finished my new piece and I hope you like it, as much as I do.  I adapted this new design from an antique quilt. I love the designs on the quilt and am hoping to do more in the same line. I used a variety of flosses and techniques which are in the pattern. The new pattern is in a pdf file, so you will get the colors if you would like to do yours in the same way.

This piece is 6" x 5 1/2" and I finished it off with a larger piece of jute rope to keep with the nautical theme. This weekend I need to get busy making a ring pillow for my DIL, I finally decided what to do and that is hand stitch it, since I have no idea how to use my embroidery machine and size things, so I will be very busy stitching since it needs to be done by next weekend.

The pattern includes the design and a photo of my finished piece, the border is not included in the design. I think it would look wonderful with a quilted style border, maybe flying geese.