A New Year of Quilting!

Snow Days!

Backyard Visitor

Enjoying the Mild Snowy Day

We sure had a snowy holiday season and it continues.     I have been busy at work on finishing projects and starting new ones.  I finished the doll for the brave little girl who is undergoing chemo.  I made this one larger so she can be cuddled.  I don't have a photo yet but will post it soon.

Here is a little sneak peek at a tiny corner of my Sunshine and Vines Challenge piece.  It's all I can show you.   I wanted to try to use only the five fabrics in the kit but ended up using 2 other fabrics for sky and water.   The rest will be kit fabrics.   I free motion stitched the trees here.  In fact I am trying to machine stitch the whole piece.  I have several layers of fabrics in some places and was struggling with tangles and other nasty issues.   I had to rethread, try different combinations of threads, change needles, tensions etc etc until I finally got it to sew.  It's a big learning curve.

In fact I feel like I am on a giant learning curve right now - machine work, dolls, some needle punch felting (I made a wrist cuff), and rug hooking.   I also joined SAQA and I am working on some pieces which I may enter into jurying for upcoming exhibitions.  I guess we can get too comfortable for a time then it's on to the next challenge (s).   I am also determined to open an Etsy shop this year.

At home, I finally broke down and purchased a new TV (you should see my old one), and got gifts of an ereader and new microwave (you should see my old one:)   All this technology means new learning......whew!    Some days I just wish for a cabin in the woods....

Background for new floral piece

But look what I accomplished with a combination of mother nature and technology - my first machine pieced background - starting with sun prints (thank you mother nature), cutting them into rectangles and machine stitching them together (thank you pfaff).   There are two different sizes of rectangles and I wasn't too worried about the corners meeting perfectly because it will be mostly covered up with the flowers.   Also a couple of the squares stand out a bit too much but I will take care of that when I add flowers and foliage.

Rough sketch of flowers for new floral piece

I am using the background for another floral piece (Down the Garden Path: Friendship is a Garden II).  I will construct some of the flowers in this sketch and place them on the background......I hope to use free motion and hand stitching on this one.

I picked up my gift certificate prize from Canada Beading yesterday and bought some lovely silk threads with it.  I'll take a photo of them and post soon.  I also hopped over to the Running Stitch - great sale - and used a gift certificate from my son to purchase lots of great fabric....my kids know what I like!

I am still finishing up a hand stitched piece of aging which I think I will call "When I Was Twenty-One"  but that could change.     My colour challenge piece is almost completed - all hand stitched so far.   I sure have lots to keep me busy and I am trying to get some stuff done now because I am scheduled for catarract surgery in March and again in April which may slow me down a bit - but not for long.   Oh and I was one of the members featured on a new group I joined in November FAMM (fibre arts and mixed media).  It's a Yahoo group.   Very nice!