Bargello Quilt Wallhanging and other happenings....

Hello!

Well, I got a project completed that has been vexing me for quite some time. I took an evening class in bargello and have finished the top of the wallhanging, but I just didn't know how I wanted to quilt it. Other than "stitching in the ditch" I haven't done any other machine quilting. And so the wallhanging sat.


Thanks to a "UFO Challenge" put on by the local quilt guild that i belong to, I got prodded into finishing this project and if it wasn't finished by next months meeting, I would have to pay the guild $25! Where there's money involved, there is always ambition!


Here is my Bargello wallhanging, the colours chosen because my kitchen is lime green and I wanted something to go in the kitchen!

I don't think it shows up very well, but I chose to do was a sun and sun ray theme in quilting the wallhanging. In the lower left corner are 3 quarter circles and then there are 5 rays coming out from it going to the border of the quilt. I am not taking close ups of this wallhanging as I don't want you to see the mistakes! I got some pretty good puckers along the top of the quilt unfortunately.

And, for my friend the slow poke (who in reality has probably finished this sampler), I'm sorry but I just can't help myself!!!! I am back to working my hardanger, but every once in a while, I just have to do a few more stitches on our Black Sheep Sampler!
















I am also working on a quilt. Fabric below! I have 9 shades of rose colours, dark to light, and 9 shades of greens, dark to light. You cut 9 squares from all the fabrics and sew them together. In other words, each of 9 squares of one shade of rose, is sewn to one shade of all nine shades of green. THAT IS ALOT OF SQUARES! You can see that to sew them together, you draw a diagonal line on the back of one of the squares, sew 1/4 inch away from that line, on either side of that line, cut the line after you do the sewing, you end up with 2 squares and then, you press open the squares. You then take 2 squares again, and match them up and do the whole thing again, draw the diagonal line, sew on either side of it and cut them apart. You end up with one square with 4 different colours in it. I am in the process of doing the second sewing. The squares on the right side of the pile and the fabric left over is on the left side!

Well, i'm sure you figured out by now that i love taking nature photos, but don't spend too much time prettying up my photos for the blog. No time!

Enjoy your day and hopefully, i'll be back a bit sooner next time!

Well, back from a few days at our favorite place, a cottage in Economy, Nova Scotia. No TV, sitting near the front window stitching, watching the highest tidal changes in the world, by the Bay of Funday. Getting up early in the morning meant you were in for a treat! Sunrises were especially glorious!





Well, my trusty friend from across the pond raised a few issues, and i think that more need to be raised. Unfortunately, i got myself into a little bit of a pickle and refuse to make fun of her super slowness in fear of being ridiculed myself! I think her mascot should be a turtle and not a cow!

I was ready to start stitching the alphabet of our sampler at the cottage when i realized that the pattern was directing me to use a blue thread for the alphabet and i felt that a green was more appropriate. Well, seeing as we were going to be staying at the cottage for only 4 days, i brought only 7 stitching projects with me (a girl has to be prepared!) and so my green choices were limited. But, choose a green i did and so the stitching of the alphabet began. Well, i got A to L completed and started stitching the little green and yellow floral design below it when i decided that the green alphabet was going to be wayyyyyyyyy too much green in the sampler and i didn't like it. I'm sure the designer figured that out and that is why she chose blue! So guess what? Yes, i am taking out the upper alphabet letters one by one, as i stitching along, and doing them in blue... sigh... Can someone please come and knock some sense in to me??? I will even lend you the shovel to do it with!














Anyways, i had a wonderful time at the cottage stitching, enjoyed walking in the -30C temperatures, took only 500 photographs, and you will be ever so thankful because i won't be posting them here!!














Back to the old grind.. sigh... Life is good! And friend, GET STITCHING!

The Almost Inside Out Bag!

and Slow Motion Stitch-along

Well, my friend the Rabbit emailed me from Florida to say that she made a quilted bag out of black and white fabrics. Not be outdone, I decided I had to make one too. First step, go out into our tiny town to the fabric store and try to find a variety of black and white fabrics! Little did I know that this was mission impossible! I didn't quite find what Iwas looking for but found some fabrics that I could live with. I had with me a "Quilts illustrated" bag pattern ps016 Charm Party Tote and almost feel like I shouldn't mention the pattern in case the designer decides to sue me! What a mess I made! Other than buying the black and white fabric, I did not want to buy anything else and so, I did not buy the Pellon fusible fleece asked for in the pattern, but decided to use some padding that I had which is similar to Timtex, a very firm padding that would be suitable for making bowls and boxes. Well, I obviously had to amend the pattern because of my choice because instead of making the inside and outside of the bag separately and then sewing them together, I just ironed the outside of the bag to one side of my padding and then ironed the inside of the bag to the other side of the padding. I then sewed the 3 sides together and all I had to do was turn the bag inside out! HA! Have you ever tried to turn cement inside out?

This is what I thought my bag was going to end up looking like as I tried to turn it inside out! I needed the help of my husband, the dog and the neighbours!

The bag finally got turned right side out and I was able to put some binding along the top and then some handles on it. One thing I did not like was the pocket I put on it. I should mention that I had problems understanding how to made the outside pocket so made up my own, but seeing that there are many women in my quilting guild who had no problems at all with the pocket, I will assume it is a problem with me and not the pattern. In any case, I did not like my pocket and could not remove it as it was ironed onto my padding so I made a separate square and hand stitched it ontop of the pocket that was there. The completed bag is shown below!

Pocket before change:

Pocket with the square hand sewn over it:

Back of bag:

And finally, I might mention that I am doing a Stitch Along with my friend Didi in Spain. We are doing the Black Sheep Sampler by Elizabeth Designs. We just started this project and I think that as of yesterday, we were both around the same place, just starting the border vine. But, I woke up at 4 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and stitched. This is what I have done so far! I think you might have some catching up to do Didi!

Hopefully, it won't take me 6 months to make my next posting!

Paintings - I'm just a beginner!!!

This is an acrylic painting i did about 5 or 6 years ago? It is the second painting i ever did. My mom has the first. This is a house i saw up west on PEI at Milligan's Wharf. It took me absolutely weeks and weeks to learn how to put shadows under the spruce trees on the left. And the house probably has about 40 coats of paint on it as i just couldn't get it to look the way i wanted.

My older brother and his wife went to Provence in France for their anniversary and were kind enough to send me some pictures. The next piece is the second pastel i had painted. Of course, each time i look at it, i can see where i should do things differently.

And finally, this is the first pastel i did.

Well, i think i am seeing that i am a "Jack of all Trades/Crafts" but a master of none!! lol...

After i did a few painting, i rediscovered stitching and quilting and left the painting behind.

And since i am posting photos of my various hobbies/crafts, i guess i should post one of me biking. This is a photo of me biking past a potato field in blossom yesterday.... If you know of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the faster an object goes, the smaller it becomes. Well, quite obviously, i am such an accomplished biker, that i was speeding along so fast, that you are unable to detect me in the photo with the naked eye! (but, that is a field of potato blossoms taken yesterday!)

Enjoy your day!

Hardanger and Paper Pieced Quilt Wallhangings

Well, there has to be a better way to get these photos in the blog than what i am doing!
This is the first paper pieced wall hanging i did. Again, the colours are just a touch off, but its pretty close. The instructions for this piece were super easy to follow and i loved the final outcome! There is a close up of one of the pointsettas below.


I tackled this paper pieced wall hanging next. It is 16 1/2 inches by 24 inches. The little blocks are 2 3/4 by 2 3/4 inches.

And, this is the second hardanger piece i ever did. I find that hardanger looks terribly complicated and difficult, but most people who learn how to do it, find it so much easier to do than regular cross stitch and having to follow a cross stitch pattern.

And that's it for today! I wanted to see if i could get this done a bit quicker than last nights 3 hours and it took very little time today.

I have a project that i did for my knitting needles and crochet hooks coming up next! Stay tuned!

Faith Sampler

Well, I am slowly learning what blogging is all about, i think. I am also trying to figure out how to take photos of my stitch work. All the pictures I took today are too dark, but I HAVE to post something before you start throwing rotten eggs at me, so I retook some pictures of my first sampler. It is the Faith Sampler and I believe it is by Emie Bishop. I did this sampler about 12 to 15 years ago. The photos are not very good, but I will take other photos in the next day or so and have some better posts to follow!


It was a great starter sampler as there were so many different stitches in it to learn, and as well, it was my first piece where i had to cut threads, remove some, and reweave others. I did this sampler out of a shop in Grimsby, Ontario which unfortunately, is no longer there. We did it as a SAL and there were about 20 of us that met once a month for about 10 months to get it done.






Okay, I am also learning that when I convert files from RAW format to JPG, to not make the pixels too small or the detail will be lost! sigh.... I think I need a secretary!!

Here are some close ups of the sampler:

Well, I must tell you, that Blogging is actually quite stressful!!! lol... Forget trying to fit all the pictures in and then having them disappear!!!! While taking a picture of the hardanger piece below, my dog Skyler decided she liked it alot (or maybe she didn't like it!!) so she grabbed it and I had to chase her around the yard to get it back!!! Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the chase, but, both the hardanger piece and the dog are safe; no injuries to either.















And finally, I will attach a photo of the "offending" dog, who is being a comedian trying to get my attention while I am taking photos. She must have been mad that I took this picture, because it is right after this that she took the hardanger piece!!!



Well, I think that is it for me tonight! Alot of lessons learned and hopefully it will be easier next time!

At the sea....

Today, Cavendish is filled with cars and people and noises and country music!

http://www.cavendishbeachmusic.com/

Wish I was there tonight to rock to "Big and Rich"! "Save a horse, ride a cowboy!" Hey, I've been saying that for years! WAHOOOOO!!!

The beach is hot and inviting!

No stitching allowed on the beach!