Felt Project, Moy Mackay, Left Over Quilt Scraps

Absolutely PERFECT mid July weather the last few days!  Its quite warm/hot but we have a lovely strong wind to keep it from feeling too warm.  And yes, it is just barely past the middle of May so this weather is totally unusual for us but most welcome as long as it doesn't get any hotter. 

Anyways, I have very little in the way of stitching or quilting or felting news.  I did start a new felt project.  I'm sure I spent more time trying to photograph it and edit the photos than I actually spent making the darn thing!  It looks okay I guess in the photo, but the photo really makes it look horrible compared to seeing it in person.  Here is a photo.

I saw a sampler recently in a Sotheby's online auction site and it was done in brown and turquoise and I just loved the contrast in colours.  The brown and turquoise have been in the back of my mind for months now and I kept trying to decide what I was going to do to use those two colours.  Finally, a few days ago, I pulled out my merino wool and needle felter and the photo above is what came of it.  I really want to add stitches to it, but no turquoise perle cottons or similar types of thread.  I have only some DMC 6 stranded floss.  I am okay working with the floss, but with some stitches, the threads don't lay evenly and the stitch ends up looking messy and not properly done, so an online order is due.

But, before placing an order, I really need to do an inventory of what I have in perle cottons.  I ordered quite a bit since taking the Sumptuous Surfaces Embroidery and  Encrusted Crazy Quilting course from Sharon Boggon and really don't know what I have.

Recently, I came across a felting artist, Moy Mackay.  WOW!  I immediately fell in love with her art work.   On the link above, if you click on Moy's name, you will get her home page.  On it, you will also find her just released book, "Art in Felt and Stitch".  I am so glad I added it to my collection.  It appears that most of her work starts out being wet felted  and when dry, she adds needle felted and hand stitched details.  There are also 4 step by step projects that she works you through and I am eager to try them as I haven't really done any wet felting!   If you check out her home page, the blue bird with a golden mustard yellow background and the sheep art work are two of the step by step projects.

On another topic, quilting, some or all of us probably have scraps of fabric left over from our quilting projects. I've heard more than once where quilters, when they have completed a project, take the left over material and cut it up into common size squares with 1/4 inch seam allowance added, so 2 1/2 inch by 2 1/2 inch squares, 3 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inch squares, etc.  and then just store them by size.  Eventually they have enough to make something with what has been saved.  Here is a great web site that goes into detail about what to do with the left over fabric.  Don't forget to check out the photos at the bottom of what has been done with their scraps!


The rest of this blog is just me boasting about this lovely island!

If I haven't been stitching, what have I been doing?   I've had my hands in manure!  Manure and mulch and in the garden and flower beds.   Today, I am so incredibly sore, I'm surprised my fingers can actually type at this keyboard!   I can barely walk and muscles and ligaments and God only knows what else that have laid dormant all winter have been called into use and they are NOT happy at all!!!

In any case, the rhubarb is flourishing and the fourth batch of rhubarb crisp this season is cooling in the kitchen.  This is a photo of the garden, almost all planted.  I have a few seeds to put in and other than finding some zucchini seeds, all will be done for now.

We went for a drive yesterday and the trees are either flowering or almost in full leaf.  This is a photo down by Cavendish National Park.

The next photo is Orby Head.  The "Head", or point, is what is pictured.   When I first came to the island 13 years ago, this point was not as steep a slope as it is now.  It was much much wider and people, including me, were able to carefully walk down from the top of the cliff to the lowest plateau. As you can see, the many severe winter winds and storms and wave action have eroded the sandstone and slowly The Head is disappearing.  If you look carefully, you will see a lobster boat in the upper right corner!

Each winter, we have the most amazing winter storms with driving winds from the North.  They wreak havoc on our beaches and cliffs.  They take sand and/or rocks away, they put sand and/or rocks where previously there was none and slowly the cliffs are bombarded until sections fall into the sea.  The sand has been brought back to the beach at the North Rustico end of Cavendish National Park.

One last photo now.  There used to be only one way to get on or off this island.  A ferry.  The island is crescent shaped and is 139 miles or 224 km from tip to tip.  It is  4 to 40 miles or 6 to 64 km wide.  In the 1990's, a bridge was made to connect the island to the mainland, the Province of New Brunswick.  The bridge is amazing!  The bridge is 8 miles or 12.9 km long.   Its has quite the amazing story!

I was going to go out and plant those seeds, but just a few moments ago, I heard something outside that we usually only hear once or twice during the summer, and only at night.  We've never figured out if it was foxes or raccoons but it lets out the most terrible screeches as if it is being tortured. I can't go outside with the dog because if she sees anything, she will be off like a shot in the dark and we'll never find.  So, its housework for me! Yuck!  Maybe I'll stitch!

Enjoy your day and happy stitching!