Can Spring be far behind?

I heard a loud chirpping sound from the backyard. Opening the blinds I was amazed to see that my backyard was covered with ROBINS!!! There was aflock of about a hundred birds hopping around the yard. What a lovely sight!! You have heard the nursery rhyme 4 and 20 blackbirds baked into a pie? Well, in my case, that could be rephrased to 4 and 20 robins squeezed into a birdbath. It was rather crowded and the water was splashing in all directions! What a time for my camera to be non-functioning. How beautiful, but saddly my yard is just a stop-over on their way back North. But I look forward to them every year.

I finished some landscape pcs for the 2 landscaping groups. These little guys are so much fun to make. I am looking for a good source of landscaping fabrics. My favorite quilt store only has a couple of sky patterns and a brick and one stone pattern.

Iam looking for suitable materials for trying a 3 fabric wallhanging. You start with a printed panel, add a fabric for framing and a third fabric to fussy cut and embellish with. But that must wait until I finish my sweatshirt jacket, which I need to work on now, so until next time--happy stitchin'.

Experimenting with landscapes

I have been working with landscape quilting the past few weeks. What fun! I was quite happy when my Art4Mail group decided to do an exchange of 6 inch quilties. I thought this would be an ecellent way to landscape on a managable level.

The theme was a winter scene, so I did a mountain scene with wild horses running throught the snow. I was quite pleased with the results.

Now, I must get back to work on my personal Valentine cards. Happy stitching.

Back Again

Well, I'm finally back!! Since my last post in June, 08, I have dodged hurricanes, survived the heart surgeries of both brothers-in-law on the same day, the making of curtains for my nephew for two re-locations, and a myrid of smaller problems. Thank the Lord I have finally reached a breathing spot and can resume SEWING!!!!!!!!

I am finishing my group swap obligations. Several are complete and serval more are in various stages of completion. NOW my camera seems to have decided to go on strike......so, only things that can be scanned will be shown.

Well, my sister is here, ready for our shopping trip, so I'll see what can be done with my camera while we are out. Then, hopefully, I can return shortly and get back into the swing of things.

Later, Pegsue

Contests and Pinkeepers

Was very excited to learn that my block had won 3rd place in the CQ4N group baggie swap contest. In this swap, each person made up a baggie of fabrics and embellishments. The baggies were swapped out and each one had to make a block using all the things in the baggie. The finished blocks were then voted on.



It was interesting to work with choices made by someone else. Fortunately Amy did a wonderful job of coordinating her colors and provided a generous variety of embellishments. Thanks, Amy, for a great baggie.



I got a second baggie of lovely goodies from Ira in Israel. That block will be posted later, as I was unable to complete it before the time limit ran out.

My second theme was Under the Sea. I used a dark blue lame for the water. I appliqued a cream seashell and worked spider web roses centered with pearls on it.



I used a satin centered organdy ribbon for the background seaweed and overlayed it with feather stitching in floss and silk ribbon. The floss is tipped with seed beads.



Pins are pushed between the layers around the edge. A interesting and fun experience.

My SRH group decided to recycle unwanted CDs into pinkeepers. So we did a swap with two themes.

This is my In the Garden pinkeeper.

I am still working at learning the different SR stitches.About the only thing I do well is a spider web rose. So this gave me a chance to try something new.

I have been using The Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible by Joan Gordon as my training manual. So I decided to use one of her motifs with my own twist.

As yet my supply of ribbon is very meager, so I embroidered the fence, tree branch, stepping stones and birdbath with floss. Since I love irises and purple, I added those instead of more french knot flowers. The spider web (which doesn't show up too well) is silver metallic, and the little black spot is a floss spider. AHHH, but the cardinals do look like birds!!

Eagle charity block

Several ladies in my CQ group decided to submit blocks to be made into a wallhanging for a charity auction. Since the receiving group provides live cam coverage of nesting eagles, the theme of the hanging was easy. As we spoke of it as the Regal Eagle project, I decided to move away from the traditional CQ block.

I have recently discovered landscape quilting and thought that this would be perfect for showing the awesome beauty and gracefulness of the eagle--a very worthy choice for our national bird.

It took fussy cutting from three diferent fabrics to provide the background. The eagle, cut from a fourth fabric, was appliqued and embroidered to make it the focal point. There is a distant eagle to the right (you can just see the wing tip) that is machine embroidered with touches of hand stitching for further accent. Sorry about the cramped photo-my camera is on the fritz and I had to scan the block, which was too large for the scanner bed.

Although it does not show well in the pic, there is hand stitching on the rocks and grasses, with a few beads added for some bling. All in all, I felt pleased with my results. The other blocks I've seen are wonderful. This hanging will be a stunning piece of art.