Quilting, Gnomes, Deer

I have been working on the Ocean Circle quilt. You can see the texture, finally, the quilting gives it.

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The tree "christmas card" was made recently, but the gnomes and deer were made way back in ...January ???  Sometimes I get creative right AT christmas time, so I make it for next christmas.  Each family [our kids] got a deer, each grandchild got a gnome, for their own "ornament box". [I hope someday they have a box of ornaments to put on their own trees.]

I stitched the paint samples, after poking the holes with the machine, and a 'paper' needle.  This time I added a 'trunk' to each one, then glued a scrapbook paper to the back to hide the messy parts.  Adding the trunk was a handy way to add a 'hanging' loop too, so they can be hung on the tree.

click to enlarge

I recently got in the mood to make a couple of 'treemen',  a snowman, and a 'tree'.

The stick trees are made with batt I dyed long ago, for a felt substitute. I wrapped each stick, stitched the batt on, then assembled. The first smaller one is a dud, bit time!  BUT I saved it to show the girls that not all creations are a success. The bigger tree is more...rustic, I would say, and could be adorned.  

I did a cropped version, that I couldn't find. The table with holiday decor used to hide the nasty tangle of wires dripping from the TV.  Our 'tree' is behind my chair, and reflects in the TV.

The dark gray days have taken a toll on me. Today the sun shines.

We had a tornado drop down in the adjoining town on Dec. 18, I believe. We and ours are ok, but it made a mess of many houses.  I am happy to say that the community rallied together and started cleaning up with in hours. Many many volunteered themselves, their time, their equipment, motel rooms, food, gifts for all the kids [16 or 18, 6 months to 18 yrs.] and so much more!!

Good Job Port Orchard-ians!

[and no this is not the MID-west, we are the NORTH-west]

Cutting and Sewing

I have finally plunged into the buckets of novelty fabrics. 

Seven piles. Seven grandchildren. 

I cut up as much in 10 inch squares. Then I cut more in 10 inch widths, to be stitched to other ones, to make up the 10 inch square. There will be many 'patchwork' squares for the girls to choose from. 

Stephanie will have to pick for #7, since she is still carrying him. 

The sun Steph painted on her wall, sure does brighten up the cutting table!

I also stitched together a quilt back.  The center is all large scale prints, which I didn't want to cut down to 10". 

[tho they would make fabulous stack n whack blocks] 

The quilt front is the Tropical-Ocean  circle top I started about 5 years ago????

I finished this wallie, Animal House, and since it's going to a granddaughter, I decided to add some shiny stuff. I had saved a bunch of jewelry cast offs of the girls [daughters, this time]  So the raccoons got 'headlight' eyes, sock monkeys got buttons, one dog has his tail pierced...

Imagine the Robin posing on this rock....

Yeah..that.

And the cutting...??  Not nearly done, I can't see the bottom of the bucket yet.

Decisions Out Of Thin AIr

I am always amazed at how an idea can just appear out of thin air.

"Tree Line With Bulrushes" Summer 2016

I had finally decided to "mount" this one on canvas, but not on a stretched canvas, like so many are doing these days.  Not that I don't like that idea, I love it actually, but I wanted to keep this 'softer'.  So I scrounged around looking for the hunk of canvas I am sure I have.  Nope. Not where I thought, but I did come across some dyed-black we had done years ago for a curtain. ('we' being dau. Steph and me)  And in the same drawer were some other fabrics. I pulled them all out and took them to the table.  As I lay out the different fabs, and Dan mulled them over with me, we came up with the orange-lavender combo....and that's when the thin air grew heavy with the idea on how to 'frame' this!  I got it all basted and am stitching it.  More to come.

Ocean Circle 2016 Additions

Have been stitching the Ocean Circle top too.  I had fun adding the stamens {?}

to the hibiscus flowers!  And even though they are more color coordinated to each flower in nature, I stayed with the yellow perle/pearl cotton. One of the threads is from the box of threads my mother game me 40 years ago.  I added a variegated blue thread to the line of 'water' stitches at the edge of the 'beach'.