Moon Flower and Quilty Stuff

The picture is a flower called the Moon Flower. Supposedly only blooms at night. I have a friend in Nebraska that has this growing in her garden .They are quite spectacular. So I have some cuttings rooting; a pink and a yellow. They grow like weeds here, but I plan to use them to cover one of the walls….

Today I finally got my design wall done. It’s not what I am used to, but it will do for now. Finding the things I would have like to have used to make this, reminds me of how lucky we are in the United States. For instance-- the wood. I had a choice of 2” x 2”, or moldings 3/4” x 2 1/2”, 2” half round or a 4” molding for a door frame and lathe, oh and lets not forget MDF… . What I really wanted was plain 1” x 1”… inexpensive and sturdy. I really didn’t care if it was straight or had knots in it… I was covering it up. The Design wall is 6’ x 6’, a bit smaller than I am used to ….

Funny, while I was looking for the wood, I found some 4’ x 8’ sheets of Styrofoam…. too bad, I already bought and covered most of the 2 x 3 Styrofoam boards I had already bought. Oh well…. this will do and it is better than nothing!


So now let me tell you about the items hanging on the wall.


I belong to a group of quilters and artists called the Sparkly Chickens- and we swap. This time we are doing a ‘Receiver’s Choice’ swap. Each member has chosen a theme, and the rest make a block to fit the theme. Some of us have rules and others a simple color guideline. My theme is Paisley, and it can’t just be fabric, but the makers interpretation of a Paisley. It takes forever to get mail here, and the first block was in transit for a month; 2 weeks from Canada to the US, and then 2 weeks from DC to South Africa! So it finally arrived last week. The maker, AnneMarie, blogged about it on her blog,  Artful Dreamer. It is stunning.












The other block is also from a Sparkly Chicken. Candy, does not have a blog, so I will have to tell you a bit about it. Its raw edge applique, and Candy let the fabrics and colors play for design. There are flowers, hearts and swirls. Truly inspired. Candy didn’t like that I have to wait so long to get mail, so she mailed it as soon as she got it done and it came a day or so after Annemaries. Candy also sent along books. Great looking novels that will keep me occupied, when there is nothing on TV, which is quite frequent here.










The other item on the wall is a Fat Quarter. I am in an International Swap. My
request this year was batiks. This one came in the mail also this last week from Australia, Thanks Suzie. It was a great week for mail.














One last piece of fabric, I had to get more flannel. This fabric store has lots of upholstery fabrics too. I saw this a couple of weeks ago and liked it… Today I saw it was almost all gone, so I picked up a meter and a half. It is silk, a loose weave of different weights of threads. I am not sure what I will do with it. … maybe a little jacket or a tote… I’m thinking a jacket… maybe someday it will be cool enough to wear pants and a long sleeves here. 

I’m a bit early for Design wall Monday, and I won’t be getting the UFO for February done either…. but now I can start on it, because I can put the blocks up and see the design and how the fabrics will play.