Recently

It is hard to believe it has only been 2 weeks, (ok more like 3 weeks), since I last posted something here… It feels like so much longer… So what have I been doing…. some of this and some of that! Here is a bit of that!

One of the fun parts of belonging to a Quilt Guild or Group are the field trips you get to take with other like mind people. 

Sometimes they are quilt shows, or shop hops or Retreats. Last week and continuing on for several months… going forward we have some field trips planned. A group of us carpooled to a small quilting exhibit in Herndon VA to view the exhibit last week.

The exhibit was called “Something Blue” and was a very fun exhibit. Lots of fabulous quilts, color and humor. I did not take a real camera… the thought flittered through my mind and then I promptly forgot a camera, so the few pictures that I took, I used the iPhone. I would have loved to take more pictures but while the phones have improved their cameras it is not enough for me! So, please don’t judge the photography skills. I also did not capture the makers… very well.

I liked this one for the background quilting…. all those fun little motifs scattered about…

What a great idea for using up some of those large floral prints, that we buy because we like the print, not necessarily because we have a use for them! I think one like this is on my radar…. Collage? I have done one that is very similar… but it was a bouquet…. not just all flowers in a color wheel!!! I think I will have to post a picture of that one… someday.

This one also for the quilting (and for Laetitia) because this is her preferred piecing method! I think the quilting will speak to her as well!

This one is a bit blurry and in this case the photo is about the improvisational piecing.

and one more, for the quilting. The blueish fabric is a sateen, so when you are looking at it… the quilting really shows the dimension. The thread was a fine one that closely matched the fabric.

Next month we will be going to the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg VA! I will remember to take a camera!

More Later- Beth 

Gifts!

In December I received a couple of gift items in the mail from a fellow blogger. They were a total surprise and very generous too! I loved all of them. So to thank her for her generous gifts (an awesome seam ripper, a Kindness Matters banner and a Smile Seed from Seeds of Happiness), I sent her this postcard. All the gifts have been dispersed around the house …

It is Dupioni Silk background embellished with embroidery, fancy machine stitches (metallic and variegated thread), beads and sequins and couched rattail cording. These were so much fun to make.

Then in January, anther blogger friend, Wanda, (blogs here) did a post about using up some of her batik scraps. I marveled at it, and she sent me an envelope of her scraps of batik. So to thank her I made this postcard with some of my scraps and hers too.

I used the full assortment of scraps in another project, but I can’t share that yet. I joined an online “Yahoo” Challenge Group … and the first theme is ‘New, New, New’. NEW technique, NEW tool, NEW toy, anything NEW to you! Wanda's envelope arrived just in time! Reveal date is February 28… so we’ll all have to wait.

In the mean time I have started another NEW for me… but more about that later. It involves fabric and thread and so much more!!!

On Wednesday last week, (1/28) a late birthday gift arrived. So I spent the weekend putting it together. I found the frame… (a little large, but I wanted a white frame, so it was this or one too small). Originally I was going to put the vinyl on the wall in the stairwell, but since we are planning to paint in the next year or so… I decided to put it in a frame, so I could take it with me! I think I will ask (my sister) for a couple of flourishes to help dress it up a little more… but I can add those any time.

I still plan to hang this in the stairwell, on the way up to the sewing space!!! I had to crop the picture closely, because the sewing space closely resembles the meaning this week!

More Later!!!   Beth