Sunday, December 29, 2013

Happy New Year! (A Few Days Early)

 What a whirlwind the last couple of months have been.  Europe was fantastic!  We planned our trip through AAA.  We had a fantastic agent who helped us to plan our hotels, railway schedule, and our side trips.  And, oh, Lufthansa is the only way to fly overseas: good food, free drinks all night, and snacks.
 
The wedding dress took much longer than expected to complete.  I ended up sewing 1,000 beads on it.  You couldn't really see the beads, but when the light hit the dress just right, it sparkled.  It looked magical during the ceremony.
 


 
 
I am very excited to finally have the time to get back to my new first love, quilting.  And...... I have been asked to make another wedding dress for a very dear friend.  Of course, I couldn't say no.  I am staying home this summer so there should be lots of time to do both.
 
The minute I saw this photo, I knew it had potential as a wallhanging.  My new son-in-law took this photo last spring.  It would provide me with new challenges of dealilng with skin tone and water.
 
 
I uploaded the photo into Photoshop and applied the posteredge filter to it.  This helped to make the highlights and shadows more pronounced.  I put the tracing paper over it and made my pattern.
 

I liked the flowered material for the sand near the water, but the pattern was too "strong" for a lack of a better word.


Then it dawned on me to turn the material over to soften the print.  I have the sand and water ready for the legs and hats.


Here is a composite picture I put together of our trip.  In the center, is mom, from our first trip to Prague.

 

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Charlotte's Blanket

 
This is my last post until the fall.  I am taking a hiatus from quilting this summer.  I have a trip to Europe planned, a wedding dress to make and a christening gown to sew.  I am already having withdrawals at the thought of not quilting, but I have got to get it all done before school begins again in August. 
 
 
 
Having a new and first  grandbaby in the family, this grandmother had to make a baby quilt.  Since, it is not reccommended to cover a baby with a blanket anymore, I made a square quilt to be thrown on the floor to lay the baby on.  Most of the quilt was made by machine with exception of the dresidan plate.  I hand appliqued it onto the yellow block.  I used a walking foot to do the quilting of the pieced blocks.


As you can see, I like bright colors.  I doubled the batting to make it soft.
 
 
 The theme of the nursery is elephants.  I drew a simple elephant pattern and traced it around the borders.  I free-motioned stitched around the elephants.
 

I chose a purple binding.
 

 
 
Have a safe and fun summer!
 

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Cathy's Birthday Tribute

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  We are spending the day with friends and family, just relaxing, eating, and enjoying each others company.  It is rather chilly outside, but it is better than a super hot, humid day.
 

Cathy is a good friend of the family and her upcoming thirtieth birthday deserved special recogonition.  Facebook is a great place to find out about a person's life and to download pictures.  The kids now know that facebook pictures are fair game.


The planting of a vineyard combines high-tech and good old sweat to get the job done.

 

Sunday, May 19, 2013

From Darkness Comes Beauty

 
 
 
We are still anxiously waiting for baby girl to make her presence in this world.  My poor daughter-in-law looks absolutely miserable, so swollen.  I think I only have 131/2 days left of school, not that I am counting the days.
 
 
 
For this project, I took the time to plan out the stitching for the background.  I wanted the background to be as much a part of the overall piece and not just a second thought.


Again, everything just seemed to fall into place.  The stitching seems to be complimenting the flower.


Here is another close up.
 


Another view

Here is the pattern I did on the border.
Here is the finished product. I have titled it, "From Darkness Comes Beauty".  It turned out much better than I expected.
 
 


Here are some more pictures of our trip to the Rockies.
 
 
 

This is a view of Grand Lake on the west side of the Rockies.
 


 
Another view of the Rockies, from the west side.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

It is Coming all Together

 
Happy Mother's Day!  We just finished having a fabulous brunch with friends and family.  It was a pleasure to prepare and serve the food this morning.  I find staying at home is much nicer than the hustle and bustle of going out to eat.
 

I decided to go with a black border to set off the gold trim.
 

In order to make the petals a little more pronounced, I took a black fabric marker and outlined them.


I know there are other ways other than basting with thread and needle to hold the three layers together, but I find this the easiest.


I decided to keep the stitching on the petals  simple; I outlined them.
 

Next, I stitched the stem and bulb.  Again, I kept the stitching on them to a minimal.  On the background, I have decided to treat each square as a separate piece with its own stitch free motion stitch pattern.


 A I mentioned last week, I really enjoyed our visit to the Rockies.


Not only was the wildlife, spectacular, so were the flowers.
 



Sunday, May 5, 2013

It's a Flower

 
My brother was redeployed, again.  Everytime, I hear of news from overseas my heart drops.  Luckily, he is only there for six months, this go around.
 
 
The flower is emerging.  This project is coming together a little too easy.


Now the flower looks balanced.
 
 
 The pistens, the bulb and the bud just make it all come together.
 

The material for the bulb had gold in it.  I orignially wanted a gold metallic ribbon trim.  Luckily, I found this open weave gold trim that compliments the flower, yet it is a good contrast to the background.



One of my favorite places was the Rockies at Estes Park in Colorado.
 
The views were breathtaking.
 
 


The wildlife was everywhere to behold.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Looking at the Front and Back

I am counting the days down until the end of the school year, 32 days left to go and then I can relax and sew, sew, sew!
 

I am learning to look at the back of the material as well as the front of the material.  I think I will use the back of the material for the main part of the stem and the right side of the material for the shading.


I am trying to decide what to use for the petals.
 
 
I am audtioning different shades of red for the petals.
 
 
I have finally narrowed it down to three different fabrics.
 
 
I think there is good contrast between the stem and the background. 
 
 
I think I am off to a good start.
 
 
This is another reason I love traveling west by car.
 
 
We were heading north to Denver on a trip and decided to go through Colorado Springs and stopped by the Garden of the Gods.
 
 
The rock formations are awesome!
 
 

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Bringing an Amaryllis to Life


 The bundle was delivered safe and sound from Chadick and Rosen just as promised.  Now the hunt is on for the trim.    We did some searching in NYC, but we were not sure what we were looking for. There are plenty of places in Baltimore and Washington to look for it.  We will know what we want when we see it.
 
 
I have always wanted to grow an amaryllis during the winter, so this year I finally did it.  The payoff was this beautiful plant.  Not one bloom, but two.


I decided to turn the photo from color to black and white to a pencil sketch.  It made it very easy to make the pattern.
 


I wanted to treat the amaryllis as a "still life".   I didn't want a plain simple background, so I decided to use different materials and piece it together.   As I pieced it together, I kept placing the pattern of the flower over the background to visualize how the flower would look on the background.  The dark color with the  flower is velvet to add a different texture. 

When we were in North Dakota on one of our trips, we stopped in Mitchell to see the Corn Palace.


The pictures are made with corn husks.
 

It is really something to see.  It reminded me of piecing a quilt.