Yard Sale Finds

I admit I am a yard sale junkie.  I can't wait for the season to begin in March.  My husband hates it, because we set the alarm for 6:30 on Saturdays from now until late October.   If you want the good junk, you have to get an early start.  With addresses and maps in hand, Mom and I hop in the car and we're off on our mission looking mainly for material, embellishments, and items for my sister's juvenile diabetes tea fundraiser.  Her oldest daughter has type 1 diabetes and every year she has a "diabetes tea" as a fundraiser.  We look for new or nearly new items to put in goody bags for the tea and other items she can give as party favors.  This helps her to keep the costs down, so that the money she raises goes directly to the Juvinile Diabetes Foundation and not on expenses.  She is able to get many donations to help her with the tea.  We have found some really nice items to send her in Alaska.  Our stopping time at 10:00 AM, because we have found that the "good stuff " is gone by then.

I haven't found much material this year at yard sales.  Last year, I was able to buy several pieces of suede, and I did luck into a quilter's stash who was down sizing.  Also, I bought beads, buttons and other embellishments.

A strong storm blew through last night with winds clocked at 70 miles an hour in Washington , DC.  The temperature at Reagan Airport was 106 degrees, so I am told.  We are one of the lucky ones who lost power last night and we are still without electricity.  I am posting this tonight, so I don't have to worry about running out  my computer battery.

Last night, we went to DC to see the Marine Corp Evening Parade that occurs every Friday night from about May to October at the Marine Corp Barracks in SE.  It was hot, but fun.

Miss Lucy has Arrived

Lucy took me longer than I had planned to complete, but she is finally finished.  She looks like the little princess she is, sitting on her cushion.  My next projects in the planning are of another dog named Olive (Christmas present) and a memory wallhanging for my sister Colleen.  Colleen traveled to Ireland last summer and finally sent me some pictures about a month ago. 

Next Sunday, we will journey to Vermont for a week.

A classic (postcard) picture from our trip to Boston last weekend.

Miss Lucy, what will I do?

After staring at her face all week, I added more gray to the area under her eyes and I think I am finally happy with the results.


 Now, the big question was, what to do about the border?  The wallhanging of her "brother", has the border color of blue.  Keeping with the brother-sister theme, I was going to put a pink border around her, but pink just didn't work for me.

But I did  like the contrast of the bright dark pink around the edges of the lighther pink.  I decided to cut a one inch strip of the pink, folded it in half, and ...... placed it on the edge.  Now the big question still lingering was the border.

Looking at the color wheel, I still had a hard time deciding, until brown finally hit me.  I tried one shade of brown then another.  Of course, my first choice ended up being my final choice. 

Next, I had to choose the photos of Lucy that would go in each corner.  They were chosen and thrown into PhotShop Elements 9.   I enhanced and squared the photos to get them ready for printing onto the EQ Printables fabric.

Looking at these photos of Lucy, I am happy I added more gray to here face.  Now for a  minor decision is which corner to put each picture.

We are spending the weekend in Boston.  The weather is beautiful and the sights are fantastic for history lovers.
Last year, we visited Yellowstone Park and had the pleasure of seeing many beautiful sights.

Miss Lucy, quite the princess

This week, I took my sewing machine to Tomorrow's Treasures Quilt Shop to have it serviced.  While I was there, I bought some material to make the cushion Lucy was resting on.  I wanted something bright that would contrast with the colors in Lucy and the background. 

 After piecing together the cushion, I hung her on my design board .  She looked like quite the little pampered princess sitting on her cushion.  I  stared at her for the remainder of this week as I finally made my mother's promised tote bag with pockets for Mother's Day.  Lucy's face bothered me.  I just didn't like the sharp contrasts, so I added a little more light gray, readjusted the mouth, and replaced the black speckled material with light gray. 

Her face still doesn't sit right with me, I will have to study it more this week and make further adjustments.

The students' last day was Friday, yeah!  My last day is tomorrow!!!!

Digging through my picture files, I found this picture of the lighthouse in Cape May, New Jersey taken at dusk last December.

Lucy is Pieced Together

I was able to get Lucy's face pieced together this week. It took a while to do, but for the most part it is done. Her face may have a little too much bright white in it for my liking. This week I will have to do some reconsidering of the shading in her face. Her head appears as if it is floating in air, I still need to do the handkerchief that was tied under her neck. Also, I need to do the cushion she was laying on. I am having a difficult time picturing the cushion in my mind. The black shading under her front paws will be switched out to a dark color that will compliment the pillow, as well as the black shading between her back leg.

I had Amanda, her owner and my daughter-in-law, take a good look at her and we readjusted the color under her eyes. The original shades I had chosen were a little too dark.

This week I plan take my machine in for its yearly cleaning at a quilt shop in Crofton, MD called Tomorrow's Treasures Quilt Shop. While at the quilt shop, I hope to buy material for the cushion. I am not real sure what I want, but I will know, when I see it.

One week of school left with the kids! Yeah!

I think the teachers get more excited than the students.

I had to share this beautiful picture of a peonie in my mother's garden.  The rich colors in the sunlight were very pretty.

Lucy is Merging

Happy Memorial Day!  This is a day I reflect on the present and past family members who serve/served our country.  This is their day!

Sorry for the late posting.  I went out of town this weekend and thought I would get the post up Sunday, but obviously that didn’t happen. We went with friends and family to Lake Anna.  I had fun boating, swimming and reading the Hunger Games.  It is a very easy reading book, but hard to put down.  I spent most of Sunday reading it.

Even with all the paperwork I needed to get done at night, time was found to work on Lucy this week. 

After I made the pattern, I prepared the background material by tracing the outline of Lucy onto it.  I like to use  Saral tracing paper because it comes in different shades and it is easy to erase.  First, I tape the traced outline onto the material.  Then I slip the Saral tracing paper under it and trace away.  This time I got a little zealous and traced not only the outline of Lucy but most of the shapes in the pattern. 

I find tracing the outline helps with the placement of the shapes.

I worked on her body first because it contained larger shapes and it was less complicated than her head.  When fusing the material to the fuisble web, I wear good tennis shoes because I spend many hours standing at the ironing board.   Also, I only lightly iron the pieces down to the background material until it is completely done.  There are many times that I do not like the way the colors in the body are flowing and I may have replace a color choice.  Many times I have the TV  on as a distraction and I just work away until I call it quits for the night.  This week  I plan to complete the rest of her.  Only two weeks of school left, but who is counting?

Molly and Maggie

Very little work was done on Lucy this past week.  So, I would like to share the wallhanging I made last fall of my mother's dogs, Molly and Maggie.  Finding different shades of black was  very difficult.  The stores I visited did not carry many black on black or dark gray on black.  They carried black but with colorful prints on them.  Mom wanted a simple portrait of her dogs sitting on her back porch.

For the portrait, I ended up using a picture of Molly sitting on the couch,

and Maggie on the porch.

Hopefully, this week, I will get some work done on Lucy.  I am in the last weeks of teaching before the summer break and there is a lot of paper work that needs to be completed at night.  I also decided to change the tab at the top of the page to a more suitable name,  Dog Portraits Quilt Gallery.  Someday, I hope to do some art quilts, maybe this summer.