Happy Birthday, Colleen

The best place to be on a hot day is in my basement working on a quilt.

After arranging and rearranging the photo drafts printed on paper, I finally found a layout I liked.  I have also decided to add some Celtic embroidery designs.

I was taught to tape the backing material on the kitchen floor; it gets an extra good cleaning that day.  The tape helps to keep the  backing from shifting while basting.

Next, I added the batting.  Then the top and basted all three layers together.

Colleen didn't request it, but I decided to include pictures of our Great Great Grandparents who immigrated from Ireland.   I hung it on my design board for a couple of days while I pondered how I would embellish it.

Today is Colleen's birthday and it is finished just in time.  The lace I added on the upper left hand area was hand made probably by our Grandmother or Great Grandmother.  My mother remembers it on a curtain that hung in her house.  The cross was made in Ireland, a souvenior Colleen brought home from her trip.

Here is a picture from the Badlands.  I can't even begin to imagine what the pioneers thought when they tried to cross this area in a covered wagon.

Colleen's Ireland

Last year, Colleen and her husband traveled to Ireland.  She finally sent me the pictures she wanted on her wall hanging. 

This picture is very pretty, but when it will be printed on fabric the cliffs and foreground colors will darken and the sky will look white.

I added more color to the sky and then lightened the overall picture to get it ready for printing on the fabric.

I darkened the water just a touch, so I could lighten the overall picture for printing.

As you can see in this picture, it was stamped with a date and the colors looked faded.

I used the self healing and clone tool in Photoshop to remove the date and I saturated the color to make it look brighter.

As you can see she wants several pictures on her wall hanging, I will look at scrapbook designs to help give me some ideas for a layout of the photos. 

Here are two scrapbook links:

scrapbook.com

scrapbooks etc.

Here is a picture of a horse I took in Wyoming.

Age is Just a Number

Turning a milestone, such as 50, is unavoidable.  Everyone handles it differently.  To commemorate my sister achieving that milestone, I wanted to create a special keepsake for her.  I searched through my mother's box of family photos and found three pictures that reflected her personality at different times in her life.  My mother is always quoting the phrase, "Age is just a number.  It's attitude that counts."  The combination of pictures and quote were perfect for her wallhanging.

Remember to sharpen your photo, because you will loose details when printing on fabric.  Also don't forget to lighten the photo because usually it will print darker on material.

Here is a pretty view from Vermont.

Painting with an Artist

What is the best way to beat the heat?  Quilt, quilt, quilt.  Our outside thermometer reached 108.1 yesterday.

We were lucky to receive an invitation to spend last week in VT, especially since we were without electricity for the week from the serve storms that hit Friday night, June 27th.  Needless to say, I didn't get any quilting done last week.


The weather in Vermont was glorious and we enjoyed our time visiting with my cousin at Smuggler's Notch Resort.  The resort offered watercolor painting classes with a local artist, Karen Winslow . Even though, I have not touched a paint brush since I don't know when, I signed up for two classes on landscape painting and I am happy I did.  The tips I learned from her were invaluable and I will certainly incorporate them into my quilting.


1.  Look at the world through color evaluators, green plastic strip for outdoors and red plastic strips for indoors.  You can also take pictures and convert them to gray scale. 

2. Frame your subject with a framing card or use your fingers to form the frame.  I used my camera view finder as my framer.

3.  Hold your hand out, palm side up.  Now hold your hand vertical to the floor.  Which hand appears lighter?  When you hold your hand palm up it reflects more light, so do objects that are flat as opposed to vertical.


4.  To make objects appear in the distance use cool colors.  Use violet for mountains in the distance.  To make objects appear closer, use warm colors.


5. When illustrating a landscape reflect the colors of the sky on the ground.  At sunset, make sure to put even the pink on the ground.

6. At sunset, what is closest to you is the darkest.


As you can see, I am no painter, but I tried to incorporate, some of her teachings into my painting sketch during the lesson.  We sat in a field at sunset and I tried to capture what a saw.

Here is a picture of a landscape that I took in Stowe, Vermont at the Von Trapp Family Lodge that we visited.  I plan to try to use what I learned from Karen in my painting class in making a wallhanging of this picture.

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.