Daughter's First Home

I love October with it's cool crisp feel in the air, the autumn colors taking over the trees, flowers, and sky, the smell of apple pie baking in the oven and everything else that comes with autumn.

Also, like everyone else in the Maryland area, we have prepared our home as well as our yard, and we are awaiting the arrival of Sandy.  Hopefully, the weathermen are wrong and it doesn't pan out the way they are predicting.

My daughter like everyone else was very proud when she bought her first home.  It's a very nice townhouse in sunny Florida.  As you can tell it is a very different style from her
brother's home.  First, she doesn't have a huge cherry tree looming in the front yard.  Secondly, she has a garage and no basement. 

Looking at her house in black and white, I see that the garage is darker than her front entrance.  The front door area is probably lighter due to the angel of the sun and its reflection off the right wall.  The white trim is the same shade in all three areas of the house.  The windows of her home are black because the shades are open. The darkness of the grass is the same as the roof.  The car, even though it is blue, is the darkest and the sharpest contrast.  Just like in the photo, I think I will make her car the focus of the picture.   I will use the black and white photo to make the pattern.  I will take a couple of days to study the photograph and to pick the material.  Still being at the bottom of the learning curve, it takes me longer to make decisions.

It will be easier to make a picture quilt of her home, but it will be challenging to make it interesting. The lines are very simple and distinct. The transparency of the glass on her car will offer a challenge. I think that I will use thread to pronounce the highlights and not paint as I did with my son's home.  Again, I plan to continue to venture out of my comfort zone in the making of this quilt.  The only way to grow is to leave the comfort of the known and familiar; and to take risks. 

My love for azaleas grew from my grandparents.  Their yard was filled with them.  This photo was taken at Brighton Dam.

 

The Townhouse is Finished

 

 

Out of curisoity, I bought a twelve pound Hubbard Squash from a nearby farm stand.  What do you do with it?

Drop it on the ground to split it open; the skin is too thick to slice a knife through it.  Then you rub it with cooking oil and roast it.  Tonight we will feast on two different types of squash soup, salad and bread while watching a movie outside by the fire.

 

 

This week I found time in my busy schedule to finish the wallhanging.  I love teaching, but it does require much of my spare time preparing for the next day.  As always I taped the backing to the floor, layered the quilt pieces and basted them together. 

 

 

 

I continued to step outside of the box by not doing my usual stippling stitch on the whole quilt.  On the tree trunk, I did do the stippling stitch for the lack of anything better to do.   I did a square stich on the bricks, circles on the bushes, an oval looking stitch on the leaves plus a circle and straight line-corner stitch on the border.  I choose a darker shade of blue for the binding to softly set off the border.  Looking at it with a critical eye, the tree dominates the piece more than I had intended.

 

Thinking back to my first quilt, Jack, my composition has become more interseting.  With Jack, I only concentrated on the dog and paid little attention to the background.  Also, I did only one quilting stitch throughout the whole wallhanging.  Luckily, Jack has quite a presence of his own, so the wallhanging has some character.

 

 

A pretty sunset at Fenwick Island, Delaware.

 

Border and Stairs

 

 I mentioned I was in the process of making the Christmas Bread as I posted last week.  Well, this is the finished product, and into the freezer it went before it could be eaten.

 

This week I concentrated on the border and stairs. I painted the details and highlights on the steps.  Also, I painted the stair railing on the left hand side of the steps.   I decided to extend the steps into the border to give the home a welcoming feeling.  I hope the steps lead the viewer into the picture.  But the border just wasn't working for me, the picture and the border were blending in together. The wallhanging was tacked to my design board and stayed there for several days while I stared and thought about it.   So.... I tore out the stitching and removed it.  Luckily, I was able to remove the steps without ruining them.

 

I added a very thin white border around the picture.  I folded a 3/4 inch wide strip of material in half and attached it to the edge of the picture (I can't think what it is called when you do that).  Then I reattached the border.  The white material is just enough to to provide a contrast, but it is not overwhelming .

 

 Pictures do not do the Cherry Blossoms justice.  They are a must see in Washington, DC.  We are fortunate to live so close by them.

 

 

 

 

Making a Tree Look Like a Tree

 

It may only be October, but I am in the process in the making the first loaves of Christmas Bread for the season. I travel the first weekend in November to visit my uncle in Florida and I always bring him a loaf of the Christmas Bread. I have continued the Christmas tradition that was brought over to this country by my Grandmother from Czechoslovakia.  I can remember that 12 hour process of making the bread with her.  The time has been shortened with the help of the bread machine. I let the machine do the mixing and some of the kneading, but I do the rest. Next weekend, I will make the Christmas cookies to take to him, another family tradition from the old country.

 

Critically looking at the wallhanging, I didn't like the way the steps just ended at the grass line, so I removed them.  I will worry about them later.  This week I worked very hard to make the tree look like a tree and not a "lollipop" tree.  The leaves took awhile to do.  Three different shades of green were used for the leaves.  I didn't really have a plan, I just did it.  I tried to place the colors to keep your eyes traveling around the tree.  I know some spots, the material was layered a little thicker than it should be, but practice will help solve such problems.  On the door trim and windows, I painted in the details to help give the illusion of depth and form.  Also, highlights were painted on the bushes.  It was a very busy week, not much housework was done. 

 

Here is a picture of the Jefferson Memorial in April surrounded by Cherry Blossoms.

 

Still Painting in Details

 

 

This week I continued to paint details.  I worked on the tree that stands in front of the house.  I started with a grey and black material.  I turned it over and painted the backside using burnt sierra, greens, purple, and another shade of brown to paint the tree trunk and branches.  It took awhile for me to get the hang of painting on the fabric.  It also took time waiting for the paint to dry between layers and colors.  The black of the material came through the material to give it some texture and contrast.

 

Well, I got to thinking (a dangerous thing for me to do) and decided to paint in the bricks on the house.  Just  a crazy thing to do, but I think it will pay off in the finished product.  This  in itself  was enough to kept me busy for the rest of the week.  It does look pretty good if I may say so myself.

 

There is nothing prettier than when the Cherry Blossoms are out around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stepping Out of the Box

 

I choose the pink of the brick as my background material. 

 As usual, I used the lightboard and tracing paper to make my pattern;

 

 

traced the pieces onto  Pellon Fusible Webs & Adhesives, Wonder
under; and selected and numbered the material I was going to use.  

The major difference with this project is that I have decided to use paint to highlights and to add the
small details.

 It will take longer to make this quilt because the painting on the fabric is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone. My biggest concern is; "How will I quilt this?"

Unfortunately, being back at school will add to the time it will take me to finish this project.  Looking at where I am on it, I feel as though I have accomplished quite a bit this week.

In 2001, we went to Nome, Alaska to visit my youngest sister who has made her home up there.  She took us to see the "Train to Nowhere".  It was built during the Gold Rush days and remains there today.  The men who built it didn't think or  know about the marshy tundra during the summer months.  The tracks sank, thus the train for transporting the gold went "Nowhere".  It still stands there today as it did many years ago when it was first built.

Quilting a Townhouse

My next project is not a dog.  I am going to try and do my son's townhouse.  His townhouse will allow me to explore with dark and light shades as well as different but limited colors.  Also, I have less negative space to deal with than I did with the dogs.  If it turns out decently, it will make a nice Christmas present for him.

 

 I converted the picture to black and white to better see the dark and light shades.   This will help me to choose the shades to bet get better contrast in the wallhanging.  Choosing the colors is alot easier than choosing the shades to get that eye-popping contrast and dominance.  The brick is lighter than the tree and bushes in front of  it.  There is shading on the grass and sidewalk from the tree casting a shadow, as well as on the house.  The railing is a thin black line.  I will keep looking and making note of the light and dark shades before I choose my material.  I cropped off the sidewalk in front of the house, I may have to put it back, I'm not sure at this point in time.


Mom took these pictures when we visited the Grand Tetons National Park in the summer of 2011.  When there are stopped cars on the road in the park, we know there is wildlife somewhere.  I stayed with the car in the middle of the road, while she hopped out and enjoyed the sight.