more purses

I have become a purse making fool

Red and blue purse inside and out

Pink dragonfly purse outside



and yellow inside

I will be directing an embroidery class/stitch n bitch at gathering fabrics quilt shop in Woodinville the 2nd tuesday of every momth and this is one of the sample purses 

Happy new year!

Happy 2015!

So little time!

So much to do before the winter solstice!

 

I have been working on projects, for a beginner embroidery class,so if anyone in the seattle area that wants to learn a little easy-peasy embroidery come on down (over, up?) to gathering fabrics in Woodinville.

Also finishing up embroidery on other stuff as well as gifts and what not for people.

 

As well as getting my grinchy on.

gardens and flowers et fini!

  my block for the gardens and flowers rr is done!



I finished it while on a trip to India and be for you ooh and ahh, we were there for my DDH's job and not in the garden spot of bangalore but a suburb. More about that at a later date.


My block needed to blend well with the other blocks I got back from the ladies in our group, which were stunning by the way!

So I wanted to do them justice.

I "borrowed" the climbing grapes from Elizabeth

And the cast on flowers from Renée.


Almost everyone had some sort of climbing rose and a spider.

I loved the birdbath in Elizabeth's block set and used that on mine.

Then added bee's around Persephone and beads around the lace at the bottom left.

Now all that's left is to put it together.

heritage rejigger

 wouldn't you know it, I remember to start taking pictures halfway through a project?

 I decided that he way I had this project in one solid piece separated by lace was NOT going to work.
so I pulled it apart and started to fool around with it.

there was too much color in it, to leave it the way it was. to confusing to the eye as there was no place to " rest" and too much to take in at once.

so I auditioned a bunch of colors for the background.

black seemed to work best and as the only black velvet I could find, had some stretch to it, I used a muslin backing on or it would have distorted the moment I hung it on a wall! 

this is my "orts bag"  I had to experiment with the cuts so the first 1/2 yard or so was sacrificed to the sewing gods.

once I got the positioning right, it was easy.

making it square

 though that top middle one kept mis behaving. I kept either, cutting it wrong or sewing the bevel the wrong way in.
I ended up pulling thread on it at least a half dozen times!
 so how many of you use your tile floor to square up a big piece?

I sure comes in handy when I can't do it by ruler alone!

 Taa-Daa!

Isn't it lovely!  Now, there is a place for your eye to rest.  Also each block has it's own showcase and by skewing the blocks, you give it some movement as it's not all static squares on top of squares.

just for giggles here I am trying to get the best picture.

when inspiration takes you, you sew in your nightie too don't you?

last harvest and a walk around

 last harvest of the season was great!

a crap load of tomatoes and tomatillos

a zucchini (huge!) and even some broccoli!

yum, yum, yum!

now for a walk around before it rains again




we have been having a week of really weired weather for around here

blazing sunny while raining

and it's not being made any better by the fact we live under a convergence zone! aside from the unpredictability of it..ie rain, sun, rain, sun, rain..ugh you get the picture.

it has also been blazing sunny out while raining buckets! welcome to washington!




 these are the tomatillos left out
maybe they will ripen
maybe not
they look pretty today!

I like this view of the house

it's from the back of the yard

wind chimes and bouncers

make for a  cheerful front door

  mr. wind decorated for the season







the stones are climbing

faerie pool

 I don't often look at the front yard from this angle

theres a lot of it

My other favorite tree.

she puts out the loveliest pink blossoms in the spring

the view from across the stree

no wonder people have a hard time finding us!



you can barely make out the roof unless you know it's there!

the maple nextdoor is about to go poof! 




the last gasp of dahlias

leaves in the bird bath 

and more bowing up the drive

 looking in

 is different than looking out