the penny rug

 THere I have finally done it!


I've been promising myself a penny rug for the lOngest of times and now I am almost done







I found this kit at one our more brilliant quilt stores in Issiquah
called Gossypium

she has such lovely felts along with a few  balls of Finca


but I couldn't resist this one

 Its so happy and colorful

with its cheerful blooms and







                 of course






crazy quilting!

each bloom has its own different fabric and its own stitches down all its sides






I made a few modifications here and there




 and it ended up a trifle lopsided in the middle but over all I am well pleased with it

it was a fun, relatively, quick piece to do and didn't take too much brain power










which is a good thing as my poor little brain, hasn't been up to the task of late

this is my favourite panel, there is something inherently cheerful about daisies don't you think?

and when your in a funk, daisies are just the ticket!

playing catch up April CQJP

 I'll start with the spider to get her out of the way as I know sOme of you don't like them.

                                  I however love them

at a distance.



This one I've made with a flat glass bead a random crystal from the odds bin and some flat braid Krenik










The little Birdie was made on felt with 12" twist for the chest and belly, 3 strands of variegated floss for the rest and another random bead from the bin





I've been learning to fold ribbon so you all will be seeing it a lot more from now on.

Its a good skill to learn and helps frame a centerpiece or fill in odd corners


  I love how the flowers turned out here I used a reverse Japanese stitch, where as you would normally poke into the fabric from the front to make petals or leaves

This one pokes in from behind and then folds over a needle or stiletto and then goes into the fabric, sort of like bending over backwards.

It gives the petals a nice little pouf

Here is a happy fimo bee I saved from something Years ago, I so happy to finally have found him a home.
 The cats destroyed yet another toy now there are plum colored feathers all over the house

I wove one into the butterflies framing the center picture.
You'd be amazed what you can find on a CQ piece!



        and here she is all together

The white flowers are yet more refugees from the random bin.

All in all I expected to have more angst and trouble getting back on the horse but this block went together pretty fast

what i did on my summer vacation and beyond

This is going to be a long post so fair warning.

i havent been sewing much but I have been busy.

 I now have pictures to go with the synopsis of last month.

I "fixed" the march block, I wasn't pleased with the big blank spot in the green on the bottom. I thought (at the time) it looked too bright so I added, what turned out to be a very fat hedgehog.                          Now, I'm not terribly pleased with the result but have it on good authority (Helen Thorkleson, I'm throwing you under the bus here) that he's adorable.                 Note to self #542.67 sew critters on a separate piece of felt then sew down.          I also added some greenish lace to extend the color upwards as it needed to travel a little. it doesn't look like it's stuck in that spot anymore and lets your eye travel into the block more.

 Here Is my lovely Dear daughter #2 with my mother both look rather pleased with themselves.
and no wonder Mara graduated with honors (one of them Presidential!)
and mom behaved herself even though  she had to endure an entire roman catholic church ceremony for the graduation sans commentary.

we are not religious and neither is my x husband but for whatever reason he felt it necessary to send DD#2 to a catholic all girls HS. I have pointed out a better use of that money would have been college but what are you going to do?
here we are at mom's house out front
before making the trip back to Seattle

my new "helpers" this is Violet. we decided to name her this, after the theory of black body radiation only being seen in the ultra-violet. As she is completely black this seemed appropriate

And here is Molly, her momma. Nothing special with he name its the one she came home with and she seems to like it just fine

old window

new window

 have I mentioned just how much I love my new windows?




 It's so lovely to be able to see clearly what is outside and not just a smeary blur




  also had to get busy with the garden as I missed most of my usual planting window in may.





 then there was buying a rental property  and getting that ready  for inhabitants




I also had another Witchy-Poo hat up my sleeve





 I still need to put it together but the hard part is done



the brim





 and the top



and since I was doing another hat





I could make a few more casket tops too




I still have to put those together too


 but I'm on it!

 sort of




christmas is right around the corner................

So! That happened.......

So hello out there, it's been a while.
It's been busy here at casa Bernstein

We got new windows last week (yay!)
I can't tell you, how wonderful it is, to be able to see out the front window again!
Not to mention all the others and the sliding doors that actually slide!
It makes me giddy just to open and shut them for the cat.

Then there was the trip to Chicago to see my youngest graduate high school, with high honors from the president, no less!

We then proceeded to pack up all her worldly possessions and drive her cross country, back to Seattle. Where she will take a simester off and start college next fall.

But before all that, I had what was supposed to be minor surgery in - out no problems, back on your feet in no time, mmmmmm, not so much.

Good news, I discovered I'm allergic to morphine/oxycodone etc.
Bad news, I learned this after surgery. So needless to say recovery took longer than expected.

So in all of that I didn't sew much.

CQJP 2016 march

So here is the march faerie
    cheeky girl is giving me guff about the     empty spot under her branch

I may have to fix that

Also that green ribbon run in the lower right with some more beads

No wonder the spider is running away

 these flowers are acrylic

 I love how this seam treatment turned out

 this one not so much

 and the hootie owl is unsure

I rather like this run too

2015 CQJP

I haven't finished it entirely

it still needs backing, batting and borders

but it is all together in one place at least

I have it hanging off the font curtain so I can look at it better.

my original plan was to have all 12 blocks together but that was too messy looking

so out came the seam ripper, again

I like the asymmetrical look of this configuration better

I gives your eye a place to rest as well as highlighting blocks.  what do you think? 

February CQJP is done

 this month felt like a gimmie
 not that i didn't enjoy it just that it seemed to simple

but in the end i just couldn't think of anything else to put on it so there it is

easy

or not
I can never tell usually these things tell me they are done ( and yes, I talk to my plants too) but this one didn't

or wouldn't

not as cheeky as the peach blossom faerie but still you get the picture

                                           or not

CQJP 2016 first block

 Today a mini tut on lighting in photography

I am not a professional and I don't claim to know anything

these are just my observations today

here we have January's Block under flash

notice the rich saturation of reds and the clear definition of almost everything

but the picture is a bit flat and lifeless

Here we have the block under the rooms lamplight

notice its a bit yellow

still well defined and you can see shadows from the raised aspects of the block

but its yellow








Here we have the block under natural light from the window flat on its back to gather as much as we can

so its bleached out by light now

but the objects on it are well defined

lets see what other trouble we can get into shall we?







here I've (mostly) taken the best of the lot

the block at an angle from the natural light from the window,

in this case it's from the right

so now we can see it in, not only full definition but full of those shadows that give it a little life

even though the colour saturation still leaves a bit to be desired

and then there are the closeups
here is some ribbon folding and a nice lampwork ladybug, you can make those store bought leaves a little jazzier by adding fly stitch stems

 I use the same method Gerry Kruger uses to make her birds and etc. to make mine

though I didn't go for an authentic bird I went with the threads that would match my block

 these fans filled the space nicely

I've been looking for a spot for this fellow for a while

over threaded chevron stitch with fly stitch ivy and beads


ok folks, shows over  ;)