It's Meeeeee!

It's meee!

This lovely little watercolor portrait was sent to me by Observer of Human Nature from over on instagram, go give her a lookie-loo, her water color paintings are amazing and detailed and I am so grateful!                                                                                                   This came before Christmas and at the time I was not able to give it the full attention it deserved,                                                                                                      so I put it aside                                                                                                                                               Aaand promptly forgot about it in the press of seasonal things and doings                                          (I feel so ashamed!)                                                                                                                                           But as soon as things calmed down a bit I found it in my sketchbook and OMG! It's a little masterwork!     

It's so pretty! And ORANGE!!!!! Squee!                 I added a peach and cream ribbon rose,                                                                                                      I may add more!                                                                                           

Feeling my scraps

 I will argue here that Crazy quilts are the ultimate in scrap quilts

I might even go further and argue, Crazy quilts are the ultimate in crumb quilting

No fabric matches in any square 

is also harvested from old thrifted clothing

and is no larger than 2"-4" wide and 2"-6" long

Embroidery on a seam is no longer than half the size of the square.

In my case, I'm most comfortable with 10" squares so no seam is longer than 3" to 6"

Buttons are used with abandon, in blobs, sprays and scatters

As are beads and sequins

Embellishments are usually made from lace motifs 

Jewelry parts that are broken or have lost a mate

Every square uses no more than 3" of lace

The same for Gimp, Ribbon ends, braid and soutache

Lots of silk ribbon embroidery

Not that I'm biased 

I'll make a scrap Quilt out of anything

Applique

English paper piecing

Stuffed animals

Costumes

Quilts  

Even decorating my home with them

When life gives you scraps

Decorate

After a certain point Scrapping becomes a way of life

 relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design or as is the usual all of them at once

Wichi-poo doll

 I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before

a bit thick I guess.


Isn't she sassy?

Her slippers are bats (of course)

her skirt and hat are both CQed

shes got an under skirt and her body is made from green dot cotton and barber pole stripes


So much fun this was!

I made up the pattern for her skirt and hat

as there really wasn't one in the Tilda pattern book I was using

and now I can't remember which one I used but I think it was the christmas one from last year.


 The one side I used a small lace motif and beaded it on and gave it a little fringe and some extra flowers




The other side has ribbon roses and a ghost bead though in the picture you can't quite see it

I had a hard time not getting blurry pics for this so excuse if they aren't up to snuff

there are skull beads all over the place and fringe and lace and ribbon and did I tell you how much fun I was having here?







I tried to keep it down to two colors besides the black silks and velvet's I used for the skirt









 Do you know how hard that is?

especially when the purples and browns were yelling at me from their boxes!






but I managed it, whew!

there is a lovely green spiderweb and a sparkly spider

a dangling skeleton

the ribbon roses all have a skull in their middles as a surprise guest!

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................

Grow your blog party!

welcome to all those who enter here!

I am going to cheat a little
since i have in the past given little home mini tours I am going to give links to those previous tours here and here and here.

I know I'm supposed to give you all a little blah, blah about who I am and what I do, but those probably do it best.

as for what I am working on now well that's anyones guess! I have a boat-load of UFO's to catchup on, new projects, monthly doings i haven't even started on, a class to teach and 1/2 finished projects, that I'm feeling quite snowed under!

what was I thinking????


  anywhoo, welcome to

Uncle Monk's coat of arms

bird embroidered pin cushion

where I embroider,

Heritage CQ

  crazy quilt,

applique

 Appliqué,

Pineapple quilt

                                         sane quilt,

Oceans lady whole cloth quilt

 out of Whole cloth

Bead journal project

garden and bead myself into a fine frappachino

Skellie

much of this is just what comes to me at the time,






 some is sent on the wings of inspiration

Appleblossome Faerie

Violet faerie

  Some I find I've wanted to do for years

Therisa's grandma's grand green bug

and just thought now is the time to start



Still others are just appropriate to the spot

BJP   2013

   some projects come in a series

BJP 2013

BJP 2013

and some are all alone




but all are me in some way!