An apron for Tigger

When I saw the "Tigger" overalls in a thrift store I was sad that they weren't the right size for my favorite Tigger, but then remembered the apron. A couple layers of ruffles,a tie, and some yo yos and ta da a September birthday gift for my niece. 

Reuseable & Recycleable shopping bag

I made this reusable shopping bag  patterned after the brown paper bag and added handles. (next time I'm adding some padding to the handles)  It can even have a brown paper bag for a liner.  Using a paper liner means you don't have to launder the cloth bag as often.  A recent segment on a morning news program discussed the cleanliness issues of using reusable shopping bags, laundering and lining them are a couple of solutions.  We usually have some of these brown paper bags because when we forget our reusable bags we always ask for paper (where available) because I recycle them in the garden (more on that in a minute).  Now they can be reused as liners first and then off to the garden .

Paper bags in the garden:  I put them down as a weed barrier and scatter some mulch on top to hide them.  They decompose nicely after they do their job and we use less mulch this way.  

"Stargazer"

This photo of a Stargazer Lily from the garden was perfect just the way it was.  The only editing I used was cropping it to size.  After printing it on fabric I quilted the surface with 10 different threads. This is my new favorite quilting technique.

"Petunia"

My first quilted photo.  This photo of a petunia from the patio was altered with a photo altering program on the computer, printed on fabric, and free motion quilted.  Thank you Beth Wheeler for the inspiration.  I bought both books after seeing the preview show so there will be more. 

Sailing East

Another little convergence quilt.  Quite different from the first one.  A shout out to Leah Day for free motion quilting inspiration and Ricky Tims, king of convergence. 

Woof Woof #1

The photography is not very good but I hope you can see that the ears and tongue hang free on this paper pieced doggy.  I was trying to make one that looks like Sara (and it does a little). Next, to make one that looks like Bubbles.  finding a black and white fabric for Bubbles' face might be the biggest challenge.  These were fabrics in my stash.  I was anxious to try this new pattern.  The brown is leftover from the back of a quilt and the background was a FQ gifty from my SIL.  I think I'll look at some other options for the tongue while I'm shopping too.  The pattern is by Christine Thresh at http://www.winnowing.com/.  It is called "My Dog Your Dog" or maybe it's "Your Dog My Dog".

I made something for ME

I pulled these shortalls from the rummage sale box and repurposed them as an apron with ruffles and yo yo's. Look for me wearing it at the Highlands Festival in July. Thank you CleverQuilter  for the inspiration.

Owling in Nature's Wonderland

This is my 2nd Convergence Quilt.  I followed Ricky Tims directions on this one.  One square is an owl border fabric and the 2nd square is wonky pieced square with the stars on top and the "trees" on the bottom.

I made this wall quilt as a gift for a friend.  It reminds us of our first outing with the local birding club to see and hear owls.  We had a great time even though we never had even a glimpse of an owl.  We ended the evening at Dairy Queen with sundaes and had a good laugh about Owling. 

One Block Wonder in Blue

I found this fabric on clearance.  I thought the colors were great, but the funky blue roses, yuck!  So taking the advice of one blogging quilter......

There's no such thing as ugly fabric.

If the fabric is still ugly, you haven't cut it in small enough pieces yet.

I wacked this fabric up into little triangles following the One Block Wonder instructions and created my first OBW quilt. 

My first Temari

I have a fascination with all things Asian and love the unique so trying this Japanese craft is perfect.  After a little web searching and book purchasing here is my first Temari.  If you see pulled strings it's because my cat decided it was a great toy, ARG!  (my fault, not the cat's - I know better, she doesn't). 

I took a shortcut and started with a styrofoam ball.  I padded it with strips of quilt batting (don't you love when you can use scraps that you would otherwise throw away), wrapped it with yarn, then thread (a bright yellow that was old and probably never going to get used again) and then started the embroidery using floss and a gold thread (the gold was really hard to work with and not a great idea for a first project, but don't yo love the little bit of glitz it added?)  If they are supposed to be bright and colorful, I think I succeeded. 

Temari てまり (meaning 'hand ball' in Japanese) is a folk craft born in ancient Japan from the desire to amuse and entertain children with an embroidered toy thread ball. The art of temari began as a simple needlework craft, making a mari ball for play. Today the lovely thread-wrapped, Japanese embroidered temari balls are given as tokens of good luck. A stitched temari ball on a stand would be displayed and enjoyed as a striking example of Japanese embroidery. Temari ball craft is unique needlework, an Oriental folk art which is spreading all over the world!
More information and help go here:  http://www.japanesetemari.com/index.html