Thursday, August 30, 2012

WISP Wednesday

Hello there

I am very happy to say that I have made some progress on Block #6 of my tree skirt. 


I have added the greens and the button to the bottom left corner and used the threaded chain stitch that was one of the TAST stitches from a few weeks ago.  I threaded it with a bulky thread and liked the way it came out.  I might try this again sometime.

The button in the left corner is a lovely button made by Jan Trivanovich from Reynoldsburg, OH.  It is a white and gold beaded button.  This was part of the swap we had at Maureen Greeson's Adventure in Crazy Quilting last year.  I thought those greens showed the button off a bit.  I also used some green memory thread in with the greens.


I then added some bells on this block.  I LOVE those little colored bells.  They have a little loop at the top that you sew on and it makes them really jingle nicely.  I love that.  I added some little gold bells in the right corner. 



I am having trouble with the placement of the clackers for the bells in the bottom middle.  I have tried adding bells there but now realize that would not be another bell but something to strike the bell.  I will try beads there instead.  This will probably be the last thing I do on this block for now.

I will now be working on one of the other blocks of the tree skirt.   Thank you for having a look!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Moonflowers

Hello there

Well I was so disappointed earlier in the month that we could not see the Persied Meteor Shower here on the east coast of the US.  We were willing to go in almost any direction to see the show, but almost the entire east coast was clouded in for those few nights.  To make matters worse the next morning I heard a person on the radio describing in great detail how wonderful the meteors were in California.  The reason they were to be so good this year is because the moon was not very full. 

Several years ago we saw the meteor shower for the first time and it was spectacular.  We had rented a house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and were sitting out on the dune deck in the evening enjoying the night sky.  We had my mother and Greg's mother sitting out there with us.  We started noticing a few shooting stars and then more and more and it was like the sky was ablaze.   Greg finally realized what it was and we were all so excited.  We stayed out there for hours watching the show.  It was spectacular.  We have tried for years to see it again but never have come anywhere near that experience.

So it is with great pleasure that at around the same time my moonflowers started to bloom!!  Now they are spectacular!!


I have been getting at least one a night for the past two weeks and now I am getting 4 to 6 a night.  Here is a picture of 3 of them.

This is not a great picture but you can see the three of them.  What you cannot realize is how big they are so here is a picture with a US quarter next to it to give you some perspective of their size.  There is nothing I can do that can give you a sense of their fragrance  - but it is wonderful!!!


None of this has anything to do with the stitching of my tree skirt and I have to say I have not done any stitching on it for a while but I have been busy with other things.

My niece is getting married in Oct. and we went to visit her last weekend to help her with some of her preparations.  She is planning on doing everything herself so she needed a little help.  She has already given me several things to do for the wedding and when I left her I had several more assignments.  So that is what I will be working on for a while.  However I do intend to do some work on my tree skirt.  I really want to have it ready for Christmas this year.  Having just glanced at the calendar, I notice that Christmas is just 4 months from yesterday.  Egads, where did summer go??

I hope to be back on Wednesday to show some progress.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

WISP Wednesday

Hello there

I have made some progress on my #6 block this week.  I spiffed up some of the seams a bit and think they look a little more interesting.  I worked more on the little Elf hat and added Kreinik metallic between the red and green but I am not sure it shows up on the photo.  I also had a little red wool ball that I cut in half and used for the tassle.


Then I added the musical notes under the Fa, la, la.  I just chose some notes.  My friend, Susan Elliott on Plays with Needles would have researched the actual notes from the song.  Since I changed the words around some, I changed the notes as well.  Susan is a cracker jack researcher.

So that is what I did this week.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Little girls and New York

Hello there

Well we are back from New York and all the associated activities.  As I think I said last week my brother from Atlanta stopped by with his wife and granddaughter for the night on his way to NY.  The 67th Annual picnic takes place on Long Island and the picnic was fine but it did rain like the dickens.  We still had a good time.

My cousin, for whom I made the tie quilt, was there and he was looking good.  He suffered a stroke a while ago and this was the first time I saw him.  He looked good and he seemed to like the quilt.

My brother's granddaughter, Breanna and my newest grand-nephew seemed to hit it off pretty well -
They are both cutie's. 

I was lucky enough to have Breanna come home with us for a few days and it was a lot of fun.  On the way we stopped in Staten Island, NY and took the ferry to Manhattan.  She saw the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline, Ellis Island and we walked up to Ground Zero.  She has never been to NY before and it was fun to see her trying to get pictures of everything.  When we got back to Washington, DC (we live right outside of DC) we took her to the Zoo.  What fun looking at it through younger eyes.
Look at the lovely pink of these Flamingoes.  They were beautiful.
Then look how nicely this guy posed for me.

Breanna loved the bracelet I made following directions from Susan who has Plays with Needles.  Susan made something similar and I loved it and made my own. 


Mine is a 5 wrap bracelet, but since Bre is kind of little, she decided on a 2-wrap bracelet and then she made one for her friend.


She did a really nice job on them.  It was fun having her visit and I hope she will come again.

I think I will go and work on my tree skirt so I have something for WISP Wednesday.

Thanks.