It is officially finished

I sewed the last stitch on mom's quilt on Sunday of this week . That sure felt good , even have the label sewn on , how great is that !

You will be sick of seeing this lol .

 I also just finished another curved piecing art piece , this one is one of my favorite flowers , a poppy . Well in this case three poppies and a dragonfly. 

I just seem to want to do art work lately rather than quilting . 

Oh I also spent an entire afternoon decorating a tea towel, how silly is that . It took me more time than it was worth for sure,  but it is cute .  So for OPAM this month I had three finishes , the quilt, the framed art and a tea towel ☺

 We had company last week so most of my time was spent enjoying Alyssa as we strolled the beaches of our area.  It was so lovely to have her and I will share some pictures another time . 

 Well I thought I should make an appearance before the month was up, thanks for taking the time to stop by , I sure enjoyed your visit .

 Hugs Sheila 

Opam for May

Can you seriously believe that May is over,  holy smokes , how did that happen . I actually had a busy month and had a few finishes plus I finished another landscape just a couple of days ago . I seem to be into landscapes this month , this is my fourth .

This is a hand applique piece , so relaxing to sit and stitch in the evening , I hadn't done any like this in a very long time . My supplies of Hand-Dyed fabrics are way down now , so need to replenish soon . I did try my hand at some fabric dying this week . I gathered some lichen from trees and boiled those down then added my fabric to the strained water . I had first prepared my fabric a few days before that with alum . Now here is the interesting part,  just for fun when I put my fabric in the pot I threw in two small pieces that had not been treated in the alum , well the results were very surprising,  take a look .

This isn't the best picture as it was at night so the fabric on the right is a little darker than it appears here BUT the fabric on the left is the untreated fabric.  I had washed both at this point and the colour stayed the same . I was happy with my first try 😊   My second attempt was not so successful , I had also gathered a little green moss which didn't produce any colour at all 😥 

 So back to Opam,  I had a total of 8 finishes this month,  four landscapes , my Eh Canada runner plus the Westering Women BOM Quilt.  Oops forgot my curved pieced dragonfly art piece and a postcard I gave my Mom for Mothers Day . I made this in a hurry , she was so disappointed I didn't make one for her birthday I felt I better get busy and make one for her for Mothers Day , I think she was also happy for the hand delivery .

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 Oh I have to show you our little feathered visitors , I am thrilled we have a pheasant couple who frequent our feeders although his early arrival in the morning is not great,  I hear him make that curdling sound around 5am each day .

The males were fighting over possession of this lovely female.  The male on the right was injured and is now walking with a limp , sure hope he heals quickly . He is keeping his distance now . Aren't they gorgeous .

 I best get going , lots to do today and our granddaughter is coming into town with her school so we are meeting up with her for a brief visit too .

 Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a fabulous day .

 hugs Sheila 

Thistle Quilt Guild show

Just a quick post this morning to tell you the Thistle Quilt Guild is having their annual quilt show this Saturday , all the info is on this poster , sure hope you can attend , we'd love to have you !

I promise you won't be disappointed , we put on a great show .
 Hugs Sheila

Westering women and landscapes

Good foggy morning to you , it has been damp and chilly here the past couple of days,  typical spring weather .
 This Saturday is the Thistle Quilt Guild quilt show so I have been super busy getting things prepared.  My BOM , a combination of Westering Women by Barbara Brackman and some blocks from Quilters Cache is finished , yes I could add more quilting but for now it is completely bound with label in place . This has been a project since last fall and my first time doing a QAYG handquilted project . I enjoyed every stitch on those blocks each month , the stitching of the rows together , not so much , but it's all a learning experience and I would do it again as I feel quite good about the fact I finished a queen size quilt in record time for me and I think i could work smarter the next time .

On Sunday I attended a party for two sisters , one was having a significant birthday,  the other just moved in her new home so I made each of them a landscape to remember the occasion .

I took the risk of ruining this piece when I chose to FM stitch the tree , I had never done leaves before . 

On this one I did some embroidery in the foreground . I enjoyed creating these and hope the girls will enjoy them . My supply of Hand-Dyed fabrics is really dwindling,  time to learn how to do this myself !  Any tips from anyone who has done this ? 

I am quite excited as on Saturday along with the quilt show is have tickets to Riverdance an amazing show of Irish dancing . When I visited Ireland a couple of years ago we attended a similar show and it was great but I think this will be even more incredible.    I will let you know how it goes 😉

Time to run so thanks for taking the time to stop in and have yourself a fantastic quilty day . I am linking up to the Needle and Thread Network today for the first time in a long time , go here to see what others have been up to this week . 

 Hugs Sheila 

Rain , rain go away

It's raining again today , enough already , I am forming web feet . This kind of weather is not so great for the joints infact downright painful so hope it let's up soon .
 However I have been getting a few things accomplished , still working away on my BOM Quilt,  nope it isn't finished yet , did I tell you I am slow 😉
At our retreat I had finished the stitching on the curved piecing art work as I showed you in the early post and since then I have completed it and finished the second one which I had just done the piecing on . Both of these projects were from the class I taught last fall . The first one I showed I had it all pieced to share with the class but no quilting done , the second one I am about to share was simply strips of fabric laid out to show how I choose fabrics and the order in which I lay them out before starting to do the curves . I like to know ahead of time what my plan is or sort of as it often changes midway. I wasn't quite sure what to add to this second one but wanted to keep it simple just like me , so this is what I came up with . It doesn't get much simpler, than this.

I just love these Hand-Dyed fabrics , it makes my job so much more fun and I am determined to learn how to do this myself. 

I think this will be a movie day and some more handquilting so I will let you know how things are progressing and maybe just maybe I will finish this real soon . Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a great day. 

 Hugs Sheila