Quote

I got all the letters done for the quote today. Now I have to make the author's name. Miles Davis. Only the M will be challenging. Then I have to add the spacers and decide how to fit it in among all those random blocks. That will be the fun part.

Quote

I did the first few letters of my quote this morning. I will be putting spacer strips between each letter once I have finished all the letters.

More Randomness

I have added more random scrappy blocks to the quilt. Eventually I'll probably add an inner border, some more scrappy blocks and then an outer border. I am also thinking of adding some words, possibly a quote from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. One I really like is "Do not fear mistakes - there are none" by Miles Davis. That one would be particularly apt for this piece.

Scrappy

I got an urge to use up some scraps. I started with square in square but soon realized that those blocks need larger pieces and I want to use up little bits and long narrow strips. I then changed to Mile-a-Minute blocks. I love them because they are so quick and you can use all sorts of little scraps.  The blocks are 6 inches square.

Done and Done

The Mystic wall hanging is completely done thanks to Brenda's hand sewing yesterday.
The Dog Houses are all asembled but of course, not quilted yet. I have the backing and binding all ready but haven't put them on the frame yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Dog Houses

I have cobbled the houses together but after  I got the side borders on I realized it's not square. The top is 38 inches and the bottom is only 37. I'll have to take those side borders off and square the thing.
I'm auditioning the black paw print fabric for borders. They will  be narrower but I do like the dark around the edges.

Question

To sash or not to sash. That is the question. I have pale yellow with white dog paw prints or black with white paw prints as on the roof of the last house in the second row.  Maybe yellow sashing and a black border? Time for some auditions.

I'm back to  building dog houses. 

Last Friday our friends Lionel, a Cree Shaman and Irvin, a Cree sculptor, conducted a pipe ceremony at our stone circle, in honor of Marcel's life. Marcel was not Native but had a huge love and respect for the people and culture. The ceremony was attended by immediate relatives and a few very close friends.
Following the ceremony there was an outdoor potluck dinner organized by my friends Brenda and Tanis. After we finished eating a sharing circle was formed (quite a feat when dealing with this batch of relatives!) and each person was given the opportunity to say a few words.
The day was perfect. Everyone commented that it was just what he would have wanted and that they left feeling much more at peace.
On Sunday there will be a public memorial which will be open to anyone wishing to attend.
My daughter Carmel, from Australia, will be staying here for a few more weeks. I am sure that I have the best four children in the world. I don't know how I would get through this without them.
Thank you so much for all your kind comments and prayers. They are much appreciated.

Love and Loss

On behalf of mum I'd like to let all her blogging friends know that our beautiful dad and mum's soul mate passed away peacefully yesterday just after four. He waited until all of us kids and mum were with him, took a few more breaths and slipped quietly off into a land filled with rainbows and seven pointed stars.

We love him so much and will miss him forever.

Your support and condolences mean so much to mum and I know she appreciates all your kind words.

Thank you so much on behalf of mum, us kids and all the entire family....

Bad News

My husband Marcel suffered an aneurysm on Monday evening. Prognosis is not very positive at this point. Your positive thoughts, prayers and good wishes would be most appreciated at this time.

The After Party

This year at our annual July 7 party we had native drummers from Long Plain Reserve near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. They were totally amazing.


My grandsons sang and played guitar. I thought they were amazing too. I may be a tiny bit biased but many other guests assured me that they were indeed very good.


My niece from Alberta lit the fire.


And what a fire it was!


Everyone helped light the grass circle around the center fire.



Is anything more fun than leaping through smoke and fire?

Art Show

I have been missing in action lately because we have been organizing and hanging a large art show. These are just a few of the pieces. The light wasn't very good so some of the photos are a bit dark, but I hope you can get an idea of the quality of the art.



My Australian themed pieces are hanging in the background.

Progress Report

Today I made a Yoyo to highlight the pin that was the inspiration for the whole piece. Actually, I made several Yoyos but this is the one I liked best. I also put piping around the apron-like part and lined it. It will be hanging loose on the finished work. I'm still experimenting with the tails.

Medieval

I went to Winnipeg on Friday and found a fabric that I like better for the shield inset on this piece. I have also made some tails that might work. I usually make a lot more that I end up using but they always find a place on a later work.
I also folded the burgundy strip at the top to see if it would look more like a shield and less like a dress.

Amazing Quilt

This amazing quilt is on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery until Aug 26. I was blown away by it! You can learn more about it at Quilt of Belonging.
There is a video here. And a book about the project here. And here you can see each individual block. Nothing compares to seeing it in person though.

A New Shape

This pin was among Barbara's bling and it looked Medieval to Brenda and me so we thought we should make a Medieval themed art piece.


A shield shape seemed to be a Medieval motif to us so with some inspiration from Quilter's Playtime we came up with this start. There will be lots of tails hanging from it to avoid the dress/apron look. There's lots of room for creativity on this one!

Bling!

Barbara, a blogging friend sent me this package of treasures and I just got it today. There are some gorgeous bits of bling here! It was just like opening a Christmas stocking but even better! I already have an idea how to use a couple of the pieces. Thanks a million, Barbara.

First Mystic Done

I went with the third option. It's actually much straighter on the sides than it looks in the photo. I have already started another one with these fabrics and one different one. This could be a large series...

Auditions

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Here are some optional finishes for this wall hanging. I could also leave it as it was without any extra strips. I'm leaning toward the third one so far. I don't care at all for the last one but parts of it will show up in the next Mystic one. And since I cut up the first one to make the last one I guess I won't be using it either. I'm thinking this is the first of a small series...

A Good Day for Bling

These are the treasures I found at the thrift shop today. The silver and green bracelet has silver stars which is just what I wanted for the latest wall hanging. The top necklace also has stars but turquoise, also useful. The browns will come into play next time I do one in earth tones.



This is the latest look on the Mystic piece. I made the two tassels at the ends. I love the color but since I used embroidery thread they aren't as slick looking as the ones I buy. I may have to break down and buy some special thread or string to make more tassels. They are pretty easy and that way I can get the colour I want.
This piece is about 20x10 inches, quite a bit smaller than I usually make.
My only question is, does it look sort of unfinished on the sides or does it look all right just sort of fading away like that? The top will end up being finished with loops of fabric or silver hanging rings.

Mystical

I started a new wall hanging this morning. Actually, I started it yesterday but realized that I wanted to dye something to go with the middle purple fabric. I'll need to decorate the outside strips, which are from yesterday's dyeing session. There is a long ways to go but so far I like the way the fabrics are playing together.

Mistical

Crosses Quilted

I quilted the crosses yesterday. I was going to do something fancy but in the end just did my usual loops. I'm more interested in wall hangings these days and just wanted to get this one done and out of the way. I'm now trying to decide whether the binding should be the striped fabric or a mix of the cross fabrics or dark brown like the narrow inner border. I'm leaning toward the dark brown if I have enough of that fabric left.

Fabric Therapy

Yesterday was my birthday so I indulged in a bit of fabric therapy to get myself through the idea of being yet another year older. I have no idea where the time has gone but I guess a lot of it has gone into fabric. Seems like a good use of time to me. The dot fabrics on the left go from green to blue, pink to purple and green to yellow. My favorite is the black flower one on the top right.
The purple might work for a mystical themed wall hanging that I'm planning.


I have changed the top and added some tails to this one. I think it's almost ready to sew together.

And No Birds Sang...

The birds have flown away to make a nest in another piece.
I made another strip of crisscross pieces and turned the whole thing on its side. It seems a bit more together now. The strips on the right side are only pinned and that's why they look a bit gathered. I'll probably trim them a bit narrower.
Now I can start to really play with the bling.

Blues

I've done some more work on the blue wall hanging. I don't think I'll use the pom poms on the bottom. I'm thinking more of several tails of different lengths/colors and maybe some dangling strings of beads. At the moment I'm most puzzled about how to finish the top.

Designing Together

My friend, Brenda and I have been working together on the design of this wall hanging. Luckily, we have similar tastes and haven't come to blows. It is destined to hang in her home so she has final say should we come to a stalemate at any time.
It's now at the quilting stage and when that is done we'll start sewing down the bling. I'm really loving this one.

Thrifty

I found these goodies at the thrift store today. I'll take off the crystals (plastic, unfortunately but fine for my wall hangings) and use them as bling on the piece I am working on right now . There are two necklaces and one has large shells that will find a home on an Australian piece.

Medium Values

I took Nina Marie's advice and added some medium value blues. I think it helps a lot. Nothing after the row of little flowers is sewn down yet and more will be added to the top. I might add some more little birds somewhere, maybe in the blue pieces on each side of the dark crisscross strip. What would I ever do without rick rack??? The bottom half needs some more verticals to tie it all together but now I'm quite happy with the colors.

Something New

I have started something new, using blues. So far it hasn't jelled. I think I'll have to remove the section with the birds and flowers near the top. The rest is too abstract for them. I don't have any fabric that will play nicely with that blue and gold (which I absolutely love) so they may just have to live in the parts drawer until I get the right fabric. Meanwhile, I quite like the direction the rest of it is taking. Who knows where it will lead me from here...

Highlights

Here I have highlighted the center images by couching around them with blue/silver string I found in my stash. I also added some gold braid at the top and bottom.
I might add one more tail at the middle bottom.
It's getting closer to being done...

More Bling

I bought several of these napkin rings (?) at the thrift store last year. They have been the most useful item I have for decorating. They are much more golden than they appear in the picture and the little stars have shown up in mony of my wall hangings. Now I'm going to use a couple of the rings as hanging rings. At least, I'm going to try them to see how they work.

I have added more decorations but haven't done anything with the blue rick rack. That will have to wait until my next trip to town.

The Bling

I spent a lot of time today trying out different arrangements of the bling. I have two questions.
Does the blue rick rack fit? And what about the blue flower on the upper right and the yellow one on the lower left? Are they too bright?