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?

Steps

Today I thought I'd share with you some of the steps I take in making one of my wall hangings. The images in this first step were taken from a fat quarter I bought when we were in Australia. I love the images but just couldn't leave them alone and use the fabric as I bought it. Today I surrounded them with dark brown. The same images have appeared on the last two wall hangings but with different fabric around them.



The next step is to add a few more fabrics. I auditioned several before I decided on the ones in this photo.


Here I am trying out some insert fabrics and some different colors of rick rack.




The only thing I might love more than rick rack is piping. I used red piping to set off the dark fabric. If you want to use piping I can't recommend highly enough getting a special piping foot for your machine. I have been told that a zipper foot works just as well. Not so.
I have also started trying out some of the ornaments I have on hand.
There will be many more changes before this one is finished. I think it needs another color, possibly blue or maybe the green from the previous picture. Or maybe only a little blue bling if I can find exactly the right piece. Thrift shops, here I come!

Fabric

In case anyone else fell in love with this fabric, here is the designer. She also has more wonderful fabrics that I now covet, especially this one in blue.
You can see more of Yuko's fabric here.

Fabric Indulgence

I went to the fabric store to get a new light bulb for my sewing machine and came out with these two delicious pieces of fabric. And the best part is that they were on sale for half price. I did remember the light bulb too. Bonus!

Adding Bling

Now I have quilted it and enveloped it instead of binding it. The tassels are sewn on as well as some of the dangling beads. I'll add more beads and shells to it and rings in each upper corner for hanging. The middle loop will probably change. I'm not sure what color it should be but that piece doesn't seem to work. It may need to be narrower too.

Co-operative Quilting

Yesterday, my friend, Brenda, and I decided to co-operate on a wall hanging. We chose fabrics that would suit her room and then played with them on the design wall. Sorry the picture is a bit crooked and dark. When the inspiration strikes it's hard to focus on photography. Also it was taken late in the day so the light wasn't very good. We are hoping to work at it a bit more today.


I have also updated this one with another strip of the mauve fabric. I like it much better now. Today I'll sew on the rick rack and plan the beads and other bling.

On a Roll

After I finished the doggie quilt I couldn't resist playing around with my Australian fabrics again. Before I knew it, this was up on the design wall.
My main question is, does the blue and black strip on the right look too different or does in seem to belong?
Of course, there will be lots more bling before it's done but I don't want to sew it together until I'm sure about the blue/black strip.

A Done Deal

I just finished sewing down the binding by hand. It ended up about 22x28 inches. I used the red binding according to the wishes of the recipient. I quite like the red and don't think it makes it look too busy (can a wall hanging be too busy???) which was my concern.

Red or Black

Today I made the extra row of dogs and assembled the quilt. Now I need to decide on red backing and binding or black... It may be a bit too busy to add another color on the border. What do you think?
I'll probably quilt it very simply.

Doggie Love

I have made several more blocks, narrowed the black sashing and added some rick rack. I like the idea of red down the middle of the black. I may audition that tomorrow. I may make one more row of dog blocks to make it rectangular. Right now it is about 24 inches square. The dog in the lower right corner with no rick rack will probably be moved to the center. The rick rack just didn't work on that block for some reason.

Doggie Love

I have started a new wall hanging for a dog lover. I have auditioned two different sashings. I think I prefer the black so far but is it too heavy for the blocks? There is also the red that I have used on the top of the left block that could be used as sashing. Also adding words is still an option.

Is It Done?

I think this one is done except for finding a nice branch to hang it from. It's been raining hard so I won't do that today. The shells on the right side don't show up much in the photo but look nice in real life so I left the ones I had sewn on and added more.
Please ignore the light switches at the bottom of the photo. This is just a temporary home to get a good picture.
Does it need more bling?