Promptly Being Creative

HAPPY MAY BASKET DAY!!! As a  young girl we used to take pillow mints and mix them with salted peanuts. We'd decorate a little paper drinking cup with drawings of flowers. We'd use a pipe cleaner to make a handle. Once filled with the mints and peanuts, we'd share them around the neighborhood. Ahhhhhhh, such fond memories from over fifty years ago!!!

A few weekends ago we went to our annual renaissance faire in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hubby and the Young Mister were on the news that night!

A few days after the faire, it was Earth Day. We planted three new trees to go along with the Mimosa we already planted two years ago.

 

 I finished another block for the "My Favorite Things" block of the month:

I have some lemon sherbet yellow fabric around the charity quilt:

I followed all this up with doing a Creative Prompt! I haven't done one in maybe a year or so now. I combined a little art with a little writing. It was fun to do this again. I should try to be more consistent with it!

I am currently sandwiching four charity quilts to quilt for guild. I am woefully behind on projects, as I've needed to handle other issues in life. I hope to get back to doing fabric therapy soon! Till then, I hope you all are sewing-on!

Clean up that mess!

I have been avoiding the task of cleaning off the messy half of my studio table by making up things to work on, instead. For example, this shirt:

It was made from a piece of fabric that I was going to toss out or give to charity. I've had it for five years and originally bought it because it was just such a pretty print and soooooooooo silky!

Being the rebel that I am, I decided to not use a pattern. I was shocked that this actually turned out to be a wearable piece! I plan to wear it this fall with a black sleeveless turtleneck underneath. I think it will be quite flattering!

Out in the yard, our Rose of Sharon's are blooming. We have a white one:

We also have a lavender one:

Back inside the studio we have the June block of the month almost done:

I was playing around in PhotoShop and darkened the circle around the birdhouse hole. I also put the line under, thinking the house needed a perch. The red male Cardinal also has legs drawn on. Once I decide what looks best, I will turn the drawing parts into thread painting. I love using PhotoShop to audition ideas on fabrics, instead of trying things and then ripping out my work to redo.

I have the top together for the latest charity quilt too:

I work a little bit, every night, on the final border for the My Tweets quilt. I have two quilts waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. They are waiting for me to clean off my messy studio table, so I can do that. And that brings us back to where I started this posting!

Till next time, Happy Sewing!

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I am working on my latest charity quilt. This one is made from orphan blocks and a panel that says "Love" on it over four blocks. I am ready to sew the blocks together but am not quite happy with the layout yet. The center row has to stay center, due to sizing issues. All the other blocks are interchangeable. Thank goodness for design walls!

I hope to figure it all out and sew it together over the weekend. I will post photos when I am done with it.
That's it for now!
Happy Sewing Y'all!!!

Productive Month

I am finally back in the studio after avoiding it for over a month! I have no reason for why I avoided it, but I did. To get back in the swing of things, I started by making a new chemise for my renfaire costume. I liked how it turned out. I had a photo of it, but lost it by accidentally deleting it and since it is packed away, I was too lazy to take it out to retake the picture!

The next thing I tackled was the May BOM for my night guild. It is the purple one on the left:

The umbrella block was for April and the green hat was for March.

My design wall looked like this a few days ago:

The February block is the heart block on the right. The odd blocks below the BOM blocks are bits and pieces of orphan blocks and fabrics. I was working on making a charity quilt for a boy.

This is how it turned out:

I think Charlie Brown, Snoopy, bug jars, sailboats, dragons and sports are all good choices for a young man!

A crafty project I am working on are banks. I use liquor canisters to make specialized banks. This one has a quilt theme:

 

I like to think of this as a place to save up your pocket change and when it is full enough, you can go on a guilt-free shopping trip to a quilt store! There will be a slot in the top of the can that you can put your money into. It is pretty enough to sit in your studio. The top comes off for removal of your treasure. I haven't decided how much to sell these for yet.

Last, but not least, I MADE myself sit down and sew together all the blocks for the Celtic Solstice quilt top! THEN I sewed the blocks into rows and I now have the center done. Next will be a narrow border, followed by a pieced border, and the final border. This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern. What a challenge to work with all those itty bitty pieces of fabric!!!

I plan to share this posting with Nina's "Off the Wall" Friday, since I actually have stuff to show!

That's the latest. I hope I don't stay away for such a long time again! Fabric therapy really does elevate one's mood.

Until next time, Happy Sewing!