apple blossoms & mushrooms

Remember this block? This block that caused such a stand-still in my little quilting world. Well, all of you were right! ----> I would go back to it...........

......after walking through our yard and spotting this on our apple tree -- along with oodles of them that have already fallen -- I knew that block for The Family Quilt must get done. Sheesh! If real trees are already dropping their gorgeous fruit, why can't I get some simple blossoms done on a simple block?

So the apple blossoms are now hand appliqued with hints of embellished embroidery.

And that got my enthusiasm so peaked! I am now putting together the next block -- and this one has to do with guinea pigs and mushrooms. Our kids have/had the cutest, little pink-nosed guinea pigs --adorable is such an understatement!

Here is the work in progress. But I am SO glad that I got kick-started into working on this quilt once again!

~~

Psssssst. tHaNk YoU to all of you who were there nudging me along!

quilter's block

I know writers can experience 'writer's block'...

Writer's block is a phenomenon involving temporary loss of ability to begin or continue writing. ....but can quilters experience the same thing? Only it would be aptly called--'quilter's block'?

Regardless if there is such a phenomena---->I. know. I. have. it.
This is the next block of my Family Quilt and I am stuck. Stuck in not being able to move forward at all with this thing.

~~~

And I love cardinals and we have 'mom & dad' cardinals that live in our pine trees and they just seem to bless the very air with their melodic song. And it was because of that that I wanted this block to depict this feathered beauty. So maybe it's because he almost came out looking like a tough mascot for some thick-shouldered collegiate football team....I'm not sure. And maybe I need to just set it aside for now and come back to it later.

But whatever the case, this quilt is at a complete standstill. Ugh! Please tell me that you all experience this brief (please. let this be brief!) lapse in being able to readily complete some sort of quilting project that you have started. And that you do come back to it.

~~~

So as to not totally be sitting here with nothing to do (and to soothe that worrisome, little sing-song voice inside my head 'oh, no, why this total block in initiative?') I am bidding my time with making some crocheted hairpin lace.

And hoping that I get enlightened once again and can sit with needle & thread in hand to do more hand-applique on my quilt.

SpLaSh!

Just in time for this hot, HOT weather we are having & with the sound of our kids splashing it up in the pool---here is block #3 of the family quilt that I am making.

I was mighty scared to try and 'do' hair on these hand appliqued kids. The points of the girl's hair especially seemed impossible to do with fabric. How in the world would you needle turn such a tiny point? So to be safe, I did embroidery instead. And I must say, it makes the hair seem more like hair.

And hmmmmmmm...this boy looks remarkably just like our 8 year old.

And the girl certainly resembles our teen and tween daughter. Of course, our soon-to-be-15-year is rolling her eyes right now because she is 'so not like this little tyke pictured'! *grin*

As a teacher, one of my favorite parts of my job was doing bulletin boards. I loved designing them, cutting them out and seeing them come to life. Well, this is so similar to that. Only I'm using thread, needle and fabric instead of construction paper and staples.

we all scream for ice scream

Here is the 2nd block for my Family Quilt that I am putting together.

As a family we don't necessarily 'scream' for ice cream, but it is a family favorite of ours to drive on over to our local drive-in and order our favorite ice cream treats. The kids are convinced it should be a nightly destination for us, but ha! like that is almost going to happen....although when planning the weekly menu, that would be a nice way-out from cooking meals....

And I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as purple ice cream, but it seemed to go really well with the pink ice cream in the other cone and it fits so well with the rest of the color theme of this quilt.

A little bit of embroidery to accentuate the shape and it looks pretty realistic. Yum.

Here is the next block in progress. Yup. You guessed it. Swimming is big at our house. In fact the kids have already started swimming in the near frigid pool--not me!--and so I must somehow sew up a block that shows this favorite of our family.

humphrey

We have a beautiful hummingbird that the kids have named 'Humphrey' and we see him flit here and there throughout our trees. Unfortunately, every time I get ready to take a pic of him, he seems to disappear. Only to reappear in our crabapple tree blossoms or sipping his sweet nectar from our hummingbird feeder. So I decided to get a lasting impression of him by doing an applique quilt block.

By doing a sketch on theme paper of the hummingbird & flowers, I then hand-appliqued it by following her wonderful technique.

I have visions of this becoming a fabulous family quilt with different blocks showing the different loves of our family. Each block would depict something we all like: music, piano, violin, purses, baseball, dirtbikes, snowmobiles, purses, flowers, golden retrievers, purses, kitties, pine trees, peonies, purses, etc.....

But sometimes what I picture in my head is far different from what I can actually accomplish. High hopes don't necessarily = reality in Dawn's world.

So for now, I'll finish the curlique embroidery on these pretend flowers and start picturing what the next block might look like.

thanks to gwen

It is only because of Gwen

that I even attempted this quilt. She, through

her fantastic applique book, was able to dispel any fear that I had

in attempting needle-turn applique.

It is something that I have dearly wanted to do. I oohed and

ahhed over countless examples that I have seen, but there

was no way I could ever do that. ( I am severely lacking in the

'confident sewer' department!)

Her step-by-step approach was so eye-opening for

me that I pretty much just took thrift finds for fabric

pieces; laid them out; traced them; and thus began

a journey that was quite easy and oh, so wonderful!

Being able to easily transport this project from couch-to

in-laws' house-to-dr's. office-to kitchen counter....

well, that was the clincher. It travels so easily.

And it was one of the quickest quilt projects that I have

ever done and there was something sooooo soothing

and relaxing about needle in hand and these beautiful

colors all coming together. And when I look at it on our

wall, I can't believe that I actually made that.

Thanks, Gwen. *sigh*

Our daughter even spied one of our cats lounging on it---

as if it were solely made for cat naps.