<3's for Lin

I have 'met' a beautiful lady, Lin and she is making me a sweet quilt and I -- in turn -- made this 12' x 12' quilt for her.

We had to somehow incorporate hearts in our quilt and I pulled this 'theme' from a girl's shirt that was on the cover of a flyer for school clothes that came in our local newspaper. I added off-white embroidery swirls to highlight the khaki background fabric.

And seeing knotgarden's glorious flowers (oh! you must go & take a look!) that she has featured on her beautiful blog, I decided to include a flower for Lin & crocheted this mum. Now, it's all boxed up and headed off for a very loooooooooooong plane ride. Destination: Thailand.

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Enjoy the <3's, Lin!

simple bird

~I heard a bird at break of day

Sing from the autumn trees

A song so mystical and calm,

So full of certainties,

No man, I think, could listen long

Except upon his knees;

Yet, this was but a simple bird,

Alone, among the trees.~

William Alexander Percy 1885-1942

This simple bird, hand-embroidered with appliqued flowers is now done. Phew. Took a bit longer than I had anticipated, but coupled with the yellow cabbage rose fabric -- I am SO pleased at how it turned out.

The bag itself was quite easy to sew. But thank goodness for the drawings because I am not someone who can just follow the written word. Draw it out for me and you got yourself one happy lady.

The inside of this bag is that aprony goodness that my GrAnna would have made and worn. Obviously no more explanation why that fabric went into this bag. Just one tiny draw-back about this bag -- it is too small for me to use. I tend to use a purse the size of a suitcase. My husband just looooooooooooves that.



But my girls DO like the smallness of it. And especially the wonky way the handle slides into the other handle as the closure. I just love the colors, the texture of the embroidery and the eclectic choice of fabrics. We'll see how well it does in the bag challenge.

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Edit: Dandy will have our pics loaded for the bag challenge by this weekend. You can go to All People Quilt and take a look at the bags.

birdy bag

Dandy asked me if I wanted to join her in this bag challenge --

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Hmmmm.........let's see -- it involves new fabric, a fun, fun purse pattern, fabulous floss & an excuse to sit & sew with a faraway friend -- believe me, my arm did not need too much twisting!

So she sent me swatches of the bag she made and off to the fabric store I went in search of coordinating fabric and I found these yummy fabrics -- and yes! I-want-my-entire-bedroom-wallpapered-in-this-flower-fabric -- (Sorry, dear. -- insert husband rolling his eyes-->here.)

The front panel of this bag will get this embroidered birdy. I'm stitching this little guy every chance I get because the split stitch and chain stitch is a little bit more time consuming than I thought. Okay -- a lot more time consuming than I thought.

And since this weekend is Labor Day weekend, I am hoping to carry this with me and prop myself in a lawn chair the eeeeeeeeentire weekend -- while my no-flowers-on-my-bedroom-wall husband will be grilling all of our meals on the outdoor grill & the kids will be cleaning up after him..... ahem.

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!

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

kreativ bluebird

I so wish that we had bluebirds. I know of only a few people that do have them in their yard & they say that they are so beautiful . I stitched this bluebird as a tiny gift for my great-aunt whom I love dearly.

I am also dearly flattered to have received this award from Twyla and Lindsey -- you must visit their sumptuous blog! It is such a fun trip through nostalgia & beauty! Thank you Twyla & Lindsey!

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And now I am trying to narrow down my choices to 5 bloggers to receive this award from me......

crocheted wristlet

Using the new Spa yarn from Caron, I crocheted this wristlet. There's just something so old-fashioned about having a lovely purse adorning a wrist.

Using this apron-y looking fabric, I lined the inside to give it more stability. Having 'stolen' one of my teen's make-up bags I decided this wristlet would make a perfect catch-all for make-up, band-aids, nail clippers, pain reliever, measuring tape....let's see, what have I forgotten?

And using this vintage button from the button stash given to me by my great-aunt completes that whole yummy feel to this most delicious yarn. And yes, this yarn is so positively soft and creamy to the touch.

This fabric just makes me smile. In fact~~~I think I'll be using this wristlet the next time my husband and I go out. Maybe grilled shrimp?

anna's apron

Hand-crafted aprons. Aprons to match every hand-crafted dress. Such vivid memories of her and her aprons.

Standing in the crispness of the cold winter, arms protectively 'round my dad. And her apron carefully wrapped simply around her waist. This is my grandma.

Her simple work ethic; her diligence for her extraordinary needle-work; and her quaint beauty still stun me to this day. Finding a book at the thrift store, I came upon a pattern for a muslin doll.

I so wanted to capture her in the simplicity of a hand-crafted doll.

And of course, adorn her in her apron. Anna's apron.

Our tween and teen stood over my shoulder watching me make this doll and they too, wanted one. Only they wanted one that they designed. One that suited their personality.

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Here are those three friends. So different. Yet sharing so much.

~~~