Happy Thanksgiving

Let the cooking begin

Embroidery piece stitching complete

Well after a few rough patches my crayon tinted embroidery piece is finally done now I just need to decide what to do with it.

When I was at the quilt show I found this Valori Wells fabric I thought would be fun to embroider.

And yesterday when I opened my mailbox a nice surprise was waiting for me, my friend in Israel sent me this Hamsa Hand kit, she has been keeping up with my embroidery escapades via my blog and wanted to encourage me to keep stitching.

I have no idea what I be working on next I have a few sketches in my ideas notebook so may be something from my creations.

Time to renew my gym membership

The weather here has turned cold again with today only expected to reach 57 degrees and tonight the temps are expected to once again drop down to 27 brrrrr!  This is one of the coldest Novembers I can recall since I moved here 20 years ago.  I actually felt the cold yesterday that halfway through my walk at the track I left and for the rest of the day I couldn't get me feet to feel warm, I have ceramic tile floors throughout the house and when the days turn cold it feels like I am walking on ice, the cold days don't last too long so it was time to pull out the warm woolly socks.

I renewed my gym membership today and decided to mix things up a bit and schedule a few training sessions over the next few weeks. After leaving the track yesterday I plan start putting in more time with workouts at the gym rather then walking the track everyday, I usually use the gym when its too hot during the summer or raining but these past few cold snaps I found myself really feeling the cold and my body joints were stiff and moving around the track was more of an effort, not hard to do but my body felt sore with each step.

Also I want to add weight lifting back to my routine a few days a week, I prefer to do that in the gym because if I drop a weight on the floor at home I will have broken tiles, with the arthritis in my hands lately my grip is weakening  and the floor at the gym has carpeting.

I picked up a sweet little sewing card pattern at the quilt show for a little card or tea wallet.

pattern

I want to make several of these nifty little wallets they are great for carry id without having to lug a wallet or purse.

A few events I plan to attend in the early start of 2015

I love buttons and this show sound like it would be a great way to add some unique buttons to my small collection.

This quilt show is not too far from home and on the way home I can stop at one of my favorite bead shops.
Here is another little wallet, made with less curve thanks to a cutting accident truth to tell I like it without the curves. I need to add a button where those black stitches are.

and a sweet little needle book I found following a link a few years back when I was making pin

needlebook closed

cushions and thread catchers. http://tipnut.com/26-free-tutorials-for-needle-books-cases/

needlebook opened

Feed Sacks and More photos from the Quilt Show

While I was at the quilt show last week I had the pleasure of meeting one of the vendors with a booth selling feed sacks.
The Pat's Sacks booth was filled with a vast array of feed sacks, feed cloth, old patterns printed by various companies and this beautiful quilt made by her mother.

The vendor said her mother swapped with over 600 collectors to add to her collection, the blocks made for the quilt are signed by some of those people she swapped with.

When I first discovered feed sacks back in the mid 1980's I was repairing an heirloom quilt for a friend, I had several pieces of fabric to match as closely as I could but some were too modern by a stroke of luck I was browsing in shops one crisp autumn weekend and came across several scraps of  fabric for a mere twenty five cents, the top print was so close to one of the pieces in the quilt I had to buy it.
Hours later I looked inside the bag the hand printed tag  written on it was feed sack scraps 1933 how serendipitous, the quilt was made in 1933.  Over the years I have come across several feed sacks, some deteriorated and other nearly pristine, mostly I find small scrap pieces, what stays with me is the durability of these bags, the cotton fabric soft with age, many of the colors still crisp as if they were printed yesterday.   When I stepped into Pat's Sacks I was amazed with the selection she had with her, full size bags, pieces of bags in all sizes, and scraps too.

The above photo shows a few of the items offered by this wonderful vendor, and keeper of  feed sack history.  I was tempted to buy the Smokey the Bear sack I resisted because I know it would just be stuck in a bin and it really should be used or displayed,  the sweet jacket and the dress are made of feed sack.
I didn't leave the vendor empty handed I picked up a few pieces that caught my eye mostly with a shade of purple.

The pieces reminds me so much of the Aunt Grace reproduction 1930's fabric 

Feed sack

This is a Aunt Grace Reproduction below

Aunt Grace Reproduction fabric

Along with some wonderful stories, and pieces of fabric I left with a small token for stopping by the booth a packet of cotton seeds which I may attempt to plant some day. And here is a lovely link for some feed sack history. https://blog.etsy.com/en/2011/feed-sacks-a-sustainable-fabric-history/

I did visit all of other vendors at the quilt show and made a few purchases here and there, this fun panel which will most likely be mug mats some time or a tote bag.

A whimsical Lorelei panel because I just love them

A pattern using embroidery which will be put on the to embroider pile I am slowly making

And before I close my post today I will leave you with a few more photos from the quilt show.

Time does march on when we are otherwise occupied, its been a lovely week where the weather is concerned cool crisp mornings, sunshine and warm afternoons and yesterday we had cloudy skies most of the day giving way to some rain.

The leaves of my sycamore tree are fast falling to the ground, brown and brittle and swirling in the air like fairies whenever the breeze picks up, the neighbor across the street has a sycamore tree and his leaves blow into my front yard daily, but by the end of the day they are gone, many are  gathered beneath a shrub or piled in a corner of the back yard slowly rotting away once again becoming part of the garden.

Breathtaking

A friend living in the UK emailed pictures yesterday of the 888,246 ceramic poppies in the moat of the Tower of London - each poppy representing a British soldier's life lost in WW1. The simplicity of the art installation, its color and above all its significance moves me.

Thank you to all who served.

Hand Painted Fabrics

I mentioned in my post yesterday after I left the quilt shop I headed to a trunk show hosted at the Yards N Yarn shop, the artist Wendy Compton has a real talent when it comes to creating  hand painted fabrics.

Wendy's fabrics are predominately nature related, with some beautiful water pieces in many shades of blue and green. She has a great selection of earth fabrics to ranging from pale green to a tropical punch reminiscent of a lovely sunset.

While speaking with Wendy I learned many of her fabrics are influenced from places she has visited while traveling and some from right here in sunny Florida.  Wendy not only paints fabrics she also makes stunning landscape pieces (in the frames) The detail she puts in are just perfect as seen here in

the couple sitting by the water, an old postcard was the inspiration for lovely piece. I also bought a small piece hand painted with sun painting details in shades of pinks and orange.

My first thought when I saw this piece was to embroider around some of the fern leaves, may be even add some bead work.  I'm not sure what I am going to make with the moon on the water piece, I knew as soon as I seen this piece my love for the beach told me I had to have it.

The more I look at it the more potential I see. I may just frame it and hang in on my wall so I can gaze at it daily.

There isn't a website site up at this time so I couldn't include a link, you can be sure once there is a site or shop I will be posting it here.

Quilt Show

This morning I attended the Country Road Quilters quilt show, an event I look forward to every other year.

I love walking through the aisles looking at all the wonderful quilts on display, wondering what inspired the quilter to make that pattern, or choose this particular color or how long they have been quilting. This particular quilt just caught my eye and didn't let go, the maker explained her daughter is a tattoo artist and the pattern grew to this beauty:

When I first laid eyes on it I immediately thought it looks like a colorful tattoo, I can't imagine the hours and patience it took to applique this stunning quilt.

This one here captured my attention mainly because I have recently stepped into the realm of hand embroidery so when I saw this I gave a close look.

I love red work and I recognized the pattern as a Crab-Apple Hill pattern and as I looked closer I noticed one thing that really made me take notice.

I did not see one tracing mark only beautiful precise stitches and I meant to ask the quilter what she used to trace the pattern onto the fabric.  It is one of those things I've noticed on my embroidery piece, the lines I traced show even though I used the suggested ultra thin marker, I think next time I

am going to use a pencil which is supposed to fade within a few days. Though maybe her stitches are just so well made they hide the trace lines. Then again maybe the lines are there and I just need new glasses.

These pieces are some of the items in the silent auction, I like the small black tree piece under the pineapple.

I love this wonderful piece but did not bid, no place to display it, I bought several raffle tickets for gift baskets made up for quilters, I didn't think to snap a photo, but the baskets are lovely.

Another one of my favorite quilts in this years show, I love the old traditional patterns and the bright colors on this make me smile.

The bright colors and the block shape on this small quilt make me dizzy when I look at it too long but I like it.

The fabrics used for this quilt are quite stunning, sadly my photography is not, it looks as though

there are some Australian Aboriginal fabrics in the mix, though I'm just guessing.  This one here really looks great in person I have never seen log cabin blocks set in such a creative way at first I

thought it was in a bargello style like this one below but when I stepped closer the log cabin blocks stood out.

Here are a few small quilts

and another with hand embroidery which I love because of the witch theme and as you know I collect witches. This one is called Girl's Night Out.

Oh this sweet little crazy quilt, on the display card the quilter explained she was given the fairy pieces and decided to make a crazy quilt

a close up showing some lovely hand embroidery

and some beautiful ribbon embroidery too

and here are a few other quilts from today's show

sunbonnet Sue and overall Bill

Fence Rail

Well that's all for now, its been a long day and I am getting drowsy, after the quilt show I made a stop at the Yards n Yarn shop for the hand painted fabrics trunk show, I'll post more about the shows this week along with photos of the treasures I purchased today.