The Stowaway

Attention all canine friends. This is public service announcement from Flynn:

HOW NOT TO GET LEFT BEHIND WHEN YOUR TWEEN PERSON IS HEADING OUT FOR A SLEEPOVER.

Working my way down the March list....

My latest finish happened just in the nick of time....on March 31st I put this little number in the mail to Lisa in Nelson, B.C. She is my March partner for the Mini QT Swap on Flickr.

It is about 8" X 10". My inspiration came from the blossoms that fill my neighbourhood every March (the swap theme was "Spring Fling"....perfect!). I posted some blossom photos from a beach walk here and then used the close-ups for ideas on how to place the individual flowers on the branches, and how to do the flower centres. Luckily my Pfaff has a 9mm stitch that was perfect for representing the yellow stamens. All of the blossoms are free cut from the same pink print fabric and fused down with transweb.

The nest is a bunch of thread snippets and frayed linen fibre that I couched on with a free motion zigzag and then fluffed up a bit. The eggs were the hardest part. I made an oval shaped yoyo and stuffed it, but achieving smooth curves was impossible (and, you know, the deadline was looming!). I love quilting small pieces with embroidery floss: the green area is seed-stitched with 2 strands of DMC variegated green floss.

A binding just didn't look right, so I self-faced the quilt by sewing the quilt right sides together to a rectangle of the same fabric that's on the back. Then I carefully poked my scissors in & cut out a large oval from that rectangle (leaving at least 1" of fabric all around), flipped the works right side out, pressed the seam allowance to the back and needle-turn-appliqued the facing fabric to the back. Sorry I forgot to photograph the back to show you what I mean (once again, deadline!! no time for extra pictures!).

It arrived safely and Lisa wrote last night to say she loved it and it was on her wall already. Nice! She's still working on my quilt in return (and said I will laugh when I see it...hmmm I wonder if blossoms are coming my way, too?). That would be funny.

No hail yet today, the sun is shining, but it's blustery out there. Flynn's ears were flapping in the wind on our walk this morning.

Hope you're having a springy day!

Weekend Work and a Shout Out for Democracy

After a biblical start to the day (rain-wise, that is) Monday turned out just ducky. The clouds parted, the sun shone down and everything started steaming. Thick rolls of steamy mist curled off the cedar shakes of our garden shed, off the top rail of the fence, off our neighbour's garage roof, off the bark of the trees. It was a little Hallowe'en-ie out there for about half an hour! All misty, spooky-like. Except it was sunny, so I wasn't afraid.

In fact, Flynn and I went for a mid-morning stroll. I never realized how camo he is at this time of year. Spot the mini-dachshund (just follow the blue leash):

After lots of sniffing, investigating, looking up at falling leaves and generally holding up our walk, he discovered this sweet little faerie-land of mushrooms, with water drops still clinging to their caps.

That certainly was an unexpected little break in our day.

Yesterday I promised photos of my QBTB finishes (and I gotta tell you, I don't have much success making big things while working a retreat, I stick to smaller projects that I am familiar with...that don't require a lot of complicated instructions, so I can socialize, entertain and have fun!) I finished two of Rae's Buttercup Bags that I will donate to a fundraiser silent auction.

Rae offers this bag pattern FREE on her blog Made by Rae, or you can buy a licensed version if you want to sell them!

Okay, here's the Shout Out for Democracy segment of today's post. If you've been following along here lately, or anywhere in crafty blogland for that matter, then you know about the sew, mama, sew Scrap Buster Tutorial Contest. They received 114 tutorial entries!!!! The prize: 3 chances at $50 of fabric from their gorgeous shop. Amazingly generous. The girls decided it was too many entries to judge, so they've thrown it back at us and asked us to VOTE for our favs. The good news is, everyone gets 8 votes, so USE 'EM! Scoot on over there now and exercise your democratic right! Don't delay! And, you know, if you're having trouble deciding which box to tick, the Crop Circle Table Runner can be found in group 2.


The following statement is not a bribe, just a friendly little fyi: If I win $50 of fabric, there's gonna be a giveaway....right here, right quick. With $50, I could buy 5 yards of LOVE! Then, as stated in yesterday's post, I could Share The Love! And, in case you haven't noticed, I really like to share.