"Shells Found On The Upper Beach"

A Natural Spiral

surprised by an indoor tide pool~!~ . . . i'm feeling rushed and overwhelmed and the weather is spitting snow at us AGAIN and AUGGGGHHHHHHH~!!~ but i somehow managed to get a shot that did not look that way at all . . . have no idea how that happened~!~but i hope that it is enjoyed.

this is a few small shells and a very small starfish laid out in my new glass bowl . . .you know the one that is irredescent and held nectarines last time i shot it . . . who knew it could be a tide pool~!?!~

i knew this bowl was full of possibilities but this one was not immediately obvious. i wonder what other surprises it holds?

The Greening of the Garden

found a few more plants able to withstand our fickle Spring weather. of course it made sense to use the green selective color choice . . .

i apologize for not having much to say; just feeling a bit overwhelmed and tired lately. it will pass soon enough and then i won't shut up~!~LOL

Spring Flowers

the crocus are actually a beautiful golden yellow color but i shot them using brown as a selected color and this is the result.

i am really beginning to enjoy playing around with this setting on my camera~!~

yesterday
i dyed

some more
orange fabic
and cut some

tulip centers.

today i managed to complete

two more tulips.

Selective Rust~!~

not feeling terribly inspired or motivated today . . . just "doin the discipline" . . .

my flickr friend tricsr4kidz wrote a comment under this photo (in flickr) which captured so well what i was feeling when i took this shot that i wanted to share it here in my blog.

"I really love rust so much. I think it reminds me of life a bit. Of the things that cut into each of us. the "weather" in our lives that mar us. It's easy to think that all that has scarred us or that things would be so perfect without them, but if you can take a step back and look at the whole picture, it tells a different story. Those scars, those imperfections, they ARE us and they are what make us beautiful."

now, if those aren't the words of a poet at heart i don't know any words that are~!!~ i think trics needs to consider starting her own inspirational blog because she sure does inspire me. even when i'm down~!!!~ Thank You Tricsr4kidz.

today is my 45th birthday~! so i won't be posting much. i shot another photo using the selective color and this time it's a bit bolder. those crocus are really trying hard to blossom forth~!~ but the temps are a bit on the chilly side so it's happening pretty slowly.

i did get a half of an hour to work on scrap reduction but mostly sorted and ironed so no finished blocks to show for today. i guess it's good that i'm dissapointed about that, as it means i'm motivated to see some progress every single day . . . some days progress is more measureable than others. i like it when there is something to take a photo of~!!~

so it's back to the cake eating and present opening for me . . .

;-)

string pieced tulip tutorial

my photo daily discipline is yet another selectively colored image. my begonia against that magical little dress that i love~!~ SOOC

i have had a request for more information regarding the construction process of the tulips. first i would like to recommend the book by Gwen Marston called "Liberated String Quilts (20 Foundation-Free Projects)". Gwen has many good books and a great website well worth looking at: http://www.gwenmarston.com/

although i have chosen to use foundations for my string piecing this is where my original pattern came from. Gwen does a great job of explaining the basics of string piecing and there are some wonderful ideas in her book for other string pieced applications.

i have put together a rough step by step of my variations on her process while making these tulips. i hope it is helpful.

for this project i am using a very light weight muslin for the base. i had at one time made curtains out of this particular muslin and when i no longer needed the curtains i cut it up into base shapes for string and crumb piecing projects. the fabric was probably somewhat light damaged but as it is the base piece it doesn't have to be a heavy or quality piece of fabric. in fact, it should be a very light weight fabric.

i have used the standard 1/4" seam allowance

three finished tulips; two with "matching" petal pieces and one with "unmatched".

as you can see, sometimes they turn out more wonky looking than others.

i once again used the selective coloring option for my "daily photo". this time i chose pink and shot some dried ornamental oregano and dried chive flowers on the dining room table. there was some late afternoon sun coming in through the windows and i really like the results. i guess because i chose pink the wood of the table is showing reddish brown and there is a subtle "pink wash" look to the flowers. i thought it had a romantic feel to it. i also loved the details that showed up within this shot . . . i'm learning that i prefer the washed out look of pale colors within a black and white shot as it gives it a subtle painterly effect. i'm really glad that i chose to experiment with it a little~!~SOOC

i managed to get some tulip petals pieced and a ninepatch made today. i'm running longer than the 30 minutes to do it and that is because it takes so much time to sort and iron and otherwise prep the scraps for using. so today i didn't get as far as splitting the petal piece in half after piecing it which is why it looks different than the others i have posted. i have posted a photo of the missing middle piece just for informational purposes. tomorrow i will split the petal pieces in half and insert the middle hand dyed center pieces and then they will be "finished". i find that i am very motivated by the need to post photos of the blocks as they get done but one half of an hour isn't always long enough to make that happen . . . so then i stay and work on them longer . . . as pathetic as it sounds, it ends up throwing my whole day off and uses up energy that i need to conserve for other daily activities. so i need to just come to terms with the fact that there may be less to show on some days or it may just consist of sorted and ironed scraps that have yet to be sewn . . .

the nine patches are interesting when using the crumb pieced squares . . . this particular block and some of my others actually has a combination of crumb pieced squares and squares that have been cut from one single piece of fabric. not sure if anyone else is going to appreciate them though~!

i just realized that i forgot to post yesterday's "daily photo". my daughter helped me figure out the selective coloring option on my camera so i used that to capture the delicate and fleeting colors of Spring.

after a couple of days that got our hopes up about Spring, we ended up getting a few inches of snow on the ground last night and early this morning. by this afternoon we had enough melt to reveal the Crocus that are just starting to blossom. i decided to use the selective coloring option on the camera again. i did some cropping but otherwise this photo is straight out of camera.

my daughter had to go back to school today but we had a fabulous sushi dinner last night in celebration of my upcoming birthday.

a few more blocks made using scraps today. i actually spent a lot more than 30 minutes at it due to sorting and ironing . . . the joy of using scraps . . . anyway i did get three more ninepatch blocks done: two that were crumb pieced and one that was "normal".

my daughter is home for the weekend. she came home so that she could make me a birthday dinner of sushi and a fabulous chocolate cake. she's a great cook and we had chocolate cake for lunch and will have sushi for dinner. so for now i only have shots of the cake.

it isn't actually my birthday yet but this is the weekend that she could make it home to celebrate with me. i love it when she's home~!~ and cooking~!!~

string and crumb pieced tulips are being constructed from my overly full scrap basket. i've been setting aside one half of an hour every day for the past few days to work on something i'm calling "stash reduction". i have three on-going projects that i can rotate around continuously and keep working . . .

• a coin quilt project which will be a series of baby quilts that i will probably have machine quilted and set aside for emergency gift giving and charity quilts



• string/crumb pieced tulips that have hand dyed centers
  


• nine patches for a guild bazaar project that will be needed in November

today i worked on the tulips again as well as playing with the nine patch possibilities. many of my scraps are too small to get even a three and a half inch square out of so i thought i would see about crumb piecing those squares or some of those squares. i think it has possibilities but the ladies in my guild may not be too keen on them . . . i'll have to get some feedback from a few of them. i guess if they are deemed unacceptable i can always use them in some future project of my own.

the bugs are out~!~ today while i was out in the yard i noticed that there are bugs out everywhere. the pond has several different forms of buglife swimming about with the goldfish. the ant hill where the wood ants live is crawling with feverish acitivity as they all rush about to remove the extra covering that they added right before Winter set in. there are spiders jumping around in the rock mulch and flies pesking around here and there . . . lots of bugs are up and actively about~!~ it was so warm out today and there was no cold wind blowing. and the bugs are coming out so it must be Spring~!!!~

green and growing~!~after a brief wander in the yard i found this growing out from under the compost pile. Spring is getting here slowly but surely.

i found these sweet little furry buds on a tree down the street yesterday when taking a walk. so i snipped off a tiny bit and brought it home to put in an ultra tiny glass vase and enjoy. there they were this morning when i got up and once again they made me smile . . . just the beginning of a very sunshiny day with more smiles to come . . .

of course i had to photograph them (in black and white). i hope they make you smile as well.

SOOC

Documenting postcards made for my daughter to take to Honduras with her for Christmas sending when the time comes. front of "It's Christmas Time" card made from recycled paper Christmas card with additional small metal Christmas tree light brads strung on a fine metallic cord. edges of this card are not bound with seperate binding. there is a blanket stitch hand embroidered along outer edges from small metallic cord. has a holiday faux cancellation on the front of the card.

back of "It's Christmas Time" card. showing signature/faux post. also has some small metal Christmas light brads on string.

Documenting postcards made for my daughter to take to Honduras with her for Christmas sending when the time comes. front of "A World of Holiday Wishes" card made from a recycled Paper Christmas card, fabric, ribbon and some hand embroidery added. has a holiday faux cancellation on the front of the card. is bound and hand stitched.



back of "A World of Holiday Wishes" card showing signature/faux post.