turkey feathers

Nursery Rhymes Quilt

September already! And the new Flower Quilt block and free patterns have been added on my website PatternBee. You can print out all 12 designs to make this darling quilt.  You will have to use a SULKY transfer pen or hectograph transfer pencil to trace over the lines before ironing them onto your fabric. They make a fun quilt and I wanted to share them.

Humpty Dumpty and the rest of these embroidery designs are part of my Nursery Rhymes Quilt, still in progress---see below.

Three Little Kittens. . .

Little Bo Peep...

I was just one strip short for the sashing; still trying to find a matching shade of blue so I can finish this. I added two different blocks that were not part of the original pattern. Can you spot them?

And . . . Don't miss this adorable set of FREE vintage patterns for TASK-A-DAY kitties too! Oh, if only I could be this organized and industrious.

Pom Pom Baby Slippers

Baby slippers I made from a pattern in this Japanese ZAKKA craft book.
Really fun to make, but time intensive. These took awhile with lots of tiny invisible stitches. Instead of straps I added pom-poms; just cut-off ball-fringe from a vintage chenille bedspread; soles are coarse-weave cloth, padded with fleece and lined with red-plaid flannel.

 
I think I'll enjoy them awhile here on my shelf.

Prairie Doll

My submission to the August month-of-softies pool.  Made from tea-dyed muslin and a recycled vintage cotton nightgown,  I was going in the direction of pioneer dolls of the 1800's. I wanted to make a doll that might've belonged to a little girl during that time period.  The handmade patchwork quilt seemed a fitting background. I made it while expecting my 4th child in 1997.

More Blackberry Goodness

As summer draws to an end, we are picking the last of the blackberries and making a few pies for the freezer. Come winter, these will taste like sweet summer sunshine. For those of you who have requested it, here's my recipe for Blackberry Cobbler.

The path that was blocked earlier in the season is now well-trodden.  As always the really *choice* berries are just out of reach or dangerously entwined with poison oak.   

But we still manage to get a sink-full. 

Paper Flowers

Sometimes it's the simplest thing that turns on the creativity.   Earlier in the week Sarah found a flower-shaped hang-tag I'd thrown in the craft drawer and used it as a template to trace around. Seeing her pretty painted flowers got me thinking about flower appliques and some other things I could do with that flower too.

How about a flower-shaped sachet, putting more of our dried lavender to good use.  Sarah made some using simple shapes.  She chose fabrics and hand-stitched along the dotted lines I'd marked for seam allowances.  She was quite pleased with them and decided she needed something pretty to put them in. 

So we went on a scavenger-hunt around the house and came up with one toddler size shoe box and one thrifted roll of potpourri scented non-adhesive shelf-paper. 

Which got transformed into this! We were both so tickled and surprised at how cute it turned out. And the box smells as good as the sachets because of the scented paper. 

Omiyage

Last week I was wandering around the bookstore and picked up this book which inspired a few quick projects.  These make the cutest little button bags and coin pouches.

Blueberry Morning

A cool morning invites blueberry picking...so we drove a few miles

out to a local farm and followed the road...and the signs...to find...

...a little bit of paradise out here in the fields...

...and berries ripe for the picking.

This place looks deserted but actually there were other

people and children hidden in the bushes that we heard

but never saw! 

 . . .

Besides galavanting through gardens

and fields this week,

I've also put some mileage on my sewing machine.

Here's the back of another apron-smock I just finished.

Made from a gorgeous strawberry-colored Italian linen.

It has a shimmer-sheen to it and is light-as-a-feather comfy.

All scrumptuously trimmed in Ginger Bliss, ...so dreamy.

I'll be lounging in this quite regularly, I think.

Garden Bug Inspiration

It was a great day to get outside and enjoy the mild weather and the herb garden was a-buzz with insect activity.

The colors and the textures really inspire me.

Look at these fennel seed heads ready to explode! Only a few more weeks of this garden bliss left.

I tried to capture the essence of the herb garden in a small quilt I began making a few years ago.  Every summer it gets pulled out and I put a few more stitches in it.

Probably should finish it, right?

Ginger is at that age where she is totally into bugs and is making a book all about them.

She made this "billboard" to advertise the "book" she's writing, which I found quite charming.

Lop-sided Loop Bag

The heat index hit a hundred here over the weekend. Didn't get a lot of sewing done, but did manage to finish this bag I started before I got side-tracked with my sewing room re-do (which is still in progress btw). Most of the bags I've been making lately have all been experiments without patterns; just trying different things. I got stuck on this one though and had left it sitting on the shelf unfinished. That is, until I spotted this picture in a Japanese craft book and hit on an idea. Everything else just came together once I figured out I could make loops instead of a casing for the ties. It reminds me of a little lop-sided cake.

Summer Quilt Hug

Summer Flower Quilt started last month; here in progress...and now done!  I always feel like celebrating after completing a quilt.  I've been trying to get a couple of good pictures of this since I finished it a few days ago.
I finally threw it on the floor and went to get my camera. Naturally a cat will appear out of nowhere when a quilt is laid down. A little "logo" applique dates and finishes it off nicely.  Used rainbow-dyed floss for the embroidery.  It's now ready to be packed up and sent off to a friend whose been feeling poorly. I hope this will cheer her up a little; like a warm hug from an old friend.