A Quilting Break?

Last week the wind blew and it rained, hailed and snowed…not really gardening weather, but great for staying indoors.  Well I was indoors for 6 days and cabin fever never set in except for the little cabins I was piecing for a really cute quilt by The Rabbit Factory called Around the Block.  I am starting this pattern backwards, I should be making the middle, but I wanted to get right to those cute house blocks.  I am making 2 identical blocks at a time because I think I could use them in so many other projects like table runners, mug rugs, pillow toppers and who knows what  else I will think up.  They are sure fun to make! If you look close at the fabric in the tree you will see that it is a print of cabbage leaves and I thought it added a lot of texture to the little trees.  I am pulling all these fabrics out of my newly organized stash.  Having just organized it was a great idea because I found fabrics I forgot I had and now it is all fresh on my mind. 

Well after a couple days of sewing and playing with fabrics and a little cooking and baking thrown in I got an urge to tackle an idea I’ve had in my head for a while.  Ever since I moved in to this house I have wanted to paint a tree on a wall so I got out a pencil and started drawing then collected all my paints together and just got started.  I figured that if I didn’t like it I could always just paint over it.  We just applied for a fictitious name for our new little orchard we are about to plant so this helped inspire my project.  We are growing lots of varieties of fruit trees so my painted fruit tree is sort of a fruit cocktail tree.  I am painting plums, apples and pears in it.  What a fun project to do on a freezing couple of days while you are dreaming of warmer weather to come.  Oh, our little home has become “Humminbird Farmz”…and maybe someday we will be able to sell some of the fruits of our labor, for now though we are enjoying the process of getting it all together.

Cabin Fever can be a good thing!

Ferne

Me and My Janome on a Windy Day

 

Yesterday was one of those days when you just want to stay inside and so I did!  I have been finishing up a lot of quilting projects lately, but today I just wanted to start something fresh and simple.  I was inspired by a little mug rug picture I saw at Shape Moth (a new to me blog that you must check out).  There was no tutorial just a picture and for me that is where the fun begins.  I love figuring things out and doing the math, but the one thing I didn’t quite get was how she did those tiny bees on her mug rug so I just have one big bee on mine.

I also had to spend some time playing with stitches on my machine.  I haven’t had my Janome 6600 very long so I haven’t figured out all the stitches.  On my old Janome I found that I like to use a blind hem stitch with the bite made as small as possible and it makes the appliqué look like I had done it by hand, but I couldn’t quite get the same stitch on the new Janome so I used a button hole stitch and I rather like the result.  I dialed the width down to a 1, but I think it will go even smaller.

I finished my Charming Butterflies quilt.  Lots of free motion quilting practice here.  Some of it looks like a kindergartener did it, but somehow it is so fitting on this quilt.  I have a Fig Tree Jelly Roll Stars quilt top that has been finished for almost 2 years just waiting for me to feel confident enough to quilt it, hopefully I will hit the 5th grade level of quilting soon and tackle it.  I have been following Wendy’s blog at Ivory Spring and she is sharing her wonderful quilting tips there weekly.  Today she shared a tip on how she uses freezer paper to get perfect circles…great idea!

Well, it looks like the wind is giving us a break today so I will probably be heading outside and doing a little yard work.  We are hoping to get a quote today on some deer fencing for our new orchard.  Once that is up Hummingbird Farmz will be on its’ way!  We already have some of our fruit trees ready for planting, lots of fertilizers to add and hundreds of fun ideas to try out in our little orchard.  I am hoping that in the future we can use this little corner of our property as a place for neighbors to gather to share ideas, talents great food and create friendships.  I haven’t met many of my neighbors in the year and half we have lived here, but the ones I have met have many talents and I think it would be nice to be able to broaden our horizons and branch out by meeting and sharing and our location is so central to everyone and it is flat and bare at the moment…so we are going to see what we can do to bring people together here.  I foresee a quilt show, BBQ and pie eating going on here in the future.

Share the good times!

Ferne