Happy Mother's Day

Our daughter and her family dropped by cautiously since she's an essential worker at the local hospital and has been working crazy extended hours to gift me with a local bakery special of Apple Caramel Pie.

Happy Mother's Day!  

Daffodils are dancing in the snow driven winds, thankfully the white crap doesn't stay long but those arctic temps are really getting to me!  Hovering near 32 F  and then consider the winds factored in  it's below zero.  Enough Already!!!

Recently we did get the colder crops planted in the garden.   Peas, Spinach, beets all done.   Will share what DH made to ease some of my garden chores.   Hopefully, it'll work great and be productive.

Off to finish a long awaited sofa table runner.  Love it so far and will share the finish soon.

Finally

Spring Patchabilities is done.  What was the holdup besides my natural tendancy to procrastinate and to overthink a process, you might ask.  Well I had a vision of daffodils dancing in front of the embroidered gate and I finally made got some time to play.

First I tried coloring the recyled Tevlar (sp?)  mailing envelopes to hold onto the color.  That was a bust.

So I then  cut out diffferent sized circles to heat shrink it.  Thinking I would paint them afterwards with an acrylic paint.  Some shrinkage did happen but I wasn't satisfied with the end result so ditched that option. 

May have to try that out on another project with more shapes baked in molded cups before using the heat gun.

Then I thought, perhaps I could fuse 2 fabrics wrong sides together to make my imagined dancing daffodils and use some of those Shiva Paintsticks and the other brand of fabric markers that I bought at Michaels to blend more colors.  So I played around with that for quite a while.  I couldn't manipulate the fabric to come out like I envisioned, so ditched that.

Then I thought perhaps some silk flowers could lend their way into helping me to create those daffodils.  Natta!

This is her, SPRING PATCHABILITIES.

That's when I called it done and proceeded to quilt, bind and hang it on the wall. Now you know why I am slow to finish things. I am my worst enemy for finishing as I always am thinking more and what if I tried that scenerios. Seems like I start with a baby quilt and before you know it I get a king quilt done.

 

Despite having thatunseasonal 80 degree weather several weeks ago the gardens and landscapes are really looking like Spring is here. These two pics are where I tore up my garden and transplanted , weeded and mulched last year. Can't wait to see how much better this will be. Crossing my fingers now.

Next gardening focal point will be to revamp that section  that sets behind the gas tanks and the garage.

Jane

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Joining with Judy Laquidera's UFO challenge 2012

Judy Laquidera from Patchwork times blog has hosted this challenge for two years now, as far as I'm aware of. I did participate last year. Not as successful as many participants, but I still consider my involvement a success in being abole to totally complete 5 projects besides the other numbers were worked on and at least progressed on.
So it's with eager anticipation that I'm listing another 12 for this year. Now in the same paragraph, I'm also challenging myself to keep up with the UFO challenge that my mother's guild in Florida does. Naming 5 projects and with that challenge, you have 2 months to complete it. I'll list those at the end of this post without pictures since many are included in Judy's UFO challenge.


Number 1 - Husband's Bathrobe - Number drawn for February  2012.

Number 2 - Tow Mater Quilt - This one was  drawn for May 2012.

Number 3 - Scalloped Table Runner - This was July 2012 number that ws drawn.


Number 4 - Santa Redwork


*Number 5 - Inukshuk table quilt - Number drawn for January 2012
Finished this on January 31, 2012!  Glad I only used this technique for a small project.  For reverse applique, I  prefer the finished look doing it by hand rather than by machine as was taught in the class by Cathy Miller.   This quiltlet will remind me of our journey across Quebec and Ontario on our trip to the midwest.  Many Inukshuks were stacked along the highways and byways along the way.   Hummmm, reminds me I have an assortment of stone I brought back from Nova Scotia to make an Inukshuk to stand in the gardens or near the pond.  Perhaps I'll be getting to that soon.


* Number 6 - Cheryl's Chris' Quilt - Number drawn for ????? 
This was  finished and delivered this to Juanita on January 26, 2012.   Was able to make a bright green piping which I then added a solid  black binding.    It Looks really nice with that combo and it compliments the rest of the quilt beautifully.  When I delivered it, Juanita was in tears and thanking me for making this.  How  Bittersweet, glad I was able to, but missing her daugher , my friend Cheryl. 

Number 7 - Spring Patch-a-bilities this was drawn for August 2012 UFO challenge.


Number 8 - Disappearing Nine Patch with Moda's Kashmir IV line drawn for March 2012


Number 9 - Convergence
Sorry no photo......(I Need to find where I stored this one, esp if she pulls this number tomorrow!)

Number 10 - Grunge Quilt drawn for April 2012


Number 11 - 3 Baby Quilts to finish drawn for September 2012


Number 12 - Fall Country Flowers Patch-a-bilities - this was June's 2012 number drawn.



Two additional projects I'd like to get too are the Four Patch quilt and the Flora quilt.
Many of the above listed have been started and are languishing away waiting for me to get inspired or uh hum.... driven to finish them. Some are just kitted up and I want to get to, but yet won't allow myself to start until I get some more UFO's finished! A definite catch 22? and a vicious cycle? Or more likely my realistic "Janie Conundrums"!

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As for joining the challenge with Mom's guild that is starting on the 10th. You are to list 5 projects and number them. When the number is pulled (as Judy does) BUT herein lies the difference...........you have two months to get it completed. Here's how I divided them up for that:

1-     Tow- Mater Quilt

2-     Convergence Wallhanging
        Beach Tote finished 3 of these!  The last two while retreating in Fine, NY.

3-    - this was drawn for January through March 2012
        *Cheryl's Chris' Deer Quilt - Finished and delivered to Cheryl's Mom in Rouses Point, NY on 1/26/12
        *Inukshuk - Finished on 1/31/12 as a quiltlet to stand via an acrylic photo frame on a table top.
         Spring Patchabilities was drawn for August 2012.

4-     Disappearing 9 patch

5-     Santa Redwork 

As you can see most of these are also listed in the 2012 UFO list of 12 in Judy's challenge. I do hope the Number 5 is drawn first in Florida. All of these really don't have that much more to get done on. For the life of me I wonder why they end up in the UFO pile!

Happy New Year!

Jane

Friday....

The plentiful UFOs and whimms are proceeding nicely. I was able to finish stitching several counted cross stitch kits I had in. I purchased them last year via ebay. All three originated from the Silver Needle as a pattern per month program they offered. I bought these in hopes to learn more about the different textiles and fibers that many stitchers deal with so it's an education in process.

This one titled SPRING:
The kit included 11- ct Betsy Ross Linen,#5 perle cotton in 3 shades of green and 1 of pink, 2 shades of pink in Splendor silk (Yummo!), overdyed purple floss, a mill hill tulip treasure, with tiny pink bead and a metal butterfly charm. I stayed with all recomendations of this kit except for the purple floss. It wasn't shaded enough for my preferences so I used DMC 52 instead.

Hopefully today while PGD#1 is here I'll be able to attempt my first flat fold. Not sure if I have all the neccessary parts yet. I did shop my stash and pulled 2 possible complementary fabrics to go with it. They are pictured above, I'm leaning towards the more colorful one despite the other having tulips and a more springtime feel in the print. Wish me luck.

Jane

PS: I just happened across a blog with free designs for my Little Heart monthly SAL. Thanks Sylvia for such a great design.