At the beginning of September we had at least 50 hummingbirds at our feeders. I was making a gallon of nectar each day. Now, one week into October, we still have 5 hummingbirds. This male rubythroat was in the grass one morning early, covered with dew and unable to fly. My husband held it till it began to dry, then it flew away.
This is a full-sized quilt that my dear husband is holding for the picture. It started as a backing that a friend sent to me to use with a small quilt top. But it was the most beautiful fabrics of red/yellow/orange. I could not bring myself to relegate it to the back of a quilt. So I chopped and slashed, added wide and thinner strips of offwhite, pieced in different sized and different colored circles, quilted it with concentric circles and horizontal meander to produce this quilt named 'Orange Back on Top'. Fun - Fun - Fun!!!
We are having our final 2008 4Sister block exchange this month. The only rule for this one is that it be based on leaves. This is the block design I have made - the fabric in the lower right has been painted first with pigment inks then overrubbed with oil paint.
Two weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated 26 years together. I made this small top to commemorate those 26 years. There are 26 flowers lining the path of marriage (looking more like a river), but rocks also are strewn alongside. Some of the flowers, although bright and beautiful seem to want to reach out and drag you off the intended path.
I attended an embellishment class with teacher Paula Reid this week - so there are now threads and fibers couched on this piece. It is still a Work in Process....
Browsing thru an old Coldwater Creek magazine this week - I was inspired! The colors and fabrics they use in their clothing are just beautiful. And they were selling some beautiful prints by artist Cheri Blum. (Saddened to learn from visiting her website that she passed away a few years ago.) I gathered some leaves, got out burgundy and orange fabric inks and got to work. Painted 7 blocks, then pulled out a piece of oriental fabric and a dark red velvet - started piecing it all together. It lacked something....thru in a few small pieces of teal blue.....and this wallhanging makes my heart sing! Plan to quilt the snot out of it....and hang it up high in our living room.
After making the black placemat purse (shown at bottom) I had some scraps leftover - added some other scraps along with 2 blocks of painted wildflowers and 2 hours later I have this small wallhanging top. I like how it came out - but it really needs some sublte and some not so subtle, funky quilting to really set it off.
These scraps of mostly orange with purple was a sample for embellishing in a class with Paula Reid. It has couched threads, cords, beads and baubles sewn on. I had also couched a wire across it - which I did not like, luckily I was able to pull the wire out. When I crumpled it to throw it away, the shape of the wire now looked pretty good. So I added some beads and baubles to the wire and sewed it on also - you can see it in the upper right. This is now my purse, complete with a picture of my two children on it.
