Thursday, March 23, 2023

I Like Thursday # 342

 

Welcome to this week's list of likes! I like pretty easter pastel fairy lights, and put them along the stairs with some green leaf garland, and around the family room window too. So pretty!

I've been under the weather, dealing with a very poor back, several migraines (from yard chemicals neighbors put out) and the burst of cold temps started my chillblaines again (blistering on fingers) so this might be short...

 Reading

audio book, just finished, was really good. Imagine writing a new ending to stories and having them come true in real life... recommend it highly!


 now listening to: next in the by the bay series

 

approaching the end of this ebook

 

next up another Celeste Ng 

fine dining

Although this recipe looks really good, and fun, 

https://preppykitchen.com/pan-dulce/ 

Pan Dulce on a blue serving plate with a cup of coffee in the background 

I made these oatmeal/pecan/chocolate chip cookies again from the Gasparilla cookbooy

I also made greek eggplant parm. again, so delish, (recipe here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWJAt5TkX4c) but I prebake not fry the eggplant. Lots of work but we have lots left over for meals too.

just fun

 I thoroughly enjoyed reading this short list by Melissa McCarthy, agree on several items!

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-i-travel-melissa-mccarthy 

Sadly

one of the I Like members lost her beloved, 17 year old poodle... our hearts and love go out to her...

Pat at https://faithtrustandbreastcancer.blogspot.com/

 Our Prompt this week is vegetables....

 the time will come when it's hot enough to grow them... do you grow any, are you successful? what do you always plant, and please tell me what seed companies you like best! I can't go to Home Depot and buy seedlings again this year.

Survival Garden Seeds Vegetable Garden Collection Seed Vault - Non-GMO Heirloom Family Garden Seeds for Planting - 

every year I try tomatoes. Twice I tried planting old tomatoes, and while plenty of greenery came up only one tomato fleshed out. Back in Maryland I had a lush garden, growing tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, herbs, and two years, white eggplants! They were the best I've ever eaten! 

Here the ground is less hospitable. The heat too high over 100F. The sun too intense. I try basil, which lives if not thrives. I tried pole beans, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, in containers so I could regulate water but, nothing thrives. I think I'd be quite happy with a BIG veggie garden, complete with flowers. 

Milo's moment

Milo here, I like it when Mama plants a squirrel/bunny/chipmunk trap out back! 

Mama: MILO! what are you talking about?

Milo: when you plant veggies, all the critters show up for dinner! 

Mama: well they're disappointed... what veggies do you like? 

Milo: Oh I like a lot of what you like, I like them cooked with butter too. Potatoes, carrots, cabbage, any beans especially lima's... no asparagus though. 

Another of my likes is destruction

It's not like eating but it's so much fun and so satisfying to hear that r i i i i p p p p sound! 

now stay and visit mama's friends to see what they liked this week and tell her if you wrote a post!

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Saturday, March 18, 2023

my creative week number two.... spring bunnies and little hexies

For part two of my creative week, I have two things to share. The first is my Stay-At-Home-Round-Robin quilt, "Spring Bunnies" is finished! Yea! 

I made this into a spring theme this year, figuring out how to adjust prompts to fit into that!

"Spring Bunnies" 39" X 47"

We have had 6 prompts, and I've posted that week's blocks each time, with pattern sources and close ups. This week I will just share some close ups of my choices

The first prompt was "spool" blocks, and mine is in the image below... I did one with flowers as a vase

This image also shows the   star blocks mine are flowers), and pinwheels too


 

square in a square blocks hold precious mousie fabrics

below are two bird blocks done as square in a square too









hourglass blocks are done in sky fabrics

more flying geese form a butterfly

it was a puzzle to figure out how to piece all these blocks into a unified whole top!








The star "flower" blocks have a sun button in them

I added in cute little appliques to make me happy... see my snail smiling? (for Joanne)

I made the "sticks" for my 3-D pinwheels with metallic braid appliqued in place. Two fabrics per blade, folded and caught in seams... pattern is in original pinwheel post.. Note two different greens used as background for interest. That adorable tiny daisy fabric makes me happy!

All that and a dancing bunny....

this was very heavy and difficult to quilt on my little sewing machine, and my shoulders hurt now...the binding was one of my fave fabrics,

wee little purple blossoms before it was turned back and hand stitched to the backing fabric. Another lesson learned... I used a pink with leaves batik for my backing. It was nearly impossible to hand stitch the binding through it! I added in the sleeve before the binding, catching it in the seamline.

I decided next time I do one of these, I'm doing rows. Simple rows.

this is like a recipe that has all good ingredients but the final dish doesn't taste great... I like all the components but not the total thing really.... live and learn and move on. 

hanging in the family room...


 

Things I like, those pinwheels! my center bunny! the spool block as a vase, and those birds.

Next up, my hand stitching hexie scrap project is growing!!!

47 hexies in each petal!

5 petals sewn on my tiny hexie project... following colors of rainbow scrap challenge... this month's color is green...

I posted on Part One of my week, my finished Project Quilting quilt... the prompt was "fears" so I made this in one day

the post, with two paintings as well, is   (HERE  ) or just keep scrolling down. Please visit and tell me what you think....thanks!

All in all, two finishes in one week is a lot for me, I'm taking a rest while I do Sketchbook Revival next week and focus on drawing and painting!

SAHRR

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

finished or not

 

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Friday, March 17, 2023

My Creative week, part one FOMO plus two paintings

 

FOMO   9.5" X 16"

This is my project quilting offering for the last prompt of this year... "fear" what do you fear? 

crikey, let's not take a month to list all my fears! I settled on "F (ear) O(f) M(issing) O(ut). 

I love an event, a parade, a fair, an art show, a tour of museums, etc... going and doing. I am also imuno-compromised,  born with only one kidney, and have survived some deadly viruses like Meningitis for example and have lifelong effects from it.

 I am allergic to the vaccine for covid. 

my life now consists of trying to stay safe, which means avoiding all people who don't "believe" in it. 

I'm not about to share here all the real fears I live with, having survived a rough childhood that left scars, and accumulating a lifetime of injuries to my body, but I will share this quilt! 

I started by cutting up some fusible backed fabric scraps and forming letters, then choosing a background (black on black party fabric) and others

from my stash of lovely fabrics. The bottom one is a cherished Caryl Bryer Fallert print. Some fussy cutting and some additional shapes cut from that fusible scrap bin, and voila! A quilt made in one day.
cut a circle, then cut into it round and round, back out makes a spiral!

I love travel, seeing places, meeting people from different cultures, learning... so I chose a travel fabric for the reverse (back) of my little quilt....
I'd love to go to Paris, Japan, India, England, and Italy. South Pacific and see pyramids too!



 

And now for something completely different... I took an art journal class that took me out of my watercolor-painting comfort zone!

the finished picture...

started with writing my thoughts all over the paper (I took a photo of that for myself) then proceeding to cover it with layers of paint and gesso... 

Here I decided to use a stencil and a water soluble pastel crayon, to put a bird on it!
draw with crayon inside stencil, then drag a water brush to blend the color inward

then proceeded to totally overwork the whole thing! I do like the addition of "sing your song" to remind me each of us has something unique to offer humanity... don't hide it

then I thought, let's try another one, this time using a glue stick instead of the gel medium that gave me a migraine... ack.... just let myself go, follow the feelings... 

torn bits from adverts or magazines, a torn napkin, some sheet music, a lovely face. Then, in the style of my current teacher online, cover it all up with layers... oy.... against my artistic nature... 

again, completely over worked, trying every idea from gesso through stencils, to markers, to gold watercolor paint.

I've decided if I don't like the picture, I do like little cropped images of it. After all it was a learning exercise. I learned I don't like all that mess! I don't like chaos. I do prefer painting with watercolor but I used the acrylics I own, and made an effort to control them. 

Do you like to challenge yourself to use supplies that are unfamiliar? Are you always able to turn that into art that feels like a reflection of you?

see the napkin from the start?

I learned more about how to paint fast since acrylics dry so quickly in colorado, I learned to paint with a palette knife, how to etch into gesso, and got to use my stencils. Thank you to sonja, my painting friend in Hawaii, for sending me a packet of organza butterflies, I used them in both pictures. 

I have another finish to share on Saturday, my stay at home round robin is done! And a small very intense hexie project taking wing. Please stop back by to tell me what you think! 

project quilting

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

https://myblog-lunchbreak.blogspot.com/  

https://beadwright.blogspot.com/2023/03/friday-face-off-31722.html 






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