Border or not?

Finished this scrap experiment yesterday and tried interviewing a number of different
fabrics for a border last night, but so far nothing seems to be 'it'.

What do you think? no border? or if a border what kind/colour do you think would work with it? Thought about a small 1" black? then maybe a strip pieced outer border but maybe too busy?

Help!? drawing a big ol'blank here.

Heartstrings - Sarahs quilt

Finished quilting, labeling and binding this really beautiful heartstrings quilt that Sarah made. I just love the colours and the setting that she used.
I used King Tut thread on it and I so hope that Sarah likes what I did with it, going to send it UPS today so it hopefully gets back to her within a few days.

Sarah is going to donate this to a man recently diagnosed with lung cancer, I thought of him with every stitch and hope that it brings him some small comfort over this difficult time.

I really enjoy the heartstrings group, the ladies there are so giving and caring, there are no restrictive rules really, some guidelines but all in all Mary supports us making whatever we are able and wish to make. She is an amazing lady.

Playing with Strings

Wanted to try something a little different with strings today, Sarah B sent me some lovely ones to play with, thank you Sarah!

I stitched several stratas from strings and then cut out wedges, stitched them together and ended up with this twisted block affair. I think it looks kind of neat. Saw the idea in fons and porter magazine, made a lil differently but same sort of thing.

Its about 21" square, going to make a few more and see what I end up with =)

Finished.. woot!

I have now completed the quilting on all 4 of the quilts and am so happy they are done! Will deliver the last 2 today and then can start on Sarah's lovely heartstring top which I loaded last night. I keep fluctuating on it, custom or overall, its such a pretty top, all my favorite colours. Will decide today, but am leaning towards an overall because of the number of seams.

Here are pictures of the blue batik. the first 3 photos are of the back, shows the quilting more I think. One of these days I need to learn to take better pictures.

suggestions?

almost done ripping out the stitches around the multi-star quilting, but I really
dont know what to do in the area around it? The larger triangles outside of the squares I will do the arrowhead feathers as I have on the rest of the quilt, but
any suggestions as to what to do around the star? Just keep coming up blank, everything I have tried so far just doesnt look right...

one of those days

So yesterday it didnt seem to matter what I touched it went wrong.
So wrong that I was ready to put my machine up for sale, curl up in the fetal
position and lay there for the rest of my days! lol

Instead I let myself get into a funk, flipped on the TV which I hate, nothing on, grumbled tons, went to bed early.

Today I will unpick yet again, McTavishing is not my forte, or, it just isnt right for this quilt, or wrong kind of thread, or or or...either way, instead of after 20 passes or so with my head saying 'nope this isnt right' I continued on thinking 'maybe more will make it look better', which just means a lot more to unpick! ugh ugh ugh.

off I go, ripper in hand....course then there is the problem of all the needle holes...wish me luck!

See I dont post for weeks and then....

I'm terrible at updating this thing regularly!

Oh well, maybe make it one of my New Years resolutions? nah..I never keep those lol

Here is an apron I made for a lil 7 year old girl who loves fairies and pink and purple of course =) Soon as she opened it she put it on and wore it all day, made my heart smile.

I found the directions to make it on the net somewhere, great little tutorial, I changed a couple of things but this took all of about an hour to make, 'cept for the embroidery which took a lil while. design is from emblibrary. Their embroidery designs always turn out so nice. I used metallic gold and bronze for the whirly gig thing shes sitting on, and I flubbed up on the wings, somehow changed to the wrong colour but oh well, she didnt seem to mind =)




She rang me the other day and said Guess what?
Me: What sweetness?
Her: I'm helping Mama make lemon meringue pie!
Me: Yummmmm
Her: And guess what else?
Me: hmm your eating more than your making?
Her: no Mama won't let me, but I'm wearing my apron!!
Me: Awesome dudette!
Her: oh...this is Lauryn....

lol

Freehand jelly feathers

Decided to give the jelly feathers a go on this quilt of my friends,
I think they turned out 'ok'.

I did freehand leaves on the bottom, the jelly feathers on the top, to me this
quilt looked like a garden.

sometimes the best intentions..

Well its done but I don't think I will ever be happy with it.

One of the problems of doing quilts for others, at least for me is, what if
you really dont like the thing? In retrospect I should have done a panto on this
baby panel, but I had this idea in my head that somehow I could make it better..
this was a panel, with added borders, I am not sure what it is about it, maybe the colours?

I guess thats what makes us all individuals, we all have different tastes and thats
a very good thing! and for me, well I'm glad its done and gone lol

A most difficult day

I know the world is filled with problems and in respect of all that mine is so small, but my stomach is in knots, I can barely breath and the tears are just so close that my eyes are burning trying to hold them back. I have to or else I will just reduce into a blubbering fool and that isnt going to help.

My sweet cat and friend for so long is sick, so sick that he has become so thin and dehydrated that he is just wasting away. He tries so hard to eat, the vet gave him subcataneous fluids but still today he is in very bad shape =( His bloodwork shows nothing that they tested for save elevated white blood cell count but he has no fever, she feels indictive of something ominous, likely cancer. She thinks he will die soon, and thinks he is probably suffering. They have reserved a spot for him today and just waiting on me to call with a decision.



How does one decide such a thing? I truly don't know. What if its wrong, what if he could get better and I end his life? How do I drive my faithful friend to the vets, look into his eyes and end his life. I just dont know.

I mean I do know. I dont want him to suffer, he doesnt deserve that, he deserves for me to be strong and do what is best for him, not for me, for him.

Still, what if we are all wrong, this thought is haunting me.

He isnt sick in the picture, that was in October, he looks so healthy and happy there, how can things change so quickly? this feels like a horrible nightmare.

/sigh