Wednesday Work

I finished a NICU charity quilt this afternoon. I have one more to go and I'll be ready to take them all to St. Vincent's Infirmary.

I just kept it simple with this one. I needed to get it done and get the next one taken care of because it's been a while since I delivered any. Straight lines and stitching in the ditch made this fast work.

 The next one is sandwiched and ready to start quilting tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to take them to Little Rock next week.

And maybe tomorrow, I'll get my Bingo Board finished for the May For Me Bingo Celebration I'm participating in.

You can check out my post about that here. 

I Hear Something....

 

 What was that? Please repeat yourself....

That's what I though you said!

This is what I worked on finishing up today. I really wanted this little area above my desk finished so I could focus on other things.

I finished painting the board today. I saw something like it while perusing beach cottages online one day and decided to do one for myself. I added the shells and starfish to make it my own. I have to say I'm pretty pumped at how it turned out.

I thought about doing the master bedroom entirely in a beach motif, but decided Mr. BLines wouldn't really love it as much, so I will stick to this one area along with my "Swimming Sea Turtle" colored walls. I finished painting the bedroom and bathroom this week. When I get everything just so, I'll share the before and after photos with everyone.

Christmas in February

Here is my monthly installment of what I call Twelve Months of Christmas. Well, at least it's my second installment. Who knows if I come up with more?? Anyhoo, let's revisit my inspiration ornament, purchased at Cracker Barrel.

L O V E it!!  Now, here is the first attempt at something along these lines.

It's a little quilted circle with an appliqued Chickadee and holly. A bit of embroidery and some jewels add to the simple design. The back is the same fabric, one I just pulled out of the cabinet because it was neutral.  I tried adding some Diamond Dust, but it really didn't add anything to the black part.  It was not a big hit, but will be put on the tree anyway. Neeext...

Mucho Better!! Here's what I did. I took a small embroidery hoop and muslin, and painted the design on. I added little pearly beads for dimension, and a bit of glitter acrylic paint to the word Joy. I painted the hoop white around the edges, hot glued rick rack on the top and sides of it, and then added the little bow with some do-dads I bought on clearance at Walmart after Christmas. This is the back...

Just a round cut of green fabric to give it a finished look. This one I am very happy with. And it gives me another idea for using the little hoops. Maybe that will be next month's idea!

Puff Two

Here is the second painting I've done which is inspired by a Puffs tissue box design.

My brother created some 10x10 box frames for me a while back, just so I could add canvas and paint on them. Unfortunately, I didn't have any canvas handy, but what I did have was Aida cloth that Snoodles awarded me. (I told you I had other things in mind than cross stitching, didn't I Snoodles?)

This little painting didn't take long at all, and I was very content while doing it. Peace and happiness filled my soul as I welded the brush. Oh, it's not the stuff of Van Gogh, but it suits me just fine.

Linking up to Rock 'N Share at The Shady Porch

February Finish

Second charity quilt of the year is finished.

I hope a sweet little baby girl will be able to use this and it will bless her Mama and Daddy. I used several different styles of decorative stitching to applique the floral pieces. That was a fun experiment!

It was really fun to do, and you can see the hearts I stitched on the binding here.

I just folded the backing over the top for the binding. It worked really well against the black of the border fabric as well as saved some time and fabric.

Now, on to the next one...brown and yellow is the plan this time.

My First Love

Oh Painting...how I've missed you.... *smooch!*

I've been a painting walls lately. My bedroom and bathroom walls to be exact, and that's not what I'm talking about here.  Before I sewed, before I quilted, I painted. It was and still is my first love. I just don't have much time for it these days.

This is what I worked on today.

It's a box my grandfather made for me years and years ago. It's not out of really good lumber, just what he had on hand, but it's solid and made with love. I don't remember exactly what precipitated this box building, but I think I made a comment about needing a magazine holder or something like that.

My grandfather was known to keep everything he ever owned, and bringing home anything he found. He might have invented the term "dumpster diving" but there were no dumpsters in the country where he lived. So, we would have to say he "gravel pit swimming"  or maybe "garbage pile poaching".. what a man! He once built a storage house made completely from discarded shower doors and tin. He was a genius and family folks just laughed at him. My family and I still get a kick out of mentioning it and he's been in heaven since 1997.

I stained the box at first. After all, everything else in my house at that time was stained wood. Ugh. How dreary was that? And after all these years, I decided to paint it to match my bedroom wall color. Wanna know where I got my inspiration? Bet you'll never guess...well that is unless you are a collector of Puffs Plus boxes. Yep. That's right. A box of kleenex. They have some awesome designs and I plan to use a few more designs as inspiration for some wall art.  Until then...

...I'll enjoy my little water themed box that holds all kinds of neat things. Paper, notebooks, extra Bibles and other sundry items. This little trip back to my first love has awakened a heartfelt desire to paint more. Wish me luck!!

Linking up with Rock 'N Share at the Shady Porch and Minutes for Me at Crafty Sewing & Quilting.

Joy and Rapture!

After fighting this thing for a YEAR, I finally finished it yesterday.... Hallelujah!

I didn't piece the colored parts, just added most of the muslin. My cousin's grandmother started it and he asked me to finish it. I had to attach every circle to a center and to each other circle then quilt and bind it.

The vintage fabrics were really cool, but I don't think they will hold up to a washer, not to mention be colorfast. So, I am going to recommend he not wash it, but I do think it turned out pretty well considering I didn't have a clue what I was doing when I started.

I think I can safely say that I will not try another wedding ring quilt in this lifetime. It might have been easier if I'd started it from scratch, but I don't want to try to piece all those little things to make a circle. Not my idea of fun.

I'm glad to have it finished, and I'm sure he'll be glad to have it back after waiting for a year. I just kept putting it aside because it just wasn't fun. Now that it's over, I'm glad I did it.