Wool reindeer herd

I rounded up the wool reindeers that members of the Woolies have made this winter. They're from a pattern shown above with the red bird, which is from a quilt store in Bellingham whose name escapes me.

The reindeer above with a blue bird is by Pam and the next one is by Mary.

Next up is mine ...

... and last is Donna's. It's been fun seeing the different approaches to color and embellishing.

Have a colorful day

Woolies color on a blue-sky day

Detail of Donna's house block.

Woolies met this week, and what an inspirational meeting it was! There were only four of us because most had fled rainy Washington for the sun (although our meeting day was gloriously sunny), but it was filled with color and beautiful stitching.

Donna unveiled her nearly complete "At Home In the Garden" wool applique masterpiece. After beautifully embellishing the blocks with embroidery, beads, buttons and fancy ribbons, she's now finishing it with hand quilting. She had the lattice strips and borders machine quilted to anchor everything before she started hand quilting within the blocks.

Here are more details:

Mary, meanwhile, brought some wonderful wool embellished eggs that she made ...

... from this pattern.

Victoria was working on this sweet piece ...

... and she also made these sweet orange cream scones.

Double yum!!!

I worked on my version of "At Home In the Garden," which is in the previous post.

And here is the view from where we stitched! We were inside, but this is what we saw through Donna's windows. It was a fantastic, warm, blue-sky day. That's Mt. Rainier and the Puget Sound.

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Bunnies and embellishing

My daughter just sent these two pictures of my bunny grandchildren, and they're so adorable they make my heart ache! I just want to hold them, but they're hundreds of miles away. 

The top cutie is Bunners, who is going on 12 years old and only weighs about two pounds. Julia calls the second picture "bunny hug." It's Charlie and Bailey wrapped around each other like a furry yin yang symbol.

My wool rabbit is nowhere near as cute. I added a few gold beads in my quest to make it a little more interesting.

I'm continuing to embellish the other blocks in the wool applique quilt that I've been working on for the past year. I keep going back and adding a little here, a little there.

I think it's getting close to completion. Then the hard part -- quilting -- will come. I much prefer making the top to doing the quilting.

Today is a good day for sewing because it's grey and drizzly outside.

Have a colorful day

Embellishing the wool

I've turned my attention back to the wool applique pattern I started a year ago, "At Home In the Garden." I decided it needed some stars, moon and sun, so I added those and now I'm back to embellishing with embroidery and beading.

It's also our 35th anniversary today! This photo was taken seven or eight years ago at Lake Crescent on the Olympic Peninsula. We're headed to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner tonight.

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February color block

Photos from February.

I know February isn't over yet, but I think I've collected enough photos of this month's color to do the block for the month. If a big color surprise comes up in the next week, I'll do another block.

It was lighter than last month, with the sun setting noticeably later. Even when it is grey, it seems to be a lighter grey than in January, plus we've had snow. Orange koi in our pond and some pink blooms and glossy green leaves nearby added slivers of color.

Above are the fabrics I gathered to go with the photos, and below is the background for the fabric collage.

Here's the finished block!

And here are some photos that I took today after yesterday's snowfall. Buddha isn't fazed, and the fish are swimming under the ice.

I'm linking to Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Friday post at finding-your-voice-off-wall-friday.html
This week, Nina Marie offers a great exercise on finding your artistic voice.

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Painting results

Yesterday I added a little more paint to some fabric that already had been partially painted and dried. Here's how the wet paint moved around. Above is the wet fabric, and below is how it looked today after it dried and was ironed. I actually like it better when it was wet and darker.

Again, the next two photos show wet fabric and dried and ironed fabric. I used Setacolor and Dye-Na-Flow, which both dry lighter.

This morning it snowed! Remember that award-winning book, "Snow Falling On Cedars," which took place in the Puget Sound? That is exactly what was going on this morning.

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Woolies inspiration

We had an exceptionally inspirational Woolies meeting this week, with everyone pulling out colorful projects filled with amazing embroidery details. These first three are from a quilt that Mary is making.

Next up are some fish and a house by Karen.

Flowers by Nancy:

And flowers and a butterfly by Linda:

Judy has been working on this Sue Spargo Christmas quilt for awhile, and now she's doing a combination of hand and machine quilting. The pattern is "Crimson Tweed."

And another reindeer appeared, with this version by Donna. I've shown several others in past posts. There were a few more projects being worked on, but my pictures didn't do them justice.

Last but not least is little Lizzie, who wore feathers in her fur to get into the party spirit. 

 Have a colorful day