Replacing grey with color

This ... 

This morning's view from our deck. That's Fox Island in the fog.

... is why I do this:

When the world outside is grey, grey, grey, day after day, it's necessary to create your own world of color. So my next appliqué block has a pink sky, a purple tree, and orange rabbits.

The pattern uses brown and beige backgrounds, but I don't do brown or beige ... or grey or black. So I'm using two pink Grunge prints as my backgrounds and really bright colors of wool for the appliqués. I'm also going to give the blocks extra motion by curving the stems and branches more than in the pattern. And maybe (probably) add some sparkle with beads.

My Woolies group chose this pattern to do a block-of-the-month project, so it'll be interesting to see everyone's different color choices. 

I also was gifted last week with this fabulous collection of embroidery thread from a friend who got it from another friend who got it from a man whose wife passed away and was cleaning out her craft room. The bins of floss didn't sell at the estate sale and were headed for Goodwill. I'll use single strands of it to whip stitch the wool pieces down.

Have a colorful day

More details on wool applique

I keep going back and adding more embroidery and beading to my wool appliqué flowers -- it's hard to know when to quit! Plus, it's so addictive and meditative that I don't want it to end.

I've decided that the herringbone stitch (blue thread in photo above) is one of my favorites. It looks more complicated than it is and it goes very quickly.

I started out planning to use oodles of colors of beads but ended up mainly using gold. I used some gold in every single block to act as a unifying element. Love gold beads!

Here's another herringbone detail in the orange thread below. I like using it to fill in spaces like this. 

I have one block left to go, and I've been saving it for Sew Day tomorrow. I always used to bring my sewing machine to Sew Day, but for the last year or two I've mainly done hand stitching -- and my thumb joints are sure feeling it.

For a look at what other fiber artists have been doing this past week, hop over to off-wall-friday.html

Have a colorful weekend

Comfort Quilts top 1,600

Carol and Judy discuss the next step for a quilt.

Today was Gig Harbor Comfort Quilt day, when volunteers come together at our local quilt shop to work on quilts for breast cancer patients. It's always a fun day, full of talking and laughing and sewing.

Carol (above left), who started the project, said the group has now donated about 1,650 quilts to area patients! Here are just a few quilt tops from today. If you're interested in helping, stop by Nancy's Quilt Shop on Pioneer the fourth Wednesday of the month anytime between 10 and 4. You can bring your machine and piece or just hand sew labels, cut, or iron.

When we reached quilt 1,000, we had a party

and I blogged about it here:

 http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/2012/02/1000-comfort-quilts.html

   

Have a colorful day

Happy Earth Day!

Our weather forecast was for a rainy Earth Day, so yesterday -- when it was sunny -- I took some pictures for today's blog post. You can't celebrate Earth Day without bunnies, so here are the ones on our front porch. Bunners now lives with my daughter, so I can't take her photo for this post.  

Yesterday morning the sun burned through a curtain of mist,

creating drama behind our house.

I watched as the mist slowly lifted over Fox Island, across the water, and revealed a stunning blue sky. Soon our resident heron took up her post on a floating dock surrounded by glistening blue water. (Today it's all grey out there.)

In the yard, the sun illuminated

new hosta leaves

and sparkled on dew drops.

Inside, I added some gold beads to my wool appliqué. Now that it's raining, I think I'll spend some more time sewing.

p.s. Did you know that Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970?

Have a colorful day

"Colorful Landscape" quilt challenge

I'm taking a break from the wool appliqué to get back to what I used to do -- abstract quilts with hand-painted fabric.

STITCH has issued a challenge to make a 22x33 vertical quilt with the theme "Colorful Landscape" for this year's library show. So I pulled out some fabric that I painted years ago that reminded me of a landscape.

I generally use Setacolor by Pebeo fabric paint on white cotton and water it down so it runs around on the fabric and creates interesting patterns.

Then I free-motion quilted it, mainly following the patterns made by the paint.

The top photo shows an orientation that reminds me of rolling hills covered with wildflowers under a blue sky. I think that's the orientation I'll use. 

The bottom photo flips it upside down to look like water (with a bump in the middle) under a sunset.

Next I'll put on the binding, after I make a Starbucks run.

And speaking of landscapes and water, Dave was out kayaking this weekend with two friends. The sun is slowly creeping back and the days are getting longer!

Have a colorful day

Embellishing the wool appliqué

I'm still working on my wool appliqué flowers,

using buttons, beading and embroidery. 

Some of my favorite stitches are

the herringbone, blanket (or buttonhole),

chain and back stitches.

I love gold accents, 

so I'm using quite a few gold seed beads.

The hand work is meditative. 

I stitch by the window, 

looking out at the water.

I'm almost done with the flowers, 

so now I'm auditioning fabrics for the borders.

Have a colorful day

Museum of Northern Arizona

When we were in Sedona last month, we revisited one of my all-time favorite museums -- the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, founded in 1928. 

The inviting building, which reminds me of a cross between a high desert ranch house and a hacienda, is set among towering Ponderosa pines below the San Francisco peaks. It shelters Native American artifacts and natural history displays from the Colorado Plateau.

It's cozy, comfy and quiet and makes me want to stay for the evening after it closes and settle into a chair by the fireplace with a book from the nearby shelves.

Tiled floors, Indian rugs, graceful arches and carved beams add to the charm.

The Indian pottery collection is breath-taking!

I also could spend hours looking at the jewelry in the museum. Turquoise, coral and silver jewelry has always been my favorite because it reminds me of the desert and the Southwest. Diamonds hold no interest.

There's just something about the bold style of this jewelry that I find so appealing.

The museum has much more, but after photographing the pottery and jewelry I put the camera away and just enjoyed wandering. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a fabulous, special place.

Have a colorful day

Coming home

We got home from Sedona last night after two nights and three days on the road. This morning (above), it was sunny and brisk. Instead of red rocks and high desert vegetation, there was water outside my window!

Leaving Sedona in snow flurries.

To back track, the morning we left Sedona we had snow flurries after a night of high wind and muddy rain. Then we had snowy mountains in Utah.

Snowy mountains loom over the highway in Utah.

Oregon's green hills dwarf a train in the Columbia River Gorge.

In Oregon, the Columbia River Gorge had the most gorgeous emerald hills! They looked like velvet in the late afternoon sun. Later that night, I had a decadent chocolate torte in Hood River, OR.

We unloaded the car last night before it got dark, and this morning I went for a walk in the sun. It wasn't the same as our six-mile treks in Arizona, but it did get me out of the house to check out what had changed in the past month.

We didn't see trees this tall in Arizona!

These gorgeous flowers are blooming in our yard, as well as fruit trees blooming throughout town. I also spotted some daffodils, but I didn't get pictures. I miss the desert, but it's good to be home.

Have a colorful day