Sew Day in the shade with my friends

Look at what Linda J. did in her art journal during Sew Day!
That's the tablecloth on my patio table where we sat.

I hosted Sew Day this week and it was HOT, HOT, HOT! The temperatures were hot, too -- low 90s and no clouds. We kept our cool by following the shade on my deck, ending on the lower deck surrounded by rhodie bushes and Northwest firs.

We also went through plenty of ice water and ice tea. 

But on to the sewing. 

Linda J., who is also in my STITCH group, showed this great quilt that she made for our STITCH challenge. The challenge, called "This Is Me," is to make a quilt that represents us. Linda is a gardener and a quilter who is married to a golfer, and she even included her chandelier and stacks of books because the challenge quilts will be exhibited in the library this fall. Her work is always fabulously colorful.

Linda also showed some fabric that she painted, stamped and screen printed.

Our other Linda worked on several wool applique projects. She's the friend who got me interested in wool applique.

Nancy made a jelly roll quilt and was appliquéing it with leafy vines of her own design.

I continued to work on my Pepto Bismol pink wool applique. Carolynn also worked on wool applique, but my picture of her piece turned out so dark that you can't see it very well. She does beautiful work.

Another page from Linda J.'s art journal:

But it wouldn't be Sew Day without food, so here is what we had ... chicken salad, fruit salad, caprese salad ...

... and chocolate cake!!!

Have a colorful day

July color block

Photos from this month and fabric that pulls in those colors.

I finished my color block for July. It's heavy on the pinks, purples and blues of hydrangeas, which are huge in the Northwest. We also had some nice sunsets.

After I cover my arrangement with Sulky Solvy, I stitch wavy lines and then tear off the strips of Solvy rather than washing it out.

And here it is, snippets of flowers,

sunsets, green trees and blue skies!

Have a colorful day

Summertime

Ah, summertime!

A little sewing on the deck

with a glass of iced tea ...

... a fresh peach pie ...

... and sunset from the beach.

I also went to the art festival downtown in Gig Harbor, but I didn't get pictures. It was too busy to ask artists if I could put them on the blog, but it was perfect weather and the free shuttle bus got me there and back quickly.

Have a colorful day

Summer colors for the weekend

I've gathered some local color from the last few weeks worth of photos to take you into the weekend. I'll be using these colors, and more, for my July color block.

Have a colorful weekend!

It's finally ready for quilting!

My latest wool applique work is FINALLY ready for quilting, about 14 months after I started it. Working with the bright colors served the purpose of getting me through the long, dark winter.

I decided to border it with my new favorite commercial print, Moda's Grunge Hits the Spot. I tried blue and orange and decided that the blue jumped out too much. Plus, I guess I'm just a warm-color person. The combo of hot pink and orange/yellow is just so yummy! It reminds me of sunrises, sunsets, and summer watermelon and cantaloupe.

The pink backgrounds are also Grunge prints, but without the dots.

I didn't like the blue borders so I ripped them out and used orange. Much happier.

Instead of machine quilting it, I decided to hand quilt with pearl cotton #12, which is fairly thin. I bought both pink and orange ...

... and tried it with two types of needles, Mary Arden's chenille #26 and John James' embroidery #7. Both needles worked fine, but I chose the embroidery because it's a bit longer. 

I decided to go with a simple random seed stitch in the block backgrounds -- mindless and meditative. Not sure yet how I'll do the borders. 

And here's another block:

Have a colorful day

Sunset in the harbor

The other day we were in the harbor for dinner and afterward decided to walk out onto the public dock at Skansie Park in Gig Harbor. As we approached, the sky started to turn colors ... and it just kept getting better and better!

No matter which way we turned,

there were glorious sunset colors!

The show went on for quite awhile, and people started to gather to stand in awe and take pictures.

Even the water gave us a show, with crisp, clear reflections of boats that resembled abstract paintings.

We can't see the sunset from our house, so if you are one of the lucky ones with a western view, I hope you never tire of the fantastic nightly displays. It would be heaven to bask in those colors every evening at the end of the day.

Have a colorful day

Woolies inspiration

Our Woolies meeting yesterday had some great inspiration, starting with Judy's summer neighborhood quilt. She used elements from a Wendy Williams' pattern for the wool appliqué, but set them in her own arrangement for a quilt that will hang over a door. The turquoise background is not wool.

Look at the cool ways she uses rickrack! It took me a few minutes to realize that the orange roofline is actually rickrack.

Then Mary showed her nearly complete quilt, which uses pieced cotton prints as well as wool applique. 

Victoria is working on the 12 Days of Christmas, and here is one of her sweet blocks.

Bobbi had blocks from two different projects. The elephant is from Sue Spargo's book "Folk-Tails."

And I'm kicking myself because at the start of our meeting our hostess, Nancy, took us on a tour of her gorgeous gardens and I didn't get pictures because I was still sipping my coffee. I meant to go out later and get some, but I forgot. Anyway, it was a very inspirational day.

I'm linking to Nina-Marie's blog in case you want to see what other fiber artists have been up to this week:  getting-ready-for-quilting-by-lake-2018.html

Have a colorful day