FANCY FOREST

I never jump on the bandwagon as soon as a pattern comes out.

I have to look at it and let it simmer in my mind

to make sure I want to give it a try.

Like the Elizabeth Hartman patterns.

I need some new pieces for a quilt show coming November 2017.

MY own show, a local garden has asked me to do!

More on that later!

Sew...I pulled some fabrics...

to make this up in a wall hanging size!

 These orange and green colors are

very forestry...in my minds eye!

Selecting the background was the hardest...

as all 3 could work!

Lots of cutting and bagging plus I found...
a new use for Wonder Clips

I enjoy auditioning the colors...for a green owl!

and an orange owl!

The firefly has to most pieces...
should be an interesting sew!

 For now they are all packaged up in little kits!
I want to make a small design board to keep the pieces on
as I sew the blocks together.



I like these and the free tutorial I found here
from Bee in my Bonnet.

Gonna make one animal at a time 
sew not to exasperate myself!

Til later...I may get lost in the forest!

A WHOLE LOT OF HOOPLA GOIN ON!

There is certainly a trend going on these days with

fabrics in HOOPS of many sizes...

being used in many wonderful ways!

I dug out my supplies to give it try!

Well didn't you know this was coming!

I had to hoop me up some Ghastlieness!

I began with hair...why yes REDHEAD Ghastlies!

Mathilde Ghastlie looks good as a ginger!

A bit lighter shade of red here for

Magda Grislie (sister of Mathilda)

I added some brown for her broom straw and 

all the trees have black and/or gray stitches

Red thread outlines this "striking" pose by

Cordelia..and her hammer!

The Ghastlies' Mansion needed

a pop of black in the trees and a

 bit of greenery in the bushes!

I painted the hoop black

Used a white fabric behind the print 

to help hide the backside stitches.

My starts and stops need work!

But all in all..its quite Ghastlie

and hanging in my sewing room!

My Ghastlie creation was sew inspired by WildBoho

when she posted this Ghastlie Owl on Instdgram

LOOK at those STITHES!

This owl comes to life!

Nicole Vogelsinger's (@wildboho) work is stunning and 

I was lucky to get her book for Mother's Day. 

Its amazing how she 'fussy cuts' a design from one fabric

and uses it atop another and THEN her stitching!  

Please check out her amazing blog, here

From there you can buy her book, follow her stitch along

or buy an already made piece of art!

Another inspirational "hooper" is a local designer and

a friend of mine.....You might know her too!

 AnneMarie Chany aka GenX Quilters (@genxquilters)

 and her work is amazing too!

Check out GenX Quilters blog

Great opportunities from AnneMarie for

BOMs,  tutorials and lots of inspiration!

 and her pattern page is here

For now...I have my eye on these old hoops 

that have just been hanging "empty" in my guest room

I think I see some Charley Harper fabric making an appearance!

Permission to use the photos from WildBoho and GenX Quilters

This is not a paid advertisement.

I just love them and all their inspiration!

Grab and hoop and get stitching!

FLORENCE IS A DIRTY BIRD!

Well maybe that is a bit extreme, but creating her 

in fabric did cause some dirty words to fly outa my mouth!

She began with Elizabeth Hartman's pattern

Florence Flamingo

and pulled some fabrics from my stash!

First thought was the gray as the background...

The Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild 

Challenge was introduced in March!

Use the two Colors of the Year, 

Kona (Flamingo) and Pantone (Greenery)

Two dirty birds, One stone?

The only greenery I could find was this one.

hmmmm...I will let it simmer for a while

I began by cutting out Florence fabrics and labeling them.

Cutting a 3/4" square started the sailor talk.

This is gonna be waaaaay outa my comfort zone!

I finally got her on the design wall all pieced!

The piecing for this bird...is not for sissies!

tiny, tiny, tiny pieces!

As you can see...I decided against the darker gray background

and used a very light gray almost white GRUNGE fabric

Also decided the "greenery" would be a bunting

Florence is carrying in her beak!

I found a charm square and cut it into triangles.

I quilted her with an organic wave...spaced a bit apart. 

Then decided the binding should be the KONA Flamingo!

A dark charcoal thread for Hand Embroidery

connected the bunting flags...LOVE IT!

Florence the Dirty Bird, ends up being quite cute!

I used a fun bicyclye print from my stash for the backing.

Very similar color to the KONA Flamingo!

I have to say...it was a challenge, but I am so happy she is done!