My Little Birdie Painting

Have been thinking of birds lately, and did a little painting (paint doodling, really) for these long winter days. . .

My First Quilt

31 October 2012

I finally finished my first quilt. I call it my "learning" quilt. It would never bear close scrutiny as far as workmanship, but I sure learned a lot making it — and I enjoyed the process. I started this quilt 3 1/2 years ago, but, then, my sewing machine broke, and we moved, and. . . it took a long time to return to finish it. Originally, my intention was to keep track of how much all the materials cost as well as how much time I put into making it. But, that didn't really happen. (My guess is that it took about 35 - 40 hours to make it. Not sure of the cost.)
I'm getting it ready to put in the mail today — am giving it to my oldest son.
It's an individual/lap quilt rather than a bed-sized one. I backed it with a brown flannel, so it would feel warmer (since he lives in Chicago). Also, he's color blind, especially red/green — so I used orange (the added yellow helps him see it better) and all the greens in it have a lot of yellow in them as well. The colors are not so "electric" as they appear in this photo, though. They're more autumn-like. I hope he'll enjoy it.

Now, to finish the other two quilts I've started at various times!!

Painting of Bob

4 August 2012

I painted a pic of Bob to take to our family beach reunion. It was fun, but, if I were ever to do another like this, I'd do more with the background. The spatter painting looks a bit weak.

Enjoying my new Bernina

8 June 2012

Last month I got my new Bernina 730 sewing machine! It's fabulous and I have lots of projects planned in the months ahead.
For years and years I have found myself being frustrated with some aspects of sewing and I finally realized that it was because I was trying to do things with my old machines that they were never designed to do. This machine does it all. I'm elated to own it. :-)
Here are pics of some burp cloths and receiving blankets I embroidered for my daughter, Susy. (She's expecting a baby boy in just a few days.)

Heather's Painting

29 May 2012 Heather said she really liked the little painting I did for Isabelle at Christmas, so, for her birthday, I did one like it in a much larger size. She seems happy with it.

Christmas Paintings

For Lily

For Claire

For Ryann

For Isabelle

For Bobby

For Abby

30 Dec 2011

For Christmas, I did mixed media paintings for some of my grandchildren. They were fun to do and each is different. Our other five grandchildren received a hand-made book about our time together last year. I enjoyed the process of working on each of these gifts, though I don't imagine most of my grandchildren can really appreciate what went into them.

Christmas with Laura's family was fun, but, I thought, at my age, I'd be in a position where children and grandchildren would be joining me on Christmas Day, instead of the other way around. Maybe, someday. . .

I've Done a Little Painting and Crafting

Cut out lots of oversized paper trees to place on these 20' x 6' panels.
Made these cute reindeer on a 20' x 6' panel of felt.

9 Dec 2011

It may appear that I haven't been doing any painting, etc. since my last post, but, I have. Its just that some of the paintings are Christmas gifts, so I don't want to post pics and give anything away. Plus, I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of most of them before I wrapped them and sent them off to their respective recipients. Darn! I'll post something after Christmas with the pics I have.

I was also in charge of all the decorations for the church Christmas party and spent a good deal of time making things for that. (See pics)

So, I've enjoyed being creative and painting and making things since my last post. I just don't have many photos to show for it yet. . .