Sunday morning peace

Bliss

Pixie Anne Bilski

Peaceful Sunday morning.

sewing kit for hand piecing. 

closed

I challenged myself and came up with this book like kit. It is growing on me.  I love making these things but so far the perfect one eludes me.

Storm at Sea 

     All the blocks are finished and ready to be arranged and assembled. I am thinking I will try to group the color values and use the lighter ones in the center. 

     I used Linda Franz' Inklingo to print the shapes on my fabric using my home printer. If you have not visited her website, you are missing out on a great resource. For the curious, there are some free selections to get you started. And tons of beautiful photos to entice and inspire. And of course there is the inimitable and dashing Monkey. You will just have to drop in see for yourself.

stash busting

I have a pile of Laurel Burch fabrics that need giving away. This is kind of like a pay it forward thing. if you are interested, let me know. I am thinking if I give you this fabric, you may find something in your stash that somebody else might like.
Over the years I have received such wonderful bundles of fabric from friends all over the world-as far away as New Zealand. If I get a lot of responses I will make a few bundles. I am in the mood for some pre spring cleaning. Let me know also if you would be interested in some smaller scrap bag (2.5 squares).
Please help me on my fabric diet!

and then there was more snow

Storm at Sea-four more blocks added and four more to go.

  Once I have the last four blocks made, I will do some rearranging to balance the colors and spread out the ones with the snails tail centers. I am using Linda Franz' revolutionary Inklingo program to print  the shapes directly onto the fabrics. The quilt will be five  blocks by five blocks,  My wall is not big enough to spread them all out. I will not be quilting this myself because it may never get finished and I have enough unquilted tops. There are a few that I do not love (see the one on the upper left-hiding there?) and I am deciding if I should simply make do or do them over.
My collection of hand dyes has been put to good use and I am happy to say that I used at least half of it. What is left is the reds family and many oranges pinks etc which will go nicely into another quilt--maybe a red and pink posie quilt?  or a red and white quilt? something to think about.
I have four more days off. I could finish two quilts in that time. The Jane Austen quilt needs a border and that is it.  I also did some leader ending style piecing of  another triangle scrap quilt that is on my other wall. It would be nice to have that done this year. And so you have it, My vacation plans...

snow fell during the night and there is a nice layer of ice underneath.

through many panes of glass

View from my window- houses built in the 1920's by the same builder. Other window reflected in backround

Beautiful windows in the lobby of the restored Virginia Stage Company

Theatre

before valance with the Baconator in the foreground

Lace valance from thrifted table cloth

Our Barrier Island from the AA Eagle 

DJ list Spring Fling 2004 and 5? - gratuitous quilt po&n

Happy Birthday Dad and Annette

digital doodles

This quilt needs corners so I painted some. I used a vase, whose picture I took at the met during our last walk around. I was enchanted by the shape of it and did a small oil pastel of it, and did some smaller mandalla type things and then photoshopped it until I stumbled upon a color that I liked.It reminds me of the beautiful Indian panels that we used to have in the 70's. I have seen some of them around lately. The original was dark blue. I uploaded the newly colored pictures into Spoonflower and walla. A digital age rendering of an ancient blue flowered vase. Yes it will be very bright. I am a little afraid;) but I am going to finish this quilt one way or the other.

Nuther thread

They tell me that one thread a day will move the work forward. I intend to test this theory.

Snowday?

OK. I am starting again. Lesson one. Don’t try to knit lace at work. So now that I (might) have a snow day, I guess I will try again. Apparently I can’t talk and eat and knit at the same time. 
Oh and lesson two is put in the life lines and do not take them out!! Every time I take one out I regret it. 
The good news is that the Long John Shelter wool from Brooklyntweed is going to be amazing! I LOVE this color! 
Any one knitting today?
On the 'one thread' front, I will do one thread on my Pindigo before I re start the Juneberry. I need to put a star on my calendar to note my progress...
Snow here. about a foot of it. the neighbor and Mike are having a go at it with the snowblowers and shovels. I do not know if I can get to work. It is too soon to tell. I have a number to call but of course it is not being answered. I will check again. There is no bus or train service, but the mall is open. o ye gods of mammon!

attire

being a sewer means I am always drawn to articles of dress, be they on a horse or human.     The Met bookstore has shelves and shelves of books on fibre, fashion and costume. A TROVE!

Vases-refernces for fabric drawings....

While walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, I took these pictures of vases using my iphone. My intention is to draw the shapes, add flowers and maybe a bird or three and get it printed in spoon flower to go with a quilt. I also bought a beaooootiful set of Sennelier oil pastels to play with. 

We spent five hours at the museum. On Fridays, it is open late and we stayed until eight o'clock. there was a trio playing in the American Wing cafe whose notes drifted out and surrounded us while we were roaming through the marble statues. We sat a while and listened.

my favorite

The amazing marble and bronze statues were even more dramatic, lit by spotlights, in the dark hall.

sappho

night

Gongs from New Guinea

a journey begins

My ipod is loaded with mark twain and jane austen. my jelly beaned -red zippered knitting pouch is packed with my pattern which i printed out on card stock, (two charts on a page) is in the bag, and I am about ready to commit to moving from my nest on the couch, to get meself to the city. It is snowing gently. Not the kind of snow which blows and howls, but a gentle quiet snow, which invites you for a walk..
so long for now

Francois the French New Wave Accordion Player

Francois the French New Wave Accordion Player
Originally uploaded by jwatty

This was posted on twitter, by spoonflower. love it to pieces!

This may be the coolest thing ever

I just unlocked audiobooks classics on iTunes for $3.99. Now I can has them all to listen to.astounding!!!
**edited to add**'classics is an app from the itunes app store** there are others -this is the one I have. I think it is amazing to be bale to listen to authors from centuries ago on your iphone, whilst driving to work. yep I am a techie convert. xoxox martha