More Slow Stitching.

Last Monday morning I woke up with a nasty respiratory virus. I've had almost no energy and lots of coughing so slow stitching on my Bird Dance blocks is just the right speed to go.


I was also waiting on some threads which I got on Wednesday so I could finish these ones off.


The variegated purple was one I needed. Along with 8 weight of the brick one.


Lots and lots of different sized Bullion knots on these birds.


Fun whimsical shapes designed by Sue Spargo.


Loving all the different layers of texture.


Simple French knots and straight stitches can become pretty accents.


Having fun making feet and legs.


Backgrounds of Creative Textures with stitching and different fabrics.


Drizzle stitches of varying lengths, along with back stitching and French knots.


Cotton and silk threads for another visual layer.


Birds all in a row, having fun. Busy with the next set of three.


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First Day of Autmn..

Arrived in the wee hours this morning. Time to hang my Primitive Gatherings crow and pumpkin banner.





To keep my Primitive Gatherings Strutter, aka Turkey Sandwich company om this sunny day.





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Prepping and planning.

Prepped there more of my Bird Dance blocks. Background details done.


Cotton appliqué done.


Wool appliqué done. Now to add some creative stitching. Stay tuned.


Prepping for the first day of Autumn on Wednesday. Our long hot dry Summer with water restrictions is a memory. Grey, windy and wet weekend happening with much cooler temperatures.


Looking forward to Canadian Thanksgiving the second Monday in October.


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Slow stitching and a purchase or two..

Prepping some more Bird Dance blocks this past week. I'm not going to square these up until they are finished as the linen ravels a lot.


Love this one's body language, looks a bit mischievous.


This guy's topknot is a bit different don't you think?


Got a package in the mail yesterday love the red and turquoise combination.


I couldn't resist the owl bobbin and scissor minder. It has a suction cup that attaches it to your sewing machine! I had to load it up with bobbins and these cute scissors I found at a local garden shop of all places! I have two sewing machines that I use on a regular basis so it will be fun to take it along to retreats or use it at home on the other machine.


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Row by row, flowers and quilt,

On Friday Rita had a small group of us over to stitch.  We've done two row by row shopping trips together and she pulled out her collection to show me what else she has.  A friend of hers got her some licence plates from Idaho and B.C., Rita got one from Maine and the others are from Washington and Oregon.  I just noticed her one of hers is missing that I got her in Portland.

 This is my collection, these are from Washington, B.C. and Oregon.

This group is from Oregon, one from Washington and B.C.

 This last group is from B.C. Washington and Maine (courtesy of Rita!).

Walking down to Rita is one of my favourite flowering trees, several years ago they had to replace it but I love the Pink and blueberry colours of the blooms.  They are like succulent leaves, very fleshy.

 The star shape is so pretty.

 But look there are also white blossoms on the same tree!  They are more like usual petals you see on a flowering tree.  See the pink one in the foreground.

 Rita leads a quilting group at a local seniors centre and she took the last stitches on her Underground Railroad binding while we were over.  Originally the group was going to make 16 blocks but stopped after 12.  It is very lovely in person.

 I thought I'd share a few more of the lovely dahlia garden from Port Gamble, I love dahlias, but find their fragrance a bit off putting.

 Part of the garden was in shade and the other in sun the colours are so lovely.

 Reminds me of a beautiful quilt.

 Tiny centre peeking out.

 Love the soft yellow blush coming from the centre of this one.

 Different shades of pink.

 More of that yellow/pink blush combination in another petal formation.

 One of my favourite colour combinations.

 Pure yellow, I love it.

 Delicate spiky petals.

 A flower inspector checking for quality.

Details make the Big Picture.

Remember this collage from the beginning of August?

A closer look, some people thought it might be an underwater quilt.

These sort of look like tentacles?

Underwater plants?

Quilted look maybe not underwater?

Curly cues and beads.

More curly cues. Currents in the blue were fun to free hand machine quilt.

3-D elements. along with freezer paper turned applique and fused feathers.

 A leg walking through different heights of grasses.

Second leg.

Nesting material of left over threads.

The whole picture, meet Bird Brain designed by Dougal Ann Walker of The Freckles Collection.  Dougal is a member of the Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild and designed this as a challenge for one of our guild shows.  It was so popular she released it as a pattern.  In March 2012 I started this piece in a guild workshop that Dougal lead.  Click here to see some birds evolving.  After the workshop I packed everything up and didn't touch it until August.

I had lots of fun with my domestic machine free motion quilting this.  No marking everything came to me in a very organic way.  I used a lot of different variegated threads and some solid ones.  After some steam pressing it hangs nicely in place.

 I just noticed it almost looks like a reflection in the blue/green of the feet walking near water.

A look at the backside, I used plain muslin on the back and matched the bobbin threads with the top threads.  I had fun with those curly cues.

Avoiding the 3-D tail feathers were a bit of a challenge.

The body 3-D feathers were challenging to quilt around.

Loved having fun making feathers and grass.

I bit of puckering with by background fabric but did well I think.

I like making my hanging sleeve match my binding in case it slips a bit.

Here is a picture of Dougal's original Bird Brain, the challenge fabric was the blue used for the legs.  she also did a pieced square background that I chose to make as strips and one colour for sky.

 I'm thinking of calling her Phoenix, rising from the ashes of the UFO pile.