It's been awhile since I did a post.

Can you believe it is July 10th already!  Today is the 119th anniversary of my Grandmother's birth!  She passed away just shy of her 93rd birthday in 1992.  She loved flowers and I'm sure she would have loved these ones in my friend Rita's Garden.

 Love the different stages of how far open they are.

 The jellyfish succulents are growing nicely.

 Some have more tentacles than other.

 I was asked how they did them.

 Well it appears they flipped one of the hanging baskets upside down and then planting the succulents, mosses and trailing vines on a pole which delivers the water to them.  Rita has this display close to the front of her condo.  Apparently the water isn't quite getting to the top of the plantings so the gardeners had to borrow one of her water cans to help augment getting the whole plant watered!

 I finally made a decision of what fabrics to do last month's Dresden Plate on The Grasshopper Quilt.

 Originally I was going to use some of the colours of the leaves for the blades and then chose to use the yellow, orange, pink and turquoise polka dot fabrics from one line and the greens of the leaves.  I'm pleased how it has turned out.

 Remember these birds from my Simple Folk, they were a test for the larger birds for The Grasshopper.  But after making them I found a different turquoise accent for the wings to use.
                           
I kept the darker dimples fabrics turquoise as a contrast against the Kaffe Fassett print which I think worked well.

 Sarah Fielke does needle turned applique, I've never mastered it to my liking so I use the freezer paper and paint starch along the seam allowance and press it back.  I find a get a clean smoother edge to my pieces.  The birds were just pinned to see if I liked how the fabrics work together.

 For circles and repetitive pieces like the leaf shapes I use non melt Mylar and cut out the shapes.  I have a selection of circles from Karen Kay Buckley or I cut my own if she doesn't have the right size.

 I thought the linear turquoise and leaf prints contrasted nicely against the Kaffe prints and mimicked the feather shapes.
                               
Here are my next two Simple Folk blocks pinned and ready to stitch. These leaves will overlap on one side, think they will be a bit tricky to do.

 I've already stitched the stems, flower and vase and currently working on the dark leaves right now on this block.

Hope it isn't so long till I post again, have a surprise in store the next time!