Quilting and other Things

This first picture is my sister admiring the view in Derbyshire last summer while eating her lunch. The second picture is one of the giraffes at the London Zoo. Here they are combined as "Doing Lunch" Last year I traveled to Calgary several times. I'd really like to bring a mountain home with me but cannot figure out how to get it in my carry on. So here is a mountain, my front yard and my house Combined, here is my home with a mountain view. I'm looking forward to learning about blending in some future lesson

Last fall I bought a selection of bulbs that bloom early, mid and late spring and planted most of them in the garden. I ended up with some of the Muscari Mixed ones left over. Last weekend, I planted some in a pot to see if they will bloom indoors like the tulips do. Apparently Amaryllis aren't the only plants that grow enthusiastically. The pictures are from Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

Elaine found a stuffed animal pattern in a collection she was going through. It made me laugh because its the pattern for Dolphie who lives upstairs on the corner of a spare bed. He was my grade 7 home-ec project. For many years I would stretch out on the bed to read with him as my pillow so he's a little lopsided. I did eventually make the hippo as well but it seems to have gone to the thrift store as I don't see it in the bag of things that are currently waiting to head there.

I had problems selecting the sky when I originally did the lesson so I skipped this photo. I realized afterwards I was trying to trace the sky instead of pulling the selection area out. This little guy is a Matschie's Tree Kangaroo and he lives at the Toronto Zoo. That's not actually the sky as he lives in one of the pavilions. I played with the sky settings and decided the sunset one looked best

This little creature was rustling in the fallen leaves next the picnic table at work In this one, I selected the background colour from his fur and had feather set to 100. Here, the background is still his fur colour but I changed the feather to 25 Then changed the background colour to white This is using method 1 of putting the selected area on a transparent background This is a Errwood Reservoir in the Peak District of England. I selected the sky and reservoir separately so I could play with the levels independently. This poppy was growing at the edge of a farmers field in the Cotswolds. I tried the Black & White switch as well as the night brush

Yesterday I walked up to the mall to the postal outlet to get a package. I was expecting a couple of quilting DVDs I'd ordered. Imagine my surprise when she fetched this box out from the back room -- those are the box dimensions in inches! It was my Who will Bell the Cat wallhanging coming home to me. It was nicely packed and looks as good as the day I sent it. In the evening it started to snow. About 11:30 I got side tracked by how pretty the night sky looked and started playing with taking pictures through the upstairs window. These ones were taken using the twilight setting on the camera. The first is through the screen balanced against the window crank and the other is through the bottom part of the window using books to support the camera (I didn't want to run all the way to the basement for the tripod). I like what it did to the screen. Then I switched settings so I could take multiple pictures at a time and added another book to the pile. This morning, th...

This is my sister enjoying lunch during a hike last summer. I've used the sepia tint and reduced the opacity to 80%. The original is a photo of the garden at the Japanese cultural centre taken last fall. I've applied two effects to the photo -- fade horizontal and vertical both with an opacity level of 63 The flamingo photo was taken at the zoo last fall. Its been cropped from the original then auto levels applied to the cropped photo. This is the fish pond at the Bird center in Burton-on-the-Water, England. Auto correct was applied to show the fish!

Normally this is where I have the design wall but when it comes time to baste quilts, the flannel sheet comes down. I try to find two black lines in the paneling that are the correct distance apart and put the push pins into them so that the pin holes aren't as noticeable. Here the backing is pinned tightly to the wall (wrong side out). I make the assumption that the ceiling is level and pin the top edge the same distance from ceiling all the way along. Then pull the fabric down and run more pins along the bottom. Finally pins along the two sides. Here is part of the quilt I'm currently basting. I peeled back the batting and the quilt top so you can see the backing pinned to the wall. Once that's up, I take the lint roller to backing and remove any threads and dust before pinning the batting in place. I use straight pins to pin the top edge of the batting near the top edge of the backing and smooth it in place. Next the quilt top gets pinned in place and sm...

In the summer of 2004, Mom, Karen & I took a fabric dyeing workshop out at Hobby Horse. In September of that year, I took my fabrics and some butterfly fabric out to a mystery night. It turned out we were making a zygocactus quilt from a pattern designed by Myrna Allen. Last summer during Monday evening sewing sessions out at Hobby Horse, I finally finished the top. Today the binding finally went on. That makes 4 finished quilts since the beginning of December when Dad made the tray for the sewing machine and cut a hole in my table. Having the bed of the machine level with the table top is wonderful The amaryllis opened its final flower. It looks really pretty. Had fun today taking pictures from above