A Tiny Garden

A year ago, a friend of mine

gifted me with a small stack of 

vintage 1930's flower garden blocks.

I knew I just couldn't let them

languish another 80 years in this adorable taffy box.

They were sewn perfectly

except the quilter forgot to leave a 

seam allowance on the outside edges.

If I wanted to connect them, I'd have to

unsew a small bit on every seam and secure 

the stitching.

Guess what?

That wasn't going to happen.

Maybe that's why they got  stored away.

Who knows.

 So I toyed with other ideas and 

finally decided to

stitch them to a background

with raw edged machine applique.

I also decided to make the applique stitching

also became the quilting.

It's a wonderful time saver.

I arranged these tiny gardens with

a small spaces between them.  The spacing wasn't always 

the same, nor where the size of the tiny gardens,

but close enough, like pathways

 between beds of flowers in a real garden.

I added a little more stitching on

the hexies.

I didn't even trim the edges before sewing them.

I simple left every thing the way they

were last handled and placed 

in the box.

A Tiny Garden

20" X 24"

Now those wonderful blocks

have found a purpose.

and have become my mini June quilt.

I've never been to Atlantic City and the boardwalk,

but it appears that you can still buy James's De-Luxe

Salt Water Taffy "cut to fit the mouth"!

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Trimming the Tree

Last week I had a wonderful visit

with my daughter and son-in-law

in the Sunshine State 

despite the weather.

We shopped and played and

enjoyed the local bird life.

Flying time was approximately 4 hours

each direction

and amazingly you can get a lot of stitching done.

Working on a red work embroidery project,

"Trimming the Tree",

made it pretty easy dealing with only 

one floss color.

I loaded 12 needles ahead of time,

put on my sea bands,

and was able to finish the embroidery

on the two flights.

The embroidery is the fun part.

 

Making it into a pillow seems to 

take more time, at least for me.

I added some buttons and beads

instead of pom poms and french knots.

I made the pillow smaller than what the pattern said.

Why?

The piece of red plaid wool I wanted to use

for the scalloped top was smaller than 

what the pattern called for.

Improvising!

Making do!

I actually had enough red ric rac,

red buttons, 

and the kit for covering buttons.

If you haven't covered a button in a while,

you're missing out of some fun.

It's not hard and

you get a great coordinated look.

(The simple things can humor me

sometimes.)

Despite the fact the weather

here in Colorado is extremely

hot and very dry

this delightful wintery pattern

from Crabapple Hill Studios

is done and ready whenever the 

seasons change again.

I'm hoping my next flight

will go as smoothly.

My stitching is packed

along with my party dress.

Until Next Time-

Au revior

Kyle

Ready to Go....

With the close of the school year

my weekly Nana duties have ended

for the summer.

That opens up some time to do

some travelling! 

Of course, that requires

getting some stitching ready
to occupy flight times.

I pulled out two 

Crabapple Hill Studio patterns

to prep the embroidery.

Why not work on Christmas

and some redwork.

"Trim the Tree"

I've threaded a dozen needles, collected

the floss and thimble.

I'm ready

 to head off.

The second piece required some crayon coloring.

The areas you want to tint with crayons

first need to be filled in completely 

with a white crayon

This allows the pigment of the

crayon to fill in the weave of the fabric 

and make the color smoother.

Then have fun with the crayons.

Once the color is filled in

simply iron the piece.

The crayon melts 

giving the colored sections a soft 

"Autumn Calls"

tint of color which will be

enhanced with the embroidery. 

Looks like I'm ready.

June's going to be a busy month. 

Until Next Time-

Kyle