Valerean

Our most popular bird house is once again occupied; we first noticed some blue birds flying back and forth from it a couple of weeks ago. When Mama and Papa went off to hunt the other day we took a peek inside. There are three baby blue birds inside. My guy took some better photos and a little video with his phone: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wukppJjt1yQLTRmS9.

I have a small collection of hand-dyed artisan silks that I've saved from a tumultuous time in my life. I purchased them right before I decided to quit the job I'd worked for seventeen years. Walking away from NY was one of the hardest things I'd ever done, and I knew establishing myself was going to take a while and a lot of work. I put the silks in a bag and promised myself I'd get back to them. These remind me of all the sacrifices I made in order to escape a very bad situation and find happiness as a freelance novelist. It wasn't easy, and at times I thought I would fail. The thing that made the difference was not giving up on myself. In the end I succeeded, far beyond what I expected, too. So maybe it's time to make these beautiful silks into a quilt. :)

Memories of the Alhambra is a very ambitious romantic action k-drama that pairs dazzling special effects in virtual reality and beautiful real world locations in Spain with an unusual storyline and a love story between unlikely characters, all of which combines for a viewing experience that is equal parts fun and frustrating. High tech CEO Yoo Jin-woo (Hyun Bin) travels to Granada, Spain in order to obtain the rights to a virtual reality quest-style game played via contact lenses, created by teenager Jung Se-joo (Park Chan-yeol). He also has the chance to play the game while in Granada, and finds it the most exciting development in VR he's ever seen. Se-joo abruptly goes missing, and Jin-woo learns his ex-friend and current rival may have something to do with that. While trying to secure rights to the game by purchasing the decrepit hostel belonging to Se-joo’s older sister, Jung Hee-joo (Park Shin-hye), Jin-woo also begins to fall for her. They are that rich man/poor

I love working with eco-dyed reclaimed fabric, so as a reward for finishing my last work novel I invested in a bundle from an dexter artist in Maine. In case you don't know, someone who dyes cloth is called a dexter. :) As you can see, the artist does incredible work with natural materials. The colors and patterns eco-dyeing creates are so inspiring to me. I could just look at these all day. I'll have to come up with something special to make out of these beauties. :)

While picking up some new needles I noticed a rack of DMC's Mouliné Étoile Embroidery Thread, which is a six-stranded divisible floss with a subtle metallic effect. Since I never met sparkle I didn't like, I invested in three skeins to give it a whirl. It's definitely a fluffy thread, almost like a boucle if you don't stitch tightly or pre-condition the floss with beeswax (which I don't.) For use in needlepoint and cross stitch projects I would definitely recommend pre-conditioning. Two strands were a bit too thin for what I wanted, and three tend to tangle easily. Shorter lengths are better to work with until you get the feel of it. The sparkle effect is nice without being too much. I'll definitely invest in more for future projects.

I'm unplugging today to get some work done. See you tomorrow.

I batted and backed the art quilt last night, and got started on the embroidery phase. Along with the embellishments I'm going to use a variety of threads, including hand-dyed twine and some vintage wool, but started with this palette of perle cotton. I've been experimenting all year with layering my textile art, so this will also be a test of what I've learned.

Tomorrow I start the fourth novel of the year for my day job, but I've had a lovely mini-vacation and got all my research done, so I'm ready to work now. I went out yesterday to harvest the last of the peppers and tomatoes from the garden before the bugs and heat ruined them. I love peppers, even if they don't love me. :) I'm nearly finished sewing the fabric elements to my summer art quilt top, too. Once the last strip is complete I'll bat and back it, and get started on the embroidery and embellishment. Right now the quilt is in an ugly duckling phase, as most of the surface design will be in thread. These patches, circles and strips don't make much sense right now to anyone but me, but they will. Also, this is the correct orientation of the quilt -- I've been photographing it upside down. :)

I got started on my annual summer art quilt by choosing background fabric. This involves me tossing various art fabric pieces on the table and frowning at them for a while. I finally settled on these two pieces, an eco-dyed green and a blue/orange/purple multi. The first step was to edit the fabrics and trims I'd chosen to use, as I had way too much. This is what I ended up choosing to use, although I probably won't use everything. I then sewed the background fabric pieces together with a strong vintage silk thread, as they're both a bit heavy. I'm going to add all the fabric elements along with a bit of embroidery before I bat and back the quilt. Stay tuned to see my progress.

My guy took me away for a day to have lunch at one of our favorite deli places. This was a real treat for me. We then drove on to the candy outlet where I buy the sugarfree candy that I like most, some of which isn't even sold in stores around our home. Hansel and Gretel would love this place. On our way home the alternator on my car decided to die and we were stuck for a while(I didn't take pictures of this disaster.) I took refuge inside a nearby drugstore for a while to keep my candy from melting. I had a lot of candy to save, too, as you can see. We only go to the outlet once or twice a year, so I buy our favorites in bulk. Anyway, while we were waiting for the tow truck so many people stopped to offer to help us we were truly stunned. Even the tow truck driver was super nice, and we had a great talk with him on the way home. The candy survived without melting as well. So all in all an interesting day away that restored a little of my faith in humani

I'm still playing with ideas for my fabric journals. This test piece for the kind of covers I'll make came together out of scraps and a slightly warped linen napkin. I also decided to bead it because it had some cutwork holes that I needed to fill. Okay, I fell off the no-beading wagon again -- but in my defense, I've been doing very well with avoiding beading, so I deserved a little break. Here's the finished test piece. I quilted it with holographic Sulky and also tried some stitch beading. I'm almost there, I think. I might test one other variation before I start making the covers for the project.

I think I've finally exhausted my urge to make pillows out of vintage cutter quilt pieces. If you want to try this, here's a few words of advice: 1. Choose sturdy cutter pieces that are strong enough to be occasionally laundered; 2. Be sure to use a prewashed backing fabric; and 3. Don't overstuff the pillow, which can add stress the to the seams. These pillows aren't just pretty, they're very comfortable, thanks to the softness of the old quilt pieces. Since the puppies have chewed up all the old pillows I had in my work room, these will work nicely as replacements, too.

Using enbroidery stitches to rescue the vintage applique work on the cutter quilt piece worked out nicely, I think. All the other repairs I made will help preserve it for a few more years, too. The whole time I worked on this piece I had a very definite feeling of being connected to the person who first made this quilt. The original maker chose a good quality muslin for the background and backing fabric, and quilted it by hand so densely that the batting never had a chance to wad up or migrate -- all signs of lots of experience. They wanted this quilt to last and become a beloved thing (and I think it was, judging by the signs of wear.) I'd guess the piece is about seventy years old. Following the stitches the maker used as I added my own gave me a lot of pleasure, too, and made me wonder about the original quilt. What did it look like? Was this a birthday gift for a young girl, or a wedding present for a new couple? Or did the maker just make it for herself? How

Most of my first online order from JoAnn arrived in pristine condition, and in the same colors I saw on my monitor, so I'm pretty satisfied with ordering from their web site. Since the closest store is thirty minutes away, and gas prices just keep getting worse I may stick to just shopping online for a while. I'm waiting on one more solid for the quilt top and then I can get started on the cutting and piecing. The marbled print is the backing fabric. I'm not a matchy-matchy person, and there are some of the quilt top colors in the backing fabric, so I'm fine with it. It's called an agate print but it reminded me of the lagoon waters in the Keys.

I've started restoring and reinforcing this vintage quilt piece in order to make it a little sturdier before I turn it into a pillow. I love the primitive applique in the center, so I'm using embroidery to reinforce what's left of the leaves and stems before I add a little of my own lace and fabric to revive the flowers. The piece also has some holes and fray spots, which I covered with lace. From the back of the piece I filled in some missing batting with little bits of my scraps, and then patched over the spots with plain white muslin. All of this work is intended to preserve the original quilting as much as possible, and restore what's missing or needs protecting.

I put together and embroidered this slow stitched piece as a test for how to make covers for my summer fabric journal project. I'm trying to avoid using anything but fabric, batting and thread for this idea, and mostly concentrating on how to design the stitching to make the front and back look interesting and cohesive. Pretty happy with the result. Now it's time to start working on the real deal.

I'm taking today and tomorrow off from the internet to spend time with my guy somewhere else. See you when I get back.