Sunday, June 18, 2017

The Start of My Gypsy Wife Quilt

Don't you just love Pinterest?  I find myself scrolling through Pinterest all the time for anything and everything that comes to my mind.  Recently, I came upon the Gypsy Wife Quilt project and just had to give it a try.  I ordered the booklet online and received it in the mail this past week.

Well, I don't have to tell any of you gals who have made a Gypsy Wife quilt just how fun, chaotic and consuming this project really is.  I know there are groups who follow a monthly schedule and tackle section by section of this quilt.  I decided to start right from the beginning.

My first block was the Color Wheel ...


My second block was the Pershing block ...


and finally, last night I did the From the Heart block ...


This is definitely a wonderful exercise in honing my quilting skills.

Wish me luck in this endeavor, as I have so many UFO's already and am still working on hand quilting another quilt from several years back.  Note to self ... try to quilt a block a day!

Until next time ... Happy Quilting!

Connie

Monday, April 3, 2017

Miniature Fairy Garden

I've been wanting to try my hand at a fairy garden for a while now.  Michaels recently had a sale on the many new miniatures that recently came out so I decided to take the plunge. I've been looking at and researching miniatures on Pinterest and have been collecting various items and tchotchkes and here's what I came up with.  Hope you enjoy ...

Here's the entrance to the treehouse with a little place to have a seat and rest a bit. A schnauzer is keeping watch along the path leading to an arbor filled with ivy.  There's also a gazing ball and 2 Japanese men drinking sake.  This is a figurine that my husband bought a number of years ago on one of our antiquing jaunts.  He set them there when I began putting the garden together and they just stayed.  This planter will definitely be staying in the house as we wouldn't want them getting ruined by the elements.


Being a gardener myself, I had to have the watering can and the tools need to maintain and tend the garden.


Here's a better view of another side of the treehouse.  I wanted to go with a color scheme of blue, yellow and white and this treehouse fit the bill and I knew I just had to have it when I spotted it in the store.

 
Another angle of the entrance ... In the forefront you can notice some of the chicks & hens offshoots that I've place here and there in the planter as well.



I had this rosemary plant that I brought in the house at the end of the summer last year and it desperately needed to be divided.  Here's one of the branches that I tried to fashion into a tree (maybe a bonsai??)  I still think it needs more trimming but I'm waiting to make sure I haven't actually killed the plant and see how it adjusts to its new home.  The rest of the plant and the other 2 shoots are temporarily in another pot so I can see if they survive and how they are adjusting as well.


Here we're getting to the back of the container.  I always buy pansies in the Spring so I put 1 or 2 in here for a little bit more of the blue and yellow scheme I was looking for.

 
If you take a close look at the above photo and the one below you'll notice a tiny evergreen in the forefront.  Hubby told be that this one was sprouting along the fence behind the garbage can so I decided to rescue it.  We will see how this one does as well.

 
A wider view of the previous ...

 
 
Here is the back side now  There's what looks like a bare twig that you see at roof level which is actually a maple tree that was sprouting in the garden last year and that I had put in another pot last summer.  Hopefully, the buds will be opening soon and I will possible remove the artificial variegated shrub I placed here just to fill up the space some more.


Another view of the rosemary that I mentioned before. I also loved the bridge and just had to have it so I created a little stream with some blue glass pebbles  that everyone is familiar with.

 
Well that's about it for the fairy garden for now.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out!  Being that Holy Week in next week, I need to work on my Resurrection Garden.  I made one last year and hubby thought it turned out great and was a really good idea to keep our minds focused on what Easter is really all about.
 
Until next time ... Happy Gardening and Crafting!
 
Connie

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Pata shawl knitalong on Ravelry


Decided to join the knitalong for the Pata shawl over on Raverly.com. I haven't knitted anything in a number of years, but when I saw this shawl I knew I just had to have one!  I'm using Loops & Threads Woolike in Teal Lake and here's what I have done so far ...


The coloring is a little off in the above photo and more like the ones below:





If you love knitting ... come join the fun!

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/creative-knitting-magazine-fans/3341011/1-25

~Connie