My big zipper pouch

Last night I was itching to try out a new sewing project, the large zipper pouch. I got inspired by Johanna who keeps her embroidery work in one of these fabric bags. I made mine a little bit larger 12"x13.5" . This bag is a birthday present for a friend . She just started to learn how to knit socks. This bag keeps your needles, wool, scissors and some change if you meet your friend for a coffee.

The fabric is from Heather Ross Far Far Away

This makes a great gift  for any crafter.

The beginning of embroidery

I remember I was in grade 3 when we started our cross-stitch sampler. My mom was ironing and I was sitting with her in the laundry room counting my stitches following my own design. I am sure I missed here and there some. I wished I would  still have my sampler  which was done in primary colours.

To refresh my memory how to start cross- stitching I took a class at the workroom and finished over the weekend my little sampler. The workroom offers over 100 shades of embroidery floss from Cosmo. It's a beautiful thread from Japan with a smooth, silky finish.

My next project will be a zipper pouch with embroidery to carry my project in progress with me.

Buzzing with Hexagons

Finally I am ready to show my work in progress...... a hexagon quilt hand made using the English Paper Piecing method. As I promised, no sewing machine necessary . You can do it in the car, while watching tv and it travels in a small container.  I took this class with Johanna at the workroom and she promised this will be addictive!
I chose to make a small pillow- no ambition to make 2000 pieces.( I have too many projects on the go)

I found this fabric on-line by Terrie Mangat ( Free Spirit). These hexagon images were perfect for the quilt. The matching fabric has a wing pattern which I might use for my back.

The freezer paper shapes are ironed on various fabric leftovers and the seam stitched in place.

Slowly the front is taking shape. My coffee mug is sitting to the right and honestly you can't put the needle down  ....one more to add.

Bees in Grandma's garden quilt. 

Animal Kingdom in my kitchen

The end of the ski season was drenched in rain and today I felt like getting my hands dirty and planting a spring arrangement. To spice up my flower jungle I placed small animals and quail eggs between the plants. This was my base to practice Susan Tuttle's " add a zoom blur".

A Friday with deadlines

It's very late and I realized that the pressure of deadlines are working for me. I accomplished a lot today. It feels good! First I went to see "The Artist Project" which runs until March 6th. Fantastic show and very inspiring .

For our annual "Skiesta" I had to prepare several salads. I wonder how much snow is left after the rain the fun dress-up downhill run. The other option is to hang out under the umbrella near the barbecue. 

The rest of the day until midnight I finished my fatbook pages. I found in an antique store an old cigar box filled with tiny glass bottle from the Ontario agriculture department. Local weeds were researched from the botanical department and each bottle was filled with seed samples. I made a transparence of this image for my " plant art" pages.

I painted my pages in a pale green and tan acrylic colour, stamped line images and sewed a transparence image with fabric taps.

.......... and while I was working away my cat Mo of 23 years was happily sleeping in the kitchen.

Grab a piece of the past

Today I went with my friend Nancy antique shopping to Queensville Antique Mall. At my last stop I discovered that they had a large selection of vintage Brownie Kodak cameras. I know that she has a soft spot for these cameras. But it's a great place to take photos.

A good photographer seeks any opportunity to take a shot.

Yes, I left her out in the cold.

Go to her blog Nancy and see what she did with the tree.

the 83rd Academy Awards in wax

Sunday night is Oscar Night and I made a simple line drawing in wax and filled in the space with black oil paint. The background is gold foil.