Red, White and Done!

I finished my Journal page for July! Yeah! Even though it's now August. The idea came to me soon after I got a book, Fabric Leftovers by D'Arcy-Jean Milne . I follow many bloggers in Australia, New Zealand and the UK and recently I was thinking about how expensive fabric can be in those parts of the world and also how ingenious these quilters are about using scraps and old clothing for quilts. With that in mind, I found some scraps I was going to toss and decided to be economical, green and ingenious like my fellow quilters.



I also love Tonya's style of quilting, especially her "threadies" and "crusties". In fact, I emailed her last week when I was having trouble finishing this piece. She offered a "kick in the pants" (Ton, I'll take a raincheck on that! LOL) but I ultimately didn't need it. You see, I was waiting for the piece to "speak to me"and frankly, it wasn't talkin'. I tried beads and fancy threads but nothing seemed right. As I was pondering it the other night, my DH peeked in to see what was going on and I explained my dilemma. He said "Maybe it's not talking because it doesn't have anything to say. It's telling you it's finished." And with those words, I realized he was right. Sometimes, less is more. So I added the twisted string binding and called it done.



Here is the result:

I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea but it was a really fun project. The technique uses rug hooking canvas and I just traced a basic design on the canvas and wove strips randomly through the canvas. After the weaving was done, I used a wide zig-zag to hold the strips down and then went back and did decorative star stitching in the white stripes and blue block and a wavy stitch on the red stripes. Here's a close up:

And now another project is done! Now, I'm off to finish a couple of bags for an exchange I have going on and a doll quilt!

Pictures from My Garden of Weedin'

I have been hopping around and saw some great pictures of Melanie's garden and thought I should post some of mine since this is where I am spending a great deal of time lately. We are in the process of putting down mulch in all of the beds, which is a thankless task. But it sure keeps the weeds down so in the long run I guess it is a good idea.



We put in a small pond about 5 years ago , took all of the grass out and replaced it with beds and a stone path. DH thought it would be less work! Ha! Ha! But he loves puttering around in the yard.






We love sitting out here in the evening watching the birds come in to feed. You can't see the feeders but there are 6 of them! At times we need an air traffic controller out there! LOL

My gargoyles are there to protect the yard but as you can see they are often asleep on the job! Chip made this appearance yesterday morning. I was looking out the upstairs window and thought my gargoyle had grown hair!


On the quilting front, I am trying to do bits every night but I'm not always successful! I have a bunch of deadlines coming up with my Round Robin, PCs, and my journal pages. Summer is a tough time for me, quilting wise, I just LOVE the hot weather and need to be outside.

I was on Libby's blog for her blogiversary and have promised to PAY IT FORWARD! Sewww, the first three ladies who post will be treated to a treat from me by the end of October! If you have never been to see Libby or Melanie, please drop by! Both of their blogs are refreshing places to stop and visit on a hectic day! They are super ladies and super quilters!



Well, I'm off to Block Island this weekend and will try to post again next week. I find I am good about visiting everyone and I do leave comments but if I have visitors, NO ONE is HOME! So I will try to be a better host here at Quilt til you Wilt. Have a great weekend!