Sylvia's Simple Shots

The critters are starting to stir if they were here all winter.  Others are arriving backs from the southern climes.

The White Squill is a perennial flower that is one of the first spring flowers.

 
Got some news on Sunday that the leader of our quilting group is moving away.  I have volunteered with her on women's ministries for many years. 

They were able to sell their house and will be moving to be near their daughter.

She has liquidated most of her fabric stash.  She brought odds and ends that needed a new home so I was grateful to receive zippers, serger thread, a bit of bias tape and a small box of buttons.

I found the smallest red heart buttons in this box.  They certainly will come in handy for Macro Monday challenges.

Thanks so much for sharing.

We will have lunch with before she goes.

I am so glad to have my tax return done for another year.

Now that I am retired it is so much easier but I seem to forget that and procrastinate.

It took only a few hours and it was done.

I had time to have a walk around Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park with my friend which I had not seen in a couple of months.

The red wing black birds had not returned yet.  I missed their distinctive calls.

The Canada Geese were jockeying for the best nesting places.

The water is very low so I hope all the birds find places to raise their young.

I attended the show where my aunt was displaying here old car watercolors.  They turned out really well. There was over 50 artists on display.

I met my other aunt and her husband at the venue.  We went for a walk along the Sturgeon River while we waited for the reception to start.

I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton is book I finished this week.

It`s always nice to reaquaint myself with Kinsey Malone the private investigator.  She has new work digs and is taking on work on her own.

Lonnie Kingman has hired her to continue work which Morley Shine was doing for him but he died suddenly.  Kinsey thinks it will be just a bit of final work and all the information will be ready for the civil suit.

David Barney was acquitted of the murder of his rich wife - Isabelle.  He is now spending her money - thank you very much.  Finding Morley`s files a but unorganized she needs to retrace some of those steps and redo interviews.

David`s story seems to be corroborated by evidence that he is innocent. 

Recent Photos

I found a few open blooms on the ornamental chokecherry tree at the park this week.

It seems I have been waiting for them for a while.

Love these wonderful white flowers.  I hope to get some of the deep pink and burgundy ones as they open.










These are the birds I captured in recent days.  The top left is a female Red Winged Blackbird.  I did not know they have red on their wings as well until I saw this one spreading her wings.  Top Right: Male Red Wing Blackbird Of course, the males as always ready to strike a pose.  He was singing his heart out.
Bottom left is a Yellow Warbler.  These are so hard to spot.  I could hear it but it took me about 10 minutes to spot it in the tree now that leaves are appearing.  I swear it is the size of my thumb so it takes quiet and stillness to spot the movement way up there.  The bottom right is a Chipping Sparrow.  The birds were all in song this week. 

Working on organizing, de-cluttering and de-stashing.  I basically swapped these pieces of furniture.  The tray shelving used to hold the Cricut Machine in the craft space.  Now it holds my dry hydrangea in an olive oil bottle.  My Mom made this for me years ago.  It has not hung in this place and now it has a home.  Very useful to have a quick look before I head out the door.
I moved the tall shelving unit from the front hall to the craft space.  It now holds the Cricut as well as boxes of 12x12 paper.  Much of this will have to go because card making is no longer a product and skill I can sell in my market.

This is the project I worked on most of the last week.  I have a bit of a stash of fabric acquired when I was going to make aprons for Christmas last year.

As a first quilt in years it was a learning experience.  I worked on the Quilt as you Go method.  That was okay but the strips to bind was a bit of a challenge to get straight and cover the edges.

I am happy with the color combination.  This is Stampin Up fat quarters for the prints.  I was able to get a backer fabric in Crumb Cake.  The trio of small blocks was Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede.

The project evolved from a jelly roll concept of strips to blocks.

I still have hand stitching to finish.  I used flannelette sheeting for a batting between layers.  It is quite stiff and heavy not sure it will do for giving to a charity that offers blankets to trauma victims.

Flickr Macro Monday Challenge this week was Copper.  I made a trip to the Antique Mall this week and found this half cup measure.  I love that you can see a finger print in the bottom right hand corner.

You can check out my Flickr photo stream for the photo I submitted this week.

Sharing with

Angie - host of Mosaic Monday #28

Mersad - host of Through My Lens 192

Card Fronts Relayered #2

This is another of my church card designs. The card front was trimmed and relayered.

The Bethlehem is my own design.  It was printed in navy on a white card.

The star was printed on vellum and silver embossed.  The piece was then wrapped onto the white layer top and bottom and taped to the back. It is not very visible here but just check the hill on the left hand side and you will see the change in shade on the left.

This layer was then adhered to a new navy card base.

This one was designed for a church in one of the Northern Territories.  This was a digital project so I delivered it by email and the managed the production of the actual cards.

I used one of my own watercolor backgrounds to create a sense of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).

I added my own Bethlehem Star digital.

I drew the Inukshuk and placed it on a snow bank.

Added the greeting.

Here I have trimmed the original card front to leave a small border.  I adhered it to a new warm blue card base.  I put a silver star brad in the centre of the star.  Looks great!!

Sometimes the card front are the only pieces returned to me which respects the privacy of the recipient and sender.

This design was one that was not selected.

I've trimmed the card front and layered it onto a new red card base.

This card was another church designs.

It features one of my watercolor backgrounds.  It was cropped to a square then I applied a gradient fill over it to go from transparent on the left to opaque on the right.  It creates this great fade to the color.

I added a digital olive branch in just the right spot so when I added the dove. It was printed on white card stock.

Over this I adhered a die cut white dove cut with the Sizzix Dove die ensuring that the bird is aligned with the olive branch.

This card was designed with one of my own photographs.  I was fortunate that a work colleague own many nativities and lent me several to photograph.  It was my early day so setting up still life to photograph. 

The photo was cropped and an olive green fade was added to the edges.
It was then layered onto a green swirl digital background.  It was printed on white card stock.

I trimmed the card front and layered it onto a deep red card to coordinate with the red in their garments.

This is helping to reduce my stash of cards I could not throw out.  A second life for these to be a blessing another time around.