2019 Cardmaking - CH - Class 7

I had my monthly class at Compassion House tonight.  I am continuing with Designer Paper Split layout. 

This card is in the portrait orientation and I used double sided designer card stock by Imaginisce - Kewl Stuff - Hot Spots.   Cut at 3.5 inches and the small piece flipped over.  Reassembled with tape.

A piece of celery grosgrain ribbon over the join and taped to the back. Adhered it to the deep teal card front.

The greeting was printed with deep teal on the taupe card stock.  It was punched with the Stampin Up Decorative Label.   It was adhered over the ribbon aligned in the same direction with 3D foam tape.

This card will end up in the box of thank you cards for Compassion House clients to thank donors who support their stay.

This card is in the landscape orientation and I used double sided designer card stock by Farm House Paper Company - Where Ideas Take Hold.

I paired the paper with gold, green and deep brown card bases.

The grosgrain ribbon is espresso.

The greeting was adhered across the ribbon instead of aligned along the same line. 

The ladies really enjoyed the time making cards.

Recent Photos

This is a flax flower at the community garden.  

Love the gorgeous color and delicate various shades.

This is a name tag provided at a family event this weekend.  The person in charge wanted to make a tag that would not end up in the garbage. 

A piece of white fabric sewn to bright fabric.  I cut pieces of lycra fabric in super colors strung through the holes. 

The names were written with permanent markers.  This one just fit on my wrist and made it totally visible.

This is the seed head of the Yellow Salsify plant. 

It looks like a giant dandelion.

The seed head measures about 4.5 - 5 inches across.  They are gorgeous and wonderful when intact.

I saw the flowers in the river valley a couple of weeks so I know to keep an eye out for the seed heads.   They showed up a bit battered with all the rain we are getting.  I say flowers out again so I will have to wait a bit for new seed heads.

This is one seed from the seed head of the Yellow Salsify plant.

The seed was set against a white background and lit with a warm light.  I wanted to capture the ring of light around the center of the seed.

This is an alternative image for the Flickr Macro Monday challenge - Patterns in Nature. 


You can check my Flickr Photostream for my recent photos.

Recent Photos

I captured this rose on my walk the other morning.  It is a new plant in the neighbour's yard.

I am guessing the name of this one is Gemini based on my web research.

Loved the way it was hidden away a bit behind another blossom but I captured it in good focus.

Roses are such a summer flower.  They bring color and scent into our world.







I have been sewing!

I made bags to carry reusable dishes to a family event this weekend. 

It is made of polyester fabric in  my favorite colors navy and yellow.  I added a bit of an accent on the right. The square was cut 12.5 to 13 inches square. A zipper was added at the top.  It was turned right side out and the edges were top stitched.  
It holds my plate, bowl, glass, cutlery, my stainless steel straw  and a cotton napkin.  The bag can be used as my place mat if needed. 

I made a couple of extras.  These feature a microfiber towel and polyester fabric.

We are working on less waste so maybe we can make these with the quilting group as a fund raiser.  An idea.

I was to visit my niece last week and we sorted through bags of fabric she had been donated.

There were lots of lycra fabric which we set aside for the ReUse center.  My sister called and was looking for an alternative to making throw away name tags for a family event.  I said there is this bag of colorful fabric.  I cut them into 1 inches strips and when stretched they roll into nice cording. We have lanyards for name tags! 

You can't beat the colors.

Another good shot of a Yellow Warbler.  This one seems smaller than usual so he may be a juvenile born this year.

They are so hard to spot these days but they sure can be heard.

You can see he is singing his heart out.

A few things that came my way as I celebrated with family and friends last month.

A stainless steel water bottle which will come in handy. My favorite tea - Masala Chai, a tea infuser, a china tea cup and Stampin Up Tea stamps and the matching Framelits to cut out the die cuts. 

I did go out for special lunches as well and I did have DQ ice cream cake a couple of times.

Some Flower Pics

A lot of rain is putting water drops on flowers.  That works well for adding interest during my photography walks.

I am finding the pansies particularly good this year.  I have gotten some really nice ones.

The white rose was really nice with a water drops sparkling in the sun.

This rose's head was drooping. Not sure it was the water drops causing it.

This a cultured rose at the neighbourhood garden.

Love the pink.

Recent Photos

Wishing all my friends and family on line in Canada a Happy Canada Day! 

I captured this flag at the Legislature Grounds yesterday.

The wind was quite brisk but it was a wonderful day with no rain for a change.

Today, it rained for a few hours in early afternoon.







This is the book on my night table this week.  The same author of Bridges of Madison Country which is one of my favorite movies.  Love the story.

I have started a couple of books in the last week which did not work out so they are off to the thrift store.  I have to remind myself that just because I start a book I don`t need to finish.

This one is going well. 

I took on this sewing piece for my niece.  I was part of a fleece project that my niece was leading where we collected fleece blankets.  The blankets were made into these ponchos by girls in her group.

I never put a poncho together so with a bit of help from my niece and ventured out.  The blanket already had the black edging so I just left it. I removed a piece of velcro and the leftovers of a bag it used to roll into. 
The hood and the pocket were cut from the tie dyed blanket.  The hood is sewn into a slit cut in the center of the blanket.  This should be a double seam.  I used a stitched zigzag to sew in the pocket.  The pocket is placed on the inside of the poncho so your arms stay warm too.

I am working on getting a salt cellar because I am tired of getting enough salt into the pasta water with a salt shaker.

I realized that the spoon needed to be plastic, ceramic or stainless steel to survive in the salt. I found a nice ceramic spoon which holds 1/2 tsp of salt.  I have put salt in this cut glass jam/condiment jar but it is not the look I am going for.

I have been looking for a few weeks and I press on to find a container that has a lid with an opening that works for the spoon I have.  Keeping in mind my blue and yellow kitchen I would like ceramic or glass.

I will post the winner here when I find it.

This works really well when making pasta because the salt should be added while the water is boiling.

The gardens and flower beds are growing really well with the rain and sun we are getting.

I love this bearded iris.

Sharing with

Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #34 on Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.


Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #198.

Photo Blogging Challenge - Get Out and Play

With the theme being Get Out and Play for June and I am not very sporty I had to work out to find photos.

GOLF

The fresh air, the walking and the spending time with friends all comes with playing a round of golf.

Hopefully it is a group just having fun so the competition is dialed back quite a bit.

It is a great outdoor sport for those who can afford it.

When I was a kids the Monkey Bars were one of my favorite things on the school playground.

I loved to challenge myself as to the number of bars I could skip over.

This is the closest I could find to Monkey Bars.  I love the color and the shape.

I like the wooden structure better than the all plastic structures.

I am sure there will be a lot of kids enjoying fun on the structures at schools and playgrounds all summer long.









Water, sun, and summer are all ingredients to have fun.  These actually have LEDs as well so they change colors!

Spray parks will be popular as well to get out an play this summer.  I have been known to hit a splash park when the temps get above 30C.  You get wet and 5 minutes later you are dry again.

Slides are fun. They were not my thing in the playground when I was a kid.

Still don't appeal to me but I am sure the kids enjoy and have fun on this slide.  I love the sand surface.  Yeah I have to empty sandals when I am done playing but I love it on my feet.

I love swings!  I remember learning how to propel myself back and forth with out someone pushing me.

We tried to go completely around when we were kids but of course never did.

We were a bunch of kids in our family so there was always someone to push.

I have sat on these swings a couple of times when school is out re-engaging my inner child and having fun.



I am sharing with PJ at Lil HooHaa who hosts this photo blogging challenge every month.

Small Quilt 2 - Teal Turquoise Leaves

I have finished another quilt.  I wanted to improve the sashing process and cut down on the about of stitching to make it softer.

I chose this blue ivory leaf patterned fabric.  I paired it with an aqua and teal solids.  These are cotton polyester fibers and seem thinner than 100% cotton.  As these were large pieces I just could not cut it into small pieces.

I cut 9.5 inch squares with my quilting ruler from the blue leaves patterned and the aqua solids.  I cut 10 from each for a total of 20 squares which were placed in a grid of 4 across and 5 rows.

I needed to decorate the squares somehow. I decided to add a contrasting strip which will be top stiched to the square.  I cut a strip of fabric at 4" wide and the length of the fabric. Using a 3" card stock (pink) template I ironed the .5 inch sides over.

I laid the strip across the square leaving 1" margin at the top and bottom so it would not interfere wit the corners. 

I pinned and trimmed to the square edge.  The angle was right for the next square so it was very efficient use of the strips.  I put the aqua solid on the patterned and the opposite for the other squares.

It was top stitched very near edges.  I was able to sew all 10 square in a chain process then just cut them apart.  Another efficient process.


 

The 20 back squares are dark teal and cut again with the same 9.5 inch square quilting ruler.

I used a white cotton flannelette sheet for the "batting" in this quilt.  These 20 were cut to 9.5 inches square.

I needed a pattern to hold the 3 layers together.  I decided to cut a 4" square of card stock and then pin it to the square sandwich aligned along the decorative strip.  I just followed the edge with my sewing machine foot.  Repeated for all 20 squares.

In hindsight I could have quilted the squares when top stitching the decorative strip.  Remember that for next time.

The sashing between the squares is also dark teal.  I found this video produced by Teresa from Down Under. Quilt as You Go with Narrow Sashing. I followed the instructions and the quilt worked out really well.   The sashing between the squares was cut to 10 inches in length then trimmed once assembled.  She suggested hand stitching the back sashing but that was not going to work for me.  I selected a decorative stitch with thread that matched the teal really well to close the back sashing.

The sashing between the rows was cut to 40 inches in length.  The process for putting the rows into the quilt was the same as the assembling of the squares into rows but just wider.



That left the binding.  Again it is in the dark teal fabric.  I needed 170.5 inches of binding.  I cut strips of 3" until I had what I needed.  You can check this video The Ultimate Quilt Binding Tutorial with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star which gave me all the information I needed.  Even how to finish your binding so there is no sign of where you ended.  Worked perfectly.  I used the same decorative stitch to machine bind the edge of the quilt.

I am really happy with the overall look of the quilt, the weight is lighter, and the assembly really came together really well.

Recent Photos

It has been raining a lot lately, so my walks in the morning find the landscape is wet. 

I found this shrub in the park and I believe it is Mock Orange - Belle Etoile.  Nice leaves on a bush about 5 feet tall. The web suggests it is fragrant but the rain may have affected it's scent.

Love the water drops on this white blossom which is in a cluster.  It has withstood the rain very well.

Despite regular visits to this park this is the first time I have photographed these flowers.

I had 3 of my photographs in the Open Photograph Show at the art gallery.  This is NineBark - Summer Wine.

The reception and presentations were held on Saturday at the Art Gallery. 

There were quite a few entries featuring international subjects from Africa, India and other exotic places.

Canvas wrapped entries are becoming more popular.

I met my aunt who also had submitted some photos to the show.

This was a very interesting book. I picked the book at a thrift store because of the cover.

Ginny Moon is a 14 year old autistic girl who has been placed in foster care.  It is written in her voice and it is sometimes disturbing how others react to her behaviour.

It was very insightful as to how she withdraws into her mind to process events.  She is aware of the rules hers and those imposed on her and she does her best to keep it all in check.

When she is asked more than one question at a time she does not answer either one.  She is always analyzing things to determine how to behave and act.

She learns a lot about herself and finds a new purpose at the end of the book.

I have to admit a I did consider not completing the book because life is pretty chaotic and stressful.  It is very repetitive as well because her reactions are quite predictable.

Some of the birds which  I have encountered recently. 

Of course, Robins are generally easy to identify by song and visually.  They are cooperative in sitting still enough for a photo.

The Pine Siskin (top right) was quite a bit less still and really high up in the trees.  You can see the devastated leaves so there were plenty of small green worms to eat!\

The crow decided to take flight as I took this picture.  Nice view of the wing.

Magpies are plentiful and not afraid of people for the most part so photos are quite easily taken.

The challenge this week on Flickr Macro Monday was Style Food on a Fork. 

I was sure about the tomato and cheese on a pickle fork. Here the green is avocado.  A bit of Dijon mustard, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of black pepper finished the shot. It was a delicious photo shoot on Sunday PM.

Check my photo stream for the shot I submitted.

Sharing with Angie at Letting Go the Bay Leaf  who hosts Mosaic Monday #33.

Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #197

HB - Sister

I chose one of my oil on water abstracts for a birthday card for my sister. Her favorite color is green and she likes things that are more muted.

I will see her tonight at the Solstice Party one of my other sisters is hosting. She is hosting a party as she has just finished another summer course and it is the longest day of the year!

I love the dark edges of the bubbles and their evenness of their surface. 

There is a good variety of sizes and they sit on this ledge of muted green which is a large pool of oil along the bottom.

90th Birthday

I am attending a birthday celebration for a friend who is turning 90!  That is amazing.

I chose a navy and green floral paper by K&Company - Blue Awning Collection - Blue Swirl Floral.  It was cut to  4.00 x 5.25 inches to leave a small border of the white card showing.

I wrapped a narrow piece of white grosgrain ribbon across the front and taped the ends to the back.

I create the accent which has the 90th punched with the 1 1/4 circle then a navy at 1 3/8 then a dill green scallop.  This was adhered over the ribbon with 3D foam tape.

Nice feminine card for a grand lady!

Compassion House - Thank You Cards

I put together card kits to make thank you cards for Compassion House.

Quite a few are Stampin Up kits.