MORE MOON MAGIC, et al

 

I've begun stitching around my moon...

AND...

I bleached a few spots around the moon to make a "halo effect"...

I still have additions to this moon area to make...

***********************

Meanwhile, 

I worked on quilting the center panel area

S T A R S  

this morning as I awakened early....

Outlining the star points and doing

a few little stitches about the centers...

I used a Deep Purple perle cotton to

big stitch quilt around the borders

in this area...

and a light lilac perle cotton to big stitch just 

inside the star block borders...

And I scattered a few little 

french knots in this central block--

[I don't know if you can see them as

they are meant to add texture and just

blend into the deep red]

(click to enlarge).

So, my center panel is all quilted.

Now onto the rest of the moon

panel..

**************************

We are having a quiet Easter here this year,

just we two..

.👀👫💕👀

I bought Tom his Easter

treat of his favorite "Snickers" bars

and I gave myself some tiny 

"Skors" bars...

We will be watching F1 Saudi Arabian

Grand Prix at noon with our lunch...

********************

It is super windy here today --but

a warmish wind and 56 degrees...

making the daffodils dance about...

I hope you are all enjoying celebrating this

Holiday weekend.

Hugs, Julierose,

La Blageuse

(stitching-and-munching-euse) 

hahaha

MOON MAGIC, et al

 

I decided that my stars needed a Moon in the sky,,,

This is just pinned in place for now and over this

weekend I will invisible baste it in place. 

The Moon is cut from an Eco-printed cloth square;

I had bought a variety pack of eco prints on etsy

quite a while ago and this is the first piece

i will be using in my Dark Days project.

I really love the subtle color variations in it...

After it is basted in place I

will be adding some fancy stitching

and perhaps a surround of 

sari silk ribbon?

Still pondering on this...

***********************

Search as we will, we cannot see any

grass coming up here as yet--it has

been SO COLD--

S I G H ..out watering

twice a day....

But.....

My climbing rose on our fence is 

greening up

Under the watchful eye of Mr. Owl that we

placed there to keep the woodpeckers from

drilling anymore holes in our fence!!

So far, "Ollie Owl" is doing a great job....;)))

This azalea is all budded out...

It resides just outside our front windows of our

side tv room along with 4 others...

and

the Iris blades are coming up, too

All sure signs that Spring has sprung 

despite our chilly temps...this has to

have been one of the coldest Aprils

on record so far....at least it feels

that way.  

I am still sporting my "puffy coat" when

I venture out...

(aka "Nanook of the North look")

I hope all of you celebrating Easter

have a wonderful weekend Holiday..

Hugs, Julierose

La Blageuse

(basting-away-euse)

SQUIRREL VISIT, et al

 

The Easter Squirrel 

came to visit

last week...

👀🐇🐰👀

I love this little pattern that uses 32

two inch squares....I got to use up 

a lot of my precut squares which

I found out were not really cut

very precisely!! 

and, so...

I will not be 

purchasing anymore precuts from 

Etsy shops anymore...

But, 

I was able to eke out some and

then cut others myself...

I wanted all light florals and

I don't usually have those in 

my stash...

I thought this would be perfect for a

little Easter table topper...

I found this block on Beth's Youtube:

"My Sewing Room".

I really like her patterns...

I have just pinned the borders and

cornerstones in place--

[still feeling too crummy to sew after

my covid shot...feeling better but

not 100% yet.]

***********************

My daffodil plot in front of 

my big moss-covered boulder

in my front yard is now

full of:

These lovely, cheerful daffodils...

It has been gray and raining a lot so that

their little heads are pretty 

much facing downwards...

Daffodils say 

"Spring" to me no

matter the low temps this year....

**********************

I decided that my stash needed a little

boost and I purchased these 

fabrics online.

All at their sale clearance price!! 

This is the first purchase this year--

so not bad--right???

Hahaha..

😁😂😃😄

😇

************************

******

Tomorrow the next prompt comes 

for Comfort Cloth SAL--

my "Dark Days" piece...

Hoping I will be back to feeling normal

by then....

Hugs, Julierose

La Blageuse

(resting-euse)

Not receiving comments again...

 

sorry to not answer you all--seems no comments

are coming through to me .

I reset my comment moderation on blogger and

we will see if this solves the problem...

hugs, Julierose,

La blageuse

(silent)

DARK DAYS BLOCK 4-- UPDATE, et al

 

Dark Days, Comfort Cloth--

for April is

"Stars of Friendship.."

I made 6 stars;

I made a little hourglass center for

this one to represent how friends

last through time....

I used bit s and pieces leftover

 from the 1st three blocks

and also added some new colors...

I have set them in this lovely, dark

rose print..

I will spend this week basting this block to the white

backing cloth...before doing any

special, fancy stitching on it...

then it will be placed here

↧↧↧↧

as stars normally appear up above us all..

☆★☆★

It will take me all week to invisible baste this

in place on the backing cloth I am sure...

My hands are pretty tired after 

making the stars

and, so not wanting to 

drop out of the K3N SAL

altogether --

because of  sore hands, 

I'll admit that ..

I finished 3 of the stars

on my machine.

I loved "jig-saw-puzzling"

 the stars with strips of

that lovely, richly-colored fabric...

I think it is in keeping with my

"Dark Days" title....

**************************

We are no longer able to walk

the boardwalk on the River:

There is only a very short distance to walk--

but when the weather improves--

if it EVER does-

[it was only 

29 this morning--

I mean really????

In April?????]

We can still sit on the benches and

take our lunch there to sit and watch the

river traffic and the construction...

***************************

I am continuing on with 

quilting 

"Blues in the Night".

I've finished 5 1/2 blocks of 6...

I will put this aside for this week and

concentrate on invisibly basting the

latest Dark Days block to its backing...

Hugs, Julierose,

La Blageuse

(stitching-in-short-bursts-slowly)

"BLUES IN THE NIGHT", et al

 

I've hand quilted 3 blocks so far and

I am working on the 4th (top L).

I am mostly working on these when

I find myself inexplicably awake

at 3 in the morning!! 

(hence the title).

********************

Here is a picture of how we put

our garden to bed 

last Fall for 

the winter 

months...

and now that our garden guy has

come and dug it all out and seeded this

spot with grass and covered it with 

straw...

Here is its state now--

We will be watering 2x/day until the grass appears...

He is due to return to finish off replanting the

strip along our garage that abuts the front

walkway...soon...

Meantime, one lone daffodil is

holding court there...

*********************

Last Monday.....

I opened this old jelly roll of 

20 fabrics

and 

😀😊

Here's what's happening!! 

👀😉👀

These box-ey blocks are 

really fun to sew

together...

I found 4 more jelly rolls that each have

42 strips and i will see if I can find 

easy, fun patterns with minimal

cutting to use them up....

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

For those of you who asked 

what's going on

With my "Dark Days"

K3N project..

????

Well it is up on my wall 

as is...

And after

I watched this Wednesday's

K3N YouTube video I 

gave one little star block

a try by hand...

and...

N  O  P  E  

it was a total mess...

SOooo, I decided to make my own

stars using Helga--and why not?

My poor hands just could not manage

doing all that...

The little star on the left is the

disaster result--super wonky !!!

the other two are machined...

I am planning on making a few more

and will be watching next Wednesday

to see how K3N attaches them...

(if I end up doing that!!).

*******************

Very warm here this afternoon--66

and sunny--Tom filled our Garden planter

with stones and soil this afternoon 

after he got his ok from the MD 

this morning...

Now I am waiting for plants to

appear in our nursery--still a bit early

here on the southeastern

coastal area of CT...

I want to try tomatoes, lettuces

and a few herbs:

basil, tarragon and parsley...

We've placed it at the sunniest corner of

our back deck...One more layer of soil

will be added to give the plants 

plenty of depth...

[Tomatoes:  Brandywine,  Sungold

Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Green Romaine]

I hope your weekend will be a good one...

hugs, Julierose

La Blageuse

(quilting-&-star-making-&boxes-euse)

MEH????--DNF???, et al

Well, I've taken a long, hard look at 

how this is coming together...

👀👀👀

👺💣👿

And I've decided that I am not

really crazy about how...

Dark Days is looking...

An awful lot of hand stitching

went into this piece 

and

sadly

it is not yielding the 

results I had

hoped for...

S  I  G  H

😒😔😞

I don't think I am

suited to SAL's.

I had continued thinking 

that perhaps it would take a 

turn to make me 

actually  "like" it...

that I would get that

interior feeling of 

"Yes, this is going to be  

just great"!

But--

nope.

❤❤❤

I will say that I have learned a lot:

Various methods of working

by hand and 

certainly what I like

and don't like about 

working in this fashion.; 

But

most of all

what I don't like is

this resulting piece

[and after all that work,

I know, I know]!!

But I do not regret giving this

a try....

So, mes amies, 

💙💙💙

I have decided to take a break 

from it for now.

At this stage of my life, I only

want to make just what I 

REALLY WANT

to make...

But.... 

 I will continue watching the videos 

and move on with my regularly

scheduled quilting agenda...

Somehow, though

on the bright side;)))

💓💖💗

 this whole process has

 brought me back to my love of

hand quilting...

and,

strangely enough,

machine piecing, too.

I have been really wanting to

get back to machine work..

I've thoroughly cleaned Helga's

bobbin area, put in a new needle

and am ready to do some more

"just for the joy of it"

piecing.:))))

😂😍

***********************

Tomorrow I will be doing my weekly

 food shopping and our garden guy

will begin work dismantling

our little front, overgrown 

garden which we can no longer

care for; and 

he will be putting in

grass seed up to the edge 

of our patio seating area..

Last Fall, we did pull what we could out

and then covered it to let most things

just die down...

We were not able to pull the

deep-seated roots out 

and decided to call for help...

So, 

that is where 

I stand for now..

If you've made it through to the end of this

long posting I commend you

👌😉😍😎

Hugs, 

Julierose, La Blageuse

(re-thinking-what-to work-on-next-euse)