Embroidered Felt Fishing Boats on Canvas

By on 2-19-2011 in art quilts, Embroidery, Vintage Patterns

fishingboats

These two fishing boats were published in the McCall’s Needle Art Volume IV magazine. A romantic piece of embroidery that was sewn on canvas using the sewing machine and straight stitch. Felt was used for the boats, sun and building. Wouldn’t these boats look great using the new threads and fabrics available today? I can envision painted and stitched boats sailing over a large summer tote. A sea coast landscape quilt could be the background for one of the boats.
fishing boat pattern

The patterns for both pictures are here….pdf document is 460kb Fishing Boats Embroidery with Machine

Weather Outside My Window Postcard Exchange

By on 2-15-2011 in art quilts, Fabric Postcards, Original Pattern

Weather Outside My Window Postcard Exchange
More fabric postcards, the first for this year plus my Christmas postcard for 2010 are all here. The exchange subject was the weather outside our windows. Miriam in Ireland saw snow for the first time and made snowmen, thus the snowman on her card. Sheila in Scotland saw the sun shining through the ice and snow in the tree branches and Margaret in Australia saw too much rain and flooding. I look out my window here in Canada and see an oak tree in our backyard that still hasn’t lost all it’s leaves and when the wind blows it plucks a few more from the tree and carries them swirling to the snow. The deer in my Christmas postcard are the same ones that I used in my winter postcard exchange last year. They were created from a photo of a pretty little doe who visited my garden in the fall.

On my Christmas card there is a frozen lake created from a foil bag that held tea bags and silver ribbon adorns the blue winter sky. The trees in the back ground are zigzag and painted in with paint pens and a little silver glitter was glued around the lake. The oak tree on my weather card is cordoroy with stitching and paint. I stitched through it and into the branches to make the small branches. The leaves on the tree and the snow beneath are beads. The beads are stitched on and then glued with a waterproof glue to survive the mailing.

Sentinals, watching the rising of the sun

By on 2-13-2011 in Digital Images + Collage, Original photos

sentinals, watching the rising sun

When I had finished taking photos of the rising sun I looked behind me and on a tall elm were sitting two beautiful crows watching and waiting for the sun. The sky behind them was blue and the trees were glowing with coral and gold. We are not the only ones who await the sun every day…it was an exciting moment. As soon as the sun was up they spread their wings and gracefully soared eastward. This collage is to honour the crows.

Redwork Snowmen…..meet Freddy, Albert and the Snow Family Village

By on 2-11-2011 in Christmas Patterns, Embroidery, Original Pattern, Original Quilts

Freddy and Albert Quilt

This little redwork quilt is 22″ x 23″. Freddy, Albert and the snow family village are all original sketches. The village has “Snowmen are communities of little flakes”. These fellows were just bursting to get out so here they are. I embroidered the snowmen on diaper flannelette to give them a ‘snowy’ feeling using mostly chainstitch and French knot stitches. The quilt itself was sewn on the serger…. no little bits of thread to worry about and the seams were absolutely straight. You can download Albert here: Christmas in July and here: Christmas in March

February Sunrise

By on 2-08-2011 in Original photos

February sunrise

February winter skies bring beautiful sunrises filled with rich colour. Gone are the silvers that are present in January. Spring is not far behind when you start to see colour in the morning skies. Unfortunately it didn’t last, as the sun rose higher the clouds moved in. Being up to greet the morning sun is a gift in itself.

February sunrise