Winner, quilting, new work

I'll get right to it and announce the winner of the giveaway in the last post. Congratulations to Linda H for winning my giveaway-- a copy of Quilting Arts magazine with my article, a fiber art book mark and a package of Swatch Buddies.

I can hardly believe it. We are in the midst of another winter (in the spring) storm!. At least I decided to take advantage of it, getting a chicken bouillon (my husband may be coming down with something) done this morning, freeing me this afternoon for some quilting. No visiting in laws today. It is snowy and blustery.

It seems I've been taking a lot of handwork lately to our quilting days every second Saturday, and I haven't been able to get my X's and O's baby quilt quilted. Today is a good day for it. The plan was to stipple the whole thing, quick and easy right? Then I sat down to the machine with it and completely changed my mind. I worked out a pattern that I could follow from side to side and vertically with free motion. I didn't trace it; I'm not worried about perfection.

 

 It's hard to make out how the pattern works up. It sort of looks like petals. Here is the back.

You can just make out three petals in the center top area. I haven't finished all the lines yet. It will take a few sessions as I need to rest the shoulders and arms.

The handwork that I mentioned above was to sew back the bindings on my recent fiber art. I finished this piece with an orangey binding to match the rosehips. You've seen it before, minus the binding. Before Christmas, it was purchased by a friend who had to think about whether she wanted it framed or bound. In the end we chose a binding. I think it suits.

And for those of you who like the details:

Now on to my next piece. I really wanted to do something bright and springy, maybe tulips, but this has been calling to me. My son sent me some winter surfing pictures from Lunenburg, NS. Yes, can you believe they surf the Atlantic in the winter?

I've drawn the plan and chosen some fabric. surf and sky with a tiny surfer.

I've never done water with waves before so I've decided to keep it small. I do need to paint fabric for the really pretty soft wintry sky though. That may take a few tries to get what I want.

It just happens to be International Quilt week and to celebrate, The Quilt Show  featuring Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims has opened up the on line shows to watch this weekend. This morning, I watched one with Mickey Lawler demonstrating how she paints her skies. I have her book, but I did get a few more tips.

It's a bit late to let you know this, but try it out if you have time while it's free. It only takes a few minutes to register and the nice thing is that you will get an email to let you know when it's on next year.