Summer Days

I made this 15" x 29" quilt in 2006.  The inspiration was a quilt by Judith Reilly, I loved her idea of the blue panels for the sky and ocean.  Colorful red, white and blue beach umbrellas give it a Star Spangled Banner feel and I always display it during the Fourth of July celebrations.

Garden Yellows

Fourth Block

Courthouse Steps is the fourth design in the Block of the Month challenge. Special thanks to Priscilla for donating the yellow dotted fabric!  This has been so much fun, it's a surprise each month to see what our next blocks will be.

Thursday Journey #12

My husband has finally finished over 3 weeks of jury duty and we have started our Thursday Journey excursions again.  Yesterday we attended the San Diego County Fair. 

We always enjoy the art, photography, flowers, animals and our once a year big bag of kettle corn.

Mango Salsa

I made this quilt a few years ago and the colors remind me of mango salsa.

MANGO SALSA
2 limes
2 large mangos, skinned and diced
1 green onion sliced thin
1/4 c diced red bell pepper
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/4 t salt

Zest the limes and place in bowl. Peel and section limes, chop. Add all ingredients to lime zest. Serve on grilled fish or chicken.

Flower Pot

Painting a flower pot is such a simple way to dress up a plain terra cotta container.  I painted the flower first in gesso then added acrylics for a little extra color in the garden.

Art Journal Cover

Since my trusty old sewing machine is out being repaired, I have been working on other projects that don't require sewing.  Yesterday, using a piece of sticky-backed canvas, I finally created a cover for my art journal.  I painted it with acrylics, added texture with bubble wrap and cardboard, collaged with tissue paper then finished it by using Smooch Spritz to give it a gold glimmer.

This bee was on a paper napkin, a great collage source.  If you look closely you can see the gold spritz.

Happy Father's Day

Since my husband is a triathlete, I looked for a Father's Day card that had some type of exercise on it.  I couldn't resist this cute dad, riding his bike with his children.  I added on the Ironman logo with glue and my husband got a big kick out of it.  HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the wonderful father of our daughters.

Gift Exchange

This is the heart I made for Flo at Butterfly Quilting for our gift exchange.  It is made from wool felt and all hand stitched.  I added the little butterfly to the front in honor of her blog title.

I painted a colorful butterfly on a sturdy box and took it to the post office for shipping.  I had never mailed anything to Canada before and was in total shock when they weighed it and told me the postage cost!  The postal clerk suggested I repack it in a padded envelope.

So, I went back home and hastily painted another butterfly on the envelope and mailed my gift off to Flo.
Hope she enjoys her goodies.

A Rose Is A Rose

My husband loves roses, so in our small garden they bloom in pots, on trellises and on the embankment.

Third Block

This block is called "Beacon Lights" and it is the third tutorial in the Block of the Month Challenge.  It really was a challenge - I struggled with size, points and did a lot of seam ripping. But I'm so glad I signed up for this project, I am making quilt blocks that I would never have tried before and learning that I can face a quilt challenge.

"Wild Garden"

After seeing this fabric on kellygirlquilts.blogspot I just had to have it.  It's called "Wild Garden" by Dan Bennet for Rowan.  Luckily, I found it on line through hancocks-paducah.com.  It sure has the WOW factor and I can't wait to make a quilt with it.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

After enjoying many sunny days, our weather has changed to the typical "June Gloom" that we are so used to having at this time of year.  Nothing like a bowl of soup to warm you up on a cool evening.  Chicken breasts, broth, onions, fresh corn, rice, Rotel chilis, Monterey Jack cheese, avocado, tortilla strips and a squeeze of lime all combined for a tasty meal in a bowl.

Thread Stash

All of this beautiful thread just arrived in the mail from Needle In A Haystack.  They are so beautiful lined up together, I almost hate to separate them!  I bought them on line from http://www.needlestack.com/ and they are Wildflowers by Caron.  The colors are so vibrant and I wish I could buy the entire line that they carry.

Gnarly Tree

This is a eucalyptus tree that is residing in someone's garden near San Diego Bay.
It's very tall and the bent branches reach out in every direction. The trunk and limbs are smooth to the touch and the large ferns surrounding it sway in the breeze.  It is spectatular to see and makes me think of a place where gnomes and fairies would live.

Tequila Sunrise

This is a little 12" x 12" quilt using the make your own fabric method.  I used scraps of hot pinks, reds and oranges with a touch of yellow.

 Hand quilting, embroidery, beads and buttons were added then I finished the background with loose stippling.  It's really fun to use your scraps - they are little memories of past quilts that I have made and given to friends and family.

Sunflower

"How does your garden grow?"  "Is it spring yet?"  "Sunshine on a cloudy day"  I made this collage using rosin paper for the background and glued on flower seed packets and colorful pieces of paper.  The sunflower is painted on using acrylics and I outlined it with free motion machine stitching.  There is nothing like a bright yellow sunflower to get you in the mood for summer days ahead.

Pen and Ink

This little statue once belonged to my mother-in-law and now sits out on my deck.  I wonder what she's thinking behind those big Jackie O sunglasses.

Poipu

The local area newspaper where I live is having a pet photo contest.  Since our cat Red has his photo in "Studios Magazine", I thought Poipu should also get a chance at fame.  This is my favorite picture of her, she is actually laying on her back while squeezed into this cloth bin.  She looks like she doesn't have a care in the world.

Garden Blues

Fabric From Texas

Yesterday, I received this beautiful fabric from Nathalie of Odessa, Texas.  Her site is wastelandwallowing.blogspot.com and I was the lucky winner of her 100th blog giveaway. Can't wait to use the fabric, the colors are great.  Thank you Nathalie.