Center Appliqué

My appliqué is just like Lori's but in RED!! My stems are black. I use wonder under which I use to trace the pattern onto. For the birds facing different directions, I held up the pattern to the window and turned it around for tracing. In other words, I held the reverse side of the pattern to the window so I was tracing the back side of the pattern...That way we would have mirror images of the birds!

My stems are made using bias bars I have had from Clothilde, I think. I cut my strips on the bias 2" wide, sewed them together WRONG sides together, using a  very scant 1/4" seam. I insert the bias bar into my strip, place the seam in the center and press from that side. I also spray as I iron with starch. I used a glue stick to hold the stems in place.  Then I sewed them, using a regular straight stitch along each side of the stem.

For sewing the pieces down, I used a buttonhole stitch.  For doing the flowers, I sewed the center circle down first onto the flower.  Once the center was sewn down, then I could sew down the whole flower. It was easier for me to do it that way!  The bird's eye is just a black permanent pen.

Easy!! Fun (even though it's appliqué!!)

Lori and Randy's Sow-A-Long

Lori and I wanted to do a joint project that wouldn't be overly taxing or take too long.  So we designed this small wall-hanging which won't take much time or effort.

I used a cherry red for my background and all neons for the rest of the pieces. My stems are black.  I just was in the mood for doing something wild.  When you see Lori's, you'll see how different (and beautiful) it will also look in red/white/blue!

Hope you'll join in and enjoy the fun. The center applique is Lori's design.  I will post the instructions for the first pieced border in two weeks.  The second pieced border is mine as well and the instructions will be posted two weeks after that.  Lori's final applique border is two weeks later.

Please let us know if you have any questions.  Or just share your progress.

Love to you all,
Randy

Sow-A-Long, starting tomorrow

READY FOR SOME FUN???

I mentioned a while ago that my friend Lori (of Humble Quilts) and I were planning a small sow-a-long.  Well, it's ready to start!

Starting tomorrow!! There will be FOUR parts;  Lori is doing the first part; I'm doing the next two; she's doing the last part.  We figured two weeks between parts.  It's not a mystery.  We will post pictures tomorrow of what it's going to look like!

It consists of two parts applique (guess who's doing that??? VBG) and two parts pieced.  It's a small wallhanging.

What's interesting is that we did them in completely different colors!
Lori's is normal, beautiful and soft.  Mine, on the other hand, is weird, loud and obnoxious!!! Kind of like me, I guess. Just kidding.

So, tune in tomorrow!!! We're posting our pictures tomorrow.  She will post instructions for her center appliqué.  I will also post a method for part of hers that's different than how Lori does hers.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed designing it!

Love to you all,
Randy

Emma and Ryan with us

We have had the darlings this weekend. We go to the park nearby and today we ran into a neighbor who took a picture of all of us!!

My darlings!

We have had Ryan and Emma for a couple of weekends!! Lucky us!
The weather today was very warm do we took off most of their clothes!!

Cell phones and cars!

California (like most states) has a "hands-free" law that prohibits the use of cell phones in your car.  Yesterday I got a ticket because I had the cell phone IN MY HAND (NOT ON) while I reached for the charger. The cop told me that I couldn't have it in my hand, whether I was using it or not.  He knew I wasn't talking or texting (which I must admit that I have done from time to time).  He said the law prohibited holding it.

Being the lawyer that I am, I immediately went to the California Vehicle Code to read the law.  It says you can't drive "while using" a cell phone.  Personally I think that's interpreting the law a bit broadly.  I figured they're trying to generate more income. I mean, he could've given me a warning, don't ya think?

Now, wouldn't you call this ANNOYING??!!!??

Love to you all,
Randy, getting ready for Nana Day and a weekend with the darling Emma and Ryan.

Bouquets to Arts

A couple of weeks ago I went to the DeYoung Museum's annual event where they display floral designs created to mimic a work of art. The flowers were amazing, colors were brilliant and the designers were so talented and creative. By the way, the show only lasts 4 days, for obvious reasons! Enjoy!!

What a beautiful California morning

This is about 10 minutes from my house. There's a fabulous walk right along the ocean! Isn't this amazing??

More V&A pictures

I hope you're not bored with all these pictures!
Today on our last morning in London we walked a ways to breakfast. The neighborhood we went through all had fabulous steps, all with quilt patterns! I didn't have my phone so I will post those tomorrow.
For tonight, enjoy these!!

More floor tiles!!

When we returned today to the V&A Museum, I saw a few quilt patterns on the floor again. I also snapped a picture of a sculpture of a woman with a shawl having a great quilt pattern in the border. Imagine, not sewing a pattern, but carving it out of marble!!!

More from Victoria & Albert Museum

This museum is so great that we went back again today. I'm so glad because I found this whole cloth hand quilted beauty from the 1300s in amazing shape!!

The floors are amazing

My husband and I had the good fortune to visit London this past week. By far, my favorite site has been the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is filled to the brim with everything you could imagine of tremendous interest.

When we were going through it, I couldn't help but notice the floors in a couple of the rooms. Quilt patterns!!!

They also had some wonderful tapestries.  I thought this one looked just like the William Morris pattern I've seen. I'm sorry it's so dark but I don't think they wanted flash used and the room was quite dark to preserve these beauties.  I personally love looking at tapestries and marvel at the degree of detail in each of them.  I couldn't imagine having to make the wool, dye it, and then weave it, covering every little piece of canvas.  They were beautiful.

I have figured out that I can email pictures from my phone to myself and upload them to my blog. Having wifi in the flat we are renting makes a big difference.  I will post some more photos before we leave tomorrow.

Love to you all from very chilly London,
Randy

It worked!

 I am happy to report that eliminating anonymous comments has completely reduced the pesky spam comments!  WOOHOO.. And I hope everyone has been able to post their comments, even though I've been kind of quiet.

Well, I'll be quiet for the rest of the week.

On vacation with dh and ds ...

Hope everyone has a great week.
I've got some great pictures to post, but can't figure out how to do it from my location without incurring huge roaming charges.  VBG

Love to you all,
Randy