Notes from the Lake

One of my favourite things at the lake is the variety of birdlife. Each summer I think I should become a "real" birder, start a life list, etc. but in the winter the idea dims - how many sparrows can you get excited about? lol Sadly, that is about the only bird I see at home. Out here at the lake though there is a much larger variety and I get quite excited about it. Yesterday the yellow-headed blackbirds (yes, that is the actual name, not just a description) were cooperative enough that I was able to get a couple of pictures. I just love the splash of vivid colour on them!

In my crazy quilting, I have a tendency to be to concerned with things matching and coordinating. I think bolder colour combinations might be in order like on these little fellows. My dear mother used to tell me to look to nature for colour combinations. In nature it all looks good together so if the combination appears in nature it is a good one. Good advice!

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Muskoka Landscape - finished!

So, here it is... finished! Once again, this was a workshop taught by Kim Beamish. I love her projects- they are such fun stitches. Managed to frame this one myself with a thrift store frame complete with matts that I repurposed and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I will be stitching this again because I messed up several times and want to do it again and get it right. Even with the mistakes I made though - I love it!

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BAS - Week 81 - Sequin Flower with Tutorial

This Build a Seam (BAS) Challenge is a little different - not exactly a stitch per se. It is a technique for making sequin flowers which can be a wonderful addition to a seam treatment or motif. You will need cupped sequins for this - flat ones will not work properly - and some seed beads. Mark your fabric with a center dot and five evenly spaced dots around the outside. Bring your needle up through one of the dots on the outside and string on one sequin (cup upwards), a bead, another sequin and two more beads. Take your needle down through the middle dot. Carry on making another leg in the same way on each of the other four outside dots, always going down into the center dot which will be the middle of your flower. This is what you end up with after you have done all five legs - a nice little sequin flower! You can add a bead or two more in the center of the flower if you wish. You can also vary the number of legs depending on the size of t...

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