Beauty is everywhere if you just look

Good morning sweet pea!

I like the vines in the leaf here

The white flowers in the background are from arugula bolting

Milkweed on the side of the road

this weeks finish - barefoot canoeing

just wanted to share the quilt I just finished 

I'm showing 3 different photos to show how the different lighting effects the look. 

They were all 3 taken outside in natural light.

this was in the shade but sort of indirect light, see how a patch of light shows through on the left

this was in a shadier spot and is probablly truer to the colors in the quilt (although I like the top colors better)

but I would want to depict the actual color as best that I can

this was in direct sunlight laying on the grass - totally washed it out

I really like how this came out and like the no- binding or facing technique that I followed from Susan Brubacker Knapp at her Blue Moon River site. her quilts are spectacular and doing this gives it an "art feel".

You can see it here if interested.

this is all I worked on this week - my other UFO's are still sitting there waiting for me

So many ideas and not enough time (sigh)

WIP Wednesday

I finished the winter scene (the lights weird for the photo but you get the idea)

the name of the game this week is pincushions - I have become obsessed with making pincushions!

The Vermont Quilt Festival has a quilters boutique that sells items quilters would like so that got me on the felted cupcake pincushion trail. 

Then I did some flat and coiled, sewing down shells to the sides for decor. Now I started trying the old fashioned ones (the yellow one in the back) with the button in the middle.

I could use some input on how much to charge and/ or would you buy one of these being a quilter that I know you are or you wouldn't be reading this :-)

comments please?

haven't touched this in over a week due to my pincushion passion

nor done anything more with this, maybe next week
(after I make just a few more pincushions) :-)

Crock pot beans and chicken

This is Lyric Kinards recipe (she has a great artistic blog by the way) I made it last night and am eating it for breakfast - it is sooooooo good!

White Chicken Chili
1 lb dry white beans (or 4 cans if you don’t have time to crock it)
6c chicken broth (or water and bullion)
1 tbsps cumin
2 or 3 large chicken breasts (cooked if not crocking)
3 med onions, chopped
garlic – lots of it!
(crock it on low most of the day)
add
2 cans green chili peppers
1/2 lb shredded pepper jack cheese
lots of cilantro and sour creme to garnish

I love beans but have never mastered cooking them, I've soaked, boiled, baked - tried everything and they never come out tender and good. This recipe works! I used dried white northern beans and put in a large can of chicken broth, threw in the chicken breasts and the rest can be to taste. I added lots of chopped garlic, lovage, cumin, hot sauce, pepper, onions, a swig of white wine and an Italien pepper. Then crock on low overnight - it was probablly 11 hours. It's quick and easy, hardly any preparation and delicious.

Bon appetite!

Inspiration photos

On a side note, my Works in progress for this wednsday got put on the quilt blog by mistake. If you want to see what I've been up to last week go here

Here are a few photos I took on my walk today

Ferns in the forest

not sure what these are but they're pretty

Oh man! This hill is steep

Early queens Anne's lace

Follow me!

Wonder who lives here? There is a built in cup holder:-)

And yes, we even have pink flamingos in Vermont!

WIP Wednsday

Ok, so I'm trying something new here to try to help me finish some projects.

I saw on a blog today a thing called WIP wednsday's where you post what project you have in progress each wednsday and hopefully the next week report that they have all been completed and here is my new works in progress. Then you put your link with all these other bloggers that are doing the same thing, read their blogs ( spending the time that you should be finishing up your WIP's) and supporting each other by leaving comments. Ha! Well it's worth a try anyway:-)

Click on the button to the right if you want to check out the links and join in the fun (or humiliation)

This is probablly been on my design wall the longest and why I don't know because it is the cutest.

A wolf howling at the moon, another one done but not quilted

A winter scene, waiting for a border and quilting

The dreaded oval mariners compass that I got frustrated with and had to move on for awhile, waiting for a border and quilting

Well will you look at this! It's quilted, has a binding - just need to hand sew that sucker on!

Any bets on which ones I'll have done by next wednsday?

birds in a nest

I've had this in my mind to make for awhile now and so when jaye choose the word bird as her creative prompt last friday, I knew I needed to make it.

first I drew and painted the birds onto fabric using acrylic paint and aloe gel for a medium

(thank you quilt rat for that tip)

then put them on big square of felted wool from an army blanket that I got at a garage sale new for 2 bucks - what a find that was! I got 3 of them:-)

after quilting the birds down I made my nest out of all sorts of leftover yarn that I have collected and used a wool felting tool to poke all the little fibers down to attach to the wool back - then went and used my free motion foot to sew it down more securely

I then cut off the big wool part and then zig zaged a backing on. (Sorry I didn't take more pics)

How to hang this thing was my next question - well birds nests hang in trees from a branch so I tied some yarn together, tacked it to the back and tied it to a branch for hanging.

I think it's pretty darn cool!