Two additions

Two new quilts to share.  The fish is on silk and raw edge applique. The pattern is from a picture of a stained-glass window aboard a cruise ship. My friend Nancy took the picture and sent it to me to play with. This is a fun and freeing technique. I spent a lot of time stitching stitching the background "sea-weed". It was fun to dust off the decorative stitches that are available on my sewing machine.
The second quilt will be for a raffle at St.John's Lutheran Church in Phoenixville, Pa  We are celebrating 50 years in "St.John's Circle" although the congregation dates before this location. Happy people live in this circle of fellowship and love.

Celebration! Ordination!

What a lovely day all had at the Ordination of Stacey-Kyle. The sun was shinning, the birds were singing and for that brief moment all was right in the world. The Holy Spirit beamed through all of the faces of the congregation. A warm and welcoming congregation they are and thrilled at finding such a wonderful new Pastor.  She looks lovely in her stole and I, as usual, was all teary eyed at the ceremony.  My God bless her on her journey. Thank you to St John's for welcoming all of Stacey-Kyle's supporters.

Red Fish

Here is the latest fish.  I don't think he is quite finished though. He may just swim by again. I used tulle over the whole piece adding threads on his tail. There is black netting on the bottom of the sea. Notice he is swimming with the turtle dudes.

Fabric Painting

 I am only starting to experiment with fabric painting. Here is an attempt made on a wonderfully warm Spring day that allowed me to drag all my "stuff" outside and just play. I try to be prayerful as I go about my play. It is therapy for me after being in an office all day working on "books".  This fabric was first rusted the sprayed with paint then alcohol inks were dripped and dotted.  I am working on the fact that there is too much white space and the the center holds all of the interest. My goal is to create backgrounds for my fish. I have more muslin in a bucket with nails getting rusted so keep tuned to see what happens to all of that. In the meantime, keep stitching.

Fabric Resist

One of my favorite pasttimes is using various resists on black fabric.  Here is a new one using circles and May Apple leaves, sticks and stones as a resist. I use about a yard of fabric at a time, lay the fabric on my driveway place the items on the fabric and then spay bleach evenly (or not) over the whole thing. The results are different everytime and fun to use whenever you need a black. If you try this be sure to wash the fabric immediately to remove the bleach.

Fun

Last night I was playing in my sewing room working on a red fish, trying to decide on the proper background quilting for her - this fish happens to be a "she".  I abandoned my fish project and made this.  It measures 8 1/2" x 12" .  It is made of burlap, copper wire mesh, copper sheet metal, buttons, fabric and laughter.  I had purchased little brads from the stationery department somewhere and used those to hold the items in place. The thread is DMC gold and copper and a red metallic. I can not explain where it came from but here it is and what great fun it was to create.

 Here is a closeup.