Silk and sows

This year I decided to take part in one of my guild's president's challenge. Here's what the rules were:

"The theme is “Making a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s

Ear”. We will provide packages of 8 to 10 charm squares

of less-than-gorgeous material and you are invited to

incorporate them all in a quilted project (e.g. wall

hanging, wearable or other) of no more than 80 inches 
in perimeter. You are challenged to produce something 
lovely from materials that would easily be considered less-than-
lovely. The projects will be presented at the May 2014

Annual General Meeting where we will vote for a “Viewer’s

Choice” winner. So, let your imaginations soar and let’s

see what “silk purses” we can come up with!"

 Originally, I was just going to make the challenge piece a pieced quilt. I got lucky because one of the charm squares I was given had two full cardinals that I could cut out and applique.

 This is the quilt that I ended up making. It turned out much nicer than it started out. The dark green tree trunk and branches just happened to be a scrap of fabric that was sitting on my cutting table when I was laying out the blocks.

The finished piece - The Cardinals, measures 13" X 17," well within the 80" perimeter stated in the rules and it was machine pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Now, I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network and with Esther's WOW (Works in Progress Wednesday). Pop on over to see what other people are up to this week.

Miscellaneous Stuff

"The 24th of May is the Queen's birthday and if you don't give us a holiday we'll run away and play." That's the little poem my dad taught me when I was little. It was something he learned as a little boy. Today is Victoria Day or, otherwise known as Firecracker Day. It's a holiday Monday and there are fireworks displays in a few places tonight at sundown. It's usually a coldish day and even though it may be 60F or 20C, it still feels cool outside. There is no sun right now and it may rain. Typical.

Prince Charles and Lady Camilla are visiting Canada (the Maritimes) for four days. Pop on over to Karen's blog to see photos.

Otherwise, I have been busy with odds and ends.

This is Midnight...

and this is Ben. They belong to my son Mark and his wife. They went away for the weekend and entrusted their care to me and my husband. We went over to feed them and to cuddle for a bit.

This was the sky earlier in the week. 

 It should have been April showers but it appears as if we are having May showers.

The backyard is greening up. I love my forsythia and my tulips but the squirrels seem to like my tulips too.

Here she is, my little Pixel with her yearly lion cut. Some people really get freaked out by it and others think it's cute.

I finished the challenge quilt I was working on. Here it is basted in preparation for hand quilting.

Here's another part of it. I'll show you the whole thing in a couple of days. It turned out quite different from how it started out in my head.

I'm working on baby things too but since it is supposed to be a secret, I can't show you. All in good time...

Just a few photos of some flowers I got for Mother's Day last weekend.

These were from my son Mark and his wife Kate.

I love the colours.

I love the variety too.

These were from my other son, Eric.

And this one lone white carnation I received when I went to the bank on Friday. 

I just happened to have my camera with me today.

These are the window displays at the Bata Shoe Museum. Colourful and very quilt-like.

Have a great week. I'm going to see what sewing I can accomplish today.

Challenging Ourselves

I belong to a yahoo group called 'Challenging Ourselves' and today is the big reveal of the theme "Favourite Places." First of all, it did not indicate 'my' favourite places and so I chose instead to look around and find another way of interpreting the theme. I have many favourite places and it would have taken too long to interpret them. This is what I came up with.

This was an interpretation of a photo I took of two cats and their favourite place on a sunny day. It is not quilted nor are any of the seams turned under. I wanted to leave everything as raw as possible. It will be framed with a mat board and then put under glass so I didn't want the extra bulk or batting and backing. Most of the stitching is my hand.

Napkin Challenge Reveal

It was really hard to decide on which napkin to use for inspiration and then to translate it into something else.

 At first I was going to use the blue one since I am partial to blue but nothing inspiring came of it. So, I changed my mind. There were so many really nice ones to choose from but I did have an idea.

Can you figure out which napkin I used?

The colours in this napkin were all in my stash and I decided to update the Christmas red and green in the ornaments.

Here's a better picture without the napkin. I had those snowflakes and thought they would make a nice addition.

I enhanced three of the ornaments with embroidery.

Click on any of the photos to view them better if you wish. All in all, a fun little project.

NOTE: to view the other projects in this little challenge, click on Mrs. Moen's Napkin Challenge button in the sidebar. I have changed it so that it will take you directly to the list of participants.

Hidden Treasures revealed

I belong to a group that is composed of 20 women from all over the world who meet challenges in fibre. It is a new group that was formed a couple of months ago. The first challenge was called Hidden Treasures. Here's my entry.

And here it is REVEALED.

To find out all about this piece, the thought and the work that went into it, go to http://challengingourselvesfabricarts.blogspot.com/
There, you will find how 20 people interpret one theme. Individual and thoroughly enjoyable. Almost like going to a quilt show.