wow! this #3 was a doozey for me!

i was thrilled with the assignment!  thrilled i say......thrilled. 

until i tried working with the space....5 inches finished that was 20 inches long....hhhmmmm....would have made a really cool tall tree, and that was what i wanted to do, but just could not find a good tree that was tall enough yet narrow enough....that five inches was gonna be the death of me.

saw the cute little bird in it's nest from those wonderful gumtree designers new "things we like" BOM.  jenny of elefantz designed the first block....i HAD to put it in....it was stitching afterall....then, i decided on some pine cones....couldn't find any good stitched pinecone pattern either, but DID find a nice little prim paper pieced one. 

i am retarded when it comes to paper piecing....what would have taken 5 minutes for a normal person that can think in reverse (i just can't for paper piecing--can for other things but NOT this!)  took me hours.  really.  to make 2, yes, 2 pinecones.  they are below.

  not completely finished, but still...and, they had used the fabric that i would not use...it is in each cone, on the top one it is the 3rd from the bottom.  on the bottom cone, it is the wide strip of black and brown where the black looks like cannon bombs.  i think they are actually supposed to be berries, but they look like bombs to me, so it ALWAYS gets passed over for ANYTHING i am making....

i thought they looked pretty darned good for prim pinecones, but then, i knew what they were.  when i showed them to (NON-quilty) friends later that night, they were NOT impressed, and did not even know that they were pinecones....back to the drawing board

still wanted that bird in there, and  finally found a nice little pine cone to applique and stitch, so i did....3 of them..

so, that was my block.  it was more time consuming than i thought it would be, i love stitching, but all the design changes, different background for the bird block itself, then, swapped out the nest fabric too...and, it just took forever to stitch all those scales on the pinecones for some reason....and, i am not actually really very happy with it.  i still have to blanket stitch the little branches, but i used french knot eye, satin stitch beak, and then outline and blanket stitch....my fabric i would not normally use in a quilt ended up being the nest fabric....only because it has never actually gone into one but it has been used for many other things...it is celtic knotwork.....

here they are together....dark picture,  but it will have to suffice.....and, when we have to do a paper-pieced technique, i am ready!!!  actually, i am hoping that it will be next clue, and we will build another 5 x 20 strip coz i actually like my first work-up better than this block i ended up with....and, i wanna make a new bird and nest and put it with those cones on the right side......whadda ya think powers that be??? a paper pieced technique on a 5 x 20for number 4???? pretty please with sugar on top??

47 little hexies in my scrappy stash forest

see that bobbin on the left?  that gives a clue as to how big/small these hexies are.

what a process this was.  WOW, when i read the clue, i was hexies???  i don't do hexies....so, i thought i would perhaps make one yellow one and make it be a sun in some appliqued trees.  then, i decided that that would be shortchanging myself in the concept of this quilt in learning new techniques etc....

so, i thought i could make a column for the left and right sides of the block and then applique some trees--and, i still might do that in another block, but once i got started on this by searching and printing a hexie template on wednesday afternoon and started cutting them out, i just decided to cut the whole sheet of hexies.

i have been trading postage stamps of fabrics for a while, so i have a huge selection.  i pulled out a whole lot of greens and started  cutting a stack of them around the templates and thengluing them down with a washable glue stick--easier for me than the stitching around.....before i knew it i had a huge pile.....so, i started playing with them....the longest process was wetting them and taking the papers out once they were stitched together--

the end result is my block--all hand stitched together and all hand stitched down.  so, then i auditioned it on top of the first block--i think not--it looks too top heavy don't you think?  but, it does show that once a block is on top of it, that the sky above the trees will be a nice spot for a stitched saying, quote, or verse  ;o)

wouldn't it have been nice if i had rotated these before uploading it?



then, on the bottom....MUCH better.   and, it gives a nice balance.  gotta LOVE this concept ladies!  i am so blessed to be involved in this!  and, i can't wait to see what february first is gonna bring for a clue~

my scrappy forest #2 teaser

i am thrilled that we get to show our blocks tomorrow, and i guess, technically, it already IS tomorrow somewhere, but alas, it is still today here for a few more hours, so i will wait...

i had a blast with this technique.  i did not think i was going to, but i really did.  and, apparently i did a great job because when my 14 y/o dd saw it tonite as i was STILL working on it, she exclaimed "WOW!!!  that is legit!!!"  now, i don't know if that is a popular slang term for WAY past cool, totally fantastic, and is right on in your area, but in ours one of the highest compliments that a teen can give you is to call something legit!  so, i guess my block rocks, and that is all the preview you are gonna get LOL

lynne's scrappy stash forest block #1

look at all the pine trees in my forest! 

i am really happy with how it turned out, very scrappy.  i had originally made a strip of 12 geese flying across the tops of the trees.  i made these before i made any of the trees of course...needless to say, the geese across the sky will hopefully fulfill another step of this quilt LOL coz they sure are not going to go on this block.  i also had wanted to stitch a verse in the sky.  that is still a possibility, but for now, this block looks busy enough to me with the 27 2 in. x 1 in. geese in the trees....i am really pleased--even with the wonky ones!!  i really want to see what is coming next!  can't wait!

scrappy stash forest.....

when i tried to convince myself that NO!!!  i was NOT going to be doing yet another project that would probably never get finished, and that betty and carmen could just go on ahead and have their fun with their 12 inch starter block, i thought i had been VERY convincing to myself.....then, i fell asleep and dreamt of my own 12 inch starter block with the nice flying geese pine trees on the right, with some smaller ones on the left, with some beautiful stitching of a nice scripture in the middle--the nice thing about dreams is that they can be as detailed and as un-realistic as we want  LOL    so, first thing this morning i signed up, with my theme of scrapy stash forest....my first block with the geese trees (that will NOT be as amazing as my dreams was-sarn!) may  be the only tree on it, because i tend to get side-tracked somewhat, and we may not be able to see the forest thru the tree, but it WILL be scrappy and stashy  ;o)

so, as you can see, i hate to use capitals, unless i am using them to emphasize a word, which i ALWAYS do....and i just love to end the sentence with .... instead of actually just ending. the. sentence.   i also write like i talk, so sometimes you have to read it a few times before you get the hang of what on earth i am talking about!

i met carmen and betty in a great on-line group and they introduced me to this BOM and boy howdy, i am gonna just LOVE this.  i have a little problem with sent out round robins so this is like that, but I have the control!  not that i am usually a control freak, i just know what i like LOL  and, i can't have a blog post without a picture--this is also a stay at home round robin that a wonderful lady named tara kos designed.  we were to start with a middle block...then, she added round after round...and, because she knows that i like applique, she left me lots of space to add mine!!!!  oak leaves and acorns--i LOVE them!!!  then, i added the words of the fruits of the spirit, but am re-working them because you can't see the original well enough....perhaps one day i will actually get it done and quilted!!!

my friut of the spirit round a week stay at home round robin.....

gives an idea of the kind of quilting i like....traditional, applique, and fall colors!

i am a chirstian, a wife of 30 years, and mother of 11 kids....from 30 down to 9.  6 of them are still in the home--4 teen girls, a hormonal 6th grade boy and a sweet 3rd grade boy.  life is busy and challenging to say the least!!!  i am getting my 7th grandchild this friday!!!  can't wait for that!!!  we also have 5 dogs and a bird....we live in southern california in the mojave desert, so we have extremes of weather--last week the kids had 2 snow days off from school...in the summer we can get to 115 degrees....all in all a nice place to live if you don't mind brown....i miss the mountains and green...in my heart i live in ireland  ;o) 

i love to read and knit and quilt....am pretty able at most things i try my hand at, but i just  can't seem to finish projects!  this year i vowed that i would be VERY selective as to what i would start, and am thrilled that i get to be part of your group here and to do this along with you.  I have set goals of making more finishes this year--and of more blogging with pictures--this little mystery will also help achieve that goal too!!  it must have been meant to be--right??!!  so, can still work on the old things, start a few new ones, have the fresh challenge of this little mystery, and get to blog about it too....life doesn't get much better than that!

go and visit my blog--  http://lynnesfreshhope.blogspot/   leave a comment, i hope to get to know you all, and can't wait to see some blocks!

lynne
with each new day comes fresh hope