Enjoying all the pretty flowering plants and shrubs. We planted these forsythia a couple of years ago and they are doing better each year.
Perhaps it was because Spring has sprung and we had a nice vacation. But for the past week I have been getting very industrious. Actually finishing or nearly finishing some projects.
I have mentioned that I have done a lot more sewing lately but seemed to have trouble finishing things up. This past week was different. To begin I made this mat. I saw a place mat on line that I liked and decided to make my own pattern and see if I could do it. Here is the result.
Now that I know it turns out ok, I will probably make it in colors more suitable for my dining room table. I just had these purple scraps and decided to use them.
The next project is this tote bag. Last fall I went to one of my favorite fabric stores where there sell lots of scraps of upholstery fabrics for REALLY CHEAP. I bought quite a bit and this is made from some of those.
I used a lot of the special stitches on my sewing machine, also did a bit of machine applique in the middle.
So here is that result.
And the final project is a "fall table runner." Last summer I found the idea in a fabric store in Maine and brought home the idea to replicate. I bought the fabric at that store but the rest is my pattern. I went on line and found a picture of an oak leaf which I enlarged, worked on and made it like I wanted it. I cut out the four different colors of leaves and machine appliqued them onto the base piece. The thread I used was a variegated one using the colors of the different leaves. I also found a picture of an acorn on line and used it to create a pattern. I printed up enough, pinned them to the base and stitched over the stop to served as quilting on the piece. Then I ripped off the paper.
You will notice there is no binding yet. I will be doing that in a class I will be taking later in the month.
If you look closely you can see the "outlines" of the acorn that make up the quilted areas.
I will show again when I am completely finished.
Meanwhile I have been doing a bit of cleaning out in my garden. I was NOT a happy camper when I discovered that the deer had been dining on my freshly growing hostas! See picture below.
You can see the little places where they bit off the spikes.
I was reading a gardening book recently where they suggested that you put up little pinwheels in the areas where you want to scare off deer.... So I found one and put it up. It doesn't go constantly but it does move. I do hope it helps. If it doesn't, well it looks cute anyway.
Come back to see me on Tuesday. I have another tea cup Tuesday blog entry planned.
