Birthday Quilt Done

With Bouree's help....





Just have to hand stitch the binding down tonight and I'll be enjoying it tomorrow on my birthday!



That is if I can keep this little booger from taking the binding clips off! :)

Thanks again Mother!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quilting My Birthday Quilt

Since this will be the quilt that I throw over my legs in the winter when I'm reading or knitting, I don't want it to be quilted to death, so I'm using a panto.  "Hibiscus" by Deb Geissler.  It is a pretty one and well suited to the colors in the quilt.  I'm using Quilters Dream Wool batting (of course :) ) and Superior's King Tut thread.."Cairo" and the colors of the thread are just perfect!





It has been several years since I've done a panto....sort of boring, but perfect for this quilt.

And of course, I know you want to see my "helper"!  Bouree is working very hard...



With all this help, I think it's going to take a while to get this done!

An Early Birthday Gift

I got this wonderful quilt top from Mother for my birthday, which is not until next week. Beautiful batiks in nice rich looking colors...it has my favorite Aqua in there. I think this will be perfect for my chaise  where I sit and knit.



 

She even sent the backing and the binding already made!  So I just have to quilt it...I think I'll load it tomorrow!

Thanks Mother!

Surgery Day for Bouree

Today was the day my little boy got his boy bits "nipped" and had his microchip implanted. I dropped him off at the Vet's at 7:30 am and he was home before noon. He did just fine..a little bruised and swollen, and he has been pretty sleepy all afternoon.  So we are letting him sleep it off.



He looks so sweet and fragile....it's hard not to be holding and kissing on him



And Chloe went around calling for him all morning while he was gone, but when he got home she  did not like the hospital smell on him!

So while Bouree rests up from his ordeal, Chloe has been posing for the camera.





Such a beautiful, sweet girl...and she knows it too!





She loves getting her picture taken



And one last shot of my sleeping baby boy

Queen of the Nereids update and Bouree

I have been busy with house renovations so I haven't gotten a lot of art done. But.........

I have done a little on my painted mermaid wholecloth...very little;  household reno work calling my attention....but I realizied that the first photos of the pattern were not that easy to see.

So here are some better photos...I hope.  And a little look at the background painting.

 

 











 

 

What you are seeing below is the sea through a hole in the rock formation...I took off the masks of the rocks, fish and octopus. There will be many more layers of color to get the final result.  But, the best results are obtained by gradually building up the color.

keep in mind, what you are seeing is just the first two layers of color in that section



And now for Bouree.......he fell asleep "helping"



If you look closely at his right eye you will see he was "helping " me paint the sea...got a little blue paint on his paw,and wiped his face with his paw...just between the bottom of his eye and the bridge of his nose....before I got all the paint cleaned off.

Before some of you chime in...it is non toxic paint.



He is fine... for today.  But very early Tuesday morning, he has to go to the vet...it's time to get the little boy bits removed....shhhhhh, don't tell him!

I hope he still loves me afterwards :)

 

House Reno Update

We have been working on this house since we moved here.  That's OK because I knew that when I bought it.

The house was the perfect size, in the perfect neighborhood.  And at a fairly good price considering that work that needed to be done. It had been vacant since Katrina, but the bones were good...an architect built it and was the only one to live in it. So I bought it. So, our efforts to this point have been on structural and safety issues.

To this date, we have finished:

New roof ,  new hot water heater,   new heating/AC systems , Running AC to the 3rd floor studio ,  Filling in the really sad looking  pool,  Screening in the downstairs porch,  installing a central vaccum system,  hurricane shutters on all windows and doors,  Replaced/fixed all plumbing/electrical issues.

What's left to do...the fun stuff...

Replace the wood siding part of the exterior...with hardieplank fiber cement siding.  No maintenance and a 30 year warranty...longer than my lifespan! landscape the back yard.

Inside... replace flooring with wood..except tiled areas...(baths and kitchen)  in those areas...new grout .

Paint all walls, ceilings and  woodwork;

replace windows with energy efficient ones

Redo kitchen and all 5 baths

My original budget.... That ain't gonna do it....but what else is new!

But here are my new hurricane shutters..we went with the Bahama type shutter since they have come out with operable vanes... that means you can adjust them for shade or light, but they lock down tight for storm protection.  I love them!











Now if we can just sell the Florida house so I can start the fun stuff!

Queen of the Nereids and Bouree

In 2007, I created a painted wholecloth...I called it "Mermaids Reef". It made it's show debut and promptly sold to a collector during the show.  I always wanted to make another one.



Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I finally got around to drawing my design for a new mermaid quilt.  Then I put it away.  A couple months ago IMQA announced that the theme for MQS 2012 would be "Under the Sea"

Well, you can probably guess where this is going....

Yes I pulled my drawing out again, did some tweaking to the design, and started working on it.  That means I enlarged it to a full sized pattern and marked my fabric.  I then masked all the motifs and painted the background.

Then I started working on the applique for "Seahorse Samba" that I shared with you last week....I like to have more than one project going at a time so I don't get tired of working on one thing exclusively.

My friend Cathy Wiggins has been after me to show her my mermaid piece, because she is also doing a mermaid painted wholecloth.  And she has shown hers already.

So since mine is still masked with only the background painted and most of the designs are covered ,  I decided to show photos of my pattern drawing  so you can actually get more of an idea what it will look like.   When I'm a little further along in the painting process I'll share more.

It's fairly large, approximately 90" x 70"

















It's going to take a while to get this all painted! And then of course it has to be quilted.  But I started early.

And now for those who come for the kitty fix, I give you Bouree helping with the laundry