We have a Winner!

Just as I was ready to post clue #2 to the Hummingbird Treasures First Give-Away, Carrie P. from A Passion for Applique left the correct answer in the comments.

The answer: Vincent Van Gogh's Vase of Irises (also known as Still Life of Irises).

Carrie, make sure I have your e-mail address so I can contact you about personalizing and monogramming your set of four large, dinner napkins.

Another reader actually guessed Van Gogh but incorrectly identified the painting as his famous Sunflower painting.

Here is the last photo taken just before the finishing touches were added to the vase.

Hugs to you all!

Marie

First Give-Away

Announcing Hummingbird Treasures first give-away.

On my return to my embroidery machine last weekend, a thought hit me that most people would wonder what I was making from the indecipherable pattern under construction.

I have been thinking about Hummingbird Treasure’s first give-away for several weeks now.

Drum roll please. . .

To the first person who accurately posts what this design is including the artist, Hummingbird Treasures will send a prize to be announced later in this post.

A new photo of the next color change will be shown daily until someone has guessed correctly.

Rules (Sorry, there have to be rules! The Give-Away Police monitor these events very carefully.)

1. Post your answer to the post of the day. (Limit of one guess each day)
2. The first correct answer wins the prize. (Duplicate guesses will go by time stamp of the posting.)
3. Be sure your e-mail address is available through your posting.

AND NOW FOR THE PRIZE!!!!

The first person to guess correctly will win a set of four large white dinner napkins embroidered with the monogram of their choice. These will be made to order by Hummingbird Treasures especially for the winner.

Hugs to all my friends who take the time to read what's going on in my life.

Marie

Hummingbird Treasures Design Wall

This is a photo of what's on my design wall right now! Of course this changes quite frequently depending on status of projects and what I want to play with at the time.

These are my jelly roll blocks to date.

My strip blocks hopefully reducing my scrap stash. (I'm not sure how I feel about the lavendar block?) But for now it's there.

I'm loving this wall hanging. The colors are playing together very nicely (unlike the lavendar block above.) It's waiting for fusing and stitching the appliques. Then sandwiching, quilting and border.

Oh yeah - here's a picture of what is on my quilting frame waiting for the final border touches. Why is it that I have made two full size quilts lately and hand quilted both of them?

And then yesterday, I was finally in the mood to do some machine embroidery. I haven't touched it since Christmas for some reason. I'll show the embroidery work in my next posting.

Lots of hugs to you all. I'm off to find whatever adventure awaits me today.

(Did I tell you that I absolutely love my design wall!)

Marie

Ramblings of a Proud Grandmother

The Dude won the Best Overall Chatham County award (and trophy) for his book entry into the Young Author's Competition. Not only did he receive recognition for placing at his own school but was the Big Winner for the year in the entire county. Needless to say he is still glowing (and so are parents and grandparents). He wants to be a writer and for a 14 year-old, he is well on his way. So he now has his first published work in book form. The photo is depicting the securing of his "precious cargo" when we went in to celebrate with pizza and ice cream soda's.

We are very proud of you Dude!

This is my entry in the Spring Fling Design Challenge. I call it "Spring Indoors". You can also find it posted at http://www.hummingbirdtreasures.etsy.com/. I love the way the colors play nicely together. I've had a lot of fun the last week playing with machine applique and machine quilting. I took it to book club today and got some very positive feedback for it.

While we were at the Young Authors' reception last night, Big T took these photos. This is the largest hydrangea I've ever seen. It is easily 15 foot high and is absolutely full of these softball size blooms. And I love the colors of the second photo.

That's a quick posting of the excitement and beauty in my life the last day or so. Hugs to all!

Marie

Nature's Lovely Killer

The redbuds have started to fade in intensity as the new leaves appear. Still beautiful to look into the woods and see these beauties weaving among the barren trees.

But now the newest treat (albeit deadly) treat appears - the Wisteria. This beautiful parasite simply takes over and chokes life out of trees, vines, etc. But when in full bloom, there is nothing more beautiful. The 'new to North Carolina' folks call these "lilac trees". This set of photos was taken about 1/2 mile from our house. The color and show these make are intense and breathtaking (not to say anything about the delicious smell).

Yesterday we were gone for several hours (to the fun zone with the Dude) and there were literally hundreds of these within that 50 mile drive. So pretty, but so sad to see where they have destroyed everything they grow on.

And now back to the studio to work on my Spring Fling project. It's quiet around here today with the Dude gone home - may get some actual work done for a change. By the way here is block #3 for the jelly roll challenge.

And here's a sneak peak at my entry in the Spring Fling Design for http://www.alygatr.blogspot.com/

Hugs to all - my dear friends.

Marie

Mixed Emotions

OK so the object of making and posting to Etsy is to sell my handmade projects, right? So - it sold and I am sad to see it go. Does that make any sense? Not only that, Big T said "Oh, I really liked that one." (He said he was waiting for it to go on sale so he could buy it at a discount.) - What's wrong with this picture?

The Dude is with us for Spring Break this week. Yesterday it was "Clash of the Titans" - I don't think they have figured out what they are doing today yet. I told Big T to take him and let him look at the car lot all he wants - he is really into cars right now (14). These Papa / Dude bonding days are really great for both of them. It's in the high 80's - low 90's this week - too bad the pool isn't open yet. He's a real water creature - loves it.

I am working on a new applique wall hanging today for the Spring Design Fling Challenge, so last night was "paper doll night" - tracing and cutting. I'm beginning to think this is good therapy. I used to play paper dolls as a kid and loved it. I would get so frustrated when they made the dolls in different poses and the outfits didn't fit. I think I had several shoe boxes full of paper dolls. (I missed the Barbie era though - I could never quite go for the "cutsy perfection" of the Barbies. Besides paper dolls were much easier to dress.)

I finished machine quilting "Morning Mist" yesterday. It is ready for squaring and binding today or tomorrow. It's fairly large (44" x 54") so it will take a little time to do the binding - good quality "on the porch work" (except for the pollen). I found a coordinating green w/ blue dragonflies for the backing and binding. Absolutely perfect. Sometimes it's worth waiting to find that 'just right' piece rather than 'making do'.

Check out Christine's neat journal giveaway. She has a really cool blog that's worth visiting.


Hugs to all of you. I'm off to see what trouble I can get into today - with the two males in the house it won't take much.



Marie

The North Carolina RedBuds

I promised Alyssa pictures of the North Carolina RedBud. This one is in our backyard. Big T took these yesterday morning.

Now you see why these are my favorite trees. The woods are full of these everywhere just growing wild, it's a fantastic site to drive and count hundreds just showing colors of pink against the baren wood of winter. They bloom just before the first green starts to show.

They bloom for a couple of weeks and then we have pink snow everywhere. I love these. This one is right outside our bedroom window. The green leaf is an elongated heart shaped leaf. Very pretty.

I also have a couple of these in the back yard, but do not know what they are called. They are a true vibrant hot pink and look like fringe. The leaves are a reddish green.

And here are my beautiful matching tall cyprus trees bordering our front steps. The deer enjoyed them immensely I'm afraid, as far as they could reach. Big T says these are now our 'topiary' trees.

Now we are in for 2 to 3 weeks of the yellow peril - pollen. Our cars are already covered. I have to bring in the cushions off the screened porch tonight so I can put them back out in a few weeks. My eyes are already burning and I find myself gasping more today - the pollen is HERE!

Hugs to you all - enjoy your quick journey through part of my yard.

Marie

Friday Ramblings

I don't need a long sleeved shirt today, it is on its way to pass yesterday's high of 88. It is absolutely beautiful. I made a pitcher of iced tea and enjoying every minute of the day. Big T and The Dude are doing yard work and I am sandwiching a quilt so I can quilt it later today or tomorrow (if I get motivated).

I am so loving these new art quilts I am playing with. I don't know if there's a right or wrong way, but it feels right. I actually have some creativity starting to sneak into some of my work. Imagine that - uptight, control-freak, inhibited little-old me letting a little creativity through my filters. Instead of planning something out for hours or days (or weeks), I am just doing what comes into my head. I think Melody and Barbara call it playing. I wanted something different for my Study in Purple wall hanging but I wasn't sure what. All of a sudden I realized I had picked up the scissors and had created an entirely new shape - and I love it. I would never have done that in the past.

These are on my design wall right now. I'm trying to get a feel for what these will look like together. I'm not sure the center one goes with the other two. Any thoughts?

I didn't make it to the sewing studio yesterday. We had banking and a few other errands to run. One of the drawbacks of living in a rural community is that everyonce in awhile you have to go outside the local area for errands. AND then it takes all day. So we save them up and try to do everything at once. We were all the way home before I remembered that we didn't stop at Joann's. How we did that is beyond me. So my 'small Joann list' will be even bigger the next time. Maybe this was a subconscious message to do it online. Seems like everytime I go to Joann's the shelves are empty, or styles and colors are extremely limited. I think there if you exceed a certain amount, the shipping is free. (Or does anyone else know a good, inexpensive online shop for notions, batting, etc.?)

Hugs to all. I cherish each and everyone of you.

Marie