Happy Birthday

Annie!

from my dear friend Carol (mamacjt)

 Is this just not the cutest most delightfully little happy birthday wishes quiltie you ever saw?!!!  It is such a sweet surprise.  (I didn't know she knew when my birthday was).  It arrived last Thursday.  Perfect for me to enjoy days before.  It's going to be coming out for 'everybody's' birthday to come now.  (Actually it won't ever get put away too far.  It's much too cheerful to be hidden away)  I need to see it often.

That wasn't all.  Look what fun came with it...

I guess today is the day I view the world through rose colored glasses... (I never do that.  I always look at the world head on).

Fun candles, a "gold" happy birthday necklace and some fabric pieces!

...and this fun little bundle from my other dear friend Shirley (freidasew).  Some of the world's best people live in Wisconsin.

I just love the detail in the sunflower and the leaf fabrics.  Look closely for the myriad of french knots in the flower center.  Gorgeous work, colors and absolute beautiful quilting!  That little post-its pad says: "I'll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go, please!"   ... that's what I want in a coffee.  LOL

 How fun is all this?!  I'm such a lucky birthday girl.

Carol and Shirley, thank you so, so much for the best birthday wishes ever!  You're the best!

My local quilt shop gives a birthday discount of half your age on your entire purchase.  I stocked up on some fun fabrics and a new book at a pretty nice discount.  There are benefits of getting old as long as you're getting old in the right place (meaning in my town where my local quilt shop gives this nice birthday discount).  After that, a Sundae at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, YUM!

...and I thought it was going to be a rather quiet boring birthday!  NOT!

Thank you!
Annie

Revisiting Bird & Blooms

Now Pillow #4

I haven't been very happy with the outcome of this piece and have been eyeing it daily and it finally began to speak to me of what I might change.

Original details on this piece are in this post. 

The flowers bothered me the most.  They were too lost in the background.  I chose some pastel pieces to cut swirls to add to the thread painted swirls.  The stems and leaves were also very lost in the background and got fabric highlights added to them as well.

A bit more collage was created for the background to get it to a 15" pillow size and I'm now pretty happy with this piece.

  The back is simple.  I find that I like making the zipper part of the design and choosing one with color contrast for that purpose.  With my pillow zippers I'm trying to pull the "fun" out of "functional".

I think I need to look into some charms to decorate the zipper pulls.  This one will need a bird charm.

4 months into the year and 4 pillows.  At least I'm not behind...yet.  Pillow #5 is on the design wall and it also is asking for a bit of something extra.  I wonder what that might be.  I'll have to muse on it.

Annie

Altered Dresden

The unPillow 

I have this fat eighth collection that my friend Carol (mamacjt) shared with me just before I fled Wisconsin. 

Fat eighths make me think small project(s).  But there seems to be a lot more to a fat eighth than meets the eye.  A while back I made a couple of small projects with these and then decided to challenge myself to how many quiltie things I can make with the collection.  My flickr group of projects is here. 

I pulled out the predominantly pink pieces for this quiltie project.  I used my little Easy Dresden ruler to cut the wedges.  I stitched in a center circle and then satin stitched a spiral inside.

The spiral felt off centered (even though it wasn't), so I did a straight stitch following the spiral.  It still felt off.  Then the stitched-in center piece looked way less than perfect, so I cut and fused a ring to cover that ugly seam and it all came into a better perspective for me.  Plus I really like the way that light colored fabric ring looks.

 

I loved how this looked the entire time I worked on it. 

With the fixes to the center, it took on a whimsical look so I added a pink "stick".  I was SO happy with it.

Then I put the pillow form inside and my spirits took a spiraling dive!  It just doesn't look right as a pillow.  I hate that!

I think the design gets too distorted.  So, now what?  Well, I think maybe I'll try putting a thin foam piece inside and try it as a chair back cushion.  I'll just have to wait until it inspires me to know exactly what it should be.  But dang it all, I wanted it as a pillow!

There were some scraps left after cutting the wedges and the inside of the fabric ring was left as well.  I put them into the back.

This means I'm still on pillow #4.  So, I'll be back...

Annie