12/31/11

Last Sewing of 2011

When I woke up this morning, there was a dusting of snow on the ground, and the temperature had grown quite chilly outside.  The day looked as if it might turn sunny, and we talked of going out for a drive so I could take some pictures with my new camera.  Somehow it never happened.  While we had glimpses of brightness at the top of our mountain, the rest of the valley was shrouded in gloom all day.

So I worked on a mish mash of projects.  I pieced the sashing for the fourth block of the Day in the Life of Mr. Bear quilt,


and I traced the next stitchery out.


Remind me never to use tone-on-tone fabrics for stitcheries again!  I have had the hardest time seeing where I'm tracing with this particular background fabric.  In this case, I was very grateful for my Frixion marking pen.  I kind of messed up her little mouth, but I was able to press the markings with my iron and make them disappear so that I could draw it in right.  The error was minor, but it was going to make the embroidery more difficult.

Then I moved on to my January doll quilt swap on the Quilting Board.  This month has an optional theme of showing where you live . . . in my case, Oregon.  I thought and thought and thought about how to represent my state in a doll quilt, and finally gained inspiration from this quilt pattern, called "Mountain's Light" that I've had for quite some time.



My plan is to use the paper-pieced design of three of the trees and the mountains as well as the moon to piece together an Oregon winter scene.  I was able to complete two of the trees today using some of the tiniest scraps from my stash.  In fact, this quilt will be made up entirely of scraps.



I love it when I start on a quilt with one thing in mind, and then my vision comes together as I begin piecing it.  I never think of myself as a terribly creative person (although I'm very good at following instructions), but in those moments, I feel creative.  Originally, I was going to use the same green for all the pieces in the trees, and a blue for the sky, with a yellow sun.  Then I noticed this blue polka dot among my scraps and got the idea to make it a falling snow scene, with snow on the ground and a shimmery moon.



I want the design to be reminiscent of Mt. Hood



or even the Three Sisters, both of which are iconic Oregon landscapes.

Finally, I'm reminding you that there are about 24 hours left to enter the giveaway for the Traveling Stash.  But don't do it here.  Do it here.  The drawing will be sometime after 5:00 p.m. tomorrow, New Year's Day.

Be safe out there tonight, and Happy New Year.

3 comments:

Kate said...

Happy New Year.

The doll quilt is going to be brilliant. Like the start you've made.

Denise :) said...

Crimeny! I didn't realize you had one of the traveling stashes! Making a dash...but not before I say Happy 2012!! :)

Teresa in Music City said...

Oohh that doll quilt is going to be so cute! Love the way you used the polka dots to make it look like snow - now that's creative!!!