Our quilting guild is having a block exchange. Each month, one person presents the parameters for their quilt blocks.  Some people give just the dimensions, some request anything made out of batiks, some give a pattern, some fabric and then ask you to add some of your own.  All 11 people in your group go and during the month make the designated block for the person.  Then the next month, the people in that group bring back their finished blocks for her, and another person presents.  It goes on and on for 12 months, so you have 11 blocks made by others and your own to make 12.  And you  have made 11 blocks for others.  It is a great project as long as you don't let it overwhelm you.  

The first person in my group asked us to create  a block that represents your house, your dream house, your view out of your window (the real one or the imagined one!), your yacht, or your Fifth Wheeler.  I chose to do a modified version of my real house.  This is the cleaned up house I would like.  It's tidy and the flowers are all growing in the right places and not chewed to the ground by the deer.   We live in a log house in the forest with deer, raccoons, foxes and eagles as our neighbors.  We built the log house structure ourselves when we were young and foolish.   Now we're old and more desirous of some of the luxuries that other construction might allow.  Oh well!  This is my rendition of our house as viewed from the south side.  The left hand window on the second floor is a bedroom, and we have these lovely diamond paned windows in all the bedrooms.   So far the quilt block is totally done with fusibles and no stitching.... can't decide if I want to get into that..... she said it would just be a wall hanging, so it wouldn't need to be laundered.  I might do some beading and some machine stitching on it yet.... don't have to turn it back until the 5th of November, so can sit with it for a while and see how it feels!  

October Finished

I am astonished at myself. I sat down and finished this month's page today ..... it's only the 12th!!! I really enjoyed using closely hued beads to fade in and out to mimic the colors in the water-color fabric. I had drawn paisley type images in the lower right and top center of the page. The one in the lower right looked more like a leaf, so I put a leaf on it, but it wouldn't stay in place.... I could have glued it, but chose to hold it down with a bezel.  Those bead are a dark green, but they look almost black in the photo.    It got pretty heavy in terms of value, but I liked it that way at the bottom of the piece. As I was putting away my beads, I ran across some tiny metallic butterflies, so added three of them.

Finished two!

Well, given a few days off from school for winter break, and now that I'm over the flu, I have had some time to bead! I managed to finish my October page and am very pleased with it although it's changed since I first conceived of it! The bee became a mere shadow of itself.... see the bee wings in pale pink beads and the silver bee charm where the bee's body should be. I loved doing all the ruffles, and filling in with texture.

I also finished my December page and it seems to be the most "journally" of my pages.  It really represents my journey in December.  It starts in the lower left with the darkness of the Pacific Northwest in December with vines and trees here.  We then flew south to Costa Rica and into the light and warmth.  We were there for Christmas , hence the Christmas tree in the center.  There were fireworks nearly every night in a nearby community and were able to appreciate and enjoy

 them all.  
  

October Started

Well here it is the end of September! I can hardly believe how fast the days go. My daughter was here for 10 days visiting from her home in Costa Rica. She and her boyfriend have an eco-tour business there, so she comes to visit in their off-season. Boyerotours.com
I have finished the remainder of my August page, and added a really neat little dragonfly! I love it! It is attached by a loop at her head, so can spin around on top of the center stacks. It's a really fun piece!
I have also taken the opportunity of being ahead to work on my October page. I had thought I would use an orange or at least a peach colored flower to represent autumn, but the busy bee in this photo of my geranium just grabbed my imagination! He was so busy and stayed for a long photo shoot of that flower.... I probably have 10 shots of her on various flowers from that day!
I have begun to make ruffles on the edges of the petals, and am working out how to bead the bee herself.... stay tuned!

I have also made some little fairy faces to add to my flowers...... I remember the fairies in my childhood gardens. We used to have great discussions and they played so nicely with me! (last child and 4 years younger than my next sibling!)