How I wish upon a starfish

Made with this easy pattern for immediate download here or here

The pattern as printed was enlarged 150% to finish at 11" by 14"

You can check out last weeks post to see the basic beach scene made which is the pattern and then you can embellish as much or as little as your heart desires. With this one I fused on a mermaid cut from a novelty fabric in my stash.

Added a starfish bead for gazing

 

A fabric " rock" and yarn fibers for grass

 

Some real shells from a beach vacation.

 

Sewn on using shank buttons and glue

 

And the grasses with embroidery floss I don't really like that much but they are staying.

Life is to short to spend time trying to get perfection.

Thank you for taking the time to look - have a great week!

 

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Easy beach vacation mini quilt

I wrote a pattern for this beach mini geared toward the beginner. It's on sale for download on Etsy here or Craftsy here. These little art quilts are simple and each one can be so different that I'm on my 4th one and still enjoying it. Every time I go to the beach I'm always picking up something - a shell, some driftwood and this is a way to use them.

 

Here I used jute twine to hang on the stick. Sort of looks like fishing rope but now that I've said that, why didn't I use rope? There's always next time ;-)

 

This is a night one - check out those cool beads! Those squished up things on the left is supposed to be sea grass but I squished them to much maybe? I also should have used a more solid grass like color.

Live and learn. I show how to make the sea grass in my pattern as well.

 

And an easy way to attach shells. (Thanks to an idea I saw on Cathy Perlmutter's blog) her blog is called Gefilte quilts and it is a favorite. She has an amazing sense of humor and has had me rolling a few times :-)

 

 

This one is WIP. Quilting is done and I couched on some yarn and crocheted it so some strands hang down like flowers or vines. I'm really liking this. Reminds me of my vacation in Maine last spring. There was a stone wall like that at my hotel next to the beach, so there I am all beautiful with flowing dress with the wind in my hair and a glow on my cheek. Of course in reality it was April and cold so it was more like sweatpants, jacket hat and gloves but this is my quilt, my fantasy. She was originally a fairy and I know this sounds like I am the evil wicked witch of fairyland, but I cut off her wings and now she is a mere mortal.

Any way go check out the pattern - it's only 6 bucks!

 

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Keep it simple

I admire graphic artists.

They get a message across in the simplest most effective way. It's hard to do simple. It's human nature to keep wanting to add more and then more and when do you stop? It's the stopping I have trouble with.

I was wasting spending time researching graphic design on the Internet and came across this perfect example of how just a few lines and some color can be effective. You know this is a bike and it doesn't clog up your mind with lots of details. Which is why these type of designs are used for ads. You know it's a bike so if you are interested in anything related to bikes, you will stop to read the ad and having that unclogged mind will absorb the words on the ad and maybe go do what ever it is the ad is trying to get you to do.

Maybe that's the appeal of modern quilts. They are graphic and simple. Hmmmm.

Maybe I should revisit the whole modern quilting thing.

More mindless serious internet searching?

I'm leaving today for our the Hathaway annual gathering known as hagfest in beautiful ausable point NY.

We camp so can bring the dogs and it's right on the shore of lake Champlain.

 

I'm bring these little beach scenes to bind and add lots of embellishments because we all know I just can't keep it simple :-)

Have a great week end!

 

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Beach vacation mini quilt

Small but mighty at only 7"x10"

First I started with the "beach stick" and decided on the size from there.

(It's all about the stick, after all)

 

I get to use some of the junk interesting objects I have been collecting.

 

These shells were a bracelet at one time, in another life.

 

These sailboats started out being white fused fabric but when quilting them down, being so small they just shredded so I just sewed over with white thread. They looked a bit raggy so then used white out (since I had no white paint) and brushed some on to fill in. Now they stand out much better.

 

Also making more fabric baskets to sell at the fair at the end of the month. Cows with grass lining - how cute is that!

And for the musician.

I'm now off to walk and swim. It's already 82 degrees at 7am and this Vermonter is not liking the heat.

I'll be under the trees or in the pond if you're looking for me today.

Be cool!

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