Our Covered Bridge

This is a picture of the Covered Bridge that spans the Kennebecasis River, not far from our house. We walk to it almost every day with our dog. Earlier in the month, the river spilled over its banks and the road you see in the picture was about a foot under water, enough that I wouldn't drive through it with my car.

When my children were young we used to take them to the bridge to swim on hot days. We have a picture of our little grandaughter at the water's edge fishing for the first time.

I'm still thinking about using a picture of this bridge and doing the 4 Season Challenge that Shirley has encouraged us to do. It's such a large part of our daily life.

Cheers,

Judy

Charity Quilt

Where does the time go? It's almost a month since I've posted anything. I must try to be more faithful. I just got back from our quilt guild's annual retreat, and we all had a wonderful time. I took some applique and some handpiecing to do, and made some progress. Mostly I had fun visiting with the other ladies. It was just such a treat to have no meals to plan, no cooking to do, and no cleaning up afterwards!

I haven't done any thread painting for awhile, or landscapes. I've missed it! I have been getting caught up with our guild's BOM. Also, our guild makes cuddle quilts for the local women's shelter every year, so I finished one of those. The pattern is Attic Windows, and it is pieced with scraps, and machine quilted.

Hopefully I will be able to play with some projects from the Learningfa group this week.

Cheers for now,

Judy

Regan's Book

My grandaughter Regan had her second birthday on March 19th. She loves books, and since I had signed up for a Small Book class offered by Janet on Learningfa, I thought I would make her one for her birthday. It took longer than I thought! I had never worked with Peltex before, but I like the way it made the pages so sturdy, but not too stiff. I did the picture on the front from a photo of her. My rendition makes her look older than she is. It is free motion stitched on my trusty Bernina. I outlined with black thread and used coloured pencils, then free motion stitched on top with threads to coordinate. I think it makes it look like a coloring book picture. I put a plastic pocket on the back cover so she could slip in a real photo. Isn't she a cutie?

Getting Caught Up

I took a needle felting workshop on Tuesday. It was great fun. We made needle sculpted teddy bears. There's something about making something from scratch that gives me joy, and I guess that's reason enough to indulge in life's little pleasures.

Today I finished piecing the Mystery Quilt from the class offered by Noell at Shirley's Learningfa Yahoo Group. I made it from fabrics that I had in my stash. I know if I had seen the pattern before I started I would have chosen different fabrics, but then it wouldn't be a mystery, would it.

I still haven't started the Simple Landscape Class. I wonder what it would look like with Prairie Points...then I could kill two birds with one stone! And I have to make Regan's book before next week. Anyone know how to add hours to the day?

Cheers for now,

Judy

Rock Challenge

Last evening, while chatting on Chatroll, I was telling the girls about a "Rock Challenge" I participated in at my Quilt Guild a few years ago. We chose a rock from a brown paper bag, and were to make something, using the colours that we saw in our rock. I decided to do a landscape, inspired by methods taught by Valerie Hearder from her book, "Beyond the Horizon, Small Landscape Applique". It was a fun project. My grandaughters love the rock, and it disappears from it's usual spot with the picture quite often when they are visiting. I'm not sure what it is about rocks and sea shells that compels us to pick them up and put them in our pocket, but I confess to a fascination with them. I wonder what their story would be if they could talk.

Still Snowing

I thought you might like to see how much snow we have. This is a picture of our house taken this morning. I love it when the snow is nice & clean & white. Winter is not over yet. Can you tell I live in the country?

Snowed In

We had another winter storm today. Schools were closed, my Tai Chi class was cancelled and many offices closed down early. I made a big pot of soup. We haven't cleaned out the yard yet, so that is what will be first on the docket for tomorrow.

Someone on LearningFA Yahoo group mentioned Nancy Prince had lots of information about thread painting on her web page, so I spent some enjoyable time exploring her site. Maybe tomorrow I will spend time in my Studio practising. (I'm not sure "Studio" will ever roll off my tongue easily.) She makes it look so easy.

Cheers for now,
Judy