Brown Bag Challenge!

What do all of these things have in common?

1. A Man's tie (brown)

2.  a zipper (yellow)

3.  a white paper doily

4.  a metal scrubber (chore girl)

5.  a flat wooden bead

6.  a hair scrunchie (purple)

7.  rubber shelf liners

These are all part of the brown bag challenge we are doing in my guild.   We each received a brown bag with these 7 items (different colors and patterns) and were challenged to create something using all of them with any fabric we chose.   We could make a small quilt, purse, pillow......anything that we could show we used each of these items in some way.

I love things like this......I was one of the coordinators....but this was hard!   I'd have an idea and get stuck on using the last two items.   I'd have another idea and not like the way they all went together.   We have to use all 7 in some way, but they don't to appear in the quilt as they do in this picture.   Example:    Use one of the items to alter fabric in some way. 

 
Well, it is finally done and 2 weeks ahead of the due date (December 10).   YEA!!!!!   It's not a masterpiece, but I conquered the challenge.   No...of course you're not going to see the final product yet.   You know my blog is read my hundreds of people and I can't risk my idea being copied!!!!   Ha Ha...FYI - that is a big huge joke, designed to bring a smile (maybe even a loud guffaw) to your face!

Stay tuned!!!

Longwood Gardens

I have been doing a little quilting lately - very little because of post-surgery on my finger - but I can't show any of it here as it relates to Christmas - both for family and for guild.   Instead I will show pictures from my recent trip to Longwood Gardens, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.   It was their annual mum festival.   Mums were never my favorite flower, but they certainly do wonderful things with them.

This is the first mum "tree" you see when you enter the conservatory.   There are 1167 blooms on here and they are all carefully grafted and inserted thru wire holders to present this sort of display.   It is just spectacular to see.

Loved the colors on this one!

This one is called Spoonflower!

Truly an Asian looking Mum - just outstanding in size and color.

I'm also on the hunt for a new waterlily photo to make a new quilt.   Here are some possibilities from the Longwood Gardens!



SOLD!

We had a Fine Arts Festival at my church today.   It was a combination of an Art Show,  an International Bazaar and a Musical Concert tomorrow.   I was in charge of securing the art and we ended up with 42 pieces - a nice little display.   Large enough to be interesting and small enough not to overwhelm.   I showed 4 different art quilts, one of which is shown above - "Seagulls at Portland, Maine".   SOLD!    I was very surprised to see the sold sign on it when I went back to help close up the show this afternoon.   I know the home it is going to and it will be loved!    It is from a pictures I took on our cruise last year along the New England Coastline.   I manipulated one seagull to make 3 of different size.   I printed that onto printer fabric and then added other fabrics for the rocks and water.   Then I added tulle for shadowing, lots of threadwork for dimension and finally some colored pencils to enhance the color of the seagulls.   Metallic threads highlight the water.   Below is the original picture I took.