Iris Appliqued Quilt and YoYo Tote

Hi Everyone, I hope you are having some beautiful Fall days. Here in Florida, it is hot, but there is a little bit of color....hardly enough to detect unless you really look! However my church is gearing up for the Christmas Craft and Quilt Bazaar and above is the quilt I appliqued and pieced for the bazaar. After I got it all together, a group of the quilters did the hand quilting. We will raffle it off on November 16 at the bazaar.

Some of the proud quilters...

I've also been making ornaments and totes with yoyo decorations, as the above bad shows.  

A closer view of the iris quilt. The pattern was an old one my mother had. Click on it for an even closer view.

Painted Rocks....Wordless Wednesday

Have a great day, Egretta

Crafts for Christmas Bazaar

Hi Everyone, I am busy getting ready for the Craft and Quilt Bazaar at my church, as well as another local craft show, called Crafts in the Woods. I thought you might like to see a few of my creations! The above little ornament is the Peace Lutheran Church Mouse!!

Another version.

The birds are made of yo-yos, which are circles of fabric gathered up. Several yo-yos are stacked together and tied, then a pom pom glued on top as the head. Wings and tail are made of felt and tiny black beads are the eyes. I started doing red birds, then added the Blue Bird of Happiness and have also made some white "Snow Birds". I thought our Northern residents would love the little Snow birds.

October Tea

Hi Everyone, Today is a very typical Fall day in Florida. It is warm (most people would think hot), but the sky is that deep Fall blue and there is a breeze and the air feels less humid than usual. It is a very pleasant day and I want to do some gardening just before sundown. That is, to me, the most beautiful time of day to garden in Florida, as it is cooler and it seems very still and quiet.

My son and two grand boys are coming tomorrow, so I made my son's favorite cookie, which is Molasses Crinkle. I will give you the recipe at the end of the blog. He got it for me from a friend's mother when he was in high school and I have made them ever since. They are especially good in the Fall and spiced tea goes well with them. As you can see, I added a cinnamon stick to the tea for a little extra flavor.

I got out a few accessories that say Fall, such as the tea cozy...just because the roof looks golden color!

There is one of those battery operated candles in this vase. I received the vase years ago from my brother and sister-in-law. It was full of Fall flowers, but I love it as a lantern! The wreath is made of felt. I found it on holiday in Micanopy, Florida.

My next felt project will be to make some of these. I always have far too many projects going!

Have you tried Constant Comment tea? It has oranges and spices in it, and is delicious.

Another felt piece I found in Micanopy. It would be fun to make these, too, to place at each setting at the table as favors.
I hope  you are enjoying these Fall days as much as I am! Recipe:
                                Molasses Crinkles
1 cup brown sugar,packed
3/4 cup shortening (Crisco)
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 flour
2 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
Cream first 4 ingredients, add dry ingredients and mix well. Chill. Roll in walnut sized balls and dip top of ball in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet,  and sprinkle a drop or 2 or water on top each ball. Bake 10 to 12 minutes at 375 degrees. Enjoy!

Paintings # 23, 24, and 25

Hi everyone, Well the last few days have been quite hectic. I had the student watercolor exhibit, then quilting at church on Tues. most of the day, as we are getting ready for the Fall and Christmas bazaar.

I have other obligations and things I have to do so for the next few days, my painting time will be very limited. I have decided that number 25 will be my last painting in the challenge. Sometimes you have to change courses right in the midst of something, but that is life. I am pleased with the number of paintings I was able to do. The will be for sale and will be displayed at a couple of Fall shows.

I realized yesterday that I was getting in a bit of a stressed mode when I had to hurry to finish the one above and not give it all the time I would have liked. To me, painting must be fun and pleasurable and at the same time, I an interested in the quality of my work more than the quantity.

For this one today, I merely redid one I had done earlier and tweaked it a bit to improve it. So I hope you enjoyed seeing my paintings this month. It is time to do some other things, as well. I soon will have some cute ideas for Fall decorating and crafts, so hope you stop by again soon, Egretta

The Last Photos of the Art Exhibit

Hello Everyone, here are the final group of photos from the Student Watercolor Exhibit held Saturday. 

Preparing for the Exhibit was fairly easy as there were about 14 or 15 people helping set it up, put out the art work and cookies...It came together in an hour and then we all sat down and had lunch together before it began.

The next class I teach will start in January and I only have room for 2 or 3 left.

Some more of their work. It was very good and I am proud of each one.

There were 80 guests who signed the guest book, so we think it was a big success. Thanks to all my students...they are the loveliest ladies you'd ever hope to meet and they inspired me every time we met!

More of my Watercolor Class Exhibit

Hi Everyone, I am back today with more photos of the students' work at the watercolor exhibit on Saturday and Sunday. Be sure to click on any photo to see a closer view. 

I was so proud of all of them. As you can see, they were amazing and all of them had never done watercolors and only a few had painted any at all.  By the way, in the above photo, you can see the delicious  cookies they all brought for our guests to munch!

They enjoyed doing paintings in the round and made some wonderful paintings.

There were a variety of sizes of works, some tiny and others quite large.

They wanted to do people...we opted for "character" type portraits and they painted from photographs, learning how to do flesh tones, shadows, and basic proportions, etc. It turned out to be one of their favorite lessons!

 

They really enjoyed floral painting, too.  

Each artist made 5 bookmarks, hand painted with little flowers or trees, etc. to give to our guests. They were really pretty and a big hit with all!

It was a fun day and I still have more photos. I'll wrap it up tomorrow. Hope you have enjoyed our show so far.

A proud student, Janet, with her round floral painting on the left and her window with flowers on the right.