Creating a Garden Bed Quilt-style

What do you do with your leftover egg cartons? Here's what we do: we make beds!

I didn't do a great job distributing the colored flats, but hey, let's cover that up!

Now no one can see the beautiful masterpiece underneath. The box on the upper right is filled with old telephone books. I ripped those up and used them the same way for the other bed.

Is anyone impressed?

Thanks Jack! I'm excited, too!

Finished my Yin-Yang!

I finally finished my Yin-Yang from two years ago. Sometimes it makes sense to put quilts away or on the design wall when things aren't going right.

I had quilted this machine applique design with a back that had uneven edges. When I turned it over, the lines were wacky toward the edges. I put it away.  When I pulled it back out, I decided to cut the border from 5 inches to 2 1/2 inches. Now the back looks great.

After binding, I created a Tyvek bag for its storage underneath the bed.

End of Year Performance

 Marnie is performing her year-end dance with the Camano Island Dance Academy. It's wonderful to see her develop her dancing skills. I didn't do well in ballet at her age. It requires too much muscle control for me. Marnie likes the exacting requirements of ballet.

Easter Eggs

 It seems silly to continue Easter Egg Hunts with my children grown, but I can't help it. I absolutely love buying candy and making little eggs surprises. And looking at each year's pictures makes me realize my time is running out with them. 

Last Quilt Design Class

The last Design Essentials class was full of color. We were to create a design and show our understanding of color by doing 6 quilts in different colorways.

Monochromatic

Complementary

Triadic

Polychromatic

Analogous

Achromatic

Finally, we were to create a quilt from scratch and bring it in finished. The class agreed that the lowest row should be deleted. The diagonal lines threw off the composition.

Design Class exploring scale

Lorraine Torrence compares the value of each circle.

This is my interpretation of the Coonley Playhouse Windows by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The same construction using an analogous color scheme. However, I had no time to stitch the lines. I would love to recommend Pentel's Frixion pens. They lines are heat-sensitive and iron right out.

When we visited Phoenix last year, we visited a Frank Lloyd Wright house where they had reproduction Coonley Playhouse windows.

Desert Botanical Garden (with Chihuly)

Every Saguaro is unique. Some are upright.

Some are created by aliens.

Some are discovered by Willards.

And these beauties were created by Dale Chihuly.

These cacti are super pointy. But they are gorgeous!

This rebar work of art welcomes you to the Desert Botanical Gardens. Of course I whispered to Paul,

"We should have one of these."