One Flower Wednesday...One Day Late!

Well, my hexagons are finally taking shape!  I'm a procrastinator, I must admit!  It's taken me a while to get going on these little sweeties!!  I got myself into a rut with regards to choosing the right fabric....decison-making was never my strongest suit!  Even as a kid, I could never choose between all those luscious ice-cream flavours when my parents took us on Sunday outings!  Now,  I still find it hard to decide on the little things, like fabric for projects!!!!    Anyway, I wanted to go with blues and reds with a yellow centre, but  didn't have sufficient amounts of the yellow.  So, I chose two different fabrics in the same tones, which I hope will compliment each other.  This is the first:

I really became engrossed with these hexies!!!!  One quickly turned into two, two into three and I guess you know the rest!!!

I'm using my Civil War reproductions that I have left over from piecing my Dear Jane quilt.  I have a soft spot for these repros...they're so compatible with everything!  I'm also using them for my Klojses, which has also been keeping me busy!

I discovered these Clover templates a while ago...they're fantastic for drawing the hexi-shapes onto the fabric.  I use a  .05 Pigma pen for tracing.  I'm also hand-piecing my hexies, as the English Paper Piecing method is a bit too hard on my wrists (rheumatoid arthritis).  I've previously pieced an octagon quilt top via the EPP method, but I've  since moved on to good old "American Piecing"!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Mary Ann

Klosje Zaterdag!!!

I've thoroughly been enjoying my Klosjes!!!  I decided to make them totally out of my scrap-basket and I'm now up to 21 of the little lovelies!

                          

I recently ordered a stamp set by Cindy Blackberg to make my Klosje-work a bit quicker!!  Cindy's blocks finish at 2 and 3/4 inches and quickly fill your fabric with easy to cut lines.

I ordered my stamp kit from Tina at Pappy's Quilt Place, as she ships internationally.  Thanks, Tina, for your friendly and quick service!

  

On second thought, I think I'm going to make two Klosje quilts!!  One from my regular scrap-basket and another with left-over Civil War reproduction fabrics from my Dear Jane quilt.

Have a nice Zaterdag evening!!

Hugs,

Mary Ann  

Leaving The Nest!

"Hey, Ma and Pa! Wait for me...I'm coming!!!"

Well, the time has come for our little birds to head out into the big world!  We've enjoyed following their development and feel great knowing that there'll soon be even more sweet songs in our garden!

And speaking of the garden, I found a little stray cat hiding out there yesterday!!  Hmmm...wonder where she came from???!!!!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of what's been growing outside!

  

  

 

Have a great evening!!!

All the best!

Mary Ann

Baby Bird Update!!!

Well, our little friends are sure growing big!!

Note the cute feathers and also that their eyes have opened!!  I'm sure it won't be long before they'll be leaving the nest!

When Life Serves You Scraps....

Make Klosjes!!!

I finally succumbed to these sweet little blocks!  I've been reading about them for quite some time now and after seeing them on so many blogs, I decided to try my hand at making a few!  Well, a few turned to many and now I think I may be addicted!  Thanks to Valentina for her great tips and advice and also to Pappy's Quilt Place for supplying a handy little stamp for making the preparation of the block pieces a real snap!  Pappy's sells stamps so that you can just cut out your pieces after inking them onto your fabric!  Ingenious!  I ordered mine today and look forward to their arrival!!!

And if my day wasn't fulfilling enough, the post-lady brought a new book to my door, Material Obsessions, which appropriately describes my relationship with fabric!!  LOL!!
Anyways, it's absolutely YUMMY and it's inspired me to great extents!!!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Malmö, Sweden, for our annual Quilt Guild tour!  We're visiting lots of great places, including Veronica's Patchwork!  Stay tuned for a report on our adventures!! 

Have a great evening!

Mary Ann

Hungry Baby Birds!!!

Hungry Baby Birds!!!
Originally uploaded by *Mormor

Aren't they CUTE??!!  I couldn't imagine having SO many mouths to feed at one time!!!  Both parents are constantly flying back and forth to feed these little ones!!  Fantastic!

Snow in May and Magnolias....??

Is it true?  Have we really received a fresh layer of the white stuff here in the month of MAY??  Although our temperatures have certainly been cold enough for snow, this is fortunately just some lovely white petals from the cherry tree in our front garden! 

Beautiful, aren't they?

The weather has just been so dramatic.  I had to run out and capture this very unusual light the other evening.  The sun had suddenly appeared from behind the clouds, reflecting the most luscious colours on the sky and nearby fields.

Well, it looks like I've started on yet another creative past-time!  Painting Magnolias!  No, not the magnolias you're probably thinking about, but these cute little stamps that I recently purchased for making cards!  They are just darling and I've discovered  that I absolutely love sitting and painting!  Blending and layering the colours involves a creative process that's very satisfying! 

Here's the after shot!

And this is little Tilda, one of the characters from the Magnolia series.  Isn't she sweet??!!  If you're interested in these stamps, the place to find them is at Patchworkhuset, located in Glostrup.  I'm going to make a few projects from these figures, so keep posted and I'll show you soon!

Have a great weekend!

Mary Ann

Smile...You're On Candid Camera!!!

Our wonderful, feathered friends, the Blåmejse, (or cyanistes caeruleus) have once again chosen our nesting box to raise their family!  My husband set up a tiny webcam in the nesting box earlier this spring, so we could "peek" at them during their parenting period!  They don't seem to mind this intrusion of their personal space!  It's actually been quite fantastic to watch them, building their cozy nest, using feathers, hair, thread and all kinds ingenious building materials!   They're very talented and skilled workers! 

  

Today, we were amazed to see that there are now 12 tiny eggs in the nest!  They're also using many hours to rotate the eggs, making sure they receive even warmth.  Once they hatch, both parents will be delivering yummy and wriggling snacks for their off-spring!  The nest is conveniently located just outside our window, so we can easily keep track of  "our" birds' travels!   I'll post a video for you soon, as they're just so darn cute to watch!!

Cheers!

Mary Ann

Kylie Update...she's improving daily and I'm going to take her off the pain meds tomorrow.

Amazing how animals can recover so quickly! Not like humans at all!  I remember a six-week recovery period myself for a similiar operation!! Ouch!