July Musings

Hello, hello!

Mid summer and the living is S L O W and H O T here on Vine. However, the garden is growing and indoor chores are getting done. We planted two tomato plants in May and they have reached to five feet and covered the 4 X 6 foot raised box; the vines are completely covered in fruit and we expect to have ripe tomatoes by the end of this week . . . yay! Do love some fresh off-the-vine 'maters! Another fruit making a grand showing is the watermelon - my granddaughter gave me four Crimson Sweet seedlings for Mother's Day and the two that survived are mega-producing!

June 27, 2018 - The start.

July 18, 2018 - Tiny first fruit.

July 24, 2018 - Palm size.

July 28, 2018 (just four days later!) - Two palms size.

I know it probably seems silly to get so excited over a watermelon, but this is the first time we've planted one and we are amazed! Thanks to my watermelon-loving granddaughter, we'll be sinking our teeth into sweetness in a couple weeks! Incidentally, that same granddaughter, McKenna Clare, is getting married August 17th to a fine young fellow and we'll be gifting them with a quilt which I made all by myself. Here are more progression photos:

 

The rows laid out on the living room floor in preparation for sewing together.

Bent over the sewing machine stitching the rows together.

The completed top draped over lawn chairs.

Machine quilted by Michelle Jensen - ready for binding.

The flange binding - so pretty!

Test drive on our bed!

I began this quilt summer 2017; that is, I purchased the video class from Craftsy, Make a Colorful Hexagon Bed Quilt by Amy Gibson (no longer available) and decided to use some batik prints that my sister had given to me way back, I can't remember when. My sweet and handy husband made templates out of some plexiglass that I had saved because I might need it someday and I began cutting the hexagons and triangles. I'd gotten some pale grey cotton for the background, binding, and back. Well, my chicken heart loomed and the project was put on hold. I couldn't imagine that I had the wherewithal to make a quilt that BIG - my previous attempts were baby or throw size and I had found those daunting. Anyway, long story short, granddaughter McKenna said YES to her squeeze Travis's proposal in April of this year and the wheels began to engage in a confident sort of way. By golly! I can make this quilt! And so, I began sewing in earnest by the first week of July and by the 26th had it completed except for a label (which another talented woman is embroidering for me). Today I stopped at our local furniture store and found a very neat antiqued metal crate to present it to the newlyweds August 17th.

A pretty presentation.

My current sewing project is making myself a dress for the wedding. I haven't sewn a garment (anyway for myself) for years and am looking forward to seeing if I can still do it - and have it fit! Haha! The one thing that bugs me about this is the size I'm having to use . . . ack! The days of misses size 10/12 are certainly long gone!

August has a few birthdays that I want to make handmade cards for and, of course, there is a card to make for McKenna and Travis's wedding day. I have gotten a start on that having colored in two of an illustration I found in an online coloring book site.

The illustration on the left I colored with Zig Real Brush Watercolors and the one on the right I did with colored pencils.

The wedding colors are soft blue, sage green, and ivory and the bride is a blonde and the groom is a redhead. Right now I'm leaning toward using the watercolored one for the final card. What do you think? Watercolor or pencil?

Loving life here on Vine.

Bye for now!

Color Throwdown 478 Fun

Hi, hi!

I've been having some fun trying out different techniques - things I've pinned here - using the colors for the latest Color Throwdown challenge, #478.

The direct link to the Color Throwdown can be found here.

First up (and the card I am entering in the challenge) is this Distress Oxide Ink blended and white heat embossed bouquet of flowers.

Sending Best Wishes

I blended the ink onto the cardstock prior to stamping the bouquet and white embossing it; hence the confusion of color! I did go in and add ink to the individual leaves and flowers to brighten things up a bit which helped some. When I was splattering the Copic opaque white drops, things got a little wild but whatever!

We were blessed with a new great granddaughter on the 19th of January and I wanted to 1) make a special card for her, and 2) try Yana Smakula's iron embellishment technique. I remembered that I have a stamp set for babies acquired many moons ago that had the sentiment "Welcome Little Star" which became the basis for using my nesting star dies for the technique. Of course, my star is really not iron-looking since I used another old item in my stash, rainbow sparkle embossing powder, to coat it.

Welcome Little Star

Here is a closeup of the star:

So, I was kind of on a roll with these colors and took out my Stampin'Up! re-inkers in Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, and Soft Sky. A couple drops of water in each one in my little palette got them close to the colors in the challenge. I then stamped out the cute little gift in SU's Weather Together stamp set in black Versafine onto a 5-1/2 x 4-1/4 inch piece of Bristol smooth watercolor paper and stamped the mermaid and seahorse from Magical Day with Versamark and white heat embossed it on another piece of Canson XL. I then set to watercoloring . . . 

The gift background turned out great I think! However, the mermaid was NOT the best choice for this technique because, I came to the conclusion, it has too fine of lines. Anyway, here are both attempts; the gift background made into a birthday card for a special friend, and the mermaid background, uh, nothing memorable! Haha!

Happy Birthday Friend

Mermaid Booboo

Supplies:

Sending Best Wishes - SSS Let Us Rejoice stamp (bouquet and "best wishes"), SSS Sending die, Distress Oxide inks in Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron, Fossilized Amber, Salty Ocean, Bristol smooth CS, SSS fine detail white embossing powder, Versamark ink, Copic Opaque White.

Welcome Little Star - SU star dies, various CS from my stash, unknown Little Star stamp set, Versamark ink, rainbow sparkle embossing powder.

Happy Birthday Friend - Bristol Smooth CS, SU re-inkers in Pear Pizzazz, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky, SU Weather Together stamp set, HeroArts sentiment, Versafine black ink, Zing yellow embossing powder, Versamark ink, black and white stripe paper I made.

Mermaid Booboo - Canson XL CS, SSS fine detail embossing powder, Versamark ink, SU re-inkers as above, SU Magic Day stamp set.

I think I've exhausted further card ideas using these colors! I need to make some Valentine's Day cards, especially for my grands and greats.

Just a note - I've signed up for the Family History Writing Challenge which started February 1st. Of course, like most things, I am behind; however, with some encouragement from my older sister (who is our family research wizard), I have gathered my wits and am determined to begin writing about my chosen ancestor. . . our 94-year-old father. I am considering writing on this blog but we will see about that!

Bye for now.

Some Fun with an IPad App

Hello!
Last night I was home alone and so spent some mindless time playing with a newly acquired photo app on my IPad. I had seen some gorgeous watercolors scrolling across Miriam's Blog (she is a fellow Month in Numbers participant) and had asked her if they were her creations. . . well, she was very honest and told me that they were her photos alright but manipulated with this cool app called Waterlogue. So of course I had to investigate and have gone just a little crazy!

These are just five of the 16 photos I "distilled" and I just cannot get enough of how A.MAZ.ING. they are! Anyhow, just wanted to share.

Tomorrow, the 22nd, is our 28th wedding anniversary. My how blissful time flies! :) 

Laters!