Greenway Walk...and Vicki's Prize Package

Yesterday was another simply gorgeous day here in the North Carolina piedmont. I went for a two-hour walk, exploring more of the new roads in the Heritage neighborhood across Rogers Road. It was 42 degrees F when I left, and 72 when I got back! I was surprised to find that I could walk to a greenway system that begins in Wake Forest and ends in Rolesville.

The Wake Forest section is all made from a ten-foot wide wooden walkway with rails. It curves and meanders through a wooded wetland.

How wonderful that all this open space has been preserved! A short foot-trail off the boardwalk leads to this lovely rocky cascade.

In Rolesville, the path becomes pavement. I followed it as far as this new amphitheater that backs up to the woods.

I could just see a blue-grass band playing on this lovely wooden stage, with woodland birds and animals scampering behind them.

I have not had any more close encounters with lust-crazed white-tail deer, but there were lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs in the creeks and little pools of water in the woods. This one is only about two inches long.

Finally I left the woods and walked home, to find a wonderful surprise: the package from Vicki Welsh with my prize from the October Postcard Challenge on her blog, Field Trips in Fiber. It was wrapped in hand-dyed cheesecloth and the pine needle sun-print fabric.

What fun to unwrap the package and fondle the hand-dyed and hand-painted fabric,

the colorful hanks of dyed cheesecloth,the delightful vintage button collection,

and packages of fibers! I had to start playing right away. Here is Vicki's painted card with some fiber I draped around the border.

and my cheesecloth-draped chandelier!

Thank you so much, Vicki. You know I am going to have fun with all my new pretties!

More "Flower Power"

After I quilted Susan's quilt with "Big Shot" die-cut flowers a couple weeks ago, she showed it to another Stampin'-Up demonstrator, Martha Armstrong of Zebulon, NC. Martha brought me her flower quilt on Tuesday afternoon, and I was able to finish it yesterday evening. And she was here bright and early this morning to pick it up, so she can show it in time for a craft fair on Saturday! Martha has a blog where she features many of her lovely cards and other projects.

Martha also used a "layer cake" collection of 10-inch coordinated squares. I've got to say, I love these fabrics and the way they work together. Martha's fabrics were softer colors than Susan's eye-popping citrus colors.

I quilted it almost the same as Susan's, with lots of flowers, leaves, vines, feathers, and a butterfly or two. The three shapes comprising each flower have to be stitched around in order to attach them to the quilt. I used a wiggly circle that somewhat echoes the scalloped edge of each flower piece. The edges will fray if you choose to wash the quilt, for that soft cottage look.63 flowers x 3 pieces = 189 circular trips around. I upped my price after doing the first one of these!

Martha intends to wash her quilt to achieve the shabby chic look. This morning she told me that she had not pre-washed any of her fabrics, including this almost fire-engine red backing. Uh-oh! I guess you can't really pre-wash the jelly rolls and layer cakes that come pre-cut, or they would fray before you even use them.

I have found that reds tend to bleed more than any other color, and with the white background fabric on the top, I was a little nervous about her washing the quilt. I sent her home with a little Gladware container of Synthrapol, a liquid detergent intended to be used for washing hand-dyed fabric. With that and a Shout Color Catcher sheet, maybe her quilt will not bleed.

She is not going to wash it until after the Craft Fair just to be safe! And she has a handful of my business cards in case she runs into any quilters who want to make a quilt with the Big Shot die cut machine.

When I showed this quilt to my husband Charlie last night, that conservative gentleman informed me that he liked the glowing orange back of the quilt better than the front! Okay, this is a chick quilt, indeed!

Finished Projects

After I finished my post yesterday, my friend Mary came over with some gifts for me. We had cut some branches from my magnolia tree to make wreaths for her craft fair last weekend, and look what she gave me!

This wreath has a straw base. The leaves are sprayed with hair spray. I think it is beautiful! We cut some more branches so she can make more wreaths. She also brought my door prize from the craft fair- look at this lovely purse in fall colors! (The painted artificial gourds were purchased at the Cotton Company in Wake Forest last weekend- aren't they cute?)

And it is on the table that features my finished quilted tablecloth. I am so pleased with this project. Before quilting, the hand-dyed, embroidered fabric would not lie flat, but it makes a perfect table-topper now.

Here is the topper with one corner flipped up to show the back side. It will be reversible- the salmon/yellow batik will be perfect for spring.

I bought two other pieces of dyed vintage linens at the Artistic Artifacts booth last spring during the NC Quilt Symposium. They are destined for quilting, as well!

Not today, though. Another Stampin'-Up demonstrator brought one of the die-cut fabric tops like Susan's for me to quilt. And she wants it fast! So, of course, my thread broke about every eight inches when I started quilting yesterday afternoon. I think I will take another walk, hope for another deer sighting, and then get to work on the quilt.

November Nature Walk

All my good intentions for doing chores disappeared this morning, when I looked outside and saw sunshine for the first time in a long while. I had not walked through my neighborhood since I lost my little companion, Maggy. It did not seem right to be walking without my doggy, but the sunshine and beautiful autumn scenery put my mind at rest.

My street looks very beautiful against the clear blue November skies.I have always liked this big tree that seems to lean across the street to lend its shade.

Isn't this a great nature shot? The leaves are gone from this honey locust tree, leaving the long seed pods and branches silhouetted against the sky.

I walked all the way through the new Heritage neighborhood across Rogers Road. The developer, Andy Ammons, has done a first class job on all the landscape and architecture of this large development.
In this photo, you can see the dock and shelter on Forgotten Pond, and the red roof of another shelter near the children's playground.
The ubiquitous Canada geese were enjoying the sunshine.


On the way back I stopped by the Freeman family cemetery. The iron gate was open, so I went in to pay my respects. The headstones obviously are not original. Some loving descendant of the family must have identified as many of the grave sites as he could and put identical granite markers on them. For some reason, Blogger insists on turning the photos sideways today. The oldest date on one of the markers is Mary, wife of Allen Freeman, born in 1805, who lived to the surprising age of 85. There is a wonderful history of the Freeman family online at the Wake Weekly, our local newspaper.


Many of the gravestones marked the graves of infants and children.

I was heading home after taking these photos, when my camera was acting sluggish. I decided to switch out the battery. There I was, camera in hand, when I heard a clattering on the street next to me. Less than ten yards away was a female deer tearing across the street. She jumped over the iron fence into the gated cemetery. Close on her heels was a magnificent ten-point buck! It was a sight I will never forget. The bucks are in rut now that it is mating season, and they are making some bad decisions for their safety right now. I hung around for awhile in case she ran him back in my direction, but they disappeared in the woods.

When I got home I decided to walk across my back yard and check on the grave where I buried Maggy. My previous dog, Sassy, is buried between two large hydrangea bushes, and I put Maggy near to her. I planted a double-file viburnum called "Summer Snowflake" next to her grave, thinking that it would provide beautiful blooms next summer. To my surprise and delight, this is what I found.

RIP, old friend.

Lucky Me!

I had very good luck this weekend in two different drawings. First, I won the door prize at Mary Nennstiel's craft fair at her home near mine. The prize is a hand-made purse that I have not yet collected. I purchased quite a few items from her sale, and also provided the magnolia leaves for her gorgeous wreaths. I also got this great black-and-white print purse from Mary last Christmas at our bee's "gift grab."

Then, on Sunday, I found out that I won the drawing in Vicki's Postcard Challenge for October. Look at all the lovely things she is sending me:

A pine needle sunprint in the back, a metallic painted fabric, 3 hand dyed fat quarters, some dyed cheesecloth and some of her favorite yarns and buttons in autumn colors. Thanks, Vicki, for such a generous prize!

Better head on over to Field Trips in Fiber and get the details for the November Postcard Challenge!

Rainy Halloween

Happy Halloween! It is rainy and warm here today. I am heading out to some local church bazaars and craft fairs, and may head in to Jerry's Art-a-rama in Raleigh to see a local artist demonstrate how she uses Lumiere paints on fabric and paper.

I just got an interesting e-mail newsletter about a new free mystery quilt from

Sandra Earle-Russo at Patterns by Sandra. She will change the pattern at the middle of each month, so be sure to download before then. She calls it "Exploring Purple." It has a central medallion, and she is using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I might actually make this one!

The photos on this page are my grandchildren in various costumes and disguises. This year they are Batman and Batwoman. I think they look a lot happier than when they were dressed in furry monkey outfits. It is usually in the eighties on Halloween where they live. They look like they either had too much candy or were suffering from heat sickness!

Whatever you do, have a great weekend!

Mountain-y Fabric Postcards

On Vicki's Postcard Challenge at Field Trips in Fiber, the prompt was "If I woke tomorrow with absolutely no obligations I would _______________"

and my response was "go to the mountains!"

I really like making fabric postcards. They are only 4" x 6", so it is a good size to experiment with new ideas or techniques---or use up bits of hand-painted fabrics, embellishments, and that sort of thing.

For my first postcard, I took a piece of green fleece that I had needle-felted with angelina and fibers, and cut a stylized leaf shape. I quilted it on to a black background with lots of colored bits that remind me of colored leaves falling off the trees.

Autumn Leaf, 4" x 6", 2009

I love the shimmer and mingling of the colors on the leaf. If I was going to redo this one, I would not use the fleece as a background for the leaf, because it is quite thick, not thin like a leaf!

Next up is another new one. I had my little container of hand-painted fabric from this summer, and decided that the discharged green and blue fabric had a section that looked like mountains and river.

Snow-Capped Mountains, 2009

The fabric was painted with Stewart Gill Byzantium paint over dried Glitter Glue gel. I showed a picture of it back in July. After the paint dries, you remove the glue and that is the white area. To make the postcard, I just quilted around the mountain peaks and the river, and added more glitter to the white areas and the sky.

Okay, so those mountains are artistic, but realistic? Not so much. How about this one that I made from commercial fabric that I fused and cut into shapes? This reminds me of our cabin in the North Carolina mountains.

Mountain Cabin, 4" x 6", 2007

The next one also reminds me of riding through the Christmas tree farms at our mountain place. I used hand-dyed fabrics for the sky and hills, and a marbled fabric for the foreground. I used zigzag stitches to represent the trees on the hillside. As on many of my cards, I added a fiber around the edge in coordinating colors.

Mountain Memories, 4" x 6", 2007

And here is one more that reminds me of this season of the year. It has artificial leaves, fabric leaves cut from fabric, ribbons, and fused applique from commercial fabrics swirling on a fabric background. A few hot-fix crystals add sparkle.

Autumn Splendor, 4" x 6", 2007