Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Quilt for Nana Joan

While I was on the phone to my Nana Joan a few months back, she mentioned that she had a Sunbonnet Sue template from a magazine that she had been holding onto for ages, but would likely never do anything with...... enter crafty scheming granddaughter and mother combo, who conspired to retrieve said pattern in order for me to make it. 

Well on its arrival here in Texas, I can only say I was a little disappointed with the quality of the pattern; it was less shabby-chic and more just plain shabby. Dont get me wrong, the picture of the finished quilt was cute, but I though we need something much more special for my Nana Joan..... 

So I sat down and started to sketch my own little Sue's. And I sketched and sketched, and then converted them to digital images and made outlines for all the little pieces, and over the course of the past couple of weeks, the quilt has come to life!

May I proudly present Nana Joan's Sunbonnet Sue quilt! 


Oh gosh this one was fun to make, and it's going to be tough to let go! I hope she loves it!

Here's all the little Sue's;

 Cupcake Sue


Basket Sue


Apple-Pickin' Sue
 

Rainy Day Sue
 

Flag Waving Sue
 

Dog Walking Sue


Gardening Sue
 

Flower Pickin' Sue
 

and Singing Sue!


And a few close-ups of all the stitchy goodness...


You gotta have rain on a quilt bound for England!
 

 Loopy quilting by a loopy quilter! Coincidence?


Cupcake anyone?

Whilst the quilt itself is off to reside in the UK, I loved making this so much that I decided to turn it into a pattern. You can find it here in my Etsy shop!

Friday, February 1, 2013

A Gourd Day!

Last spring Poor Suffering Husband bought me a packet of birdhouse gourd seeds. I was about a month late planting them and as there were only 12 seeds, I didn't really expect a whole lot to happen. So I put them in the ground along the front fence and waited.

I didn't have to wait long, maybe a week, before the first little leaves appeared...


And then they grew...

 

And got baby gourds...


And the baby gourds got bigger...


And the leaves got bigger...


And the BUGS got bigger...


Now I have a couple of hundred gourds waiting to be turned into this:

Oh that pun never gets old!

For anyone else thinking of growing gourds, here is a quick start-up guide: