My kind of rose garden.

There have been so many damp gray days this winter. I think that's why I've been so drawn to bright yellows and golds. This quilt went together super fast. My pieces are large, but then so are the moths in the beautiful linen fabric. And so that's how it came about.  Those moths looked like they wanted to take flight, so I better give them some room. 

I've had terrible luck trying to grow roses in my yard. The bugs always eat them. Or they get swallowed up by a fungus. Got a few of those around here. Here's my kind of dream rose garden. Blazing a trail up the lattice. Low maintenance. By the sea of course. And a beautiful bike path right there too, running right along through it.

Here's where I started. Pulling this sunny group of fabrics from my stash. I made a few changes once I got to the design wall, as usual, because that's the fun part!

A little Field Study. A little Hand Drawn Garden and Rosette. Botanics, True Colors, Weekends, and Beyond the Sea to finish it off. Love those sandpipers!

Here's another shot during our misty moisty morning today. The back of the quilt getting photo bombed below. Followed by a close up of the quilting.

Before I go, I've got a little Laignappe for you. Ever wish you had a third hand in the sewing room? I use my presser foot to hold my work sometimes. Especially when I'm ironing my binding. I use my flat hair iron to press the seams in my binding. Then I also my flat iron to press my binding lengthwise. The  presser foot holds it a section at a time. I hold the binding in my left hand and the iron in my right. Makes for very fast work!

Found an even better place to store my flat iron. And yes, I'm very compulsive about turning it off as soon as I'm done.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy stitches.

Purple cotton velvet. Oh my.

Purple? In velvet? And cotton to boot? Hello! That sure caught my eye! Winter makes me want to curl up in a comfy chair and stitch. I used to do a lot of cross stitch and crewel work. It's time to get back to that again. Anna Maria Horner's Escape Artist Bag pattern was just the place to put some stitching to use. A center panel just for quilting and stitching and embroidery and beads. :)

I bought a mixed scrap bag from her shop. In it was a piece of Ghost Wing linen with "luscious" colors I couldn't wait to use. I've been hanging on to some of Bari J's older fabric. Ahh, Full Bloom. Wish I had more of those beauties. Out it came to join the party! I machine quilted the Full Bloom with some bright yellow.

Here comes my favorite piece next. In cotton/linen. First time to use this kind of fabric. Love it!! (I ran all of the fabrics through the washer & dryer first.)

I highlighted the moth shapes and the edge of the linen with a straight stitch. Picked out some perle cotton for a row of embroidery. I added some glass beads as well later on. It's hard to know when to stop embellishing sometimes.

Time to sew the bag pieces together. Geez, am I rusty at following sewing patterns. I'm much better with lots of pictures. Show me where I need to be next and I'll probably get there. I spent a lot of time with my seam ripper on this project, but well worth it. And the next one will go much easier and faster. I noticed right away when I was cutting the velvet pieces that I wasn't going to be framing the center panel exactly like the pattern cover photo shows. I thought I had recut it, but couldn't find my second piece. Either way, it'll do. Live & learn. Learn to love it anyway.

I picked out some of Juliana Horner's and Heather Bailey's fabric for the lining. Love these colors together. I added some ribbon to divide the large interior pockets. The ribbon is great place to stash a pencil. Or pen. 

And here it is all done. Thankfully before winter is technically over and done with.

And the back of course. For my love affair with purple and blues and now brown.