Triceratops Project - Part Two

Since my last post on this project, I have made the following progress.  I chose the motifs I wanted to use and finalized the layout.  I taped them into place on my cutting mat:

Then I laid the fabric over the whole thing and transferred all the motifs to the fabric:

Then I started stitching.  I am still deciding which colors I like for this and which stitches I am going to be using, but so far so good!

Walking around outside last evening, I must have been thinking about my triceratops project - everything I took pictures of looked vaguely Jurassic!

Sunflower Colors

The beautiful weather we have had this summer has been nice!  I have enjoyed it so much, especially with this sweet friend:

Rego

I do love to see what blooms this time of year, my sunflowers:

white dahlia:

I have also enjoyed home grown tomatoes!

All these beautiful colors are making me think of some sunflower projects I would like to stitch:

Baby Shower WIP

We are having another baby boy born into our family and that means another baby shower! For this shower gift, I have what I hope will turn out to be a great idea :)   It involves this shadow box picture frame.  This is an 8" x 8" frame:

I am going to take this baby blue checkered fabric:

Transfer this "Sweet dreams" motif onto the fabric:

and stitch it up using a variety of my newly learned stitches in some or all of these colors:

Then I will add the backing and put it inside the shadow box and add some trim - either inside the shadow box - sort of framing it, or maybe tied around the outside? 

I will post some pictures of my progress and of course some pictures of the final result!
I have two pictures I took a few days ago in during our sunny weather. This is Berit:

and this is Rego.  I used a tennis ball as a distraction in each of these pictures so they would sit still -they don't like to take time for pictures! 

Snow days and a quilt update

We have had almost a week of snow!

We get snow most winters but not usually this much and it usually doesn't stay this long.

I love the gray sky:

and how beautiful the landscape looks

covered in white:

Rego and Berit LOVE the snow and everything about it!

Chasing snowballs, eating snow...

it's all good!

Speaking of snow, do you remember my snow quilt project?

I have made some progress with stitching motifs in the small plain fabric squares:

and I have decided to use the open cretan stitch for all the borders around the blocks:

I like this stitch, It is quick to do and suits the patchwork-y look of this quilt. So far so good - I will keep you updated on my progress.

Some odds and ends

I have some random odds and ends to post... First, I finished a wip:

This is a little octopus, some waves and sea grasses from the Seashells and Seahorses pattern packet.  I think it makes a really sweet picture. I stitched double lines of back stitch in two blues for the waves:

 

and I combined these two greens to highlight the sea grasses:

Second, some I took some really interesting garden pictures.  How fuzzy is this bumble bee?  I am growing oregano and I have let a lot of it go to flower - the bees love it!

This is a picture of the beautiful berries on an oregon grape bush:

I have quite a few sunflowers blooming:

Here are a couple of blooms from my "Queen Elizabeth" rose bush that is

always fun to photograph!

and a bloom from "Chrysler Imperial"

And the best for last - Berit and Rego!  Here they are relaxing in the shade:

and here is Berit - wishing I would come out of the weedy herb garden!

some beautiful autumn pictures

We have had several days of unbelievably beautiful warm weather. Tomorrow we are expecting rain so I took advantage of the clear blue skies and took some pictures. First this orange zinnia: such a pretty color - I started these from seeds and this is the only flower that was orange!
I had pink, red, a sort of violet color and this beautiful yellow:
next, some mushrooms in my yard - they look like little parasols
now, Berit and Rego relaxing in the nice weather...
and Berit enjoying watching Rego - who is enjoying chewing a tennis ball!
the incredible blue sky and autumn colored leaves:
and finally, a cosmos just starting to bloom:
:) beautiful autumn days!