Bird Panel

My friend, Dena gave me this beautiful panel. She knows I like birds and bright colors.



I used the center of the panel to make a wall hanging for our back entrance.



I put patchwork hearts on the corners using some of the bright colors in the panel.



I used invisible thread in the quilting. I haven't gotten the knack of free motion quilting so I drew my pattern on paper and sewed over the design. Not a great method, but it worked.




I used purple, red and blue Swarovski crystals to embellish some of the berries.

Two of the bird pictures and the border of the panel were made into a table runner.

This is the back of the table runner.

Thanks again, Dena :)

Millington Quilt Club July Meeting

Wednesday the Millington Quilt Club had a meeting. We don't usually meet during the summer so the meeting was short and quite a few members were missing. Our show n' tell was a lot quicker also. This is a picture of Elaine and Pat showing us baby quilts they made. The quilts tops were made from a yard of three different fabrics, so they still have tops for two more baby quilts each.



This is Elaine's first quilt. She did a beautiful job. Connie, the owner of My Lil Quilt Shop, helped Elaine with the quilt. They designed it together as they went.



Sydney made this purse and trimmed it with some beads from her stash.



Amy made these three baby quilt tops, which she donated to the club.



This is my best friend, Linda with a ladybug purse she made.

Jeananne made her bag in the same class she and Linda took at My Lil Quilt Shop. She added a longer handle to her purse.

Jan is showing off her pretty ribbon embroidered jacket.

Viola is showing us some of the credit card holders she made for the club.

Birds and Bees

We had a robin build a nest in the tree next to the garage. Two days in a row, we found baby robins on the ground. So sad...they can't fly. This little guy was shy but eventually he came out into the open.

Not sure what happene to him or his sibling. They were both gone the morning after we found them. We're hoping they weren't the stray cat's dinner.

I love going out and taking pictures of my flowers. Bees don't seem to mind having their pictures taken.

So I took a lot of photos.

Couldn't decide which ones I liked best.

They really like the thistle in my front flower bed.

Hope you're not too bored....really couldn't decide which were best.

Traverse City

Tom and I drove up to Traverse City on Wednesday and came back Thursday. We were able to beat the Cherry Festival and 4th of July traffic. We drove around the Leelanau Peninsula. This is a picture of the Lake Michigan beach at Glen Arbor.

The following 2 pictures are of West Grand Traverse Bay.







The water is soooooooo clear and clean and the sky was almost cloudless. I think all the shades of blue could be a great inspiration for a quilt.







The Leelanau is known for its vineyards and wineries. I thought the weather vane on top of one of the wineries was very artsy.





This vineyard is located exactly on the 45th parallel. The hills covered with grapevines were gorgeous.

Northern Michigan is very populated with deer, however we didn't see any deer until we turned onto our road on the way home. There are trees lining the road and a small woods in the photo but most of the land in our neighborhood is farmland. We are more used to seeing cows on our road.