A Visit to Candy's Studio

This is the third in a series of tours of the studios of the talented women in my Quilt Group. This is Candy's studio and it is a wonderland of creative inspiration! Candy is an Art Quilter and a Fiber Artist among many other talents. To visit her studio is such a treat - your eye doesn't know where to go next. There are so many fun, quirky, beautiful, unique and vintage treasures that you don't want to leave for fear you've missed something fabulous!

The room is only medium sized, and a lot of it is taken up with work tables and tools and all her fabric, so I couldn't get a long shot to take in the whole room. I will, however,  show you vignettes so you can get a flavor of who Candy is! Above is a cute old dresser that has pools of thread for handles.

This is just one of many shelves filled with collections of vintage items that she has on display.

...just a couple of pieces of work in progress

Sweet little collected pieces.

Candy does absolutely amazing things with felted wool. This elephant is quite large - probably 6" - 8" tall. I wanted you to see some of the other animals she has created, below:

Continuing around her studio, I loved this carousel of buttons!

I discovered this collection of vintage suit cases she had tucked away. I wonder what's inside them?

Candy belongs to a few quilt groups and so she had traded quilted postcards for quite a while and she had decorated her quilt studio with them. They can be found all through the space. So fun!

Quite an enviable stash!

I wanted to share this project she was working on. She took this picture of her husband and had it digitized and is recreating it with fabric. AMAZING!

Another quilt in progress.

Love this "basket'O'thread".

This wonderful old cabinet wasn't in her sewing room. It was in her kitchen but I just loved it and wanted to show you.

This is the talented lady herself. Thank you, Candy for sharing your fascinating space with us and thank you, visitors and followers for stopping by. I hope you will come again soon. -Derrith

Sunny Catalina Island

I've just returned from a lovely 4 days on Santa Catalina Island with Gary and my sister, Cheryll.

The weather was absolutely perfect: 68 - 70 degrees, sunny with a light breeze.

We did a bit of sightseeing in a rented golf cart since that is the main mode of transportation on the island.

I decided to go beyond the usual "post card" shots, and explore some of the side streets of the downtown area. They are filled with little cottages, many in pastel colors. There were a few Spanish influenced stuccoed houses, but most were wood and quite weathered.

They were cute and compact and many were vacation rentals. The really large homes were far up in the hills.

They were quite different from the beach houses I find on the Oregon Coast.

My husband spent a summer on Catalina when she was 11 and he says things hadn't changed much. We found the house he stayed in some 54 years ago!

I will end with this cutie. I return relaxed and refreshed and ready to get back to my projects. I hope you will visit again soon. Thank you! -Derrith

Braggin' On My Buddies

I wanted to share with you some of the beautiful work that has been done by my "Sisters'n'Stiches" group. Our last meeting until fall was last night and Candy was our hostess. Here she is showing this fabulous appliqued block.

Jayna showed us her finished Cowboy Quilt. She designed it herself.

Isn't it awesome?!

Jayna had another cutie finished.

Margie had finished her enormous king size beauty.

Margy also made this darling bag, using her embroidery machine to add the flip flops.

More beautiful work from Margy.

Darlene made this amazingly cool wall hanging. The picture doesn't do it justice. She is a virtuoso on her embroidery machine. This was done in sections and then pieced together, matching up the writing. Truly stunning.

Another marvel from Darlene.

Pat brought her completed masterpiece of a quilt. I wish you could see this in person.

Her applique work is perfection, the fabrics and colors are so beautiful and the machine quilting is a work of art also (done by Darlene).

Anita hand made these cute little pin cushions.

Our meeting was held on a beautiful almost sunny evening in our neck of the woods. Candy lives in a wonderful old yellow farm house up in the hills. We ate dinner on her back deck. She made 4 different kinds of quiche for us. What a treat!

This is on her deck railing...so cute! I will share more pictures of Candy's house and especially her studio very soon. To our fearless leader, Barb: We missed you! Hurry home soon. Thank you for coming by my blog today. Can you see how inspiring it is to meet with these talented women each month? Please come again.  -Derrith

Serendipity

I happened upon these slightly vintage looking music flash cards at Goodwill a little while ago.  I have been trying to figure out what clever thing I might do with them, but no inspiration has come...until last Friday.

While cleaning out my laundry room, where I also store pictures I am not currently using, I found this frame, with the black and white mat cut to the perfect size. I had completely forgotten I had it, and it was so amazingly perfect for my project, I could hardly believe it. Now, I won't say this is terribly clever, but it works in it's way. I would so welcome any other ideas for using the rest of the flash cards!

I'm going to take it down to our shop in hopes that a piano teacher or some other musical person might want it. I am just going to be grateful that this project came together so easily since SO many do not.

On a completely unrelated note, my peonies have finally bloomed and are making me very happy.

On another unrelated note, I hope you will indulge me one pet picture today. I had tossed this blanket on my bed for a few moments and when I came back in the room, Molly had made it into a nest and was peeking up from it. She moved a bit before I could snap the pic, but I still thought it was worth sharing. I must admit, my husband and I are a bit silly about this little Cavalier who has stolen our hearts!  Thanks for visiting today! -Derrith

Reclaming a Guest Room

My oldest Grand daughter recently moved out of my guest room after living there for a couple years, so it was a good opportunity for a Make-Over (always fun)! The timing was good because we had already decided to re-carpet the upstairs.

I painted the walls a buttery yellow and went with a Scandinavian theme. This was because of a much loved print I had framed years ago that reminds me of that part of the world. (see below)

The dominant colors in the picture of forest green, red and yellow so those were my cues for the room. I debated painting this Primitive Colonial bench that I have had forever, but opted instead to re-stain it to match the dark wood frame above it.

This hutch was originally part of the same collection as the bench but it has been painted numerous times. Most recently, I used it as a project in a Rosemaling class, which works for this room. 

I had to do this room on a tight budget so all the furniture, lamps and pictures were things I already had. Instead of curtains, I used dark green shutters at the windows (you can see them in the first picture above). I plan to make a quilt for the bed, but there are 3 or 4 other quilts higher on the list so that may take a while. Meanwhile, I found this comforter on "overstock.com" and it will do for now. Thank you so much for indulging my little "Reveal" (I know...I watch too much HGTV) I hope you'll stop by again soon. I have been working on some patriotic projects but they are not yet camera ready. -Derrith

Say It With Flowers Blog Hop

Welcome to our Flowery Blog Hop. Thank you Carol and Madame Samm for hosting and for cheering everyone on. My entry is this apron. I found this fun fabric with a grey/green background with bright yellow, orange and white flowers.

I took some elements of the the flower motif and reproduced it with hand appliqued flowers on this grey and white mini-dot fabric.

I did the same thing on the pockets. I'm not sure I like the yellow part actually. I used a coordinating orange fabric for binding and for the lower part of the apron. The apron is completely lined so there is a bit more protection from spills, etc.

I decided to make matching dish towels.

The border was sewn to the wrong side, then turned over to the right side, bonded on the edge and machine appliqued. I hope you enjoyed your visit today. Please drop by again soon.  See below for the next stop on your tour (starting on Monday, June 3rd). -Derrith

June 3^rd

Marla’s Crafts

Hanging On By A Thread

Moments

Lixie Makes It

Tied Up In Ribbon  (You Are Here)

Made By Me In Red

Nanny’s Nook

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Cindy’s Crafty Creations

                                                      Meadowbrook