Watching the Petal Fall - Wordless Wednesday

Appropriate for May Day! 

Pink Snow!

'Spring Party' Friday Finds!

Ready for a Spring party? 

Here's a centerpiece:

Burlap Grass Table Centerpiece by Wonders4you

Throw on a matching table runner:

Table runner by Modernality2

Grab some pretty napkins:

Napkins by SilkImagination

And some napkin rings:

burlap Jute Napkin Rings by HomeGoodsalacarte

Add your favorite tea pot: (BTW--MY favorite!)

Franciscan Tea Pot by blkolivecottoncandy

Add your favorite fare, and there you have it . . . oh, except for inviting a friend!  Have a great weekend!

Spring Plum Tree

Spring Wordless Wednesday! 

Linking with:
NC Sue
Nanny to Mommy
Aquariann

Whew! Bazaar Over!

Just finished a two day bazaar!  Thought I would share a funny picture of my granddaughter helping me.  Klee told me that she was there to provide me with "comic relief" on the slow afternoon! I think all the customers were out enjoying the sunshine--that much sunshine and 75 degree weather in March is unusual for Oregon!    She tried on my children's aprons and  drew pictures for me!  She really was a crack-up!  Anyway, here's a 15 year old modeling a little child apron (note the sweat shirt sliding off her shoulders!   :) chuckle! chuckle!

This is my GD that will be gone for nearly a year as an exchange student to Taiwan-- leaving in August! I will miss her and her help with craft shows!

Now, that the Spring craft shows are finished, I can move on to all the work involved with opening my new online shop. If you are interested in getting a monthly newsletter about the opening--and all things new at Pruitt Creations and Abigail Jayne Art--there is sign up on the right sidebar.  Thanks!

Spring Bazaar for Easter

This weekend, well, Friday and Saturday not Easter Sunday, I will be a vendor at the Carver School Spring Bazaar!  Should be lots of fun, since there will be loads of children and their families there!

Here's a sneak peek (since I am into sneak peeks lately :) of my booth items!  Lots of things for children! Hair clips, child tote bags, toddler backpacks, including a few handy things for mom.

Wish me luck and happy sales!

Emerging Foggy Spring

March, being the month of early Spring, was the month that I signed up to present a challenge for my favorite Etsy team.  This Spring challenge for the Blogging Business Artisans was called  Emerging Foggy Spring  (which is the title of my finished piece too!) and I wrote the challenge this way:

I am proposing that we try something this month that is a little softer.  I call it - Emerging Foggy Spring. Let's explore color in terms of tint. In color theory, a tint is the mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness. We often create with bright color and ignore tints of color. Create a project with muted tints leaving lots of white space, if you can. This project is to challenge your thought processes about color, using tints. Don't be intimidated by the absence of bright color. Get creative!

So here is what I came up with, and mind you, I didn't even have a clue what I was going to do, back when I signed up for presenting this challenge.  I have been thinking about it quite a bit, and today I got an idea.  

I started with a bunch of scrap fabric and made a crazy quilt block.  I decided to explore the WRONG side of the fabric.  Many fabrics have a whitish reverse side, where the color has only bled thru in the screen printing process. The pattern is not actually woven into the yardage. Thus it has a tinted look.  

At first, it was a bit daunting to my brain, sewing wrong sides together, since I am used to sewing with the right sides facing each other.  As you can see, I actually did the bottom two strips and the top right hand corner with the "right" side up to facilitate the design that I had in mind.  

Here is what is looks like on the "wrong" side --that I am not using--more colorful and not the stuff of this challenge:

Next, I made a quilt sandwich with it, adding the batting and backing and quilting a scene to it.  I used different colors of thread, from black to gray to white, to create the tree's depth in the fog, but it is hard to detect in this photo. (WOW, do I need a new camera--not just this phone camera--broke my good camera!- Maybe you can click on the photo and zoom in and see what I am talking about.)

Anyway, using the right side up in the bottom strips has created a more "real" look in the foreground.  The flower field then fades into the fog with the next strip being reversed to the tint side.  I also have the sun peaking thru the clouds at the top right using the "right" side of the fabric for the sun's brightness.

The actual quilting process shows the tree, flowers and swirling fog of the scene on top of the muted fabrics. 

Reverse of my quilt sandwich

I haven't decided yet how I will bind the little mini quilt, but I am quite proud of the way that it has turned out for a simple afternoon's work!  

P.S.  Linking today with Pink Saturday! 

Spring Show Products

I have two craft shows coming up this month, so I am busssssyy!

Currently working on product for my Spring shows! Have lots of yo-yos out all over the table, along with bling, beads, thread, glue and clips.  I think these should sell well this month, just before Easter. (Of course I will add some pastel ones too!)

Here's a finished pair with fabric that is currently popular.  Seems if everyone likes grey, lately!

I am thinking that I might also offer my decorated flip flops--that I have stored away.  Weather should be warming up and I think maybe they would do well too!  I guess I am just feel like spring; aren't you?

More Scrap Fun!

I love using up my scrap yardage.  A few weeks back I made a Spring pillow cover for my sofa that started with making a quilting block from my scraps (see the end of the post), which I previously blogged about.

I also made a table runner which started with a couple of quilt blocks.  i loved the colors in the block and it seemed to scream out at me with another idea for Spring--tulips!

I have listed this in my Creations shop today!  

Someone will be the lucky recipient!

What is new in your shop or craft?

Inspiration from a Friday Finds Post

Last week I did a "Friday Finds" post on yellow and pink color combinations--well, fuchsia and lemon, to be exact!  Anyway, it inspired me to do a quilt block in those colors.  I showed you the block in that post.

So, what did I do with it?  Take a look!

I appliqued some Mexican Hat flowers to it, then quilted the top, added a backing and, voila! I have a new pillow cover for Spring!

I keep a little twelve inch accent pillow on my couch and change out the covers for each season. I did a pillow cover tutorial, back in December, about my holiday pillow cover.  Remember that little snowman one?  Sew. . . .

 What do you think of this one?

Before Spring Fades WW

Enjoy!

Linking to Aquariann's Wordless Wednesday. Visit some of the other participants, to see what they are posting today!

Pansy Wordless Wednesday

Seeking the Sun

Magnolia Rain

We are staying at a friend's house--house sitting again!  My friend has a magnolia tree in the back yard that is loosing it's blossom pedals like rain.  It's amazing to watch. Enjoy!

I'm linking to Pink Saturday. 

Go on over and see what others are posting! 

Daffodil House Wordless Wednesday

Spring Hike with GrandPa WW

Goodbye Winter!

I promised part 2 of my Challenge project today . . . but . . .  I would like to save that until Thursday, if you don't mind.  The reason for my change is the change in the weather!!!  Today is the first day of Spring, although technically here on the west coast, it was yesterday at about 10:09 pm PST.   Hubby and I took a walk by the river a few days ago and I never reported on it.  It is a winter story, and so I wanted to place it here, between winter and spring, chronologically.

We often eat our lunch in our car riverside where the Clackamas and the Willamette Rivers intersect in the Southern portion of the Portland area.  (A great article on the Clackamas River.) This particular day was balmy with warm sunshine.

 

We walked on the sandy beach created by the river's low level, while hubby and I took pictures, enjoying the exercise and the sunshine. I enjoyed the ducks, the geese, and the calmness of the water. 

I even snapped a few artsy photos of the sand!

We walked a little further up river and found signs of last months flooding--debris left in the trees about ten feet above hubby's head! I did a post about the high water last month.  You can see it here.

Gladstone bridge over the Clackamas River

 Thanks for allowing me this deviation from the plan and taking this stroll with us.  Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!  Although it's still supposed to snow later this week!  Scheech! 

P.S.  One more photograph of something we found on the beach, tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday!

Spring Cleaning!

I've known that I had a bit of Spring fever, even though here in the Pacific Northwest the winter hasn't been very severe--mild actually.  All the storms have been missing us and going more to the North.  Anyway, I still find myself longing for the freshness of Spring.  I guess I further proved it to myself this weekend, with a furious bout of Spring cleaning!  Seems like many friends have been giving me fabrics and notions and they had been building up in bags in my "studio"-- the end of my bedroom.  It was getting me down, because not everything had it's place and I had to walk around 'stuff' in bags on the floor.

A friend said to me last week, "I love getting new clothes at Goodwill (thrift store) but I never seem to clean out my closets and get rid of the old clothes."  That gave me an idea.  I had plenty of  old clothes in drawers that I never wear.  So I went thru the drawers and was able to fill up two large bags of clothing that are headed to the thrift store.  This left me with four empty drawers in my large dressers.  I started going thru my stuff and organizing.  Here's the finished product--a clean studio space.



Dresser top storage all arranged!

The dressers had been stacked with books and fabrics thrown in disarray!  NOW, I can see what I need and get to it!



Fabric Storage!

This side of the dresser I couldn't even open, because of the boxes stacked in front of it!  I got rid of what was in the dresser that I never use and now it holds my larger fabric yardage and a box of unfinished projects that I can easily pull out and finish!




Drawer full of felt and ribbon

Now I can SEE my ribbons and readily get to my felt supply!  They were in a box with all kinds of fabrics stacked on top of them.



Desk top handy items!

On the end of the desktop, I have my Ott light, my pin bowl, my scissor caddy, thread storage and a little wire basket for fabric scraps.  Oh, and my coaster for my tea cup!  It was stacked with unfinished projects, which can get confusing when you are working on something.  It was causing a lack of focus on my current project.  This is much better!

And then there is my bulletin board!  (I recently did this post about it.)  I obviously didn't get to it yet!  Oh well, there'll be another day.

You got Spring Fever yet?