Shell Frame:

I have collected a LOT of shells from Honeymoon Island and a quick Christmas week trip to Sanibel Island, world famous for shelling.  Also, a number of frames have been salvaged from clearance aisles, and thrift stores. 

So, I decided to take the plunge. The frame was a 10 x 13 frame with an 8 x 10 opening. It started off with a dark wood finish. I lightly sanded it and gave it a coat of some white paint, to create a whitewash effect. I love using the broken shells to see the beautiful interior architecture of the shells. Amazing.

 

I have since added more shells.

 Detail views:

Will list in my Etsy shop one day when I get better pictures.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/15SeptemberArts?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Quilts for Kids, Project Update

I just could not do it.  I had to do some "reverse sewing" and "resewing" of the quilt top. The random blob at the bottom was just bothering me. I think it is much better. Also, I was able to layer and baste this quilt this weekend as well as the "Overdue Baby" quilt. 

This is the Quilts for Kids, redeaux :)

Quilts For Kids

I had some left overs from The Quilt That Took Forever and had had a project in the back of my mind for quite some time. Quilts For Kids is a national organization that provides quilts to kids in hospitals. Check them out at www.quiltsforkids.org. 
They will actually sent you a kit to make into a quilt if you wish. They have certain size and construction requirements that are pretty basic. Must be new fabric, must be machine pieced and quilted and so forth. 
In my "day job", I am an Oncology Nurse Practitioner and adolescent and young adult patients are a special interest of mine. At one time, on the Quilts For Kids website they were requesting quilts for adolescent boys because many of the quilts they receive are very juvenile or feminine in nature. Sooooo.... I talked with my son, who finally got The Quilt that took Forever, and asked if he thought he would need anything else made from the quilt scraps. He said no and I told him what I had in mind for the scraps. He was very pleased. 
I had to include some other fabric as I could not quite s-t-r-e-t-c-h the fabric quite far enough. So, I added some red strips. I did them in a really random fashion, so there is no real "pattern". Kind of wish I had not made it quite so random. 
This is the completed top. Now I need to, again, "layer, baste and quilt as desired". 

Overdue Baby Quilt (see previous post: Stacked Up Projects)

Well, the top is complete! I did a mixture of slice and rearranged blocks and unaltered blocks.

The top measures about 45 x 45 inches. Now, I must "layer, baste, and quilt as desired". Then comes the fun part. Wash, put it in the dryer, then snuggly, quilty goodness!. 
I am working on a tutorial. Might take a while. I made up the pattern as I went, so will need to go back and recreate the pattern. Check back.

Stacked up Projects

After the "Quilt That Took Forever", several projects had stacked up that needed attention. The first was an overdue baby quilt. The quilt was overdue, not the baby! So, I made a trip to the big box fabric store I came home with some pretty cute fabric. I usually don't do theme quilts but I really liked the baseball fabric.

 

 I was going to do something very simple, like this: 

But, I could not leave it alone. so the next step was to do a "Slice and Rearrange" and here are the first 2 blocks:

Now, I am thinking hmmmm, maybe I should mix the pre and post Sliced blocks. I'll play with it and let you know.