The Fabulous Frogs (for one of my tadpoles)

I haven’t gotten as much piecing done around here lately. I was so tired last evening that I feel asleep on the sofa so I got up and went to bed at 8:30 pm, so unlike me! Then I slept clear through until my usual time of around 7 am, so that is pretty strange. Some of my other work is taking more out of me than I would have thought I suppose.

It’s cold here. CRAZY cold! Like it takes an extra ten minutes to get out to work just to get the hat, coat and gloves all done up tight. Eww! Then when the wind hits it's time to get a MOVE ON! Hubby made a fire in the fireplace which is wonderful and cozy. There is nothing better than a fire on a cold cold day! I’m still wishing for snow, I’m sure that will come soon enough. I don't want a little snow, cause getting down off our hill is scary in a little snow. I want a BIG snow, enough to keep me on my hill all day long!

Something is wrong with one of my dogs, so I’m really keeping an eye on her. Border Collies don’t move slowly unless something is wrong, and she’s been very slow this morning and favoring a front paw. I hope that laying in a patch of sunshine and having a string of lovely naps is what she needs to heal up good and strong! I hate it when anything is wrong with either of my BC girls! Say a prayer for my poochy if you're the praying kind. Thanks!

(dyed and read to mark, the white pattern from the white on white fabric still shows)

In between the usual stuff I’ve been working at my “peace, joy and hoppiness” frog quilt. Yesterday I pulled out some white on white prints and lightly dyed them by hand. I Used PEBEO Setacolor thinned down and applied with paint brushes. (I am a HUGE PEBEO fan!!) Then I came along with my fabric markers to bring out some details. (Marvy Uchida) I have these and I use them, but I've also got my eye on these fabric markers from PEBEO! Anyway, then I went through again with some gold gutta for detailing, another PEBEO product. It adds something that you catch when you're close up that is pretty extra special!
I played with the layout, seeing how the pieces seemed to want to go together.
I followed the pattern of the fabric for the detail on "PEACE" and it looks great upclose. It is not nearly this washed out in person. That's a camera flash issue.

A few days ago I pieced the letters “JOY.” I started with the J and expected to make them all pretty normal and equal in size. But then when I was in the middle of the O I decided it needed something. Later on I’ll add some buttons to that one. And when I laid them out on the table the Y just begged to be tall and skinny. So there they are, some funky letters. I made “hoppiness” and "peace" the right sizes to fit into the design and then added a few strips around the edges to get it to the size I wanted. I’ve got lots of other blocks made so it will be interesting to see how it all fits together.

These letters have spots and coloration that matches the frogs in the commercial fabric. It begs to be looked at closely.

A tiny bit of the gold gutta detailing shows in this photo. (Mostly if you already know where to look!)

It is fun to see it take shape! I talked to my mother-in-law about hand quilting this one for me. I hope to get at least a few stitches in there from my husband's grandmothers as well, though they are both advancing in years and don't quilt much anymore. It is a family tradition that each new addition to the family gets a quilt with hand quilting by the grandmas. It is a good tradition and I hope that my children are able to appreciate these quilts as symbols that they are connected to a loving family, adopted by many more than just their dad and me.
Now I've got some more work to do. It will be fun to see how this piece fits together with the other blocks sitting on my table. I think that will be an interesting puzzle! It's funny, I decided against making a sketch for this piece and it has made the process more open to unexpected twists and turns. That works for me. As far as I'm concerned it's all about the process! The end product is important, but it's not everything! Not even close.

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AND...

The Lovely Barbara Stroup mailed me the cutest doggy fabric EVER for this project! And her doodles on the envelope were SO fun! That's Me, Carmen (Love her writing!) and three new rosebuds! I LOVE that! And BUTTONS! All tied in a beautiful ribbon! Seriously, I've been itching to do something with buttons so I did a little dance when I saw these beautiful bright buttons! I LOVE this and I'm already thinking about how to use the adorable poochys! :) Thanks Barbara!!! And check out her work! She's doing some really fun things with houses! I'm loving this process of finding new artists who create really cool work! YAY! Thank you so much Barbara!