More Plaid and Cardboard Dulcimer

I have been quilting on the Plaid quilt.  At this point I have only four more rows to quilt - not counting the borders

Here is the sort of full on shot.

I have played around with various quilting designs as I worked through the rows.

Several people asked about the cardboard dulcimer.  I was planning to do a video  

playing it while I had my camera man available.  His camera wasn't charged up, 

so that didn't happen. Here is a photo of it as it looks today.

My plan is to do some more painting on it. This is the third way I have painted it. 

I simply haven't decided just how to paint it.

Lacking the playing video, I decided to make a very simple video so you can hear the sound

of the instrument.  I was holding the camera/phone in the other hand so I couldn't do any chords. 

This dulcimer is tuned to an open "D" chord so that is what you are hearing. 

I normally play this with a pick (seen in the photo) or a turkey quill. But sometimes, I play 

with my fingers although it is rough on my fingernails. I know of one autoharp player who 

gets his "picking" nails coated with acrylic at a nail salon so he can play with his nails. 

I need to check on the price and see if I might find it worthwhile to do that. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Quilting the Plaid

Back in March of 2020 before the pandemic lockdown - doesn't that seem a lifetime ago- I started a fun little piece.  Then in March of 2021, I added some borders on it and spray basted it.   Then it sat, and sat some more.  

Today I said "Enough! It is time to get back to quilting or sewing or something!"  So, I saw this piece and said, "I need to quilt that.  It will be a nice table topper."  

Thus,  I started.  But with more people vaccinated, we are able to get out and do things again.  My Community Theatre group is starting back with the plays we had scheduled.  We were offered the parts we originally had.  I said yes.  Monday night was our first meeting.  This is as far as I got. 

At the upper edge of the photo you can see that I quilted three measly rows.  But now it is started and I will be inspired every time I walk by to just do a little more.  

In other news,  I bought a kit to build my own mountain dulcimer - a "cardboard dulcimer."  The great surprise is that it sounds really nice.  I am so impressed with it.  One day I will do  a video and  let you see and hear it. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

One More Notebook

Uno mas cuaderno (If I am saying the title "One More Notebook" in Spanish.)  My Spanish classes are paying off.  I knew that without having to look it up.  But I confess I did a check before the post was published. 

One of my longtime readers and friends asked about one of the previous notebooks that I had put in the gallery.  You see, she is a horse lover also.  However, my horse notebooks sell very fast in the Guntersville gallery as there are lots of horse lovers in that area.   I promised to make one for her.  So I am about to send her photos to see if she likes this one as much as the other one.  I love using black fabric behind the embroidery.  The bad thing is that every fiber of lint shows on it in photos.  And I took the  photos before I remembered to take a lint roller and do clean up.  Oh well.....

Fully opened cover

Front Cover

Inside pocket with label

So there you go. That is what i have been doing this week in addition

 to learning Spanish and practicing music.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Six more Finishes

The gallery said that they would be happy to have a few more of my notebooks for the current exhibit. So I sprang into action and managed to get six completed for them. 

Hmmmm there are all six in one photo but perhaps you will want to see them better.  Here are four with the full fronts showing.  You will notice that one of my fusing fun pieces was cut in half and used for the two on the left.. 

The two on the right have some of my woven fabric used as accent panels on the covers. 

Each of those also have hand dyed fabric as a featured component. 

I also sewed out another "Horse of a different color" embroidery to make one as the 

horse notebooks have sold well there.  The three hearts are appliqued onto a hand dyed fabric. 

There is one more "Horse of a different color" embroidery on my worktable for a 

request to "make one for me."  

During this spurt of making, I took four classes in an online music festival. Three of the classes

were on playing the Mountain Dulcimer.  The fourth class was a songwriting class. I have

played around with songwriting for many years. Only one of my songs has ever been performed

in front of an audience.  I am hoping to change that. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A May Finish and Some Starts

Life has been busy, so I never had time to take the photo for the finished Cars Quilt.    Today I finally had time and took that photo to share with you.   

Today the sun was really too bright for a good outdoor shot, so I took this in the shade of my carport.  

The main parts of the quilt are simply done in a meander quilting. However, the blue horizontal sashing and cornerstones are each done in a different pattern.  That was just as a way to break it up for me. The red borders are done with organic lines that somewhat mimic the edges of the quilt.  I also used a red binding as it blends perfectly with the front and back.  I forgot to get a pic of the back -oops!  I promise that it looks great.

Meanwhile,  I played with some Mistyfuse backed fabric and did some wild fabric collage.  Here are two pieces of it. 

The one on the left you will see again, although what I did with it may surprise you. 

The gallery has sold several of my notebooks. I was informed that they would like to have some more while the June exhibit is running. So I have been working as fast as I can on getting those made.  I have four "tops" made, as well as some of the other parts pre-assembled.  The batting needs to be cut and all of them will need to be quilted before assembly.  But, my goal is to get four more "tops" made first  so that I can sit and quilt them all.  Then I can do the assembly all at once.   

With any luck, I will sell most of them in the gallery. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.