Mini BBQ Invite

The weather in Galway has been phenomenal the past few weeks. It is such a rarity that we felt compelled to take two days holiday from work and head to the beach.  After the winter we had, it is nuts to miss out on the few sunny days coming our way.

We packed up the camper and headed to the coast on Saturday morning with Daisy (the moped) in tow.  If you ever see this camper bumbling around Ireland, do pop over and say hello.  I would love to meet you and chat a bit.

Here we are in Kinvara for a quick breakfast.  Yum!

A weekend camping means a weekend sitting in a lawn chair while chatting with friends, so I had to bring hand work to do.  Recently, I have been thinking of inviting our neighbours over for a 4th of July BBQ.  They are so nice to us, so I wanted to do something fun for them.  Dinner outside on our long summer evenings seems like a great way to spend time together.  This is a classy BBQ - no texted invites.  They are getting a bespoke hand made request to join us.  

I packed up my stamps that I bought in Liberty of London last summer and my blue and red ink pads, then set to work Saturday night after dinner.  It's my first time really stamping at length.  I could use some practice.  There's no confusion that this was hand made, is there?!?

Their surname is cropped off on purpose...don't think I'm that miserable with a camera, please?

It is signed from the dog only because I miss calculated how much space it would take to write out the whole invite, so I couldn't fit on the full 4 names in our family.  I thought since our dog and their dog are best friends, it suited.

On the front, I wanted to make an American flag.  I brought a Kona FQ with me to hand embroider white stars, but I was VERY not impressed with how "organic" they were.  

Instead, I thought I would carve a star stamp and use a silver ink pad to make the stars.  Bad decision.  The silver ink was lost on the blue fabric.  I tried embroidering over star prints that were in the shop, tried to forget the star and instead just do french knots on blue Kona, etc but they all looked pretty awful.

And then it finally hit me!  My Blueberry Park charms might work!  I pulled out a Blueberry Park panel and paired it with Riley Blake gingham to make this liberal take on an American flag.  I love it.  Looking at the photo now I wish I aligned the gingham on the top and bottom, but in real life I am 100% pleased with how it turned out.  It's bound in Kona white with the little invite serving as the backing fabric.

So I pinned it to Molly's collar this evening and let her loose in the neighbour's yard.  The girls were absolutely delighted to have a hand made invitation and wanted to know more about how it was made, how to stamp fabric, etc.  I'll make crafters out of them yet!  Needless to say, the whole family will be joining us on the 4th for burgers, home made ice cream and a few pints.  Molly's friend Oscar is coming too.

To Boston With Love

If you are looking for the SMS giveaway day post, please just click here.

Boston was my home for three years, the home of my other half for nearly 15 and the home of my brother for over a decade.  Even though we all come and go depending on our phase of life, it is always one of our homes.  When I heard of the Boston marathon bombings it was like the world went into slow-mo.  I just could not believe my eyes!  

When Sarah of the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland offered each of us a chance to make a flag or two for donation to the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's exhibition I was thrilled!  I wanted to use this chance to try out a few things that are new to me like raw edge appliqué, free motion lettering and a little batik fabric.  Not normally my style, but a small project like this is a great opportunity to test out new things.  

In the end, this is what I made and sent onto Sarah:

The words of inspiration seemed to suit me personally as Boston will always be one of my homes and I have hope that as a community they can heal and rebuild emotionally.

I like the colors of the batiks, but I am still not entirely sold on using them in a larger project.  I think it's their stiffness that doesn't make my heart flutter.  They might suit an exhibit like this, though, as they were asking for bright, happy, bold colors.  That they are.  They will add a bit of vibrancy and happiness I think.

I needed a bit of practice before finding a method of raw edge appliqué that made me happy.  Now this I did really enjoy and could see myself using more in the future.  Once I had that "mastered" (ha!) the free motion lettering was SO much easier than I expected it to be.  That will absolutely make a re-appearance in the future.

All in all it was a successful experiment for me.  Sarah, they are on the way to you right now.  Thank you so very much for organizing our guild!  xx