We always have a group of gulls resting in the hayfield behind our house right before a storm. Someone told me they come inland to ride out bad weather. I took a shot of them this morning, and later used the a solarizing filter to make it look like this. I am thinking it would do well printed on cloth and made into some sort of something. Hopefully, a good idea will come later. I can see that the gulls would look wonderful hand quilted. The original shot is next to this one on my Flickr page. Just click on the photo to get there.

The storm arrived around noon, and we have about an inch now. Thank goodness, this is not going to be a major deal. It is supposed to stay all snow. not the snow/sleet/freezing rain combos we have had the last two storms.

But that is a good thing! My next project will be a basket pattern using a collection of “blues” for the baskets. I took this shot today to use on a birthday card for my sister. A photo enhanced with the watercolor filter in the Corel program, then printed on matte paper makes a really neat looking card.
By the way, I made those baskets several years ago. The small one is the shape of heart.

I just finished this 12 inch paper pieced block from Peggy Martin’s book Quick Strip Paper Piecing. It has a lot of pieces, 84 in all, but isn’t that hard to do. Since this is going to be a pillow for my daughter, I have added a 3 inch border. This is my second project out of this book, and I find it very easy to use.

I took this shot in the fall when we were on the way to New Hampshire. The building shape put me in mind of the schoolhouse quilt pattern. Today, I decided to use my Corel program to see if I could make anything that looked like a quilt with the barn. First, I put the photo through the watercolor filter to make it softer, than duplicated it enough times to make a quilt. Behind the blocks, I tried several colors before I found the look I wanted.

Then, I used the GIMP program to clothify the photo, and to add a shadow. The whole thing took less than half and hour, and was fun to do. This would be a great way to test out a new pattern with different color combinations.

I finally finished this paper pieced quilt top. Because it took so much longer than I expected, I won’t be doing the hand quilting on this one until the fall. There is one more pattern I want to put together before gardening season starts, so I have begun working on that. You will see more of this quilt in a few months.