Jacket Progress

 Progress not much it would seem but actually I have been gathering fabric... I found some in the barn, some on  recent thrifting trips, and Cathy Kizarian (bless her) sent me a whole package of jewel tone fancies..  I just recently found the blue and the orange stripes at a thrift store...  I LOVE stripes and hope to find a few more as I go along.   I am a short on greens and especially orange...not an easy fancy color to find.

I mentioned in the previous post that I preferred paper piecing but thought I was going to have to do it patch by patch to get the look I wanted...  But Marilyn Nepper suggested I paper piece large chunks of it and fill in between.   I think that's a great idea.  I've sketched four (about 9") areas and will clean them up a bit.  I avoided 90 degree angles because I did not want the jacket to look like it was assembled blocks.













I looks like it will be at the very least a week or two before I am actually going to be able to start cutting... But that doesn't preclude me from thinking about it while driving or in the garden....  I mentioned the Waverly House book I wanted to use as a reference and I also thought of another one I've had for several years and have never used... It is this stumpwork book Embroidered Floral & Fauna which I love but never have really delved into.... now's the time. 

First I was just going to have flowers and birds but decided to add bugs, bunnies, frogs etc..  all the things I love. 

And it has been a very good bird week.  My precious wrens are back and singing to me daily, the hummingbirds are back, and the white crowned sparrows are here for a short time on their sojourn north.  I also saw a killdeer and a meadowlark in the pasture.  They never come up close to the house.   Last year we had this bizarre invasion of ravens in the field next to us....hundreds of them and they stayed just long enough to drive off all my magpies..  In 35 years we've never had anything like it and they are back again this year.  The field is planted  with just grass hay...nothing exciting or unusual.

I do have information on my sewing kit and will gather photos and put together a post on it...