Photo Enhancement

A few weeks ago I won a blog drawing for a Quilting Arts DVD from Diane Rusin Doran. I wrote about it here. I have been playing with photos and learning how to manipulate the photos and prepare them for printing on fabric. I have been working on single photos at this time but I hope to spend some time soon layering several photos together to form a single image. Above is the unaltered photo, and below is the enhanced photo which I will use in my first project.
I love the intensity of the altered photo and the images will reproduce so much better on the fabric it will be printed on. Unfortunately I have not been able to work on this very much. Life seems to keep getting in the way...

I spent the last week on the couch trying to survive a terrible cold. I have not had one like this in years... fortunately! I kept trying to work on photos and applique but it just was not going to happen. Instead I napped and napped some more. I am feeling so much better now!!!

Now I am preparing for my family. Our children will be home for Thanksgiving along with my Mom and Dad and Brother and his wife. I am very excited about all of them being here at the same time. I am looking forward to some quality time with all of them. Unfortunately my Sister and her family will not be joining us and we will miss them!

I hope all of you are going to have an incredible week, and for those of you here in the US, I hope you are going to be able to enjoy some time with family and friends.

Something starting with S

Here is my addition to my pet robin. The rule was "something starting with S" Being me I decided it could not be something simple like a stripe or star or other things as obvious. I did my version of sawtooth... I like it and I like the addition of the yellow. Next I need to come up with "Braid" and I will be all caught up.

I have also decided I want to add more of the purple which you see on the right half running from the top to the bottom. I want to incorporate more of this color. My problem is I don't have much more of it left. I am going to send off samples today to a couple of my favorite quilt stores to see if they have it... Wish me luck.

One rule at a time

Our Quilt Guild had a challenge last February, every month we would each put a "rule" in a bag and one was drawn. We have been doing this for 9 months. This is my progress so far. I am not really liking it but I am going to keep going. The rules have been as follows:
Square in a Square
Checkered
Triangle in a Square
Applique
Circles or Dots
Stripes
Braid
Flying Geese
Something starting with "S"

I have the last few rules to complete. I am using Shot Cottons, these fabrics have been very enjoyable to work with . I went into this with no real plan other than wanting to use Shot Cottons. If I were to do this again I would really concentrate on my fabrics colors. I think I got carried away here....

I am hoping to get the top finished this weekend...

Pumpkin Carving Party

Mark and I were invited to a Pumpkin Carving Party. It was an incredible afternoon and evening with friends being creative, making a mess and watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean! We had such fun.
Mark was not sure he wanted to do this and even he had fun carving his spider. The hostess provided patterns for us to use. I had never used a pattern for carving a pumpkin but it proved to be very fun. You tape the pattern on the pumpkin and follow the pattern by poking holes along the lines. After marking your pumpkins we removed the patterns and began carving by following the dots... I enjoyed the process. Next year I think it would be fun to draw our own.

These are my friendly ghosts... I hope all of you are having a wonderful week.