It’s almost Christmas and while visiting family in Mobile AL last week, I toured Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights.  This has been on my to do list each year so I decided this was the year! I grew up in Mobile, but never visited the gardens except when I was too small to remember.  You know how it is, when you travel, you take in everything you can, but ignore the things close by.  Seeing the Christmas lights was so special and spectacular and may become a new tradition each year! I felt like the kid in the candy store with all the beautiful colors and sparkling lights. It was much, much more than I expected.

These are a few of my many photos and they do not do justice to the lights at all. Another beautiful scene was around every turn.

One of my favorites was walking “under the sea” with all the sea creatures – seahorses, crabs, fish, turtles, seaweed and much more.

The alligators in the lake were really great as were the giant lily pads and water lilies close by.

Trees surrounded a large park area and had large snowflakes hanging over them. This is just a small section. It was so beautiful, I had to stop a few minutes and just take it in.

Our tour began with a large circular butterfly garden filled with giant butterflies.

Gardens of  giant flowers were all over!

I know the kids loved this train. I did and loved the reflection in the lake. The wheels turned and the puffs of smoke moved.

There were manger scenes, both of lights and regular, but my photos were blurry due to rushing as so many people were taking pictures of them.

After we finished our walk, (almost 2 miles according to my Fitbit), we went into the gift shop. We talked with an employee who told us that 6 women work on setting up all the lights, including using a cherry picker to put lights in the huge trees. They start on September 1, and finish the day before Thanksgiving. Each year, some of the displays are replaced so it’s not the same each year. All the displays are made at Bellingrath Gardens.

If you are anywhere near Mobile from Thanksgiving until the beginning of the year, you should stop by and see the spectacular lights. You won’t be disappointed! In fact, you will be fascinated.

Merry Christmas!

Phyllis

I’m asking a favor, which I hate to do, but here I am doing it!  I entered the Spoonflower Design Challenge for the Bohemian theme using one of my new fabrics that I posted in my new Spoonflower shop, PhyllisDobbs. This is my first time to enter a challenge.  The shop is a work in progress as I’m continuing to add new fabrics as well as cut and sew projects.  Anyway, I would love and appreciate any votes for this challenge. You can vote at the top Spoonflower link.  My entry is below.

Along these lines, I want to show a couple of other things from my shop – cut and sew aprons using this fabric in 2 color selections, Turquoise and Gray.  These aprons are printed and ready to cut out and it’s all on a yard of fabric.  They are easy to make and have full instructions. They make great gifts, put style in the kitchen and are also great for a beginner at sewing.

I hope you have a nice weekend filled with sewing or quilting.  And if you vote for my design, I really appreciate it!

Phyllis

With the heat and high humidity this summer, I have been staying inside and working on new fabric patterns as well as quilt patterns. This is the best way to stay cool, in my opinion and much more fun!

I love cats and want to show you my latest quilt pattern, Kitty Cat Gallery. The quilt is 51 1/2″ wide x 59 1/2″ high and is made with 16 blocks of appliqué cats. This multicolor quilt can utilize your scraps or precut fabrics. This pattern is available in Etsy shop. This quilt is also available in a smaller size, 36″ x 42″ as a whole cloth quilt top in my new Spoonflower shop. (Dog lovers, I have a wholecloth quilt top coming soon with delightful dogs!)

I am excited to have opened a Spoonflower shop, PhyllisDobbs, with these fabrics, with more to come in a few days. Creating fun and colorful fabrics is at the top of my list of favorite things to do!

In my Spoonflower shop, I am also creating cut and sew aprons as well as wholecloth quilt tops. Both the aprons and quilt tops are easy to make and are great for a beginning quilter or sewer. They also make quick and fun gifts. I am sewing on my first aprons and quilt top to finish this weekend and will post them.

It’s all about making fun things while staying cool! How are you staying cool? What are you creating?

Happy Sewing or Quilting!

Phyllis

How time flies!  It’s hard to believe that its been a month since I attended Quiltcon in Savannah, the annual conference for the Modern Quilt Guild. It’s an amazing event – a beautiful quilt exhibit, vendors with irresistible merchandise, and fabulous classes. There is a lecture series that lasts all day each day with really talented speakers. In addition to all of this, there are demonstrations going on with other speakers. There is not a minute to spare while at Quiltcon but it’s so much fun. This is the 2nd year that I attended with my talented friend, Robin Pickens. We both walked around like school kids with our eyes taking in every bit of color and knowledge we could soak up.

Between lectures, we visited the vendors and shopped. I bought some of the most gorgeous fabrics while there.  I love fabric and couldn’t resist.  Here is a sampling of my fabric purchases.

In addition, I bought these heavier weight gorgeous fabrics for embroidery. The hoop is a new design that has a spring going around the edge to hold the fabric in place so that the small screw isn’t needed. The hoop came from French General.

Here are a sampling of the many fabulous quilts that were on display from the challenges.  The one below, Lead the Way,  is by Juli Smith of San Diego and was entered in the category of Use of Negative Space. The technique used was machine piecing. Juli loves geometry and wanted to explore things on the diagonal.

This quilt, Bling, by Katherine Jones of Chigwell, Tasmania, Australia, was amazing and won Best in Show. The technique used was paper piercing. The design was inspired by a princess cut diamond.

Lincoln by Kim Soper of Huntington NY, won first place for Improvisation quilting. At the end of the show, it had been voted People’s Choice Award. The quilt was developed out of a desire to create an entirely improv-pieced, recognizable image without use of template, paper-piecing or appliqué.

Not Easy Being Green, by Mary Keasler of Chattanooga, TN, won Best Machine Quilting, Frameless. Mary began the quilt by making small 4 patch blocks with left over hand dyed fabrics then decided to add strips in a log cabin effect.  Then she added white for negative space for a really stunning design.

Diamond in the Rough, by Christa Watson of Las Vegas, loves creating quilts in black and white with a pop of color. Her quilting with matching threads emphasizes the geometric design of the quilt.

Shibori, by Amy Friend of West Newbury, MA, was designed using a technique that she calls improvisational paper piecing. The design was inspired by he veins of a leaf, sketched improvisational. She created a paper pieced template and used the original block and its mirror image to create the layout. To me, this quilt looks very Art Nouveau.

These were just a small sampling of all the wonderful quilts exhibited. Modern quilting allows for so many variations in quilting to make each one different and unique. And one of the main themes of modern quilting is that there are no rules.

And, for one more of my purchases at Quiltcon, I bought a Juki sewing machine, a workhorse for quilting and sewing. I like it because it does free motion quilting so well and is so simple and easy to use. My friend Robin and I both bought one and I am so happy to add it to my studio!

Next year, Quiltcon will move back to the west coast to Pasadena and I can’t wait to attend again.

Happy Quilting! Do it your way!

Phyllis