Scallop Border

you fold the cut side over to the uncut side, pin to secure & align, and cut the other side using the scallops as a template

So I worked on this today at Thimble Town.  Dyanne helped me measure and trace the scallops with a plate. They sell this fancy scallop ruler marker thingy but it costs $25!! The plate was free. Oddly enough I chose the plate.

 

going to add a green binding now!

I have been working on this project for a few years now. It was machine quilted by Linda Matthews right after Christmas, which kinda bummed me out because, well, the whole season for such a quilt was all over! = ( So, it has been bagged up and looming over my head because I knew it just had to have a scalloped border but I had no idea how to go about doing it on such a large scale. So, today it all came together. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you are mentally ready and have the time. Each time I got one step done, which was a huge achievement in and of itself, I found myself thinking, What the hell? Might as well move on to the next step since Dyanne can help me. So we traced the scallops. Well, she did. I watched. Then I cut them out. Then I cut bias strips for binding. Sewed those together, all 400 inches! Then I ironed that loooong strip in half, and then (drum roll) sewed that binding on over everly little bump and crevice, up and down, up and down…and then, suddenly I was ALL DONE. It’s done, yo. Well, I still gotta hand sew the binding to the backside & add a label but that is something I can do laying in bed, covered in my bee-U-tee-ful Christmas quilt! la la laaaa

Remember the Veterans and those who serve currently!

 

*sigh*

the leaves are finally yellow, orange, and red

I got to sleep late and stay in bed

no work today

I get to quilt, aka play

thank you service men and women

this is a day for fine livin’

Selling this on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34175202

I am asking $150 and I accept payments thru PayPal.

November Artist Trading Cards

This month’s theme is “cornucopia” so here it is:

 

Cornucopia!

 

I cut out little vegetable shapes from scrap fabric that I had used for another project. They already had fusible web on the back, so then I stamped the background with ink pads and then doodled with a sharpie to add more texture to the background. I used black felt for the middle layer and then zigzaged around the edges with black or orange thread.

My First Class was a Success!!

Eilene

Janet

Pat

Donita

Vicki & Gail

Joyce

Patsy

Cadee

Joann

Thank you ladies for making class fun and good job! Everyone’s wallhangings are unique and cute. I hope they get finished for Christmas so you can enjoy them hung up on a wall somewhere. = )

Sold a Quilt on Etsy!!!!

woohoo!!! I am sooo excited about this and can’t believe it! This is so great! I sold my 9 silk kimonos paper pieced wallhanging. This beautiful quilt got Honorable Mention at the Best of the Valley quilt show and will be shipped to New York this week. I know it is going to a good home and will be hung up and enjoyed! Yeah ME!!!  = P

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5201465

I am going to put more stuff up soon… now I really motivated!

Loose Thread’s Lesson Five in “Fearless Design”

Mine

Deo's. I like that she did them all in one grid pattern.

Grace's

Barbara's cute blocks look like trains.

Anna's bubbles.

Sara's amazing table runner. The leaves change from monochromatic on through all the different color combinations we studied on the colorwheel. You should see the quilting on this!

Tonight we discussed the color wheel and how to combine colors. Of course, it’s not necessary to know the technical terms like triadic or double-split complementary color schemes, but it’s helpful to understand how colors relate to eachother in theory. But color is also intuitive and emotional and very personal. So, we just had fun talking about our blocks and what combinations we were striving for. I made labels for each of the different combinations- I guess I was in a teacher mood! I am also happy that Barbara gave me her “train” blocks. She was not going for a train look at all- in fact, she got the idea from a scrapbooking technique… She was not planning on doing anything with them, so I said they would make an adorable kid’s quilt for charity…. or even better yet, a train quilt for my friend’s little boy Grant. So she handed them on over to me, and I can’t wait to see what I end making with them.

Another “Fearless Design” Lesson

My group Loose Threads meets tomorrow for our lesson on chapter five. We were to design our own composition and then make it several times in a variety of color combinations according to the color wheel. I don’t have pictures yet for that lesson because I haven’t completed all of my examples. I still have three more to make and we meet tomorrow night! Yikes- I hope I get it done in time!

the block is called Indian Puzzle

But here is a picture of my work from the previous chapter, also focusing on color but this time in regards to value. We made an achromatic block, then we made it using color while keeping the values from the achromatic example. Then we had to do it again, in new colors but same values. Next we did another in new colors, but now with different value placement. And the last example was a study in unbalanced value.

Today I went to the Springville Apple Festival with my mom to help sell raffle tickets for Orange Blossom Quilt Guild’s Opportunity Quilt. It was a lot of fun. My mom and I split a hamburger, fries, raspberry ice tea, and a slice of apple pie. Of course, my mom’s pie is  way better! Then we walked around and looked at all the booths. She bought me a very pretty necklace. She got one for herself, too. We also bought ourselves a basket from this one African woman, all hand made by her self. They were beautiful and a lot of people we walking around with them. I have seen her at Best of the Valley, but I didn’t get one then. I decided today was the day though to get one. My friend Karen uses one all the time for her quilting stuff and she loves it. I can’t wait to start using mine! My mom and I also got roasted corn on the cob, but by the time we walked back to the shuttle we were exhausted and hot! It’s so muggy! I want cool Fall weather NOW!!!!

When I got home I crashed out. When I woke up, my dad was at my house organizing the garage. He took me out for pizza at my favorite place, Me ’n Ed’s. Then we poked around in Big Lots. It was a nice day and I am glad I got to spend it with my parents.

Great News!

Quilter’s Paradise called me today and asked if I’d like to teach a second class for my “Merry Christmas” machine applique wallhanging! They said that there is a waitlist of 10!!! Wow!!! That was great news, and of course I said yes!!! The second class is Friday, November 20th from 5:30 to 9:30 at Quilter’s Paradise in Clovis, CA.

machine qpplique

This is the supply list:

http://www.classschedule.net/cgi-server/schedules/classdisplay.cgi?account=qparadiseca&supplylist=5088

Adorable Baby

He's using a pile of my fabrics as his pillow. So sweet!

 I work up this afternoon at 1:30!!!! Ay yi yi

The reason is because I was sewing with my Cutthroat Quilters group from 6 pm to 2 am! I got home around 1:30, took my cough medicine, and crashed OUT!!! I have had this nagging cough for over a week and finally went to the walk-in clinic yesterday. They x-rayed my lungs, which are fine. However, I do have bronchitis so he gave me a prescription cough syrup with codene in it. So now this morning my brain feels foggy and I in a slump. And this is not good because I have a game tonight! I can hardly breath but I have to skate hard tonight against Fresno! I am almost tempted to call in sick but I really don’t wanna do that! It’s our last game of the season and I didn’t get to skate in the previous two games becuase of a knee injury. Arrrghh!!!!!  I will have to figure out what to do.

Aaahhh….cooking & baking.

Hello! I just have to share that I am finishing the most delicious dinner I have made in a long , long time. I made meatloaf and roasted red potatoes. Ymmm… and I made thee most amazingly yummy cake called “Chocolate Fudge Pudding & Kaluha Cake.” O. Ma. Gaw. It’s loaded with cake mix, pudding mix, 4 eggs, 2 C. sour cream…..a lil milk & oil….chocolate chips…. over the top good.

 

so good I want to cry

Oh, and a 1/2 C. of kaluha!

I got the recipe at www.RecipeLand.com

 

So, yeah…good night.

Now I have Six!

this witch is cranky

happy witch

moon dress

moon background & cobweb dress

New Witches

 

Now I have four… not sure if I want to stop here or shoot for 9. Want to sprinkle in a few rows of wonky star blocks, maybe some wonky churn dashes…. Definitely need to add more purple & green! And a cute sawtooth border! ooooo it’ll be so cute when it’s done!

 

Still Not Much To Say…

except I am waiting for the cookie dough to chill…and I keep nibbling on it! Snickerdoodles. Mmmm….I was craving something sweet so I thought “A-ha! I am going to bake cookies!” I haven’t baked something in a while. I also made myself dinner last night and tonight, which I never do! I made cold curry chicken rice salad, bulgur salad with cucumber, tomato, feta, and basil, aaaand tonight I cooked a salmon that I marinated in terriyaki sauce & garlic. I guess since I went to the grocery store  and actually have food in my cupboard it makes me want to cook. But it’s also dangerous. I could eat every single little cookie I bake. Tonight.

Haven’t made anymore progress on my witches…have one all cut out and waiting to be sewn together. Maybe I will work on that tonight????? I have an hour to kill before I can bake my Snickerdoodles….yumyumyummyummm

Not much to say….

I just really liked this painting. Unfortunately I do not know the painter's name or the title of the piece!

Halloween Witches

What a spooky dress.

mean witch face

I made a few of these little witches last night. They are from a Freddy Moran pattern, but I got the idea to turn Freddy’s Garden Girls into witches from Deo. She is so clever! The embroidered face is my touch. I really like her spooky dress…. very creepy.

 

witch

black cat dress

Today I took a machine applique class where I practice a sampler of techniques. I did invisible applique with nylon thread, blanket stitch in contrasting color, raw edge with fusible web, and I practiced putting a light interfacing in one piece to add dimension, plus making stems. I was also shown how to make perfect circles using washers and making stems using metal bias bars. This was a very helpful class because I tried a few weeks ago to do some different applique techniques from Sue Nichol’s book, and I had a horrible time. Kathy’s method with freezer paper was waaaaay easier. It will help me a lot with my Loose Thread’s challenge.

flower sampler

invisible on green, variegated on petals

yellow is raw edgethe veins shouldn't be so similar, but hey

So I am in charge of Artist Trading Cards this year. (Plus I am “Historian” or scrapbooker.) I am continuing on with Barbara’s good idea of coming up with a theme or focus for each month’s set of cards. September’s is music. Any take on the theme goes- song, musician, instrument, etc. October’s is of course Halloween- don’t fix it if it aint broke, right? Can’t get much funner than that! November’s theme is fruits & vegetables- this is a more broad version of the traditional cornucopia. December’s is winter night, I believe.  I see snow, black sky, star, cabin, wreath on barn door, one light shining from a cabin or cottage. hmmmm  

music atc

i like the pressed flower looking stickers.

Today was my mom’s birthday so I went by in the evening to giver her her card & gift (a lavendar plant…. that plant always reminds me of her)…but she wasn’t home! I hung out for an hour….drank a beer, checked out her quilting books & magazines, tried to get the satellite cable to work but couldn’t… petted Willie…… then left. I wonder where she could have been so late at night! Usually she is asleep early. Well, anyway…..before that I took Barnabas to the Bark Park at Plaza Park (ha!) and walked around the baseball diamonds and ditch. The ducks did not like Barnie, but he found them quite interesting.

asleep in his spot in the sun. Cuuuuuuute!!!!!!

No word on job…. didn’t get it. = (

The Valero gas station is hiring.

Selling my Stuff on Etsy now….

This will be a new adventure, kind of. It’s something I have been wanting to try out for a while now and I have finally got the ball rolling…though it’s a little overwhelming because there is so much to learn about selling and promoting your stuff online. I have three items listed on etsy which you can find by searching under sellers “missadenaej” or cut and paste this link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5201465

I have a lot of nice friends…

And I have been spending a lot of time quilting with them at Thimble Towne. Even though I have been bummed out about not having a job and other stuff, it’s been really nice to be surrounded by supportive friends. I had my fifth interview today and I still get very nervous!!! And they were all very encouraging, which is nice. Still haven’t heard about the job- won’t until Friday evening or Saturday morning.

sums it up

So, yeah, I have been sewing a lot. And I think I have enough cut up scraps to make a Scrap Therapy quilt. There’s this one pattern that everyone is making and it is turning out so cute each time. I have a bajillion works in progress (WIPs) and I am getting a little bit done, bit by little tiny 2″ square bit.

And because I have no pictures from today, I will post old ones.

Honorable Mention!

A Very Scrappy Baby Quilt

too cute!

The flying geese were leftover from a mystery quilt… and the rest of the blocks were made just for the heck of it- well actually I was making this other quilt and was getting tired of fussy cutting the stars, so I started making these ugly four-patches and then I decided I would add the applique hearts… but I am glad to say they never made it into the original quilt. I am still working on that one. But these were just laying around so I said “Hey! This would make a cute & fast baby quilt top!” Now as to when I will get around to quilting it- who knows. But I have been on this kick this past week of using old stuff, so here it is. I also had this pretty lavendar fabric laying around so I decided to use it as the border. I still have plenty left over for the back, too.

Finished a Quilt!

da back

This was a class with Diana McClun & Laura Nownes called “Monet’s Garden” I think. “From Me to You” patterns.

a flower block up close

the entire quilt

quilting up close

me and my quilt