So this is the bag of ties below….I have used about 20 to make 16 9 1/2″ blocks. It has been a true labor of love- a whole separate topic for a later date. I have truly loved looking at my grandpa’s ties and chuckling over the spaghetti stains. 

I also added some decorator fabrics and bit of green cotton to bring it too life. I didn’t want it to be too drab and serious. So that’s why I am using bright girly colors for embroidery. I am not sure if my father will prefer that so I might save those blocks for my own version. I have a feeling he would like the more masucline look of just the ties. He didn’t even want me to cut them up at first, but I decided to go ahead and do that so I could learn a technique I really wanted to do.

Here’s a little wool pincushion I am almost done with. I would totally do this with my own designs. I liked this patter because it was sooooo easy to make a liner and do that circle shape. I am going to fill it with stuffing, walnut shells, and lavendar. However, I packed some things up a few months ago when I thought I might move and well, they are still boxed up s0mewhere….. so this project is temporarily on hold. I am just pleased that I actually retrieved it from my stash of purchased patterns and finally made something.

Oh, these are the sequins and that tragic story of Emma Bovary I checked out from the library…. oh and a tasty beverage!

I have been wanting a turqoise, pink, and red quilt so I stitched this little cutie all from scraps! It’s just 16 patches…

Oh, and here’s some progress on one of my 2011 resolution quilts. It turned out so cute and just sweet sweet sweet like candy and sugar!  I think I will call it “Sugar Sparkles”

Just had to give an update on my baby Charlie. Isn’t he big and handsome now? He’s a gooood boy.

And I just love this profound photo. Do what you love!

Still sewing. Tons, in fact, since I have a week off for Easter! Woot Woot!

I have been making great use of this free time and getting lots  accomplished. If I could find my dang camera battery charger, I would have all kinds of photos to share….but for now all I can do is say hi. And Happy Easter!

I got the pattern from RevoluzZza http://blog.revoluzzza.com/?p=508 

My mom went to Europe last year with her husband and while she was in France she bought me a box of chocolates. They were delicious and beautiful pieces of art. I saved the green ribbon the box came wrapped in…and used it as a tag on this pretty little bunny. It’s a nod to the chocolate Easter bunny, right?

When I showed my mom what I made, she said, “You always did like bunnies.” Which is true and I had never realized that about myself until she said it. I was a bunny for Halloween one year- a homemade costume, of course! My mom was always sewing awesome stuff for me and my brothers. She made me a Mr. and Mrs. Bunny doll set. Complete with little suit and dress. So cute. I loooooved Roger Rabbit when he came out. I got a bunny once for Easter, which was so cool. I named her Pineapple. Uunfortunately though, she got out and the dog next door got her. An ex boyfriend even nicknamed me Bunny because he said I smiled like a bunny, which I think means I have buck teeth. haha I also had a white rabbit skin that I bought at a camp one summer. It’s kinda morbid, but I loved it. It was so soft! My favorite-est children’s books were Beatrix Potter’s watercolors of Benjamin Rabbit and Peter Cotton Tail. I just wanted to live in that world. Still do, I think. = ) That or the islands where Anne of Green Gables the movie was filmed.

So, yeah I guess I really do like bunnies. Why not!

I did something last night that I have only fantasized about up until then: I switched my master bedroom and sewing room!!! I was sewing in the cramped spare bedroom, and it was really too tight. My masterbedroom is HUGE and practically empty as I don’t have a ton of furniture because I just don’t need it. I like a simple masterbedroom where I can fall asleep quietly!!!! I spend the majority of my time in the sewing room….and I thought What the heck? It’s my house! My life! And viola! I am soooo happy I did it! All this room!

This is where I sit, and that wall I look at is the perfect spot for a design wall.

I SPY snowball scrap quilts- made entirely from scraps

practice using a hexagon template (really efficient) and Y seams! Already I thought of making a long strip and using as a border..... ideas are brewing

I drove up to Modesto to check out their show, and it was a really nice event. I took pictures of things that obviously stood out to me….and now I am seeing a color theme- bright greens & chartreuse w/ darks. I was also keeping my eyes open for hexagons in quilts as that is the next challenge for Material Girls. At first I wasn’t too thrilled with the challenge (isn’t that always the way it goes?) but the more I find out about it, the more I see its versatility. And there is no easy way around sewing a 6 sided block, but I have already made a few practice  stitches & watched a video online. So the challenge has been fruitful so far and if I were to stop now I feel that I have stretched and grown and here it is only January! ; P Just think what I will unearth in the next 10 or so months!

This wallhanging below was so stunning. I was amazed by the Celtic inspired applique (the lines that overlap themselves in the corners). I chose this as my own personal Best in Show for the voting because the piecing is very advanced, the colors are beautiful and unexpected, the fabrics have texture and value, and the applique is perfect. The only thing holding this quilt back is the quilting. Up close I saw that it was minimal and basic, which was disappointing but understandable. She probably wanted to enter it in time or felt that the quilt stood alone enough as is. It’s just so great it would’ve been nice to finish it with some lovely quilting. = )

This little cutie is a sweet technique sampler- and I love that! I love that someone learned new stuff and made some sweet little thing. The yo-yo’s are the size of my fingernail! That amazes me! Very impressive- there are a lot of yo-yo’s on this mini.This is an adorable pictoral applique in wools. At first I thought it was a 12 month type quilt where each block represents that season/holiday. (That is another project I would love to do! *sigh* sew many projects & ideas, sew little time) Anyway, I just love that it tells a story with the applique. The colors are gorgeous, I think they were hand dyes. This quilt also had a darling loopy fringe that was a variegated rainbow and yet a fuzzy textural quality, too. I reminded me of a crocheted pipe cleaner of sorts! Well, it is just cute and yet again another source of inspiration!hexagon variations

I really love this. The colors. The fabric. The subtlety. It’s almost too bad that it is so subtle that you miss the complex beauty of this quilt. But I love it for this same reason. I just love this quilt.

I believe this block below is called Weathervane. I like it a lot and have been wanting to make one for a while. It’s just one block from the Civil War sampler below it. I am not crazy about Civil War fabrics and certainly not with a white background. But I do love the idea of a traditional block sampler, and this one is constructed quite well. Those blocks have a lot of little pieces! I just think  this quilt would be even more phenonmenal with a  black background and bright colors. Or as a monochromatic value & color study. Something that just really shows off each piece of each block. This is a lot of work to not have that WOW factor when the contrast is dramatially defined. However, that is not the purpose of Civil War fabrics and this quilt, in and of itself, is quite gorgeous.

It reminds me of some Underground Railroad sampler quilts I saw elsewhere at the show. Supposedly there is a big controversy over whether people even really used quilts & specific blocks as  guides for esaped slaves, whether there really were hidden messages behind the blocks helping to guide the people to safety & freedom. If it’s not quite true or a little overly-romanticized, is it so bad to still like a beautiful myth, isn’t it one worth believing…???

And this butterfly was just stunning in person. Of course, it’s blurry & sideways here but trust me. It was so gorgeous. The person had used silks and sheers to give the wings a shimmery sheen. The pieced fuschia background and that citrus yellow-green together was just intense & exciting. I also loved the layering, dimensional effect of the long sparse plants in fuschia again. It actually should’ve been my personal Best in Show, but I didn’t realize that until now.

I’m just lucky I even got this last picture as my camera batter was, yep, DYING! Always happens to me at shows! (oh and that last picture came out terrible, too but it was a beautiful stripe with a lot of depth and color. I love it as a mitered border- great use of this textile.

So, I am very glad that I went. It’s always a chance to be inspired, learn, and reflect. No matter what, I always come away with a ton of creative information! And it’s nice to hit the road for a day trip!

I also did a newsletter hop where you sign up and get a free pattern! Easy! A lot of the sites were also doing the Fab Shop Hop so I could’ve done both in one visit but I didn’t what the carousel horse was for (that was their logo).

I have noticed that red and turqoise (or cherry & aqua) are very hot right now. I also  love it with white and pink- so fresh and cute!

Happy Quilting

the spools are missing

1. African Triad (piecing blocks)
2. Turquoise & Pink Wonky Starts (piecing rows)  top completed, needs border  ricrac border/entire top done!

pink & turquoise wonky stars

1. Mary Mashuta Wagon Spokes (piecing blocks)
   

   Wagon Wheel Block, class with Mary Mashuta

2. Freddy.Com (pin/quilt)
3. Witches (Freddy Moran) (piecing more borders? or quilt)
   

   Freddy Moran Garden Girls as Witches

4. Two Christmas Runners (bind one, pin/quilt the other)
5. Washington Shop Hop (only 8 blocks left, including: Sun Bonnet Sue; New York Beauty; appliqued Country Mouse; appliqued Japanese Pagoda; appliqued Fleur de Lis; pieced Butterfly; and Grandmother’s Fan…. to be continued….
   

   WA Shop Hop 2008

6. Star Gazing Scrap Therapy
7. Paper pieced houses in Japanese Daiwabo fabrics (Piecing)
8. Material Girls 2010 Challenge (applique border)
   

   Material Girls 2010 Challenge

9. Thanksgiving (piecing rows)
10. Forest Trees & Cabin BOM (pin, quilt)
11. Valentines Hearts BOM (pin, quilt)
    

    Pine Tree BOM

12. Scrappy Flannel Applique Hearts (pin, quilt)
13. Yellow Brick Road Summer Quilts (no batting, pin/quilt; would like to pay to have this one long-arm quilted)
14. Stacked Coins Scrappy w/ Muslin (piecing rows)
15. Stacked Coins Trains (pin/quilt)
16. Askew Scrappy Blocks w/ Applique Border (pin, quilt) FINISHED JANUARY 15, 2011
17. Trapunto Wallhanging (binding)
    

    Pink Trapunto

18. Sewing Fairy Car Quilt (pin/quilt)
19. Coral/Black w/ Leopard Border (piecing)
20. Redwork Children’s quilt (Piecing)
21. Round Robin (piece more borders)
22. purple strata (pin/quilt)
23. Pink & Green Floral BOM (pin/quilt)
24. “Barnie & Me” Edith Ellen class (fusible appliquing a scene)
25. Embroider Apron (finished April 20th & mailed off to Washington….and of course, no picture! If I could figure out how, I would post one on FB from my phone….. stay tuned- maybe.)
    
26. Beading Flower Doily from Terry Waldron class (on-going)
27. Doggy Face Applique class w/ Nancy Brown (one hand appliqued face, on-going pieces)
28. Batik squares (piecing rows) (top completed: add border or quilt?)
29. Snowball Scraps (piecing blocks) (top completed: add border or quilt?)

Once the family reestablishes its relationships, if they persist diligently, healing results. An illusion is the making of a patchwork quilt. All of these little odd pieces, some of them left over from old garments, most of them cut from scraps, look like chaos. Then the seamstress begins her work, joining this to that, arranging the pieces and putting them in their places. There emerges a pattern of harmony and beauty, but it takes an awful lot of time and work. (73)