Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Stitch me Up - Such Fun

I like to stitch on occasion, not big stitching projects but large enough to keep my hand in the process.  Being able to stitch any project you wanted, big or small was right up my Blog Hop Alley.

I was just a bit behind in my Blog projects when I signed up so I didn't have a plan at the beginning, just faith that something would come to mind.

Faith paid off.  One day while I was bouncing around Blog land I ended up at Lynette Anderson's blog.  She is a very talented designer of stitchery from down under.  I found this great project on her sight with a pointer to a Quilt store that carried it in the states.  This is about where my brain went into overload.

I immediately made the call to a shop in Oregon by the name of Quiltz.  They had the project in 4 patterns. I ordered them all.  Sight unseen.  To be fair to myself they were on sale BUT!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that I had the project in hand I wasn't sure of the goal of the Hop.  To do any stitchery or did I need to use one of the stitchery patterns supplied with the hop.  I compromised I used one of the great stitchery patterns supplied by Cyndi Hoeller from bee tree designs for the Hop and the finished project from the Lynette Andersen  pattern.

Here is the first hint of the finished project.   No it's not a hat.



Here is the second hint...........got it yet?




So what do you think? 





Aren't they great. They are a gift for my friend J in Florida.  I will be giving them to her before this is posted so for a change it will be a complete surprise.  She tends to snoop before my visits to see what she's getting.  She is one of those people who finds her hidden presents, unwraps and rewraps them on the sneak.




This is one of the most fun projects I have ever made.  The stitchery was the time consuming part in relationship to the entire project.  I did each slipper in one evening. Putting the stitchery into the project took under 3 hours.

 Since  I have 4 of these patterns I thought I could giveaway at least 1 maybe 2.  Just leave a word or 2 in your comment that you would like to be included.



It's thank you time.  Let's start with M Samm for coming up with yet another great time. To Cyndi, Debbie and M Samm for their wonderful stitchery patterns and Jane for being our great Cheer Leader.

Please take some time and visit the other wonder stitchers who are posting today.  Wonders abound.

 WEDNESDAY March 20th


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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Nancy Drew Mystery



This turned out to be a Mystery in oh so many ways. First I purchased a considerable amount of fabric sight unseen and then I had no idea in hatties what I would do with it once I opened it up and looked at it.
From the beginning I thought I should make things book related. Don’t know where the idea came from but it wouldn’t go away. I made list after list over a couple of months, and when I compared the lists just before I started to make things and this group of projects appeared on most of the lists.



 I sat down to start and found I had a problem , I ordered a bundle of the Nancy Drew fabric and some of the pieces I didn’t want to cut up and some I just don’t like but maybe you would
                                                             (Giveaway time see below).

Book mark – Just to get my feet warm I started with an old reliable.   Two pieces of fabric between pieces of iron on laminate. The problem is you never throw out the instructions for how to use the laminate. You should see the iron. Not a pretty picture.




Nook Cover - My current form of reading is my Nook. The poor thing spends a lot of time getting shoved into places like my nap sack or my brief case or my large purse and the leather cover I got to protect it is getting a bit worn looking. This seemed like a great time to do something to save it in an oh so appropriate way.



Playaway Holder – Do you listen to books? My library has books on Tape and on CD but my most favorite audio book now comes in a Playaway. It’s on the self in a book size holder but the playaway itself is only 2 x 3 x ½. That's it sitting on the dollar bill.   You slip in a AAA battery and your own ear buds and your on your way.



 The only problem I see with it is that I believe it is digital and the buttons are on the front and are prone to being pressed in error. That causes the book to skip forward and backward or for your eardrums to explode. I tried putting it in my pocket but I apparently wear my Jeans too tight for the buttons. Well this is my solution and I love it.


 The little pouch holds the unit out of my way. I can drive, clean, eat, quilt etc. etc. I added a little clip toward the top of the strap to hold the cord for the ear buds. I can pop them out of my ears and they don’t go very far at all and they don’t get tangled.



 This would be just as perfect for and Ipod or an M3G player. I think this is one of my favorite pieces of the line. The yellow is great because I can see instantly where I lay my toys down.


Book Tote - I originally thought I would make a messenger bag for my weekly trip to the library. The problem I had was that fabrics I really liked I didn’t want to cover up or hide under the flap or chop up with a zipper. One of the pieces in the bundle was a panel of 6 book covers. Since I had no idea what to do with them since I really couldn’t cut them up I changed my messenger bag to a zippered tote. Each side a different cover.




 Zippered because I don’t want my books wet in the rain. Wide mouth because I could cram more into the bag.




 Can you see the little key fob thingy. Well that’s my Library card. No more hunting for that little baby.



 Here is a picture of the inside of the bag that I have turned inside out. No it isn’t reversible. I did the sides of the inside in different colors with the pockets done in the opposite colors.




 As I age the one thing I really need to have on hand are cheaters. I think I have at least one pair in every room of the house. Here is the holder for the pair that will live in my library tote. My cheaters are rather narrow so I generally stitch a line down the case so that I can stick a pen or pencil in there too and then I’m not rummaging through the whole bag.



While this Hop was a very long time in coming, as usual I put the doing off to the last minute and now all I want to do is sit back and have my cup of tea in the cup with the nice little Nancy Drew holder resting on the lovely little Nancy Drew mug rug while reading this very exciting Nancy Drew Mystery.




Oh, regarding the giveaway. I hope to get inspired by all of the other participants as what to make with some of the Nancy Drew fabric I acquired for this hop.  I know I will not use all of it and I would like to give some of it away. If you are interested in winning some please say that in your comment. I won’t include you if you’re not interested. I will be heading on vacation next week so I will draw a name when I return.


Now onto the really important stuff. You need to visit everyone who is participating in this hop. So many talented people you don’t want to miss any of them.

Thanks to M Samm and Carol of  Just Let Me Quilt for being there for us and cheering us on and keeping us on track. Here is a listing of the others who are posting today. Have fun and as always, be inspired.


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Michelle’s Romantic Tangle

Life in the Scrapatch

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Selina Quilts

Meadowbrook

Hilltop House Creative Works

My Sister Made Me Do It

Whims and Fancies

Pieced Brain

Just Let Me Quilt
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

It's all about me, or is it?

When I saw this great pattern from Amy Bradley the first thing I noticed was that there were hair choices that closely resembled mine and my sister's current looks.   That got me to thinking that my life is not just about me.  My sister is my rock. So the idea of the two of us posing for this event  became a given.  By the way, beyond the hair there is absolutely nothing that we have in common with the pattern.


There were a lot of catch phrases out there for sisters but this particular song lyric seemed to capture "US" 
.
Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters

So that's the background. I had a few problems. The largest of these was that I am a polka dot gal and had next to no striped fabric to use to showcase the Bias.  Actually you are looking at most of my options. Now while I like the look of the red and white stripe now that it's over.  It was an absolute bear to hand stitch on at so many levels, not least of which was what it did to my vision.




Try looking at that fabric and stitching lots of letters and your eyes begin to twitch and you can no longer focus on the eye of a needle to thread it.

Ok, so I intended to give this to our mom in the form of a pillow.  She lives in an assisted living complex so I thought a pillow would work better than a wall hanging.



One slight problem,  I didn't measure properly and the words get lost at the very top and very bottom.


What I need is a larger pillow. None were to be found in any of the usual hiding places.  I tried the basement, the trunk of my car and the closet.  I need a 20.  I found pillows in 12, 16 and 18.  I'll get to Joanne's soon but not soon enough for this to be a pillow for this hop.


So  this is what it looks like as an unbound wall hanging.  I like it.  

And here is what we actually  look like in 2 very blurry pictures.  I know that somewhere or another there must be pictures of  the two of us that are not blurry. Probably in the same hidy whole as the pillow.





          In this one I cropped out everyone we knew and was left with this stranger in the background


So in summation, I had a wonderful  time participating in this blog.  As always it pushed on the walls of my comfort zone and I am thankful for that experience.

Thanks to  Madame Samm head cheerleader and  Amy Bradley who designed this wonderful piece. Thanks also to our Hop Cheerleader Marlene who kept us all up to date on the happenings for this hop.

 It's 10 PM the night before this is due to post and I am doing an edit.  I gave up lunch and went to Michael's in search of a pillow.

 TaDa !


                      Please stop by and visit all of the other participants for today and the rest of the hop.


Tuesday, February 26~


Thanks for stopping by, glad you could visit.








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Monday, February 18, 2013

Sew busy Weekend


You know how you have a weekend with nothing on the schedule and then all &*+$ breaks loose? Well OK not that dramatic but I started the 3 day weekend with really nothing on my plate beyond weekend erands and eating. Saturday started out great, did a few errands, went out to breakfast, and did a few more errands. I hooked up with my sister and we went to visit mom for tea.  Wonderful slow paced day and then I got the mail.  


In the mail was an invitation to a baby shower taking place in 3 weeks. Yeah I knew this kid was coming and I knew I was going to make him a quilt but that was back in December and now we're past the halfway point in February.  I don't know how that happened. Since this is family I can't even buy my way out.

 
I'm participating in 2 blog hops between now and then and I have not actually started to sew for them yet. I do have plans on paper but no cutting or sewing started yet. Sew I took a deep, deep breath and we went out to dinner so I could think about this dilemma I got myself into.

Sew on a full stomach I came back and looked at the stash.  I found this great novelty fabric that had  a truck, car, helicopter, boat, plane and train , great little boy fabric. That was the up side the down side was that the block centers would have to be fussy cut.  Sew on Saturday night I did the cutting and put the inner border around the fussy cut squares.  I hope you can see the great fabric. It is white on white letters, super for a kid quilt.

On Sunday around Church, Food shopping and going out to breakfast (yes we eat out a lot on the weekend) I managed to get the entire top put together with the exception of the red outer border. I did make dinner and did fit in a nap. I finished up at about 9:30.  Just didn't have enough umph to cut the borders.  I can sew when I'm tired but cutting is too expensive to try with a fuzzy brain.


This morning I got up and before brushing my teeth I attached the border.  Top complete. Ta Da.
Sorry about the shadow in the pictures.  It was 20 degrees out and I just didn't have what it took to play in the cold.



I love the way it turned out.  Brights makes such a great baby quilt.  I quess one night this week  I will spend pinning it and next weekend quilting it and I'll have a week to spare for sewing down the binding just in case.


I hope to get shadow free pictures when it's actually complete.

Gotta run, I have lunch date to get ready for. yeah, more eating and I wonder why I can't loose weight.
















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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Hugs and Kisses



Welcome to my stop on the Hugs and Kisses Blog Hop. Thanks go to M.Samm for her unusually creative mind and Jane of Jane's Fabrics and Quilts http://janesfabrics.blogspot.ca/ for taking on Cheerleader duties.

          


For me this hop turned into a 3 for the cost of admittance.  1st I got to participate in this Valentine related hop, then I got to do the hot block this month in the blog world, the scrappy trip around the world and last but not least I forced myself to work on my machine quilting skills.

Let me begin with the fact that I love how my quilt turned out warts and all.  I had never done this block before.  I understood the need for the contrast on the diagonal but never read far enough into any of the various instructions to see how that was done. Some trial and error and ripping and I was able to figure it out.  My biggest problem was the contrast.  I wanted a valentine look and not all of my lights had enough contrast for the quilt.  I could see it in the block but lost it in  the quilt. I put those blocks in the middle cause I was done ripping.



Last fall I followed a month of postings at http://blog.petitdesignco.com/  called 31 days of walking foot quilting    it  really gave me some great things to think about.  This was the first thing I made since then that I thought would work for me as a trial.  After all this was for me.  I didn’t care if it wasn't a work of art. OK I’ll admit it, I hate to practice.  

The few problems I had with this quilts quilting were of my own making.  The biggest issue was that this quilt was too big for a starter/learning project. It measures in at about 52 inches square. 

 I chose to do a 4 inch heart in the center of the quilt and then to do 2 inch echoes.  Not a problem with the bottom half of the piece which is pretty much straight lines but I did have some issues at the top.  Swinging all of that bulk around and around I somehow lost the heart shape in places and got several good size wrinkles.  Apparently what I thought was lots of pinning wasn’t enough.   This was THE practice piece and I learned lots from it and I love it.
       
                              
                                        Love the back too.

So I live in NJ which was in the bottom of the northeast blizzard area.  The company let those of us who were driving into the snow leave early on Friday.  By the time I got home things were just starting to heat up.  Spent a lovely evening working of these projects.  I was in a fortunate part of the state we had somewhere in the range of 6 – 10 inches of the stuff and no power issues.  Things were back to normal by noon on Saturday.   The very best part of the snow was that I had a red quilt to take pictures of on it. What a terrific backdrop for this quilt.
      


Next up, I saw this great tutorial  http://www.sewhappy.me/quilt-blogs/bunny-bags-idea/  and I had to make it for my favorite 3 year old for Valentine’s day.  I know it was posted as an Easter Bag but to me it was a Valentines bag with a bunny on it.  To my very  logical mind, If it were an Easter bag there would have been Eggs not Hearts.  
  




On this piece I actually tried FMQ successfully, this is something else I won’t put the time into practicing.  The parts I quilted on this piece were only about 7 inches square.  I always loved these hearts in a quilt pattern and what better place to try them out.  Success.




Last but not least are a couple of shots of my first heart quilt.  It was from a beginners applique class for beginner quilters I took  at least 20 years ago.



Didn't understand the whole squaring up concept at the time.


Still  love it and hang it every year.

Now please go and visit any of today's hoppers that you may not have gotten to yet. Actually go and visit any of the hoppers you may have missed on Monday or Tuesday too.  Lots of great Hugs and Kisses to drool over.



Wednesday February 13th

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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Vacation fun

I have been on vacation for the past week and a half and it was terrific. Before we left on our trip to Florida I was working on my D9P which I had told myself I wouldn't touch before I left. HA !

This is how far I got before leaving


Came home and did a little bit more


Now onto the highlight of my vacation.  It started here

 http://stitchinbythelake.blogspot.com/2013/01/lets-go-visiting.html
Marlene had this wonderful idea that we could meet other bloggers by visiting their blogs and making friends. Anyone interested could participate and she would coordinate.

The very first blog that was highlighted was 
http://flourishingpalms.blogspot.com/

I went to visit Linda and while perusing her blog I noticed that in one of her pictures of her new home that her living room looked just like the living room of the home we will be retiring to in The Villages, FL.

I read more and found that she lives in the Villages.  I got in touch with Linda via Email and find that she lives just blocks from where we will be living.  The blog world is simply amazing. 

Moving on, Linda is in the process of getting the Central Florida MQG established.  She mentioned this in one of our email exchanges and told me when the next meeting would be and invited me if I was around. Well it coincided with our trip. I went to the meeting and met Linda live and in person, so cool, such fun.  Thank you so much Marlene.
I also signed up to be part of this group.  The fun part is that you don't have to be there to participate.

For their next meeting they will be working on the current block trending in blog world, The scrappy trip around the world. Coincidentally that is the block I am working on in conjuction with the D9P, surprise, surprise a quilter working on multiple projects. 


These are the 2 I finished the night before we headed to FL.



And this is what I've been up to since I've been home.


It's the makings for an additional 7 blocks plus the reds and pinks from my stash for additional blocks.

In summation, my vacation was absolutely wonderful on every level. 


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