Creativity is Happening

My Design Wall continues to grow at a slow pace but grow it does.  These are still now sewn together: they are sewn in sets of two only.  I decided to not sew the full blocks together until I have as many as I need and I have them moved around as much as needed to be balanced. 













I still have these to sew together and I will be cutting more black on white and, as I start refolding my stash to put it in it’s new shelves, I may cut more of the brighter fabrics as I think I am going to need more of these blocks.




























I have decided that I am going to pair the above blocks with this chenille.  I bought this bedspread several months ago to use in a quilt but right now I am thinking “jacket.”  That means that I have to make at least three to four yards of “fabric” for jacket pieces.  I may be at this for quite some time. 
























I am also working on an embroidery project.  This is my test piece but the real one (1 of 10) will be red work. 

I am also hoping to do a couple of new embroidered t-shirts.  I sometimes forget how much I enjoy embroidery but right now I am kind of wanting something new to wear. 























  This afternoon we had RAIN.  I posted on Facebook that it looked like we were living in a rain forest.  And right now we are waiting for a really big storm to come through.  It should get here later tonight, after we go to bed, so I am hoping that I will sleep right through it. 

Of course I am still knitting but I will report on my progress (and there has been some) on Friday. 

Have a great week and be sure to drop in on Judy to see all the beautiful work others have been doing.   
Gari

Many Projects/So Little Time

Tomorrow is DH’s 73rd birthday.  Sometimes it is hard to believe that we have been together as long as we have and it is only by looking back at all we have done and been through that we can see the very large number of years we have both lived through and been together.






My big project this week, however, has been this quilt which is DH’s birthday gift.   And I can’t say that all has gone well. 












   
    The first problem was that I couldn’t figure out how to draw the layout I wanted in EQ.  I want to use two or maybe three different sashing sizes and EQ didn’t seem to allow for that.  So I decided to revert to graph paper, which I used to do all the time, and really enjoyed working that way again.  BUT, after I was cutting my pieces to match my drawing I realized that I added a row to my center panel which isn’t in my real plan.  So back to the drawing board I am going to figure out how to make all my pieces fit.






    These are my 9 pieces before I started cutting to size.  They are embroideries from Artistic Thread Works and I am thrilled with how they came out.  Now I just need to figure out how to make them fit. 













Ever since I started knitting again, July 2013, I have found it the most relaxing way to avoid doing either what I should be doing (housework) or am frustrated doing (quilting).  However lately I have grown tired of just knitting socks and am still afraid of starting a sweater so I took up knitting dishcloths.  This is the second one I have done and I really like them: they are soft and easy to work with.  And they have kept my hands busy. 



   
   

   



    And last, but certainly not least, one of my mug rugs has found it’s new home.  This is my DIL(youngest son) with her birthday gift.  She tells me this is how she looks before she has had her morning coffee and that my son is “very afraid” of that look.  The funny thing is that my son does not drink coffee (can’t believe he is my son) but has always gotten up in the morning and made coffee for his wife.  I guess I taught him well: happy wife, happy life. 



   

Our oldest son and his wife will be here tonight so there will be no sewing until possibly Sunday afternoon.  Guess DH will be getting quilt pieces for his birthday tomorrow. 

Early in October

What I love about the first of this month is that my UFO for Sept, the quilt that hung around on the frame since June, is finished.


I got the binding on today and finally got a picture of the finish.













I haven’t washed it yet but that will get done tomorrow.


















This was how the studio looked most of the day, two machines running with a lot getting done.












I embroidered this shirt.  Unfortunately it has been a while since I did any embroidery so I forgot all the steps to stabilize this shirt so there are a couple of puckers.











So I did a second one.  This was the first time I was happy to have to go to Walmart: this shirt was on sale for $3.  Tomorrow I plan to do an “over shirt” to go with this one. 
















Oh, and I also made this label for a charity quilt that needs to get sent off this week.  I hope to get it sewn on tomorrow.











All of the backing fabric is ready to be sewn together so one of the Christmas quilts should be on the frame either tomorrow or Sunday (I will be gone Friday and Saturday).










And I have the patterns ready for both the Funky Chicken #10 and Teapot #3.








Whacking all these items off my “to do” projects list has made me feel so good I am allowing me to go to a two day embroidery workshop (Friday and Saturday).  The guest speaker/demonstrator is Mary Alice Smith.  She used to teach a lot of machine embroidery and software classes but I haven’t seen her for a few years.  I am really excited to find out what new she has to teach us and/or what new projects she has up her sleeve.

And, after two days of learning and creativity, I will be back to work on my BOMs and a couple of Christmas projects in addition to the two Christmas quilts.

Have a great week!
 

His Big Day!

Today was his big day, the big 71.  He got to sleep in until 11am and then he chose a Chinese buffet for his birthday lunch. 








I gave him a personalized shirt (picture taken prior to pressing).  Eric collects B Western memorabilia, a whole house full of it, so I put this really cool cowboy boot above the pocket on the front.  I got the design from ATW.






And here is the back.  The “western” letters are currently free at Nita’s Place: they were digitized by Becky McNeil.  Once this shirt was pressed it looked even better and got rave reviews from the birthday boy.








Eric had rehearsal for The Sound of Music this afternoon so I got busy in the studio. 

Here are the petals for a new applique BOM from Esther Aliu. 
I really want to do applique and I have been doing raw edge-fused applique, but have decided I want more of a needle turn look (arthritis won’t let me do handwork).  So I have a wash out stabilizer ironed onto these fabrics.



And here is the beginning of my first sunflower.  The funny thing is that between pressing down the edges and putting the petals together, two petals have disappeared.  It’s not like I can’t make two more, but where can they be?  I think they may have jumped off the ironing board, much like jumping off a bridge, in an attempt to get out of being in my flower.  And just for anyone’s information, there are 28 petals in this flower….and there are two of them!  What have I let myself in for?



And, what have we here?  The first rose of summer!  It has been 86F every day this week so the plants already think it is summer….and me, too.

Mid-Week

It has been a while since I had time to post on a Wednesday. But with the finish of Christmas gifts there has been a turnaround in the studio.

The first thing I worked on was scrappy blocks for the Scrappy Quilt Along at Pleasant Home.

She is going to give several different ideas for using strips and strings to move those leftovers along to become quilts, bags, etc. I have made straight string blocks (right now a UFO) but this is the first time I have sewed strings in more of a log cabin format. Here I used primarily 1.5” strips that came out of this bin.

Please note that there seems to be enough strips left to completely fill the bin again. I think I will do several more before I put the bin back in place. I see a fun comfort quilt coming here.

Yesterday I was outside getting finish pictures of my Christmas gifts before packing them away. I was helped by Ms. Murphy, our adopted cat.

She has now had her first vet visit and shots and is scheduled for her “operation.” She better stick around now.

And when we take the dogs out, there she is, running along right with us. We never leave the property so she stays pretty safe.

And she and Abby love to explore our woods, where Ms. Murphy also frequently has lunch (uck).

This morning I skipped quilting for machine embroidery.

I found these earrings at Walmart and spent a couple of days looking through my embroidery designs for an appropriate design to go with them. I will be wearing these tomorrow at my WW meetings and then again to an employee meeting on Saturday and a Halloween party later that evening. I call this my “subtle” Halloween outfit.

This is the second of the two shirts I have embroidered for our great grandson's second birthday on Saturday. I love this little bear and Sky loves fishing. And what we found out tonight is that the birthday party is a fishing theme. Isn't that great?

These two shirts comprise my first "finish" for OPAM for this month.

I have been working on 3 BOMs and one new quilt as well as two tops but I fear this will be another month on no finished quilts. One day I will have several, if they all get done at once.

And this is one more thing I have finished. I read this book in two sittings. I found this to be one of her best books. She incorperated a lot of Hawaiian history and by the time I finished the book I really wanted to make a quilt in the Hawaiian style. Excellent!

Design Wall, embroidery, and….well….

My design wall would have been empty if I hadn’t had a Jelly Roll Sampler block ready to sew together. Isn’t it beautiful? I wasn’t too excited about this block when I first saw it but didn’t it turn out nice. This is really going to be a beautiful quilt.

Be sure to stop by Judy's blog to see what other's are doing.

I also worked on appliquéing some stems but that is so boring (both doing and looking at) so I won’t show pictures until the flowers start to show up.

I did, however, do some embroidery work. Here are two of six new kitchen towels I am working on. I haven’t had any new towels for about 7 years and although most of what I have are still serviceable, I decided we needed something fresh. The designs are from Artistic Thread Works.

The other embroidery is a shirt for our great grandson’s second birthday later this month. Here it is on the heater in my studio: I don’t have a child sized mannequin.
The color in this close up is not too good but I wanted to show the windows. I used plastic so they look more like a real window. I chose the truck because he is getting an electric riding truck from my DD and DSIL and I wanted this shirt to fit their gift. I have one more shirt to do before the big day arrives.

And lastly. On Saturday the postman delivered this to DH. Since he had not sent for anything he was intrigued, an especially when he saw what it was. It seems that this is what his mother-in-law sent him as a belated birthday gift. Interesting! But to better understand a person would have to know that for Christmas DH sent her a “travel emergency kit” which was a small box with a miniature corn cob in it. Some family I have, huh?

Busy Week(end)

When I got home from my travels on Thursday I found a package wedged between the front door and the storm door. It was from Joanne and her most recent giveaway. This wind chime is now hanging from the swing on the deck and makes beautiful music while I am reading my new quilting magazines. The little blue egg held M&Ms but they were gone well before I got the camera out. Thanks again, Joanne.

This is what is on my design wall.

And this is why. I took all the pieces down and stacked them up so I could assembly line sew. I have one piano keys border sewn but still need to sew all those strips together for the other three. I did sew several DP blocks together but have lots more to go. I also took some time yesterday to cut three borders for a comfort quilt: I hope to get them sewn on soon.

My embroidery digitizing class on Saturday was great: I really learned a lot. The class ran from 8 until 5 with only 30 min for lunch. I was so busy that I forgot to take my camera out of my bag so there are no pictures. Then I spent part of Sunday afternoon reviewing the lessons and trying my hand at some simple digitizing. Don’t expect to see any of my designs, it will be a while before I am willing to show any of that work: must practice, practice, practice.

Happy New Year and Outgoing

When you read this I will be in Tampa, cheering. But I wanted to be sure and start the new year blogging.

First is the lap quilt I made for my mother who has collected all things chicken for several years. I was gifted with several chicken fabrics from some very nice bloggers and had just recently made a Dresden plate block for a BOM so this was the result. Mother has a “sunroom” that in the winter is very chilly so I hope this will keep her warm.

Second is a birdhouse quilt made for my husband’s sister and her husband. They are avid birdwatchers and I have wanted to do a birdhouse quilt for them but never could get a clear idea of what to do. Then Pat offered some paper pieced birdhouse blocks and when they arrived I was off and running.

Next I made two flannel rag quilts:

One for our youngest grandson –

and one for our great grandson.

Instead of the squares I did two sizes of WOF strips with batting sandwiched in. After they were pieced I quilted them on the HQ and then clipped (what seemed like forever) and washed/dried them three times.

For our DD and SIL I made double fleece throws. DD is a Dallas Cowboy’s fan and loves her coffee and when I happened onto a fleece sale the idea was born. I sewed them right sides together, turned them and then sewed twice around the outside so it looks like a binding. Our SIL’s throw is camouflage on one side and Elk on the other. Several years ago he and his son talked about wanting to go Elk hunting and I really liked this fabric. I told them I made these so they could turn the heat down in their house and save money.

The last thing I made this Christmas was machine embroidered pillowcases for our DIL. She collects porcelain Swedish horses and when I found these designs they seemed perfect.

Lastly I did a couple of t-shirts for DH and then I took a well deserved break.

Hope everyone has been having a fun and save holiday!