Mandala Challenge Met for Quilts Around The World Blog

The group Quilts Around The World is a group of women art quilters from around the globe, (Australia, The Netherlands, Europe, USA)...who take up a challenge every three months to make a small art quilt and post it on our blog. http://aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com/
Go there to see ALL the quilts as they are terrific...The most recent challenge was to make an art quilt in the theme : Mandala!

Mine is this machine felted velvet butterfly on a substrait of hand painted muslin, machine sewn free motion style and using some fancy machine stitches. Embellished with glass beads.Click on the photos to see the texture and detail close up.

Let me know if you can FEEL the velvet!
I often like the backs of my pieces as much as the fronts.

Happy New Year!

Random conversation

This conversation took place while coming home from lunch yesterday:

Charlotte (3+ feet, 40+ pounds): Grandpa, can I tell you something?
Grandpa (6'2", 240 lbs): Sure, Charlotte. What is it?
C: Grandpa, you're huge.
G: Charlotte, why do you think I'm huge?
C: Well, just LOOK at yourself!

Naked Stumpwork Block

I think that this will be the final block I need to make for the CQI RRs beginning in the new year.  This one is for the Stumpwork RR which I'm looking forward to participating in.  Stumpwork is 3-dimensional and you will see all kinds of things popping up from this block and the others that are also in this round robin.  I've been practicing some of the techniques on an earlier trial block  here.   So I'm all ready to go with the Bees, Butterflies and Beetles, the Asian theme block, and the Stumpwork block.  Still waiting for two more CQers to join in the Brazillian Embroidery  rr.!    I used a piece of material from my Christmas cracker from Alice as my centre for this block. 

Picture Perfect

Brooklyn Limestone is having a giveaway of her fabulous photographs, and I'd sure like to win some black and whites. So here I go again, diminishing my chances of winning by spreading the word...

This picture is a "must have." I didn't start my professional typing career on an Underwood, although I thought I had the ultimate when I finally owned my own IBM Selectric.

In our house, most of the artwork on our walls is photography. So please, random number generator, pick me!

Quilting is Complete

This morning I finished with the free-motion quilting on this quilt.



I still have some threads to bury but I do believe that once that is done I can move on to squaring up and finishing. I love lots of quilting, as you can see in the photos.

I received my Christmas present from myself in yesterday's mail. I bought myself one of the Bendable Bright Lights (seen here). I got it all hooked up last evening and WOW! was that a bright discovery. I can't believe the light this little thing puts out. I had seen lots of other sewers sharing on their blogs about how much they liked these, so I just had to see what all the hullabaloo was about. I did notice one thing: at first I had it pointing directly where the needle is going up and down. Well the bright light was reflecting off the shiny metal of my presser foot and giving my eyes quite a strain. I started playing around with the light position and found that if I shine it on the fabric that is in front of the presser foot that it works better for me. I was beginning to wonder if I would need to wear sunglasses to be able to use this thing. I guess there is a learning curve to everything and all in all I am going to be very happy with this handy tool. So my review of this product is a big thumbs up.

What are these people doing?

Christmas Day. Waiting for Charlotte and Levi to wake up from their naps so we can open presents.

Some Wii game called "Raving Rabbids." But at this point we probably look like Raving Lunatics.

Wai fun....

Hour glass little quilt

Here what's on my wall a little quilt that needs binding. It's not quit square so I'm eyeing it to see if I want to let it go or trim the border uneven to square up the outside. (Top is bigger then the bottom)

Hour glass little quilt

Here what's on my wall a little quilt that needs binding. It's not quit square so I'm eyeing it to see if I want to let it go or trim the border uneven to square up the outside. (Top is bigger then the bottom)

Last 2009 Stash Report

The little quilt I wanted to get done by Christmas. Still need to sew down the binding should be done by next year.
Last stash report for the year. Guess I've been a little absent from reporting the last couple months. But I was still keeping track. So for the year

Used 229 yds
Added 137yds 26"
I busted 91 yds 10"


I plan to keep track again next year but only report monthly. I enjoyed keeping track the pro was I did really evaluate any purchases a lot closer and am sure would of purchased a lot more fabric if I wasn't keeping track. The con was I started a few to many quilts because they would use up more fabric then finishing the ones that were almost done. Since I counted fabric out of stash once it was cut for a quilt.
I think for this year I want to bust 50 yds report monthly, and make a bucket list of quilting goals for the year. And get my project count down to a lot better number.

Last 2009 Stash Report

The little quilt I wanted to get done by Christmas. Still need to sew down the binding should be done by next year.
Last stash report for the year. Guess I've been a little absent from reporting the last couple months. But I was still keeping track. So for the year

Used 229 yds
Added 137yds 26"
I busted 91 yds 10"


I plan to keep track again next year but only report monthly. I enjoyed keeping track the pro was I did really evaluate any purchases a lot closer and am sure would of purchased a lot more fabric if I wasn't keeping track. The con was I started a few to many quilts because they would use up more fabric then finishing the ones that were almost done. Since I counted fabric out of stash once it was cut for a quilt.
I think for this year I want to bust 50 yds report monthly, and make a bucket list of quilting goals for the year. And get my project count down to a lot better number.

Christmas Cracker Swap

Just take a look at all this lovely stuff!  All these ribbons, threads, fabric, lace and silkies were stuffed into just a piece of paper towel roll and covered with a very pretty piece of crazy quilting, from Alice.  It was so much fun to open up.  And it'll be more fun to use! 

Just the bestest present!

Thank you to my children Neil & Lee-Ann, Suzie & John, Heather & Jason for this wonderful gift.  Installed and programmed by Jason for my trip home from their house on Boxing day, I even got to use it.  Gerry K brought a similar GPS with her and used in the rental car at the Retreat in Colorado.  It got us out of a few pickles and always put us back on the right road.   

Way Back When

I mentioned some time ago that I was working a mixed-media triptych painting. I can now show you these paintings that I created for my son's Christmas present. Since I didn't want to take the chance that my son might see these on my blog, I thought I should wait until he received them before sharing them here with you. I must have did a good job as he really likes them.

I'm not happy with how they appear in the photo. The far left one has a bit more burgundy/maroon in it and the middle one shows more blue in the photo and really is a slight bit more green.

Creative Cue

I like drawing and sketching and don't do it often enough. Drawing is one of those activities that improves over time. The more you practice, the better it gets.

I've always enjoyed seeing other artists' sketches and drawings too. A few of the bloggers that I follow have taken part in sketching to a theme word and I always enjoy seeing the sketch they create from a word prompt. I thought this would be fun and I decided to do something similar myself starting in 2010.

I happened to mention this idea to Sue and she said this interested her too. And then we got to thinking that maybe others would enjoy something similar. So we came up with Creative Cue.

Read all about it here (click the image):

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone who reads my blog and follows my blog.  Wonderful wishes for a fantastic holiday season.

Until the next time, Happy Quilting!

Quilting

I started the quilting on my watermelon quilt.


I had originally thought that I'd machine quilt all of it, but once I started looking at it and deciding what I wanted to do, I came to the conclusion that I will need to do a little hand quilting. The center squares are where I'm doing this. Because of the quilting design I wanted to do, I decided that doing it by hand would be better than all the stopping and starting by machine.

I would like to wish all of you who stop by to read my ramblings a very Merry Christmas. I'm not sure if you all celebrate Christmas, but if you do I hope yours is a safe, happy, and healthy holiday. I know there are many areas in the US right now that are making holiday travel unsafe. We are in a snow storm area for the next couple of days, from what the weather people are saying. So be safe and smart out there please!

Backing and Basting

Today I found some time to get into the studio. I couldn't find a piece of fabric large enough to use for the backing on my quilt. So I pieced together some of the discarded fabrics from the project and created a strip. I then used a fabric that worked, colorwise, and that I had enough of to piece with this strip to create my back.


Next I did the basting. It's now ready to quilt.

Can I please speak to your union rep?

Picture via Jim Shore

The "sewing elves" finally arrived at my house last week. I'm SURE I made the request for them to start their work much earlier than December 15! In fact, I'm SURE that I always request they start as early as January, March at the latest. I'm SURE I make that request every single year! Somehow they never arrive until some time in December.

And they came with demands, such as setting up a sewing station in the family room because it was cozier, had a big screen TV and was closer to the Christmas cookies. When they finally started on their first project, turns out the supply list hadn't been filled completely (this was after supply shopping):

Geez. Doesn't the North Pole Santa's Workshop Trade Union take care of things like that??

In the last week, this is how much they have accomplished. One Nativity pillowcase:

Three (really CUTE) ornaments (pattern here--just in case you have sewing elves at your house with nothing to do:

and one other really small item (which I can't really post yet). That's IT! Turns out, they have work habits eerily similar to my own work habits this time of year: hard to focus on task, easily distracted, taking way too many cookie breaks (I think I need to check their union contract...). Well, all I can say is that they I better crank it up to high gear starting today. I'm clearly going to have to crack the whip. The licorice whip, that is...

More Crazy Blocks

My goodness I've been working hard on my naked RR blocks! This one is for the Bees, Bugs and Butterflies RR at CQI. I think this is my most favourite block that I have pieced together, ever! The centre fabric is just one motif from a FQ that I bought recently. There are also lovely pieces of heavy maroon lace and thick maroon silk. These are definitely my colours. I also tried to follow Gerry K's guidelines about eye movement and repetition of colour. I'm not sure if I succeeded here, but I did work on the left hand side to get the gold silk piece in, where originally I had the top and bottom maroon pieces meeting. Just that change made a difference to my eye movement.

This one is very plain by comparison. It's for the CQI 2010 monthly challenge which will need some space for additional fabric and techniques. I made the fan by the paper piecing technique and appliqued it on. but there must be a much easier way as this took me hours to do. I also didn't know how to finish it off at the bottom. I'm going to look for a small piece of metal jewellery to put over it.

Next Round

I've added another border around this quilt. I'm happy with this and think I am going to stop there. At this point it measures approximately 35" square--a really good size for me to quilt on my sewing machine. This quilt has been so much fun.


I just had to snap the next photo of Zoey while she was napping. Life must be good!


Hey, did you notice my new blog look? I felt it was time for a change so I fiddled around with my blog template and came up with this.

Busy, busy, busy....

How can it be 3 weeks since I blogged last! Time just slips away. I haven't done a lot of stitching, but I have managed to work on piecing some of the RR blocks that I have signed up for in the New Year. This is my naked block for the Asian #2 RR. The design is similar to part of a wall hanging that I liked and mentioned in a previous posting. The fan fabric only came in those vibrant (fluorescent!) colours, but I'm going to encourage my RR friends to bead/embroider/embellish over them to tone them down a bit!

This could either be for the Brazillian embroidery RR or the Stumpwork RR. I haven't decided yet.

And this is the design, on paper, for the CQI 2010 Challenge. The first few monthly challenges include curved piecing, fans, working with velvet, birds and 5-layer stitching. Stumpwork and Silk Ribbon embroidery are two more that I have signed up for and need to make blocks, but so far they are one or two short of being filled.

Sewing Along

I made a little progress on this quilt this week. I lengthened the borders and then attached them to the central section.

Every time I look at this piece, I'm reminded of/or think of watermelons. I've kind of got two names going around in my head for this one so far. Watermelon Bubblegum and Watermelon Slices. I imagine one of these will stick more than the other by the time I'm done, hopefully. Or, perhaps another will sneak into my brain and tease me.

I think I want to add more to this quilt. I am thinking along the lines of some black and white fabrics and some more painted fabrics like in the center. I ran out of one of those paint colors though, but never fear, it should appear at my door today or tomorrow and then I can get some more painted up for this quilt.

Did you realize that Christmas is one week from today? Happy Weekend!

We have a winner....

The winners have been posted from the Sew-Fantastic 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. The winner of Day 5, from yours truly, is Hi, my name is Erica, who left the following comment: "Amy Butler always has fun selvedges...that would make a great one!" And I totally agree. I'm already working on an Amy Butler pincushion for a friend. So, Erica, these will be on their way to you tomorrow!


Amy, over at Park City Girl, is hosting a giveaway. And I want to win.

Of course, I realize by posting this, it lessens my chances. But hey, it's nearly Christmas and I'm in the giving mood and that's why I'm letting you know about it too. Fat quarters of fabulous fabric. And we all know much I need more fabric....

Oh Christmas Tree

I have been sporadically working on these holiday greeting postcards the last few days. I finally finished them up last evening. I probably should have created these a few weeks ago, but just couldn't get into the spirit of them until just recently. Now to get them in the mail.

December Block of the Month

Here is the next block for the Three Creative Studios block of the month. This is block #4.

Again, I created it in the two color ways I'm doing. And then farther down, I've snapped a photo of the four blocks together in each color way. Just to recap, there will be nine blocks total for this block of the month project.


The gift card sleeve I mentioned a couple of blog posts ago is now found here, along with a great table runner project that Vicki created. New Free Projects

Also, Three Creative Studios is hosting a quilt challenge. Every two months a theme word will be given and participants create a small quilt according to the theme. You can read more about it on the Quilt Challenge blog.

I want to thank each and every one of you who commented on the previous blog post. I appreciate your thoughts and input on my project. I've been so busy the last few days that I haven't had much time to respond to each of you individually. Thank You!

Rules for holiday cooking with Grandpa and Grandma

Rule No. 1: You can never use too many sprinkles (especially if it involves your favorite color, pink...)

Rule No. 2: It is important to clean all your cooking utensils when you are done (some ways are better than others...)

Binding

This quilt has been on the bed in the guest bedroom for a month. I finally brought it out and I am going to get the binding sewn down before the end of the year. Other then that not a lot of quilting going on here. Guess you need a break from it now and then.

Binding

This quilt has been on the bed in the guest bedroom for a month. I finally brought it out and I am going to get the binding sewn down before the end of the year. Other then that not a lot of quilting going on here. Guess you need a break from it now and then.

Progress???

I've been working on some border sections for this quilt. The first photo shows how I had first thought to add these borders. I was originally thinking about putting four blocks in the corners.


Then I played with the border pieces and scooched them over. Now I'm wondering if I would like it better if I just continued on with this look and lengthened the border sections to fill the space around.


Oh the decisions!!!! Then, after that is decided, I will need to think about what's next? More or stop! The possibilities are endless!

Take a tour

Have noticed that button the side bar? Over there--to the right....The one that looks like this:

The tour of homes starts today. And I'm nothing if not voyeuristic. I LOVE looking inside other people's homes. When Sue, Maggie and I go down to visit Sue's Aunt Audrie in Hermosa Beach, we always go out to dinner, and then walk backto Aunt Audrie's home by way of The Strand, where all the houses are practically on the sidewalk. And hardly anyone has window coverings. So really, people, if you don't want us peering in your homes, then move somewhere isolated, with lots of curtains. Anyhoo....

At last count, 729 people had posted pcitures of their homes on the Christmas Tour of Homes. *sigh*. I can't possibly check out each and every one, but I will definitely be randomly picking a few each day.

As for us, our big addition this year was something Mark picked up at an auction after Christmas last year. Santa climbs up and down (and up and down....and up and down) the ladder carrying his little strand of lights, while music-box Christmas carols play along. Charlotte and Levi love it. Fortunately, Santa is willing to go up and down even when the music isn't playing.

Oh, I do still have one item I plan on making. I saw this last year and have been wanting to make it ever since. Can you believe we don't have a single wire coathanger in our house? Not a single one. I traded them all out for plastic. I'm hoping one of my friends can help me out. Super easy to make. Old ornaments, a glue gun and, oh yeah, the wire coathanger.

So go on tour. Who knows what you'll find?