Tuesday Talk

Do you remember when I wrote about this pyrex, hoping my family would take notice...and maybe purchase something for my birthday? Well, hello orangey goodness!

This orange pitcher is the coolest thing. It was the centerpiece on the Thanksgiving table. During the meal I was asked, "So do you like the centerpiece?" Of course! "Well, it's yours!" Same with the cool pyrex, which I believe contained our yummy stuffing. The orange pitcher is way too mid-century-modern-cool to put in the cabinet, so it's going on my sewing table for quick access to skinny rulers and such.

Along with this.

Finally, one of my own pincushions. Customized of course. You can't see it from this picture, but the selvage on the top is "dumb dot," the selvage that started my obsession collection.

These went out in the mail today. The first is to Jennifer Moore. Yes, that Jennifer Moore, designer of fabulous Monaluna fabric (Hope she likes orange. Oh wait, these selvages are from her fabric lines, so obviously she does like orange. Me too!)

And these may or may not be gifts....probably to people who don't read my blog so I think I'm safe. But names have been covered to protect the gift-giver:

I'm joining an advent calendar sew-along, starting tomorrow. Because another thing to add to each of the next 25 days seems like such a great idea. Maybe I can get my sewing elf to pitch in. You all have sewing elves, right? Yeah, me either.

Cover Girl

The Prettiest Girls in Euphoria, Kansas

A Novel by

Bruce Kellner

Cover Art by

Victoria Gertenbach

(That would be me!)

Click on the link above for more information and a close up view.

Bugs and more bugs!

I just finished this quilt for a customer's granddaughter. It is for her big girl bed and she used alot of polka dots, so the request was for anything circles! So cute!

Have a Happy Holiday Season

I am taking a blogging break. Have a very Happy Holiday Season.



Take Care,
Kim

Family Tree Quilt

In May I attended HMQS in Salt Lake City. HMQS is a great place to take machine quilting classes and they have a wonderful quilt show and merchant mall. During my trip, my friend Stephanie and I just had to check out the local quilt shops. At one of the shops I saw this quilt. I bet I spent a half and hour looking at it. It  is truly amazing! I've started my own version of this quilt. It is done using needle turn applique and some embroidery. Embroidery is something my mother used to do and I swore it was not going to be something I would never do. I tried it as a child and hated it.  Well never say never! I liked this quilt so much that I have taken the plunge. I've discovered that embroidery is not as bad as I thought is was. I wish now that I had learned a few stitiches from my mother.  The pattern was designed by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet Company. This quilt has been so fun to work on. I'm sure it is going to take me a few years to complete but when it is done it will be so worth it.  Check out Lori's blog to see close ups of the blocks.

Master Sand Castle Sculpting Competition



 



Circle of Life - First Place Judges' Choice & First Place People's Choice

  This past weekend the Inaugural Master Sand sculpting Competition took place on Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida. The Sand on Siesta Key beach is considered to have the World's Finest Whitest Sand.  It's one of only two quartz sand grain beaches in the world, the other is in Italy. Here is a link to information on the competition and competitors.

Dragon Sleeping - Second Place People's Choice

Close up of  Dragon Sleeping 

 

Grinch Stole Thanksgiving First - Third Place Judges' Choice



One of my favourites, unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it finished. 



Another amazing sculpture

Philosophy Friday

Hope everyone had a thankful and relaxing day. If not, here is my recommended solution:

Available here in lots of different colors!

And the winner of the Gobble Gobble Giveaway is lindaroo, who said:

"I really enjoyed seeing all the creativity and beauty on BQF. I started quilting a year ago, and blogging only recently, and I'm not confident enough to make it public, yet! Happy Thanksgiving!"
  
Happy Weekend, everyone!

Quilted Kindle Pouch

It occurred to me that I hadn't posted that the instructions on how to make a Quilted Kindle Pouch are now available. That's what happens to the brain when it is overloaded.

Anyway, if you would like to make a pouch for your Kindle, or they can even be used for anything, really!!!, you'll find the tutorial for this and other great free projects at Three Creative Studios. Click on the "free projects" link and you'll see many great things to keep you very busy.

Dont Be Blue

GC79: Random Redhead Challenge - Stitching Gingersnaps Creations continue the love affair with all things fashion and fabric.

This challenge is to incorporate Stitching. I have a mini card for this challenge with lots of stitching of stars. That beautiful piece of paper in the middle was given to me by a dear blog friend.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving


Photo by my mom :)

And be ye kind one to to another , tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you
Ephesians 4:32

Blessing to you and your family.

Living in God's Graces,
Kim

Progress on #4

I've been working almost every day on this quilt and now have the quilt top completed. It's ready to layer into a quilt sandwich and start quilting. I need to see if I have a backing fabric that will work and in the right yardage. If not, there will be a trip to the quilt shop. I'm pretty sure I have enough batting. I also need to think about thread color for quilting the background. Oh so many decisions!

I'm also still knitting scarves and the latest count is 20. I definitely don't need that many for gifts for Christmas, so either I have a lot of scarves for myself or I will stash them for when I do need a gift for someone.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and would like to give my thanks to those of you who stop by here to read my blog and leave comments. May you all be safe, healthy, happy and have full tummies.

Domino Lace Charm Bracelet

November: Domino Domination Challenge at Alter It Monthly

I took mini dominoes, chiffon ribbon, and white lace to make this cute bracelet. I highlighted the dominoes with stickles to add a little sparkle.

This is a picture of me wearing it. (In case you didnt notice I have a million freckles)




Here is another picture of it:

Gobble Gobble Giveaway

This year my birthday is on Thursday. That's right. On Thanksgiving Day. Which guarantees that I will be spending nearly the whole day with those who are nearest and dearest to me. What a gift!

Were you a part of Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010? Did you post one of your quilts? Did you check out the other amazing festival quilts? What amazing talent out there in blogland. It's not too late. You can still spend some time getting inspired here.

Through a series of kind of weird events, I have an extra pincushion that I made specifically for Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010. Just leave a comment and let me know if you posted a quilt, if you checked out the other quilts, if you've never heard of Blogger's Quilt Festival, whatever. Time ends on Thursday, November 25, at 4:37 a.m. PDT.

I know. Weird time. But that's when I was born. Month, day and time. And that's as much info as you're getting about that topic...

I'll notify the winner on Friday. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

PEACE

DEZINAWORLD CHALLENGE

YOUR FAVOURITE ERA

This is not when I grew up but the whole peace and love thing, I like.

There was a time I would have liked many other things about this era.

But now, I just think that we should all give peace a chance.

Peace Out :)

Farm Houses

Another cloudy day here, but that's okey-dokey. If the last week had been sunny and gorgeous, I might never had been inspired to head off in this direction with my stitch work... a direction that I'm really enjoying! (Thank you, grey skies!)


This piece is entitled "Farm Houses", as that's what I see... two white farm houses, one on the left and one on the right.

However someone else might see it differently...


what I see as a red door, part of a porch roof, and a window, (or maybe it's a date stone?) someone else might see as a red house, a garden plot and an out building.


And, what I see as a window, a trellis and a porch roof, someone else might see as a house, a train track and an upside down barn!

Any which way you see it, is the right way in my book. I get a kick when people see different things then what I see. I like different points of view and perspectives. That's part of the joy of art, don't you think!?


"Farm Houses" is now available here in my shop.

(Note: Now Sold)

Spicy Supply Challenge

GC78: Spicy Supply Challenge - Sewing Notions at

Gingersnap Creations.

This month's Spicy Supply Challenge! Gingersnaps challenge is focusing on

fashion and fabric, so the supply challenge is Sewing Notions.

My car is sewed on the top above and below the word SEW in a

regular stitch. It is sewed on the sides with a fancy scalloped stitch. I have used

a vintage image of sewing machine and made it with sheen to highlight the image.

This card was great fun to make and its called SEW WHATS NEW?




Linking up to Something Beautiful because those old vintage sewing machines are just beautiful.

Challenge # 117

This is my first challenge at Everybody Art Challenge sponsored by Whimsy Stamps.
The challenge is Monochromatic Brown.

Here is my tag:



This is an walnut stained tag, with a stamped image, paper and silk flowers and a brown ribbon.

I did it...and, um, no....

I did it.

I cut into my Flea Market Fancy fabric. And guess what? Completely painless. Who knew? So my advice for anyone who is safeguarding this, or any other line, because it's too hard to make that first cut: just go for it. Cut, cut, CUT! And I ended up with a nice little pile of selvages, just waiting to become something equally as glorious as the fabric they came from.

And all the fabric is cut and ready to sew for each "popbead" block. Ah...so (sew) pretty...

Um, no...

I'm almost fnished with my brown "connector" bead blocks. It's the technique where you sew diagonally across a square on a square. And then you cut off the little triangle corners.

At first I threw them in the trash can. And then I thought "What am I doing?? This is FMF!" So I retrieved them and sewed them together to make little squares.

Did you get that? Little. LITTLE. Finishes at 3/4 inches. Um, no. As in no way.

But don't fret. I'm not throwing them away. My friend, Katie, turned her little scraps into super cute cards.

So off I went to Joann's where all my supplies were 40% off. Cardstock and envelopes, a set of alphabet stamps. Something like this will be showing up in my etsy shop next weekend. Wouldn't they make great little stocking stuffers?

Back to the sewing room..

Endings and New Beginnings

The kids used up all our internet allowance about a week early so using the internet was very difficult. They just can't control themselves and seem to watch every you tube video, sport results video, Skype with friends, Facebook and download music so I couldn't really do much blogging. It was a finishing off week for sewing and all 4 Dick and Janes are finished now. They were quilted and had their bindings done.

The final part of the binding was put on this

A few more pot mitts were quilted

And then I got stuck into a new project.

I am a Bruce Springsteen tragic and my brother dropped in a couple of his DVDs to watch. I never really get much time to watch anything but somehow, yesterday I found myself with the house all to myself.

On went the DVD and out came the sewing machine.

I didn't really watch, so much as listen to the DVD but the music was turned up really loud and I started this quilt top.

It was finished today, but with a few hiccups. My measuring wasn't all that good and a few seams ended up being 1/8th to lengthen a few sides - oops. I guess that's why it's known as 'patchwork.'

It was inspired by this

Rural Roads

The weather this last week has been rather dismal and grey. And, while driving around, (mostly transporting teenage daughter from a continuous series of point A's to point B's) I notice that the landscape, (which generally looks so vibrant and full of color) is now looking a bit flat and faded. Sigh, winter is on its way...


So it seemed appropriate to create a patched and stitched textile piece reflective of that. (See that one patch above... it has the word "Molasses" in it, which I adore. Those of you that have been with me on this blog journey for awhile may remember why, as that was Mo's full first name.)


Made up mostly from old, (and yes stained) pieces of vintage feedsack cloth, I've also added some handwoven twill which I made on 'ol rust. (After doing a little bit of googling, I discovered that my wonderful gifted loom is a "Structo Artcraft", most likely pre World War 2.)


There were a couple of holes in the fabric, which I incorporated into the design. Both have a bit of shot cotton peeking out from behind, and this one has a bit more of that hand woven twill. Also, I wanted the hand stitching to be just a wee bit uneven in length and placement, as I think it adds something special to this type of work.

I tell you, I just don't know what I would do in a world without cloth... old, new, faded and stained or vibrant and pristine, it never fails to intrigue me, sooth me, inspire me and delight me.

Rural Roads is now available here in my shop.

(Note: Now Sold)