WIP Wednesday #36

Wednesday again. How does this happen with such frequency?

I have spent most of my available sewing time this week working on Farmer's Wife blocks (come back for Farmer's Wife Friday) and Snow Angels.Yesterday I mentioned some of my math problems in regard to Snow Angels. I thought I had the border all planned out but then things went in a totally different direction.

Right now you may be asking yourself this question:


How long did it take her to come up with such an inventive and creative border for this quilt??

You would be surprised. I had planned to use the leftover jellyroll strips on two sides, but it was just too busy, so they will become part of the back.

Then I auditioned a stack of fabric in different combinations. I thought about using a narrow red border to "stop the action" and then add about a 4" border of some of the prints.I even really liked the polka dots, particularly because it was not part of the line and added a little extra "something." But it was still too busy, and I wanted the circles to continue, not be stopped.

 So then I thought about how I wanted to quilt it. I want to use perle cotton in red, blue and two shades of pink, and maybe some white. I really like the circles created as a secondary design and want to emphasize that so my plan is to quilt 1/4" inside each grey piece. Then I decided I would like to finish off the illusion by carrying the quilting into the border. Kind of like this:

I didn't want to piece the solid grey borders, and that's how I ended up fussy cutting a cute little girl on a swing for each corner.

Does that make any sense? Have I thoroughly confused you? Awesome. My work is done.

So go see what everyone else has been working on this week.

Envelope Swap.....Thank you Jenny!!

I received my mystery swap(hosted by Tee- The Altered Paper)

 envelope from Jenny of Jenny's Heart blog.  Thanks so much Jenny!!! 

I love( LOVE LOVE) all the goodies:

  flowers, cupcakes, ribbon, stickles, buttons, papers, stickers.....

Items much prettier in person, I didnt lay them out very well..oops...

With the mystery swap you had to use 75% of the items to make something and I made this scrapbook page. (I tried but still have a lot of items left.)

 The picture is of me and my husband on vacation, 

we stopped on the way to S. Carolina at 

Woodrow Wilsons childhood home

-this picture was taken in front of the historic sign in July 2009. 

The flower is handmade by me out of cupcake liners

 (they are so cute-colorful cupcakes pattern and

 of course included in my mystery swap envelope)

I am linking this to Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge

That's all for now, have a great day  and thanks again Jenny!!!

Can You Say HOT!

The weather in my neck of the woods is seriously hot and humid.  I've been trying to stay indoors as much as possible.  Over the last few days I've been working on projects.  Up first is the wonky star quilt.  I've finished piecing it.  Now it sits on my "to quilt" pile.  I can't quilt it as I've run out of batting.  I'm not going out, anywhere, until the weather cools a bit.

I did, however, have enough batting to get quilting on my dotty spotty quilt.

I've finished the quilting on this one and attached the binding already.  It's now in the blocking process and then a hanging sleeve.

And today, I'm trying may hand at sewing a garment.  Eeeeeekkkkk!  I pulled some fabrics from my stash that have been there for eons and that I won't likely use in a quilt anymore.  So this is my prototype:

It will be a tunic top......hopefully, when done and I'm basically trying it out to see if I can make it to my correct size and that I like the fit.  At this point I haven't attached sleeves yet.  I'm hoping to do some more tunics in the near future...I bought some patterns.  I'm into the tunic style top at the moment.  Who knows...maybe I'll enjoy sewing garments so much that I will want to be on Project Runway. NOT!!!

Graceful Beauty Tag

I am on design team of  Dezinaworld and this vintage image is from her Graceful Beauties set, the images always make me wonder what the lady might have doing when this photo was made and the leads to where did she live.  I must find a source for old vintage lace and trims to use with all the wonderful images.

 this tag was created using the paper towel inked technique with a few added inked areas, a handmade paper envelope(I didnt make that) with a little notecard inside, topped with a green fibers. 

Have a wonderful day! 

OH!   I got to get busy;yesterday I received my mystery swap(hosted by Tee)

from Jenny.  You can click on their names to go to their wonderful blogs.  My envelope has some fantastic items. I will be posting pictures later.  Also, we had to use 75% of the items to make something so please come back and take a look at what I received and what I made. 

Also, I am linking this to Make My Monday Vintage Theme

I am not a mathlete

You know what I mean, right?  A person who excels in math. Yeah. I'm not one of those.

This conversation occurred at the quilting retreat last weekend in Minnesota regarding my Snow Angels quilt:

Amanda Jean/ Terri: How big are you making that quilt?

Me:  9x9.

AJ/T (sounding uber impressed): Wow, really? You're making 81 of those blocks?

(Off on a tangent: see that cute little Funky/Flirty/Fabulous lady block to the side of Snow Angels? I think they liked each other. Amanda Jean made it--you can see it better here.)
 
Me (sounding quizzical): Huh? No, I'm making 9!

AJ/T: You just said you were making it 9 x 9. That's 81 blocks.

Me (thinking "duh"): Oh...I meant 3x3.

See what I mean? Apparently even basic multiplication is beyond my level of math expertise.

I would like to say that that was the end of my math problems regarding Snow Angels. However...

To make the maximum use of my pieced-together jellyroll strips, I decided to add a piano keys border. I didn't have enough to go around the entire quilt. I figured I had enough  for a 6 inch border on two sides. Nope not enough. So I sliced it in half and sewed strips together. Way too many strips. First was too wide and too short, then it was too narrow and too long. Maybe it's just this quilt in general...I'm determined to figure it out so I can post something for WIP Wednesday. Bet you can hardly wait...

It's true. I'm not a mathlete.

And in case you were wondering--I'm not an athlete either. Bummer.

McFatty Monday Update

Yes, this week calls for a celebration. I lost 2.2 pounds and finally broke through the 15 pound mark!!!!! That 15 pounds was haunting me for several weeks with very small gains and losses, I was hovering at 14.6-14.8 for a while. 

The thing that I feel helped the most was actually putting a goal down here on my blog that you can read about here and this gives me some accountability. This means that I am 7.2 pounds away from my short term goal of 10% down by Labor day, that will be a total of 24 pounds gone forever! Yes that means I started out at a whopping 240 pounds.....and my total goal is to weigh 150 pounds. 

One reason I did not mention last week as a reason for wanting to lose weight is....I long to weigh less than my husband. If there is one thing you should know about Brian, it is that he is tall and thin and has a hard time gaining weight (he is lucky I love him so much, because I could really cuss him out about this.) Another reason is I want my BMI to be a number I am proud of then my doctor will not have to lecture me at every physical about being so heavy.  

Here are the two numbers I strive for and will love to shout proudly when they are reached: 150 pounds and 22 BMI. If you have numbers you strive for and want to shout now or someday, leave me a comment! We are all here to support each other in all of life's journeys. 

The Name Game: The Q and the U

I'm so excited to have Riel Nason here from The Q and the U. She is a fellow selvage-obsessed quilter who does the MOST amazing and original work with selvages.

This is Riel's blog header. Isn't it the best?? I really want to borrow this idea and make a pillow. (NOTE: I may get a bit gushy in this post because, well, it's mostly about selvages!!)


1. Riel, how did you choose the name, The Q and the U?

 I actually had the little tag line "Quietly Quilting in Quispamsis" chosen before the blog name.  But I knew that Quispamsis (the name of my town) would be hard to remember and maybe hard to spell if you weren't familiar with it.  What the three main words have in common though, is a letter Q and a letter U.  So after playing with that thought for a bit I very simply decided on "The Q and the U."  I thought it was straightforward, different, hopefully easy to remember, and certainly easy to spell ;-)

 (Great photography idea--black and white background to really make the colors in the quilt pop.)


2. Were there other names you considered, and can you share any of them with us?

I can't remember having other names chosen.  I did take a little time to think of what other words started with Qu that I could maybe throw into the tagline, but "quirkily" or "quickly" quilting don't quite have the right ring, although they may be apt descriptors for what I do.

 3. Now that you are recognized by The Q and the U, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could change it to something else? 

I like my blog name.  I really have never thought about changing it.  Thanks so much Cindy for inviting me to play The Name Game.

 

Riel, you areso welcome. I'm so happy you played along. Your work is stunning!  

 

I had to grab these two pictures as well. Halloween is just around the corner, and look at what Riel is working on now. 

I'm also going to do a little promo plug here because Riel has written a novel that will be released in October. You can read more about it here. While you are there, be sure to check out more of the amazing quilts that Riel has made.

Next week, Kelly will be here from Pinkadot Quilts. Another fascinating name--you won't want to miss it.

Tiny Card

I made this card for two challenges.
Flutter by Wednesdays, Inspiration photo is sunflowers and must include a butterfly

Tiny butterfly in vellum, stamped and colored with markers.. 2 x 2 card

Also linking up to Make It Monday!

Have a wonderful week.

Triple Update Sunday night - Joanne Nordeen, Toby, and Spencer

Update Sunday, July 17^th – Joanne Nordeen

And an update on her dog, Toby and update on her grandson, Spencer.

The doctor came in today; looks like Mom can go home tomorrow!  She is walking almost unassisted.  Today was kind of a hard day for Mom, as we had to share the news about Toby, her dog.  Here’s what happened:

On Wednesday, Mark stayed overnight at Mom’s house with her dog Toby and my dog Gabby.  Mom and I stayed in the hospital for the Pic Line and more pre op stuff the night before the surgery.  

Our friend, Bette, came to Mom’s house to feed the dogs and take them out at 6:30am, as Mark was already with us at the hospital.  She had both dogs on leashes in Mom’s yard.  Two big racing-type dogs from the neighbor behind Mom’s house came over into the yard and attacked Toby.  It was horrible. Bette was screaming, hollering, and kicking at the two dogs to try to stop them from biting Toby.  The neighbors came out in their pajamas to help.  The Police were called for assistance.  Finally, they got the dogs off of Toby.

Bette wrapped Toby with a bathmat and got Gabby back into the house and rushed Toby to the local Vet.  They instructed her to go directly to Madison to an Emergency Vet Hospital.  They did surgery on Toby Thursday morning.  At about noon, Bette came to the hospital waiting room where we were waiting for Mom’s surgery.  Still traumatized by the morning, Bette explained what had happened to Toby.   Toby will be hospitalized for at least a week if not more.  Toby is having more surgery tonight for more repairs as they think he has some dead tissue on his back and to insert a feeding tube.

The Doctor finally let us tell Mom about Toby today.  Mark and Julie took a video of Toby at the Vet Hospital and showed it to Mom as they explained what had happened to Toby.

Let me back track to last week when we found out Mom had a brain tumor --- The very next day Mark and Julie’s son, Spencer had a bad bike accident where he lost the front wheel of the bike and went over the handlebars onto the pavement on his way to work.  He ended up in ER for a long evening of X-rays, stitches and bandaging. He had to miss over a week of work, but is starting to heal from his injuries.

So that gives you a recap of last week into this week as we could not tell Mom about her dog until today, so we could not share it with you.

Thanks again for all of your messages and prayers for Mom as she soon will be recovering at home.  I will be staying with Mom for a week or so.

Quick Hello

Spiritual Note for Sunday. 
Heather at Heather's Blog-o-rama shared a link There's a summer series t called GIRL TALK.' Here's the link to view the video sessions from Week One.

 I watched the video for Week One and its great!!! Go take a look its worth it. 
Have a wonderful evening.

The Best of Both Worlds

Just a quick post to show some new pieces.


I have been flipping back and forth between stitching small works, (they all measure between 3 and 4 inches!) on both fabric and paper...


Stitching with the fabric feels old and familiar, a language I am pretty comfortable with...


Where as with the paper, making it by hand first, and then stitching into it...


feels new and exciting, (and is for now is satisfying my somewhat constant curiosity itch)!


I have listed the works shown here in my shop, and will be listing some more soon.

Hope you all have had lovely weekend and wishing you each a wonderful week! xo

Organizing my Organizers

I may have mentioned a time or two that I value living an organized life. While it is surely true that I aspire to that, I clearly don't have a handle on what the definition of "organized" actually is. Case in point.

These four baskets under my theater chairs are not large. They measure 12x12x10 inches. 

Let's see what I found in the basket furthest to the left, from top to bottom:

Bliss. A blissful find. I had forgotten about it. I also have some corresponding yardage. Somewhere else.

Giddy. Huh. Funny that the top two "finds" would describe such a pleasant state of mind. Maybe there's a message in there somewhere.

Oz charm packs. I already have made a quilt using Oz. These might go in my etsy destash pile.

Wonderland with a pattern actually tucked in there. Good. A plan.

French General Rouenneries with a Schnibbles pattern. Cool. And Lumiere de Noel. Hmmm. Forgot I had that one.

Another Schnibbles pattern. Funny thing is that I have all my Schnibbles patterns carefully organized in a file box. Well, clearly not all of my Schnibbles patterns. And a packet of great I-Spy squares from a recent exchange. What are they doing in this basket?

Some Marti Michell templates. Why did I purchase them? What are they doing in here? But they do look useful.

A fat quarter stack that I remember purchasing at Sample Spree at Portland Quilt Market in 2008. I know I had a plan for these. I think it was a quiltalong. I don't remember which one. But then again, I didn't remember where I had stored this fabric either. Question: Do two unknowns equal an answer?

A random piece of Christmas fabric, and some random charm squares. I think these come from random fabric orders. Thanks, Randi!

I am not a "cat person." Which begs the question. Why do I have this fabric? And why is it in this basket? Again, two "unknowns" and no answer... However, "psycho cat" is pretty funny.

Ooh, look. Three patterns. Okay, I will probably never again make another Just Can't Cut It. But I like strip quilt with the zigzags in the middle, don't you?

And finally, the bottom of the basket. A grouping of fabrics. This could possibly explain the Just Can't Cut It pattern that was on top of these fabrics. But like I said. Never making that pattern again. I like the colors. And the embroidered tan-colored fabric is super cool.

Whew! That's a lot of stuff in that basket. In an organizational system that makes absolutely no sense to me. Has this ever happened to you? Do you have a good system? If so, do you make housecalls??

Friday/Saturday Update - July 15-16th on Mom - Joanne Nordeen

Friday:  Mom (Joanne) got up today and walked a little with assistance and sat in a chair. Her color is better and she is talking more. 

She had a MRI today to determine her next steps. (checked for swelling and stuff in the brain).  She might be in the Neuro ICU for another day or two, but to our surprise at 4:30pm on Friday night the hospital moved Mom to another section of the hospital.  It was still a Neuro Surgery part of the hospital, but not IUC.  


Saturday:  Mom slept well last night and is looking great today, talking and walking with assistance.  They even had her take a shower with her pic line wrapped in plastic and of course a shower cap to protect the bandages on her head. 
Mom's Dr. came in today and said she is doing great and is hopeful that she will be closer to going home in a couple days - possibly Sunday or Monday. What a wonderful surprise!

Along with the Doctor, we are all so amazed that she is doing so well, considering that the tumor was the size of a man's fist.

Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers.  I read the email messages and Facebook messages from you to my Mom.  They are comforting to Mom and all of us. 

Matchbox Swap

I signed up with Tee, at The Altered Paper for the Vintage Matchbox Swap.
I received mine from AJ at Missouri Daze and it is wonderful and full of fantastic goodies.
I am so happy I decided to sign up!!  So come by and sign up there is a mystery swap going on now.....hurry!   LOOK at the WONDERFUL matchbox and goodies....

Oh such wonderful goodies(ribbons, laces, wood cutouts, vintage  images and more!!!) and  from such a sweet person.  Go take a look at her blog too.

Have a wonderful weekend.  Hugs.

PS Happy Anniversary to my MOM and DAD... 44 years!