playing with the GO!

I was playing with the GO! and my pink fabric and cut some pink ribbons and then looked at the waste fabric from it.  I cut my pink fabric 5x6 even though the actual ribbon is closer to 3x5 but that was ok.  I looked through my GO! dies and decided it was time to make more dots and flowers.  :)

If in doubt...make dots.  Actually I am putting together a couple of give aways for my FB quilting groups and a sandwich size bag of Heat n Bond lite backed leftovers from my GO! cuttings will go out to a person.  Most of them were purple with some green leaves so this time it's pink to add to the bag.

The smaller things like small circles or flower centers are good to use up small scraps of fabric.  The small flowers also worked out pretty good.  They are only 1.5" so it doesn't have to be that big of a scrap to cut them out.  It will be interesting to see what people will make with them.

I think sometime I might just take a small piece of a solid color background and just go crazy and stick on a bunch of those small circles.  :)  

What? I have to clean...Again?

That's what it seems like.  i swear it wasn't that long ago that I went through my fabrics and weeded them out and organized.  Yet I looked over at the corner of the fabric and....sighed.  Ok.  For those who know me that's not unusual.  But still....I have to clean that room again today.  I started out thinking that I could get the whole room straightened up.  Silly me.  I DID manage to get half of it straightened up though.  Just enough room so that I can work on something else.  LOL.

Here's what it is currently looking like....or at least half of it is.

This is the start of my mock up of Dan's castle quilt.  I know it isn't much.  I have to put the top row on as well as decorate the sides.  I am thinking of enlarging the castles or adding to it.  Still in the development stage.

The old sewing machine (Singer Confidence Quilter).  I still keep it set up on that side of the room.

It took forever to get the fabric put away.  :)  That's not all but 90% of it is all put away.  That's half of my sewing room.  Now to get to work on the other half.  Not this week.  I'll do it another week.  LOL.

What else did I do?  I've been working on little applique projects that needed to be appliqued by hand.  I had some set backs though.  The breast cancer mini was marked with blue chalk (fons and porter) but it would NOT disappear.  After multiple hand washings (I don't own a washer n dryer and won't go out to spend the money to wash EVERY project I've started), this is the closest that I have to getting the blue out.  It didn't brush out like the yellow chalk did.

It looks like it is pretty much out.  If seen up close you can still see a faint blue along the stitching line.  I can probably live with this.  now to do the binding some time.  Hey Kat....This was done with the Window method of applique!

I decided to use another method of marking my guide lines and on this this next project I used an orange washable marker.  So here you see what it looks like before I started the washing process.

Now, after just one washing (versus the four that I did for the blue chalk) this is what it turned out to be.

I might have to use the washable markers more often.  I will also point out that the yellow chalk pencil that I had used on some black fabric that I was making bias tape with worked out fine.  Is it just the blue that didn't work well?  I don't know.  It is fun to try and experiment with different methods so you have alternatives.  I think if I will use blue that I still like my Blue Water Soluble pens the best.  Markers might be second and eventually win out because of the variety of colors to choose from.  This one is also a mini and I will be putting binding on it another day.  I think that I will have three mini's for mom to choose from for her birthday on December 10th.  That way she will have a choice and she might like that.  I'll let you know what the other one is after I work on it some more.  :)

Rain rain...don't go away

Yes you read that right.  I want the rain to stay so that I don't get pulled away to do other things.  If it rains perhaps I'll stay inside and get something done.  Of course it would help if I was to do something but one step at a time.

I really don't feel like quilting tonight but I'll count making more 1/4" bias tape quilting.  I'm going through a lot of that!!!!

On a totally different topic I thought I'd share a website that is pretty cool.  No it's not quilting but it does have to do with space and since I lack where I live...oh dear...maybe it DOES have something to do with quilting.  LOL.

Enjoy.  They change the pictures each day.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Fall Colors

I had to walk to another department this morning for work and snapped a couple of pictures along the way.  The red tree (red maple? - I really don't know my trees) is so bright and shiny that I had to use it for my picture on the blog.  Do you like it?

I was going to work last night on some projects but found, much to my dismay, that I had left most of them at work.  I did, however, find the pattern for a new scrappy quilt that I might do.  Yes, you read it right, *I* might do a scrappy quilt.  Probably because it's not TOOO scrappy.  :)

Here it is.

It is a pattern that I found on Favquilts.com  It is for a mini quilt, which translates into wall hanging, but I think I might try and do it. Wish me luck.

Think you might link to try it?

http://www.favequilts.com/Mini-Quilts-and-Doll-Quilts/Lightning-Fast-Mini-Quilt/ct/1

Have a great day everybody.

New Project

The month is half over and I'm still working on projects that need to be done by the end of the month.  For those of you who know me, you know I can't work on one project at a time.  Sooooo, besides the test pattern, I started my project for the last bucket list drawing of the year.  Scroll down a bit and you'll the pattern that I chose to do with the theme being applique.

Yep that right.  Bonni is still doing the happy dance with this drawing.  I'm doing the middle block first and then will decide if I want to do the rest of the pattern or not.

Of course I had to pick my favorite red fabric for this pattern and here is part of the block.  It is fused down but not stitched yet.  In the corner will be some redwork.   Watcha think?

The white is a little off (cell phone) but also because of the towel I had underneath it when I fused.  Had to fuse on my card table since it is almost 20".  The cut down size should be closer to 18.5" but I overcut it and will cut it down after all the embroidery is done.

Friday arrived!!!!!!!

Wow.  What a week.  Busy at work and trying to be busy at night also.  Of course it wasn't as productive as I wanted it to be but I did get some quilty type thought figured out.  Hopefully that will make the weekend go better.

I did get something in the mail which was fun.  Rose Hall from Custom Quilt Kits has started a BOM for applique.  To quote from her website (customquiltkits.com)

"
Applique of the Month Club
Starting in October 2012 I will be offering an Applique of the Month. 
This club is unique in that you don't have to buy something every month.  I will send out an email to my members and if you want the applique for that month, let me know.  If you don't, that's OK, just let me know that, too.
If you want the appliques being offered that month, I will send you a Paypal invoice and once marked paid, I will put your package in the mail.  If you don't use Paypal, we can make arrangements for you to send me a check.
The packages contain 12 appliques, unless otherwise stated.  All have paper backed fusible applied and the material has been prewashed. $5/package.  Members are more than welcome to order more than one package per month."

The first month (September) was mini ornaments.  I ordered it and received it.  They are so cute!

To give you an idea of the size, I put four of them on a 3x5 index card.  There were/are five colors and you get 4 of each color.  So what am I going to do with these?  I am thinking of making some mug rugs or coasters out of them.  Another idea might be to use them for gift tags.  Anything else you can think of?  If you go to her website, you'll see the list of what she had to offer each month.  While you're there take time out to search through her website.

Psst.  Did you catch the line that you don't have to order something every month?  Isn't that nice?  Also note that she isn't offering mini's every time.  Just this first one ended up being mini's.

Once again that was:

http://www.customquiltkits.com/Applique-of-the-Month-Club/

Happy Stitching!
 

Anderson Japanese Gardens

Break time at work.  That means I can post some more pictures.  This time it is from the Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL.  My brother and his wife took some friends over the weekend and he gave me a copy of his pictures since he knew that I love the place.  Enjoy the scenery.....now back to work.  :)

Beautiful Fall Colors

I'd rather be looking at this instead of looking at the computer screen

Feeding time!  These fish are so large for a reason.  LOL!

 

 

 

I just love waterfalls!

I hope that you have enjoyed this little break.  I'll be posting more another day.

Hugs

The last Project from the Bucket List

Here we go.  Still having problems with the cell phone sending out pictures but I did manage to get the picture of what I am thinking of doing for the last project for this year on the Bucket List. 

Here it is.  I'm not sure I will do the entire project but I will be doing the center block at least.  Perhaps this month I can do the center block and THEN decide if I will do the rest of it.  :)  Actually it all depends on what fabric I get.  I know what I want to use but I'm not sure I have enough of it OR if I can get it again.  We shall see.  Anyway, here is what drew my interest for the last of the Bucket List.

Isn't that pretty?  It was in the book that I picked up at the Quilt Show.  Speaking of which, here are some more pictures from the show.

This was all hand quilted

A close up of the hand quilting

October 7, 2012

The weekend is almost over and I find that I haven't gotten anything done with quilting.  Not a surprise since this was my gaming weekend and not my quilting weekend.  On the other hand I did manage to get stuff done.  I've:

Hand washed work clothes for the week
Made breakfasts for the next 10 days
Made two loaves of bread
Is cooking Cola chicken in the crockpot (done in 30 minutes)
Made 4 meals of macaroni noodles with spaghetti sauce
Breakfast with mom
Dishes

and now....time to relax before I pick out my project for this months Bucket List from my Cyber Quilters yahoo group.  I know which one I want to do, I just have to find the material.  I have an idea on what I want to use but I am not sure if I have enough.  I'll post up those pix another day.

Speaking of pix.....here is a picture of my favorite nephew and his family.  Him and his wife celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary a couple of days ago and their oldest girl turns 13 on Tuesday.  Love them bunches!

Have a great day.  It's time to check my cola chicken and dig through material.  :)

I met one of my Cyber Quilters Yahoo Group Members

It turned out that one of the people in my Yahoo Group "CyberQuilters" had a quilt in the show.  Look at my last post to see it.  She won first place and was going to the show so I was able to meet up with her.  Here's a picture of  Louise with her quilt in the background.  She did it all herself on her Janome.  Well done Louise!

It was great fun to meet up with her.  I didn't realize she lived so close and I've also been to the quilt shop that is by where she lives.  Who knows, perhaps we will be able to meet up again one day.

See that big smile on her face?  It's well deserved.  The quilting on it is great and my pictures don't do it justice.

We walked around for a bit (still can't believe it was over an hour) and looked at the various quilts.  Thanks for helping educate me on some of them Louise.  I believed that I learned so much more seeing it with her.