Sunday, April 21, 2013

A little progress...

This was my gaming weekend which is typically a no quilting weekend.  I managed to finish a small mug rug though so I can get it mailed out in the mail this week.  It's for a friends birthday.  Since most people are trying to lose weight, I thought this type of cupcake would be safe...and it travels through the mail so much better.



The colors are a little off but not by much.  The back of the fabric is the same as the binding.

Well that's about all the quilting I got done today.  Not much but something that I had been wanting to get done for a bit.

I do have a story to tell you though.  I make rice filled wrist pads to sell and I took my rice and empty bags to work on Friday to work on them.  I didn't get a chance so I brought the rice home.  It was in a zip lock bag.  I thought I had brought home the empty fabric bags too so that I could fill them this weekend while watching tv or something but noooooo, I left them at the office.  So when I get home, I open up my backpack and oops......

Evidently the zip lock bag had opened up and I had/have rice now all over the bottom of my backpack.  My backpack is one that rolls so it has the "frame" which means I can't just turn it inside out to clean it up.  At least it was dry rice and not cooked rice.  LOL.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Drats!

Don't you hate it when you get to the end of the post and then you get an "error" message when you hit "publish"?  That's what happened so it's back to the drawing board for typing.

I found some cross stitch kits that I had forgotten that I had so I pulled them out.  I might have to start doing cross stitch again.  Here are the patterns.





I did manage to get a mug rug done and ready to send out to a friend.  I love the wonkiness of it.   The flowers aren't perfect but then in nature they aren't either. 


I am working on another t-shirt wall hanging.  This will be for my GA who is graduating.  She notified me that I could do one for  her.  She bribed me with the "I'll pay for the fabric" line.  It worked.  We went to JoAnne's last week and picked out a fabric with black paw prints on a red background.  When I saw which t-shirts she brought in for me to use, I warned her that some of her words would get cut off and pointed out that some of her stains would show. She said it didn't matter.  We'll see after it's all put together.  :)



Break time is over so it's time to get back to work.  Everybody have a great weekend.
 

April 19, 2013 - an uninspiring day

Have you had those days where your enthusiasm or motivation for working on things is zero?  That's me today.  I have projects to do, don't we all?, but I just don't feel like working on them.  I did, however, take time out to stop on the way in to work to snap a picture from my phone on the flooded park near where I live.

Can you see the park bench and the picnic table? 



It was too cold to stay out in the wind and cold any longer so you get to see my dashboard of the car and windshield wipers in the above pix.  The water had receded back far enough so the road was free at least.  The rains/snow is suppose to stop by Saturday.


That poor little Frisbee golf thingy out thee all by itself surrounded by water and trees.
 What do they call the Frisbee golf thing that catches the Frisbee's?  Anyway, there have them in the park and as you can imagine, they are NOT suppose to be in the middle of the lake/river.



This bus had stopped and put on their flashers so that the driver could get out and look at the scene also.

Well that's about it.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  Now back to work I go.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Productive weekend

Monday is here again which means that I look back over my weekend and see how productive it was.  It was pretty productive considering that between gaming, and spending almost five hours at Radio Shack upgrading three phones.  Now, of course, I have to figure out how to work the new cell phone.

I ended up getting a Motorola Atrix HD.






Then on Sunday, of course, I had breakfast with mom and had a good time.  After that I was able to relax with a bit of hand stitching.  Finished up stitching the boy and girl dino blocks.  I also cut them back to the 12.5" size they are suppose to be.  I initially cut my fabric larger than required.
 

 

Now I have to start doing two more dino blocks for Heather.  They will be a different dino type but relatively easy to do (I do all my buttonhole stitches by hand) so hopefully it won't take too long.  Also this week I want to finish up two mug rugs to send out in the mail. I think I should be able to do that, don't you?

What are you working on this week.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Dino power!

Hello everybody.  What are you working on?  I'm working on Dino's.  One of my facebook groups is doing up 12.5" dino blocks for a small boy who is undergoing chemo.  We found the pattern that we liked on Fat Cat Patterns in their free section.

http://fatcatpatterns.com/free.html


Go to page 2 and look for the dinowar quilt.  Isn't that cute?  But then I expect that from Fat Cat Patterns.  While you are there look at all their other patterns.

Anyway, I started out doing 2 blocks.  One is for the small boy but the other is for his sister who is also having a hard time dealing with this.  I finished the boy block and used some of my camo fabric that I had.


I have the girl dino fused and am just starting to stitch it.


Now that would have ended my stitching but nope.  I also volunteered to do two more for another lady who has some family problems right now.  She (Heather) has made some blocks for me before in a similar group project when I couldn't finish due to family problems.  It's nice to be able to pay her back.

If you go look at the pattern, you'll see there are two designs of the dinos.  Since I did these two, I'll use the other dino pattern for Heather's.  I won't finish them this weekend since it is a gaming weekend, but I will finish them this week and when I do I'll post them also.

It's going on 10:30 p.m. so I'm going to stop here.  It's been a long couple of  weeks.  A friend lost her sister, my landlady died right before Easter, and I'm rushing around trying to find new clothes for mother and having to guess her size.  Mom likes to cut off tags so we need to try and get her to try them on before she cuts off the tags in case I have to take them back.  Fun fun.  :)

Sympathies to those who have lost loved ones.  Hugs to all and hang in there.  It does get better.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Paper Piecing Squares from Missouri Quilt Company

First of all, let me say that I don't work or are affiliated with Missouri Quilt Company.  I am, however, a happy customer of theirs.  In my latest order, I ordered the 10" paper piecing squares and I tried it out tonight.  I watch their youtube videos all the time and this product was demonstrated on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ02NM9-USw

I, of course, forgot to watch the vid before I did my test block but it was ok anyway.  I didn't have a particular plan in mind and I didn't glue the first strip down like the vid did.  Yes, I used a too short piece in one section but I can always cut it down smaller.

This is what you get.  It comes in a package of 250 sheets and it only cost $9.95.  Of course that price could change so don't take it as set in stone.  So if you are interested go visit their website:

missouriquiltco.com

They process the orders quickly also.


Here are my strips that I sewed on.  Yes, one of the strips is a little short but I can cover that up by just cutting the 10" block down to 9" or 8".  It is enough to make a potholder or mug rug, etc.  



You keep the back on while you sew.  The thread and needle went through the paper very easily.  I was very lazy and didn't even iron my strips.  Like I said this is just a test piece anyway.  Here is what the back looks like.  Before I trim it.



It was very easy to trim because you just follow the outline of the 10" paper piece.  Just line it up with your ruler or whatever and soon you have a neat square of stripped fabric, etc.  Hopefully you will make yours trips long enough so it's all covered up.  LOL.

Try it out sometime.  I was impressed with how well my machine liked sewing through it and it did go very fast.



When all done you still have to take off the paper but it VERY easily came off.  I'm leaving some of it on because I am going to show my friend Connie tomorrow at lunch so she can determine for herself.




What else have I been up to?  I took a picture of the four blocks that I've done for The Quilt Pattern Magazine's Mini-BOM.  I'm going to submit it for this month's bucket list (giggles).  April's bucket list is drawing was embellishments.  I embellished a couple of the eggs.  At least I will have something done this month in case I don't get to it otherwise.  


I need to try and find my pictures of some crazy quilt blocks that I received one time. THAT was embellished.  LOL.

That's it for now.  Time to work on a couple of other projects.  Until next time have a great day.

Monday, April 1, 2013

April 1st

April Fool's Day.  A day where one should question what is said.  Luckily I didn't run into too many people who wanted to play tricks so it wasn't so bad.  Of course since it is the 1st of the month, that meant the new BOM's would be coming out soon.  As usual, The Quilt Pattern Magazine is one of the first ones out of the starting block and I have the new mini BOM.  It's a cute Easter egg. pattern.  Since it's basically an oval, it didn't take long to do.


There was a bonus pattern of an umbrella which I might do for the label when it is done.  Not sure yet.

Hope everybody's day was a good one.


Whew! Time for a break!

I have been busy these last few days.  I even got out my sewing machine and did some 9 patch blocks so I could continue on with Fleur.  Do y...