UFO redux

I think I am going to call this quilt

Seam Ripper Madness!

I have used my seam ripper at least half as much as my sewing machine.

Well, not really, but it feels like it.

I'm fine with that. I think the seam ripper is one of my favorite tools.

The kid hates it when I make her use the seam ripper.

Hahahaha. I love to make her use the seam ripper!

So we left off with this magenta border, hated it!

I ripped it out and set about trying other fabrics

I went with this brown. A real surprise for me, but it works much better.
I'm thinking because I was auditioning it on my wood floors, I was leaning toward the brown.

There is quite a bit of brown in the other fabrics and I think it really lets the blocks
stand out and take the center stage.


For the corners, I used another brown from the kid's stash.
For a new quilter, the kid has a very nice stash!
Lucky for me, she is very generous.

I still have to sew all the componets together,
but I finally like how it looks.


I have all day tomorrow to sew!!!
I will finish this top and . . .

My Hard Candy Quilt is finally ready to be pieced!
I finished all those blocks today.

UFO's

I started to clean up my sewing room yesterday.

That is always a tricky thing because I get distracted

a hundred times and start working on old projects instead.

Who wants to pick thread out of the carpet anyway??

I found this unfinished project from about 6 or 7 years ago.

I put it aside when I lost steam and or love of it.

Sometimes you just need to put things aside . . .

Usually it doesn't take me 7 years to come back to it!

I kind of remember what it was supposed to be back then,

but of course, it will change now.

I finished up the blocks, diagonal string blocks.

And I put a border on it.

It is all dots and stripes fabric.

The colors are all over the map, but they seem to work together.

I had a lot of cut fabric strips left because I was sick of making the blocks,

so I decided to make some piano key borders.

I also wanted to make some corner stones to try to pull it together.

I hate these.

They are the same colors from the other fabric, but they just don't work.

I tried these corner stones instead,

and I like them much better.

Now I hate the magenta border. I'll be ripping that out tonight.

It still needs a lot of design work, and I'll be playing with this for the next few nights.

I'll let you know what happens next!

Sunday Projects #8

The Little Ones arrived this week with their parents

to spend Christmas at my house.

My niece and nephew, the cutest, most polite children on the planet,

and yes I am biased!

We ventured into the city on Christmas Eve to do alittle sight seeing.

I took them to Rockefeller Center to see the tree . . .

The kid and I had so much fun showing them around.

Unfortunately my camera battery conked out, so I missed some great photos.

Everyone was supposed to stay until Monday,

but with the first blizzard of the winter upon us, the crowd woke up

and announced they were leaving ASAP!

Run to pack all the cars and get out the door before the first flake falls.

Hahaha . . .

Empty house, snowed in . .

You know what that means!

I got to sew!!

I decided to work on the challenge block for NYC Metro Mod Quilters

I chose a New York Beauty block.

I It came together pretty fast, so I decided to try another

using the 15 minute play method.

I like them both!

What did you work on today?

Are you snowed in?

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Beading

I used to be a "beader."

I made lovely necklaces and earrings.

I even made my own beads out of clay.

That must have been a million years ago . . .

My very good friend Nancy wanted an eyeglass chain for Christmas.

She has lost two or three pairs of very expensive reading glasses

and has now decided eyeglass chains aren't so bad.

Please . . . we are of a "certain" age now.

So I made her two. One is a mermaidy green beach glass look . . .

And one in a bright colorful, I can find these look.

I swear they have made the holes in those beads smaller since I tried to make

something with beads!

Really, I could barely see the holes, it was more like intuition to get them on the wire.

I also "made" this . . .

My other great friend, Anne, gave me this crystal last night.

It has very amazing energies. Hey, I could use some amazing energies!
Especially this week.


I was given explicit instructions to wrap wire around it and hang it from my neck.
This only took three tries to get the right amount of wire
so you could still see the crystal and it won't take a nose dive from the chain.

I think this is going to be my new favorite luck charm.

Do you have something that brings you luck that you love to wear???

Sunday Projects #7

I received this book in the mail last week . . .

Travels with Peaky and Spike by Doreen Speckman.

In my exploration of all things triangley, I decided to

check out this book after it was recommended to me by a friend.

This is a really great book!

First I cut out some templates in a variety of shapes.

There are great directions and it was easy to follow.

I decided on a simpler block to start off with . . . just to get my feet wet.

There are some very cute quilts in this book with fish, and whales and nature scenes.

I wasn't loving the first center I cut, thought it needed something to
tie all the colors together, so I switched to this bright floral fabric

This block went together pretty quickly.

I am going to try a few of the harder ones this week . . .

That is if Christmas doesn't get in the way! hahaha.

I also whipped up a couple of these little wallets.

They are so sweet. You can fit a few credit cards and cash in them,

stick them in your pocket

and be on your way!

What fun things are you working on today???

Nine Patch Doodling

I have been doodling again . . .

Too much time on the phone . . . .

I started focusing on nine patch blocks. I am drawn to the nine patch.

Must be that order thing again.

I wanted to see how many different variations on the nine patch

I could come up with just doodling away.

I thought I would dive into a bag of silk scraps for this experiment.
I didn't have any fusible web . . .

Needless to say, my cutting & ironing board are covered with the fraying threads of silk.


I tried a couple of different nine patches.

Then I decided to crank it up a notch.

What if I made a "traditional" nine patch, and then trimmed it up on an angle.




This I LOVE! I need to try these in fabrics that don't fray when you
breathe on them!

These are the four blocks I have so far.

on another note . . . . .

The kid passed her Art Therapy exam!!!

She is now a licensed Art Therapist.

She has quite the little alphabet after her name now.

I am quite the proud mama.

Sunday Projects #6

Wasn't feeling the sewing love today . . .

Thought I lost my mojo.

So I took out a charm pack and decided to just do some very simple

sewing . . . putting 5" blocks together to make a baby quilt.

For what baby I don't know yet.

It's cute. Need to piece a back now.

Then the QADD kicked in. You Know Quilter's ADD.

I started bouncing all over the sewing room.

"What should I do next?"

"I'm not feeling the love for any of it right now."

"OMG, there's some fabric I didn't know I had."

You know, like a squirrel on crack.

And then I spied this pile of men's shirts I bought at the thrift shop.

Wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but the fabrics were nice
and the colors were bright.




I remembered a cute little item I saw in a store in the Boston
area last year. I didn't buy it because, well, you know . . .
"I could make that myself!"

I didn't take a picture of it either because shop owners don't like
crafty people photographing the wares.
They want you to buy them!




After an hour or two of cutting and sewing
I had a nice little apron.
The collar from the shirt is now the waistband.
The pocket is left on the front, although it is hard to get your hand in it.

It needs alittle tweaking. And I need to MEASURE next time.
You know me just cutting it up and winging it!







On another note . . . . .
While I was cutting that shirt up, I looked out my sewing room window
and saw this big fat squirrel (not on crack) sitting right in front of me chomping on a nut.







Can you see him on the branch?
He looked very pleased with himself!


Did you make anything fun today?

Wreath Construction

I love making as many of the things for Christmas as possible.

I love a wreath with lots of different greens, but they are so expensive.

I bought a plain wreath at the grocery store.

Then I took my clippers and basket and headed for the woods . . .

and the beach.

Our beach has lots of different evergreens growing around it.

Over the years I have figured out where to hoist holly, clip balsam with the pine cones still attached, and just recently I hit the mother load with juniper.

So I started with my Charlie Brown wreath.

Poor thing, I didn't realize how lopsided it was, but as with everything else

it just gives it more character and that homemade feel.

I laid out all my "stash" from my covert clipping.


The leftovers will go into a flower arrangement later today.

So after much wiring and clipping and a few cuts and scrapes,

I have a great wreath for the front door!

What are you making today?

Ornaments

I love Christmas ornaments. They are small and cute.

I began collecting them 30 years ago when we owned a retail store

and I would decorate 20 trees each year.

But about 15 years ago I started making these wonderful little guys.

I bought a pattern, I don't even know where it is anymore, sorry.

These are all tiny little animals some with shorts and other yummy things.

The cow was one of the first ones I made.

He is really tiny. Over the years I have had to

enlarge them a bit.

The hands just can't do that teenie tiny stuffing anymore.

Here is a shot of the group.

I just love looking at them all lying there together.

I named them all. This one is Too Tall McCall.

I cut hair pins for his little antlers. Are they antlers?? Or ears??

This is Chocolate Mousse.

Every year I make a few for gifts.

This year the geese are up again. And maybe a few cows. Love the cows.

Do you make anything special for the holidays?

Sunday Projects #5

I doodle alot. Mostly when I am on the phone.

I don't really like talking on the phone . . . but I do alot of it at work.

So to distract myself, I doodle.

Sometimes my doodling inspires me to move those doodles to the sewing room

I usually have to dump my scrap bin on the floor so I can see everything.

It is a bit like a treasure hunt.




So I started constructing my doodles. It was very fun.



This is the finished block. I think I got that out of my system.

It's okay, but not really turning me on.

Maybe if I did it in black and white fabrics. Now that's a thought . . . .















on another note . . . .

The kid and I put up the tree this weekend.

It is such a blessing to have a six foot daughter!!

She dragged that tree off the top of the car and hoisted it into the stand
like it was nothing . . .


She even put the angel she made when she was three
on top without a step stool.

Oh to be tall . . . .

NYC Metro Mod Quilter's Meeting

Today was our NYC Metro Mod Quilter's Meeting!

We met at the lovely Victoria's loft. Such an inviting place!

Thanks V. for hosting us!

There were tons of giggles and laughter.

Much oogling of fabric and quilts.

A rough and tumble game of Yankee Swap for fat quaters . . .

A fun time had by all!!

This is the quilt we did for our October Challenge meeting.

Margaret quilted it and did the binding.

I looks fantastic in person!

Jessica and I conspired to have our spider web quilts done at the same time

so we could show them together.

Carol also had a spider web quilt top with her in yummy oranges.

I don't seem to have a picture of that one, you'll have to head over here

to see it when the pictures are posted.

We also spread out all our December challenge blocks.

They look so nice together.

It was decided to put them on point and everyone will bring back a deep

magenta square to the next meeting to off set them.

Our challenge for February's meeting is all about quarter circle curves . . .

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

On another note . . . . .

Andrea Bocelli sang to me last Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

I know there were other people there too . . . .

But really he was singing just to me. hehehe

Outta the comfort zone and starting to feel comfortable!

I have been trying to do one of these blocks every couple of days.

It's not so easy to construct them, especially for someone

who thrives on order.

I am getting there though.

They are getting easier every time I sit down to try one.

I have four so far. I'm not sewing to size, what a surprise!

I will put them all together when I have about 30.

I have been inspired to make these blocks from

the 15 minutes play site.

I also tried a couple of these. I really liked this.

A touch more order. haha.

It's good to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

Try something today you wouldn't have thought you would!