saturday is alright

Here's a little giftie for Shelly... She has a special day coming up so I put this together for her...
She rcvd it yesterday so I can finally show it!
Red yellow and blue, right up her alley!
Playing more with my scraps, some itchy finger sewing and machine quilting...
I was fun to work on... And hard to let go of... it really looked so cute.


the rocking chair quilt: I've shooshed the dog off this quilt again, so I can get it finished!

***

HOME EC:

I love some of the projects you all talked about in the comments yesterday about
Home Ec.
I had a few good chuckles...

Made me think about
mini pizzas on English muffins
and carrying a raw egg around for a week for family class....
How to care for you baby... You had to make sure you didn't break your egg
or you failed the class.
Did any of you have that too?

Perhaps it's a midwest thing...



BASICS BLOCK GATHER

How they stack up!

I rcvd Megan's,
Sara's,
Robin and
Anne's blocks yesterday!

the sock monkey has a friend in one of
Sara's blocks with a little girl peeking out!

Keep the blocks coming! They look fantastic!

BASICS home gather pattern click here

Happy Sewing!

home EC

I really enjoyed reading the comments from yesterday about passions...
or Obsessions as Shelly put it...
I'm not all quilts all the time, I do have my other passions...

Winter just puts the kabosh on most of them!

Some good memories came up from the comments,
thinking back to HOME ECONOMICS classes in school.
Do they still teach home Ec in school?

Any memorable home ec projects you can recall?

I think my first was a stuffed DOG, then a patchwork pillow,
in Jr. high school.

Then in Sr. High I made a Wool long PINK lined winter dress coat...
(everyone else was making pot holders...)
and yes, I said, PINK... it matched my pink hair at the time....

and also a very memorable MAUVE jumpsuit...
anyone want to dare venture into what years those were??

ha!

Can't wait to hear what you all made!

MEGO< please leave me and email address I can never reply to your comments!

My fingers are a bit sore form all the hand sewing I've done this week. So I thought I would play around with these other projects that are patiently waiting for me...

March is my month for the Quilt bee One block over, so I am excited to work
on a few more of my sunset blocks for that project...
I can't wait to have a whole wall of them and figure out how I want them to all live together...
Also,
I dug out the box of crosses I have cut for the green and red project... I like to whip out a few of those every once in awhile... they go very quick....


Seems I'm not getting much quilting done on this one today...
umm, Excuse me???
get off my quilt...

Lynn sent in the two in the left row. Thanks LYNN!
The sock monkey now feels part of a village...
I see some cats are coming my way too! yippee! thanks guys!

I will be meeting with the org on Monday, to show them how things are taking shape.
Keep em, coming!

click here: Bumble Beans BASICS home gather

Passion

the rocking chair

Thanks for all your lovely words yesterday. I wouldn't usually post about health stuff, but I figure someone would have had some similar knowledge and is good to gather info from all perspectives...

Many of your comments about slowing down got me to thinking about what that means...
Many say how much work I get done, but realize,
sit here and sew all day, that's what I do, and why I get so much done...
If I were still painting as an artist, I'd be in my studio all day.... for now I sit in front of my sewing machine working out creative scrambling to get them out of my head...


So Slowing down for me,
is trying to stay in the day, the moment, and not get wound up ,
like I did yesterday about all the stuff I have to do TOMORROW...

If I stay in today, I get a lot of work done...
Yesterday was my hit on the head to realize, today is a good day.
Enjoy it.


Anyway, back to passions....
It got me thinking about why quilting has taken over in my life...
I went to college for fine art and have a fine arts degree... Always a painter sculpture photography person at heart, I always tried to incorporate sewing somehow into my life...

From a young age, I learned to sew on a kids GLUE sewing machine!
Anyone recall those?
When your to little to know to keep your fingers out from the needle,
glue would dab down on the fabric and that is how it stuck together...

I watched my father tear apart furniture and reupholster them, and learned the 3 D design aspect at a very young age... Besides a farmer, he did upholstery...

My mother sewn quilts for cousins as they got married, and often made our clothes, much to the dislike of having to be dressed in matching outfits with my brother and male cousins!
(and grandfather! god bless him!)


And My grandmother, the crazy quilter... So, sewing was always around...



When I got to college though, I tried to keep sewing in my work as a fine artist...
I often did paintings and thought, hmm, maybe that would work nicely on fabric...



this is before special fabric paints were available to us...


I've used ink, acrylic, water color, tea you name it...
(I didn't say they were any good though!)

and my professors would give me a hard time about including these in shows, as no one was doing this sort of CRAFT, in college....

I recall trying to do a gradation project and not being able to find enough values of PINK to make the project and having the scrap the idea, which pleased my teacher...

I did at least make my graduating from college outfit!
but no quilts were in my senior show...

Had someone in college told me I could do this as a living then,
I probably would have been on a different path...
fabric design, quilt patterns etc etc... I had no idea...

And now, after years of doing my thing as an artist, I am pulled back to my sewing...
And think about why quilting is such a passion...


My favorite memories of a kid are looking at my grandmothers crazy quilts,
recalling my mother bringing home a PINK trip around the world block top that someone had made for me...
Being joyous with new baby blankets
and listening to polka music in my dad's shop while his old Singer industrial hummed along...

For whatever reason, I like the road it's taken me on....
Now, thinking back, it stirs up old memories and new quilts are born from them...

So for today, I will think about staying in the moment
but I hardly think my production level will change...

one has to do what one has to do...


BASICS Home Block gather

and keep on discovering NEW passions...

(and yes, take care of me! I'm off to the doc. )

Is sewing your passion? or just something to pass the time?

slow down

Sewing and picking....

I am trying to get two quilts done by March 1st, and find my self rushing a bit...
Not good! Now I sit picking out stuff... patience my dear!
slow down!

I'm adding some slow stitch on the waverunner to finish it up. I'm nearly done... my fingers are pretty sore but it's been worth it!

The last couple months,
I've been dealing with issues with anemia, and Dr. apts that take 2 hours at a time twice a week... We took a month break on treatments, to see how I reacted, well, I've been sleeping A lot... so between Dr apts,, and napping constantly, not to mention my hair and eyelashes falling out, I start back next week with those 2 hour treatments... which means 5 hours less of sewing time... Weekends are pretty much busy, so that's out. I'm running out of time...
Not to mention other life stuff that always seems to be happening anyway...

So I sit here PICKING. Good lesson for slowing down...

And far as how fast time goes, I have 40 days left of being in my thirties!

Let the countdown begin...

slow down enjoy the ride...

Life is only getting better anyway!

I cleaned off my cutting table and have all these fabulous scraps for the next tile quilt project...
yummy morsels of scraps...

I'll save those for when I don't have 6 projects going at once...

I rcvd the first two blocks for the BASICS House block gather!
How cute are these?
Hello Sock monkey!
Thanks Michele!

I look forward to putting these quilts together over the summer...

little of this and that

Linda told me the 8 kids quilts for Sis Boom POW!

are in the mail and on their way back to me!

I can hardly wait! I need to cut bindings for them, and be ready for a sew day
here at my place March 6th... If your in the hood, stop by and help! ;-)

I quilted this other baby quilt today so there will be 9 for donations total...
Makes me so happy!

I just had a call from B's school, saying they were closing school tomorrow! I guess I should watch the weather more closely! they are anticipating a lot I guess! right now it's sunny, and blue skies! wont' it be funny if we only get an inch or two... I may be eating my words tomorrow... we'll see what we actually get! exciting! I better go buy some food! zoiks!

Waverunner II ....Bound and out of the wash.... I'm letting this air dry nice and flat...
I had to hang it up to get some light on it to photograph it...
SO NOTE: the top is actually STRAIGHT, but it's still damp and hanging from a pin,
that's why it looks wonky crooked...

Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday on this quilt. I'm SOOOO happy with it...
But it's nice to hear others like it too... Now I need to decide what to do on the other one... Not sure If I want to do the same quilting on the other waverunner...
I may wait til I know for sure...

oh, and, Yes, I marked the first 16 rows, which gave me a 12" circle... This part wad very slow going.... Lots of quilt to turn round and round....

Then I quilted the rest by sight....

Good question! Thanks for asking!

I had to play with this quilt a bit more today... (Feels like grandma's house)
As I had said, it was inspired by
Lori's cheese and cracker quilts, but mine took a serious left turn...
It started to have a feeling of my grandmothers house, so I took off on the thought...
Now that parts of it are sewn together, the more I look at it, it is starting to resemble her Rocking chair that she sat in every day... so I am leaning toward that feeling...
just following my gut... it will be what it is...

And lastly, after all the crazy amount of sewing I did the last couple days, my machine was making some funny noises.... I always clean it before I start a project,
but I don't always clean the whole underneath....
If your not mechanically inclined, don't remove the bottom of you machine...

If you are, go ahead and give it a quick clean up sweeping out the dusty goo with a paint brush... but don't remove all the thick oil...
save that for when you take it for a thorough professional cleaning...

No more funny noises! yippeee!

Rotate!

Rotate!
Backing up a bit....
I finally finished these little Paula Prass snowballs Shelly and I have been working on...
I just love all the different colors in here... I need to get the borders figured out today, get it together, Then I will send it back to Shelly and she will quilt it... She's been great about getting her blocks done! I've been jumping all over the place...

I'm trying to get some more of these nearly finished quilt tops done... I did get the borders on the On POINT quilt. I thought at first i wanted something fancier for borders... I do love big simple borders... But after I found the perfect fabric, I thought it did plenty for it... So, it is what it is... Backing is cut, so, that's one more off my list...


I can now add it to the 13 others I have sitting here ready to be quilted...
sigh... I can't keep up on the quilting... I am still plugging along on the Tile quilt... all that micro stippling gives you a stiff neck! I hope to have the quilt finished this week...

But then again, I've started another project... This one for Tonya's Liberated Amish quilt challenge...

And this quilt is overlapping my grandmother's house quilt.... time to get them off the wall!

I am dwiddling down that stack of UFO's! yippeee!



String runner complete!


Oh!
And a pinch and a punch for the First of the month and no returns!

Happy sewing!

Sat. stuff

Memories: Sold

My two little quilts are up for sale on the AAQI page.
It your interested, go take a peak.

#4777 Memories & 4778 PAST PRESENT & FUTURE


Tonya has a class up to do some wonky Amish stuff!
Go check it out here if you want to play along...
I started straight in last night... Couldn't help myself!



This piece is coming right along. I know exactly what I want from it...
A mixture of memories from my grandmothers house, the quilts she made and all that fabulous 40's wallpaper that covered her walls... Funny that this started from thinking about a cheese and crackers quilt! Funny how the mind wanders!
Grandma's house... that's a good name for this one...

little of this and that

Not in the mood to actually put something together today...

But I am bumbling around playing with scraps, and odd blocks left over from the quilt I am cutting pieces for below....

Totally inspired by all the Cheese and cracker quilts that Humble Quilts has been doing,
I've been processing how I'd do a quilt like that... a way to wonky it up, or play with squares...

So I started by cutting out some cheddar-y looking fabric, and taking all the 2"ers I had in darks to play with.... It's now taking its life... And I like where it's going!
But I still wont' put it together today... A good day to just play!

I can't believe I am actually planning on making this quilt...

And Before Shelly says,"YOUR MAKING A PINK quilt?"

No! I'm not, It's PEACH...
;-)
Sorry all you pink lovers... Barb, Andi ;-)

I did piece a back for the little baby quilt I did yesterday,
that's about all the sewing I have in me today!
Perhaps I should get out my iron...

I have been enjoying those hand sewing projects lately,

so I am working on a little scrap something...
Just a peek...

Have a great weekend!