studio redo

6 days and counting....

I'm in NYC for Two days to get my loft in shape....  the construction as of today, of course, 

is not finished... !!!  (no surprise right?) 

So I am hoping to get everything else in order in the mean time...

My studio is getting a complete cleaning, and reorganizing everything...  

I took our old bookcases and lined them down one wall of windows,

so I have new fabric storage... Yippeee!

Except that the small cubes, don't fit all my nicely folded fabrics properly!  

Do I refold ALL of it, or shove it in and make it fit wonky???  

OH well... It will all work out... 

I hope to free up both of my WALLS, to have a nice hug a space for design walls....

ZOIKS! What a mess.. It gets very overwhelming, 

but I am trying to keep pushing through to get it all done... 

Now I have had my 3 minute break! sigh.

to be continued!

sunday wrap up

As summer wraps up so do a few extra projects... 

This baby quilt  is a combo of NYC and JAPAN...

colors of both flags, and fabric prints from both cultures, some fun NYC prints, 

and taxi cab yellow....  This is a gift to the gal who gifted me her old Singer ....  

She's a real sweet person, and it will be for her nephew who is from NYC, 

living in Japan, with his wife and there second son on the way...

It's all sorts of reds and blues.... 

I know some read black, but they are really just navy blue colors...

I may add a few more brights around...

I used up every bit of WHITE I had... which is not very much...!!

So it was a fun challenge to myself try to make something with it...

I did the binding on B's little Butterfly quilt, and then whipped up a PINK one

for our granddaughter, who arrived today for one week visit from Seattle.

These little scrappy projects are just so fun to throw together... 

grab and use what you have... a little mini adventure...

They are all snuggled into their beds tonight, after a busy day of swimming.

Friends, family and sewing...

A good day indeed.

one week left

One week left of our summer before we're back to NYC...

Time for some random play...

clean up

pack up

Get ready for school to start...

Enjoy fall

savor it.

before winter...

Happy Sewing!

this and that

My daughter asked me what  "ragamuffin" was... 

I explained in a round about way,

as it was rather hard to explain... disheveled, orphan...

ORPHAN!

It so happened that I was playing with  these blocks... 

 

Ragamuffin Quilt

I think it fits,  do you agree?

Do you see the TINY little navy and white school house block!  

Thank You Siobhan!  How darn cute is that?

And thank you to all who have contributed... 

I do believe I have enough!

Guess what today is?

Harvest canning!

Salsa baby!

I had a flashback to when I was ten, and helped my mother

peel the skins off blanched tomatoes....

Now some other ten year old has this job...

Boy, does my house smell good!

DING!

oops, gotta go get the salsa out of the canner...

collecting scraps...

This is just my clarification to my daughter that she indeed DOES enjoy playing in my scraps...

She had a chore today to help go through my two bins of scraps to pick out all the tiny bits

for yet another scrappy quilt, using bits that are already SMALL...

She then said, I love this, and this, and this, and this one!

Next thing I know, she has them laid out with batting, and a fabric backing...

(This comes from my girl who said recently she'd never make another quilt, and I couldn't make her)

Mind you, I've never MADE her...  She gets all excited playing with the scraps all on her own...

I ONLY had her pick out my tiny scraps.

There. I said it.  ;-)

So, can you tell she's my kid or what?

Myself?  I have been cutting apart those shirts Tonya and I collected... These are just the cuffs and collars off just 4 shirts!  Look how much I got just from those pieces! Gotta love it... The Accu-quilt works fabulous for this project...
Yes, they are indeed addicting.... (I highly recommend it.)

But my scissors hand has a rubbed sore callus from cutting up the first 8 shirts! 
So be warned...

Cut in shifts...  ;-)

The Star Splitter

Yippeeeeee! YAHOO!!!  I got this blasted STAR SPLITTER top together!!!

I found it very interesting when I posted this at the 15minutesplay site, 

that more than one person said, "isn't the last leg of the quilt just the hardest part to do? "

YES! I sooo get that!

You run out of QUILT MO JO as you near the end, once you have an 

idea what "IT" is going to look like...  

I was dragging my heals as it was, putting this beast, I mean, lovely quilt together...

You'd think after getting more THEN half of the quilt together, I'd have all the quirks worked out...

but no... alas, I think I ripped out nearly every seam twice to get it together 

Sometimes the old brain just didn't work...

But in the end...  I won!  (I LOVE IT)

I added in a few other yellows to break up the rather PERFECT looking border...

I much prefer funky THAN perfect...  I like how it draws your eye around the quilt...

The other HARD part of the quilt was, I have a VERY difficult time

NOT making every quilt a KING SIZE quilt...

I mean, If I am making a quilt, it should at least fit my bed! 

no?

I did settle and make this a full size quilt for my guest room,

but it doesn't match anyway... see? I should have made it king... LOL!

It's a sickness I know...

Speaking of sickness... Tonya took me to a goodwill

store and we pretty much cleaned them out of super soft well worn, men's cotton shirts...

They were on sale that day! super score!

She got me hooked... 

These are all in the wash now, so I can start cutting them apart...

This maybe one, if not two quilts...(maybe three?)

I've been corrected by the PROOFING POLICE on my use of THEN AND THAN...
Obviously my creative skills are better THAN my typing and grammer...
Lot's of luck!

Swirls of colors

A top done... I had some hand work to finish on this, 

which I did, then

I went to baste this top, but realized after I cut the 

backing that I don't have any batting left...

BOOOO!  bummed me out...  I was on such a roll...

Now it will go back into the pile of WIPS... (works in progress)

I will be hand quilting this one...   so it may be a while before you see this done!

LOL.

SAVED!  I rescued this lovely quilt today, marker cutter,

at a local quilt show...  There is one fabric that has burned out on a few squares, 

but the squares where lined... never seen that before... perhaps they added a sheeting of cotton between the batting and the backing...

So it still holds it all in good shape...

there were some really lovely prints in this quilt... prints you just don't see anymore...

I had to have it...

I have to say most of the quilts at this antique quilt show where not very nice...

But this one stuck out... 1/2" squares make up this print...

gorgeous.

This pink and white had the dog quilted out of it...

I like the three side border...

I thought the colors and pattern on this were interesting...

not terribly exciting, but oddly interesting.

This applique' was rather sweet... it hung next to a sun bonnet sue...

This was definitely more interesting... then little miss sue...

And, speaking of interesting, I bought these 70's vintage upholstery

fabric samples.... I'm not sure what I will do with them, but aren't the colors fabulous?

I'm thinking new pillows in my living room, when I get the loft back in order...

color.

ha! I used to love white quilts...white home, white white white...etc... 

now I just need COLOR.

Ever thought about doing a quilt using the two colors, you think you avoid, most?

hmm.... what colors would they be?

 I think white and pink... for me, 

although that doesn't sound like much fun...

how about purple and yellow?

ooh that would be tough.. ACK! my high school colors...

maybe you gotta mix them all up together...

Tell me your worst nightmare for a color combo...

(Don't get me wrong, I love yellows/golds, and purples, just not all together in one quilt.. complimentary or not, it's just my mind goes to an ICK FACTOR when I see them together...
Separately, a purple toned quilt, fab.
Golds, well, that is probably one of my favorite colors to use...after red... or mix them all up with a tone of colors... no problem....)

Gail's circle table topper

Some of you had asked about Gail's Circle table runner she sent me, if she had used a pattern...

I sent her an email, as she doesn't have a blog, to find out for you...  

here is what she sent me.

Cut various width strips and sew together making a larger piece of fabric,

Using your wedge ruler

She just alternated the  ruler up /down across the strata... cut wedges  

Wedges are 3" on the wide end, and 1" at narrow end...

Gail has about 40 wedges to make one circle.

She assembles them from center to outer edge

Press with the seams all going one direction...

She then fuses iron on fleece on the back of the assembled wheel to stabilize it...

( baste around large Ric Rac if desired) then choose your backing fabric...

With right sides together sew outer edge of "O" all the way around. 

trim, and turn through center hole.

PRESS

She then Quilted the topper and finally, making a hole cover or center for the wheel,

 cut a piece of the iron on fleece for the whole, press it onto the hole, then make the center

to make the center,

You Can follow her instructions above, or

cut a circle to fit,  and stitch around 

(either raw edge machine applique or turn your edges

then machine stitch it down, or hand stitch)

I  shortened her final instructions slightly... on covering the whole...

On a little one I made, I machine appliqued the circle on the top...

and quilted it all at once... Your choice...

Feel free to give it a whirl, and take your own liberties.  

Gail, after years of working with fabrics,  is a make it up as you go kind of girl too.

She did not use a pattern, but after so many years of playing with fabrics,

she knew how to quickly play and lay it all out...

Thank You GAIL for sharing your lovely project with us!

20 years later

I put the borders on my very badly constructed blocks from 20 years
ago onto this top I never finished back in 1990...

I decided it was best to just leave it as I had intended, as what
bothered me then...(not being perfect) doesn't bother me now!

Then, I was fascinated by the solid colors of quilts on a poster that
I had called, Quilts of Lancaster county... I think someone gave me a
Amish quilt book way back then too... Although I knew nothing about
quilts other than my grandmothers crazy quilts... I knew I liked what
I saw...

The fabrics are pretty funny... The greens area heavy cotton twill and
the pink and blue are very light weight cottons... Cheap and thin...

I wish I could recall if there was a particular quilt I was looking
at... I recall trying to find solid fabrics, and having had a hard
time finding the right shades... Which must be why I had a heavier
weight green... I also didn't have any money, so price was figured
into it... I found a price tag on the blue and pink.. It was $1.99 a
yard

Anyway, I was in college and skimping by, and had I finished this, it
would have been my first quilt...

Now I need to select a backing, and am wondering if I should keep it a
solid or find some circa 1990 fabric to finish this project off...

Our house phones and cable have been out for two days now...

what a pain.

Happy sewing!!!

Florida

I've spent the last few days sewing with Tonya (aka lazy gal, unruly quilter)...
I thought the Halloween fabric would give it away!

She's been an inspiration for me since I started blogging...
we met up about a year and a half ago... you know,
Us crazy, free thinker, unruly quilter friends, gotta stick together..
;-)

Thanks Tonya! Had a blast...
Can't wait for your book to come out!

Where's V?

Where in the world is... Bumble Beans?

Now here is something you don't see everyday...

Me = Halloween prints?
I broke out of my "theme print" BOX...
well,
with a gentle push by...
you know who!

Can you guess where I am?

( gotta admit it, I have enjoyed playing with the theme prints)

Happy Sewing!

Your orphan blocks

Orphans finding a home...

I stuck most of the orphans all up on the wall to see what I had to work with...
These are just from all of you!
I am soooo inspired after seeing all your blocks...
I'm seeing stars and boxes! And bright colors of course!
Can you spot yours?

And THIS is my STASH of Orphans... Yeah, I have quite a few... many old ones...
but none as fabulous as all of yours!


I'm a bit antsy... I want to start working on the orphan blocks,
but I just can't yet, until all the BASICS quilts are done...
I don't think I shown this one on the far right in the other two photos from sat.
I am getting there... slowly but surely.

I popped into the city, (NYC) today to get my mail,
and am heading out of town to visit a pal for a few days...
Had to see what work they were getting done at the loft...

It's coming along! We're getting there!
woohoo! new radiator coverswith bookcases built in... and a paint job...
I know, very exciting right?
I'm getting antsy... I want to clean this place out, and make it all homey again!

Anyone need a 9' pool table?
sure wish I could sell that thing and get it out of here...

happy sewing!

a day without sewing.

The Star Splitter

It look like I got a ton done on this today doesn't it?
fooled ya. It was a sewing hooky day...
well sort of... I did this a couple days ago before
a migraine knocked me off my feet yesterday...



Actually, the day was spent with
Jackie, from Canton Village Quilt works!
She and her hubby and some friends brought
me another load of the BASICS quilts..

I took these tonight quick, so the pics aren't great... but you get the idea...
They fill my lawn with patchwork FABULOUS!


Recognize any of your blocks in there?
This batch had a bunch of baby quilts...
so so cute...


We, (my hubby , B and I) took them to the Montauk Lighthouse...
Of course, I didn't bring my
camera, but I am sure Jackie will have some great pics to share...

Thank goodness for my iphone..
the beach was fabulous. surfers, boats, and lots of people..

I'm sneaking off for a few days to play with another quilter pal...
be back soon!