Out of the closet

I dug this quilt out of the to-be-quilted closet yesterday and let it have its day. its been in there a while. i thought the pattern was from either Judy Laquidara or Mary Johnson....but i can't find it on either of their websites. so...no telling where i got this. i barely remember yesterday so it is no wonder that i don't remember where it came from. if you know...clue me in...ok?

Sunglassses alert...LOL

The fabrics that aren't black are almost all from my hand dyes. this was a pretty quick pattern and lends itself to any size. the diamonds are done on a foundation square...the stripes are pieced without a foundation. the stripes are different widths.

I used my Quiltazoid for quilting....Baptist fans

And the backing is something i had in the studio. also pretty bright.

I used the backing fabric for the binding, also.

Another one out of the closet...not TOO many left in there....under 10. first time in years. my goal is that by the end of the year that closet will be empty. yeah...i know....a girl can hope.

Now i am off to quilt another one in that famed closet....will show you

Later

ABC....XYZ...123

All those alphabet letters i was appliquing are now arranged into a top. .... just needs quilting...and i plan on that happening today.

When i machine embroider/applique a 5x7" block....it requires a 14x18" piece of background fabric to fit into the frame. normally when i cut the block down....i throw those extra pieces into the scrap boxes. this time i decided to use them for sashings and borders. i cut all the pieces into 1 1/2" strips.

I used the same color for sashing on the right side and bottom of each block. all the pieces that were left.....i sewed them all into a long piece....974" of them. and using the 1600 quilt method....sewed them together....and together again....and together once more. that gave me about 250"...enough for the border ... or 8 borders. LOL

It's nothing if not bright. this will be a great learning tool for some child...learn your alphabet...some numbers....your colors....and play I Spy....all in one quilt. what more could you ask for.  i put a cat driving the car.

And a fish driving the train. too bad i didn't have a turtle to carry on the T theme. think anyone will notice? LOL

Now i have to go quilt it....will show you the results

Later

Mosaic jigsaw puzzle

I was left on my own last night while hubby went to the local bar to listen to a band. he even got to play along.

So, i dug out a jigsaw puzzle that i bought lately to amuse myself. it is made to look like mosaic tiles. the pieces are different configurations of these little squares. i don't think i would do it if it were all just tiny squares.

It was 16x20" and took just under 2 hours to complete. lots of fun and kept me amused for a bit.

If you haven't tried one of these....i recommend them. i have one more to put together...

Later

Ride 'em, cowgirl!

To have lots of fun being a cowgirl....

All you need is your trusty steed...

A kickin' western shirt.....

Flirty denim skirt....

And your silk bandana to show the world just who you are.

Can't go wrong.

I made this outfit for a friend's little girl....she is 3. and found the stick horse at a yard sale.  i think she is gonna love it.

The skirt took about 10 minutes and was no problem. the shirt on the other hand....sheesh...kicked my butt. yoke and interfacing....cuff and interfacing....collar and interfacing....neck interfacing. there were about 40 pieces to this. took me 2 days. LOL

I added the embroidery just to give it a little punch. the buttons on the shirt were supposed to be the scrapbooking type brads but i didn't think that was appropriate so i substituted.

Next on the agenda is a princess outfit....but i'll keep that for her birthday

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Crazy Quilt June Section

I have the 9 patch together for the June section of the crazy quilt. june's blocks are white....and 'sort of' white. LOL 

Here are close ups of the individual blocks....left to right...top to bottom

No, i didn't embroider those flowers....it was on a dresser scarve that i found in a thrift store.

Yet another scarve from the thrift store..with embroidered birds.

This was a part of a scarf that was never embroidered....so i finished it up with white. check out that trim that looks like a tape measure. cool!

And the lovely middle block

More thrift store finds with embroidery in the middle....and some white roses.

I love this butterfly and the 3D flower under it. that dark piece is cork...don't know how that will last but we will see.

Yet another embroidered piece....you know where it came from. LOL

And i just had to have some large, floppy fringe.

I don't know how all these different colored 9 patches will go together into one huge quilt. it might just all be a mess...i might have to take the blocks all back apart and mix them all up. i have 6 so far...i guess i could lay them all out and see...but i guess i'll find out...

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Crazy Quilt Journal Project for June

I am falling a bit behind in my crazy quilt monthly squares. i am glad i started out with a bang at the beginning.....the months are catching up with me.

This is June's block.....i went with white this time. It's harder than you think to work with just white. although there are different shades of white.....i didn't have a lot of them. so i added some gold and tan.

I found these wooden buttons online. they have an old fashioned feel.

This middle part was a sweater that i found in a thrift store. it adds a bit of color to the white block. i found the little butterfly pin in a thrift store, too.  i love thrift stores.

I have found many lovely crocheted items online. ... like this star and the 3D flower with pearls to the right of it.

I have found lots of laces and trim online, too.

This larger piece of lace needed something....so i added a tiny cameo in the middle.

Now i have to start on July....perhaps it can be a red, white and blue block.  mmmmm....will contemplate that till

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My Tweets block #6

While working at the Duck....i finished another block for the My Tweets quilt.

I am now half way finished with the blocks. so, at this rate....this quilt might be finished sometime next year.   but that's ok....i'm not in any hurry.

It is hand applique on light green flannel....the appliqued parts are felted wool. it's easy to stitch and there is no turning under the edges.

This will be a pretty warm quilt i am thinking...but since it will be 100 degrees the next few days....i won't be needing this till much

Later

After 1 year and 5 months......

I can now say that demolition on the Duck is finished. at 8am Wednesday, May 23, 2012, i whacked the last piece of ceiling board down. now all ceilings are down......all walls are gone. all i have are studs.....of the lumber type. LOL

There were times when i thought i would never see this day. and times i thought i might just give up and sell the miserable pile of lumber. but i persevered and the day has come that i can say....DEMOLITION IS DONE!
whew....that felt good.

I have some holes to fix here and there....and a partial wall to change from 2x6s to 2x4s.  and some major clean up. i can't tell you how many times i have swept those floors. i have just about used up a brand new broom. .... it is sort of stubby right now. old plaster makes LOTS of dust. and old insulation makes lots of black dust. the shop vac that i bought is crap and i have to find a suitable replacement to get all the bits out of the window sills and the spaces between the studs.

The pile of trash in the garage right now will fill my third dumpster. there is still crap to pull out of the basement to throw in the dumpster. i have to take down the old duct work for the old furnace. i have some outside work i want to do. the bushes are grown up in the fences again. and the sidewalk is grown over with grass. i have the paint and keep wanting to paint the doors and trim but never seem to get there. that may come soon.

The next large order of business is to get 7 more windows. then the only windows left to replace are in the kitchen and the front and back porch and the back studio room. Then the order of business might be:

...ceiling drywall
...insulation for walls
...plumbing
...insulation for ceiling
...turn on electric and water
...luan and barnwood for living room walls
...corrugated tin for laundry room upper walls
...beadboard for laundry room lower walls
...drywall for walls in all other rooms
...PAINT

that list might keep me busy for the next year or two....don't ya think?  hahahhahahah

All i need is time and money.  sigh!!

But the ugly part is done and the pretty part is in sight.....even though it is a little ways off. i think i'll be going back in a few weeks....and dragging hubby along to help. .... he is good with tools and lumber.

Later

May UFO Challenge

I'm finished early this month....woohoo!!!

This is May's #2 UFO Challenge quilt....presented by Judy Laquidara....over at  www.patchworktimes.com  check her out...she is hilarious. she has great quilt patterns, recipes and stories of her life with her husband, Vince; their dog, Speck; their chickens; and life on the Yellow Jacket Ranch in Texas. she's a hoot!

This was a pattern in the book called Shadow Quilts by Patricia Magaret and Donna Slusser. there are many awesome quilts in this book...but i doubt if i have time to make any more of them. but i couldn't resist this one.

This came out 65" square. i originally designed another border with 4" churn dash blocks but i think i was insane when i did that....so i stopped here.

I got these fabrics from my friend, Mary's, yard sale. i don't think i would have picked them to go together....but she had them sitting together at the sale and they seemed to want to stay together. i think it worked.

And i used the last of that yellow/gold check so that is a good thing. still have a bit of the other two.

I wonder what the number for next month will be....well, i'll find out...

Later

I Spy...maybe

This could be an I Spy quilt i suppose...although there aren't many kid fabrics in it. i spent a day cutting everything in my scrap boxes that i could into 4" squares. and i saw this pattern on someone's blog and knew it was a cute, quick quilt.

I probably have enough squares cut out to make another 5 or 6 of these. great donation quilt. and the size is adjustable with more or less blocks. whoever designed this was very clever. thank you

And it's a great stashbusting quilt, too. the red, white and blue background fabric is something that has been here a while and that i probably wouldn't have used in anything else. it seemed perfect for this.

As you can see...i used all the background fabric and a bit of a tan strip to make it large enough. the squares got X's through them and the rest was just a large meander. with a cool purple border.

Hard to beat for quick and easy.

Later

World's Tiniest Jigsaw Puzzle

When i went to the last book sale with my sis....i saw this tin box....and snatched it up. the world's smallest jigsaw puzzle. and you know i love jigsaw puzzles. it has 1000 pieces and is 12x18" finished.

It is so small....i worked it on my chopping board. i could sit in my recliner with the board on my lap and puzzle. wonderful!!

The pieces were kind of hard to pick up with my fat fingers. each piece was 1/2" square. but it worked just like a regular puzzle and was much fun. i got several evenings entertainment out of this. isn't it just the cutest thing?

I wish i could find more of these. i like the unusual in puzzles.

My sis plays games from Big Fish Games and the other day she got a jigsaw puzzle game. i downloaded it and played last night...or this morning...till 1am.  it is lots of fun. there are a couple dozen puzzles ranging from 30 pieces to 1000. you can change the options to get more or less pieces in the puzzle and even change the shape of the pieces. it is very cool.  i might be addicted to that for a bit.

But right now i have to go finish the quilt on the frame .... and puzzle...

Later

Machine embroidery work

At this rate, my embroidery machine will need to go in for another million stitch tune-up in the near future. ... it's been running most of the day for several days now.

I made 12 blocks of sunbonnet sues. at first i was going to quilt them individually and hang them monthly in the entryway of the studio. but then decided to make them into a quilt. here are a few blocks.

The white section with Sue is 11" square...then there is a 4" border around that.

All borders are different....corresponding with the month's mood and colors.

I sashed them with black and did a sashing border, too.

Then i was contemplating putting a large white border on it and thought it might be too bright. but i didn't want a black border and no other color seemed to work since i had every color in the spectrum in here already.

So i got the bright idea to do more Sues for the border. i am currently embroidering 48 blocks of Sues in blackwork on white fabric. i think that will work...the border will be black and white and match up. the embroidered blackwork Sues are about 4" square and all different. i think it will be cute. gonna try and finish up those squares today...i have about 30 of them done.

And i finished up my ABC applique machine embroidery blocks, too. i put numbers in the corner blocks. got to decide how to sash them and what to put on a border. it will be a cute kid quilt.

What would you put on the border? i was thinking of a pieced border with strips of all the colors...do you think that would work?  gonna go start up the embroidery machine again...talk with you

Later

Guess!

When i got home from class yesterday i was ready to piece the last block in my current class quilt. but my hubby had other ideas. he wanted to go to the local auction. it's about 2 miles from our house. we live in a very rural area with folks on the bottom end of the income scale. we went to the auction a few weeks ago and actually came home with a mini frig for $15...and it is still working. hahahaha

But i didn't hold out much hope since there is usually stuff there that i don't want....yard sale stuff. sometimes they sell a whole box at a time. and if something goes for $20...that is a high bid....most of it goes for a few dollars.

So, imagine my surprise when i spotted this among the offerings. look at those cute little feet...can you guess what it is?  it's smaller than a bread box. ...  hahahaha

It's this adorable box. it looks like it is covered in leather...but i don't think it is real leather. it is 10" wide, 7" deep and 8" high. i was determined to get it when i saw it. but i didn't want to spend over $5

The inside has some sort of fuzzy fabric. it is in good shape and all the little nails are present on the corner pieces.

A cute little handle on the top. reminds me of a lunchbox. i think it will look lovely on the coffee table at the Duck. of course,.....once i actually get a clean floor to put a coffee table on. LOL  i do have a coffee table already in the garage.

The man who brought this to sell is a regular seller...and to stay he is a bit strange is an understatement. he usually sells totes of stuff all at one time. there will be all kinds of things in there...figurines, showerhead, wiper blades, phone charger, ceramic pot, yarn, any number of things....all in one box. i was afraid he was going to put this together with a bunch of crap that i didn't want. but lucky for me, he pulled it to the side and auctioned it off separately....and i got it for $5. there was one man bidding against me....i might have gone to $7 if i had to. hahahaha

There were 3 gas cans that hubby wanted but the bid went too high so he let them go. so the little box is all we came home with. they have the auction every monday evening....so i might find more treasures

Later