Tigger Models Again!

Pink Dress with Crystals

Give me a T-I-Double G-er!  Tigger is my model for today's doggie dresses.  The pink one is embellished with crystals, as per my friends request.  I have to tell you those crystals take a long time to get into just the right spot!  I think I have an hour in the crystals alone.

This second dress, has been tickling at the back of my mind since making the first dress.  My friend had raved about lined dresses she picked up somewhere - made in China and she was so impressed that they were lined.  Well since I don't have a serger each edge is double stitched anyway, so I figured aside from cutting the lining material it's the same amount of work lined or unlined.  She had also commented on dresses with multiple tiers of ruffles and how they can be such a pain.  My mind told me everything is gathered at once, so it is mildly more work but not hair pulling.  Hence this dress is lined on the bodice and has three tiers of ruffles.  I did not line the skirts because that would have created lots of extra bulk and I was concerned about how warm something like this would be.  When I was all finished a bit of sparkly ribbon caught my eye and I stitched it on with a little bow.  I adore this dress.  I plan to offer it to my friend and if she doesn't want it I will be selling it online.  The ribbon is iridescent so it is worth clicking on to see in more detail.

Lined Dress

Love the new fabric mom!

The other day I did a little fabric shopping and found this lovely baby animal safari print.  Tiny thought it smelled amazing right away, which is a surprise normally she only gets like this after I've been a serious number of hours into a project.  I am planning on using this as a backing for a baby quilt for my sister.  The binding will be a wonderful pink batik that matches those great flowers.  The reverse is the grey fabric above as a background, and the pink batik will be butterflies appliqued on it.  I will be quilting it with pink thread.

Green Dress

Thursday I believe it was I finished up this little green dress.  The crystals on this one are purple which I picked up out of the print.  I put the final touches on this one right before seeing my friend so it and the others have already gone to their new home and have likely been worn on a real already.  Likely Tigger is devastated!

New Project: Lone Star Quilt

Have you ever started finishing a project thinking; I will work on my other quilts in progress, only to finish and discover you've been inspired to start something new?  Well, I sure have.

This time it was the leftover strips from what the class didn't pick at the Teach In.  It has me bean wound up to start two projects.  The first one I've finished cutting and am ready to start sewing whereas the other is still tickling in the back of my head so well talk about the former now and the later another time.

A Lone Star Quilt!  I think as my skills as a quilter grow I have to challenge myself to keep my own interest.  I sure have done it this time.  I think it was within my first year of quilting I alighted on a blue Lone Star quilt kit, it was even precut little pieces can you imagine the horror?  So I did a little research and filed it away and now the time has come.

Fabric For Lone Star Quilt

My Lone Star Quilt is a strip pattern I found - free online (will share the link after I find out if it works).  It uses 8 fabrics to make a 69" star.  My fabric starts with a deep purple and fuschia batik for the center, and then dances out into shades of blue and teal.  What do you think?  I've cut all the fabrics and hopefully I'll be able to start sewing soon.

Peppermint Burst Quilt Fabric Arrival

The fabric for my Peppermint Quilt is here.  Yippie!    My postman delivered it today, and goodness that was a heavy box!  All four fabrics to the left of the Peppermint Twist will be on the front as shown in the EQ file shown below.  The blue on the far right will be the backing.  I went with the 66" lap quilt because I love the way I envision it looking on the couch at Christmas Time.

I'll be starting this quilt after I finish my Turtles in the Grass top.

Peppermint Quilt Mockups

Lap Quilt - 66" Square

Now as I mentioned the other day I already had the fabric in mind for my first quilt out of Sue's book.  That is to use a delightful peppermint fabric, which is complete with a candy house, little silhouettes, and candy flowers.  At this point I think I'll be using Sue's Starstruck pinwheel blocks, though I gulp over seeing how many flying geese she is calling for.  Flying Geese and I have never been good friends, so maybe Sue's method will beat out those "you have to have a plastic template flying geese madness".

Queen/Full - 88"Square

Here are my two favorites out of what I've started so far.  The first one is a lap quilt which would clearly cost less to make, and then just to see is a full/queen for my bed.  I have these Pine Cone flannel sheets that would match perfectly...  I didn't take the time to draft Sue's star blocks, that seemed like way to much work so I selected these paper pieced monstrosities as they convey a similar movement as Sue's blocks.  Also note I would not go to all of that effort over my candy cane borders, instead I would use 2.5" strips at 45 degree angles or something around there, but this was the easiest way to depict diagonal stripes with EQ5.

What do you think?  Any thoughts and or suggestions?

Quilt 'Til You Wilt

I just discovered a new Quilt Shop, an out of the way little place called Quilt 'Til You Wilt.  Wonderful place, if you're ever in the area you should certainly stop buy.  Not a plug just a true thrilled customer.

Today I only bought three little things, which all fit into one small bag, but good things come in small packages.  Like how about this panel by Elizabeth's Studios?  I'm going to start with a border of pink and then see how it grows and how well my stash can nurture it along.  Should be fun to watch it grow.  Yes, I said pink now no arguing you can help me decide the borders after I add the pink.

All around the store they have these little baskets.  Each basket has different goodies - all with amazing deals.  Would you believe I only paid $3.10 total for both of those spools of thread?  Figured this was a good a time as any to try out a couple of new threads.

Now I know, if I keep going you'll be aching to visit and most of you can't so I'll stop with "Do you know everything you ever wanted in a quilt store?  But have never found one that quite suits you?  This is that one".

 Sorry they are a brick and mortar store only.

Spring Break Week

Today marks the last day of Spring Break Week for my DD. Due to a built in Hurricane day it has actually been a 10 day break, but who is keeping track? ME! We didn't plan anything and instead just took each day as it came. It was quite a bit of fun.

Would you believe I have appliqued all nine of the center Dresden Plates onto their backgrounds? My fingers were starting to look like pincushions, but luckily they've recovered now. That just leaves the final four that will be appliqued on the beautiful Gold Foil Onyx Bali Batik which I ordered this past weekend. I'll be certain to post a photo of that after it arrives. I am hoping we'll talk about how pretty it is, but if not we can all bemoan the issues of ordering fabric online together.

What have you been up to lately? I'd love to hear from you.

I've been up to this quilt, which I am calling Patisserie Quilt.  I found the floral Patisserie fabric in the Connecting Threads snail mail catalog.  Isn't it great to find something beautiful out of the blue like that?  I wanted a fabric that would really make the fabric pop, without resorting to merely making it a border or the quilt back.  This is the first mock up that I've completed.  Others came into my head and were rejected nearly that fast.  While the print has many pretty colors in it, the question is always which to show off and while to allow to stand alone.  Anyway, this feels a bit busy so I put it to you.  What do you think?  This one will be a real twin size quilt for DD something at least 55"x90".  It's not like she needs another quilt but the fabric is so pretty, I need an excuse to work with it.

Super Saturday Shopping

Yeah, yeah Saturday was yesterday.  That seems to be a trend for me these days.  Anyway all though yesterday took a bunch out of me, yesterday was wonderful!  I went fabric shopping!  Joy of Joys!  Thrill of my days!

First up is a Quilt Challenge:  If You Were a Quilt, What would you look like?  You can click on that link or head over to our hostess's blog if all of the details.  Rules?  Well it can be any size and you have to have fun.  The deadline isn't until October 31st so there's plenty of time.

These are my fabrics so far, but I'm not done, as I need at least one more fabric. Mine will be an art quilt, my first real one. To keep the cost of fabrics down mine will be a wall hanging. If you're interested you can follow me along, but I'd recommend you just join in. Who knows what we'll end up with and after all isn't the journey of self-expression the most important part anyway?

I'm going to start work on a Not Tonight Pillow. One side of the pillow will say "Not Tonight" and the other side will say "Maybe" it is to be a bachelorette present for a childhood friend of my sister's. These two greens are the fabrics, isn't that batik beautiful? 

Yes, the greens match, but the only way I could capture the batik was the flash which washed out the colors, so you see the best of the patterns or the best of the color, not both.

While I was shopping I picked up many odds and ends for some of my long time back burner projects so be on the lookout for updates on those. Now get out and enjoy life.

Spoonflower Order Placed

Yesterday I sent off my first order for Spoonflower, a custom fabric manufacturer.  Perhaps some of you may remember I was making the quilt from the children's artwork, and I decided to have it custom printed on fabric?

Well let me start by saying the world of custom fabric is amazing in how freeing it is.  Sashing?  It can be random, tilted, multicolored, you dream it you can have it!  Once I got past the tracks of my own metal blocks to realize making your own fabric is like flying.  Okay, maybe walking instead of being stuck on a train.

The owl contained hereon is made up of all the children's names, I transformed the lines I drew of the owl to make them that way.  ALL copyrights for original artwork belong exclusively to the children, but that owl is mine.  Don't you just love him?  I kicked down the resolution as well as blacking out the children's names for privacy but you can still see the overall appearance.

Turn around time is about 10 days so I'll be posting later on how everything printed out.

Reversible Table and Placemats

Here I have my six newly made 4-holiday placemats and table runner. My runner is short and fat to cover the buffet area, so it won’t run far, but it will do a great job over here. Four-holiday what could I possibly be talking about?  It's Reversible!

Firstly you have the fall side. I think it's plenty festive for Halloween or Thanksgiving, and then you have the heart side which I think works not only for Valentine's but for Christmas as well. Keep in mind those crazy hearts (the first crazy quilt items I've ever made) will be covered with your Christmas Dinnerware, or mine as the case may be. I think with some blue napkins you could easily use these for Independence Day as well, though here in Sunny Florida we celebrate outside.

The hearts were made from my scrap bag and contain fabrics from last year's Red Wintergraphix Quilt, as well as Jessica's PJ's and a skirt that my neighbor made. The remaining fabrics were intended to be thrown away as to much fabric had found it's way into my local charity thrift store and they were planning on throwing it out (horror of horrors!) A dear friend rescued it from our local incinerator for me. Since I didn't have any interfacing the appliqué was made with muslin instead. I only used thread that I had on hand, which meant that when I ran out of red with the last placemat all all of the table runner appliqué were sewn on with white. I think it makes an eye pleasing change.

The cornucopia I made a week or two ago and didn't know what to do with it. It's a crayon transfer method and all of those where old junkie crayons, if you decide to do the same thing, don't use washable crayons and be sure to use a paper towel to wipe the crayon tips off first, that takes off any of the color spots and prevents it from getting mixed in to your art.

This is my entry for the Scrap Contest over at Homemade Dress, what did you think? You can still join in the fun the deadline is Lunchtime Nov. 7th (considering time zones I'd go with am if I were you) take a minute to pray for Samatha's family while your over there, her family really needs them.

Still Me

Yes it's still me.  I thought it was high time I too had a nice pretty quilt in my header.  What do you think?  That's my very first double sided quilt, which I made for my sister for Christmas last year.  The back is a two color quilt and the front is pieced and embroidered. 

I have a confession.  I've been trying to make some headway on my to do list.  Do you know what happens when you do that?  Your brain keeps comming up with more projects and more things to do!  Why is that a confession?  Well some of you put away preserves this time of year and for that I give you two thumbs up.  Not me though...  I've been hoarding fabric!  I'm quite ashamed now that I've cleaned up a bit and I can really see the bulk of my hoarding.  Most all of the fabrics are targeted at a project even (instead of stash purchases).  I'm certain when I placed the first big order as my birthday present, my husband thought I'd be done for a while. 

When my neighbor cleaned her own stash I was over the moon.  Then when she brough me two bags that had been donated to the Hospice where she volunteers I was on cloud nine.  Then there was a huge fabric sale...  Now I'm just another victim of fabric overdose and I want even more still...

I've done things!

I've come up with two quilt layouts one for the Wildcat blocks from the exchange, and one for the sampler quilt I'll be donating to charity this year. The sampler quilt requires quite a bit more fabric than I had hoped so no stash busting there.

I also went through all my fabrics. I read somewhere that you should go through them time to time, and I found I had a whole lot more apparel fabric than quilting fabrics. How did that happen you ask? Well my neighbor cleared out her stash and everything she didn't think she would use she gave to me. That lead me in the creation of a beautiful blue blouse. It's funny to me because when I first brought the fabric home and was washing it Jessica told me it was "carpet". Now she says "Mommy it's so beautiful". I'm just glad she doesn't think it looks like carpet anymore.

D is for Do it Already

I was so proud of myself getting down to block making first thing this morning. Okay so it was after a long morning cuddle and some coffee with Jessica. Without booting up the computer (or checking the quilt layout). I plowed in using my sketches. Yep uh hu.... In the best effort of stash busting, I went through my yellow first and found a swap fabric I had gotten covered in words you'd love for you child to grow up knowing and feeling, charity, love, etc, but there wasn't enough to make the trapezoids with that so I switched to an Ohio star. Not enough for that either by I can get through.

Now, white on white because it will look like the white of the alpha letters, right? Wrong. I see now my plan last night had been to offset the stars on blue. Oh well. I was so proud of myself I used scraps from the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt and had exactly enough to make for the background of the stars.

Of course now those are done I have moved on to the light of day "facts and figures". My brain is miss-wired somehow. I think, okay a 50"X 60" baby quilt. I wont need a whole lot of fabric, right? LOL! I'm short at least a yard and a half of the green! ACK! The more cuts and more pieces mean the more fabric you need.

Wrap up post data: The blocks are 5", the smallest I've ever put this much effort into making (I have made 2.5" Ohio Stars but I wasn't nearly so careful them), with the white strips at the top and bottom bringing the unfinished size up to 5.5"x7" the same as the alpha blocks. Next I will move on the the green for the tilt.

A is for Awful Wonky

I bit the bullet and went ahead and cut out all the embroidery for the ABC baby quilt. EEEEEgads, I feel like that's all there is to say. Instead of high contrast for my offset squares it will be "white background" baby print all the way. We can save bright for the BACK! I am so glad to see the last of this fabric so off to the scrap pile. There was only one piece left big enough to use if I need to redo a letter, so here's to keeping my fingers crossed against that! Today's book updates are here. While I've found I can channel her a bit in what we read, for this I'm letting her choose whatever she would like.

Row Robin Fix

I have washed all of the fabrics I purchased to remake the rows. $20 worth! Since it was the first time I'd been to the fabric store since before Christmas it must be okay. I don't recommend going that long. It's torture! It's inhumane treatment of a quilter! I bought six different fabrics for a total of 5 1/2 yards added to my stash. Right now my darling daughter is curled up on my lap watching a butterfly emerge from it's chrysalis. It's enchanting to me because we saved a chrysalis about this time last year. The stem it had attached itself had broken off. We put the entire thing in the bug box with the best of intentions of watching it emerge and letting it go. We never expected it would emerge that evening! Of course we released it when we discovered it was ready. In case you were wondering this is a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly emerging from it's chrysalis.

A Quilt for Baby

The Dino Quilt is done. Hooray. I'm so glad. The woman hours I've put into it blows my mind. It doesn't seem like much but shoot! Other bloggers have been keeping track of "stash" fabrics used versus "new" fabrics purchased. Here's one that will blow your mind: I haven't bought ANY fabric since before Christmas. I know tell me about it, withdrawal anyone?

As for an actual accounting of the fabrics. The entire dino side is scrap bag fabrics. The back is made from DD's baby clothes, cut up and used this time last year for the baby clothes quilts (current count ~ 4 double sided pillows, 1 wall hanging, 2 double size quilts, one twin size quilt, and two baby blankets, and a prairie point binding on a king size quilt all from those aforementioned precut baby clothes). The only "added in" fabric is the red white and blue border all gained from my stash. Both the blue and the red were purchased with a plan in mind and I used what was "leftover" from those projects for the border. The white was purchased last summer simply because it was polka dots (on sale for $2 a yard!) and dd loves polka dots.

I always save the batting that you cut off to "true up" the quilt after it's quilted. Sometimes I have a bunch leftover sometimes not so much. All of the batting from this quilt was from my "salvaged batting" pile. For anyone wondering: if you'd like to use your own salvaged batting simply zigzag stitch the pieces together sewing either just on top of the two edges or abutting them. I've done it both ways and you can't tell any difference. While I wouldn't use salvaged batting for a wedding quilt it's just fine for a little quilt like this.

So my total out of pocket for my good deed was merely time.

In the second photo you can see Jessica. She is doing this new rather annoying thing. She will smile big and bright and then right when she knows you're taking the photo she will turn it into a "closed" smile. It must be something she picked up from her father...

Blue

It bothers me somewhere down inside that white and I are not friends. I love white. White on white fabrics make me drool. I love the embroider on them. I have made two STUNNING quilts with white. One was even simple red and white. Yet I myself can't have white.

A couple months back I found an amazing deal on a white organic tank top ($5!) it was nice for a bit of "dress up" or "dress down" and looked great with... You get the picture. But heck if I could keep the thing clean. My DH is the master of all stains. They all stop and yield to his will. Of course he has to know about the stain to will it out. In spite of all that after only a couple of wearings my beautiful "nice" white tank was spotted. Well heck if I was going to let it go the way of every other white t-shirt I have owned.

So today at the grocery store I bought some rit dye. I can't believe it was $2 and change but hey it is what it is (I could swear you can get fabric dye from Joann's for a buck!) I'm a driven person. Mood inspires me. New things move me. So I couldn't resist (after the groceries were put away and my DH had gone to work) digging right in to my little dye project.

Now let me stop right here and say when they tell you to use gloves bite the bullet and use gloves. It has taken me all evening to get the dye area limited to my fingernails. (yuck). I did the sink method in a big stainless stock pot mostly because I didn't want anything stained forever, except the shirt ~ of course. This process takes a whole lot of standing. I'd like to think it's the last time I will do it when I don't have help, but almost for certain I will encounter something that will lead me astray.

I just love how the rhinestones didn't take the dye. The package said anything plastic would take the dye (that's why I didn't bother trying it in my front loader - not to mention the automatic size sensor wouldn't allow enough water in to completely cover the material per the directions). The rhinestones being plastic surely should have take the dye but you can clearly see they didn't.

I'm glad to have my "nice" shirt back. Even if it isn't white.

Snap...Click, does it look better in a photo?

That was the question I asked myself as I took a photo of this quilt. I have been hard at work over the past 24 hours working on the Carpenter's Wheel I told you about in my last post. This is a purple Quilt for Charity. My darling daughter just loves purple. When she saw part of it earlier she said "Who are you making that quilt for?". I explained it was for a child who doesn't have one. To which she said "okay, purple is my favorite color" and walked away. Later when it was unfurled for the photo, she did something similar and commented again that her favorite color is purple. Well ladies and gentlemen this quilt will just about wipe out my entire stash of purple fabric, so of course I will have to buy more. Yardage this time, not just fat quarters, and I plan to pick out something nice, so that dd of my can have a purple quilt perhaps for her birthday. There's plenty of time to plan for it. Perhaps even work on it under the cover of her sleeping so she wont know.

The apple quilt has slid firmly into a father's day gift. No matter, I already knew what I was doing for Valentine's before the apple quilt inspiration. I've had food poisoning over the past weekend, so in spite of what it looks like with the purple Charity Quilt, I haven't really felt up to working on something as big as the apple quilt.

Quilting Mania

Good Morning Good Morning. I woke up this morning to my daughter going through her new clothes. Did I buy them for her? Yes, I always try to buy ahead and these I purchased this past summer or perhaps earlier. I keep all the "grow into clothes" in the bottom of her dresser, and every once in a while she digs through them. Today she couldn't resist a tied pink floral spaghetti strap top with gentle ruffles. Is it warmer? Yes, but not warm enough for that top. Oh well she really wanted to wear it.

Last night I admitted my addiction. I am addicted to quilting. When I first joined the quilting board someone said welcome to the addiction. My mind thought, "addiction, no it's not an addiction, I just enjoy it". LOL! Well last night was the clincher. Rob was off to his new job (there I said it) for the evening not expected back till the wee of the morning. Jessica and I made the yummiest dinner (One Pot Pasta with Sun dried Tomatoes!) watched tv together, and then I STARTED to pick up the living room.

Of course I came upon fabric strips GALORE! I filled in to help out with a Row Robin, and I gave it a bit of strip therapy, so all of my strips where out, even my beloved Birthday Jelly Roll. As I began to clean my fingers touched the fabric. Whatever will I do with this fabric? Portugal from Moda... It feels so nice on my fingers. And then it hit me, wouldn't it be funny to give the strips DH gave me, back to him in the form of a quilt? Now what pattern? Log Cabin is at the top of my hate list, perhaps he will appreciate my efforts, why yes Log Cabin Blocks will be perfect. Now how to best utilize each and every strip of fabric, without waste? The math floods into my mind. More and more numbers cascade over me, and then I emerge with my scrap of paper. I have it! Yes that is just right. I begin making more specific notes, yes, yes... Nope... Okay change thing, that and here too. Now to sit back down with the fabric and begin sorting it into what might be pleasing patterns. At first none can be found but then they begin to appear. A study in patterns, yes, perfect.

Apples are red and my red border fabric will make great centers. I check to see that I have enough fabric ah yes, I will have two extra, perfect. Red stands for the home of the hearth in the log cabin blocks, and red apples are always ready for me to make pies for DH here in my hearth.

I look up. 8:30! Oh no! I'm late putting Jessica to bed. Hurry hurry. Her routine can take anywhere from an hour to two depending. I don't know how long it took last night. I did everything and doted on her in my happy mood.

Then off to the sewing machine... Nope not yet, first we have to cut those apple centers. The fabric cuts perfectly, it's like a dream. Of to the sewing machine. Sewing each block what a joy. I know now who and what I am, I am in control. Block begin coming out of my sewing machine. I sew until 11 pm, there is no one to stop me, no one to tell me to head for bed. It's marvelous. Afterwards I stash everything away. Pleased as a dung beetle with a ball of... The joy, the love. I watch Bewitched and then sleep claims me in a happy slumber. Dh comes in after the timer on the tv has gone off. I have no idea what he says to me, I'm to completely content to care. My mind processes that he is home and safe and that is enough for me.

Roll in with the Holiday Cheer

I've been up to my knitting when my hands are free. I'm need to pay attention to what I'm doing, but all the same I'm up over 18". That's only 30" from my goal for my scarf that I'm planning to send overseas.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend, even if your Thanksgiving wasn't perfect perhaps you got the perfect gift or you put up all your Christmas things? Well I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was the Thanksgiving that almost wasn't but my sister came in and saved the day. We had a great time laughing and joking all afternoon. Sometime around 6 we settled down to eat all different kinds of food. Some that was Amazing all the way down to okay. Let me just tell you my husband's mashed potatoes and gravy was even better the second day and that's saying something since it was great to begin with.

I do not do Black Friday. What are you going to do with you see a scooter going at full throttle? You're just going to walk on your own way to get there. I tell you what I think they have governors on those things so they can't go fast. I can't imagine what it would be like. Instead Rob and I watched the "Mork and Mindy" Marathon that was on all day. Me on and off, Rob all day. You can see so much into the future parts of Robin Williams in that show it's just amazing really.

My daughter loves Eggnog, who would have guessed, right? Well not me. I think the price of it is up this year, but based on how she's been drinking it, I might need to make sure to have some in the house all this Holiday season. I even have baking plans this year.

We put the tree up yesterday (Saturday) and I have high hopes that Rob will get all the outside lights done today. We shall see I suppose. He's told me such pretty ideas I'm really looking forward to it. The photo above is without the flash. Funny how it all changed when the flash is on.

Currently on the back of my mind is the apple quilt I'd like to make for my husband, I already have the pattern picked out. As well as the child's quilt I'd like to make for Charity in 2009. So far I haven't decided which charity I will make it for. My sister asked if I might be just donating it through one of the local hospitals. I tried to look up doing something like that, but I couldn't find anything. I couldn't even find anything for giving a quilt straight to St. Jude's, if you can believe that. Oh well all that is slated for 2009, except maybe the apple quilt. I feel like I'm falling behind in what I'm working on because December is getting here so quickly. Tomorrow in fact. Take care all!