Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Snow



Beautiful light snow this morning. Large flakes with not much wind so a beautiful sight. Only about an inch of new snow all together. Just enough to have to clear the walks. Forgot, yesterday, that I had already posted the nametag picture, so will make up for that today by posting a couple of my pictures.

These are two versions of a maple leaf crib size quilt. The leaves are cut from a print fabric, the backgrounds of the leaves are done with a light (or dark) complimentary color plain) and some of the leaves have the background fabric. The border is then done in the print. These are very quick quilts to stitch and a quite fun project.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

January


January is nearly over already, where did the days go? This is the nametags I made for the CPQG retreat. Theme is Aloaha, so did beach, ocean and palm tree. The participants can write their name in the "sand". Hope everyone likes them. Being on the committee is kind of fun. I'm sure will be work too, but ---Retreat is Feb. 9, 10 & 11. Hope the weather is nice and not a snow storm.

It was -19 wind chill this morning when I went down to walk. Brrrrrr. Supposed to be this cold for a while. But guess it is winter on the plains, so what do I expect? Does make one move a bit faster when its so cold.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

winters back


Brrrrr its cold out today. Temp is around 22 degrees F. with a sharp NW wind. Rather humid as there have been some small snow showers going through. Good day to stay home and sew.

This small piece was a challenge project with my friend, Shirley, from Las Vegas. Kokopelli is one of my favorite themes to work with. I did have fun using the fabrics for the challenge.

I'm now on the lookout for some challenging fabric for our 2008 challenge. Shirley was in charge of this years challenge. I have the top done, but its not quilted yet, will post this years photo when the quilting and binding are completed.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Fog


Hit the floor around 5:30 AM this morning to a beautiful day. By 7:30 it was so foggy you could barely see a block. The fog froze onto the trees and bushes and painted them a pretty frosty white. It really was beautiful.

The fog broke about 2 o'clock and by the time I thought of taking the camera out for pictures, a breeze had come up and all the lovely frost was on the ground.

This is a very small piece using ruched flowers and dimensional leaves. I used this as a mini class on how to ruch fabric strips into flowers. A fun project and quickly done.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

smart machine

Hey when I published the post the machine took care of the double picture. Sure glad the program is smarter than I am. Now you can see the second closeup too.

some older pieces





This is a quilt I made a while ago, but is still one of my favorites. Its called Beauty On Ice with shilouettes of ice skaters.

I love watching ice skating and always wished I had been able to do this graceful sport. I however sprained my ankles every time I tried to even stand up on skates, so have had to be satisfied with just watching the event from afar.

Somehow I clicked the same picture twice so bear with me on this. It was really fun to make this piece .

Couldn't figure out how to get rid of the second closeup, so you will all just have to pretend it doesn't exhist.

Temps have gotten a bit more mild the last couple days. thank goodness.

CQC had workday yesterday, we started a lap/throw project for the local nursing home, We hope to have enough lap robes for each person to have one, They are reversible. Will get pictures as soon as I get binding on the ones I stitched. Was a fun day and lots of scraps were used up making something for others.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

what a difference a day makes


What a difference a day makes, yesterday was nice and now its snowing again. Supposed to be about 6 - 8" forcast. ICK!! Oh well good time to sew.

This is a piece I did for the 9/11 memorial book for AQS. Its called "Together" Theme of course is red/white/blue. The center is a shilouette of two quilters sitting, sewing and talking. The circles were appliqued onto a square, then cut into 4ths and restitched into half and 3/4 circles. The red,white and blue strips diagonally were on a sheer fabric that has silver stars on it. This was put over the pieced quilt top, then all the layers were machine quilted. It traveled the U.S for 3 years.

Friday, January 19, 2007

beautiful day


A beautiful January day today. Fairly warm with the ice/snow melted off the streets. This will last a day as its to snow again tomorrow evening through Sunday AM. 3"-5" of new snow expected. UGH!!

This is 05"s fabric challenge from my friend in Vegas. It was a south west print of indian adobe huts. I used soem more SW fabrics and then bordered with the SW geometric border. I think it turned out OK, considering we are not able to purchase much SW type fabric out here in the middle of the good old USA.

This was thread painted over some of the foreground cactus and rock. It doesn't show on the picture, but I was pleased with the way it turned out.

Didn't accomplish much today, but did sit down for a bit and design a couple piece throws. Not sure I will ever make them, but sure was fun playing with the graph paper again.

Think I will work on the scraps again this evening as there is certainly not much to watch on TV. Will stick a CD in and whack fabric up into squares and strips.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

cold


I'm putting this quilt on my bed tonight so I will stay warm. It was -17 degrees this morning, so think its time to add another quilt.

Good day to stay in and work on the scraps again. I will NEVER get through those boxes.

This quit is called "exploding bear paw" The individual quarters of the block explode away from the center. was a fun project to do. Quilting is bears walking around the quilt on all the plain areas.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

snowing



Its snowing today. I would guess around 4" so far. Heard noise outside a while ago and found the neighbor running his snow blower and clearing our walks. It sure is nice to have young neighbors who will go out of their way to help the older people in the neighborhood.

DS#2 got up about 4 and looked out, called over and asked if we had done the walk. I told him no the neighbor, North, did it. He was happy as he had to get ready to go to work. He works a 24/7 shift, which means one week he works from 6 PM to 6AM on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, has Wed. and Thurs nights off, the following week is just the opposite, has the days he worked off and the days he was off as workdays. For those who do not know our son bought the house across the street last winter. Its nice having him close by after being at a distance for about 22 years.

The quilts. the round quilt is a sample of a class I taught at State Meeting a couple years ago. I called it ironworks. A really fun technique. The pattern is designed and cut out just like we used to cut paper snowflakes when we were kids. Then design is traced to paper side of fusible, pressed to black fabric and cut out. Paper pulled and black fused to a bright background. Layered with backing and batting, then a black zig zag stitch is used to finish the edges and quilt at the same time.

The other is a butterfly quilt made from fat quarters of batiks that I purchased at Paducah. Its on my design wall and my quilt inspecting cat is giving it the once over. She will actually pull things off that she doesn't like. Sometimes I wonder about that cat!!! Her name is Patches, for the patches of white and black in her fir. This quilt is basted and ready to quilt.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Another cold day


Another cold day on the plains. Light snow too. Oh well good time to sew.

This is a stain glass hanging that I did at CQC retreat this fall. I think it turned out pretty nice. Only messed up a couple times and had to pick a seam to let the "leading" go under another piece. Ah directions, maybe they were supposed to be followed---

Have been working on scraps --cutting squares and strips from them. Have a fair size box with assorted sizes of squares. Will eventually have some pretty string quilts and possibly 4 patch and 9 patch blocks.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Cold


Another cold day ---some wind with 8 degrees makes for a very chilly morning.

This is an iris quilt I did last year. The background of the iris is two layers of bridal net over the batting, then one layer of net over the applique . Yarn is looped across the strips and yarn is couched all around the binding. Gives a lot of dimension to the piece.

Good day to stay indoors today. Am working on a set of celtic designs and hope to have 12 by the time I am through designing. Then will eventually make a celtic applique quilt.

CQC did a celtic applique as a charity fund raiser one year. Since then I have wanted to design one and actually do the applique. Not sure if I will do hand or machine applique on it. The hand applique was gorgeous, but takes a long time to do. Machine looks OK and is certainly quicker. time will tell.

Think I will put a big pot of soup on to cook. Feels like soup weather, will toss stuff in the bread machine and have fresh bread with it. Yumm yumm.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Another finished




The patriotic quilt was a tiny sample showing how to use a variety of fabrics.

The tree quilt was made for the CPQG (Country Piecemakers Quilt Guild) challenge in 06. The boughs of the tree are all dimensional. Two layers stitched right sides together, then turned through a slit in the backing side, the crystals were added to represent snow crystals, it is heavily quilted.

Weather is turning cold. brrrrr. cold north wind blowing and temperature is dropping, weather forcast is for some possible freezing rain, so hope it doesn't turn out like central NE storm of a couple weeks ago. Thousands are still without power there.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

One more done


A small color study using HST's and squares. I tried to offset the purples with the orange/yellow half square triangles and squares, Think it turned out ok. Was quick and fun to do. Also used up some scrap. Back is orange!!

Trip to Norfolk this morning produced 5 yards of black Kona cotton and a couple small pieces of fabric for a new project for Applique Club. We will be doing a dimensional floral basket this year in applique club. Learning many new and different ways to make dimensional flowers. Stay tuned each month to see the progress. (I HOPE)

Monday, January 08, 2007

Another small project done


Put the finishing touches on this mini quilt today. Just had to apply the binding and it was completed, so finally finished.

Plan to try for a few more small projects in the next few days. Most just need binding finisned.

Quilt club pizza party tomorrow, so will be a busy day with applique club in the morning, pizza party at noon and meeting following.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Name tags


The nametags are DONE!!! I had to make 30 nametags for our CPQG retreat next month. theme is Aloha!. Now they can sign their names in the "sand". I hope they like them. The tree is fused and then thread painted over the top. Extra stitching was added to secure all the pieces.

Tried something different, used pellon 70 inside the tags. Fused computer paper to a layer of fabric for the backs (gives some stability to stitch the pins onto) Then fused that to the pellon. Stitched around to secure all the layers.

I think the water and sand and sky all turned out pretty well. Found just the right fabrics to use. Water even looks like waves.

Now if the rest of the retreat plans go as smoothly as the name tags, we will be in business.

Had another very windy day today. Brrrr hate the north winds.

Friday, January 05, 2007

I did it----


I did it, made the "planet patchworks" new years day mystery quilt. I did add the second dark border and the print border outside of the pieced border. The pieced border is where the mystery instructions ended. Decided I wanted it a bit larger so added another 2 1/2" and a 5 1/2" border. Now to get it layered and quilt it. I didn't keep up with the hourly instruction posts because I did stop to watch the bowl game for a while.

Its snowing a bit here today. just lightly, not supposed to amount to a lot of snow. not like last weeks desasterous ice storm. ( Dec 30, 31) This ended just west of us. Downed power poles and lines and thousands still without power.

Back to work, want to work on my angel BOM quilt from CQC last year. Hope to get the top ready in the next couple days.

Monday, January 01, 2007

New Years Day


Happpy New Year world!!! We dodged the bullet and missed out on the major part of the snow storm this weekend. Ended up with 2 1/2" of rain instead of all the snow some places recieved.
Still cutting squares and strips from scrap, goodness may never get all the scrap used up. Fun trying though.

This is a kitty challenge I finished a while back. A friend Shirley, who moved to Vegas, and I do a challenge every year. One year she buys a challenge fabric, the next I do. This was last years challenge. The kitty fabric was one I purchased in Paducah. Its always a fun project.

Warm enough today to melt off the ice on the streets and sidewalks, so should be a nice day tomorrow too. --back to cutting strips and squares