My ALQS goody arrived...

...and is just lovely.
But you folks can't appreciate the great colors here, as they don't seem to photo well. That is PURPLE in the flower petals, not blue. And the edge matches, and that gingham frame is a really pretty green. It is proudly hanging in my craft room on my yellow wall and picks up the purple on the other wall. Perfect!


Just for fun, I took a shot of the corner of my first use of foiled cloth in a quilt. It is those squiggly things coming off the half circle. Having great fun in making this 'Purple Fantasy" Almost finished, just need the border, and I will show you all the completed project. I was curious if it would look purple, and it does look more so than Annie's quilt flower. Hmmmmm.


And in between trying to decide what to do on the purple thing, I started some business card holders. Found the pattern on About.com and thought I wanted one for myself, and then decided they were a good thing at a lower price for My ETSY Shop so here are some ready for the last part.


And this is MINE, finished and loaded to go.


Here is how it looks closed.

Foiled...for the first time.

I finally had the chance to try my first foiling onto materialIt turned out to be quite easy, once I read the directions about three times to be sure I understood the concept. I tried a bunch of cottons and a couple pieces of velvety material with little sparkles on it that I had cut off the bottom of a dress. Turned out it adhered best to the velvet, who knew? Now I am working with the purple piece to make a study in purples. Got lots of other purple parts thrown on a black background to start. I'll try to get a pic tomorrow.

Just so you know, I don't quilt constantly - sometimes I go down to the sea...
...and spend time with my sisters, and today with some neices I had not seen in quite a while. We three sisters who are here in Ct. get together once a month in what we laughingly call "The Sisters Sewing Sircle" A fourth sis has moved to Georgia to live near a fifth sis who has been down south for quite a few years. They get to join the sircle once a year in Sept when they come up here for a visit.

We take turns at each others house and the hostess is supposed to make the lunch. We are supposed to sew or quilt or knit or something like that...but...
we did fine the first few months, until more interesting things popped up. Like a new shop to visit, or a tea room for lunch, or a quilt show, or a new card game to learn. You get the picture. It turned into a fun get together that seemed to include less sewing and more different fun!!

We didn't see any problem with walking the boardwalk, climbing rocks, and one sis even got in the water. Us other two love the atmosphere but not the cold water. We prefer the shade and breezes and chance to catch up. And the incredible views.
I didn't bring anything to sew 'cause I thought the camera was more needed for this 'Sircle' meeting. What do you think?

Been busy refreshing and finishing

Took out a couple small quilts that have been stored and freshened them up for sale. This kitten one is just the right size for a kid to drag around as his blankie, or to put over a baby in his car seat. So off it goes.



This one speaks for itself, I love Cats!!! I did a zig-zag kind of meandering around the cat material and it made the cats puff out a bit. Better look than before.


And this one is a brand new one that you had peeks of earlier. All done and I don't want to let it go!!!!! I really liked the colors and how it turned out, but I can't keep everything I make, CAN I???Here is a closer look. I added beads for the 'bubbles' of air for the fish, and the cat is machine quilted all around and has pink stitching in the ear and nose. I did wavy swirls in the blue areas, like ocean waves and foam, kinda...

Whooo...Hooo!!!

I did it! Got my first sale at the Etsy shop. What an encouragement that is. So fast and two quilts sold. Really makes me want to continue putting my ideas into fabric form.
Still want to do swaps and love reading everyone's blog for inspiration and actual instructions. But this is such a challenge to my finishing stuff and maybe even getting UFO's turned into CASH. Gotta go and tell my family members!!!

Done...and open for business

So here it is... the finished product, at last. Doesn't look like trouble, does it?



So glad to get this one done.


Who knew the border would take almost as much time as all the detail quilting???


AND IT IS FOR SALE at my new Etsy shop I finally did it, and got all the info in place and put on six little quilts for the public to own.

Please, please, please come by and visit. I know fellow quilters will not likely be interested in spending money there, but you never know what else you will find, at my shop and at the hundreds of other ones. I bought a necklace and the lady made earrings to match with clips for me, as I love sets and don't have pierced ears. (total coward when it comes to any kind of needles, I used to cry for shots, and I'm talking when I was in my forties!!!)

Then I checked out one of the other new shops and couldn't resist buying some of their cookies from NY 'cause I LOVE COOKIES and these were made with interesting additions of spice like rose drop cookies with BLACK PEPPER. And OH yes, they are goooood, as well as the other two types I tried.

The other exciting event was my first grandchild graduating. My goodness was it a noisy time for all., The crowds were trying to out-do each other with applause and hootin' and even horns-in-a-can blasting. What a racket! But our boy made it and we are delighted. Here is a shot of him and his mom(our daughter)

peeks...

Here is a peek of the quilt that has been driving me crazy. Looks simple, doesn't it? It's almost done and ready for a full pic, by tomorrow maybe?
And here is my choice for the cat template in the fish/cat quilt. I even added a bit of flange on the edge to carry the cat color and not make it look so alone. Now for a lot of free-motion to hold the cat in place and give the water some waves. Gotta make sure the cat eye is really clear. The 'life' in the pic will be lost if that eye isn't just right.

Grrrrr...some days are tough!

Working on a small quilt to put on ETSY and have ripped out and finally cut off the edge binding!!! I wanted to put a cord on the edge and then attach the mitered corner border. Can't do BOTH sucessfully. Lots of growling and finally scissors. Then tediously re-making the quilt a little larger and adding the border in a different manner. This involved three layers, of course, patched onto an already layered finished quilt. Well, more ripping ensued as I figured out which was the right way to get it attached without rough edges showing on the back. I am almost there - added the skinny flange without the cord inside, and then a bit wider border. Well darn it, I didnt get the edges ironed quite together, so I sewed one edge on and totally missed the edge I couldn't see underneath. More ripping, except I stopped to take a break and calm my nerves, so I could finish and keep my sanity!

And meanwhile yesterday after the first ripping and cutting I quit on this one and started a whole new one! Had a ton of these blue strips from a bargello quilt I did for my granddaughter and a bit of this fish material from my son's wall quilt. So I put together this simple log cabin block as a starter.

And I haven't figured out which cat template to add, as I want it to be looking at the fish in the block. The eyes will have to be adjusted a bit to be looking directly towards the fish and if they are playing 'stare-eyes'.

Because the block is so basic, I want to add a bit of pizazz to the border pieceing. Still thinking and planning.

Next.....

Working on a new project now that the ALQS is done. Did a quick sewing job making a swag for the sewing room curtains, and then a couple more of the Ann. Quilt squares.

Now I am almost finished with a small wall hanging for sale in Etsy. I want to open a little store there and need to get some inventory ready.

I have some decent scenic ones I am willing to part with that are all original to add to some new ones, like the one I am working on.

Here is a couple of shots of the ones that are already to go...

Wheeew...Finished--Finally

I'm afraid I'm not one of those ladies who works on four or five different projects in one day. I'm doing good if I work on one a week. I might take time out on one to start another that has a quicker deadline, but only focus on that till it is done. I had to totally stop thinking about the Ann. Quilt til I finished this little one. This is a discipline I have to force on myself, or deadlines come and go and I am playing around with the wrong quilt. I'm not saying my BRAIN isn't busy on many, many other ideas. Just my fingers must stick to one job at a time!!!

Soooo... here is the finished project for ALQS...

Here is a close shot of the 3-D flowers...


And my first try at mitered corners...
The view is not the best for the corner, but shows the 3-D butterfly up close.

Tried a lot of lessons recently learned in this project. Those mitered corners, the 'petal play' for 3-D effects, free motion embroidery, scenic layout, machine applique.

Now I've gotta let Kate know it's done, and get it out in the mail to...????

The ALQS is coming along...

Here is a close look on the free-motion embroidery with the little flowers attached by one of the fancy stitches the machine came with. I learned how to double fuse the flowers so that they can be 3-D. Can you tell they are 'free'?

Next part is putting the big flowers together the rest of the way and adding a small accent in the sky. Then last is the binding, which I decided was the leaf color in a skinny edge. Gotta remember to add the fast triangles and a label, which I almost always leave off till the last second.

I'm loving every one of the quilts that are shown on Kate's blog as finished. I sure hope my more unconventional artsy one is acceptable to it's new owner. I'm not inclined to follow patterns too exactly and love to mix ideas together, which makes for surprises. Even I don't know totally what to expect!!!

Meanwhile, between quilt work, I took some time painting a new rail on the far side of our driveway. It looks great and I can get closer to the edge with it there to look over at the brook which is dropped down from the main yard like a river at the bottom of a cliff-only MINI.

Got a cute pic of Maggie posing at the edge of her circle of the yard. I went beyond it and when I came back she was sitting patiently waiting for me so I got a 'still' pose for a change. She's doing great with the electric circle fence controlled by her collar. She is safely in the yard, even when she goes after cars passing by. She goes right to the edge of that invisible circle and barks like mad, but we don't have to worry about her getting hit, as she can't go out of the yard without a little zap-which she doesn't like at all.