ALQS is finished!!!

Amazingly, this started as another challenge piece, "Something borrowed/something blue. I made the blue petals from some strips I had already sewn together from a past project. They were BLUE. Good start, hmmm
But after I cut the petals, I took a good look at my instructions and realized it was not supposed to be more than 6" square!! Well one petal was longer than that!

So lets see what can be done. Oh, Yes, ALQS can be bigger, and I haven't had any ideas for it yet. So off and running I got a whole bunch of bits and pieces and embellished them onto a previously dyed piece that had been sitting around.

What great fun my new embellisher machine is. I like the effect better than fusing. Keeps the three dimensional look. Then I did fuse the petals on and added the fuzzy yar frame for the way to hold them all in place.

Added a yellow circle with more curly yarn and copper ribbon, and quilted windy swirls up towards the top. I meant for bits of the flower to look like they were blown up into the sky.

And that is how "Windy day" was born. Hope my secret partner likes it!

I had a dream...quilt

I couldn't quite believe I "dreamed up" this quilt while I was sleeping. When I woke up I immediately started to add to the original image and turn it into something I could actually do. Then I went looking for the base material that was a teal batik type in the dream. And, as I have a ton of scraps in that colorway, I did find the perfect piece that drifted into my dreamscape that night. So now how do I make it happen in reality???

I started with a piece of fine net and criss-crossed it with a gorgeous sparkly teal ribbon to look like a real fish net. Using stabilizer paper underneath worked just fine.




Then I had to decide where and what to put under the net. I had some real tiny shells from beach collecting, and pieces of mica that my grandkids had given me. I broke up one of the mica into smaller pieces and thin as possible and used a dot of fabric glue to hold them in place. And the most important piece was a fish. I had recently gotten a stash of goodies from ETSY including a pair of lightweight fish earrings. They fit the bill perfectly. Took off the earwires and sewed one carefully onto the background.


Now to set the net in place and attach it with little seed beads at each cross point to keep all the goodies in place.

Can you see the beads?


Then I attached more of the teal ribbon on the outside of the net and folded one edge in a couple wrinkles to make it look more 3D. Can you see the sparkle of the mica?

Added a solid teal edge and did some quilting to make it look as though the net was being pulled out of the water.

Then I added the 'free' fish and some eyelash yarn and beads for seaweed. I carefully put the yarn over the fish to hide his little loop that held him to the quilt.

And VOILA...as they say...I have a finished dream. I call it "Caught" and I like to assume the catcher is also a believer in releasing, as he only wanted the shells, RIGHT?

Autumn Fireworks finished...

...and put into my ETSY shop My hand is doing just great, and I am finished with the therapy and only have to do regular exercises at home for about a month. I was delighted to get three sales in the shop in the last couple weeks, but that also makes me anxious to get to work and fill the empty spots. I wanted to get at least 50 items available before I relaxed about it and allowed myself to do some personal quilting--LIKE THAT DARNED KING-SIZE BED QUILT-before another winter goes by!!

Hand is getting better...

...so I can finally get to typing and more importantly, to quilting. The swelling was so bad I couldn't bend the hand for two weeks. This caused the tendons to stiffen somethin' terrific!! So now I am going for physical therapy and doing exercises every hour to get the hand working again. It is much better and I'm back in business--Whoopee!
Here is one I started a couple days ago to see if I could work the hand in all the moves necessary. It is coming along nicely, and I hope to have it finished soon.


This is a UFO that I finally decided to get back to work on. I wanted to do more embellishing, but couldn't quite decide what would look good. Now I have some beading and embroidery ideas and just have to get to it.


This is a FINISHED wall hanging for ETSY that I am calling "Losing touch" It is the first time I added metal findings from my husband's shop drawers full of hardware. Fun treasure hunt with a whole new eye down in his dusty ole drawers and containers!

Baby Quilt coming along nicely

and faster than I expected. Took a shot last night of this much of it. Got the blocks made and laid them on the border and triangles material to see how it would go. I love the colors together, and am pleased that my ability to choose coordinates seems to be improving. I used to always have one color that didn't seem to work. And I wouldn't discover it til after the quilt was mostly made.

I like this one totally and am going to have trouble giving it away. Except the woman receiving it is so worthy of getting my best effort. She has diabetes of the worst kind, she needs needles every day, not like mine that is diet-controlled. She lost a baby already and we have all been praying she would make it all the way with this one. So far, she is doing just fine.

New challenge...

...'cause I don't have enough to do...LOL. My red and black is coming along pretty well so it will be finished by tomorrow. More hand sewing little metal things on it, and then the binding. As I have done before, I expanded the size so was forced into the 'add backing to the backing' thing. It's getting to be a bad habit. But I had those little extra black and white pieces and it just seemed to be a waste to throw them away.

The challenge (from Quiltland Chronicle in the list of bloggers on the right)is to have someone else pick out five materials from your stash and you make a quilt with them. You can add colors and you can take away one of the five chosen for you. It can be any size but small is expected unless you just love the choice and have lots of the material on hand. In my house there is only one other person, dear husband. He headed for the craft room with a big sigh and 'I guess I could do that'. Now here is a partial assortment of colors and amounts available, and ...


...HERE is what he chose!!!

Do you think maybe he could have picked up one more box, if not five...nooooo, he picked up only ONE...and it was BLACK. Now I love black as you can tell from the quilt up at the top. But I am definitely going to have to add a color, probably pink, to keep this from being dreary.

Copper Bling

Yup, that's what I call them...I did a four-postcard abstract and then cut them into the four individual cards.
That is a leather chair seat behind them, so you can hardly tell where they start and stop unless you look really close. It's fun trying to keep each one different and yet have an all-over one-piece look at the same time. I loved the foil and it wasn't any more difficult to sew on. I was afraid it might 'shatter' or something. But it went smoothly. Not so much the copper thread - I did have quite a few breaks. I even remembered to change to a metallic needle and loosen up the top tension, but it still decided to snap every so often. I've had other metallics that have been MUCH worse, so it was frustrating but bearable in comparison.

I recently ordered some MistyFuse and other goodies and they just arrived yesterday. Got some different paints to try. Says you can dye with them and I thought it would be nice to do a mini-dye - like for postcard backgrounds. And I ordered a small rotary cutter thinking it was like my little (OLD) one and this one is even smaller!! GOTTA LEARN TO READ THE DETAILS! This is not the first time I ordered something totally different than what I thought I was getting. And I HATE to return things, so it stays, regardless.



I ran out of my old paper-backed fusible doing this cat and two butterflies for a small lap quilt, and then...


...tested the new stuff on a fun cut idea of black and whites on this neat red batik.

Bookmarks, and back to that green quilt...

Made good use of my DH's laminator and put together some neat bookmarks for my ETSY stash. I fused only, as stitching would make it too lumpy. Had the beads already handy and loads of small pieces of ribbon. (Never throw anything away, right??)




Then I took a break from little things, and did that last big block on my green forest theme sampler quilt. I put all the pieces on the bedroom rug to see if I could get a feel for the order I prefered. Moved them around a whooooole bunch and decided on this.



Now I have to make the insert pieces and sashes and binding, etc, etc. It never ends, thank goodness. Such fun.

How cool is that?

My Stare Eyes quilt made it into a Treasury page on ETSY. That means someone liked it and put it in with a group of favorte pics that has to do with "eyes"


And I finally got my "Purple Fantasy" finished. I added beads at the last, mainly to hold down the angelina fibers. But it did fill in and hold down the rather empty black areas, too. I could have done more quilting there if I had thought it out at the beginning. But sometimes that makes me more inventive at the end. Like that big pearly purple button, thatI hadn't even found when I started. I do find that the ideas usually flow along as it comes together, rather than being completely perfect before I start. That is the fun of it for me, I think, seeing what I can come up with on my own with no pattern. This close-up may show the details a bit better. And it is all PURPLES - not blues. Darn the internet, not being able to read the purples!!! Or is it my camera?
That is a tiny piece of a feather boa in the center and couched yarn squiggling next to double-needle threads, and triple bugle beads with a silver round one at the bottom
The half circles are hand-dyed(that I did about two years ago) and those twisty purple 'arrows' coming out from the half-circles are the foil covered cloth I did a few days ago. I love that stuff, and have to get to work with more of it. Fun!

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.