Craft-aholic (No Intervention Needed)

Organizing and Paint Chip Art

2012-01-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

I found some 3/4 inch white circle stickers at the office supply section of a local store and used them to label the tops of my Distress Stains. First I tried to color the labels and then adhere them to the tops, that did not work out. So then I put the sticker on the lid first and then colored it with the dabber top. Came out great!

Here is my Tim Holtz Cargo Case. I love this box for storing my distress ink pads and my bottles of distress stain. It has clips on all sides to ensure that it closes securely.

To keep track of how many colors of distress stain I already have, I downloaded this chart from Ranger. I resized it to standard letter size paper and printed it on cardstock. Then I dabbed each color I own in the appropriate box. Now I can make sure there is no double buying of colors.

I made this canvas board using paint chips, a Marvy heart punch borrowed from a coworker and ModPodge. I cut out the heart shapes alternating direction on each strip. In order to make them fit my 8x10 canvas board I had to cut off one color from each strip.

I laid out the strips so that the colors did not overlap and used ModPodge to glue them down. Afterwards I went back and placed the hearts in the empty holes more or less with random placement. More ModPodge and I left it to dry overnight. This is the shiny ModPodge and the photo does show a little glare. I am happy with how it turned out.

Happy Weekend!

Gale

Altered Page Art

2012-01-22T20:39:00.000-05:00

The deer is printed on a dictionary page featuring the definition of the word deer. I am now on the lookout for more old dictionaries to tear up.

These are printed on pages from a vintage music instruction book. It was falling to pieces at the Salvation Army where I purchased it. In fact it was in several sections that had fallen out of the binding. I trimmed them up and look how great they turned out when printed with these silhouettes.

I am planning to mat these and frame them for sale. From an idea I saw on Etsy. This cornet is a free vintage image from Graphics Fairy.

Two of my nearly finished Valentine swap pages. I added a banner and paper to the backside (which is not shown here.)

ATT Valentine 6x6 Swap

2012-01-16T13:17:00.000-05:00

One of my Yahoo groups, All Things Tim, is having an altered art swap with a Valentine theme. The requirements are to make 10 copies of a 6x6 inch page using Tim Holtz supplies and techniques. Most people make the same page 10 times, I make 10 similar pages but not identical. We mail these to a swap host who sorts out all the pages she receives and mails back to us 10 different pages created by 10 different creative folks.

The last time I participated in this type of swap was for a Halloween themed project in which I took an old photograph and altered it. I loved how my page came out and the pages I received in return were stunning in their detail and creativity.

My Valentine project took many steps to create. I chose a patterned cardstock for the background and wanted to emboss it with the TH Rays texture fade folder. That did not work out the way I wanted it to, so instead I cut some fun foam into a stamp. I embossed the foam in the texture fade folder, cut out the design with scissors and adhered it to an acrylic block for stamping. I stamped the rays design so that it overlapped slightly in the center and had rays emanating all around.

Some of the pages include printed scrapbook paper as a border. Then I added additional color using Adirondack Colorwash Sprays, Perfect Pearl spray and some distress stains.

Over this I stamped Tim Holtz's angel wings with embossing ink and heat embossed with black powder. I wanted the wings in the center over which I would place the heart I made.

I cut hearts from paint chip sample cards (using my Sizzix and the wonky hearts die) and heat embossed a design in the center. These were adhered with foam tape for some dimension. Using some glitter glue, I outlined the heart for some extra pizzazz.

I plan to include a banner on the bottom section of each page and may think of some additional embellishments before it is all done. I need to get these done in the next couple of weeks and mailed to the host.

Thanks for looking!

Gale C. Lewis

Paris Challenge at OWSE

2012-01-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

The ladies over at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium have issued a challenge for the first half of January-- any project with a Paris theme. Here is the item I am submitting. I used a 6x6 chipboard page as the base and covered it with an image of a street map of Paris that I found online. Using a Tim Holtz stamp I heat embossed the Eiffel Tower with black embossing powder. I found a vintage label from Graphics Fairy (along with the lady image) and colored it with some vintage photo distress stain. I stamped with the Tim Holtz Postmark in Pine Needles and also Vintage Photo. I stamped a butterfly with the same pink ink as the word "Paris" and then embossed it with white. I wanted more pink in the butterfly, so I stamped again over the white with pink. I finished off the butterfly with some pearl stickers in bright green.

These letters are grungeboard from a packet I received for Christmas from my parents. I inked them with hot pink embossing ink and then embossed them with clear UTEE. After I glued them onto the background, I attempted to add a little more embossing to help them really shine. UTEE is more difficult for me to get to stick to the embossing ink. I can tell that soon I will be buying some finer clear powder.

The vintage French lady image is embossed in clear UTEE and then I stamped a Tim Holtz frame around her, embossed with gold.

This was a fun project to make, looking through the stamps I already had on hand and then adding some vintage images found online to create this scene. It was the first time I used Grungeboard letters and I have to say that I like them. I have a couple of packs and I don't think I am going to have to cut letters by hand for some time to come.

Gale C. Lewis

Adventures in Heat Embossing

2012-01-01T12:40:00.000-05:00

I got my first heat gun from my parents for Christmas (along with a couple of great Sizzix Dies.) I have been reluctant to try heat embossing before now, mostly because I was afraid of messing up and maybe catching the house on fire!

Here are some tags I have made playing around with different techniques and using different ways of coloring the images. I am previewing ideas for my Valentine pages swap on the All Things Tim Group.

This tag was colored with Colorwash Sprays by Adirondack along with some Perfect Pearl sprays. The moths were stamped with embossing ink and then heat embossed with bright red Ranger embossing powder. I found out with the last moth, that if you heat it too long, smoke comes up and the color is no longer as shiny. Like I said, these are experiments.

Using another tag colored in the previously mentioned way, I stamped all these images using embossing ink and then heat embossed them. The black is a fine embossing powder from Ranger. These are all Tim Holtz stamps.

This tag was dry embossed using the script folder. Then I rubbed the embossing pad over the raised areas and embossed with clear UTEE. Over that I applied Spun Sugar Distress Stain. The hearts are just resting on top of this tag. They were made by stamping first red, then embossing ink and embossing with several layers of Clear UTEE. Then I cut them out to use as embellishments.

It has been fun trying out this new to me technique of heat embossing. I am a little worried that my embossing pad is not going to last long at this rate. Luckily, I see that refills are not that expensive.

Off to Michaels today to enjoy a 40% off coupon and then tomorrow it is back to work.

Gale C. Lewis

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T23:23:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! To celebrate the beginning of 2012 I am giving my blog a facelift!

It has been a while since I posted on this blog. I have still been making things, just not sewing at the present time. Mostly these days I make things with paper, ink, stamps and other messy materials.

I am a member of a couple of online crafting groups and many of the participants in these groups have blogs where they display and describe the wonderful things they make from paper. I intend to post more often in the New Year and to share my creations with anyone who might be interested in them.

Hope 2012 is full of fabulous opportunities to create and enjoy life!

Gale

Conner and Kippington

2011-04-02T20:01:00.000-04:00

This was just 2 weeks ago and already he seems so much bigger. Here Kippy (I call him Kippington for formal occasions) is walking himself around the yard with his leash.

Conner and Kippy get along pretty well. When Conner tires of his puppy antics he lets Kippy know to cut out the foolishness. The cats have accepted Kippy as well, but they will administer a punishment if he gets too fresh with them.

Look at the size of these feet. I am afraid this dog is going to be pony sized. That is a little too big for me, but I will just deal with it. That face is too cute to resist.

Here he is stretched out full length on the bed. He does not know "Move over" yet, and taking a nap with 2 dogs and 2 cats is a crowded affair. At night, Kippy sleeps in his crate.

Note the blue collar. It is his second collar because he kept breaking the clasp open on the first one and then running wildly around the yard daring me to catch him. This collar is for big dogs and strong. I had to poke holes in it to make it fit and already I have had to adjust it for his growing size.

This morning we all lounged around in the bed while I read magazines and watched a Harry Potter movie. He is fitting into the household very well and is a real sweetheart. When he is not figuring out how to remove dirty clothes from the hamper, he is all snuggle.

Gale

New Puppy and Old Dog

2011-03-13T08:19:00.000-04:00

I picked up Kippy yesterday and then checked in to our hotel. After a rest for all of us (Kippy in his crate, Conner watching him from the bed) the two dogs got acquainted.

Finally they started to play. Kippy is very playful and sweet. I was so glad to see Conner playing with him. I think they are going to be good companions.

Kippy has lots to learn about living in a house as he has been kept in a series of outdoor kennels his whole life. Last night while he was out of his crate I had to keep an eagle eye on him. He wants badly to chew some electrical cords. He also does not have a good handle on leash walking, but he did wait until he got to the grass this morning before relieving himself.

So all in all, it looks promising.

Gale

New Dog Coming to Live With Me and Conner

2011-03-06T17:24:00.000-05:00

Next weekend I am going to pick up this sweet-faced pup to give Conner some companionship and a wake-up call.

Conner needs someone to play with when I am not there with him and I think this rescue pup will do the trick.

It all started with the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and those Pedigree commercials. You know, the ones that talk about how shelter dogs are the ones with stories to tell and how you should adopt one right away. That's right, I am just the kind of sentimental fool those commercials were designed for.

Well, I started looking on Petfinders to see what schnauzers were available around here. There was a schnauzer mix puppy-- Kippy, listed. He is in Bristol, VA and after having gone through the process for adoption, I am going to fetch him home next weekend.

I won't know for sure how old or big he is until I see him and check all that out. I have found out that Welsh Terriers are supposed to be 20 pounds max and Conner (a Mini Schnauzer) has been 18 pounds for the last 4 years. Already this puppy is 18 pounds and only about 4 months old, so I am guessing the Schnauzer he is mixed with isn't a Mini.

Lord, help me, what if he is mixed with a Giant? I am gonna have to give up my grandparents' bed and get a king-sized one.

Anyway, spring is coming and once I get over this bronchitis I am going to have my hands full with new puppy-itis.

Gale

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2011-02-21T06:38:00.000-05:00

Today is my mother's birthday. Thanks, Mom, for giving me life and raising me to be the person I am today! I love you!

Here are the pillows I made for my mom's b-day gift. She loves birds and taught me to do the same.

See them sitting on my new quilt chest? I got it a couple of weeks ago at a yard sale. The top and front are glass and the sides are wooden. I have filled it with quilts I made.

Happy President's Day (and Mom, eat another piece of cake for me!)

Gale

It Has Been Almost a Month...

2011-02-13T12:59:00.000-05:00

since I last made a blog entry. I have been no busier than usual, but I have been spending a lot of time with my Kindle. So many good books to read....

Here is my latest finished baby quilt. I am going to list it for sale on Etsy. The fabric is Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda. I also got the same print in the brown colorway. I love how the striped fabric (from my stash) goes with all the colors in the print. This is so cheerful!

I have several more unquilted tops to work on while I wait for spring to arrive.

Gale

Beach Theme Ornaments

2011-01-17T18:38:00.000-05:00

This is a series of ornaments made with Jenni Bowlin Bingo cards. The cards are all beach themed and I added clip art and vintage images along with sand, glitter and real seashells to create them.

I added an extra layer of cardstock and sewed through the layers with my sewing machine. A ribbon hanger was added to enable these to be used as ornaments.

I may gift these or sell them. I have not decided yet.

Gale

Matryoshka Appliques

2011-01-17T18:26:00.000-05:00

These are about 6 inches tall sewn with wool and cotton fabric. I hand embroidered the facial features using perle cotton. The background fabrics, faces, and hair are made with felted wool.

I may finish these up to be the centers of blocks or combine them into a small wall hanging.

Gale

Baby Burp Cloths

2011-01-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

I have seen several sets of directions for sewing burp cloths. Some of the more fancy ones I have seen are only made with flannel. I read some comments that several people had made that the flannel does not absorb spit up as well as the diapers. So I decided to use the diaper fabric for one side and flannel for the other.

At another time I made a set of these and only used flannel on the center section of the diaper. I was not totally thrilled with how those turned out, so changes were made with this set.

These are made with girly flannel and cotton diapers. I cut the flannel to match the size of the diaper. Then I sewed the flannel on three sides, right sides together.

I turned it right sides out and topstitched around the sides, making sure to fold under the unsewn side for a neat finish. These are all flannel on one side and all cotton on the other.

Slowly getting back into sewing.

Gale

Year in Review

2011-01-01T23:46:00.000-05:00

I got a lot of sewing done in 2010. I learned something from each of these projects. My goal in 2011 is to continue to learn.
Gale

How To Make a Putz House

2010-12-22T12:36:00.000-05:00

More information on Putz Houses available here.

I started out with three plain cardboard ornaments from Michael's. Note the ugly jute hangers!

I painted the walls and roof with acrylic craft paints. Then the glittering started!

I prefer Martha Stewart fine glitter. It goes a long way and covers nicely. The crystal glitter allows the colors underneath to show through. I discovered this as a problem on the church roof, because the glitter looks less like snow than ice. Anyway, I decided that for the other ones I would add white paint before the glitter to give the snow more dimension.

I started to run low on the crystal glitter and I went looking at Walmart for a suitable replacement. Not much luck there! I did find some puffy fabric paint that looks white in the bottle with irridescent glitter. I used it here to add snowdrifts next to the path, around the base of the church and icy drips to the eaves. As it dries, it gets less white and more clear with glitter, but still holds its shape well. I was a little worried that this type of glue/paint would not work for this project.

Here you can see that the windows are now covered from the inside. I used an exacto knife and popped the bottom off of the houses to gain access to the inside. I cut scraps of patterned scrapbook paper to fit and taped them in with scotch tape. I did not cover the church windows because I placed a Christmas tree inside and wanted it to be visible.

After adding all the paint and snow that I wanted on the house, I used a small brush to cover the walls, roof, windows, etc. with Elmer's glue, just a thin layer. Then I covered it all in a final layer of Martha Stewart Fine Crystal glitter. I cut off that horrible jute hanger.

The church has a larger base than the others because I substituted the original base with a new one made of layers of cardstock. I painted a pathway with gray paint and outlined stones for the walkway using a silver Sharpie marker. I left plenty of room for bottlebrush trees and a figure, when I find some in the future.

These are fun to make and look so nice when they are finally done. I will be making more of these in the future!

Gale

Thrift Store Treasures

2010-12-19T10:51:00.000-05:00

This is an August Moon collectible I found for a very reasonable price. I think that she needs some sprucing up with crystal glitter. She is just not shiny enough yet!

I love this paper mache Santa Box. It probably had some ornaments or something packed in it at one time. And when the holidays are over, I will probably pack some ornaments away in it again.

So, I am aware that this is a Coca-Cola puzzle, but I got it because Santa is shushing the Schnauzer! My Schnauzer would certainly bark at the red-suited stranger on Christmas Eve night. I briefly thought about putting this together and gluing over it to make a framed picture, but I think I will just display it as is.

I found several of these hinged ornament teddy bears in a bag full of other ornaments. Some were junk, others were cute enough to keep and use.

This glass egg was in perfect condition and abandoned at the Goodwill. I had to bring it home and give it a place on the tree.

What an adorable ram! His horns are seashells.

Here is a tiny bird feeder with a tiny bird perched on the side-- too cute.

These were all found at a couple of local thrift stores. I love it when they put out the Christmas stuff they have received as donations all year. It is a great time to find some kitschy and some wonderful decorations.

Gale

Snow is Falling

2010-12-16T12:10:00.000-05:00

These are the snow pictures from Monday's storm. Most of that melted, but it is snowing again today. We already have more than we got on Monday. It is very pretty, but is interfering with my Christmas break from school. We will probably have to make up two days next week, when we were supposed to be off already.

Gotta finish my Christmas shopping!

Gale

Getting My Decor On!

2010-12-10T20:56:00.000-05:00

It's starting to look festive at my home!

Gale

Countdown to Christmas

2010-11-28T20:35:00.000-05:00

I made these countdown cards using a sheet of scrapbook paper that had the numbers printed on it and assorted shapes of more scrapbook paper cut with my Sizzix.

I did not add ribbons to these yet because I am still thinking of how I will display them in my classroom.

Like the other ornaments I have made recently, these are stitched on the sewing machine.

Earlier today I finished up some placemats for lunch at school. It makes eating at your desk a little nicer. I love how they coordinate, but do not match.

Back to school tomorrow. This was a nice break.

Gale

Paper Santas

2010-11-26T20:49:00.000-05:00

More can be seen on my Flickr photostream. These are like potato chips-- you can't just make one!

Gale

Papers and Threads

2010-11-26T18:11:00.000-05:00

Last night, while still digesting the Thanksgiving Feast, my aunt and my cousin and I went out on a shopping mission to Michael's. I picked up a new pad of scrapbook papers and a set of die cut embellishments in a Christmas theme.

This morning I made these ornaments with them. I used my Sizzix machine to cut out the scalloped squares and lots of circles of many sizes.

I layered the circles and squares with the pre-made embellishments and glued them in place with some Martha Stewart gel adhesive.

After letting them have plenty of time to dry, I added another layer of scrapbook paper to the back, along with a ribbon hanger. I stitched the layers together using my sewing machine. As some have recommended I increased the stitch length to prevent the paper from ripping.

Sewing layers of paper is not that difficult. The trick to remember is to go slowly and to keep your thread ends out of the way as you start to sew. Otherwise, you have a mess to pick out on the back. I made sure to overlap the beginning stitch point, in some cases, I stitched around the perimeter 2 or three times.

Mostly I use my Sizzix for fabric (and I have even ordered a half square triangle die for it) but you can see it make wonderful paper objects as well!

Yesterday morning I made the first batch of Papers and Threads ornaments using Santa images and more scrapbook paper. I did not get a chance to photograph them because I took them to Thanksgiving Dinner to show off and my cousin immediately purchased them all. So those ornaments are on their way to NYC with P.'s family and I will post photos after I make some more of them.

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and that you got some good bargains today.

Gale

Quilted Pillows

2010-11-24T20:57:00.000-05:00

Gale

Preparing for Earlysville Craft Show

2010-11-21T13:38:00.000-05:00

Made from vintage cotton chenille. Man, that stuff is hard to sew through. Broke several needles before getting the denim ones. Lots of fiddly hand work on these, too. But they look mighty cute all together.

14 inch square pillow featuring 2D Yuletide by Alexander Henry. Love this cute print.

12 x 16 inches patchwork pillow. The center fabric is a very wide ribbon from my stash.

This patchwork pillow will be 16 x 16 inches when the new pillow forms arrive this week.

Camera strap covers made with festive holiday fabrics. They are 28 inches long and cushion the stiff ugly strap that comes standard with larger cameras.

Gale

Saturday Sewin'

2010-11-13T20:07:00.000-05:00

These will either be gifts or be sold, whichever comes first. Is that awful?

I love this print called 2D Yuletide by Alexander Henry. It is based on the 2D Zoo print which is so cute. I love these critters all dressed up for Christmas (or whatever Winter holiday they choose to observe.) I got this fabric in three colorways, but have only cut the black print so far. You know I have to pet it awhile before I chop it up.

Tumbling Santas Applique Pillow-- I made the pillow top base with strips of the cute Santa print and red fabrics. This color combo is very popular and I still love it.

I fused these Santas to Steam-a-Seam and then cut them out. I ironed them onto the pillow top base and used zig zag stitch to applique them. I decided to have the Santas sort of tumbling across the pillow and I see here that I mostly placed them upside down. Hope Santa's blood does not all rush to his head.

Some of these may be going with me to the Earlysville Fire Department Craft Fair in early December. That is if I can bear to part with them.

Two of the pillows I showed yesterday have already been sold to a friend who is planning to gift them for Christmas.

Gale

Holiday Pillows

2010-11-11T16:50:00.000-05:00

These are foundation pieced onto some batting and finished up with an envelope style closure on the back. Gonna make great gifts!

Gale

Works in Progress

2010-11-01T20:48:00.000-04:00

Table runners and holiday quilts in varying stages of completion.

Gale

Relay for Life Event

2010-10-24T09:55:00.000-04:00

Here's my little booth with lots of baby quilts, some table runners, lots of key fobs and lanyards and a few wool pins. By the end of the day I had earned a respectable $160, even though the turnout was not huge.

Other vendors arrayed around the track.

Some of the organizers getting funky to "Proud Mary."

Kenny (team captain and dj for this event) and his sister. Thanks, Kenny for inviting me to be a team member and vendor!

The bouncy house for the kids-- and for the adults at the end of the morning. This event was the kick-off for Relay to Life season. People came to sign up for teams, take a few laps in the spirit of the event and raise some funds for the American Cancer Society. I was able to make a nice donation at the end of the day.

Gale

10-10-10

2010-10-10T19:23:00.000-04:00

Gale

Dolley Madison Quilt Guild Show

2010-10-10T19:10:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the lovely quilts displayed at a quilt show I found quite by accident last weekend. I was at a farm picking pumpkins and mentioned to the owner that I have a quilt blog and she told me about the show and where to find it. So off I went.

In addition to seeing some lovely quilts, I picked up a box full of quilting magazines for $1 and a few fat quarters from the Dr. Suess collection. It was a nice little quilt show.

Gale

Three Halloween Wallhangings

2010-10-10T18:55:00.001-04:00

I started these late Friday night, finished them on Saturday and took the photos on Sunday. This one was made with freezer paper templates from a pumpkin coloring sheet I found in the copy room at school. It is raw edge applique. This one is for Glory-- who has been asking for a door decoration for some time now.

This one is my favorite and is already hanging in front of my sewing space so I can look at it while on the computer or sewing. I laid the three pieces from the pumpkin pattern above on some cool fabrics leaving just a little space between each piece. The resulting shape was a pumpkin that was wider and still nicely shaped. I just cut around the outside of all three pieces. These are stitched with machine blanket stitch using my Brother machine. I used Sulky blendable 12 weight variagated thread in the orange, yellow and green colorway. The quilting is done with green thread that sort of blends into the background of leaves.

This is a snowball block made with an orange swirl fabric and some Kona Coal. The eyes, mouth and nose are made with scraps left from some other recent projects. I used stitch in the ditch for the outline of the pumpkin and then FMQ in swirls for only the orange part.

I am loving these fabrics from various Halloween collections. I found them at Fat Quarter Shop.

Gale

Liberty Mills Farm Outing

2010-10-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I visited Liberty Mills Farm in Somerset, VA. This is their first year growing pumpkins, creating a corn maze and providing other activities to the public. You can visit their website here.

The corn maze is divided up into several parts. The time to complete them ranges from 20 minutes to 4 hours. Can you guess which portion I traveled through? That's right, I am not much of a walker.

The owner told me that they plant the corn on a grid system with the rows planted in 30 inch swaths. They plant the field north to south and then go back and plant it again east to west. That makes the rows come up like graph paper. Then when it was time to cut the maze out they used a grid drawing to determine where to cut the paths. The maze is hand cut, probably with a mower of some kind.

Here is a view of the pumpkin field from the kiddy section of the corn maze.

One of the farm's collection of John Deere tractors. Nice!

They planted 10 varieties of pumpkins at the farm this year. It was interesting to see the different kinds available. Of course, I only wanted cool, weirdly colored and textured pumpkins. I can get plain orange ones at the grocery store. These were all priced by size, except for the really big ones, which they weigh before pricing.

Right before I went to the maze I saw a tree dropping Osage Oranges on the fenceline. After inquiring of the farm owner about them, he had his son gather a couple of dozen of the wonderful green balls for me. No extra charge! I love to decorate in the fall with Osage Oranges, but usually have a hard time finding them. Love them!

I also picked up some gourds which were grown on the farm. Later the same day I stopped at a flower/produce stand in the town of Orange and got some apples, an oddly shaped green pumpkin and some great photos. The bounty of the season is displayed by my porch now.

Later I will tell about the quilt show I saw on Saturday, also in Orange. I didn't know about it ahead of time, but got directions from the nice folks at the farm.

Gale

Spooky Portraits

2010-09-28T22:05:00.000-04:00

These pictures came from the Dollar Tree. I did not care for the look of the plastic 2-tone frames, so I painted them over with solid black paint.

Then I spiffed them up with some wide satin ribbon. Simple packing tape holds the ribbons to the backs of the pictures and then I tied extra ribbon on top into a bow.

Depending on the angle from which you view the pictures, you see a different image. A regular old-fashioned portrait turns into a creepy skeletoid man.

I saw larger pictures like these (11x14) at Walmart for $10. Did I mention that these 5x7 versions were $1? So they are super thrifty as well as creepy!

Gale

Halloween Decorations

2010-09-28T07:39:00.000-04:00

I made this banner using foam core board, black acrylic paint, scrapbook paper and strips of fabric.

Using Microsoft office I printed the letters onto the back of the green spiderweb scrapbook paper. I had to fiddle with it a bit to print the letters backwards, so that when I cut them out, they were facing the right direction. I painted the foam core board and then used some spray adhesive to affix the letters.

I taped the strip of black fabric to the backs of the letters and then tied strips of orange fabric to give it a more finished look.

I can already see that a FALL banner like this will be in the making soon.

I made some wool felt balls over the weekend using orange and black roving. Then I discovered that I already had a few in my stash, so I used them as well. I added some seed beads to the balls to make them more interesting. (I had seen this in a quilting magazine. It is pretty easy to do!)

The beads are strung on perle cotton with a few spacer beads in between. I finished up the necklace using some satin ribbon for the ties. I have a nice orange sweater this will go well with, but I am also thinking it would look good with a plain white shirt.

I have a few more projects in the works for Halloween. If they turn out, you will get to see them, too.

Gale

Completed Blocks for Quilt As You Go Quilt-Along Round 2

2010-09-25T13:00:00.000-04:00

It is so dry here I have been worrying about the birds. Where do they find a drink in this arid landscape? I was going to put together a fountain from clay pots and a fish tank pump, but this one was on clearance at Lowe's. $60, people! Now the birds can find plenty of water!

These are the completed blocks for the Quilt As You Go Quiltalong2. I did a loopy free motion quilting on this one to echo the design of the yarn balls.

The red print at the bottom is a shirt that I wore for about a year to work, but it always irritated me the way it let my bra straps show too often. So I chopped it up and made it part of these blocks.

The blue print on the right is part of a thrifted sheet. I decided to leave the top hem intact and just quilt over it. My Threadbanger hardly complained at all.

My favorite block so far. I love this bird print and tried to do some swirly loops around it while just stippling the rest of the block.

One of the backing fabrics I am using. This is one of my favorite prints from Sweetwater in the Make Life line. I wish I had bought more of it, especially the multi-colorway version. Now I am having trouble finding any more.

I have more blocks sewn together, but not pinned yet. I am pretty happy with how these blocks have turned out so far. I am still working on getting there to be less "eyelashing" on the back.

Gale

McCoy Pottery

2010-09-22T11:13:00.000-04:00

Long before I started quilting, I collected McCoy pottery as well as pots from other American mid-century potteries. Recently on her blog Amy a la Mode shared that her collection of pottery was featured an another blog. Amy replied to my comment that she would like to see my collection, so I am posting some pictures.

More pictures can be seen at Flickr. I even discovered a Flickr group devoted to McCoy.

I wish the house I was living in was large enough to allow ready access to my fabric stash and room for displaying all these lovely pieces. Too many of them are packed into boxes.

These are getting harder and harder to find anymore, but I am a sucker for those green pots!

Gale

Quilt As You Go Quilt-Along Round 2

2010-09-11T16:24:00.000-04:00

Heather at Al A Mode Fabric is hosting a Quilt-Along. It is the first one I have joined and there is a group devoted to it over at Flickr. Go on over at take a look!

Heather is planning on completing 5 blocks per week until her quilt is finished before Christmas. I do not know how many I will complete or how big my quilt will be when finished.

I plan to skip one of the suggested steps. I will quilt each 15 inch block with its batting and backing. Then when all the blocks are done I will sew them together and use sashing to hide the seam lines on the front. I will have my seam lines on the front, so that the back will remain smooth against my toes!

Here are my initial efforts on this project. I cut a great bunch of strips from fat quarters and yardage from my stash. I included some strips cut from scraps and cut some squares for the centers.

I took all the strips, jumbled them up and put them in a cardboard box on the floor under my sewing table. When I need a strip, I just grab one.

I am using chain piecing for these blocks. After each round of fabric is complete, I cut the blocks apart and trim the strips off evenly. I still have a ways to go before these blocks are big enough.

Back to sewing after my nap!

Gale

Three Finishes!

2010-09-06T19:42:00.000-04:00

First came a very large pile of 2.5 inch strips. The pink ones are a geometric print. (Can you tell I did these first?) The others are strips cut from a bunch of different NYC fabrics.

After running them through my Bias Strip maker, I was left with yards and yards of binding, ready to sew on.

A short while later, 3 finished quilts! I am thinking a couple of these will make good Christmas gifts.

Well, I enjoyed my three day weekend, back to work tomorrow.

Gale

Labors

2010-09-06T10:54:00.000-04:00

What I have been up to on this holiday weekend is not all that photogenic. I have been laboring!

*moved tv cabinet and hooked up the ROKU box. (this took about an hour!)

*listed a ton of items on Etsy-- things that have been finished and waiting to be listed for some time now.

*installed a new curtain rod and curtain for the living room window where I do most of my quilt photos.

*made a new quilt top from whole cloth, with some added borders. (no photo yet)

*put new seat covers on the front seats of my car.

*went through my WIPS pile and found one quilt that needs to be finished with FMQ and two more that are ready to be trimmed and bound.

*went through my recent fabric purchases and organized them.

*got tired and took a nap!

Well, maybe I will be able to add some more things to this list before the weekend officially ends.

Gale

Lanyards and Key Fobs

2010-08-29T12:14:00.000-04:00

No quilts to show here, but I have done some sewing. I needed a new lanyard and key fob for work, so I whipped up some. These are the extra ones I made for sale.

Gale

Owl Purse

2010-08-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

Purse I made a for a co-worker. She admired the purse I made for myself for back to school, but she wanted something slightly smaller. She also wanted it made with an owl print, which I had on hand.

This is made with the What a Hoot Owls Stripe fabric. I used a green swirly fabric for the lining.

The long strap is made from cotton webbing. The purse closes with Velcro.

Hope she likes it!

Gale

New Lunch Sacks

2010-08-15T15:50:00.000-04:00

Creativity is running on overdrive here today. I made two new lunch sacks and they are already packed with Monday and Tuesday's lunches.

Each lunch sack used approximately 2 fat quarters and are fully lined. There were a few scraps left over from the FQs. The bottoms are squared to sit flat and there is a drawstring to keep my food from tumbling out in my purse.

Now, if the laundry would just fold itself, I could call myself ready for the work-week.

Gale

Bohemian Babes Bag for Back to School

2010-08-14T23:23:00.000-04:00

I had a yard of this Bohemian Babes fabric by Michael Miller. (I wish now that I had more of it.) About 3 weeks ago I started making this bag. It is a simple tote bag with a boxed bottom. I drew up plans for the bag I wanted and cut the pieces I needed.

I quilted them with some Warm and Wonderful batting. I even did a little decorative quilting to highlight the pattern in the fabric. So far, so good.

Then I started working on the lining. I bought some pre-quilted fabric and cut it to the wrong size. I did not know it was the wrong size until I had made pockets for the inside of the bag and had already sewn them in.

Then I had to think about how to proceed from there. I went back to the fabric store and bought some more pre-quilted fabric. I decided I did not like it and it is folded up waiting for another chance to be used. More thinking and time not spent completing this purse I wanted for back to school.

Then I remembered that I had some nice printed canvas and it turned out to be the right size when I re-measured the shell of the bag. Yay! I made some pockets from an additional canvas scrap and sewed them on. I wish I could get a good picture of the inside of the bag, but the pockets turned out to be camera shy!

The straps are made with cotton webbing that were originally belts from the Dollar Tree. 2 belts made two sturdy handles for this tote. I added some of the Bohemian Babes fabric to the handles.

There are 5 pockets inside for cell phone and other items. I made a stiff bottom to help give the bag shape and covered it with matching fabric.

I am glad this bag is finally done and I will be using it for school starting on Monday, when the kids come back.

Gale

No Time for Sewing This Week

2010-08-13T06:27:00.000-04:00

Instead of sewing this week, this is what my co-worker and I have accomplished.

I am sure that once I get re-acclimated to my school schedule, I will get back into the sewing. For now, too tired!

Gale

P.S. Barbara-- I miss you, hope you are enjoying retirement!

Hand Stitched Hexagons

2010-07-31T19:32:00.000-04:00

Lots of quilters in blogland are working with paper pieced hexagon these days. The act of basting the hexagons is something that can be done where no sewing machine is available. Lots of folks have cute little stitching kits they take on the road with them for use in waiting rooms, the passenger seat, or deadly boring meetings.

Here are my first attempts at hexagons. I printed a hexagon template and used it to handcut more from construction paper. Mine are pretty large--between 3 and 4 inches across. I found some directions online and began with trepidation.

After the first 7 were complete, I decided to confirm whether I was doing them the correct way with some Flickr contacts. According to them, mine look just as they should. They recommend pressing them to make them look a little crisper.

Not sure what these will become part of, probably a wall hanging or baby quilt. I will probably opt to use machine applique when attaching them to the finished product. Hand stitching is not something I am going to do much more of with these hexies.

Julie from Jaybird Quilts promises more details about how she makes her hexies in the next few days!

Bento Box and Random Reflections

2010-07-26T12:16:00.000-04:00

Here are two quilt tops. I have been working on the Bento Box quilt for some time. I did not start with a clear idea of how much fabric it would take or how big I wanted it, so I had to keep getting more fabrics.

The strips are all 2.5 inches, except for one block which is not a bento block. As I was getting ready to assemble I saw that I needed one more block to make the rows come out right. So I grabbed an orphan block made with black/white prints and trimmed it to the size I needed. (You can try to find it for yourself.)

Also pictured here is my first attempt at a Random Reflections quilt made with scraps of the black and white prints I have collected. I threw in a couple of red prints for fun.

I saw this pattern on Flickr and thought "Oh, I can do that." It is a lot harder to figure out than I first thought and the first two groups of strips I made did not look anything like the quilt in the picture. So I went back on Flickr and found the link to the Moda Bake Shop directions for this quilt.

I will be making more quilts in this pattern in larger sizes, using jelly roll strips and Kona solids. I have several lovely jelly rolls lying around here needing to be cut into.

So the moral of the story is: Sometimes it is better to just go ahead and read the directions. Then you can decide for yourself if you want to follow them :)

Gale

A Finish and a Near Finish

2010-07-20T20:52:00.000-04:00

This black and white baby quilt is about a yard on each side. It is made with scraps from other black and white projects I have in the works.

I quilted it sparingly with a grid in the center and stitch in the ditch around the borders.

The backing is white cotton and feels so soft! The binding is pieced with some of the same prints and machine stitched.

This Pop Pink quilt is made with fat quarters of several modern prints that I picked up as part of a fabric grab bag at a shop in Richmond. I went back and got yardage of the stripe print in pink, purple and brown to use as the backing.

The yardage was not wide enough so I split it and added a wide strip of white cotton. Then when I pinned it together in prep for quilting I decided to use the stripes to guide my quilting. That means that I placed the pins in the back and quilted from the back side instead of the front.

The quilting is just (mostly) straight lines every few inches. The stitching runs horizontally across the blocks.

This is not quite twin sized. The next step is to trim and bind.

Last Year's Wool Beach Quilt and Inspiration for a New One

2010-07-18T12:16:00.000-04:00

I made this last year after a wonderful trip to the Outer Banks, NC. You can see I entered it in the county fair.

It is embellished with shells I picked up on the shore near Cape Hatteras.

I am feeling inspired by these photos from First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach to create another small beachy art quilt. I will probably use cotton as a base this time and layer on other materials to create my picture.

This cute sailboat may make it into the picture.

I love this line of pilings that extends out into the Chesapeake Bay. At certain times of day each piling is occupied by a pelican or other sea bird. This will feature prominently in my beach quilt. I am thinking of how to construct the pilings in fabric.

I have a handful of small shells and some sand that I plan to incorporate into the quilt. I am thinking of using a layer of sheer fabric with the shells and sand underneath. We'll see how it turns out.

Gale

What's Your Stitch and Stuff?

2010-07-16T20:18:00.000-04:00

I visited a wonderful quilt store today! Here is the link to their website.

The store was crammed full of wonderful patterns, projects and samples of quilts and wool applique work. There were many bolts of fabrics and the sales associate I talked to said they specialized in reproduction fabrics. They also had quite a few bolts of novelty fabrics.

I picked up a book with patterns for wool applique for 50% off, some fat quarters and some ocean themed fabric to make a quilt for myself!

Did you know that Aurifil makes wool thread for wool stitchery? I had no idea! I did not get any, just marveled over it.

I enjoyed the store and if you visit Va Beach, you should visit the store as well!

Gale

Lazy Day

2010-07-12T12:38:00.000-04:00

The furry people are having a lazy day!

Gale

Electronics Travel Organizer

2010-07-08T12:02:00.000-04:00

After making the Nook Cover I started thinking how I could adapt this design to make something to carry around personal electronics-- things like MP3 players, Nintendo DS and the like.

I did some measurements and a drawing, basically a rectangle 10 x 26 inches. I planned to make 6 inch pockets on each end with the whole organizer being folded to about 9 inches.

I chose to use Warm and Natural batting as a stitching foundation for the strips of Nest by Tula Pink. I chose the green and white lattice print from that line for the lining.

My Janome TB-12 has only a few decorative stitches, but they worked like a dream with no skipped stitches or hiccups of any kind. I used brown thread for the decorative stitching to coordinate with the colors in the Nest fabrics.

On the Nook project I used a binded edge. This time I decided to sew the lining pillow-cover style and flip it right side out. Before turning I trimmed the seam allowances down to eliminate extra bulk.

Once I had my rectangle and lining complete, I took some additional measurements and marked with pins where I wanted my pockets to be. If you make one, you will want to customize it to your own electronics that you plan to put in it. I wanted pockets for cords and chargers, too.

I used more brown thread to topstitch the pockets in place and to close the sides.

I did break a needle at the very end of the project when attempting to stitch through 4 layers of fabric and 2 layers of batting at a corner (fat with seam allowances!) The needle had been used for at least 5 projects-- so was understandably weak and tired! (Yes, I know that you are supposed to change to a new needle with each project-- I just don't.)

I am pretty happy with how this turned out. I may add a button and elastic closure just to keep it from unfolding in a purse.

Gale

Nook Cover

2010-07-07T10:38:00.001-04:00

My uncle Steve is getting a Nook for his birthday. I made him this case for it using the directions from the Moda Bake Shop for the Bookeeper.

Quilt Dad made a couple of very nice versions of this for Kindle, luckily for me the 2 ebook readers have the same dimensions. You can see his version here.

I love this Beatles fabric the best. It came from scraps my aunt gave me and this was all there was of it.

Love, love me do!

The lining of this Nook cover is made with canvas from the Authentic line by Sweetwater. There is a layer of Warm and Wonderful for padding and I broke out the decorative stitching in red thread.

Flags on a Line Wallhanging

2010-06-29T14:38:00.000-04:00

This project was inspired by a mini quilt seen on Flickr. It was made by Krista of Spotted Stones blog. Then she gave it away!

She used fusible web, but I chose not to. I also wanted mine to sort of look like the pennants were on a clothesline. To that end, I used stitching to resemble the clothespins.

It is backed in white and bound with some striped patriotic fabric. I included some tabs for hanging.

This is hanging on my door in time for the nation's birthday!

Gale

Two Finished Baby Quilts

2010-06-29T11:36:00.000-04:00

Finished these two last night! This one is bound with blue.

Backed and bound with white-- fresh from the dryer!

Gale

Pink and Brown Bubbles

2010-06-28T11:07:00.000-04:00

I found a remnant with the pink circles at a local fabric superstore. It did not include the name on the selvedge, so I do not know who made it or what it is called. It was almost a yard-- 32 inches.

I trimmed it to a 32 inch square and then bordered all four sides with the solid pink Kona cotton. The backing is white Kona cotton.

For the quilting I decided to stitch a swirly circle within each circle printed on the fabric. A line of stitching connects most of the circles. I chose to continue the swirly circles onto the borders of pink. The quilting is done with white thread.

It is not bound yet. I think this will make an adorable little girl's quilt.

Gale

Feedsack Prints Four Patch

2010-06-28T10:50:00.000-04:00

My aunt had some left over four patch blocks from a quilt she is making for a friend. The prints are feedsack reproductions.

The four patch blocks finished up at 4.5 inches, so I looked in my stash for some similar prints and cut 24 squares of the same size. I sewed them together in an alternating pattern.

I found some yellow for the border. I chose yellow because many of the feedsack prints had yellow in them. This yellow is a little brighter than I like, but at least it is cheerful.

Here it is, pinned and ready to quilt. The backing is white Kona cotton.

Gale

Finished with the Nostalgia Rail Fence

2010-06-23T12:09:00.000-04:00

I had thought to finish this with Kona Ash, but opted instead to use the backing and batting originally intended for the Double Hourglass quilt. After looking at the pictures of the DH I saw how badly I had laid out the blocks. I did not realize that they had a specific orientation and the random way I had sewn them together just looked awful.

I had already pinned it and gotten it ready for quilting, but I unpinned it and discovered that the backing and batting were an appropriate size for the Rail Fence top.

The now discarded Double Hourglass top is rolled up and stowed in my scrap bag. Perhaps one day I will have the energy and motivation to unpick the seams and redo it.

The Rail Fence is backed and bound with white and looks great. It finished up at 32x36 inches before washing.

Gale

Rail Fence Quilt Top

2010-06-22T11:58:00.000-04:00

This DNP made with Recess fabrics is backed and bound with a chambrey blue cotton. The thread is a dark blue-green color called Lagoon.

I really like how this turned out, even though these are not my favorite fabrics. This will make a good boy's quilt, but could also be used for a girl.

I sewed three honey bun strips together and then added white on either side. The strips were 7 inches wide, so I cut 7 inch squares. The prints are from a Nostalgia Honey Bun, part of which I used in another quilt.

I chain pieced these squares with a rail fence pattern. I was inspired by this quilt I saw on Flickr.

I got a clothesline to hang my quilts for photos, but the only place I had to hang it is in shade most of the time. So the picture is too dark, but you get the idea of the pattern.

There are alot of tan, browns, and khaki tones in these honey bun strips, so I am thinking of backing and bordering it with Kona Ash. Still not sure about that yet, though.

Man it is hot here in Central Virginia. Where my parents are in the tip-top part of Alaska the high is 42 degrees. Big difference!

Gale

Works in Progress

2010-06-21T21:18:00.000-04:00

He loves to just sit in the sun!

Gale

Inspired by Jaybird's Quilt

2010-06-20T23:33:00.000-04:00

Julie of Jaybird Quilts designed this wonderful quilt. I loved it so much I wanted to try and make one with some of my favorite fabrics-- the Make Life line from Sweetwater.

Julie's version used solid white for the background and used jelly roll strips in a woven raw-edge appliqué. I used a multicolor print and far fewer strips because I wanted the print in the center to stand out.

I layered batting, the printed background and the jelly roll strips. Then I pinned the jelly roll strips in place and just sewed them down. Later I added the backing fabric, which is just solid white Kona.

The center is free motion stippling and the strips are quilted over the same lines as the raw appliqué step. The machine sewn binding is pieced from additional jelly roll strips, cut in half for a shorter repeat.

After I washed it, there were lots of scruffy threads to cut. That just lends to the soft texture of this quilt. Thankfully the wrinkles came out and the crinkly goodness came through!

Keeping this one.

Thanks, Julie, for the wonderful inspiration! Your design skills rock!

Gale

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

2010-06-19T23:06:00.000-04:00

My mom and dad are currently on a cross-continental trip, so I won't be seeing Dad this Father's Day.

That's ok, they are having a great trip so far! They even have a blog that Dad updates whenever they find Wifi as they travel.

So, Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you!

Gale

p.s. Some of these photos are from Dad's archives and some are from his blog. Thanks, Dad!

Whimsy Stacked Coin Quilt Finished

2010-06-16T10:14:00.000-04:00

This finished out at about 44 x 36 inches.

The border, the backing and the binding are all from stash fabric. I can hardly believe how well that piece of fabric totally matched the tones in this charm pack.

The machine quilting is an all over stipple. The binding is pieced with left over strips of the "flashcard" yardage and machine sewn.

This one is going to be listed in my Etsy store.

Whimsy Flimsy

2010-06-15T10:48:00.000-04:00

One of my tried and true favorite patterns, the stacked coin quilt, made with fabrics from the Whimsy line by Fig Tree and Co. The solid border is from stash fabric.

I chain pieced these charm squares on parallel sides and then cut them down the middle. That left me with 40 squares, which I divided into 4 groups of ten. Each strip of twenty "coins" is divided from its neighbor with yardage from the Whimsy line.

I love that print with words (from old fashioned reading flashcards.) I did need to be careful with the directional prints in this line of fabric. I am very pleased that I was able to find fabric in my stash that matched this line for borders.

I even already pieced my left over strips together into binding! I still have not decided what the backing will be.

This will finish out to be a good sized quilt for a baby or child.

Gale

I Need a Modern Local Quilt Shop

2010-06-14T21:16:00.000-04:00

I had a whole list of things I needed from the fabric/quilt shops, so I went into Cville and visited 2 stores. One was the "real" quilting store and the other was Joann Fabrics.

The quilting store has lots of repro prints, some kids prints, lots of traditional calico type fabrics, and almost NO modern quilt fabric. They did have lots of Christmas fabrics. I asked the helpful sales lady if she had any Plume by Tula Pink and she looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language! She had never heard of that fabric line.

The only Kona solid they had was Snow (off white) and not what I needed. This is the second time in as many months I have visited this shop and not been impressed by what they had available. The inventory is definitely behind the times as far as what is currently being offered by manufacturers. Thank goodness for online sales!

So then I went to Joann's. Now that store gets a bad rap among quilters and sometimes that bad rap is deserved. But not today.

They had 90 inch Kona bright white and the exact Kona bright pink I needed. I also found some Buttercup yellow that I used in my Streets of New York quilt. (I needed more for binding.) I also scored some Kona Coal and Kona Ash. That guy who let me in front of him at the cutting table was sorry he did so by the time my pile was finished.

I was able to get a bobbin winder on sale. I needed this because my Janome TB12 has a really tight hand wheel and when I try to disengage the needle to wind a bobbin I cannot turn it. So the bobbin winds while the needle is speeding up and down going nowhere fast. I do not like it, so bobbin winder to the rescue. Now I can spare the machine's motor and not have to stop and rethread the machine after bobbin winding.

I picked up two queen sized batts of Warm and Wonderful for $15 each. All in all a good day at the fabric store. I came home and wound 6 bobbins full of white thread!

I also worked on a stacked coins quilt top, but the pictures I took came out lousy. I am going to have to iron the flimsy before photographing it again. Maybe tomorrow.

Gale

Plume Whirlygig Quilt Top

2010-06-13T14:32:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to a picture of other whirlygig quilts which inspired me to try out this pattern.

Using templates purchased from Pleasant Home and her tutorial I made this whirlygig quilt top. I picked out my fabrics from 2 Plume charm packs and some hot pink Kona cotton. I chose charm squares that would coordinate with the background color, reserving other charm squares in different palettes for other projects.

Each whirlygig block requires 2 charm squares cut in half using the #5 template and 4 pieces of the hot pink fabric cut with the #6 template. The cutting of the fabric using the template was just as easy as using a ruler and rotary cutter to make cuts.

Putting these blocks together was pretty fiddly. I had to constantly refer to the photos in the tutorial to make sure I was laying out and sewing the pieces correctly. Once each block was done I was supposed to iron and square them up, but I chose not to do that step.

I laid out the 20 blocks in a 4x5 array and chain pieced them together. Each block is roughly 8 inches square. Mostly I used random placement, making sure that no two adjacent blocks were the same. This could finish up into a good sized baby quilt or I may add to it to make it a throw for an adult. Have not decided yet how this will end up.

Love the vibrant colors and love how the pattern came out so well. Using the templates gave me blocks that were very easy to sew by matching up the seams. I used to not give a flying fig about seams matching, but now I like it better when they do.

Two things I learned while making this quilt top-- I love working with acrylic templates like these. Might have to look into getting others in the future. Also, I need to stop sewing before I am so tired of sewing that I do not care if my seam allowance is even. I get in a hurry to be done and get careless. I need to give myself permission to not finish in one marathon sewing session and then I will spare myself careless mistakes that I need to fix later.

Gale

Look What Came In The Mail!

2010-06-12T12:33:00.001-04:00

Tufted Tweets by Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman fabrics.

Obtained from Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy.

Love these prints! So much!

Gale

Retirement Quilt for a Friend

2010-06-10T23:14:00.000-04:00

I began this quilt as a baby sized quilt on Sunday. It was made from Half Moon by Moda charm squares. The black and white prints are way cool! The blocks are sliced Nine Patches and then individually framed in white sashing.

Once I decided to finish this into a good sized lap quilt for my retiring teacher friend, I found some more black and white prints at a local fabric shop. I bought a half yard of four different prints and cut them into 5 inch wide strips. Then I pieced about half of the strips together and used this to add borders to all four sides.

The machine quilting is stippling with white thread.

For the back, I pieced the left over strip of border fabrics into the center of the white fabric. It adds some interest to an otherwise plain backing. The binding is white Kona cotton and is machine sewn.

I am very happy with how these prints complement the prints in the Half Moon charm pack. I am going to have to order some more of these Half Moon prints and make one of these for myself!

My friend was happy to receive it. I was happy to make it for her! (Barbara, enjoy your retirement!)

Gale

Half Moon DNP in Progress

2010-06-06T17:22:00.000-04:00

Made with a charm pack (plus 3 extra charms) of Half Moon by Moda. Love those black and white prints.

Disappearing Nine Patch pattern, each block quartered and then sashed in white Kona cotton.

This will make a nice graphic baby quilt.

Only four days of school left! Whoo hoo!

Gale

Spring Fever Baby Quilt

2010-06-05T22:31:00.001-04:00

This quilt started out as a 2 1/2 inch square charm pack of the Spring Fever line and a great pile of torn strips of white cotton. The mini charm pack was part of the Moda Bake Shop Sampler box I got for Christmas from my parents. Yes, it has taken me this long to decide what I wanted to do with it.

The four squares on the back were actually the first four I chain pieced and then I realized I needed to piece them differently. So I set them aside and waited to see if I could use them later. I love the way the back sort of echoes the pattern on the front. I am glad that I did not rip them apart, but was able to use them instead.

I guess you would call this a windowpane quilt, but the panes are very small! All the little squares are bordered in white sashing.

For the free motion quilting I did a meandering stipple pattern in white thread. I ran out of white thread last weekend and had to order more from Connecting Threads. I got seven large spools, just so I would not run out again any time soon!

The binding is more white cotton!

This one is now for sale in my Etsy shop.

Gale

Nostalgia Honey Bars Quilt Finished

2010-06-05T21:31:00.001-04:00

Finished this one today. For sale now in my Etsy store.

It is based on a Denyse Schmidt design and uses part of a honey bun of Nostalgia by April Cornell along with some solids in cotton.

I quilted it by machine with a meandering stipple. I used light pink cotton thread. The binding is the same dark rose pink that is included in the quilt.

Having a productive weekend so far.

Gale

Graph Paper Generator

2010-06-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

I found this website tonight and thought it would be a good one to share with other quilters out there. You can resize and print many types of graph papers, as well as save a copy of them for future use. They come up as .pdf files, which require a free download of Adobe Acrobat (if you do not already have that on your computer.)

I am planning to use some of them in my little notebook for sketching quilt designs. This will make it a lot easier for me when I do not have to draw out the shapes myself, but rather can just color the graph papers.

Check it out for these styles of graph paper:

Hexagons

Octagons

Bricks

Moorish (like a windowpane design)

Triangles

Diamonds

Circles

Guitar Tabs (for you, Steve and Matt)

and more....

Hope this is useful to you!

Gale

Glitter in the Air

2010-05-29T19:18:00.000-04:00

What a pretty song!

Gale

Streets of New York City Quilt Top

2010-05-29T18:43:00.000-04:00

This was a fun quilt top to make. Last night I was looking through tons of quilt photos on Flickr and I saw a few of these split block quilts. Then I got to thinking about the cool stash of New York City fabrics I have from the City Quilter.

All of the fabrics in the quilt top with the exception of the solid yellow came from a fat quarter pack my aunt Glory bought for me on one of her trips to Manhattan this winter. When she and I went to NYC before Christmastime we did not even know of the store's existence and were quite put out that we missed out on the opportunity to shop there.

I found some yellow Kona cotton in my stash and started tearing narrow strips less than 2 inches wide. I cut a 12 inch square from each of the fabrics and a couple more for good measure. I ended up with 12 squares and a pile of yellow strips.

Here is a tutorial )from the fabulous Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!) on how to make these blocks. After cutting and sewing all 12 blocks I decided that they needed sashing in yellow to make the street effect complete and to help the "roads" meet up. I trimmed and joined the blocks in a 4x3 arrangement.

I love how this came out! The yellow echoes the shapes of the subway map fabrics and reminds me of the streets which veer off into various directions. I am thinking that the quilting for this one will follow the yellow strips.

I am also thinking of making a smaller version for a wall hanging, but I am gonna need more yellow fabric for that.

Happy weekend!

Gale

Nautical and Nice Four Patch & Nostalgia Honey Bars

2010-05-28T22:54:00.000-04:00

I have two new works in progress this week.

The first one is a framed four patch made with Kona solids and a charm pack of Nautical and Nice by Sandy Gervais for Moda. When I first opened up this charm pack, I thought to make it a chinese coins quilt, but something about it called for a four patch with colorful sashing around each block.

I am going to add some borders before quilting it. It will be a baby or toddler quilt. This weekend I plan to find some coordinating fabric for borders and backing when I take Conner to the big city for his grooming appointment.

The other baby quilt is inspired by a Denyse Schmidt pattern from her book, Denyse Schmidt Quilts. Her Hop, Skip and a Jump quilt found on page 116 is made with red and white fabrics. ( I love this one and fully intend to make one for myself using red and white.)

My baby/toddler version is made with part of a honeybun in the Nostalgia line by April Cornell for Moda and some solid cottons in pink and blue.

Of course, I did not follow Denyse's methods of making templates and cutting pieces to size before sewing. I tore strips of the solid yardages in different widths and then cut them to 22 inches. I cut each honey bun strip in half, jumbled them up on the table with the strips and started sewing them together.

After piecing together strips to get the width I wanted for this baby quilt, I decided that 22 inches for each panel was too long. So I cut them in two parts, flipped them around and sewed the panels back together. This one was so improv that I did not even use the rotary cutter until it was time to square up the edges tonight before snapping these pictures.

I plan to add a border to this one as well before quilting, maybe with the darker pink. The binding will probably be extra strips from the honeybun.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, folks!

Gale

Allow for Shrinkage

2010-05-26T18:58:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I started these two baby quilts and I was so happy with the progress I had made on them in such a short time.

Then I washed and dried the finished quilts and was astounded at how much they shrank. They shrank so much I could not use them for baby quilts without repairing them.

So for the last several evenings after work, I have spent my sewing time cutting off bindings, adding quilted panels to each side to widen the quilts and rebinding them. I even had to make an extra trip to the fabric store to get more fabric for binding.

Then I had to redo my Etsy listings to reflect the changes in the finished quilts. I also adjusted the prices, because they are not as perfect as I want them to be.

Here is what I learned:

I am not going to start pre-washing fabrics and battings. I like the look that comes when the quilt goes through the machine washing and drying and comes out crinkly and soft. However, I am going to take into account that significant shrinkage can occur and be more generous in my dimensions to start with.

I also learned that sewing through several layers of double folded binding and batting will bend a needle. More than one needle. Schmetz needles, too. Ouch.

So they are finally done and relisted in the store. Lessons learned and I am ready to move on to the next successful quilting project.

Gale

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

2010-05-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

In the little over a year since I started quilting, I have learned so much. Too much to list here and now. (Maybe that will be another blog post.) The quilt I am entering in the BQF is a recent one which was entirely improvised.

It started when I saw a photo on Flickr of a stacked strip quilt. I knew right away that I wanted to try one on my own. I had a stash of jelly roll strips from the Nest by Tula Pink fabric line that I had been saving for something special. This was it.

I used white strips of cotton torn from some yardage of Kona cotton. I always tear my strips instead of cutting them, even though that leaves me with a mess of strings to clean up afterward. I just like the way the torn strips work with pre-cut jelly roll strips.

Then I started sewing. This quilt ended up being made in chapters. After I pieced the first large section, I decided that the next section would look more like a stacked coins quilt and the orientation of the strips would change from horizontal to vertical. The final and smallest section was added when I realized that the finished quilt was going to be too short for use on my bed.

Each section was quilted on its own and then I joined them so that the seams were on the front. To cover the seams I used a double folded strip of more white cotton. More white cotton makes up the binding. The backing is a vintage sheet from a thrift store in a green floral print.

This is my favorite quilt I have made so far. I love the way it just evolved. I love the colors and the tropical palette. I love all the white surrounding the intense colors, even though my dog has already put muddy footprints on it.

Thanks Amy for hosting the BQF for those of us who do not go to Market. You are the best!

Gale

Baby Quilts Ready to Bind

2010-05-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

Last night I pieced these blocks into 2 quilt tops sized right for baby. I separated the colors so that one is more appropriate for a girl and the other for a boy. I added a strip of fabric to each end to give the quilts a little more length.

Then I prepared the quilty sandwich of Warm and Natural batting and white cotton for the backing. After pinning them together, I did the free motion quilting on my TB-12. I used random stippling all over.

This morning I squared up the quilts and trimmed off the excess batting and fabric scraps. Now they are ready to bind. I plan to use the same fabric that is on each end for the bindings.

These will be for sale in my store.

Gale

Apron Strings Baby Blocks

2010-05-20T22:36:00.000-04:00

Two new quilts in process:

I started with a charm pack from the Apron Strings line and strips torn from white Kona cotton. This charm pack features '30's style prints. I surrounded the 5 inch squares with the white and then spent a good deal of time pressing and trimming them.

Now they are divided into two piles and are going to be assembled into two baby quilts. They will probably end up in a 4 x 5 block layout with some additional yardage for borders to make them large enough. I am leaning toward yellow and will check at a local fabric store for an appropriate print.

I had originally intended for this to be a windowpane quilt (similar to this one,) but made the mistake of adding white to all four sides of each square. Oh, well. I am not going to tear these apart, just improvise. This is what happens when you don't follow a pattern, just make a quilt based on what you saw. I am going to trust that it will come out all right in the end.

I think that these are going to be very nice baby quilts when all is said and done.

Gale

Some Free Motion Quilting

2010-05-16T21:26:00.000-04:00

I did some free motion quilting today on this quilt. The top has been done for a while and then I had sewing machine issues. It took a little while (weeks) to get that ironed out, and I wanted to get the hang of FMQ on my new machine before I worked on this large quilt.

The most challenging part of FMQ on the Threadbanger is that there is no extension table to make it fit into my sewing table. So every time I need to change the bobbin, I have to remember to move the machine back over so that there is not a big gap on the left side. Otherwise, I will have problems sliding the fabric around under the foot.

The other large quilt I have made was done with vertical line quilting and so I had fewer issues with moving around so much fabric under the needle.

I am trying to do as Leah Day recommends and only focus on the fabric between my two hands. I did find with so much fabric piled up around the machine I had to be extra careful that no stray corners crept under the part I was quilting. That happened one time today and I caught it almost instantly, so I only had to pick out about 5 stitches.

The back of this quilt is a vintage sheet in the most perfect cool tones to match the front! It was a lucky find at Goodwill.

Gale

Blasts From the Past

2010-05-12T21:02:00.000-04:00

I made all these quilts and love them all!

Gale

Bad Day, Make Sorbet

2010-05-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

It has been a couple of difficult days at work, with another in store for tomorrow. After I got home I had a bout of dizziness and then nausea, but it seems to have passed for now. I think it is sinus congestion.

I wanted something cold and fruity so I made some homemade sorbet. Here's how-

Take one Edy's lime popsicle (without the stick), some frozen strawberries, and a splash of Sugar-free Cran-grape juice. Mix it all up with a Kitchen-Aid Blender Stick until it is the consistently of sorbet. Eat it up with a spoon.

Just a few minutes ago I let Conner outside to do his nightly business, and I saw this little house wren pop out of her nest to see what all the commotion was. The birdhouse is attached to a garden rake and is on my porch. She sat very still while we were out in the yard and then even posed for this picture after I got back in the house and grabbed the camera.

I gave my friend Emmalee the baby quilt I made for the little one she and her husband are expecting. She loved it. That made me happy.

I finished off two quilts this weekend. The Improv Nest quilt got its binding finally. It is now resting comfortably on my bed. I also finished the Bricks Oddysea quilt on my new Janome Threadbanger. That machine did a nice job on the quilting and the new FMQ foot works great.

Ok, I think I will make it through the rest of the week. Maybe tomorrow night I will feel like sewing some.

Gale

My Little Sister

2010-05-05T21:38:00.000-04:00

44 years ago today you joined the family. I am so glad you did.

Happy Birthday, honey!

Gale

Hello, Gorgeous!

2010-05-03T21:56:00.000-04:00

So an important package arrived today-- my new Janome Threadbanger (TB-12.) I had been thinking about a new machine because the Brother one I normally use is weak on free motion quilting abilities. I want to be able to quilt full sized quilts on my home machine without fighting to maneuver the fabric under the small throat.

I saw on ROssie's blog that she got a new machine recently- The Janome TB-12. I read her post about why she thought it was a good machine and then did some additional research on that model. It all sounded good to me.

So I copied her. I found it for $199.00 online with free shipping. (That is just what I paid for the Brother machine a year ago.) I splurged on a metal free motion quilting foot ($30--eeks) with a wide open area that allows me to easily see the place in which I am quilting. Cannot wait to try that out.

This machine is heavy and smaller than my old machine. The threading procedure is fairly complicated and I had to do it twice to get it right. It has a metal bobbin case that comes out and uses plastic bobbins. It has few decorative stitches, but I did not want that anyway. What I wanted was a machine that can handle multiple layers of fabric and heavy use.

Tonight after getting it threaded and reading the manual, I sewed some jelly roll strips together. I will probably finish them into a pillow cover. It sews nice seams and so far I have had no tension issues.

Here's hoping this is the beginning of a long, happy relationship.

p.s. The Brother jammed up last weekend, but I did finally get it working again. I am going to keep it as a backup machine, I think. How many sewing machines in one house is too many?

Gale

Mystery Bird Identified

2010-04-29T21:50:00.000-04:00

Back during one of the big snows of the past winter, I saw a bird that I had never seen before. It was too fast for me to get more than a glimpse, but I could clearly see that it had a white head.

At first glance, it seemed to be a cockatiel or some other tropical bird that had gotten away from its owner. I was amazed that it was surviving the harsh winter.

I looked for information on the 'net back when I first saw it, but there were no likely choices for what the species could be. I just waited to see if it would come back.

It did. I saw it in the neighborhood last month and followed it around trying to get a better look. It saw me and flew off. I saw it again yesterday perched in a tree next to my house.

It is a cardinal! With a totally white head! It looks like someone upended a cardinal in a bucket of white paint. It is all red except for the head. Too cool.

I looked for confirmation of this crazy phenomenon and found it in several places on the Web. One of the places is the Cornell Ornithology Lab. Apparently, some birds are partially missing the pigment in their feathers. If all the pigment is missing they are albinos.

Since I have not been able to get a picture of this elusive bird of my own, I have used some pictures taken by others.

Gale

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-28T22:03:00.000-04:00

Gale

Improv Nest Quilt Ready to Bind

2010-04-26T20:11:00.000-04:00

I got this all quilted and the three panels sewn together this weekend. I did not get it bound yet or the raw edge from piecing the panels together covered.

I was blissfully quilting along on the Oddysea quilt and my machine froze up. Stopped dead. I had to dismantle the presser foot and take out the needle to get my quilt out from the machine. I have done some online troubleshooting, but it is not working again yet.

So now I am on a sewing break. . . . . for a few days.

Gale

Spring Thunderstorm

2010-04-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

Spring is in full tilt here in Central Virginia!

Here is a thunderstorm I saw on the way home from work this evening. Well, I saw it from afar and then drove into it.

I love these Flickr mosaics made with the help of BigHugeLabs.

Gale

More Progress

2010-04-24T18:57:00.000-04:00

Detail of the quilting on the first panel.

The first and second panels are quilted. I laid them out side by side on the bed and they almost cover it.

Now on to the third panel and assembling the whole thing!

Gale