Catching Up

Hi and Merry Christmas friends! I feel like I've been sewing non-stop for the past month and only have a couple of things to show for it! I suppose if I add in Facebook, work, kids and more Facebook, it accounts for most of the time.

I participated in two swaps over the last few weeks.
Scrappy Mug Rug Swap was first. I'm always inspired by the creativity of quilters! I received some goodies all the way from The Netherlands!

For my cat-loving partner, I had an image in my head of a furry Christmas cat wearing a real i.d. tag, (more than likely influenced by several delicious pina coladas I enjoyed) which came out looking more like a furry Christmas dog... Starting over, I used felt instead of fur and had better results.

My California partner received (as requested) a batik makeup bag and matching scrappy card holder.  For both partners, I decided to make up a Christmas duck mug rug- pretty silly but he came out ok too. He's strip pieced from a variety of yellows and oranges and appliqued on with snowflake buttons and a long scarf. The Christmas duck rugs are about 9" in diameter and Meowy is about 8 x 10".

Meowy Christmas

Christmas tree close up

We Have A Winner ... or 2 or 3 or...

 

Research Randomizer Results 1 Set of 6 Unique Numbers Per Set Range: From 1 to 112 -- Sorted from Least to Greatest Job Status:        Set #1:6, 13, 25, 44, 69, 91

CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS!   Thank you so much to all who participated in my giveaway. I'm actually a winner myself (shout out to  Marilyn at Comet the Quilter) and I am sooo excited! I went ahead and chose some winners for EACH prize!  6: Michell - Moda 1933 Charm Pack 13: Marogez -Blue/pink hobo bag 25: Melissa @ Happy Quilting - Moda Oasis Charm Pack 44: Missy - Turquoise hobo bag 69: Tina - Messenger Bag 91: Bricoles Textiles - Black & White hobo bag All winners have been notified via email and have until 12/21 to send me a mailing address. Thanks to all for participating! Merry Christmas! Francine

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY: QUILTING GALLERY

Please join me and nearly 200 fellow bloggers 


in wishing 




a very happy 4th birthday/anniversary!


Quilting Gallery brings together many quilting resources, blogs, shops, etc and has been very valuable to me. 


Visit the Blog Hop Party (See Button at right)  for many chances at fabulous giveaways! I would like to offer the following giveaway.. One of the items pictured below. 
Prizes include one of the following:
Blue Hobo bag kit
Turquoise Hobo bag kit
Black & white Hobo bag kit
Multicolored quilted messenger bag kit
Moda 1933 Charm Pack
Moda Oasis Charm Pack


HOW TO ENTER:
1. One entry per person please - 
     *Subscribe to my blog
     *Leave me a comment with your favorite quilting style,
      your choice of prize and your email address!


 A winner will be chosen randomly on December 17th!  Happy Blog Surfing!
** UPDATE**   
I will be choosing MULTIPLE winners!! Good luck friends!

HAPPY HOPPING!!!

Francine

Cleaning

The thing about deciding to get your scraps organized at 10pm.. is that once you see how much you actually have to deal with...

somewhere along the way..

you might lose your motivation, desire, gumption, stick-to-it-iveness, wine buzz, ambition, inclination, impulse and interest...

and then you might realize that you've spread all those scraps ON YOUR ONE & ONLY CUTTING MAT so you can't work on anything else..


#$%$#@#$@#!@$!!!!


or...

you can shove it! 

Waves

Here's the latest quilt for baby Adrianna - inspired by the New Wave Pattern from Oh, Frannson . It was really fun to make, except for all the sessions with the seam ripper. Heavens if I know why sometimes the blocks lined up straight and sometimes they. did. not.  Daggone it! I yelled at my fabric, my machine, and even the seam ripper, but I didn't help. (*&)*(#@).. my quilt did not come out in the same dimensions as the pattern despite my  religious adherence to the instructions. I did have a glass of wine and even a more hearty cocktail at times, but I really really really was following those measurements. When I was cutting out the shapes for the front, I cut out a few of each color to piece together on the back. Loooooving the way it came out!

Catching Up

I just completed my first disappearing 9 patch and I must say - I'm hooked! I spent about 10 hours looking at pics and studying the method. I've made 2 so far - got the 9 patches done, came up with a layout, and both times managed to misplace/miss-sew/screw up one block - oops! That's why the pics will not be close-ups heh  heh.

Quilt for Adrianna - front

Back view - 2 flannels

Also, in order to comfort myself after being mistreated by some naughty 4th graders I was substitute teaching, I stopped by Marshall's (Mecca) on the way home. I found this awesomely huge store basket on clearance - whoop whoop! It looks like it was made to hold fabric, see?  

It's burlap with fabric wrapped handles

...and applique flowers

Now if I could only stuff all this junk in it, I'd be in business.

Mug Rug Swap

 I recently participated in my first Mug Rug Swap on Craftser.org! I can post about it now, because my little creation has journeyed all the way to Canada and I won't be ruining the surprise.

Man, you can really waste a lot of time looking at the millions of pictures of mug rugs..a LOT of time.  The amazing talent out there in Flickr world is truly intimidating! It can  also be inspiring though, so I set off.

My first attempt was a fizzle. I wanted to try zig zags but I made the strips too big and when it was trimmed, it looked like a mess. The second attempt with smaller strips wasn't all that jazzy either, so I'm keeping it and using it to catch my own coffee drips. As I look through all the finished pics, I'm truly amazed that I was able to shoot my pockmarked, markered, mail covered and toy-riddled coffee table and it actually looks clean. Talented!

before the fatal trim

allllmmmooost a zig zag

even less zig zag

the cup is empty but the rug did catch all my oreo crumbs

The real mug rug:

It's so round, it wants to curl up

strippy backside

Action shot! 

Quilt for Terry

I feel like I hadn't posted in forever and when I looked, I realized it's been a month! Time flies, good grief! I've been working on a couple of things including this quilt made for a wonderful woman I used to work with. The funny thing is that we've gotten to know each other more now that we don't work together anymore - the wonders of Facebook, I tell ya. Actually, to be more specific, the wonders of Cafeworld... man, I would get sooo much more done if I wasn't constantly tending to my doggone cafe! It's just so nice to cook gourmet meals at the touch of a button and I know it's not real, but I have earned $73 million buckazoids - which makes me awesome.


Anyhow, back to the quilt. Terry requested creams, greens and browns which I had exactly none of in my stash. I must only work on baby stuff because my piles & stacks o' fabric lack any neutral colors. That meant I had to make a much dreaded trip to the fabric store. Actually, the only part I dread is the visit to the cash register and even that isn't so bad when they put in all my coupons, score! So, the part I really dread is sneaking big fat bags into the house-which also isn't so bad when I look at it as a way to keep the hubs on his toes. If he doesn't see the stuff coming in, he must assume it's not new.  One of these days, he's going to start paying more attention to my debit charges. Until that day, sneaking it is!


This pattern is: Flower Boxes by Freckled Whimsy. I used an assortment of browns, creams and greens to match the checked multicolored fabric in the outer border. After the quilt was admired and taken home, I realized I hadn't taken any close ups (including the crab)  so I snapped one of some of the leftover scraps here: 


It ended up about 65" x 75". The back is mostly a cool sand colored flannel - perfect for snuggling with. The crab is appliqued and has double button eyes.

Front View

fabric selection

In the grass with the resident model/intruder

Back View & Kennabeans

Pieced back w/crabby

Tennis Anyone?

Recently I attended the US Open for the first time EVER-WOHOO!  Gonna cross that item right off my list of stuff to accomplish while living on the east coast. I didn't get to see Venus, Serena, Roddick, Federer or Nadal, but it was still fun. I also got the all-important experience of purchasing a $22 beer and some kind of delicious expensive Grey Goose beverage, mmm.


Anyhow, I'm also participating in my first quilt swap. Another Little Quilt Swap. I probably should have looked at past pictures before joining, because these folks are actual, real-live quilters with talent.. oops! To make matters worse, the swap is not random but rather organized by popularity. Oh well, somebody has to come in last place and I can't feel too bad cause my quilt makes me giggle. It's pretty ridiculous. I really need to stop drinking wine when I'm thinking up something to sew and really need to stop drinking other things when I actually start sewing.


I was really trying to be creative in going with the tennis theme and it took me awhile to work out the execution. I made it up as I went and it required some unusual steps such as beginning the quilting before the borders were actually on so that I could quilt under the net area. I bought some cool netting (rather a-lot of it which I have to find a use for now) from Fabric.com and I ended up using a scrap of netting that my daughter was walking around the house with -no idea where it came from, but I'm almost positive I've gotten rid of all those net tank tops I wore in high school. Oh, AND this is the first time I've done real, non cheater binding except that I didn't do any hand stitching (except on the buttons.) I'm morally opposed to hand stitching. 


I can think of a few things I'd do different next time - piece the sky and make it more random, use chalkboard fabric for the scoreboard, sew straight lines in the binding, but overall I'm happy with my result and I hope someone else likes it too. If noone picks it, I'm totally sending it to Venus who I know will happily display it in her entry way or bathroom or someplace she can gaze lovingly upon it every day.

in progress but you can see the tennis net clearly here

All done, see the colorful people in the stands? Isn't that cool?

racket is denim appliqued with gold mystery netting

Not sure why picture rotated, but here you can see the pile of tennis balls and the score

back of quilt - tennis ball fabric found in my stash

12 year old so & so came & plopped his boy scout shirt right in the middle of my work surface so I can do his patches, GRR

My variation of Strawberry Fields Forever

quilt top -front view

Thanks to Jera @ Quilting in the Rain for inspiring my latest quilt. I'm trying to work my way through all of her fabulous tutorials. Quilting in the Rain - Strawberry Fields Forever

Quilt - front view

Pieced back

Back view - close up

approved by Kennabeans

I challenged myself to do it in all black & white, and boy was it challenging! I was so tempted to add in some color somewhere! I used fat quarters and not a layer cake so it took a few shopping trips to find this many different black & white prints. As always, I found that doing random layouts isn't as easy as it seems. I really stewed for a long time about how to quilt this thing. This led to many wasted minutes/hours of surfing the web and looking at quilting layouts and getting ideas for other stuff I'd like to make. In the end, I decided on quilting in the ditch and then echoing that line on both sides. The thread is a Sulky variegated in black/white/grey.The grid lines came out pretty doggone cool.  All in all I'm pleased with the project, but I really need to find a way to make decisions more quickly cause that was easily the most time consuming part of the process.