12/25/2007

12/21/2007

Handmades


One of my favorite Christmas-ies made by my son when little...



Got in the Christmas spirit last night and made these cell phone bags to give to my media center student aides this morning...


Also did a pencil portrait for Secret Santa recipient for the final gift; hope she likes it:

12/19/2007

Happy Days


Hope everybody is really enjoying the holiday season (little skier santa above is just about my favorite Christmas item). Am doing Secret Santa this week at regular work, never mind the fact that the assistant principal told my recipient the very first day who her Secret Santa was (that's just the kind of school I work at, I wasn't even surprised); here's Monday's gift wrapping (please understand that I am very rudimentary at scrapbooking so I was very proud of putting the photo corners on the picture and gluing on the snowballs :-) ),

and today's gift made from quiltsmart.com's cell phone bag pattern:

Does anybody recognize this fabric?

We had our last Stash Sisters class last night with wonderful Show and Tell. Next year that class will have a different name (Stars Around the Garden) and we will be expected to actually produce some quilt blocks for class, perhaps even one entire quilt. Uh oh, work. This is a pin worn by one classmate:

a wonderful needlepunch Santa:

an antique doll's quilt:

received in a gift swap:


Several totes and bags made for co-workers and spouses:

12/14/2007

Swap Gifts

Last night was the annual LQS Christmas party, and I can tell you, it was a wonderful event, LQS owner, class teachers, shop workers all in attendance, and so much fun. There was a gift exchange, theme: pin cushion, sewing roll, or other sewing accessory. It was so much fun to see what everybody made and I wish I could have taken a picture of everything to show you. There was an exquisite Hardanger miniature needle book, a Renee Plains work apron (I had considered making an apron like this and still want to make one), the most extraordinary Primitive Doll by Barbara Barnes (I don't think she'll mind my using her name), a great large primitive crow on a candlestick who looked wonderfully ornery, a needlepunch needlework bag, and much more.

Here is what I made, a sewing roll. My idea is that it belonged to a nineteenth-century child, who sewed together two old stained samplers for the cover, and did various types of needlework for the inside sections. There is a stamped bit of beeswax for thread, a little journal for needlework planning, a pocket for tape measure, a broderie perse rose, etc.:




Now just look at what I received!! This certainly went to the right person, because this is me all over and I just adore it!!! Look at the flob and wabble (I don't have time to look up the right names for the topknot and chin thing) made out of pretty dark red beads....and the tailfeathers. And isn't the fabric perfect? Also love the holder for the spool. I said earlier in the day that I hoped I would get this person's swap gift. She was sitting next to me at dinner, picked her own number, and switched numbers with me, so I DID get hers and you will agree I was very lucky!


12/10/2007

The Whole Day


Spent the entire day getting my large fabric storage closet back into order. It was fun to visit with all of my potential projects. I decided, though, that a good stash-coping measure might be to write down all future quilty purchases in a Dedicated Notebook:
Aren't we all so busy this time of year! There was something I was supposed to work on (okay, like ten things) this week-end, but oh no, the stash-straightening and LQS BOMs had first priority, so got those done:

Here are some of us lined up at the LQS Second Saturday Sampler, enthused as always (!):

A beautiful quilt shown by a fellow Stash Sisters member; this quilt is for her new English son-in-law. Aren't the colors great?

Before we went inside to hear about what's new at the LQS, we heard a bit about the new-this-year EQ6 class. Those class members are having way too much fun. They're learning a lot about EQ6 and are doing interesting things like round robin designing. Below are two quilts that were first designed in EQ6:


Hope everybody's Christmas (or "Winter Holidays" as the case may be) preparations and activities are really fun and going well.

12/04/2007

project


Another part of the project...

12/02/2007

Snowman


Bob Eckstein has kindly shown my snowman wall hanging on his Snowman blog: Today's Snowman (Official Site for The History of the Snowman: From the Ice Age to the Flea Market. My snowman is always happy to go on a field trip to visit other snowmen :-) .

I would like to tell you that I haven't done anything quilty this past week because of flu, but dear reader I must be honest: I slipped and fell under a large pile of stash and I can't get out.

11/26/2007

Post-Thanksgiving


Hi everybody, hope all of us in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Timothy and I spent Thanksgiving Day hiking in north Georgia. We packed in our turkey sandwiches, pumpkin pie, and apples and ate at the end of the trail next to waterfalls falling over and in between 90' tall granite slabs. We had some heaven-sent wet weather to help Georgia's terrible drought, complete with blustery wind sending the leaves everywhere, falling temperatures, and it was fabulous. The only thing that could have made me happier was a blizzard. I love violent weather (the kind where nobody and nothing gets hurt :-) ). You could even hear the very strong winds blowing through the forest and what a miraculous sound, made me think of home.





Oops did the wrong color combination for Block Swappers earlier, so got this group done that is due December 1st, and will be able to use the earlier combination for next month.


And got this stitched out this morning before work. It's a design that I digitized a few years ago in PatternMaker. Next I'll age it and then use it in a project.

11/22/2007

Thanksgiving Day


Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. I hope everybody has a lovely day today, with no stressful accidents as the poor Vogue dolls are having above. This photo was caught by a good friend of mine, Betty. Betty makes miniature foods, as you see here, in addition to styling these incredible doll dioramas. We both have Vogue doll collections, inspired by our childhood when we each had a 50s Ginny doll that was new at the time LOL. To think they are 50 years old now. I can think of walking into that hobby shop in my hometown as if it were yesterday as they say.

Thanksgiving Menu (driven by need to have WW low-points dishes)
Turkey
Dressing (double fiber bread, faux butter)
Fat Free Gravy
Relish Tray
Sauteed Red Cabbage with Apples
Mashed "Potatoes" with Fresh Chives (mostly cauliflower)
Peas and Pearl Onions
Pumpkin Pie (fat free evap milk, faux sugar)

11/17/2007

Jo Morton Show and Tell November


It was a phenomenal Show and Tell this past Tuesday at Jo Morton Little Women Club:















And finally, a pair of shoes found at the secondhand store last night that will receive a decorative coat of paint, hopefully tomorrow:

11/13/2007

Pencil Sketch


Came across this sketch I did after seeing a wonderful antique quilt at the old ELCO show in Michigan in the 1970s. The colors were exactly the same, incredible bronze for the stem and leaves, deeper even more gorgeous bronze for the flower centers and an old barn red for the petals. The notes say that the large blocks were set 3 x 4, and that there were varying shades of red, burnt orange, etc., for the outer borders. These days I would have snapped a photo with the digital and drawn it in EQ. Wonder where that quilt is now.

11/11/2007

Crying Into My Quilts

Not to dwell on Misery, but Regular Work took a dramatic turn for the worse this past week. Didn't know there was any more downwards space available for that to happen. Brought in three handmade items for a quick refresh of the display areas around the media center. Thank goodness for a UFO Stash :-) :



Note the simplistic mottos so beloved by government bureaucracy. If anybody can think of one for the middle item that is on the door to my "office", do let me know and I will add it with alacrity. Will these displays win me any brownie points? They will not. I reside there as a stranger in a strange land.

Too tedious to explain why, but this sewing machine arrived Friday at Regular Work from the warehouse. I had chosen it weeks earlier, along with other broken-down items that the poor schools can get from the rich schools that have discarded them as unusable junk. It turns on and the needle goes up and down. Progress. But does anybody know what that thingie is sticking out to the left?

On the up side, had an absolutely delightful day yesterday working at the LQS. So busy, interesting, and fun.