happy birthday Mr Cute

my grandson is two years old today

two years ago today we made the mad dash north to be there with our daughter and her husband when he was born

the past two years have FLOWN by

can't wait to see him for our Christmas celebration -- and give him a big hug next weekend






 

I've been fiddling with this for a couple of days 

originally I had thought about doing this entirely as bead embroidery, but after working on that idea for a while, I decided to try something different 

 I'll be working on that some later today  










finished another afghan square yesterday evening 

one more for that box  








I took this picture this morning before the clouds came back in and the pervasive gray took over










I don't usually talk about anything but my art and family here, but this morning I feel compelled to say this:   

hug your children 
lock up your guns
pray for peace in the hearts and minds of the troubled

I know how to blow things up

patterns with my computer software that is 

the DH has completed the drawings of the individual animals, so now it's up to me to translate them into the quilt

I've done several variations of this design layout (four of them since 2008)

this one will be interesting because it's animals I've not done much with before

yesterday I pulled each individual drawing into the software and printed out the patterns -- the four corners are 12 inch squares, and the center block is a 24 inch square --- I really love that I can do all of that with my computer instead of the way such things used to be done (do you remember drawing things square by square from small graph paper to bigger graph paper?)

as soon as I get the work table cleared off (I've got it piled up with presents that need to be wrapped), I'll be going through my fabric stash and pulling out fabric to start on this project

today I hope to get most of that wrapping finished!

one more thing off the list

the Christmas pj stitching is finished! 

yesterday morning I finished these two pairs of pj pants for Mr Cute

there's one more for Mr Cute that also got finished, and another pair for an adult, but I'm not going to be able to show you those until after they are delivered since the recipient reads this!

 I still have a sweat suit to make for Mr Cute  -- I saved all the sewing for him until the last minute because I wanted to be sure I'm making a size he can wear for at least a couple of weeks


 yesterday afternoon I was in meetings planning for some future adventures with art quilts

while I was away the DH wrapped the presents that need to get shipped to California --- the shipping will happen either today or tomorrow


time to get busy!

a new bracelet in process

last spring, when I visited a quilt show in Denver, I bought this big button with the idea of putting it into a piece of jewelry 

since I have finished the mermaid piece and I can't yet order beads for another piece I want to do for a contest that ends in February, I decided to work on this piece for now 

 most of the bezel is complete -- this one is deeper than the normal ones to accommodate the thickness of the button 

 I think this one will be fun  

Ta Da! the drawings for the baby quilt are done -- the DH has been very busy at the drawing board!

 I've already started thinking about fabrics to use -- I hope to get this project kitted up in the next week so I can have it ready to work on over the holiday 

 (and this is where it's nice to have a fabric stash to draw out of!)  














another afghan square complete 

at this rate I'll have one more box full to mail off before the end of the year 


 today I'll be off in a meeting about a couple of quilt shows I'll be helping to stage in 2013 --- that should be an adventure!

a head start on next year

the package of knitting that I did for the Cheyenne River Reservation went of to them the end of September

since all my Christmas knitting is finished, I've started on the projects for 2013

a pair of mittens and a matching hat

only 12 more sets to go!


meantime, in the sewing room, I'm working on a project that I won't be showing you until after Christmas since the intended recipient reads my blog!

I've started quilting on the two mountain pieces, started thinking about the next assignment for the visioning project, and the DH is working on drawings for the baby quilt

yup, I'm finally starting to feel more like myself -- after almost a week of antibiotics ---- YIPPEE!!
 

 

out on the edge of the fringe

the piece is complete! 

and this morning I listed it on my Etsy store 

after all the sewing and ripping in the end it ended up being a pretty simple design 

sometimes less is more  










a little time at the sewing machine and another Christmas present is all finished 

 these have a new (to me at least) material called InsulBrite in them that is a sort of batting with a reflective coating that helps make hot mats (and in this case, pot grabbers) more effective in protecting your hands 

and the fabric is perfect for the person they're going to  







another afghan square completed! 

 time to raid my basement yarn stash --- I've reached the bottom of my family room yarn for these  











someone my daughter works with (and I've actually met too) has a daughter that is having a baby in the spring 

so we've been asked to make another baby quilt! 

these are always fun 

the DH has been doing animal drawings --- these are the first three 

the plan is to use the moose in the center of the quilt and the other animals in the corners

he has a couple more to do then I can start creating the patterns 

fun!





today I'm trying to catch up on two week's worth of laundry since I was just too sick to do that last Monday --- this will take a while

Let the Fringing Begin!

the "chain" has been attached and yesterday I started working on the fringe 

 most of the time when I do fringe I start at the left hand side and work my way across from there 

this time I started in the center because I wanted that center to be a certain length, so now I'm working from the center out 

fringing with a "soup" mix of beads is a little different from using beads that are all the same type because it is not based on a certain number of beads so much as the length of the beads that have been strung 

and I decided to do branched fringe on this because I like the full look of that 


 time at the sewing machine resulted in the second pair of pj pants 

 we have a family tradition of opening the Christmas pjs on Christmas Eve --- this pair will be the ones in the tissue paper for the SIL this year (and there will be a matching pair for Mr Cute!) 





 while I was sitting in my chair yesterday afternoon I whipped up these lovelies 

for certain members of the family, the gift card is the best present we can give them, but I hate to just put those in the envelope and send them off 

but I also couldn't see paying $3 to $5 each for the commercially available product for this purpose 

these took me less than an hour and very little in expense -- the Christmas print paper was already in my "stash", and the only other thing I needed was glue

 now I can get those gift cards in the mail! 

I also managed yesterday to get the two mountain quilt pieces pinned into their "sandwiches" so I can do the quilting --- Yippee!! 

 this morning we woke to the first real snow of the season --- and it's COLD --- a good day for not much outdoor activity --- and perhaps getting those Christmas cards ready to go in the mail

what a difference a day makes

can not believe how much better I feel after 48 hours of antibiotics! 

 so much so that things actually got done yesterday 

 like the decorating of the Christmas tree

 last year we set this up where it could be seen from outside the living room window 

 the problem with that is, we don't really spend any time in that room 

so this year it's in the family room where we can enjoy it  








I worked on other things too yesterday 

like the "chain" for this piece 

 it's not attached yet, but I do like it 

I'll get to the attaching (and the fringing) soon  










and an actual finished project! 

the first of several pairs of pj bottoms that have been sitting on my sewing table for a week waiting for me to feel well enough to work on them  









and these two pieces 

these are the next assignment on the Visioning Project 

 this assignment was to use color to establish the "mood" of a piece

 I've started calling one of these "Marmalade Mountains"

the other piece doesn't really have a name yet 

and only the applique work is complete here --- still needs quilting and embellishing, but it feels good to have anything accomplished 


who knows what I'll get done today!

Done, begun and an update

it's finally complete

it has been run through a cold wash and a tumble in the dryer and is all ready to go

I'm pleased with how it came out

when I started on it the part I liked best was the animals around the outside

now that  it's finished, I love that center block

I hope the person it's intended for likes it as well as I do 




 

as of last evening, this was the status of the Christmas tree

and actually that is amazing in itself, since I've been sick for over a week now

I think today we'll get the lights and ornaments on


yesterday I gave in and went to the doctor --- sinus infection, bronchitis and probably strep -- my doctor skipped that test and saved me the cost since the antibiotic to handle the other two will take care of that too --- and I'm grateful that her office keeps a nice supply of drug samples and is willing to hand them out --- the inhaler and the nose spray came out of that, and saved me a big bill at the pharmacy     ----    even so, I'm unhappy that most of my remaining Christmas shopping money has now gone down the black hole of the cost of health care to the uninsured

the medications are working --- for the first time in several nights I actually slept last night and I'm already beginning to feel better  --- finally

now maybe we can get back to normal

still recovering

this has been a bad week --- I'm still recovering from one of the nastiest bugs I've had in a very long time 

still lots of coughing and no energy, but at least I can now stay awake if I sit down in my chair to try to work on something

this for instance 

since I tore the whole piece apart, I am now back to this and while the bottom strip of "chain" took me three days of attempting to work on it, I whipped up that top strip in a couple of hours yesterday afternoon without falling asleep along the way 

it's progress
 
this is another project that I could actually accomplish -- another afghan square for the pile


the consequence of this is that while I thought I was far enough ahead on the Christmas projects that it was no problem, I'm now feeling a little stressed about that pile of sewing that's awaiting, but still not feeling quite well enough to just get to it

and there are still the cards to get mailed (thank goodness I got the cards themselves finished while I was at my daughter's for Thanksgiving!), and presents to get wrapped

ok, I'm not going to dwell on that list --- just heading off now to try to accomplish something

begin again

when I started trying to put the backing on the first piece that used this mermaid, the plastic shredded the thread 

since having it all come apart once it is supposedly "finished" is not a good plan, I decided it wasn't meant to be and took it all apart 

I'll be doing something less complicated with it





 the stitching of the swirls is done it looks pretty good 

 now to the embellishing and quilting  














and since the swirls are stitched, it was time to plan the pieces for the next assignment which has to do with creating a mood with color 















these two drawings are the same design done in different colors yet they feel very different 

time to dig in the stash of fabric to find the materials to do these  












one more afghan square done 


I'm still feeling pretty icky with a nasty cold, but I'm hoping to get a little work done today

a day for quite projects

I'm getting to my computer a bit later this morning than I usually do 

and I'm feeling a bit like this almost cartoon like picture I snapped yesterday of the big black dog that lives at our house 

all we need here are the "X" marks over the eyes! 

I'm recovering from a visit at 8 a.m. to have a tooth taken care of --- after a week of antibiotics to knock down the infection, this morning it came out -- in pieces --- I should be feeling better soon





yesterday afternoon I finished the bag project for my mother 

each of the many zippers on the big bag has a cloth tag along with a silver kitty charm


and I finished three additional small bags with zippers for her to stash small things in too


I hope she likes these!

what I was up to while I was gone

sewing has usually been my thing 

not that my daughter hasn't done any sewing, back when she was in junior high school she did a summer sewing class at a local quilt store and made a really attractive lap quilt

but she hasn't had a sewing machine, and it has always been easy for her to ask mom for these things

she decided last week that she wanted to have a go at making some things herself, so she asked if she could "borrow" my old machine -- as in the machine my parents gave me as a high school graduation present back in 1969

I was happy to let her have it for her use

and while we were there, I was the advisor/supervisor for her first stitching project

she turned out three tote bags over the long weekend, and they all look pretty amazing

oh, and the old sewing machine is going to live at her house now so she can use it for little jobs like mending a seam

I think I sense more sewing in her future --- she asked me if making a pair of pull up pj pants was as difficult as the bags were -- (it's not)
 
decorating the tree was always part of Thanksgiving festivities at our house

my daughter is carrying on that tradition, so while we were there, the Christmas tree came up from the basement storage and was put together and decorated










Mr Cute thought this was a great activity and helped his dad put the branches in the tree as well as showing all of us the ornaments as they were prepared to go on the tree

adorable!










 
now that the show has been hung, I can finally show you this piece

it is one of twenty pieces that were done by a local group of artists (Colorado Springs Fiber Artists) and is currently hanging in a local theatre

if you live in the Colorado Springs area, these pieces and a number of other art quilts can be seen at Stargazers Theatre during one of their musical performances










while I was gone I didn't get much done on my projects, but I did manage to create four more afghan squares

I'm getting back into the routine now


time to get to it!

now that the problem is fixed

I'll tell you about what it was

on Sunday evening I was clicking right along putting the edging on this piece

when I realized that the beaded bezel I had done around the ammolite had slipped off

 pretty clearly what I had done was not deep enough or tight enough

I wasn't sure how I was going to fix it since so much else was already glued together 


 so I put it aside to think about it 

yesterday afternoon I had another go at it

first I carefully clipped the thread at the top of the old bezel and removed all the beads

then I created a new bezel with a different technique

in fact, I have never used this "X" bar bezel before

I really like the way it looks and it's good and tight so the ammolite can't pop out again

so now it's one with the rest of the edging!


I'm slowly adding swirls to the latest small quilting piece, and it's looking good

just a couple more hours of quilting needed on the Alaska piece too --- yes the projects are really moving along 

 the afghan squares just keep getting turned out

but I admit, I'm searching for a new knitting project

I'm sure one will present itself in good time

the beading is finished!!

and now that it is, I really like this blue field as background for those slices of shell

last night I painted the back of it with fray check to seal all the threads so I can move on with cutting away the background and putting a backing on it

after considering all the materials I had available on hand, I ended up stacking two 8 1/2 by 11 inch laminating sleeves and running them through the laminating machine to seal them together which created a piece of plastic big enough to use to back this with -- and I'll have some pieces left over that I will save to use on another piece later


 got some sewing machine time in yesterday afternoon and now all of the machine work on this bag is complete

still need to do all of the hand work of sewing on buttons, adding zipper pulls, etc., but it is nearly finished

I want to make some smaller zipper bags for inside it, and I hope to get to that in the next couple of days

cool

hope she likes it!


 and since the Warning Sky piece is all finished, I'm now spending more time working on this piece 

the swirls are slowly spreading across and down the surface

and each one is easier as I refine my technique in dealing with this narrow bias fabric

last night I spent almost two hours working on the quilting of the Alaska quilt --- I have only two and a half blocks left to quilt, so I should have the quilting done on it in the next couple of days

this afternoon I need to do some kitchen projects -- Thanksgiving is coming after all!