Catching up after a busy weekend

remember I said I was headed to a quilt show?

I'm fortunate that my daughter lives only about half an hour away from the venue that the Hoffman Challenge quilts are hung as a group for the first time

and that show was last Friday, Saturday and Sunday

here is my quilt, hanging in the show

so amazing!







and since we were there, and my daughter and son-in-law's anniversary was on Saturday, we volunteered to watch Mr Cute so they could go out for the evening

he's getting to be such a big boy! 

and watching him was a pleasure

so sweet to have him snuggle in my lap for reading of books, then he says "nie, nie" and goes up the stairs and crawls into his bed to be covered and kissed goodnight








evenings at my daughter's gave me a chance to get almost all of the rest of the hats and scarves for the wood snowmen knit

these are pretty neat --- but I have decided that all of these hats need pompoms on top, so I'll be fiddling with that part soon


I also worked on the "project which can not be named" while I was there

and my daughter and I did some shopping, so I came home with a whole stack of sewing machine projects!








 time in the van up and back meant that I finished this afghan square and have another one half done

we're getting very close to having a box full ready to be mailed







beading complete!

today I'll be working on putting this on to the backing  and figuring out the toggle clasp




of course now that we're home again there's lots of other work to be done, so I've got laundry to finish today before I start into some of those projects

Let the voting begin!

Remember this?

 the voting on the contest I made this for has begun

you can use this LINK to go and vote for your favorite piece

I'm off to a quilt show this morning --- catch ya later

Christmas in August

a couple of years ago the microwave over the stove quit working

so we had been using a small counter top model, and just using that old dinosaur for a storage cabinet

at Christmas time my sister told me she would buy me a new microwave for over the stove

we finally decided what we wanted to get, and yesterday the guy came and installed it

as I watched him struggle with figuring out how to get the old one out I was really happy that my sister was willing to provide the installation too --- I don't know if we could have done it on our own

Thanks sis!!

 more beading is being done









two complete sets of hats and scarves for the snowmen are finished now

three more sets to go







one more of these finished yesterday too

I think I have enough of these for the Christmas giving finished, so I'm thinking about adding some of them to one of my Etsy shops

we'll see



time to get moving --- lots of work to do today

smoke again

yesterday morning I attended a meeting of a local quilt group that calls itself Batts and Pieces

this year we've been working on a sampler quilt of 12 1/2 inch blocks, and I freely admit that I'm WAY far behind on my blocks (I have all of one finished) because I've missed several meetings

yesterday, however, the group was going to be working on a quilt for one of the members that lost her home in the Waldo Canyon fire

and I have to say that as I was driving to the meeting, I was headed right toward the burn scar, and since there are big fires to the west of us in other states, the smoke blowing in was uncomfortably like being back in the time of our own fire
even with a serious project at hand to be worked on, we took time for show and tell

this piece was created by Mauna Proctor -- and I love it!

and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work in the future

meantime, I put together a dozen blocks for the quilt we are building -- and we have about half of the blocks for a queen size quilt stitched as several of us worked yesterday


 

the edges have met the middle
so now it's on to filling in above and below the full moon

and I've already located the navy blue leather for the back of it



one more hat

this one is for the snowman with the brown earmuffs

the scarf got started last night

 cool




lots of projects to get done today -- and I have a meeting this evening with the group that's doing the "Project which can not be named" --

time to get moving

pickin' and knittin' and beadin'

apparently, the weather conditions are good for a bumper crop of peppers!

aside from the two little Roma tomatoes and the one little squash, the whole basket is full of peppers

I have discovered that we have an eggplant that has actually set and there are several pumpkins that are developing too


 the first of the scarves for the snowmen is now complete -- this whole thing took less than an hour from beginning to end

cool

now that this hat and scarf are done, it's time to put some other color of yarn in the bag for this project





 more bead work

the night sky is slowly covering the surface of this





yesterday afternoon I got the darker gray painted in the bedroom -- there  is so much  white trim in there that it took me almost as long to do all the taping as it did to put on the paint!  and once again this morning I'm doing a happy dance that I will not have to put on another coat of paint --- the next step is to paint all of that white trim -- and the INSIDE of the closet, which doesn't look like it's ever had anything but the builders primer coat of paint -- ick

time for breakfast --- lots of work to do!

outside, inside (and upside down?)

along with the painting projects inside the house there is some work going on in the yard

there on the far right you can see the edge of the giant blue spruce that takes up much of the side of the front yard

which also means no grass will grow under it

in the last couple of weeks the DH has installed all of that lovely red scallop topped concrete edging

yesterday we measured and cut and put down three strips of the weed block cloth and moved the octagon stepping stones out onto that area

we still need a bag of gravel to be able to level those stones before we can put down the rest of the weed block, then we'll be adding some more white rock and a lot of redwood mulch

this will look so much nicer than that bare dirt with the assorted weeds

after the outdoor work was finished, I just didn't feel like I had the energy to go upstairs and paint walls

I settled on painting the rest of the details on the wood snowmen

these make me smile

and there on the right side of the picture you can see the first of the finished hats -- that one is for the snowman that has the yellow ear muffs

the wood is ready for the coats of sealer now

and there are five scarves and four more hats to be knit


and I'm loving this

 the blue work is just flowing along

I'm starting to think about going and hunting up some dark blue leather for the back -- I'll need that before long

I'm also thinking about how to create the clasp on it -- I'm thinking about a toggle, but I want to do a little different style than I've done before

one of the quilt groups that I belong to is working on a "group" quilt -- we were inspired by a group project done by a group of Missouri quilters that focused on a river, which you can read more about   here --- we're sworn to secrecy until the big reveal later this year, but I'm happy to say that I finally have a design that I'm happy with and I'll be working on fabric selection some this week --- Yippee!!

time to get busy!

thinking cool thoughts

it's August

it's hot

so of course I'm working on -- SNOWMEN?

since I unearthed these while I was going through some other stuff and getting rid of things, I decided I should actually finish them

the little picture on the right is a close up of one of them -- each of them has a little orange "carrot" nose and the "ear muffs" have been painted on each one in different colors

last night I started knitting the first of the little hats to go on these

the beading continues on the moon piece

now that the beading from the left side has moved far enough to touch the center moon I'll be moving to the far right hand side and repeating the process until the beads reach the full moon from that side

this piece has largely been a "happening", as I had no real clear picture in my head of what it would look like when finished

and so far I really like the whole look

yesterday I spent some time working in the bedroom I'm painting --- in a room with this much "trim" (around doors, windows, baseboards and chair rails), it takes almost more time to tape everything than it does to paint!  I hope to get the second color on soon

time to get moving

finished, working, finished, mailing

since I had started this on Wednesday, I really wanted to finish it to take to last night's guild meeting

fortunately I had that blue chambray looking fabric in the stash box, so I had something to use to set the blocks together

oh look!  another top without PINK!

it's not as cool as the green one was, but I do like it







the deep blue sky  is slowly moving over the surface of this piece encircling the moon faces, one by one

I am very pleased with how this is going

 this one should be titled "Christmas Cactus" -- that's what this color combination makes me think of

I finished this while I was chatting with my daughter yesterday afternoon -- and I started another one too

cool




today I plan to get this piece packed up so I can send it off to New Hampshire for the challenge I made it for

and on to other things!


time to get to it

a visit from the yarn fairy

I knew it was coming

my sister had called on Tuesday evening to tell me that she had mailed it

I didn't expect it to show up so soon, but when I got home from running an errand yesterday afternoon, there it was, sitting on the front porch

cool!  more cotton yarn there on the left side for the making of more hot pads or dino toys or whatever and three skeins of yarn for knitting of afghan squares

this should keep me knitting and crocheting for a while


beading along

I wasn't exactly sure what the background needed to be for this piece when I started it, so I just started working in a "circle" around the far left moon and kept going from there

and I'm pleased with this sort of organic varied look

and as sometimes happens, I'm already thinking about some other beading project and getting impatient to be done with this one

must . bead . faster!

 new blocks for another charity quilt top-- some of the fabrics were left over from the last one and some of them came off the put and take table at last month's quilt guild meeting

need to get into the fabric bins and find something  to set this together

I don't know if this one will be finished in time for tonight's guild meeting --- depends how fast I manage to get everything else finished that I need to do today

Onward!

produce and projects

picky, picky

this time last year I was picking every morning from our garden -- we had peppers and cucumbers and green beans and tomatoes -- enough that we gave stuff away and canned lots of tomatoes

so far this year, these are about the extent of our picking

that round, pale green ball is a cucumber --- most definitely NOT the variety we thought it was

between the early hail followed by the HEAT, this has not been a good year to grow produce

unfortunately, the farmers are also dealing with this issue, which means the price of food will probably go up again -- which is not got news for any of us

NOW it's finished!

not as easily as anticipated

after I had picked it off the incorrectly attached sleeve, I repinned it -- fortunately before I started stitching, I held it up to look at it -- and had pinned it to the OTHER side

ack!

by the time the evening was over, however, I had fixed that problem -- the sleeve is stitched on and the label is attached

this will go in the mail on Friday morning -- I want to take it for show and tell at my guild meeting Thursday evening before I do that


started the background on the moon bracelet yesterday afternoon

the larger, crystal-like rounds that I'm working into the background are actually moonstone beads --- how cool is that?

I think I'm really going to like this piece

the stitching on the fire piece has begun --- because all of the layers are light weight, sheer fabrics, I decided a finer thread than what I usually use for quilting was in order, so I'm using a Sulky Rayon thread to do that  -- I've done just a little bit of stitching on this so far, and I'm pleased so far

I think I've settled on what sort of sweater I'll be knitting for Mr Cute for Christmas -- just need to sort through the yarn and select the proper stuff --- should be fun!

time to get movin'

what's wrong with this picture?

I should be showing you this quilt all complete in this morning's pictures

after all, the quilting is done

and the binding is done

but somehow when I stitched the sleeve on, the piece would have had to hang this way

something is not quite right about that

and now you see why I don't usually work in a square format!

 one of the beading groups I belong to has a challenge running right now called "Lunar Obsession"

I made these polymer clay moon faces quite a while ago with the idea of creating a big bib style necklace from them, but that was as far as it got

this challenge seems like a good place to revisit them

this will be a bracelet -- which means I should be able to get it finished by the deadline, which is September 5


something new is being worked on

this piece has been through several permutations already

this one is the best arrangement

what you can't see in this photo is the "ghost house" that is painted on the black layer

after I get this stitched and can hang it with the light coming through that will be visible through the flames

now I just have to figure out how to stitch it


this morning we need to mow both lawns, and we want to get it done before it gets back into the 90s that we are supposed to have today --- time to get to that

of amethyst cuffs and dino toys

it's finished

yesterday afternoon I got the back on -- a soft upholstery velour in a coordinated purple -- yum

on to the next bead project!

(oh yeah, if you want to get a look at more pictures use the link to my Etsy store there on the top right of the blog)


the binding on the autumn piece is all finished -- just have to attach the sleeve and the label, so this one will be going to the guild meeting on Thursday evening


yesterday I showed you the Y'upik quilt top --- and now the "sandwich" has been put together so the quilting can begin --- the back of the quilt is the same deep blue that I used for the strips that set the front together --- I haven't decided yet what sort of quilting pattern I'll use, and I need to go get a spool of thread to do the quilting with -- I don't have anything on hand that matches properly

 this project is done too

finished putting him together and adding the french knots for the eye balls last night

one more Christmas project complete!

the plan for this little guy is to stuff him in the top of Mr Cute's Christmas sock

this was kind of fun to make and went much quicker than I thought it would

I love the little horns!

guess it's getting close to time to think about the Christmas sweater for Mr Cute too


it's Monday -- laundry to do before I can get back into the studio

yippie, hurrah and WHOOT WHOOT!

the quilt top is finished

I've been working on this long enough that I had forgotten what I imagined it would look like until I laid it out on the floor to take this picture

it is exactly what I had in mind

so now I need to prepare the back of the quilt








 the bead work is finished too

and I found some lovely purple upholstery velour to use on the back of this

I hope to get that finished today


 I know I said we were not going to talk about this again, but sometimes things change

even though my name was not on the original list that was posted for the traveling exhibit, yesterday I received the official letter from the Hoffman Challenge that this piece WILL travel!

WHOOT WHOOT!!

the first show it will appear in will be the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival in Loveland, CO on August 17, 18 and 19

I'm hoping to get to the show so I can have my picture taken standing next to it

cool, very, very cool



aside from the work in the studio, yesterday I painted -- one of the bedrooms was two shades of purple -- two walls have a chair rail and were painted a lighter purple above the rail with a darker purple below then each of those colors was used for one of the other two walls --- I'm repainting the room in two silvery gray shades which go really well with the carpet in that room  --- originally I thought I would have to do two coats of paint to cover that purple, but this morning it looks like I won't have to --- I'm delighted!!

I will not be painting today -- I need to rest my back, which is a little sore after doing yesterday's work -- but I do hope to get some studio work done

time for breakfast!

current project -- and a really old one

cruising along! yesterday afternoon I got one side of this piece totally beaded and did a little bit of work on the other side too

before long I'll have to go looking for some dark purple leather to back this with

the autumn quilt has now been trimmed and the binding started

and all of the strips to put the Y'upik quilt together have been cut too


I've been going through things

and I found these

these pieces of wood were the tops of fence boards that the DH trimmed off when he built a gate

we bought these particular boards because they were the least expensive and he planned to cut these off, but I couldn't just let them go into the trash, so I had him attach a block of wood on the back of each one so they are self standing

now that they have been resurrected, I needed to do the drawing so I can get the faces painted on them

I did this one last night

the plan is to paint the face (including the earmuffs) on the wood and to knit hats and scarves from whatever yarn is available (I'm sure THAT will be no problem)

I like it!

yeah, I know, do I really need another project?  well, I think this one should get finished!!

along with all of that, yesterday I started painting the white trim in the bedroom I'm repainting -- I know the white will take 2 coats, so the first coat went on yesterday --- I'm already looking forward to having this job finished

of beads and strings

beading right along!

more purple beads being stitched --

this is about half way




 working with cotton yarn reminds me of back in the day when I learned to knit with string that my grandfather brought home from his work at the post office (yes, way back in the day when the post office did things by hand and string wasn't a NoNo)

got the muzzle on the dino toy last night

the pattern did not call for the nostrils on the muzzle, but I added them anyway

(how else will he breathe?)

one leg is about half done too

cute, very cute!



apparently I'm not done with this theme either

I've already started working on a quilted piece that involves flames and burnt trees

this is a bracelet design that I'll work on after I finish a couple of other pieces


yesterday I finished the quilting on the fall themed piece -- today I'll be trimming the edges and getting the binding on

and while I've got the big cutting mat and the cutter out I'll cut the strips to put the Y'upik top together too

time to get to that

the dog days of August

this block took a while!

and while I was in the midst of working on it, I was never sure it would be satisfactory when it was finished

guess I can stop worrying about that now

and this is the last of the blocks that were to be appliqued for the top of the Y'upik lap quilt

so when I get back into the studio, I'll be cutting the pieces to put this top together

nice!






one more of these complete

(these get finished faster when I spend more time on the phone talking to my daughter and my sister and my mother!)


didn't get quite as much done on art projects yesterday -- sometimes household projects need some attention too, and I'm working on painting a bedroom this month while the DH is working on a project in the front yard -- once those are finished I'll be showing you pictures of them too

time for breakfast!

back to old projects --- and a new one or two

got all the other stuff cleared off the table so I could spread this out and pin on the ferns around the redwood trunks

today I hope to get into the fabric tubs and find some fabric that looks like shrubs or grasses (or both) to do a similar thing around the aspens on the other side














 more rounds complete

this picture doesn't really show well the ring of beads that I worked around the big stone that make a really awesome "frame" around it

I'll try to get a better picture next time

decided I really wanted that stripe pattern

so I ripped this piece back to the neck and redid the body

much better!!




who knows what will get done today