Voodoo mask

Nearly done - I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the back.

The backstory - a friend has had a cancer recurrence, and described visualizing her cancer cells as shrunken heads on stick legs, running away during treatment. The idea of a voodoo mask to support this vision popped into my head, and this is the result.

The embellishments are vintage mother-of-pearl buttons, sewn on with glass beads. Perle cotton stitching.

I'm very excited to use this as my debut showing in Off the Wall Friday on Nina-Marie's blog!

2013 Stash Report Week 19

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0.2
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 27.2
Net gain/loss: 25.2 USED

The out numbers are a guess over the past two weeks, for trimmings that went in the trash can working on a quilt for the Lovely Daughter's BFF. I thought about buying fabric this weekend - 15% off coupon to Jo-Ann's - but did other stuff instead.

And in happy news, TMOTH lost his glasses! That's not so much the good news, although he found them, but he ALSO found my camera while he was hunting for the glasses.



I've gotten quite a few stars done and have started fitting them together. TLD saw what I've gotten done and commented: "The blocks aren't the same size!" I said - "No." and she just smiled. Not a fan of symmetry, that one.

 

April progress report

1. finish 13 projects - I finished a UFO for the show, Laura's Cats; a different challenge quilt; and made a beret for my Small Man. That brings my total to eight. I've started working again on a graduation quilt for The Lovely Daughter's BFF and my 30s/40s colonial ladies quilt. And I bought some kanzashi flower makers at the show and plan to work on some actual little things to sell at next year's show.
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing - Most days - lots of motivation with the show!
3. 2013 in 2013:  In April, only 24 pieces of "stuff" left the house. That brings my total to 578. I really need to pitch some stuff to neaten up to get ready for visitors for graduation at the end of the month.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done. Not a great month at this.

Friendship Star Quild Guild show

Our guild show was this weekend. I volunteered for most of the show time, and am tired to the bone - The Lovely Daughter's musical was this weekend, so I picked her up at 1 am from IHOP Friday night and at 2 am from the cast party last night. This mama doesn't do well on little sleep, and the big dog doesn't believe in sleeping in.

But lots of lovely quilts were on display.

The Lovely Daughter's quilt was finally done:


I had a quilt entered in the Ultimate Guild Challenge, and one in our local guild's "challenging fabric" challenge:


This quilt won first place in that challenge:


And this is the one I liked the best - the quilter "hid" the hideous fabrics in a bunch of others that played well together:


The show is always good for inspiration. This is a great scrap quilt I plan to make pretty soon:


And I always love me a scrappy sampler:


More later - need to take some boys to bed.

2013 Stash Report Week 17

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 6.9
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 27
Net gain/loss: 25 USED


I made 12 more pincushion blanks for the show, about 5 x  5 each. My math works out to 0.2 yards!

AND I finished a UFO, my Lovely Daughter's quilt - to the tune of 6.7 yards.

The most amazing part - I bought NO fabric at the show! I bought a ball of perle cotton and some 12-wt. Sulky blendables (a package of 5) AND four of these really cool Clover kanzashi flower makers. They're a really fun tool!

A lovely day

I had such a wonderful day today, I wanted to share.

The day started with the critters letting us sleep in, until some time after 7! For breakfast, I had leftover biscuits, toasted with butter (one of my very favorite things in the entire world). Then I sat down to watch Sunday Morning, and finished sewing the binding on a challenge quilt while I watched.

A little bit of cleaning later, I went out to the shop to ask TMOTH if he wanted pizza for lunch, since I was heating some up for me and the kids. Yes, he did, but more importantly - it was absolutely fabulously gorgeous outside. WARM and SUNNY.

So we ate our pizza outside :) I'd started pruning our boxwoods once I put the pizza in the oven, and after lunch, I pruned them so we could walk through, and scraped/swept the pavers. (As an aside, if the morons who owned our house before us had spend just 5 minutes figuring out how big the plants were going to get, we would not have the Boxwood Problem.) Then spent some time working on the patio, just to keep outside. This is the after picture:



I put a lot of our seashells into a planter on the patio where I can enjoy them.


Cookie did not want his picture taken. At all.




Toffee was just sad he had to stay in the house.

 
The Small Man wants to be "an artist" for his career day at school next week. TMOTH is making him a palette, and I made him a red beret.

Dinnertime - I managed to pull dinner together with pasta, vegetables, sausage, and stale hamburger buns!

The Lovely Daughter and her boyfriend made brownies, so we're just waiting for them to cool enough to eat!!

And now I'm sitting watching the country music awards, working on her quilt.

Nothing big today, just a day full of simple pleasures. I hope that you all had a lovely Sunday.

2013 Stash Report Week 14

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 2.8
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 20.1
Net gain/loss: 18.1 USED

I finished another small challenge quilt; I'm calling this one 2.5 yards as well.
 

I also made  the Small Man a beret today :) Best estimate is 0.3 yards, I think. I used the tutorial here. It was easy-peasy and looks awesome.

March progress report

Well, March was depressing. It seems as if winter will never end - although today there were reports of sunlight, and it was not as cold as it's been. Nature knows that spring is imminent - we have daffodils blooming away in the yard, and the spring peepers are out at night. Hopefully our wood frogs will return to the "pond" this year as well.

Keeping up with the housework was a dismal flop last month, although I did manage to get rid of 133 items. But this is a new month - one that will hopefully be much warmer and I won't feel the need to hibernate!

1. finish 13 projects - ONE completely done in March; the guild challenge quilt that HAD to be done for turn-in today. That brings my total to five. I should have at least two more finished this month for the show turn-in.
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing - I missed a few days here and there, but mostly accomplished this again.
3. 2013 in 2013:  In February, 122 pieces of "stuff" left the house. That brings my total to 554. So I need to pick up the pace a little bit, but I'm not behind - yet.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done. Posts fell off even more, although this was partly due to more quilting!.

2013 Stash Report Week 13

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 2.5
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 17.3
Net gain/loss: 15.3 USED

I finished a small quilt for our guild challenge this weekend - actually this entire past week was spent mostly quilting. 



It took me FOREVER to think of a design that would fit with the theme - Tutti Frutti - and then of course I was time crunched to get it done for turn-in tonight! The bottom line is that I'm very happy with it - and will even hang it up in my house! 

2013 Stash Report Week 10

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

Still no change, even with more work

- One guild challenge top quilting almost done. And I bought a big framing square at the Home Depot that will help with trimming.
- More of the Lovely Daughter's quilt is quilted. 
- Still no work on the other guild challenge!

2013 Stash Report Wek 9

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

Still no change. I did get quite a bit of work done this week.

- One guild challenge top is complete and quilting well underway.
- More of the Lovely Daughter's quilt is quilted. 
- I have an idea for the other guild challenge, but NO idea if I can get it done by the first of April!

PROGRESS in February

1. finish 13 projects - TWO done in February; one UFO (a cathedral window pillow) and one new (another heating pad cover). That brings my total to four.
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing - I missed a few days here and there, but mostly accomplished this again.
3. 2013 in 2013:  In February, 122 pieces of "stuff" left the house. That brings my total to 421.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done. So far so good, although posts fell off some.

February is HARD. It's cold, it's dark, and I slow to a crawl. But the daffodils believe that spring is coming, so I have to believe.

2013 Stash Report Week 8

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

No change this week. I've done some work on The Lovely Daughter's quilt, and pulled some background material for an applique project, and REALLY need to work today on a guild challenge (and possibly start another challenge).

And I sewed a couple of pieces of poly batting into makeshift bags for the aquarium filter, but that doesn't really count against stash :) 

2013 Stash Report Week 7

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: .6
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

Nibble, nibble, nibble at the stash. And yet, any used is good. And I'm happy to be playing with the fabric.

First cathedral window pillow finished

My sister-in-law came up with an idea to make cathedral window panels for pillows as memory pieces out of fabric and clothing of my late mother-in-law. This is the first one.

Top:
 

Side:
 

Close-up:
 

264.5 pillow top and back
110 pillow side
484 cathedral window
858.5 total square inches = 0.5 yards
Edit - I forgot about the squares on top! I'd guess another 0.1 yards used there, what with trimming and having to use background white under some of the squares. So I'm going to call the total 0.6 yards.

This was a LOT of work to bust half a yard of stash!!

2013 Stash Report Week 6

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 1
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.2
Net gain/loss: 12.2 USED
I finished up a heating pad cover that used up about a yard. And forgot to take a picture - oops.

Creativity the past week

 I never posted about last Sunday. The Lovely Daughter and I took a collage workshop hosted by my quilt guild.

The LD at work:

I can't rotate it because I use PhotoBucket and to rotate it, I'd be forced to move now to the "new and improved" version which is NOT new & improved because it doesn't seem to have an option to upload smaller photos!

Our part of the table, covered in paper:


I forgot how much fun it was to play with paper and glue.

On Wednesday, I took the afternoon off work so I could go to a sit-and-sew sponsored by the guild. It was super - I got a LOT done and had fun with other quilters.

I finished a heating pad cover for a friend, and then forgot to take pictures of it.

I made two more little houses (but still have ONE MORE to do!).


I did a lot more work on the black/white/red 9-patch & snowball quilt. Some 9-patches were even sewed to snowballs and put together! The catch here is that the snowball blocks are directional - not one way, at least, but there is a definite horizontal vs. vertical orientation that has to be attended to.

And I even trimmed a few HST for the Bloomin' Challenge.

2013 Stash Report Week 5

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 13.2
Net gain/loss: 11.2 USED

Nothing finished this week, no new purchases :)

I did make progress over the week - a couple of hours at the boys' karate class working on the cathedral window pillow top, some TV time hand-quilting on the The Lovely Daughter's quilt, a couple of star blocks for the BFF's quilt, one completed basket block and most of the pieces cut out for a guild challenge.  

PROGRESS in January

Progress on goals in January:

1. finish 13 projects - TWO done in January; one UFO (TMOTH's quilt) and one new (Heating pad cover)
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing - I missed a few days here and there, but mostly accomplished this.
3. 2013 in 2013: This is not original, and I can't remember who I stole the idea from. Basically, 2013 things will LEAVE my house in 2013. In January, 309 pieces of "stuff" left the house.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done. So far so good. Hopefully in February I'll find the good camera and will add more photos. 5. participating in the weekly stash report will help me manage my stash.  Also keeping up with this.

I also started on a quilt for The Lovely Daughter's BFF and figured out what I was going to do for one of our guild show's challenges (and started on it).

I neatened up the sewing stuff that lives in the dining room, and started working on the playroom and the bedroom sewing areas. 

Progress report Week 4

No photos this week :)

I can say that:
1. I maintained the neatness of the sewing space behind my chair in the dining room
2. After sewing today, I put everything away where it belonged
3. I got another Iris project box

We've all been so sick around here, just maintaining the status quo is a victory.

2013 Stash Report Week 4

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0.1
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 13.2
Net gain/loss: 11.2 USED

I had a lot of waste trimmings that went in the trash today - making lots of little houses (see photo of one below). I'm estimating about 0.1 yards just based on the fact it looks about half a fat quarter.

The Lovely Daugher's quilt basted

Cotton approves.

Progress report week 3

I have most of the stuff moved up to the fabric shelves in the playroom, although a few bins are waiting by the stairs.

This is the major accomplishment:


The dining room table is CLEAR! (Well, now, of course, it has The Lovely Daughter's quilt on it in basting progress, but I couldn't do that until it was cleared off.)

2013 Stash Report Week 3

Yards in this week: 2
Yards out this week: 13.0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 13.1
Net gain/loss: 11.1 USED

Yay me!

First there was the heating pad cover, which used up a yard.

Then I bought two yards of blue at the LQS, needed for a border for The Lovely Daughter's cat quilt. I'm hoping to get borders on, a back pieced, and get it layered and basted this weekend. (It's a long weekend, so there's a chance!) Even though I needed (OK, wanted) another blue for the border - I'd searched my stash and didn't have enough of any blue that TLD would have approved of for the border - I didn't like that it would've put me in the hole for usage. I want to come out in the red this year!

DH's quilt was next on my finish-that-UFO list, though. The 15-91 was whining a bit that last time I tried to use it, so last weekend I oiled the heck out of it and let it sit. Yesterday, it was perfectly happy and I finished up a surprisingly small amount of quilting (with NO tension issues, yay!), cut the binding and sewed it on, and finished hand-sewing the binding last night! LOTS of yardage gets used with foundation piecing :)

A finish!

This is a quilt for TMOTH. He got some of the blocks in a box for Christmas 2011. Please excuse the poor photos - I have the cheapest camera on the planet right now. I do have a good camera somewhere in the house; I just have to find it. Anyway, the quilt:



And part of the back, with a meander:



It's six feet square, so a lot of yardage out of the stash.
Back: 3.3 yards
Foundation: 3.3 yards
Pieced top: 4.9 (this is a guess, based on an average strip width of ~1 inch.
Binding: 0.5 yards

Grand total: 12 yards

It'll get used - our house is old and drafty, and since it costs a fortune to heat it, it stays fairly cool in winter. This is the Small Man napping this past week - it was virus week at our house:

Marilyn, I stole your idea!

My buddy Marilyn posted this idea on her blog.

I immediately thought, "I'm gonna steal that idea!" So I did:



My version is quilt-as-you-go, since I had strips that I could use. It's WONDERFUL.

Lists

I'm a list-maker, not so much a list crosser-offer. Here's an example ~ I came up with this list sometime last week of things I wanted to accomplish over the weekend.
- Find blue fabric for Lauras quilt (I found one piece and put it in the hamper to be washed. And I think I know where some more is.)
- Bring down bins of Lois fabric (Apparently I thought I put this in the attic. Well, no. I found one bin in the playroom, and I think there's another bin in the dining room.)
- Work on Joe's quilt (no)
- Find binding for Joe's quilt (I found some - not sure it will be enough and may have to find more)
- Start working on Elizabeth's quilt (I started pulling the pink and turquoise, so that counts, right?)
- Keep up with time commitments to the house (done)
- Sort seeds (no)
- Clear out space in basement for seed starting (no)
- Check if there is space in playroom for pegboard (no)
- Clear dining room table (good start made, but not yet clear)

Of course, I also managed to get lots of stuff done that *wasn't* on the list.

Progress Report Week 2

Remember last week:



Now it looks like this:



In addition to this sewing area in the dining room, I worked on the fabric squirreled away in the playroom for a while today.

The Lovely Daughter will bug me soon to fill out the FAFSA forms, so it's not clear if I'll get in any real sewing today. I hope so.

Stash Report 2013 Week 2

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0.1
Cumulative yards in: 0
Cumulative yards out: 0.1
Net gain/loss: 0.1

The "Out" this week was tossing some small pieces that I didn't think were useful while working in the playroom putting stuff away. I should have some more out fairly soon - the cathedral window pillow is coming along faster than expected.

This is what uninterrupted sewing time will get you

Waiting for kids is great time for hand-sewing. In two one-hour karate classes and one 15-minute wait at art class, the cathedral window panel went from this:



to this:

The places I've visited

 Almost entirely the result of God-awful family summer vacations in "the camper." First a camper van, then a Winnebago. [shudder]

The US:

visited 46 states (92%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or jurisdische vertaling duits?

Canada:

visited 9 states (69.2%)
Create your own visited map of Canada or Free android travel guide

Also Mexico and England and Scotland, later on.

New Zealand is on the top of my bucket list!

Progress report Week 1

Since I count my stash reduction differently than some - it's not counted until it's DONE done - I wanted a way to track my PROGRESS.

This is what I've been working on this week:


I started this last year - there are snowballs that are the alternate blocks.

This is the sewing space in the dining room:


This is what it looked like last week:


Not a LOT of progress, but I can see a small difference.

Stash Report 2013 Week 1

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 0
Cumulative yards out: 0
Net gain/loss: 0

Easy peasy :)

The Starting Point

In order to see PROGRESS, I need to document where I'm starting from.

This is the sewing area in the dining room: 




This is the stash in our bedroom:




And the playroom:

Happy New Year's Eve!

A new year starts tomorrow. A fresh new year, full of possibility.

My word for the year is PROGRESS. Everything I need to do may not get done, but I want to see visible progress in a number of areas.

My goals are:
1. finish 13 projects
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing
3. 2013 in 2013: This is not original, and I can't remember who I stole the idea from. Basically, 2013 things will LEAVE my house in 2013.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done.
5. participating in the weekly stash report will help me manage my stash

More specifics will get added as the year PROGRESSES.