A weekly recap of what's on my sewing machine and Lola Longarm
Weblog
Happy Scrappy Stars Quilt Con't
It's almost done. Another hour or so on Lola and then binding. Plan on doing the binding by hand because i think it looks better and just the idea of wrestling
this monster around thru my regular sewing machine is more than i want to think about. used a bright
cotton variegated thread and stitched funky feathers for an all over design. I've been sending pictures to her. have been feeling guilty that it's taken so long. But she loves it. and so do I.
I'm never going to be able to get a complete photo of this one. my design wall isn't big enough.
maggie
New News
I know this picture isn’t of my usual projects. But it is – or will be – a project quite soon.
Grrr just returned from Arizona where he bought us a house. Or really a condo. The foreclosures there are selling for what you can buy a car for! And the banks aren’t financing anything under 60K. plus they don’t waste any time. From the time he made the offer to closing will be 3 weeks. We expect to close feb 29th.
Received the inspection report. Lots of little things. It needs new heating and air conditioning filters, new smoke alarms, updated light fixtures (in the closets of all places), a new hot water tank, new carpet and fresh paint.
It’s 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a little tiny back yard with fake grass. The kitchen is in the center of the house which I’ve never seen before. My question was “What – there’s no window in the kitchen?” nope. He’ll put in a skylight. There’s an Arizona room. I had to ask what that was. He explained it’s like a family room or rec room only It’s all windows.
The plan is to do the ‘snowbird’ thing. Live there from November thru feb – march. He’s checked it all out. There are lots of quilters and 2 different weaving groups right in our area. Figure I’ll make tops while I’m there and bring them back here to the long arm.
And with the weather here being so wet and dreary he’s ready to turn around and go back. Except we have no keys quite yet, let alone any furniture. He’s got about a year to complete the fixes, changes and improvements. You can bet as soon as medicare kicks in I’m out of here.
maggie
Joylynn's Cab
Joylynn is one of the artists i've met working at the art market. She does amazing porcelain jewelry and small vases. she buys the green ware and does the painting or straining or whatever she does, then on the jewelry she buts a silver or gold bezel and chain. i purchased a piece without the finding and this is what i did with it. next time i work with her have to remember to take it . She wanted a specific scarf made and we plan on doing a trade.
maggie
Studio Pix
When we bought this place this room was a 3 car garage. All my tools were in storage. What does a weaver do with no looms? She gets grumpy!
Grrr hired a contractor the week we moved in. And about 3 weeks later I moved in. We've been here 12 years. Now he's talking
about moving to Arizona. I love my room and don't want to leave it!!!!
I just noticed that the table with the sewing machines doesn't show in the pix. And please overlook the mess. I work in chaos very well.
Maggie
Chain Maille
This is what i teach on occasion at a local bead shop. I started doing this when i was into silver smithing. However making my own links was way too much work. Started purchasing silver rings and selling the finished items. mostly bracelets. but silver is expensive and going up all the time. somewhere along the way i discovered anodized aluminum. it comes in a great selection of colors, is light weight and much cheaper. these are 2 bracelets i've kept as samples for students to look at. these are the byzantine pattern. easy and fast.
maggie
Quilt for Donation
This quilt is primarily red and white. There is a very skinny
blue line just before the binding. My thinking is with these colors it will be donated to a QOV group.
Maggie
Crystals and Delica Beads
I made a dozen of these for the art market for the holidays. and of course now is when my supplier is having a sale on the swaroski crystals. And these are really tough
to photograph! the close ups show much better. If you're interested in purchasing one they
are $20.00 plus 2.00 shipping in a padded envelope.
Just let me know what color.
Maggie
Look What Santa Brought Me!
Look what Santa brought me! Another project. I need more years than I have left to make and complete the projects in my head. I love this pattern and had shown it to him. Not sure the number of pieces in this little thing and n
ot sure I even want to know. He also purchased the fabrics to make it. I already own a color run of prints that i think would be more interesting so figure to save these solids for something else.
for more amazing patterns by this man check out
http://www.georgesiciliano.com/
maggie
Progress on Happy Scrappy Stars
This is how i spent my saturday. at least the individual pieces are sewn into blocks.
The blocks themselves aren't sewn together. every thing is just pinned to the wall and the wall isn't big enough. these are 12 inch blocks and i need 8 blocks by 8 blocks. i have enough blocks, just not enough room to lay the whole thing out.
Progress on a Custom Quilt
Have currently been spenidng my spare moments building a huge scrap quilt. She picked an easy pattern and fortunately for me she's not a a great hurry.
this is a picture of partial blocks stacked on the
ironing board. I still have a long way to go!
Today's plan is to start sewing the block pieces into
bigger block pieces.
maggie
2 Doll Quilts
This is what i did while the turkey was cooking on Thursday.
It was just 2 two of us. The family dinner was planned for Friday
but I had to work. And this way we have lots of left overs. Grrr
bought the smallest turkey he could find but it will feed us for multiple meals: dinner, left overs, sandwiches, and finally soup.
So these 2 Doll quilts have been pieced for months. Put both on one back. Both are scrappy 9 patch designs and an easy stipple quilting pattern.
More Beaded Magnets
Beading these little treasures has got me started back with my beads. Am currently building some simple crystal zig zag necklaces. the crystal part doesn't take long, it's the bead spiral that completes the thing. i remember these being much faster to make. No quilting as such. only fabric cutting and warp winding.
maggie
What I've Been Doing at the Market
These are dish towels in a mixture of cotton and linen that I've taken off the loom at the art market. I work there nearly every Sunday and when not busy with customers I weave. In fact the Sundays in December I'm actually scheduled to weave as a demo for the shoppers. Which means no jumping up and down nearly as often.
Dish towels are my Zen. And generally the loom is set up so that they don't take much mental work. All the design and color placement is done in the warp so that the actual weaving is simple. This way I can talk and weave at the same time. Most are either tabby or twill.
The only draw back with the demo is that I was just told. Which means I need to be getting a new warp planned, wound, sleyed and threaded in the next week. And in the next 2 weeks I only have 2 days that can be spent on this. Yikes!
So - no fancy pattern for the next batch. It'll be straight twill in stripes of several different neutral colors of linen (It's what I have on hand) with a variety of colored cottons for the weft.
later.
maggie
Future QOV Quilt
There are more blocks. It's just that I haven't even been out to my room this last week. Too many other things going on. Grrr is gone doing his big craft sale. Today besides taking John in for his pedicure I'm meeting Grrr for lunch and shopping at his fellow crafter booths. Then of course there's grocery shopping, getting dinner, etc.
Plus I HAVE to go shopping for new tennis shoes. This week my little toe started to peak out the side of my most ever favorite pair. Looked online for Riddell brand and am not finding them. Wwaaa. I love these shoes. The arch is in the exact right place for my feet.
later
maggie
Interwoven
Scraps are something I'll never run out of either (along with the 3 inc
h 9 patches) Need to look for another web site besides Bonnie Hunter's that has an assortment of patterns and ideas for using scraps. I very seldom purchase fabric any more but am beginning to think all of my latest quilts are beginning to look alike.
maggie
Using Grey
It's mostly still in my head. I have a lot of fat quarters and scraps of Kaffe Fassett prints. have given my self the challenge of using a grey. i've seen some really great quilts lately that are using grey in place of black or white. in the photo the grey looks almost white. before i start sewing anything together i need to shop for a darker grey.
maggie
MAGNETS
I've been experimenting with fabric magnets. at the art market folks are decorating the vault door with b
usiness cards and other decorative cards on magnets. These have turned out to be good TV watching projects. You can purchase magnets that are the exact size of a business card and they can be cut and shaped. Tried stitching thru them and it is possible but my poor pfaff struggled so i've just cut the fabrics a hair bigger and do a satin stitch around the outside edge not catching the actual magnet. it's tricky. the magnet wants to stick to the throat plate.
the bead work is done after the satin stitching is completed.
Penultimate Challenge
it's not quilted. The top border isn't even attached yet. the binding will be the same red fabric as the top border.
Penultimate means 'next to the last'. 'Y' is the next to the last letter in the alphabet. this is
'y' in a large assortment of signs and symbols.
From the top left - a signal flag, 89 is ASCII, the 5 dots are Y in braille, the dashes and dot is Morse
Code, 01011001 is binary code. the 2 flags on either side of the dotted Y is semaphore and the Y is HTML.
there were more when i went on a search but needed to draw the line somewhere.
later
maggie
Another Doll Quilt
I'll never run out of these 9 patches!!!!
My direction has changed this last week. At the art market, the live venue where i sell quilts, we have a vault. We've painted the vault door with this fancy magnetic paint. Everyone is making a couple magnets to decorate the door. I've figured out a way to enclose a flat business card type magnet inside. have 2 done and promise to take photos before i take them away. These are good TV watching projects.