Snow Day

Well, Denver got a dumping of snow this week so I thought I would share my keeshond playing in the snow.



If you can't view the video, try accessing it on Facebook here.

Mini Quilt Tutorial and Quilt A Long

I am leading a mini quilt (24 x 36) quilt a long on a fabric forum, the Fabric Obsession. The Fabric Obsession is a community of fabric lovers and we have a fabric coop as well as sewing challenges. If you are interested in following along, go HERE and sign up for a free membership. The quilt a long is in the forum folder called Sewing Challenges, then Mini Quilt a Long.

It uses charm squares with sashing and is a basic pattern that I designed but it's very simple. I made a larger version recently:



Download basic quilt instructions here.

Here's a sneak peak of what I have so far:

New Stuff

OK, so I had my lunch hour free and I needed a break so I thought I would just hop on over to Hobby Lobby, conveniently located around the corner from my office, and see if they had any curtain lining fabric for a project I have in mind. Oddly enough, some things jumped into my arms while I was there. Very strange.



Kona cotton was on sale and I've been wanting to do this for awhile, just buy a bunch of colors for applique and other projects I don't quite have planned yet. So here you see some of my new friends: tangerine, canary, sour apple, jade, carnation, red and lagoon. It's quite an effort to carry all the bolts to the cutting table and then ask for only 1/2 yard each. But they are so nice there. The people behind me weren't so happy though. Actually, they were fine. Who wouldn't want to stay longer in a fabric department? OH and it was 30% off.



Then I wandered into the embroidery area and MORE things jumped into my arms! Like, this new DMC embroidery floss line called Light Effects. Super cool colors that shimmer and shine. There was this nifty sign that said "DMC Floss 35 cent each" so I thought I would splurge on seven different colors. Apparently, the Light Effects are NOT part of that 35 cents thing, they were $1.99 each, not bad but when you're impulse buying....

OH, and if you're thinking "Well, that's not a lot of embroidery floss." I already have quite the collection at home. Here's just one of my collections.



It's Friday so over the weekend I hope to be creative. I have a pillow to make for a swap (and some of the Kona color might be used in applique for that one), a quilt a long to plan and a zillion other projects in mind, including cleaning the bathroom.

Red Letter Day Quilts

Wow, I forgot to share the finished Red Letter Day quilt! Elizabeth House designs the cutest fabrics! First Lizzy Dish and then Red Letter Day. I discovered Red Letter Day when I saw this photo on Flickr of a WIP quilt and I fell in love and HAD to find the fabric. I made up a pattern that was really simple and ended up having enough squares to make two quilts and here they are.

Front:


Back:


Front of quilt 2:


Back is ivory flannel:


Andover has a FREE quilt pattern for this fabric called Marble Champ. She has a tutorial on her blog for doing the circles. It's really cute.

OH and don't forget to check out the Flickr group for Red Letter Day!

And now for a BIG SECRET. My favorite bargain bin website for designer fabric has two of the duck prints for $4.00 a yard right now! (to find it, go to the category "New Andover 10/17/09")

Utility Aprons

I've been on a roll creating those little mini pocketed aprons, I call them utility aprons which is kind of a boring way to describe them. Anyway, I did some for the holidays last year, perfect for craft show vendors. This weekend I made one using retro bowling barkcloth and another one that was teacher oriented based on a customer idea! I used some fun scraps I received from a fellow fabric swapper who has the most incredible blog, Oh Fransson. I'm toying with the idea of publishing a pattern for this one. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and I added a playlist to my blog, enjoy.

Thanks and Inspiration Needed

Thanks for the birthday greetings everyone! I know I don't seem "that age" (I can't even say it). I was sort of a late bloomer and like my mother, I've always looked younger than my actual calender age. Part of it due to round cheeks, HA.

This is my parent's on their wedding day (I love Mom's shiny cheeks!)


This is me with my now 16 year old niece in 1993 (more shiny cheekiness!)


And now Susie looks more like this (Surprise! Wearing an apron I made! And she hates this picture but it's all I could find at the moment.)


And I look like this, hehe (YES I am wearing Munki Munki pajamas! NO I did not cut them up and make them into quilts. Ok, so I cut up another pair...)


Anyway, when my Mom was in her 20's, she had 3 children and people used to think she was the older sister taking her siblings out! When I was a recent college grad, I had someone at church ask me if I was looking for the 6th or 7th grade Sunday School classroom. I was mortified. Now I wouldn't mind so much. Maybe.

Anyway... I have hit a creative slump lately and I need a boost of something! I'm not sure what. Hm. I have a lot of fabric.



I had five whole days off work last week and spent most of it doing nothing! I did get a quilt top pieced for a friend's baby gift but it felt mechanical while I was doing it. I want to be INSPIRED.



SO if anyone has ideas on how to crawl out of a creative slump, please let me know! I'll be off punching in numbers at my desk, in my windowless government cubicle. Hm, wonder why I am not inspired?

Happy Wednesday!

October 8!!!

On October 8, 1959 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a little girl was born to Les and Mary Jo Walker, their first. Les was 24, Mary Jo was 21. It's hard to believe I am 50 today, I really actually CANNOT BELIEVE IT because I feel so much younger, how did that happen? Well, I'm trying to feel good about it. My father got a scanner that scans old slides and sent me these photos, they are amazing.


My grandfather delivered me, here he is outside the Operating Room. Love the purple feet from the dye.


My mother was all of 21 here, eek. She looks so rosy cheeked and perhaps a little unsure of motherhood.


And my father, all of 24 and looking like a member of the rat pack!

My grandfather was an Obstetrician in the small town of Pine Bluff but he also had a passion for art. The story goes, he went to college to study art but when his mother found out he was drawing from nude models, she made him quit. So he became and Obstetrician/Gynecologist! I don't know if that's true or not but I love it! He was an artist and did beautiful pastel portraits of all his grandchildren and his beloved dachshunds. I still have the portrait he did of me in my bedroom. He also did needlepoint and I have a pillow he made. He died in the 1970s.

My father followed in his footsteps and went to medical school and also became an OB-GYN. And like his father, was also very artistic, which made him a good surgeon but he also had a model railroad and spent hours making the scenery, painting the cars and engines to look realistic. He still has one today, an outdoor version.

My mother went on to have 3 more children, pretty close together, so she spent her younger years pretty much driving car pools, cooking and doing laundry. When the last one of us moved out, she was only 50 (notice I say only???) and she and my father eventually retired out here in Colorado and they live on a mountain overlooking a gorgeous canyon and they hike almost daily.

And here they are today! The reason I am who I am and have come halfway to the century mark (eek) Of course my mother is wearing one of my aprons. :)

GNOMES on DINNERWARE

I just found this dinnerware on a site I had bookmarked (P.O.S.H Chicago) but hadn't been to in awhile, oh my gosh are they cute! Here's a little more about the store. Lots of other fun stuff there.