Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Marble Magnets

Yeah, yeah, from what I've heard this is soooo over. But I've never tried it, so for me its new. I made some marble magnets today. They're cute! I made two dozen and then I realized that i only had 12 magnets. Oh well. I'll just have to buy more magnets! I'll probably need several sets just for myself, right??

Yo Yo Quilt

So I found a bunch of red & white prints at JoAnns this week and I was pleasantly suprised by the selection! I bought half yards of 8 prints and I had 2 already. I hope that will be enough? We'll see. It remains to be seen what sort of attention span I have for these. That may determine the size of the quilt!

I will say that the yo yo makers seem to work well. It seems like it would be difficult to hold the fabric circles by themselves and sew stitches. Having it in the little disk is easy. You just put the fabric in face down, cut around and sew around the circle in the arcs. Pop it out and pull the string tight and knot it. That's it! Relatively quick and painless. I'm thinking its a perfect TV-watching thing to work on. My husband hates when I run the sewing machine during a movie!

Oh, and I found another place selling what appears to be the same quilt as Gooseberry Patch's yo yo quilt. Its at Sturbridge Yankee Workshop. They call it the lollipop quilt and wow, is it ever expensive! But it comes in all the standard sizes. I suppose it would cost at least that much to make such a quilt if you factor in the time spent, though. Just won't be buying one for myself. I'll try to drive myself crazy by making one, instead. It sure is cute!


Sunday, January 28, 2007

Yo Yo Mania?

I got my Yo Yo makers on Saturday and am just sitting down to try them out. Let me just say that the small ones much smaller than I expected. They're tiny! Well, about the size of a quarter. I think they are very cute, but I won't be making a quilt out of that size! I think perhaps they could be added as adorable flower accents to baby quilts or something. Now to start collecting my red/white fabrics.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Tulips

I found cute little bundles of tulips at WalMart last week that were only $2.25 for a little bundle. Of course, I had to have some. A girl needs flowers in winter!

These candles say Beach

At least I hope so. My parents are going to be going on vacation this coming week and they'll be at the beach. I'm sitting here in cold, snowy Pittsburgh wishing I were going with them. So I am making a bunch of candles to look a bit "beachy" for my fireplace.

Monday, January 22, 2007

More Monograms

Today, I did another set of towels.

Yo-Yo Makers

Ha ha ha. I gave in and bought both sizes of Clover Yo-Yo Makers from Quilt in a Day. Shipping was rather cheap, which pleased me. I hate excess shipping charges.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

New Project

Here's a sneak peek of my new project. I started this this week and its been slow going with a bunch of tiny pieces in multiple prints. Just my thing. It requires some attention to make it truly random, but I love the effect.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Coasters

I saw this post over on Monogram Momma's the other day. I like this idea for coasters. Seems like maybe Martha was doing this recently too. I may have to do this one. I'm thinking a lovely black and white damask print. Yum.

Pretty Little Things on Martha

Did you happen to catch Martha today? There was a girl on there demonstrating a fabric portrait of her frenchie, Matilda. It was cute! She has a website and an Etsy shop, where you can purchase a giclee print of the portrait.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Sluggish

I'm having such a hard time getting anywhere these days. I think that all the busyness is catching up with me. I spent the whole day at home today with my husband, since it is his day off, and we did nothing but laundry and cooking and a bit of cleaning really. I struggled with what to do with myself until about 4:00 and I finally sat down to sew. Tiny pieces that took forever to put together. At least I've got a project, though. I'm just feeling guilty that it is a new project rather than an old one. Oops.

I found something else I want to make. Its this Red Yo-Yo Quilt from Gooseberry Patch.

Why, you ask? I have no idea. Why torture myself with another never-ending project? Cause its adorable!

You do realize, though, that this will require that I purchase the Clover Yo-Yo Makers. In both sizes. Cause I might change my mind about the size I want.

Oh, and while I was there to find the picture, I also found this quilt that I love. Its very similar to one that I've already made (in the Gingham Rose fabrics by 3 Sisters). But its my very favorite. Again, I don't know why. It just is.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Linens



This is all I've managed to accomplish really (outside of my real job, that is). Its a lovely monogram on floursack kitchen towels in cream thread. How pretty is that? I really like it. Sorta looks like vintage linens.
I obviously have no talent for photographing white. Must work on that.

The World's Shortest Attention Span

I think I have it. The world's shortest attention span, that is. I have been trying to write down some plans for the new year - not resolutions - just plans. I am realizing just how many projects I have planned or started and not finished.

Here's just a few:

I have a red & white quilt that I'm hand quilting. It was started 2 years ago and is approximately half way done. I work on it in fits and starts.

I have one more of those little Tudor Rose patchwork quilts to quilt. There were 4 altogether and I did one when I first bought the fabric and 2 during this past year. Must finish the 3rd.

I have a green & white quilt that is quilted & bound and just needs the centers of the circles handquilted with a "loop" motif in them (since I can't do it by machine).

I have a halfway quilted Summer Wind quilt that needs to be finished. Again, my quilting dreams are ahead of my quilting abilities and its stalled me.

I have a blue & green quilt started that need to be basted and quilted. I've been carrying that around in my trunk for months, as I really need to do it at my parents, since I don't have the space to do it here. I haven't felt like basting it the last several times I've been up there so it just continues to ride around.

I have a quilt started in 2 shades of blue. I suppose there's about 4 blocks finished? Need to work on that.

See - how terrible is this?? I also have a half-finished scarf laying beside the couch. Can't decide what size needles I really want to use to make it with. I have a beautiful robin's egg blue jute fabric that i want to make bags out of, but I can't decide what to use for handles. I have a half-finished sage green one for the same reason. I have a beautiful chocolate damask fabric laying here to make myself an apron out of. I have leftover fabric from the aprons that I made for Christmas presents that I should use up for half aprons and potholders and list on Etsy.

Can you tell I'm also indecisive?

Maybe writing it down will help me start knocking it off.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Down with the sickness


Oh my word. I got a nasty cold on Monday and it just won't go away. I feel lousy. It is just a cold, after all, but my nose is stuffy & running and I'm sneezy and my eyes are watering nonstop. Blah. I've done very little. So here's another picture from Phipps.