Quilt and Quilt Camp

I work for a community college which is having a scholarship fundraiser that will feature a silent auction of donated gift baskets.  I was asked if I would make a quilt for one of the baskets.  Well, I went one step further by making a baby quilt, two matching bibs, two matching burp clothes and the cutest little bunny you ever did see (I guess that five steps further).  

The bunny was a featured project on a great blog called All Sorts.  You can find the tutorial here.  The quilt pattern is called Charming Stars and I found the pattern on Moda Bake Shop.   The MBS pattern was for a larger quilt so I used only nine blocks to get the right size for my baby quilt.

I made this all this at quilt camp.  I love quilt camp.  We go to Bear Cabin Inn in Show Low, AZ and are treated like queens by the owner Carol.  Carol is a quilter herself and built her inn to cater to quilters.  Basically, that means two things:  lots of workspace and lots of good food.

Here we are enjoying a yummy breakfast.  At or first breakfast, Carol (top left corner) gave me about 12 strips of bacon.  Man, I love Carol.

The camp dog Maggie is making sure my feet don't get cold.

I love quilt camp because I get to hang with my crafty peeps, because I have no obligations to meet for the time we are there, because I learn from my friends and mostly because the entire time is devoted to creativity.  If there is a heaven, I think it will be an awful lot like quilt camp.

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Margiepops

I just had to share this.  Margie at work brought in this adorable Valentine's strawberry bouquet.  I've dubbed them "Margiepops." 

How cute is that?  She used strawberry marshmallows dipped in chocolate and fresh strawberries.  They are inserted into the planter using Dove chocolates as the "dirt."  It's too cute to eat!

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Not So Politically Correct

I was going through some of my vintage patterns yesterday when I came across this beauty:

What a sweet dress!  What little girl wouldn't want to wear this to Sunday school.  Let me show you the back of the pattern envelope:

Now, let me hone in on something that caught my eye:

Apparently, back in 1962, McCall's was not afraid to answer the question, "Does this dress make me look fat?"  And we wonder why little girls grew up with body image problems!

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Scrabble Accessories

My friend Paula came to visit me last fall.  Paula is one of my Scrabble playing buddies.  She mentioned that she thought it would be cool to have Scrabble tile earrings.  We then had a long conversation about which letter combination would be best.

Since I had my Dremel drill out because of the Valentine's challenge, I decided I should whip up some earrings for Paula just in time for her birthday.  I used many of the letters we discussed:

• D & M - the initials of Paula's kids
• PE - Paula's initials
• HI - a friendly Scrabble greeting
• J - Paula's husband's initial
• A blank - because a Scrabble player always want a blank in their arsenal
• FU - for when you need to send a subtle message to someone low on your list

If you have a Dremel drill,  a needle-nosed pliers, some jump rings and some fish hook wires, you can make a pair of earrings out of almost anything.  

Here's another Scrabble accessory I made some time ago.  It's a handcrafted Scrabble score pad!  For the cover, I used an old Scrabble board.  I made the score pad template in Excel, printed out a bunch of copies and bound it all together using my Zutter binder.  I love that each page has the two-letter word list on it.  How handy is that?

You can pick up old Scrabble games at thrift stores for a couple of bucks.  I have to say, there is nothing handier than a Scrabble tile for so many crafty projects.  Also, old Scrabble boards are made of a solid piece of chip board so they are great for book or box making.  Next time you're at Goodwill, make sure you walk down the game aisle!

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Fun Tutorial - Travel Game Boxes

Check out this fun tutorial from my friend Suzy.  I think it's a great idea!

Suzy's Travel Game Boxes.

You can find her tutorial and the printable game booklet here.  Check back soon as she's planning on adding a booklet with card games, too!

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Joe's Stuff

This is me with my friend Joe:

Sarah and Joe, friends forever!

Joe and I have been friends since the 4th grade where he sat in front of me.  His first words to me were, "Hi, I'm Joey.  I like your pen.  Can I have it?"  I recently went to Minnesota to visit Joe.  This is Minnesota:

Joe's balcony covered in snow.

We had 8 inches of snow while I was there.  I moved from Minnesota to Arizona 15 years ago.  Can you guess why?

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Honing My Skills

My first successful attempt at a collared shirt.

I sewed my first garment when I was five.  Stop me if I've told you this story before.  My mom very patiently helped me sew a purple paisley halter top.  This was the summer of 1971 so a purple paisley halter top was the height of fashion.  I was at my grandpa's farm in Manchester, MN (a stone's throw from Albert Lea, if that helps) and I was wearing my fabulous garment.  My cousin Kelly was jealous that I had a halter top.

Grandpa's hired man, Ray, had a pet raccoon and he brought him out so that my brothers, cousins and I could play with him.  It was my turn to hold the raccoon.  No sooner than I picked him up, he pooped all over my purple paisley haltertop.  A halter top once soiled by raccoon poop, even if laundered, still carries a stain that can never be erased. 

I refused to ever wear that top again.

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Craft Room Math

What do you get when you add this:

Little Ruthann

 plus this:

Copper

plus this left unattended?

Bad Picture of My Sewing Room

Click "Read More" to find out.

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Farewell, Old Friend

I made a couple changes in my sewing room this weekend.  One change was because of an awesome Goodwill find.  The other was a needed change, but a bittersweet one.

First, the awesome find.  This is my old cutting table.

I got this drafting table at Goodwill for $15 a few years back.  It makes a great cutting table because the height is adjustable.  You can raise it up so you aren't hunched over the table while you cut.  It was perfectly functional, but as you can see, there is some wasted space beneath it.  I wasn't even  considering a new cutting table when I ran across this at Goodwill:

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A Project from the Past

I love spray paint.  To me, it is one of the great innovations of the 20th century.  I'm thinking about naming my next pet Krylon to honor this fabulous product.

I've been itching to get outside and rehab some old furniture.  The problem is, it's too darn hot!  Dang, I'm telling ya, I don't think this Arizona summer is ever going to end. 

Since I can't show you anything new, I thought I show you an old favorite that I did:  the Escaramuza Cupboard.  It all started with this cute little cupboard I found at Goodwill for $20.

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Did You Guess Right?

So in Challenge No. 2, we posted our projects anonymously because we thought it would be fun to see if people could tell whose was whose.

By now, you've likely seen that Sarah crafted the winning iPad cover - how cool was that? Sara cannot wait for the tutorial, so she can make one (you know for her imaginary iPad).

On the other hand, Sara made the camera strap covers ... she loves them, but YOU have spoken and she will pass the tiara to the new champion - Sarah! Big Congratulations Sarah! A tiara does suit you ...

Did you guess right?

Thanks again for playing along ....

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UFO Tuesday

So I was sitting here watching Glee reruns contemplating how lovely it is for them that there is always a fully rehearsed band there whenever they need to sing when I realized it must be Tuesday.  You know what that means!  Time for me to confess my UFO sins.

Let's start with this fairly recent scrap quilt:

I pulled out all my green, red and gold strips and started sewing them together and cutting them into blocks.  Then I stopped.  And there it sits.

Next up, this simple, yet striking quilt:

One time when I was sick and stuck in bed, I decided to pull out all my red scraps and cut them into 2 inch squares.  I sewed them into nine patches and thought I would put some sort of redwork block between them.  Then I got to thinking about it, and decided that redwork seems like a mindnumbingly dull thing to do.  One color?  Oh, come on.  Now, I have a vague idea about doing an applique border.  It's too vague to actually do it just yet.

Speaking of vague ideas about applique borders, let's talk about this quilt:

A lovely woman named Gudrun who is a member of the quilt guild I used to belong to gave me her "waste triangles."  (There's that term again; waste my ass!)  Look at this lovely quilt.  Again, I have an idea about an applique border.  Someday.  Some fine day.

Finally, the most glaringly obvious UFO in my house.  To "break" it up a little (that's a hilarious pun, if you haven't scrolled down yet), I thought I'd step away from the quilts.  This, my friends, is the focal point of my home, the ungrouted fireplace:

I'm pretty sure I'll grout it someday.  The problem is, it looks darn good ungrouted so there's not a lot to motivate me, especially since it promises to be a beast of a job.  Here's a bit of detail for you:

So, there we go, another UFO Tuesday under our belts.  There's still more.

Seacrest, out.

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UFO Tuesday

Really?  It's UFO Tuesday again?  It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating my inability to complete a project.

We're still working our way through the quilting projects (we will be working our way through the quilting projects for awhile, by the way).  I think of this one as "Dresdan by Way of Honolulu."  It's kind of an unintentional representation of a Don Ho concert.  The Hawaiian fabrics, the blue of the ocean in the background, the tourists of European decent standing out like a sore thumb in the foreground,  a "tiny bubble" in the center of the plate...  Wow, until I started writing about it, I had no idea how high concept it was.

The "Dresdan by Way of Honolulu" quilt would go a lot faster if it weren't for me wanting to do the applique by hand.  I'm not a fan of doing machine applique as I don't like doing it, and I don't love the way it looks.

Next up, this batik quilt.  Cindy J. gave me a bunch of batik scraps (I'm a scrap collector, by the way; love the scraps!).  This is what I made.  I've sewed the blocks into big chunks like this, but have just let it sit since then.  It would probably take me less than an hour to sew those chunks together and I would be ready to add a border.  Ah, but what to do with the border.  That is is dilemma.

I really do love scraps.  I have bags and boxes and baskets of scraps.  I love them.  I especially love what other quilters often call their "waste triangles."  Waste?  These triangles are like gold!  These are the triangles that are trimmed away when making Flying Geese or Snowballs, etc.  So many of these poor triangles end up in the garbage.  It's tragic.  If you sew them up, trim them to a uniform size and sew them into blocks, add in some sashing and a border, and you can often get a baby quilt out of them.  Denise S., my greatest source of cast off triangles, gave me these.

Last, but not least, is my version of a crazy quilt.  Oh no, I can't do a traditional crazy quilt.  I have to do it my own way.  I love the concept of this quilt, but I don't like a few of the decisions I've made.  For example, I don't like the decision to using batting behind the embroidery.  Many people suggested this to me, but I am really unhappy that I did it as I now am going to have to come up with a really clever solution to sew it together.  It makes my brain hurt to think about it.  Also, I used a transfer pen with the mermaid and it bled.  Oy, that was a bad decision.  I can't decide whether to just live with the flaw or chuck that block.  I hate to chuck it with all that embroidery.  I'll just punish it for awhile longer until I know what to do.

I've now confessed another 4 projects that are unfinished, but not forgotten.  See you next week.  And the week after.  And the week after.  And the week after....

Seacrest, out.

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Welcome to UFO Tuesday

It occurs to me that I haven't shown you much in the way of crafts yet.  That's because I'm working on one big project right now and it's top secret.  My little cousin Christa (who is in her late 20's, but will always be my little cousin Christa) is getting married and I am doing a wedding quilt.  She and her intended, James, know they are getting a quilt, they just don't know what it will be.  I have been diligently cutting out pieces every single night as I sit in front of the TV.  I figure I need to cut out somewhere in the neighborhood of about 5,500 pieces for this quilt.  It's going to take me awhile.

In lieu of showing you what I'm working on, I thought I might show you what I've abandoned.  Yes, it's the UFOs.  I have so many UFOs that I'm going to try to devote my Tuesdays to resurrecting them, and posting them here.  I'm not quite ready to commit to finishing them!

This is the oldest UFO in my collection.  The much punished John Lennon quilt.  That's how I think of it when a quilt and I aren't seeing eye to eye on creative matters.  I put it away to be punished until it promises to be good and can come back out.  The Lennon quilt has been punished several times now over the last 7 years or so.  It's going to be spectacular when it's done.

This 1930s shoo-fly quilt is a filler project.  I really have no idea what I'm doing with these blocks.  I just started making them and thought they would evolve into something.  So far, they have evolved into strips of shoo-fly blocks.  I have a vague idea about an applique border, but let's not rush into these things.

This is a more recent quilt and one for which I harbor some disdain.  I think it's lovely, but it was while working on this quilt that I had to admit that my eyesight was starting to go.  I have never had to wear glasses and I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that I need to.  It makes me mad every time I look at this thing.  Another thing about this quilt is that it's a Piece 'o' Cake pattern.  I rarely follow patterns.  So far I've stuck to it pretty well, but at some point, I expect my rebellious nature to kick in and make "improvements."

Here's another recent one.  This is a handkerchief quilt.  I really don't know how to make a handkerchief quilt so I'm completely flying by the seat of my pants on this one.  My plan has been to fuse the handkerchiefs to a backing fabric, machine applique the edges, if needed, then sew them up.  I think most quilts like this, you just sew the hankies together, but I wanted the edges to show because I think they are pretty.  And it's my nature to make more work for myself, if possible.
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2 Days Left to Vote!

Voting closes at midnight tomorrow.  Vote now if you haven't already.  On Wednesday, we'll bow down in honor of the Names Challenge crafting queen and announce our next challenge. Pin It

It's Been a Banner Day

Wow!  Am I ever excited to announce our blog!  The last thing we were waiting on was the photos for the banner.  It's up and we are up and running.  Woo-hoo!

I can't wait to get going on the next challenge.  We'll announce it when voting closes on the Names Challenge.  Keep voting for me! Pin It

Props To Ingrid

A quick thanks to our friend Ingrid who helped us out by taking such fab-U-lous pictures of us.  What a great photographer!  We really appreciate it. Pin It