I have a 'thing' for little drawers - lots of great pictures on my Pinterest board will attest to that! It's always been my fondest dream to own an old library card catalog and I've searched for years to find one that's affordable. Well, DD#2 called me last week to tell me about one she had seen listed in an online classified. Turns out the gal who was selling it lived only a couple miles away from me so I went to take a look. It wasn't exactly what I'd been dreaming about, but it was in good condition and the price was reasonable, so I bought it and brought it home.
Spent an entire day cleaning, sanding, dismantling the drawer fronts, and painting it red. The next day I reassembled it all and put it up in my studio.
As you can see from this picture, the drawers are made of plastic - just the front piece is wood, so it's not really very old, and I didn't feel the least bit guilty about painting it. When I find the set I've been dreaming about, I figure I can sell this one and upgrade. Now I just need to fill all those little drawers with sewing notions etc.....
I've been looking for a pair of these shoes for a couple years now, and finally found some on ebay. Aren't they perfect for a quilter to wear? And they're amazingly comfortable! Yay!
I spent a good chunk of my time today catching up on the letter blocks for the alphabet quilt that Cheri is posting on her blog - I even stitched a couple that I could figure out by myself so I'm a little bit ahead of the game! Instead of using just two fabrics like she is, I decided to make mine with scrappy backgrounds. It'll be tricky choosing just the right fabric for the sashing when I get to that point in my sewing so wish me luck.
My little grandson - who isn't quite two yet - came to our house for a couple hours this evening while his mom & dad went to a movie. He explored my studio and found the blocks laying out on the floor - and now they look like this! LOL
I got my Granny Square quilt all finished up. After machine quilting it I was a little worried because it was quite stiff. But after a trip through the washer & dryer, the cotton batting came through for me and shrunk up - making it soft and crinkly - love it! Finished size is 22-1/2" square and the blocks are 6".
As soon as that project was done I started on another small quilt I've wanted to do for quite awhile. I saw one hanging on the wall of Julie's sewing room when she shared pictures of it a few days ago and that gave me the push I needed to tackle it. I got all the blocks cut & pieced on one day. Then sewed them all together and quilted & bound it the next. This double hour glass block was a fun one to do too. Finished size is 16-1/2" x 20" and the blocks are 3-1/2".
By the way, you really should visit Julie's blog - she makes wonderful stuff - including an amazing rug made of fabric selvages that she recently showed.
Yesterday I finished making all nine blocks for my Great Granny quilt which you can see below. But I wasn't liking that block in the lower left hand corner - the yellow outer row was just not right.
So I made one more to replace it and I like that lots better.
I've got the blocks all sewn together now and I'm ready to machine quilt them. This has been a fun, quick project - not to mention addictive! LOL
I still seem to be in the mood for making small projects. I was visiting Nedra's blog yesterday and saw the quilt blocks she's making for a quilt-a-long. Thought they were really cute and decided to make some myself. BUT, I used totally different colors and shrunk the pattern to half the size in the instructions - so instead of 12" blocks, mine are about 6". I only plan on making nine of them, and hopefully they'll end up on my wall of quilts that I'm striving for. Here's my first finished block, and the second one all laid out - ready to be sewn together.
I've also done a couple more little hooked rugs - will turn them into stuffed pillows to fill a basket.
Our rug hooking guild had a meeting on Saturday - many of the gals had expressed interest in learning how to do punch needle - so that was the focus of our get together. Here is what I accomplished that day.
And this is a piece that I made several years ago. Found the box at the thrift store, and punched an insert to fill the opening - I used quarters and dimes for the pennies - this is where I store my needle & threader and other supplies.
My friend Janet isn't a rug hooker, but she still loves wool. She recently sent an entry to Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine for one of their reader challenges. This morning she emailed me to say that her piece has been accepted as one of the finalists, so she will be sending it off to the magazine for judging. Isn't it pretty? She used wet felting and wool roving for this piece, then embellished it with some embroidery stitches and beads.
You can see the rest of the entries here.
I received the new issue of Primitive Quilts & Projects on Saturday and was tickled to find a picture in it of a basket quilt that I made from a previous issue - they put it in the little show & tell section of the magazine.
The pattern was designed by Cheri and that reminds me that I need to do some more stitching on the alphabet quilt that she's been sharing on her blog. I'm making my version with scrappy backgrounds and I'm crossing my fingers that it'll turn out okay.
Kathy & I met at a quilt guild nearly twenty years ago. Her birthday was on Saturday. Yesterday I stopped by her house to deliver a late birthday present. She has a beautiful yard, with lots of fun & quirky 'furnishings', so I made her a dragonfly to hang on the fence - painted it bright lime green & turquoise. I think she really liked it. I asked her to send me some pictures when she figures out where it will go exactly and I'll share those pictures when I get them.
Jayme used to live on the corner of my culdesac years and years ago - we were good friends and our kids were good friends. Then they moved - her kids went to a different school - she started working - and we didn't see each other much. Fortunately, she found me on Facebook about a year ago and we've been able to reconnect and catch up on things. One day about two months ago when we went to lunch together, I took her to a quilt store and convinced her to giving quilting a try. She has a granddaughter and decided to make a quilt for her. Now her first project is finished and I think she's hooked - I knew she'd be a natural - and I was right. This is the cute owl themed quilt she made.
Nancy and I have been hooking friends for maybe ten years. She has finished her brightly colored rug. I think she calls this her 'True Religion' rug - because it was inspired by the artwork on a tote bag that she got for free when she bought a bottle of True Religion perfume at Macy's. It's so fun and whimsical - yes?
And now she's working on an Americana rug that she designed herself.
Friends make life's experience so much sweeter - and I'm thankful for mine.......
I hosted the 1st Tuesday Rug Group at my house earlier this week. We spent most of the time out on the patio in the shade of the trees, but some of the gals also wanted to see my studio, and some hadn't ever seen my kitchen cupboards since we redid them, so I actually had people all over the place at one time or another! LOL
There was some good show & tell that day - but I don't really think very much hooking took place because of all the visiting that we did - and that's okay!
Here are pictures of Sharon's two projects she brought - this cute bird mat has a fraktur feel to it - I love the whimsical flowers too.
She crocheted the edge with wool strips using Karen Kahle's tutorial and it was the perfect finish for this piece. We hope she'll give us a demonstration one day so we can try it too!
Here is a rug she hooked from one of her grandchildren's drawings - I think this makes such a special rug - I can't wait till my grandson is big enough so I can do this too!
Jeanette is nearly done with this rug - she just has the background on the border left to do - it's a lovely soft green color that isn't really showing up very good in this picture because of the light.
We haven't see Kaye for months and months - but she has finished the rug that we last saw her working on. Her rugs always have personal meaning and significance and this one is no exception. It represents her ancestors who were handcart pioneers and crossed the plains on foot as they came to Utah - carrying all their earthly possessions in small handcarts. It also lists the names of the pioneer's descendants.
I don't think I got everyone in these next two pictures, but it gives you an idea of the set-up we had that day - there were probably twelve of us - which is a good turnout for the group.
And on another note, I received a package in the mail today from Whittle's Fabric - ordered two bundles of their sale Civil War FQ's for a good price - felt like Christmas!
....and a Little of That.
Last week I was on a 'little' kick. Made some small hooking projects cuz I knew it would feel good to whip something up that wouldn't take long from start to finish. I made these simple little mats and got two of them turned into pillows - that's what they'll all be eventually. None of them are more than 6" on a side.
And then I found a whole stack of 4" squares that were leftover from another quilt project I made years ago. I pulled them out and started playing with them - ended up with a bunch of scrappy hourglass blocks. Laid them all out and decided they were kinda boring, so I decided to make a larger center block and surround it with the hourglass blocks. I grabbed some freezer paper and started drawing and cutting till I got the shape & scale right and then I stitched everything together - even got it quilted and bound within one day.
It's SO rewarding to take a break from larger things to make quick projects like this. I'm thinking that I might have enough small quilts soon to do a whole wall of them - Yay!
