Small Blog Meet is for bloggers with fewer than 50 followers. I definitely fall into that category! And Fresh Sewing Day is for telling what you’ve been up to the last month.
Sew…I’ve decided to have a home-made Christmas this year. And not only that – I have decided to have a home-made Christmas that involves buying as few supplies as possible. That means working out of my various stashes. And since I’ve decided this rather late, I’m scrambling to see what I can create in the little amount of time that I have (which basically means in the evenings after work).
slippers…
and the helpers had to get in on the picture-taking action of course!
and more slippers…
And yesterday I made a quilt top which will be for my son. (I won’t tell you how old my son is, but let’s just say he is closer to 30 than I am, lol!) I’m certain he doesn’t read his mother’s crafting blog, so I feel safe to show you! Now this is NOT the fabulous quilt I have planned for him. I want to make him a full-sized bed quilt with Little Black Dress by Basic Grey. And I will! As soon as I can afford the fabric! So maybe next Christmas? But for this year I want to give him a small little lap quilt that can be put over the back of a chair and pulled over the lap or shoulders when needed. 🙂 My problem was that I didn’t have anything in my stash that I thought he would really like! So I went rooting around in the bottom of the stash and found a chunk of grey. Where did that come from? No idea…I think someone gave it to me years ago. Now, I thought, this is something that my son would like! He likes grey! It would make the perfect backing. More rooting around ensued and I came up with 4 charm packs that I had purchased back when Craftsy was still shipping to Canada. And guess what…(no, they aren’t grey)…they are Petite Odile by French General! I love French General! Love love love. I know my son won’t love it the way I do, but the colours are nice for a man, and he does like vintage and whimsy and antique.
Being short on time, I took the easy route and simply sewed all the squares together. Three charm packs worked perfectly and I still have one left over!
It will be sandwiched today, and will finish at 41 x 55″. A bit of an odd dimension, but I’ll take it. I am going to call the quilt “mon fille” or whatever the French word for my child or my son is! (help! if you speak French!)
Anybody else doing a stash-busting home-made Christmas? Inquiring minds want to know!
My goodness, I’ve got lots of things to talk about today! So without further ado, I’ll get started!
Today is WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. So I’m linking in and sharing the love! Since the point of WIP Wednesday is to show what you’ve got in progress, here is my offering: Two new 1/2 square triangle blocks for my In Colour Order BOM.
Today (being the last day of the month) is the “New FO” linky party over at Cat Patches, so I’m linking in there, too! What the heck is a New FO, you are asking? Yes, I can hear you! lol! In quilterese, a UFO is an unfinished object. So…a new FO is … hum… it isn’t really a new finished object, although I suppose it could be. It’s more a New O, I guess (not the BIG O – clean up your minds!) A new project that was started during the month. A new project that I started in October is this:
Converging Corners. This is only the first 5 blocks. It’s my turn for the We Be Learning on-line bee in November, and this is the block I’m asking for. I’ll talk more about this project in another post.
Today is Halloween, and I dressed up as an Aging Hollywood Starlet. Fun! Yukon College is a great place to work at halloween…everyone dresses up and the on-site daycare trick-or-treats down the halls.
And last but not least, I finally go in to see the hairdresser after work today. I love my new cut! It’s so….ME!
Before hubby left for work this morning, he made sure I was tucked up on the couch in my jammies and a quilt, with a cup of tea and 2 aspirin at my elbow, my laptop and iPad, and about a dozen sewing projects close to hand. Yup, he’s a keeper, that one!
Did you guess from the clues? This is my second day home from work. While it’s nice to be home from work, having a mouth full of cold sores (did you know you can get cold sores inside your mouth? ugh) is not. It hurts to talk and it hurts to eat. Two of my favourite activities. Sigh. So what’s a girl to do but browse the internet and catch up on bog reading? (I hope Amanda isn’t reading this…she’s my NOST 101 instructor, and she’d probably be telling me that I should take this time to start my research paper that is due next week. Did I tell you I’m taking an on-line course called Introduction to the Circumpolar North? I thought maybe I should be introduced to it since I live here, and all that.)
So I’m sitting here under my quilt trying not to spill tea into my keyboard while being entertained by Katy over at Monkey Do (or I’m a Ginger Monkey, whichever she calls it, I’m not 100% sure.) Honestly, that girl made me snort my tea up my nose, she is so funny!
I’ve decided that there are some really cool quilters in England, and that I should probably go over there someday and meet them. Like Miss Ginger Monkey. There’s also Lynn over at Lily’s Quilts, who not only has great tutorials, but also gives great blogging advice. And is very funny to boot. (what do you suppose “to boot” really means?). AND they have the London Fat Quarterly Retreat! Just listen to this: “ we have planned a fun-filled weekend of silly games, sewing challenges, tutorial workshops and more!” (now, if you ever took a bellydance class from me, you KNOW how much I adore silly games, lol!) So I figure that silly quilt games must be just as much fun, right? I just gotta go and meet these English quilter gals!
Meanwhile, Sam is keeping my feet warm. I just hope he doesn’t wake up and want to play ball or something energetic that requires me getting up. Besides, it hurts to laugh. Here he is snuggled with his favourite squeaky toy. Goofy guy!
Yeah, well…what can I say? I’m definately behind the times.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the process. Process can be a funny thing. For me, the hardest part is actually deciding on the quilt to make. I decide that I want to make a quilt and that’s where I come to a screeching halt. The problem is that I want to make TOO MANY!
For example, this time last year I decided that I wanted to make my sister, Heidi, a quilt. About that same time I was starting the very first Treasure Chest block of the month, so I thought that I’d make that one for her. So…I started out with colours I thought she would like. But around about the 3rd month I changed my mind. This quilt was seriously hard! I mean really really really hard! I didn’t know if I’d be able to make all the blocks. So I joined the In Colour Order BOM and said that THIS quilt would go to my sister. I even told her so! And I happily got started sewing the block each month. This time, the monthly blocks were easy. I mean, really really really easy! And I loved each one. But again, it wasn’t really what I had in mind for my sister. It just wasn’t screaming “Heidi” at me. sigh.
So I decided that I would have to make something for Heidi from scratch. I would have to start from the very beginning with her in mind and pick the pattern & fabrics accordingly. Honestly, designing a quilt is just like choreographing a dance. I swear it! Sometimes it all comes together like snap, and other times you fight and fight until you give up and just let it tell you want it wants to do.
Anyway, the backing fabric for the quilt arrived last week (yay, it’s perfect!), and a couple of days ago I basted the sandwich together. Now I wish I could show it to you, but that would totally spoil the surprise.
But you know…a little taste wouldn’t hurt, would it?
There ya go! Next it goes into the lap frame to get hand quilted. That will be the time-consuming part. Also my favourite part.
So…what’s up with the Treasure Chest quilt? I decided not to make the last two blocks. That leaves me with 10 blocks and I know just what to do with them. I’ll save that for another post, okay?
I am also left with the In Colour Order quilt top. Amazing … one quilt for Heidi has generated three!
The other day I did the We Be Learning bee block for group 2. October is Christine’s month. I love this square and you will definately be seeing multiples of it in a quilt top of my own.
I’ll leave you with this a couple of Sammy pics. Nothing beats a tummy rub! And besides, one can never get enough Sammy-love. (and if these pictures come in upside-down one more time, I’m gonna scream!)
I stumbled on this FREE e-book on Amazon today. I think I’ll download it for a little Sunday R&R this weekend.
Combines three things I love: books, quilts and FREE! Hard to beat that, eh?
The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich “When Tucson Today segment producer Carly McKay visits the quirky artist’s community of Bilby, Arizona, to do a story on a psychic quiltmaker, she receives an odd reading… and her life falls apart in eerie harmony with what the quilt foretold. Her best friend professes his undying love; her show gets canceled; and the mother who disappeared seventeen years ago appears on their doorstep, getting instant forgiveness from the entire family… except Carly.
Carly rushes off to Bilby to return the cursed quilt, and then surprises herself; she stays. She rents a cabin, gets a job, and meets an artist who shows her new ways to look at life, and love. Can she run away and start a new life, or should she go back and stitch her old one back together?”
