single girl weekend

What would you do if you were single for a weekend…single and kid free?  C took R to his parents for the weekend for some quality grandparent time.  And also to give me a break.  These weekends are pretty rare and wonderful.  I normally choose to do things around the house that need getting done.  The last weekend I had off I stripped old varnish off an antique cedar trunk, and washed our carpets, the time before that I painted and rearranged our bedroom.  I wasn’t real sure what to do this weekend, I really didn’t have any big house projects that absolutely needed to get done.  So here’s my plan….

~ I rented 6 movies for this weekend.  I am so far behind on movies it’s a bit crazy, which is pretty normal.  What’s different is that now there are actually movies I want to see.  So I went to the video store and pulled 6 movies and there’s probably another 6 I’d like to rent after this.  My selection includes, the Help, Friends with Benefits, Super 8, Midnight in Paris, 50/50, and Jane Eyre.  I hope to get through at two movies tonight.
~ I did find a home project…I put polyurethane on that antique trunk I stripped a few months ago.  Now I won’t have to worry about R leaving water drips on it.
~ Tomorrow morning plans to meet up with a girlfriend for coffee, fabric shopping, and sewing.  Real excited.
~ I’m going to put another layer of poly on the trunk and dining room table.
~ In the evening I’m having another girlfriend over for movies and take out Chinese food.  YUM We’ll probably work on some crochet or knitting while watching movies too.
~ Sunday I plan to finish any movies I haven’t gotten to and doing some general house pick up. 

I’m making dinner now…a frozen turkey pot pie which is actually a fave of mine.  I’ve stolen my hubby’s sweat pants and am curled up on the couch watching the news and putting together some new fabric bundles.  There’s some new fun kids fabrics out there I can’t help but dream about and play with.  I’m thinking the first movie to go in will be Super 8. 

crappy pic update

Not a good photo but you get the gist of the progress on the play mat.  I worked on it a little bit today but not as much as I’d like.  I have 3 panels complete and the 4th about half done.  The plan is to make 6 panels total.  We already a hill with the sun, a forest, a town, and I’m thinking the last two will be a hilly panel and a mountain panel.  Now to draw out those last two panels.

piles of noro in limbo

While we wait for me to lay out my progress on quilting and take photos here are some lovely pics of my Noro pile.  I figure you can’t go wrong with pics of Noro yarn.  So pretty.  This is enough to finish my afghan.  I’ve completed two more blocks since my last post on the afghan.  So I’m officially done with 9 blocks.  That 8th block took forever to finish, mostly b/c I’d counted wrong and thought I was working on block 9 but really it was block 8.  So if felt like I was doing block 8 twice.

Last weeks quilting class went well and was lots of fun.  It was a really long day of quilting, and by the end of it we were tired and yet still enjoying our quilts.  I learned that sewing 3/4inch strips is difficult and frustrating.  I also learned that when I try to sew straight I don’t.  But it’s hard not to try to sew straight when I need to sew straight.  We completed about half of the bargello quilt in class and I worked on it a bit last week.  I have about 5 more strips to sew before the bargello part is done and I have to figure out borders etc.  I’ll take pics when I get that far.

Overall I liked the bargello effect.  Enough so that I’m thinking about making another bigger version in the future.  This is kinda a big deal since I don’t normally enoy working from a pattern.  But bargello is not something that I feel that I can just “wing it” although making it bigger will be a big tweak to the pattern.
In other news, it’s been a week since I worked on the playmat.  I did a bunch of work on it though so I’m making slow progress.  Would have gotten something done this weekend but I’ve had a cold.  It’s been a spring like winter.  It’s weird.  That’s about it.

Fashionista 2 ways

1. Petunia Kona Cotton
2. Loulouthi Juliana Framed in Shadow by Anna Maria Horner
3. La Strada in black and white, Fashionista by Alexander Henry
4. Tweedy fabric in Grey by P&B Textiles
5. Muslin in Pond from the Curio Collection by Basic Grey

1. Berry Kona Cotton
2. Loulouthi Juliana Framed in Shadow by Anna Maria Horner
3. La Strada in black and white, Fashionista by Alexander Henry
4. Tweedy fabric in Grey by P&B Textiles
5. Muslin in Pond from the Curio Collection by Basic Grey

Two almost identical groupings of fabric and yet one solid can change the entire look.  I was surfing fabric shops again and landed in Fresh Modern Fabrics and was instantly drawn to the black and white fashionista print.  I thought it was fun edgy and sort of has a vintage feel.  In the first grouping I think the petunia lets the fabrics keep the vintage feel and really makes the fashionista fabric be the star.  The second grouping was what I initially came up with, and I was back and forth on how much I love it.  In the end I had to show both because I really love the berry kona cotton with the rest of the prints.  It makes it pop.  It still has a vintage flare but modernizes it with modern colors.  I love the light blue in the Curio fabric next to the berry.  The star is no longer just the fashionista fabric but all the fabrics together.  And to me that makes an interesting combination.

Right now I’m not real sure what I’d make with these groupings.  Any thoughts?  I would love to see a group of people get these fabrics and post their creations.

I found these fabrics at two different fabric shops.  Neither of which I sponsor or have shopped at before.  The Petunia Kona and the Loulouthi were found at Marmalade Fabrics.  The Berry Kona, Fashionista, Tweedy Grey, and Curio fabrics were all found at Fresh Modern Fabric. 

anything but drab

1. A Stitch in Color Wagon Wheels Turquoise Ocean
2. Lark Sun Glow Jade
3. Cactus Kona Cotton
4. A Stitch in Color Little Dot Clementine
5. A Stitch in Color Big Dot Pear Turquoise on Pear

Some times while surfing the net I find myself at different online fabric shops filling my cart with fabrics that I think go together and dreaming I had enough time and money to buy and experiment with them.  Since I don’t have all the time in the world I thought I’d post some of those fabric dreams on here.  Just in case I find time in the future. 

Today I was surfing some quilt shops and came across the fabric line A Stitch in Color by Malka Dubrawsky.  I believe she hand dyes these bright fun fabrics.  They are any but the drab colors that are outside right now.  I love the wagon wheel pattern, I want a summer purse in these fabric.  I combined Malka’s prints with the Sun Glow Jade from Amy Butler’s Lark collection.  I love that all these fabrics have circles or even sun patterns present.  That with a matching Kona Cotton in catus.  I have lots of ideas for this bunch.  I like the idea of playing up the circles in a blanket…maybe pairing these patterns with straight stitch lines.  I could see this as a very fun child’s blanket…flowers for a girl and just crazy wild blocks for a boy.  I personally would pick either the little dot clementine or the big dot pear print.  Initially I preferred the little dot clementine, but the more I look at it I think it would be fun to use the big dot pear print and then bind and possibly back the blanket in a clementine orange to off set the bit of orange in the wagon wheel print.  What are your thoughts for a group of fabrics like this one?

The photos and all the fabrics can be found at Marmalade Fabrics.  I’ve never purchased from them and I have no affiliation with them, but I do like to surf their shop and dream. 

play mat

Here’s the in-progress report for R’s play mat.  I’ve decided to make a few things simpler.  For instance I’m not going to piece in the sun rays, instead I have some ribbon the perfect color that I’ll sew on with some perl cotton.  Also in my original plan my road curved, yikes, not a feat I’m up for yet.  So I’m going with right angels, which so far I’m very happy with.  I’ve designed it by panels and each panel will have a different landscape.  I’m thinking we’ll have 6 panels total, each about 9 inches tall.  I’m shooting for about 40 inches wide, so far I’m only about 35 inches wide.  I’ll add on to the side soon.  I was too excited to start on the houses and trees to finish a hill.

Here I’m trying out the road with one of R’s trucks.  It fits just perfect.  And when we start have matchbox cars it should fit two cars, one on each lane.  I haven’t decided how to finish it yet.  If I’ll back it in fabric so it could double as a blanket, or felt so that it is more of a play mat.  I have plenty of time to think that over.  More houses in the next panel…I’m excited to get started on those.

taking a quilt class

Not this weekend but next Mom and I plus a couple close girlfriends are making a 4 hour trek to take a quilt class.  Seems like quite a ways for a class when we have a couple quilt shops in town, but it makes for an amazing excuse for a mini vacation.  I feel a little bad about this mini trip I’m going on, but I’m even more excited about it.  We are taking a Bargello class.  What’s that you ask?  Google Bargello quilts and you’ll be amazed by the watercolor-like designs of melting colors in fabric.  It looks hard.  I’ve been told it’s really just sewing strips, cutting those strips and then sewing them again.  I’m not so sure it’s that easy.  All the more reason to be excited for a class to explain it to me. 

The kit/design we’re doing in class is the Cascade design.  Here are a few links to some examples, Blue, pinks, golds.  Since we’re traveling to the shop for the class we needed to have our fabrics picked out and cut ahead of time. We could order a kit, or bring our own.  Mom and I are bringing ours, my friends ordered kits.  The fabrics should be prints and big enough prints so that different blocks aren’t the same.  And they should be in graduating shades.  I’m always drawn to batiks and instantly bali pops seemed to be the way to go. 

I choose the Watermelon bali pop.  Mom went with the Key Lime.  A bali pop comes with 40 2.5inch strips.  The pattern we’re doing calls for 24 strips, so we got to pick and choose which fabrics to include.  Watermelon is a bit out of my comfort zone…there’s a lot of pink!  I still really love it and left a lot of the pink out.  Granted a lot of the pink left out were nearly solid and they weren’t recommended anyway.  Pictured are the strips that will be included.  I’m excited to see how it turns out in all our quilts. 
Winter weather has finally hit, with snow blowing all over the place today.  Hopefully it will calm down on our mini vaca weekend.

christmas runner

I was in mad dash to get this finished in time for Christmas.  That didn’t happen.  I had sewing machine issues which are now taken care of.  Because of the issues I had I made the decision to hand quilt the runner.  I’m very glad I mad that decision because I love how it’s quilted.  And it gave me an excuse to do some experimenting.  I think it’s half quilted half embroidered.  Either way I love the way it turned out.

This is my first quilt project that I did myself from beginning to end.  It’s hand pieced and hand quilted.  I used the machine to sew the binding on, and then hand sewed the back down. 

I’m very glad I forced myself to keep working on this since Christmas was over.  If I hadn’t it would never have gotten done.  I have another one in the pieceing stage for Mom.  I’m thinking she may get it next Christmas season. 

different spectrums

I’ve been drooling over the kona cotton bundles for a while now.  I don’t have much of a fabric stash yet, hence I’m sorta addicted to fat quarters.  I’m drawn to the idea of a little bit of lots right now.  So fat quarters are my thing.  Another Christmas gift I received were two kona cotton fat quarter bundles.

While waiting for these bundles to arrive, I kinda knew they were coming, I had tons of ideas of what to do with them.  They are so full of potential all bundled up together the shades nicely blending into each other.  I’m a bit nervous to undo these.  I’ll never be able to put them back in order.  I’ll never even really know which fabric is named what if I were to want to order more of a particular one.  And so I’ve frozen. 

I’m not too worried about this freeze, I’m still enjoying the bundles.  Trying to decide what project would be special enough for me to crack them open.  Or maybe I’ll just get a bug under my skin and just throw them all in the wash and then it’ll be done with. 
Back in December Mom and I went to an open house of sorts of different artists studios.  It’s a very personal thing to go visit an artist where they work.  It was fascinating.  One of our stops was a shared spaced between an oil painter and a pastel artist.  We were drawn in b/c of the oils but ended up chatting with the pastel guy.  He was a great guy, liked to talk about his adventures.  And he didn’t mind sharing his process of how he paints and creates.  One thing that he sometimes does was to paint one photo several times.  This way by the third time you’re trying new things, you have a different perspective, and the image isn’t as special any more because you’ve done it before.  And its true I can spend hours deciding on a plan because the project is special and I don’t want to mess it up.  But if i plan to do it again anyway it takes some of the pressure off and allows more adventures in.  Anyway I’ve been thinking about doing some mini quilt studies.  I ‘m currently doodling and seeing what I can come up with, but I’m hoping to do some studies soon.
*photos were taken from the fat quarters shop where they were purchased from.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!