I’m a victim!

Yes, indeed, I’m a victim of my own fabric addiction. I’ve been trying to use up my stash for quite a while now, but it really doesn’t seem any smaller. Today, much to my surprise, I fell victim to fabric lust and bought a bunch of fabric.

I take full responsibility for not being stronger, for not resisting. It was a darling little shop, out in the country–truly out in the middle of nowhere! But one of my Kokomo hostesses is the owner, and it was on our way home…need I say more?

I always say that every shop carries different fabrics, so we have to stop and see them all whenever we can. And I also need a full palette of fabrics and colors from which to work. Good reasons to get fabric, I think! Granted, almost everything in that shop could probably be found in one of my local shops, but I love the grunge line of fabrics and this place had more of them than I have ever seen in one place. I exercised great restraint in NOT buying some of every color, but I sure wanted to!

Here’s my little pile of goodies, with only 7 of the grunge colors! And there is a website, if I find I need something that I can’t find here! It’s The Scarlet Thread and the owner is the gracious Julie Boldry. Thanks for a fun visit, both at your shop and in Kokomo!

Guess what! The hotel had very interesting carpet, too. And you know that I love those carpet designs…

These need to be stamps, I think. And the curvy edge design…I really like it.

The ladies of the Kokomo Piecemaker’s Guild were delightful and the workshop was so much fun. However, I didn’t get one single picture. I’m not used to having my phone be my camera and quite frankly, I forgot to take any photos. I’m sorry because your designs were great!

But the best thing is that I’m home again! Always the nicest part of any trip!

Guild Quilt

I’m so excited! I’m coordinating the volunteer quilt for my guild this year and collecting plus blocks from everyone. There might be a few more coming in, but I have most of them now and it’s so much fun.

A decent size quilt is just exactly the size of my design wall, so I cleared it all off and started putting blocks up at random. I am thrilled with the results!

I really love the way this looks, but I need to try some other configurations before I make a final decision and start assembling. Probably at the very least I will arrange once by color and once by size.

LOOK at these teeny, tiny blocks! Smaller than I expected to get, but perfect for filling in odd spaces!

I may make some of these if I need to fill in any gaps, instead of the plain fabric pieces I was planning on using!

This has been so much fun, every step of the way. Love this so much that I think my stash will be used to make one for ME!

Feeling organized

Next week I’ll be going to Kokomo, Indiana–is there another Kokomo anywhere? [I had to look this up–9 places in the US and 3 places elsewhere!] Anyway, this  weekend needed to be an organization weekend. I’m looking forward to a chunk of time after Memorial Day when I have nothing to do–except for dye day and stamp making day and stamp and dye printing day…and…

Lots of fun coming up AND I took a workshop that was lots of fun, too!

Learned a ton about working with sheers from Meena Schaldenbrand’s workshop. Her teaching style is very unstructured, which takes a while to get used to, but which really allows for great exploration! I had a ton of fun and my head was practically exploding with new ideas!! I got a start on a project, but had to stop working on it so I could learn more techniques!

Used heat tools for the first time and die cutting for the first time. Woooo…when I got home I just dumped my bag out on the table for sorting later.

Often I just move piles like this off to the side and start in on the next thing, but since I have to organize for a class and lecture, I thought I’d better actually clean up! Here is the rare sight of my worktable ready for action. Had to share that since it happens so seldom.

UNpacking from a trip gets the same treatment–stuff pushed aside for the next project, totally ignored until it’s time to go again. I pack the suitcase in a certain order so that I can set up for my lecture quickly. It comes home like this!

While it takes a bit of time to sort and re-pack, I don’t mind. It gives me time to review my lecture, make sure that all my examples are packed and lets me change out things as needed.

Thankfully, that part of my organization weekend is also finished! Hooray! Now all I have left is to make sure I have all my paperwork and addresses and contacts in order. I know that there is a parking permit involved with this one, too!

I really am looking forward to some quiet, relaxing riding time in the car!

Slow sewing period

There has not been much sewing going on around here. I got a panel done for quilt as you go with my friend’s strips. Only 8 or so more for a full quilt…but it’s a project that only gets worked on when I have a bit of extra time…or can’t seem to get started on something new!

I’m taking a class so I had to get ready for that. I’m always so indecisive for that because no matter what I bring, it’s never what I want to work with when I get there!!! And next week I’m teaching in Kokomo, so there is some prep work to be done there.  Normal grandson night tomorrow night and soccer Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I’ll miss the soccer because it’s Quilt Guild Day AND a bridal shower. Doctor appt. rounded out the week and I’m looking forward to the long ride to Kokomo just for the time to do nothing!

Had some carpet inspiration last week. Looking forward to doing some stamping that might look a bit like this.

And TODAY–woo hoo–I had my KEQ group meeting. We brought our pie challenge pieces and it turned out pretty darn good!

Hope my phone camera skills get better–this is just a bit fuzzy. Mary Lee didn’t make it to the last meeting so she brought her weaving piece this time, along with a quilt she did with reverse applique circles.

And big news–both Trish and Julia won ribbons at the Sauder Quilt Show! Lots of ribbons! We are so proud of them…but I forgot about pictures until the quilts were back out in the car.  They do beautiful work.

Next meeting we will be making stamps. I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while and just have not made the time for it. It’s long past time and I’m so glad the group is helping me out with time dedicated to stamp making! Hooray!

 

New toys, new projects

This has been tech week…meaning that I don’t know a whole lot about the new toys we have! Got our first smart phones and and ipad and I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at screens and trying to learn and coordinate. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to do that kind of stuff and it doesn’t come easy anymore.

So I resorted to doing what I DO know about–sewing!

Whipped up a quick ipad case…I had a pre-quilted piece that didn’t go anywhere and it was large enough to cover the ipad.

Simple fold up the sides and blanket stitch the edges—DONE–which is always better than perfect for something like this!

Now back to tech learning…

This, that and the other

This was supposed to be a relaxing week. Nothing scheduled, lots of lazy free time…not quite what happened. Something got scheduled for every single day, though most of it was fun stuff.

I made an initial decision on adding beads on this triangle piece. I thought I should record my plan in case I don’t get back to it right away!

I’m going to add some of those almost invisible tiny beads around or over the large beads, too.

I’m getting excited that it might actually get warm enough to call it spring! My iris are getting ready to bloom. Hooray!

And then I have a friend who knows a guy…we were able to get a bunch of perforated metal and some plastic.

Our original intent was to find some rusty metal for rust dyeing, but not all this scrap was “rust-able.” It’s a mix of different metals, but when I saw it, all I could think about was stamping and printing!

LOOK at this awesome stuff!

It’s so cool–I hope I can bring myself to share–LOL!

And this weekend is the city wide garage sale. Usually I don’t bother with it, because I DO NOT need a thing….except when I’m driving home from lunch and spot this…

It’s pretty rough but it’s still sturdy. I think I’ll add boards across it instead of worrying about rope or metal strapping like it has already. One of my favorite things is sitting in a chaise, reading a book, sipping some water or tea, on a summer day. AND I can paint it lime green like my front porch chairs!

 

All about bead options

Thinking about the next steps on current projects and looking at my bead options…it’s hard to decide!

This turquoise and gray piece is high on my list of “want-to-get-finished” pieces, but I can’t seem to narrow down my options. Maybe that just means I haven’t found the right one yet!

Big circles–fit the theme, but that’s about it.

Two colors, arc and straight line–still lacking.

Big circles and piles of turquoise above the horizontal bar….

Turquoise below the bar…

None of the combinations I’ve tried–and there are combos that I haven’t shown you–strike that ‘just right’ feeling with me. I have to find more or different or a better combination before I start the beading on this one.

So I moved on to the next one. I’ve started beading this one, with tiny beads meant to solidify the design a bit.

You can’t even tell there are beads on it, they are so small!

I think some wilder additions are called for, rather than tiny/same to tame the design!

Can’t say I don’t have plenty from which to choose. It’s the choice making that I need help with. Usually lots of time and concentrating on what I am doing will solve my issues, so I need to listen to my own advice and get concentrating!

Hope some inspiration flies in the window for me, too!