Hi Everyone!

           Well, it's 6:30 in the morning and 69 degrees here....I can live with that!  Working on my first cuppa joe and enjoying the coolness while it's cool.  Supposed to be around 88 today...still better than the 104 from yesterday afternoon.  My boss even closed down shop early and we all went home to our semi-cool houses.  This is one of the many reasons I'm looking forward to our move to the mountains.  Idyllwild will, of course, have heat.  It will just be a prettier heat!  LOL....

         Anyhooooo......look what arrived yesterday!











So NOW... I can combine these little beauties with this...... and I'm set for the afternoon!

I do have a few appliques to put into the shop, and then I'm FREE!  I think the first thing I will do with these new toys is paint a block from my own pattern collection.  I have a set of four patterns for applique that I drew myself, and they will soon be in the shop.  I've always appliqued them, and they work up well that way, but I think I'm going to paint a few blocks to see how well I can do this.

Here's a sneak peek of the patterns.  They'll be packaged with instruction sheets and full color pictures of a finished block.  I call them my Breezy Blossoms because they look like flowers in a stiff breeze!  So....the last picture here is one of the Breezy Blossom patterns done up as raw edge applique.  Well, it's just been applied with Wonder Under, so it's ready to "finish."  It's not a good shot, but it serves it's purpose!  LOL!

Anyhow, I'm going to try to be strong this morning and put my new paints aside so I can work on this.  It's a bit wrinkled.  Noticed that AFTER I took the picture!

 

It's a small wall hanging, and I want to do the quilting with the white crochet thread.  I made up about 5 of these tops a while back---why, I don't remember.  Probably to sell.  Well, they didn't all sell.  So I had a few left over.  One is finished and in the shop and this one will get put together today...I hope.....the paints!  They're whispering my name!   "Come to us!  Come to us!"  I'm the only one that can hear them.

 I better go before I begin answering them.  My boys will just run for it.  My husband will just sigh and make me another cup of coffee.  Blessings, everyone!

 

 

 

Hi everyone!
                       Well, I could have saved this post for tomorrow, but this house is going to be full of food, family and fun tomorrow!  So, while it's peaceful, I'll post this....

          The great adventure---quilting with No. 8 crochet cotton...........
                        First, I threw together a tiny wall hanging.  Yuppers....tiny.  It's only about 13" square.  Then I dove into quilting it with the new variegated threads I bought yesterday.  After spending a few hours with this little piece, a few things dawned on me and I slowly drew a few conclusions.

      First, let me show you the wall hanging.  I know it's only partially done, but I don't think it will get completed...you'll see why.  (Disclaimer:  No, it is NOT wonky around the edges...the picture just came out that way....but many of you will already know that! :)  The star is a small pineapple block applied raw edge with two rows of stitches. 

       First off, I did the "rays" running out from the star in the variegated red.  Break.  Rethread.  Break.  Rethread.  Break.  Re----well, you get the picture.  Just in the rays alone, I must have had at least 10 breaks. The thread seemed to FRAY as it slid through the threading of my machine.  By the time it got to the needle, it seemed pretty frayed.  I suppose I should be lucky it stitched as far as it did between breaks.
        I was disappointed, because when I quilted that deep purple swatch with white, I had absolutely NO breaks. 
  


















 And with the "chunky" thread, if you do "repairs," they REALLY look bad!   I kept stitching, adjusting tension, threading path, speed, various things.  To no avail.  Break.  Rethread,  Break.  Rethread.  Break.  Re---you get it.

                  Okay, time to sit back and think about this.....oh....and examine my thread a bit closer.  HHHmmm.....the red variegated ball of thread wasn't the same shape as the white one I'd used before. It's more square---not as rounded.  It's....Uh. Oh.....a different brand.
                   It seems I was so jazzed about getting such a great price on that package of gorgeous thread, I paid little attention to manufacturer.  Dumb?  Yeah....well....it's an age thing.  When you reach 58, you get to blame everything on age!
               The variegated is NOT DMC.  Or Anchor.  It's uuuhhhh.....Sensations....neverheardofthebrand. *sigh*

Egyptian cotton, manufactured in Mexico.   I know you can't see it very well, but the DMC ball is CLEARLY more round than the....uh...other brand.  Not that the shape makes a difference as to the thread performance, but it's just something I should have noticed and then checked the brand.












Okay, so just for the heck of it, I change the top and bottom to the DMC and do that little bit of cross-hatch quilting in the corner.  What do you know!  No break.  No rethread.






  What conclusion did I reach?  When you get a good price on something, sometimes you pay for it!

          I'm going to do another star wall hanging.  I have another spool (a larger one) of the No. 8 DMC in white.  At least I've gotten a bit smarter.  Now all I have to do is find DMC balls of No 8 in COLORS.  So if anyone can hook me up with a good source for what I'm looking for, I'd sure appreciate it!

        Meantime, back to the drawing board!  Blessings!

 

 
 

Hi everyone!

                  Well, in light of my new discovery that I can quilt with No. 8 crochet cotton, I immediately began the search for this stuff in COLORS!  Yeah, I could do the quilting in white, or ecru...something vanilla like that, but I can't seem to leave well enough alone.  I want color!
  
         So first I went to my favorite place to get materials....Amazon.  And found.........nothing.  So, I popped on over to eBay and made another discovery.....there's very few places in the U.S. that sell the No. 8 colored crochet cotton, and I don't want to pay the postage necessary to get a little package of these lovelies from Turkey....or Paraguay....or ?  Okay.........so it was late in the day.....I couldn't begin a new project...so I thought, "Hey.  I'll just pop on over to Joann's and see what they have and I took my 40% coupon with me.

        I found this for roughly $10.00 and it was NOT on sale!  Yay!

Okay...it's variegated.  I didn't want variegated, I wanted solids, but here's the thing.....with my coupon, I only paid $6.00 and some change.  That's about $1.00 a ball, and that's roughly what the going rate is online---anywhere.  Okay, so with a 50% coupon, it would have been even less!

         So here's my plan....I'm going t scrounge as many coupons as I can for Joann's and pick up as many of these as I can.  Then, I'll try to incorporate a little color into a wall hanging (one ball will only do a little bit of quilting).  Meantime, I'll squirrel away one of the colors until I have a good supply of that color, and I can do a bigger wall hanging with that one color.  Okay.....not a very GREAT plan, but that's what I've come up with. 

      Now, here's the other things I picked up........

      So, as I said, I'm going to try to incorporate a little color into the wall hangings, but I think I will be forced to do the bulk of the quilting (where appropriate) in either the white or the ecru.  The only solid colors of No. 8 as individual balls that Joann carried were in green and red.  I guess more people use this stuff at Christmas time so it's good to stock it in May. *sigh*

      Anyhoooo....Today I have pulled out a small scrappy wall hanging top that I'd put away a while ago.  I'm going to sandwich it up and begin to quilt it with the crochet cotton.  I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.  Blessings!

 Hi Everyone! 
                       Right off the bat, I have a question for everybody............
                                I have begun the quilting on the oak leaf wall hanging.

  I'm using the "stitch-through-tracing-paper" method, as it seems the best method for the section I'm quilting.  I'm doing it, as a usually do, with white thread. There are three borders on this, and I may do them in different thread colors, but that's not my question today.

                 Here's a shot of it, even though it's not completely "cleaned up."   Most of the time, I'm pretty satisfied with the design I use.......anyhow, here's the question....I have seen many, many photos of quilts with gorgeous quilting work!  I greatly admire the work, but I've noticed that some stand out more than others.  And to me, the ones that stand out are those in which the THREAD seems to be sort of "chunky."  It's hard to describe what I'm trying to say.  When you view the photos, it almost seems as if the quilter has used a fine crochet thread to do the quilting!  Some of it is done on a longarm, some on a regular machine.

(Above picture borrowed from this blog:  http://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/quilting-around-the-block-in-quilters-world-february-2011/)
                 And the thing is, I LOVE that look!  Now......why does the quilting look this way in some photos?  Are these quilters using a kind of thread that's actually THICKER than regular thread?  Is it just the way the photo was taken?
            I have to admit....I dearly love to gaze at photos of quilting closeups.  I'm sort of a texture freak, and there's so much texture in beautiful quilting! 
       Nevertheless, if this is a certain kind of THICKER thread, I would love to try it!  Can anyone tell me anything about this?  I have heard of the thread called Aurafill.  I have never seen it, but is this the thread being used for this kind of lay-on-the-surface-all-proud-and-beautiful quilting?

      Anyhow.....I'm going to try to get the quilting done on the oak leaf today.  It's probably all I will get to.  I've put off the cleaning, and forgot to pay the maid this week, so she won't be in. It's up to me, and when it's up to me, I get it done as fast as possible, delegating as much as possible as I go along!

       So I guess I'll see ya'all later!

        Hi everyone!
                      It's been a slow morning.  I've been able to get only one item into the shop this morning, but it's nice!  A set of 16, 6.5" quilt squares with cherry cats on them. 

              I was poking around in my stash, and I ran across a little bunch of this fabric.  I had to smile....I didn't think I had this much left.....maybe a quarter yard or so.  This comes from a full-front apron I made for my sister last year for Christmas.  It was one of two.  The other apron had coffee mugs all over it...coffee...one of her favorite things!

            Anyhow, as I looked at it, I immediately thought of my Attic Window Cats iron-on appliques, and I thought, "Wow!  I'm going to do these up into attic window blocks!

             These are on 6.5" squares,  so I thought they'd work up well into a 12" block.  So the first thing I did was try to find a pattern on the internet with dimensions for doing a large size attic window block.

            After a while, I came to the conclusion I was not going to find such a thing. That's not to say it's not out there, I just can't find it.  So I thought, "Hey!  You can plot the block out yourself!  It's just a matter of measurements!"

           Well, that decision made, I went to my stash to look for some fabrics that would play well with the gorgeous green and perfect red of these cherries.  Nope.  Nothing.  Mental note:  Need to replenish fabrics in green and red=Trip to the fabric store!  Oh joy!

         But, the fact is, I have no fabrics suitable for attic window blocks for these kitties.  So, they're being sold as squares. 

     Which is just as well, because now I have time to go peel an orange and relax a moment before moving on to the next project.....

      Time to sandwich up the Oak leaf and begin the quilting!  I love this part!  You guys have a great day!

     
          

Hi everyone!
                   I got a late start to the day, but I've been trying to be productive.  I finally got a quilt top into the shop...my first!  Well, not my first quilt top, just the first for my shop.

This was a little different than any other top I've done.  I usually make simple, pieced tops, but this one has some applique. 

     A couple months ago, in my favorite fabirc shop , I found the most beautiful fabric with bugs all over it!  I am NOT a bug lover!  But these were so beautifully done and astonishingly detailed!  The little moths and dragonflies were all wearing little coats and vests and you culd see their eeeeeeeeyyyyes!  I was enchanted and bought some yardage, not knowing what I would ultimately do with it.  Well, I couldn't help cutting the bugs apart, and iron-on appliques went floating through my head.   Well, long story short, this is where the dragonflies wound up.  (The Luna moths are on a block set with some gorgeous hydrangea fabric.  They can be seen in my shop )

     I meticulously cut them out and backed them with Wonder Under, and applied them to the FINISHED top.  Now....that's very important.  Finished.  It's important because it goes hand in hand with that old saying, "Hind sight is 20/20."  I have to call this quilt top a OOAK.  Yup.  O N E   O F   a K I N D.  Because I will never make another. 

   Look at the moths....they are disbursed over seam lines.  That's right.  I gleefully laid out the top, arranged the moths, and pressed them into place.  THEN, my friends, it DAWNED on me that, in the sewing-down process, I would need to rotate the entire top around and around for EACH little dragonfly!  All with invisible thread!  You know.....the thread you can hardly see??? 


   Anyhow, for those of you who can envision this, you will quickly deduce WHY this is a OOAK!  Oh, I will likely do another quilt top with moths.  Or butterflies.  BUT!  I will apply them to the individual blocks and THEN  assemble.  LOL!  We quilters have fun, don't we?
                   

       Hi everyone!
                               I have the first quilt top finished for the shop!   I'll be taking pictures this afternoon and will probably have them posted this evening.  I think you'll like it!  Tell you a bit more about it over here on Quilt Seeds after I post.  Se ya'all later!

         Hi everyone! 
                I put the coffee pot on about 5:30 and looked around this morning.
         The dishwasher was snoring.....the vacumn cleaner was dreaming of dust bunnies.  And they were so quiet in their slumbers! You'd never have known they were there!  So, since they were both sleeping so well....no use waking them up.  Monday's are always hard....let 'em sleep.

       I fired up Baby featherweight and got to work.  (Baby is so quiet, it didn't even disturb the dishwasher.  the vacomn cleaner just turned over and went back to sleep.)

      The Oak Leaf wall hanging is coming along great!  I posted the first step of it yesterday on my FB Quilty Stuff...   https://www.facebook.com/Quilterrific

      This is it.....ready to quilt.  It wound up measuring 28" x 30"......... a bit bigger than I'd envisioned.  But I took a trip to the fabric store yesterday to get fabric exclusively for this wall hanging.  When I found the "wood,"  I just knew it would be a wide border.  I'd had the stripe in my stash and I like the contrast of shapes that's going on.  Please pardon the yellowish-ness of the image.  I took the picture inside the house and it's an overcast day.  The pictures below represent the colors much better.
               The oak leaf is my own art.  It was initially done in colored pencils. (At a picnic table in Idyllwild Park!) I printed  it on TAP (transfer artist paper) and onto white fabric (Kono cotton).
 I've put TAP transfers through their paces.  When I first thought about putting my images onto fabric for use in quilt blocks, I was dubious.  Could you iron the image?  Would the image be washable....dryable?  Would it lift?  Of course, these factor wouldn't be as important if it was a wall hanging, but what about a usable quilt? 
             So I put a small design onto TAP then onto Fabric and I sent it through 5 washings. 
             NO, you cannot iron it.
             YES!  You can wash it.  It doesn't fade, lift, chip or shrink! I was amazed and delighted!
So, very soon I will have cotton squares in my shop with my artwork on them.  These will be unique and can be incorporated into both useable quilts and wall hangings.  I'm so jazzed!  What I particularly like about TAP is the wonderful, crisp images you can get, which is important for this piece as I wanted the poem clear and readable...which it is!  And another thing...........if you are still unsure about putting the TAP-images-on-cotton into a usable quilt, you could always put a very thin layer of fabric medium over the images.  It's just a small, $2.00 bottle of stuff you can get at Joanns, and just apply it with a paintbrush or q-tip or something like that.  It will dry clear, and won't be seen. 
        
                  I'd like to ask opinions regarding the quilting thread for  this.  I usually quilt with white thread...for several reasons.  I can see it better as I work,  and it's a "safe" color.  I've tried quilting with other color thread, picking up the colors in the prints, and I usually wind up feeling as if I've made a mistake using colored thread.  I want to break out of this, but I'm a little afraid to.
          So what I'm asking is, would anyone have any suggestions for thread colors that might look good on this?  I'm going to echo-quilt around the leaf, and I'm thinking about feathering the green border and stippling the "wood" border.  Any thoughts?

           Well, off to make a brunch and wake up the dishwasher and vacumn cleaner.  Ya'all have a great day!

          

      

       

      

     Good morning!  Happy Sunday!  I decided to sleep in a bit this morning, so here it is, 7:45 and I haven't done a thing but make my breakfast! 
     This is the second posting to my new blog, Quilt Seeds.  It's going to be fun saying hi to everyone each day!

                      As many people know, I've been busy filling my shop with all sorts of quilting goodies!  So be sure to pop on by there or stop by my Facebook Page, Quilty Things, to see what new goodies I've managed to cook up.

      I've been working on developing some applique patterns for the shop.  I'm working with vintage botanical (and bird!) illustrations for my inspiration.

  
              

                                 Hi everyone!  Thanks for popping by my NEWest blog, Quilt Seeds.  It's Quilt Seeds because this is where I want to post the "seeds" of quilty thoughts.  Seeds of projects, ideas, innovations, and other notions.  And it is my hope that by doing so, you, too, might find something you'd like to try, a seed to plant in your quilty garden, or just some inspiration to plug in the sewing machine and do something creative with fabric!  Please feel free to sift through my other blogs for amusing things.  I hope by doing so you might find some common bond we share.  I love new friends, and hope to become one of yours!  If you stop by, please leave a comment letting me know you were here!