Playing, but not in the snow.

This is my front yard when I got to the house after work yesterday afternoon. It continued to snow and we ended up with 2 - 3 inches. The snow didn't stick to the streets until later that evening when it got colder. I am ready for it to stop snowing and get into the 50's.



So I didn't play in the snow last evening, but played in the studio. Here are the stamps and stencils I made last evening. I had taken the ball bat and glove stamps and enlarged them on the copier. These are the images I want to put on the backing for the baseball t-shirt quilt.



The top image is stencil with ink and the bottom is a stamped image with ink. They both look pretty much the same.



This is the stencil and ink



This is using the stamp with fabric paint that was way to thick.


I think I am going to go with using the stencil method. It is going to be easy to place the image where I want it. My stamps are thin and it takes too long to carefully place the ink or paint on the stamp.

Back for baseball t-shirt quilt

I was looking thru my rubber stamps and remembered I had some with baseball images. I think I want to stamp the backing of the baseball quilt with these images, but the glove and baseball bat are way too small in relation to the size of the baseball. I am going to enlarge the glove and bat stamps on the copier and make a stencil of each. I can use my new ink pad to stencil the designs on.

Goodies from the weekend

I bought a kit one of the vendors had with this ink pad, daubers, and a couple of stencils. The ink is for fabric or paper. It is long lasting (about 10 years - that's what the lady said) and permanent. I bought the pad rather than the seperate bottles of ink.


Now this is some cool stuff. Instead of using bleach to discharge color there was a demonstration on how to use this product. This product will not damage fabric like bleach will. After you dry the product, which you can apply an image by using a stencil or brushing it on, you then hit it with heat and the color of the fabric is removed. But the coolest part is that she had the discharge paste in colors. This means that the color of the fabric is removed and then is replaced with the color of the discharge paste all in the same step! I mean this was so cool I could not believe it. I can't wait to play with this. The colored discharge paste came in a bunch of colors. The three pack of colors was $20.00 and the clear discharge paste was $8.00. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head.

A busy weekend

Friday was the bus trip to Sewing and Quilting Expo in Cleveland, Ohio. We had 6 hours to check it out. There was a lot of machine embroidery booths and I mean a lot. I missed going back to the booth that a contestant from Project Runway had. I had gone by it early in the day and she had not arrived yet. My big purchase was this iron. I used it all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I had a funny smell on Saturday - that new smell that I don't like - but Sunday after I turned it on I did not notice it. So far I am very happy with performance. I bought a few more items that once I get play with them I will post.


Saturday was alterations day - hemmed the sleeves of two lined jackets, hemmed two pairs of pants - one lined and the other cuffed, took in a lined skirt, and stitched the hem back into one leg of a pair of pants that had fallen out.


Here are the 270 bowls that a local pottery company made and donated to the fundraiser for one of the local food banks. For $25.00 you got a bowl of your choice and three bowls of soup. The soup was donated by local resturants and there was also bread donated by a local baker. I worked checking in guests on Sunday and was gifted a ticket for a bowl by one of the guests. The soup was so good and it was a sold out event.


After the soup event I finished putting this top together. I also got the binding cut out. I think the baseball binding adds the right touch.

Making plans

I spent some time last evening mentally regrouping where I was six weeks ago before the Improv quilt was thrust into my life. I think I will start out this weekend by finishing the top for this t-shirt quilt. It has been hanging on the design wall for a couple of months.


The other two projects that need to happen in the next couple of months are a t-shirt quilt for a niece who is graduating from high school - I don't have the t-shirts yet - and a quilt for a nephew who is getting married June 8th. Here is a picture of the vintage Fench linen I bought on ebay for the wedding quilt. I wanted to make something really special for him. I bought two pieces of this linen and they are each 108" x 108". Once I find my inspiration for this quilt I may dye some of the linen.


Tomorrow is my trip to Cleveland to the IX Center for the Sewing and Quilting Expo. I am interested in looking for quilting thread and inspiration.

Sixth finish of 2011

Stick a fork in me I am done!

Getting close to the finish, but will I have enough time?

I finished quilting the borders and attached the binding last evening. I would have loved to have gone for a walk - it was so beautiful outside - but nooooooooo, I had to work on this quilt. I will spend my lunch hour getting started with the hand sewing on the binding and finish it this evening.

I also have to finish the quilting this evening. I was having major problem with the medium blue thread boogering up on the back every once in a while. I think the problem was the weight of the thread. I am going to try another weight and hopefully that solves the problem, because tonight the quilt has to be done. I need to give it to my friend tomorrow. Oh, how am I going to squeeze time in to hang it and take some pictures? I guess I will figure something out. Wish me luck!

Close, but no cigar

I worked on the improv quilt 10 hours yesterday and it is still not done. I found another spool of Connecting Threads Essential Blue Moon otherwise I would have been about 100 yards short. I am so sick of working on this quilt - I want my life back. I have learned a valuable lesson though. Next time say "No".

Tonight I will be able to get the shadow quilting done in the borders and start the binding. I have to turn this one over by Wednesday.

Still plugging away on the Improv quilt

You are probably tired of me posting about this quilt, but I am nearing the completion of it. I finally started quilting the borders. I have one border done except for the accent quilting in the contrast colors. I wasn't sure at first if I would like it, but now that I quilted a couple of area I like it. I am quilting the contrast in narrower rows than the rest of the border to add even a little more interest.

This is all the Connecting Threads Essential thread in the color Blue Moon I have left to finish the other three borders. I had two spools when I started this project and I thought for sure it would be enough to quilt the all dark blue fabric. I don't have time to order another spool and get it by Monday so wish me luck that I have enought thread.

This weekend will be busy again. Tonight I have a friend coming over for some quilting/sewing help. Saturday I need to head south to Dover, an hour away, to get my taxes done and to visit the twin girls. I will then meet my Dad and some of my siblings to take him out to dinner for his b-day. He live 1/2 hour south of Dover. Sunday will be all about finishing the improv quilt.

Have a great weekend!

Beer and sewing

Here a a couple pictures of the crowd at the Art and Beer event at the Akron Art Museum Friday night. I had a good time talking to people and pouring beer. I am not a beer drinker, but I enjoy the social aspect of voluneering at an event like this. The hardest part was smelling the perrogies the lady next to me was cooking. She had a flat grill that she was browning potato and cheese perrogies in butter. I managed to snag one and they were so good!



On Saturday I started the day on alterations - hemmed one pair of boy scout pants, one lined skirt, and two lined jackets. Then I moved to quilting.
I accomplished a lot on the improv quilt on Saturday and Sunday morning. I have about 75% of the center done. My plan is to get the rest of the center quilted after work this week and then quilt the borders and bind it this coming weekend. I need to have it done by the 22nd so I am still on track for making my goal. I had to switch gears and go back to alterations Sunday afternoon. I shorten the sleeves on two lined jackets and shorted the lenght of a lined jacket. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would, but there was a lot of hand work that had to be done. When I called the client to let her know her stuff was done, she said she had a couple more pairs of pants for her daughter that needed hemmed. Oh well, all the money I make is going into my spending money pot for the Sewing and Quilting expo at the IX center in Cleveland March 25.

At least the rain stopped!

Ok, so the rain turned into snow, but at least the rain stopped! I woke up to 3" this morning and that is a lot less than what some areas received. THis is what the front yard and gardern look like this morning.



Tonight I am volunteering at the art museum's beer fest. I will be spending 3 hours pouring beer at this fundraiser. The snow is suppose to stop early this afternoon so hopefully we will get a good crowd. The rest of the weekend is alterations and quilting the improv quilt. I got an emergency alteration phone call last night so add another pair of pants to the alteration list - I just couldn't say no to a boy scout who needed official pants or he would be in hot water with his troop.

Have a great productive and safe weekend!

Thread and more rain

I received my thread order from Alanta Thread last night. Now I have the green thread I need for alterating a skirt and jacket this weekend. I hate to go to the store so I am so glad I could just order this on-line and it was on sale.


The rain is in it's third day non-stop and now it is suppose to snow tonight 3-5"! Crazy weather!

Last night I ended up doing two loads of laundry, looked at library books that need to be returned, downloaded some music, and watched the 4th stage of the Paris Nice bicycle race and the season finale of Southland so no sewing again.

Cotton or not?

I was crazy busy last evening - made meatballs, did a weeks worth of dishes, and took out the recycling for pick up today. I am having sewing company March 18 and I need to get this house shoveled out so I am trying to start now and do some every night so no sewing is happening. I did watch the 3rd stage of the Paris Nice bicycle race that I had taped as I was picking up.

I finally checked to see if some of the fabric I got last week in the suprise bag was cotton or not. I didn't have the patience to try and scorch the fabric so I just stood over the laundry sink and took a match to it. The blue and green are cotton, the stripe is not. There is 1 3/4 yards of the blue and 2 yards of the green so that is a great score.


Yesterday afternoon one of my clients picked up the alterations I had done for her - the two jackets and 3 pairs of pants. She brought me - UGH!!! - a couple of repairs. They are easy fixes, but it is still taking time away from the improv quilt.

Hatching a plan

The snow we recieved on Sunday melted off in the grassy areas so I knew I needed to do something about the daylilies. I found some mesh at a local discount store and I think it will work great in preventing the deer from eating the dayliiies while they are first coming out of the ground. This mesh will make it so I don't have to cover and uncover them all the time and yet the rain snd sunshine still get thru to the plants. I cut the mesh longer than I needed it to allow for growth and staked it down with wire coat hanger and rocks. The garden was like walking on a sponge - very squishy - but the daylilies are now covered.


As they grow I will adjust the mesh. Once the daylillies get to be a foot high I can remove the mesh until the flower head start to come. Then I will have to cover the plants again because the deer will eat the flowers.


I had one of my clients/neighbors pick up her pants last evening and bring me a jacket that the sleeves need shorten. I thouhgt I was making progress.

It's Monday already

Here is the quilting on the back of the improv quilt thru the band of color that we added to the back using the scraps. I quilted for about 7 hours on Saturday before I left for the battle of the bands. My nephew's band did not win this year. The winner was to get a spot playing at Ripper Owens Tap House (Ripper sang with Judias Priest). After the winners were announced Ripper came up to my nephew and told him he wanted them to play at the Tap House and they would be playing there in the future even though they didn't win - Cool!


Here are some of the alterations I completed - hemmed 6 pairs of pants and shorten the sleeves on two lined jackets. I still have three more jackets that need work and a skirt that needs hemmed. I am waiting for my thread order to come from Atlanta Thread so I can fix the skirt and one of the jackets. They are green - I'm mean St. Patrick's Day green - and I don't have any thread that color. Atlanta has their 1100 yard spools of Guterman on sale for $1.86 a spool for the month of March.

Another suprise bag and declaring war

I received another bag of fabric yesterday. This one had some good stuff along with the polyester gabardine and some double knits.


There is enough of this flannel to make a receiving blanket.


There is a nice piece of a striped jersey knit and an interesting linen print. I don't know what I would ever use the knit for, but I may find a project for the linen.


There was quite a bit of this blue and green fabric. I need to figure out if it is 100% cotton. If I remember there is a test you can do by burning a piece of the fabric to figure out if it is cotton or not. I will have to google that unless someone out there knows.


And lastly there was this great piece of 52" wide fabric that I think would make a fab quilt back. There is 3 5/8 yards of it and it is vintage drapery fabric. It is 100% cotton. I don't know if I will ever use it, but it's pretty cool.


Spring is around the corner in Ohio. It has been very cold the last few days, but the sunshine has warmed the ground and the daffodils are poking up. The deer don't like daffodils, but they love tulips and crocus so therefore all I have are daffodils. I just wish daffodils came in more colors.


Today I am officially declaring war on the deer. The daylilies are just starting to come up and they have chewed them off to the nub. This one was not more than 3/4" out of the ground. So every night before bed, I must go out in cold, rain, snow, or whatever and make sure I cover all the plants.


It is going to be a busy weekend. I have received a few more alterations to do and I need to concentrate on quilting K's improv quilt. Tomorrow is the battle of the bands that my nephew is participating in so that will take a chunk of time. I have to say that whenever I go see him play (a reminder - he is 13) he always thanks me for coming and supporting him. What a good boy. If I could figure out how to download a video off my camera and post it on this blog, I would do that but I haven't got a clue.

Have a great weekend!

Where have I been ..

still wrestling boxes at work. I have been so tired that nothing else has been getting done. This is one box that has been sitting on the island for a week and a half and will get attacked today along with four more boxes and several rolls of drawing shoved underneath the island. My boss complimented me on how the office is looking so much better with all the work I have been doing with the files.


I have done a little more quilting on the improv quilt. It is looking really good and I am sure K will love it.