Cutting blocks and patching

I pressed a piece of bown print and pink print fabric last evening. I cut a 15" square thru the 4 layers of fabric. I made a quick sketch of the sizes I wanted to cut the block into.

I wanted the first cut to be more than half way so I cut it at 8.5". The next cut was at 4", then 2 1/2" and the last cut was 3".

Here I flipped over the stack for the center so you can see the brown. I will cut a bunch and mix up the centers. Once I piece the blocks they will need trimmed. I am aiming for a 13 1/2" finish block.

Then to top off the evening I patched a couple of hole in a pair of jeans for one of the guys at work.

It started raining about 4 p.m. yesterday and rained off and on all night. The sky this morning looks like this. I was standing in the rain when I took this just a couple minutes ago. Maybe the sky is going to clear and we get some sunshine!

A cool pen and the next project

I bought two of these pens when I was at Charm. They are Pilot FriXion and the pen marks disappear with heat. Really? Yes, really. They are so cool! They come in a wider felt tip or a ball point tip for a very thin line. I bought the felt tip. They only cost $1.50 each and the ball point ones were $2.30.

Here are the marks on a piece of cotton

Hit it with an iron

POW! the marks are gone!

I dug thru my stash to find pink and brown fabrics for girl baby quilts. I have a friend who needs to make one for a friend of her's so I will be helping her out. She can sew, but needs a lot more practice. Since I need to make a bunch of girl quilts so my brother has some choices this is as good as any color combo to get started.

This morning's sky. Someone told me yesterday that we are in for rain for the next week - bummer.

12th finish and painting

I finished the John Deere quilt this weekend. It turned out as cute as it could for a whole cloth piece. I will get it in the mail today. I sure hope Marie likes it.

Saturday, I began painting the fabric storage/bedroom starting with the ceiling. This room is dark so I used bright white. Then I mixed up some paint for the walls from my leftovers. It seemed to take a long time for some reason to paint this room. After I was done I was debating about the color. It took a long time for it to dry because it was raining all day.

I got up Sunday and decided I hated the color - it was just too yellow. I went back into the utility/wet studio and starting adding more paint to the batch I threw together Saturday. I wanted to try and use up the paint I had left over. As I was digging thru the paint cans I found a light tan so I threw that in the bucket plus the quart of chocolate brown I found. Sunday, after finishing the John Deere quilt, I started painting with the new color.

The color is darker than what this picture shows. The flash really makes it look light. The good news is I like the color and the second coat will be going on next weekend unless I can find some time after work.

Here is what I have left - three empty cans (yeah!) and a gallon and 1/2 of my color that I will call warm linen.

I got an e-mail from my brother in Texas and he said that Sam' Club in Garland carries Choco' Noir. Right now Choco' Noir is not for sale in Ohio. This state is weird about what kind of alcohol can be sold here. I asked him to check on shipping me a case that I could split with a woman I work with.

Here is this morning's sunrise. It is a nice change of pace since we have had 5 days of gray skies. Saturday the wind just howled and it poured down rain. Sunday afternoon the sun came out a bit and it was warm enough I could open the window to get some fresh air while I painted. But about 3:30 p.m. it was overcast again and rained again.

A good start for the weekend

I got up a little after 5 a.m. this morning so I could get my grocery shopping done before I went to work. Giant Eagle is open 24/7 so I headed there first. Then there were a few things on sale at Acme so I headed there next. They don't open officially until 7 a.m., but they open the doors early at 6:35 so that makes it easy to get in and out before work. I am glad this is done so I do not have to leave the house this weekend. Unfortuntely I did not find any Choco' Noir at either store and both have a huge wine shop. If push comes to shove, I guess I could have my brother in Texas see if he can find it (the beverage company that handles Choco' Noir is in Texas) and ship some to me.

I started quilting the John Deere quilt last evening. I worked on it for about an hour. I won't have any problem getting it quilted and bound this weekend. I just wish I could see Marie's face (that is the grandmother) when she opens it. I sure hope she likes it.
Here is the front

and the back

I borrowed these two books from the library and plan on spending some quiet time looking at these while I sip a Mike's hard limeade. I love, love, love the quilt on the cover of Kaffe's book, but I have to make it my own in some way so I will have to think about this quilt for awhile.

I want to get my fabric storage room painted this weekend. I don't know if I will get to installing the window trim, but I want to at least get all the trim painted.

No, this is not the same picture as yesterday - it is another gray morning. At least yesterday about 11 a.m. the sun came out and it was sunny until late afternoon.

Have a great weekend.

A quilt delivered, another one to make, one that needs mailed, ones to look at

Do you remember this quilt I made last year? I had posted on on August 9, 2010 and I was delivered yesterday. Ok, here is more information. My brother has had this quilt in his road case (he tours with rock bands) since August last year. He said he would either run into the person who I made this quilt for his son or he would be in Austin, Texas and deliver it to the man's non-profit organization. Well, my brother was in Austin and delivered it yesterday. I made this quilt for Max Armstong, son of Lance Armstrong. The seven yellow zig zag strips are for Lance's seven TDF wins. The zig zag pattern is for the mountains he had to climb. One of the zig zag has sun flowers which the riders always ride past during the tour. The 28 on the back was from the number all the Radio Shack riders worn on their jersey's the last day of the tour. It represents the 28,000,000 people battling cancer. Yellow and black are the colors of the Livestrong Organization. I did put a lable on the quilt that was red, gray, and yellow which are the Team Radio Shack colors. My brother gave the quilt to a lady at the Livestrong Offices and she said she would make sure Lance got the quilt.

While I was working in Charm I waited on a sweet lady who wanted to make a sinple quilt with John Deere fabric for her grandson. The more I talked to her the more frustrated she was getting, because she doesn't sew much. She was getting overwhelmed with my questions about making sure she had everything she needed - batting , backing, binding - and how she was going to secure the layer together. I felt so bad for her that I asked her if she wanted me to make it for her. I know, I know, but I just couldn't help myself. She was such a nice lady and I felt bad for her. She smiled and said yes. It is a simple whole cloth piece and won't take long to do. I have the layers pin basted and I plan on getting it quilted this weekend.

I have an x-cousin by marriage whose daughter is pregnant and the shower is Sunday. I won't be attending the shower so I need to get a quilt in the mail. That goodness for a stash of baby quilts! The baby's room will be blue and yellow with touches of orange and green. This was the best fit I could find. I will have to mail it at lunch today.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KarenGriskaQuilts?ref=em
Thia is the link to Karen Griska's new etsy shop. Karen has the Selvage Blog and has the most inspiring quilts in her etsy shop. Check it out.

This morning's sky.

Chocolate wine is all the rage

Who knew? I worked at the Grape Expections wine tasting event at the Akron Art Museum last evening and had a great time. Yes, chocolate wine is the hot item on the market. I took it upon myself to taste every chocolate wine that was being offered.
This I was told was the first chocolate wine. It is made in Holland. It was good, but not my favorite.

Then I tried this in chocolate and the chocolate/strawberry. It was ok, but not my favorite.

Then there was this chocolate flavored port. I couldn't taste the chocolate or the port. Thumbs down.

My absolute favorite was Choco' Noir. I thought I took a picture of the bottle, but it doesn't seem to be on my camera! Darn! The Choco' Noir was creamy, not too sweet, and full of chocolate flavor. It is made with dutch chocolate - not syrup like some other types. It was like drinking the best chocolate milk you have ever had with a kick! 14% alcohol! I am going to have to buy some of this! Only $10.00 a bottle.

Then there was the food
Cabot cheese sponsored this beautiful tower of cheese. Cabot is a Vermont farmers owned co-op and I have been a customer of their's ever since the first time I tasted their smokey bacon cheddar at a museun event 7 years ago.

The desserts were furnished by a local grocer Acme.

There were several resturants with food including lobster salad sliders (yummy), Cuban gumbo (didn't try), stir fry roll ups (ok), pork belly (yuck), mini crab cakes (I have tasted better but they were good), and seared tuna (so freakin' good!).

Here is one of the flower arrangements. Just beautiful!

We got to take home our wine glass and I put a rose in mine that I snagged off the empty cheese tower. I was home by 7:30 and sleep like a baby after all that wine tasting!

This morning's sky. It is raining.

Fabric I bought in Charm

I wasn't planning to buy much fabric this trip, but if I saw some fabric that would go with pieces I already had in my stash or really good deals I was going to take it home! I checked out the music fabric and these came home with me. I volunteered to make a music theme quilt for a public radio fundraiser next year and these prints will fit in nicely.

Then there was the odds and ends. There were a 3 yard and 1 3/4 yard pieces of white Kona that were headed downstairs to the flat flolds $4 table that I snagged. I got 20% off of that and I found a 3/4 yard piece of 120" wide that I can cut in half, insert some printed fabric, and use for the back of a baby quilt. At $4 minus 20% is a good deal. Normally it would be $9.98 a yard. I went ahead and marked each piece so I would know what the fabric was and the size for the future.

I got this tennis fabric for $6.00 - 20% - it was headed to the yard bin. The tea dyed muslin was in the bargin basement for $2.00 a yard minus 20%. I bought 4 yards.

I found a 1/2 yard piece of this great dotted fabric in the red and then found on the bolt the piece with the gray dots. The gray dots were $8.98 a yard with 20% off. I loved it so much I bought 5 yards. I can see it going with lots of fabrics.

I found this great neutral fabric for $6 at yard in the bargin basement. It will make a great background fabric. With the discount I paid $4.80 a yard and there was 6 yards.

A customer came to my cutting station with this fabric and I just had to have a piece of this great gray and pink small print.

Here is the piece with the other fabrics I already had in my stash. It goes perfectly with them and and is the small scale print that I needed.

Remember the twin girls that were born last year? Here they are at there first birthday party sitting on the quilts I made them.

This morning's sunrise