Out like a lamb???

So here we are at the end of March and I'm no warmer now than on the 1st. At least the sun was shining here in the NW. Tomorrow I'm taking a personal day and going to Victoria on Vancouver Island in BC. This is not a usual "day trip" but I have a cousin who is in need of a bit of company. So off I shall go.

My bags of hexagons will travel with me so my hands can be busy on the 1 1/2 hr ferry trip and the wait time in the line ups. Here are a few photos that I want to share.
English Paper Piecing with 6 pointed diamonds.
Inspiration???
Summer sunset outside my studio in Grass Valley, OR My Anna Banana enjoying a hot summer day on my studio porch in Grass Valley OR. The good life!
Stitch today :-)

Silk Shopping and more

It has been a while since I've posted. My biggest challenge is getting my pictures from my camera to my blog. I know how to do it, it's just making the time. So I'm backtracking my timeline to a few weeks ago when our guild, Piecables, had Jovita from
Peacock & Periwinkle as our guest speaker. I have never quilted with silks and thought it would be an interesting presentation. I was blown away with her samples. Mixing silks with batiks,
making a Granddaughters Flower Garden (Jovita's term!)with silks,
purple pinwheels
or making simple square in a square all took on a life of their own with the silks. So of course I couldn't go home without my own silk patch.

It's funny how when I get focused on something, I start to see it everywhere. I had recently put a class proposal together for English Paper Piecing. While I was waiting to see if my class was accepted, I pulled out my abandoned bag of flowers, found my packets of hexagons and diamonds, bought a variety of new shapes and have been in hexagon mode since. And everywhere I look I am seeing the most amazing work done with hexagons. I guess the stars and the planets were aligned as my class proposal was accepted and I am inspired by so much around me!

Spring Break

Even though kids are on spring break, and even though the calendar says its spring, I dont' feel like it's spring. I'm cold and I want it to warm up. Company has come and gone and I feel like I'm having the Feb blues. Once I pick up my cd with all my photos, I'll be posting again!
Stitch today, it will feel good. ;-)

Covered in Feathers

This past weekend was time to get off my own projects and get to work on a long overdue gift for my gal pal Paula. The motivation is that she is arriving at my house in a week, so I thought I better have this done for her. It turned out great!














I used Black sateen for the outside and did all the free hand quilting with a bronze metallic poly thread and I didn't have one thread break. That makes for a more enjoyable project.

It's Just Stuff..........

but I want it. Look at this gem that is going up for auction. If only the auction wasn't a 15 hour round trip from my place. I have been paring down the "stuff" in my house, but I surely need to add this to my things. Can you just see it sitting on a little repro quilt, all those bright feed sack prints around it? I have a few of those and I'm working on a 30's sampler, so I think I need to have this too! Now if only I can find someone to go bid on this for me. Any takers??
Sharon

Picture Posting

A picture is worth a thousand words...........

The cat just had to get in the picture. My snowmen have no eyes, I don't want them to watch the quilting process :-)


Annie battling Old Man Winter.......she usually loses and runs right back into the office.
Maybe March will go out like a lamb?......we can only hope!

In Like a Lion......

We are seeing the sun today, but it was a frosty 21 degrees at 7:30 this morning. Thank goodness for seat heaters in the car! Yesterday was blizzard conditions here in the Pacific NW. Aren't we supposed to be wearing socks with our sandles at this time of year? Old man winter is letting us know he hasn't started his hibernation yet. It was definitely a day for curling up on the couch with some hand quilting, but instead I made my way to work.
Last night I managed to finish the hand applique on a Christmas, (or Winter) table cloth. It is from Kim Diehl. I love her books, and can't wait for her next one to be published. So much for holiday season 2008, but I"m looking good for 2009. My goal was to have the borders sewn on before bed Sunday, but Monday worked just fine. I had the pieced border all ready to go, I did that piecing when I did the center of the quilt. Whenever I get to the end of a segment of a project, I like to lay it out, stand back and admire it, and usually take a picture. How is it that I don't even know where my cat is sleeping, but all it takes is to lay out my project for her to make herself noticed. Maybe in her past life she was a model and she still likes to have her picture taken. (Posting photo's tomorrow) And not to be left out, Annie went for a romp in the snow yesterday and she got her picture taken too.
Sorry for the lack of pics, I'll catch up with them tomorrow.
Take time to sew today

Scrap Management and beyond.

What are you doing with all the small pieces of fabric left over from the numerous projects you have created over the years? Are they piled in drawers? Stuffed in bags under a cutting table? Maybe in boxes under the bed in the spare bedroom? Wherever they are, you can make a plan and get them under control. It will take some time, 3 - 6 months, you need a plan and then some endurance to win this battle.

I've been reading some blogs, several Log Cabin books, signed up to Scrapbusters Yahoo group (that's another whole blog post) and started pulling out my bags of scraps. One quilter put it into perspective by reminding us all that we paid as much money (per yard) for the scraps as we did for the large pieces on our shelf. I made a table runner and a lap quilt from one bag of scraps, wow! But what to do with the other 9 bags that are tucked in various places around my house? A log cabin quilt, what else? I've never pieced a traditional Log Cabin, and since I have made a promise to not start any big projects this year, this was the perfect challenge for me. Honestly, this makes perfect sense, at least in my world.



I have started my Scrap Management and here are a couple of pictures. Note the silverware trays, they stacked together perfectly. Trust me, this was not a planned purchase, this was the $1 table at the local Salvation Army Store! And yes, my 1 1/2" should be 2 1/2" and 2 1/2" should say 3 1/2" I changed them since taking the photos.



My goal is to piece all the blocks of this Log Cabin by using them only as leaders and enders (a Bonnie Hunter term) My goal is to have the blocks all pieced without dedicating any sewing time specifically to this project. I will post updates as I go along. Right now I have about 36 red/cream centers pieced. Plus I now have a place for all the left over scraps for any small projects that I work on. How fast and simple to have the trays sitting right by my cutting mat and how liberating it is to not have any small bits and pieces left over!

Sew many ideas,

Sunday, Sunday.....

It'a a gloomy NW day today so here is a bit of spring to look at.
I've been working on my Mystery quilt from Piecables guild and we have one more istallment. This quilt will have a home on my bed for the summer. The pattern has been very easy to follow and it's used up 10 yards of fabric for the top. My focus fabric will be the borders, backing and binding, so this is a major stash buster. I spent Saturday sewing with a great bunch of ladies from a guild in BC. Their Saturday Sew In is fabulous, great company, lots of projects to look at and get inspired by and terrific goodies for the a.m. coffee and a wonderful hot lunch.

More later....