My CQ for ME Progress

Happy Halloween!~~~~ Pumpkin courtesy of Melissa, carved by Michael & Karyssa~~~~ *************************************************************************

I haven't taken a stitch yet this weekend! I know, it's only Saturday. I will make a few tonight on Aida's CQ block. It is a beatiful block and I am inspired by the colors. I have a plan...it has something to do with this STITCH magazine and the cover article! Hope it works out.

I LOVE LOVE this magazine and it is the hardest mag to find...ever. No store in my town carries it so when ever I am near a B&N I run in to see if it is there. I have missed many of them this way. Since it is published in England, subscribing is cost prohibitive due to mailing costs. Do check it out if you have the chance. It is an excellent source of inspriation.

My work so far on my CQ for ME block. (a challenge I am participating in to make a block for ourselves since we are always making them for others in various swaps)I am loving it! I knew these Kaffe Fasset fabrics would look great with embellishments and I am not disappointed. This block is exciting!

One of my favorite seam embellishments! I have used brown silk ribbon here, randomly folding and twisting it as I tack it down with french knots. It looks good in chiffon and satin ribbon too. The ribbon just needs to be more pliable than stiff. It adds alot of dimension to a piece.

Free form flower using perle cotton. French knot center and pistol stitch & straight stitch petals.

Close-up of the blue silk fabric & chiffon ribbon flower on my project. The blue silk dupioni is 1 of the 2 fabrics I must use in my block. I made a yo-yo and tacked it down. Added the chiffon ribbon petals 1 loop at a time all around. I will add beads to the center yet.

I have learned:

1. 77 MPH winds will knock the average person over.



2. Karyssa just carved her 1st pumpkin! She's 21.



3. Cory never made pumpkin seeds before. He has now! He's 25.



4. 81 lb dog + oral surgery = approximately $400.00.



5. 12 lbs down now!

Crazy-ish Lampshade

Yes it is a lampshade! It is an old Pottery Barn silk shade that no longer had a home atop a lamp base. So one day I picked it up and started hand stitching home dec fabric swatches to it (some fabric stores will pin samples to the roll). I really like how it is coming along. Fun to recycle, rethink and repurpose (much like the BRA project). I have quite a bit more to do but thought I'd share.

I just received the next CQ block in my novice fulfillment for CQI's RR. Aida's block is gorgeous satins in very complimentary solid colors....cream, lavender, seafoam green, pink & peach. I am already running many options through my mind! Love it.

I have a few things that MUST get time this weekend.

• CONFIGURE 2 size blocks for courthouse steps. Need to nail down strip sizes for specific block size. Wish I was mathematical. Not. I will be doing this the "slow & steady" way.


• APPLIQUE the block for raffle quilt. I have never appliqued before and am a little stumped at the layering/stitching process. But will give it my best shot!


• DYE fabric with Dijon mustard. I need "D"ijon. I know mustard stains. Worth a try. I don't need alot. Or I could dye yellow and overdye with brown? Experiment.


• My CQ for ME block (the Kaffe Fassett blocks I posted a couple weeks ago) is looking great! I am loving how the busy fabrics are taking all the embellishment.


• MAKE a gift to exchange at Christmas party for quilt guild.

Fall. Luminous foliage right outside my door. Soon this tree will be naked and periodically covered in snow!

Here's What 21 Looks Like...

Busy busy weekend! Michael turned 21 Friday. I bought him his first legal beer! His girlfriend, Karyssa also turned 21 last Tuesday! All family members gathered to celebrate at Olive Garden. Friday night....fun was had by all! Football game Saturday. Today a cheer competition my nieces were involved in. Here is Darcy looking like a young lady! That smile. Love that smile.

So the only creative moment I can claim is a visit to a quilt shop yesterday! Needed more fabric for the guild's raffle quilt. I managed to find some FQ's I just had to have.

My hopes are pinned on next weekend and I will be making a list of what will be on the agenda sometime this week.

I have learned:

1. The term "black-balled" came from the Freemason's. They used a black cube as a NO vote when nominating a prospective member.
2. Pandora.com is an Internet radio site. It is so cool. Go to it. Make your own radio stations. Find new music. Find old favorites. Love it.
3. I love Project Runway. Right now I am liking the Hannah girl.

Sharon Stroud Day at Quilt Guild!

Yesterday we had Sharon Stroud lecture at quilt guild! She is such a happy little woman and I know she was enjoyed by all. (Click here to see more pictures) Sharon is the author of Dresden Plates of Distinction.
I like this little quilt she is holding above. On 9/11 she was teaching a quilt class when they heard the news. On her way home she bought this fabric. She journaled a bit on the back about it.

Melanie and her mom with two Dresden plates done in the same fabric with different backgrounds.

The border fabric on this quilt is the fabric used for all of the plates. Each plate consists of 16 blades, all fussy cut and hand stitched into a circle, then a solid circle appliqued to center and the entire piece is appliqued to a base fabric.. The area of fabric you choose to use holds all the mystery!

Martha with two quilts that show the "real" funky Sharon on the left...a skull in the center and bold colors. The one on the right is for the "masses" and classes!

You may recognize this one from the Simply Quilts episode she did years ago. Sixteen of us took the workshop after the meeting and we learned the steps required to get the block pieced with some tips on applique and hand stitching. It was a day well spent learning with a fully engaged teacher and good company. Thank you Sharon!

I spent part of today hand stitching (which I love) half of my Dresden Plate of Distinction! I am really happy with it. I love the swirls the form at the center and the tip and the two more solid forms across the middle. I cut the other eight out and I have three of those sewn together already. Very satisfying!

AND this is the fabric I used. This is a "well-aged" fabric as Sharon Stroud would say! Something about it made me keep it around through many stash clearances.

I learned:

1. Once again (I know I have learned this before but things slip my mind constantly) that the eye of a needle has an easy side to thread. If your having trouble turn the eye around.
2. Dean, my greyhound, sheds like a dog. I wish I could vacuum him. I tried once when I first got him. Apparently he didn't like his skin being sucked up as well.
3. 30 years of service = $200.00 gift card to Sears.
4. My niece Darcy's team won their division in her cheerleader competition today! Way to go Darc! We will see you next week at UB!

Discharged Fabrics

I love the wild look to discharged fabrics. Seeing Pat Pauly's fabrics in her Iron Quilter quilt made me move to try this after wanting to for months. I used hydrogen peroxide with water as a stop to the bleaching. I had Target Cleaner with Bleach in the cupboard so I used this. The cheap gel bleach pen was not so good. Maybe the pricier one would work better? Snow fencing + Solid Black fabric + Solid Brown fabric + Spray Bleach Cleaner = COOL!

Here is the brown fabric. It obviously has some sort of dye issue so the bleach took differently in 2 striped area's. (When it's cut up you will never know this.) This fabric discharged color quicker than the black.

I really love this pattern. This is the black fabric. The variations in bleaching represent how much I sprayed on it. I want to do a yard piece like this. I can't wait to use this...soon.

I used a $ store gel stain remover bleach pen to write some Bruce Springsteen lyrics (The River). I learned much! While I don't mind how this looks, I would like it to be blob-less and legible. Using a small tip bottle would do it. Can think of so many possibilities for this process.

I am wondering how navy, burgundy, red etc would discharge! I may try them. As I was driving from job to job today idea's were running through my mind....making stencils from freezer paper, using kids bubble wand paddle thingy, dish tray pad with all the little circles in it.....looking around at things that would leave great graphic.

Here is a closer look at Colleen's CQ RR block...tried to catch the blue metallic..I love it.

I am so happy that Jody is joining our CQRR on CQI!

I learned:

1. Jon & Kate.....don't get it. Why the interest? Troubling really.
2. 9.6 lbs off!
3. Registered for class with Nancy Crow at next summer's Quilting By the Lake! But will I get in?

Art Quilts! ~Pictures~

Last night I met with my art quilter friends! (missed you Christy) All of us actually did our homework. Chapter 4 in Art Quilt Workbook is COLLAGE. My favorite style. You already saw my collage a few days ago. ("XOXOXO") The following pictures are Martha's, Elaine's and Sharon's work. Always inspiring. We are a talented group! A year ago a fellow art quilter, Sarah Terry, gave each of us 2 pieces of her hand marbled fabrics to see what we would do with them. Martha saw flowers in hers! She did a little thread painting on them too. Love this. (note~my pieces are still waiting for a great idea to come to me!)

This was the piece from the Esterita Austin workshop this past summer. I love what Martha did with it by adding stubble-like glitter (love the elongated shape of that glitter!), hot crystals and meandering quilting. Check out the colorful thread in the border quilting.

Martha's collage homework. Love the shapes and contrast. If you look closely you can see different stitching patterns all over it and black seed beads.

Quilting Arts ran a Rock n' Roll challenge last winter and Elaine made one and submitted it to the magazine. "Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog" is so creative! For a while you could go to their website and see it. Cool.

In a relatively recent issue of QUILTING ARTS magazine Elaine was inspired to make the silk painted tree quilt, complete with beading. Dharma Trading was the source of the silk and DynaFlow Dyes were used to paint it. The tree is one she likes from a park here in town.

Close-up of the painted limbs and the luminous beading. Just beautiful.

On this nature inspired collage, Elaine painted fusible web and ironed to background...the purple leaves on the stem. She accidentally ironed over it (who hasn't?)removing some of it but we all agreed it looks like she did it on purpose because it works.

Elaine's granddaughter is PRETTY IN PINK. She cropped and enlarged a precious image, sewed it onto black & white background fabric...added a cool earring and finished the edges zig zagging novelty yarn all around. Adorable.

Sharon's comic collage! She scanned and copied old favorites onto fabric, stitched around them and added fun shapes to the background. What a great idea! I Love it!

When we meet next month we are doing our own Project Iron Quilter type thing. Each of us will bring a bag of fabrics, batting, embellishments and thread to swap out. In 2 hours we will think fast and create a small piece of art! The next chapter in our workbook, INNOVATIVE PIECING, will be our guideline and goal. Fun!

I learned:

1. I discharged a few pieces of solid black & brown fabrics today after work. I used spray bleach cleaner. I layed orange snow fencing on top of fabric and sprayed away! I love how they came out. When they are dry I will post a picture.

CQRR...Cold Winter's Night

This is Colleen's CQ RR block from our novice obligation swap in CQI. It is the Cold Winter's Night theme. Dark green,white and black are the main colors.(I know this picture is not very well lit..sorry.) I wanted to show you the design from the book and how well it came out using the tissue paper. You can make out the various white threads I used, what you can't see very well is the metallic deep blue swirls I added. I also painted the polymer clay face opalescent white and put on Colleen's lace piece to represent a cold night moon.

I mentioned The Ultimate Design Source Book for Crafters yesterday. Here are some great images from the 1" thick book. Looking through it always yields another bunch of ideas. They can be enlarged or minimized to suit your need. Isolating parts of a design a possibility too. You can stitch it, color it, make a stencil, applique. I used a border design as the wave on Carolyn's Mermaid CQ block months ago. Love this image. I can see this done in black silhouette and vibrant iridescent wings.

When I was putting my Mermaid block together I could have used this. I never thought to look in this book then.

Art Deco. This image enlarged to 24"x36", in a strong colorway would be awesome.

I am a Pisces. Maybe I should use this on my CQ for ME/Kaffe block. Thinking.

This one is so Sassaman. Love it. I want to revisit the things I learned in her class and apply it to this design. I will add it to my never-ending-want-to-do list!!

Sharon Stroud will be speaking at my guild this Saturday. We have her booked to teach some of us her Dresden Plate in a 3 hour workshop. I first saw her on Simply Quilts years ago and loved her fussy cut plates. I need to look over the supply list and see if I have something in my stash to use for this class.

Good Week!

"Me Jane"....my Bra for a Cause

"Me Jane" is the title of my Bra for a Cause. Made from tea-dyed Warm & Natural batting, pebble stitched quilting using tear-away stabilizer, hand stitched to bra and cork beads embellishing the front. I hand sewed batting to the straps (the entire bra has to be covered)It also needed to be tacked to a padded hanger which was the town search of the week! While failing to find them at our 2nd destination, I ran into my friend Sharon and she suggested Bed Bath & Beyond and YES they had them. I had to spend $9.99 for a set of six but what the heck...I got one! The back of the bra. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I won this wonderful collection of CQ fabrics & embellishments from a monthly challenge in the . Yahoo group! What a treasure of bits! One can never have enough CQ stash.

I have done a little stitching on Colleen's CQ block. It's got a Cold Winter's Night theme. I traced a motif from The Ultimate Design Source Book for Crafters..from the Angels & Fairie section, onto tracing paper. I pin in place and stitch over the lines, then pull off the paper (takes a while since some paper gets trapped under your stitches) and voila! your design looks near perfect! I stitched her in 3 different kinds of white thread and I am adding a cool blue metallic now. When she is done I will post the picture.

I learned:

1. Handing over $1000.00 to get my Trailblazer back was mostly nauseating.
2. 8.6 lbs so far! Weight Watchers works.
3. I figured out how to put a site counter on my blog. I was chatting with Beth at the quilt show last weekend. I read her blog. She told me about sitecounter.com.
4. The luminous red maple tree leaves are my favorite.

Quilt Show pics~TCQG

The show was excellent. A great mix. Loved the Contemporary quilts! Check out the awesome quilts and the Project Iron Quilter competition pics as they progressed throughout the 3 hours to completed quilts.

I discovered this very informative and inspiring blog today. I will be spending some time reading old posts.

I love this close-up of one of my Tiger Lily's taken a couple months ago. Memories. Today was windy, rainy and cold. Winter is coming. Get out the longjohn's.

Quilted Art Quilt~Collage..."XOXOXO"

I had at this little collage quilt yesterday too. I had no idea where I was going with it, just that I wanted to put X's on it somewhere. I love how linear quilting looks so I did some of that too. It is about 8.5"x 11". It was an exercise from the Art Quilt Workbook, chapter 4, I believe. My little art quilt group is using this book to try/learn new things. AND we have! Martha made a really great collage that she donated to Ami Simms alzheimers quilt auction and it will be (or is now?) going to Houston for a show there. YAY!

My reworked IAQ (Instant Art Quilt). I have been stuck on this one for weeks, months even and instead of figuring out what I should do next I started thinking "what is it about this piece that I don't like?" It was the urine-yellow. I don't like yellow much (kind of like Nicki not liking orange...which I DO like!) so I over dyed it with a great blue...cut it up and resewed most of it together in a different configuration. I am liking it now. I am thinking of adding white metallic paint, dry-brushed..maybe over the stitching? I plan to add crystals too. It also will hang portrait not landscape. I figured I didn't like it the way it was so I had nothing to lose! It was liberating and fun to be so bold!

This is my self-portrait ATC (artist trading card) and I have to admit I think they are creepy! But I signed on for 1 set and 1 set is done. CHECK that off my list!

I learned:

1. $3300.00 and counting in damage to my Trailblazer. Still not ready. Still trying to figure out where to get the cold hard cash. Ugh.
2. Magazines like GOURMET closing shop. I was disappointed last year when COTTAGE LIVING ceased. Hope Quilting Arts and Clothe Paper Scissors lure enough of us to stay afloat.
3. I don't want to know all about David Letterman's sex-capades.
4. Linda and Laura Kemshall's site has a couple free video's that have some good info to paint/stamp fabrics. They make a stamp using a bit of plywood and double-sided tape that they put foamy letters (and numbers would work too) on it. Makes very cool design elements. I did inquire on the subscription to their videos but $103 American is too much for me to put out right now. They wrote The Painted Quilt. I love that book.

The Winner of Iron Quilter...cool quilt show sideshow

A quick post! I have had a motivating 3 days. Quilt show in Elma Friday & lunch at Sandy's. So wonderful to see she is doing well and laughing again.
Quilt show on Saturday.
Sewed ALL DAY LONG today. I will post my projects later in the week. I could do this creating thing every day!

Yesterday Martha, Sharon and I went to a fantastic quilt show in Dryden NY. TCQG's show was inspiring. Lot's of great quilts (I will post them soon), lot's of vendors and of course Project Iron Quilter. A great time was had by all!
This sideshow was as exciting as an episode of Project Runway (my favorite show!). Watching all the participants work, their progress and the end results made this show a standout. I love the idea of producing something with limited materials and design constraints. It is something I would love to try with my arty friends! The IRON QUILTER is Susan Clark from Brantford Ontario, Canada. The challenge was to include curves and straight lines and she truly did just that! It succeeds. It's almost graffiti-like. Congratulations!

Ruth Ohol from Lockport. She worked quietly and diligently to finish up this stunning quilt.

Louise Tiemann's whimsical wallhanging.

Mary Diamonds almost finished...really wonderful quilt. I love the concept and fabric in this one. She promised to finish it for the winning bidder! 3 hours flies when people are watching you work, think, sew, cut, think and finish.

Another finished piece. Cute! By Maureen Jakubson.

Pat Pauly's finished, sleeved and time to spare quilt! Her own hand manipulated fabrics make this a show-stopper. "Slash 'n Burn the Iron Quilter" could be a good working title!

Sally Dutko's finished piece. I like the collage-ness.

Priscilla Kibbee's finished wallhanging. I might call this one "X Marks the Iron Quilter"!


Great quilts by all ladies...auctioned for charity.

I met up with a friend from Ithaca at the show. Lisa and her adorable son Jeremy with the lady-killer blue eyes! I met Lisa at the COf retreat in April but "met" her on HGTV message boards a few years ago. Hope to meet up with her next weekend when I go to Ithaca College for Michael's football game.

I learned:

1. Sandy can actually feel the bit of skull in her abdomen. Will put back in a few weeks. Well she won't put it back...she will have surgery so have it re-installed!
2. I won a CQ "squishie" as they call it, on CQI Yahoo group. They have a monthly challenge. September was FLOWERS. I posted a twisty flower made with silk ribbon with french knots and black seed beads in its center. I can't wait to see what I am gifted!
3. You can fit an old sewing machine with the barbed needles to felt. I want to do this.
4. The deer are grazing under the apple tree by the log shed. Sweet damagers.
5. There is a site (free) that will let you track where people are from that look at your blog and also let you know the route they took to get to your site. Interesting.

Good day!