Need Me Some Crazy Quilting....

Today I spent a few happy hours digging through stash and stitching these 2 Boho Bag front flaps. I am using the pattern from Pat Winters of  Pat Winters Gatherings blog.  It is actually a booklet with step by step pics and a lot of great information. I have no doubt I will end up with 2 very Bohemian bags with her guidance and some of my own-ness. I highly recommend spending some time looking around her blog. She is a very talented and gracious woman.
I pieced these today to take with me to Oklahoma. I will gather a slew of threads and embellishments tomorrow and pack them away in my suitcase. I have actually missed crazy quilting! I truly enjoy the creative variety that goes into a block  from embroidery, to beading, to choosing trims and lace accents. I am looking forward to making these cool bags.

Michael graduates Friday from Army boot camp! I am looking forward to seeing him. Hopefully all the bad weather stays away from tornado alley this week, wind is my least favorite element.

The Buffalo Zoo is a great place to spend the day with little ones. Sophia really loved the Carousel!

I liked this monkey...

and this alligator...

and this adorable bear....

Melissa, Dave and pretty little Sophia....

My pics are emailed to Lori for the Challenge #2 on HGTV board. This challenge entailed each participant getting a scrap bag, in the colorway of their choosing, from Lori's stash and making something from it. The kicker was that we could only add solid fabrics! No mottled, no tone on tone, no hand dyed....solids only. This was another great opportunity to come up with an answer to a specified assignment. Can't wait to see what the next challenge will be! And of course I can't show what I made yet.

I have learned:

1. Springsteen was AWESOME! I. just. love. him. 
2. Hilary and Jackie. Good movie based on a true story. 
3. I want to get to this exhibit at the Holland Land Office. Treasured Wedding Memories...wedding dresses from different era's. Maybe tomorrow.
4. Got my mother-of-the-groom attire! Lord & Taylor was the first stop and found a great black tiered chiffon skirt and a black top with ruffle at neckline and rhinestone buttons. Matched the bargain silk  shoes I already bought. I am confident I will be as comfortable as possible while not wearing jeans!

Subway Art Gift Box

A little box (formerly a child's wooden domino box), now a gift box for the sister of one of my little favorites from work. He is giving the newlyweds cash, but wanted to present it with a keepsake of some sort. This is where I came in! I began with the idea that the money could be contained in something. A bag? A box? An envelope? My mind quickly settled on the Subway art that is all over right now. I love the look of the words in different fonts and the vintage feel of it. After directing him to Google images on the subject, he agreed.
A trip to Michaels for some stickers...3 font styles, and wedding white and black paint, I was ready to carefully lay out the words.
Since I wanted the words to be black, I painted the base of the top black. When it was thoroughly dry, I had determined I needed 11 lines. Using ruler and pencil, I marked the black painted top out. It is a tricky business getting so many small letters to line up perfectly on the line! Some letters refused to cooperate.
After all stickers adhered to wood and 3 coats of wedding white paint.......I showed little favorite the pic of my progress last Monday at work.
Was that a quizzical look on his face? Did he NOT like it after all? He utters....
"Isn't there a T in Frantz?" (I have spelled Franz on the box already, 3 coats of paint over it already)
"NO...you approved this" I say.
"I am pretty sure I text you Frantz"
We pull out our phones and scroll through the exchange of text messages.......
"Uh oh" (that's me)
So I think about my plan of attack all day.
After peeling the Z sticker off, sanding to the black paint and putting down the TZ, then repainting 3 coats of wedding white over them, it was time to peel off all the stickers using a sewing needle, all was well!
A light sanding over the entire piece and a few coats of a matte finish sealer and done.
It was a fun project, he loved it.
That is all we makers-of-things need!

Today is a paid holiday...Good Friday. Many fish have died for today.

Michael continues to do well at boot camp. We actually got to see a pic of him on the Battalion Facebook page. That was really nice. Two weeks til graduation! Two months til the wedding!
Which brings me to....I need a dress!
I did find shoes already. Black silk heels, open toe, on clearance at Famous Footwear for $15!
Later today I am meeting Pam and Sarah at the mall to start the search for a dress that will be comfortable and me. I have nothing in mind. Not sure a floor length is my style, but that remains to be decided. Good luck to us!

Tomorrow I will be going to the Buffalo Zoo with Melissa, Dave, Sophia and Dave's parents. Sophia loves animals, so it should be fun to watch her. I haven't been to the zoo since the kids were small. The Buffalo Zoo made national news last month when a gorilla escaped from his habitat.

I have learned:

1. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Good movie. Oskar character is a great little actor.  911 stories have a deep emotional impact on me, as they should. It was a 12 tissue tearjerker. 
2. Mowed lawn already. Those 80 degree days were enough to make it grow.
3. Forgot how much I love "An Officer and a Gentleman" til I rented it and watched it in all it's original gritty format. Richard Gere. Very good. 
4. Schmaltzy. Great word.
5. My Fujifilm finepix s1000 digital camera was displaying a Protected Card warning. I couldn't take any pics. I googled my dilemma and within seconds I had my solution. The SD cards have a switch on the side that if pushed in the up position, locks the card. Pushed it back down and good to go!

Sunny Thoughts PC

I made and mailed this PC to a young woman that has started a course of treatment for breast cancer. She is a friend of one of my HGTV friends, Lisa. I wanted to send Sunny Thoughts her way. Another woman on the message board is putting to together a quilt of black and pink hearts for her as well. I also spent a bit of time on making this block.

I do believe that quilters are the most generous, caring demographic.

So I am now 51 years old and 1 week today! There are days I feel every bit of that! Met up with Jenn, Noni, Ian & Darcy, last Sunday, for breakfast. A stroll around Antiques World in the balmy summer-like day yielded a bday gift for me!

I love this garden cart! Old mismatched wood on a metal base with metal wheels....aged to perfection. It will go on my little deck with clay pots of herbs and flowers! How can you not love it?

Melissa and Dave made me dinner. While there, Michael called to from boot camp in Oklahoma, to wish me happy birthday. A very nice day indeed.

I have had repainting rooms in my house on my list for years now. I have been thinking about what to change, what to add by reading Flea Market style magazines. That is my style. Old. Repurposed cool bits. When my kids were still dependent on my chauffeuring and attending sporting events year round, my creative outlet was decorating my domains. Sewing and stitching were not at the forefront due to time constraints. Since Michael got his license at 16, I have increasingly indulged my time creating with threads and fabrics. Decorating has fallen short.

Time is my biggest nemesis....the lack of it. I seem to be busier socially which is not a bad thing. I try to keep one entire day, preferably Sunday, free for catching up on projects and starting new ones. Today I have worked on my HGTV Challenge #2 piece. I can't show it for weeks though! We were given a bag of scraps in our colorway request to make anything we want....adding only solid fabrics. Liking where I have gone with it.

Also worked on Sharon's embellishment RR. My art quilt group started this 2 months ago. Sharon started us off with a great piece of rust color dyed fabric that has a light line running through it where she had done some stitching before dying. I am the 3rd person to work on it. It felt it needed to have a focus. So I made a large focal point....and I can't show you this either! Let me assure you, it looks good.

Jenn's shower went well on the 11th. We managed to seat almost 70 people in the room we rented in an old house in Alden. Jenn got great gifts. Alan made a great cake. Great food. Great weather. I loved the detail on jenn's dress and had to get a shot of the neckline.

I have learned:

1. Buffalo has had record breaking temps over the last week. 70's & 80's! It was warmer here than is was at Fort Sill, OK where Michael experienced "end of the world rain"!
2. Click here and scroll down a to Bruce Springsteen's speech at SXSW in Austin,Texas. Worth a few minutes.
3. Mondo was the Project Runway All Star winner. Talented and always interesting. Mondo's work is all the looks in the bottom row.
4. The Art of Racing in the Rain. Good read (on my Nook!). Story told from the viewpoint of the family dog, Enzo. 
5. After a total of 3.5 hours and 3 phone calls to Southwest airlines, my 2 "free" airfare tickets cost me $325.00. I had to but extra points. Really?!. Well, it is done. We are set to see Michael graduate in his US Army uniform. Can't wait!
6. My Wonder Wheel tied with my friend Karen's Samba Queen quilt for Viewers favorite! All the pieces from the annual guild challenge hung in the library for the month of February and we invite viewers to vote for their favs. 

Ring Bearer Pillow

Tomorrow is Michael's fiance's shower! Jen is a welcome addition to the family, we just love her. She asked me to make her ring bearer pillow...this is it! It has a contemporary-vintage vibe. I used more of the beloved vintage organza curtain found at Sally Ann's a few years ago. (I used this on my Wonder Wheel too). I will be sad to see the end of those curtains! I used it as an overlay again. Sketched the hearts onto freezer paper, iron to an organza, white cotton and red silk crushed velvet (bought at my first HGTV quilt retreat in Houston) sandwich and thread sketch the outline. Removing the paper is time consuming, as the paper bits get stuck under the stitches. After removing the paper, I sketched some more to make the outline of the hearts definitive. Next I cut away the organza and cotton layers to reveal the red velvet.
I did the same for the "Forever and Always". Freezer paper. Sketch. Voile.
I do love it. It is very me. I know Jen will love it too.

I knew I had a lot to so today with the shower tomorrow. At 10:00 this morning I had a quilt show meeting. While there, Ian was texting me about his championship game at noon...was I coming...I wish you were...you know...the tugging at the heartstrings. I was feeling guilty...Aunt guilt. After showing Tracy J the text, she told me I had to go. She was right. These are the moments that matter to our growing charges. Off I went...knowing I would get done what needed to get done for tomorrow.
His team lost, after double overtime.
I did get done what I needed to get done.

While I was taking the pic of the pillow on my little deck, I noticed the mini rose bush I left out all winter, had green leaves. I am hopeful for mini buds now!

I have learned:

1. 20/20 right now. Touching story about tw0olittle girls in Ohio that have Progeria. Only nine girls in the US have this rapidly advancing aging disease. Tears.
2. I really don't like to lose at Scrabble. 
3. Michael is doing well at Army boot camp. Hand to hand combat..check. Repel the 80' tower..check. Gas chamber...check. Graduation April 20. 
4. Live Well & Be Happy.

Spring. Quilt.

This is a quilt I recently pieced and quilted for a challenge on HGTV message board. Our assignment was to make something from UFO blocks in your stash. I chose to use some of the "fabrics" I made in the Nancy Crow class at QBL 1 1/2 years ago.

These are the bits I needed to use. I don't know what I was thinking when I added the fabric with the red strip in it. Really? No matter how cool I tried to make it by adding that bit to the front, it was just not going to work. I had to use it. So......

I made it work on the back! I love this back. It's sort of Gee's Bend-ish, in that I improvised.
I had to quilt it too, since it needed to be a finished project. Ugh. Hate this part. I decided to make it easy on myself and just run close, vertical lines with a variegated thread. The top was transformed with every line. Made it all work together.

Fun project. Fun quilt. I am calling it "Spring".

I have learned:

1. Davey Jones, from The Monkees, died of a heart attack yesterday. Reminded me of good times spent singing to those 45's with Pam....we were young...and Bobby Sherman was our Tiger Beat focus at the time! 
2. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton...good read. Nook. Love it. 
3. How to Look Good Naked. This  show is from the UK. Only there could they make this show charming.....I am convinced it is the host, Gok Wan's accent that makes it work! That same show done here would end up cheesy....crass even, recited in an American accent. 
4. Apparently Fiona feels the need to groom me....she has started to paw and bite my hair/scalp. Ouch, but it's the thought that counts!

Swap Blocks

On a whim, I threw these 3" nine patch blocks in my large, UFO, project bag for the Quilt Away this past weekend. They are from a swap Bonnie ran on HGTV quite a while ago. We made 10 blocks in a certain colorway and she swapped them out for 10 others in that color. It gave us a great scrappy variety. I love this more than I thought I would! It is graphically pleasing. When I was all done, didn't I find 10 red blocks I had missed. Oh well. I still need to add a border and quilt it.
Tracy, Lori and I planned the Quilt Away for our guild. After hoping that someone would take on the event planning for a retreat for years, we decided if you want something done, do it yourself! A quilt retreat should be a part of a guild experience. It was better than we anticipated! 21 women gathered and sewed from 10 AM Friday morning to 4 PM Sunday....and I do mean we were sewing machines! We opted to not have organized projects since the three of us wanted to enjoy sewing too. UFO's are a common denominator among quilters, and many of us pulled them out and worked our magic.
Along with the nine patch blocks, I cut and sewed more OBW blocks; made more of the improv pieced mini solid blocks; pieced a small checkerboard thing; bordered my 17 F8 swap blocks....

Looks like I will be making one of the PP'd star blocks I made for this swap, for my own quilt! It is really looking great. This was one of the best swaps I have done. I am thinking about running one in my guild. There were 18 of us. We send a Fat Eighth of our fabric (same one) to each participant and they made a 12" block using fabric of their choosing. As you can see, the blocks are relatively complex. No simple blocks. Getting each block was such a pleasant surprise.

I picked up this kit of gorgeous Japanese fabrics at QBL in 2010. There were 28 9" x 15" squares that I cut into 1 1/2" strips and sewed together randomly. I have idea's...maybe a Chinese coin thing....maybe strip blocks. Don't know yet, but I am loving how it looks.

So much to do....so little time. Back to work. A busy week too. Tomorrow I have to start at 6 AM. Be glad to see Friday.

I received a letter from Michael Monday. He is doing great! He likes this whole challenge/excel thing. He ran a 6:04 mile...his best ever. He made Alpha running squad, volunteered for work duty and said his platoon is the best! Michael's intensity will be his strength now. It belongs.

Sophia is Dave's 17 month old daughter. Melissa is so good with her. It does my heart good to see her maternal side! Isn't this a gorgeous pic? It would make a great picture quilt. I am adding that to my list!

I bought a sumptuous knit at Joann's today. It is a lightweight sweater knit...gray, with purple and a bit of very pale blue flowery design. I cut a simple poncho top out of it. Will look nice with black pants and turtleneck for Jenn's shower a week from Sunday. Never sewed a knit like this before, so I will be practicing. Bought some ballpoint needles. Fingers crossed.

I have learned:

1. We have a new mapping system at work. 3 hour training today. Looks promising.
2. Obdurate. "The past is obdurate." Stephen King's 11/22/63. Good read.
3. My tax woman advised me to change my deductions for Federal from 3 to 0. A whopping $54 more out of my check a week. Ugh. 
4. After much ado with my health insurance provider and human resources, I now pay for single coverage. (Michael is covered by US Army now) Only $37 less a week. Doesn't offset the government gouge however. 
5. And then there is the gas gouge scam....
6. Mondo all the way on Project Runway All-Stars. 
7. Chester, the old coot cat, is still kickin'....

St Patrick's PC

A friend on HGTV message board, Jane, who hails from New Zealand, asked if any of us would be interested in sending a PC to a special woman in her life that still lives there. Molly Flanagan was important to her and since she is in her 90's, Jane wanted to have Molly get some pretty cool mail. I made this fabric for her from some St Patrick Day's stash. It was simple. It is presumably on a plane to NZ right now!

February 7th, my son, Michael, was sworn in to the U.S. Army. He left for Fort Sill, Oklahoma that afternoon. After layover in Atlanta and much waiting in Oklahoma City, he and some other recruits made it to the base after midnight Wednesday. He spent days in reception. Spoke to him a few times. He marched over the tracks this past Wednesday at 3 AM and boot camp began in earnest. He is ready to face the challenges ahead. He has made the right decision for him. I am proud of him.

His fiance Jenn, and Michael after the ceremony.

My HGTV Challenge #1 is finished! I will be able to show them as soon as Lori does whatever she is doing with them online. I don't think there is a voting. I guess I can say that I am very happy with it!

In my quest to throw something away every day (which continues to be successful) I plan to finish things in my stash. I pulled out a string block quilt I put together from a block swap. All pinks. I pieced a backing this afternoon, and after the dreaded machine quilting, it will be gifted to little Sophia. Sophia is Melissa's boyfriend, Dave's toddler daughter. She is adorable. Blond & blue eyed and plenty of attitude!

Next weekend I will be at Silver Lake on a Quilt Away with 21 other women from my guild. This is the one Tracy and I planned in the Fall. I am so excited! Friday morning to Sunday afternoon...all meals cooked for us...huge room with our own table to sew...gorgeous surroundings. I need to take a more than a few projects to work. I usually can't work on one thing for hours, let alone days! I have the F8 blocks, some OBW blocks and fabric to make more, a small Twister quilt, some awesome Japanese fabric in a kit, some handwork for the times I don't want to sit at the machine. What could be better than that?

I have learned:

1. Good movie. Fireflies in the Garden. 
2. People who don't do the things they criticize others for doing....should hold their tongue. Or volunteer!
3. I love my NOOK! (I didn't think I would.) 
4. Claiming 0 from claiming 3 on Federal tax is over $200 more out of my check a month. Ugh.
5. Now that Michael is covered by health insurance in the Army, I can go from family to single on my plan at work. To do this I had to fill out form upon form and get a letter from Army recruiter that he was in the Army. Now, how long will this take to actually show up in my paycheck? It won't even offset the tax increase. 
6. Bruce Springsteen...April 17th in Cleveland, Ohio! Me, Pam & Jim...road trip!
7. At the mall yesterday, Ian found this t-shirt at JCP. Two stick men are roasting hot dogs over a campfire,one hot dog has fallen in the fire...."It's all fun and games until someone loses their wiener" I laughed so hard. Hilarious!