Very Bad Dogs

Some of you may remember the scissors incident. Well it has happened again! 

Apparently my Zakka bread basket was not a puppyproof way to store my spools of thread. Most of these are still OK for handstitching but are not going to work in my sewing machine. This stuff was up on a table behind some other stuff so you can't say my dogs aren't tenacious. I guess it is time to buy new thread... and also move to a bigger house where I can have a sewing room with a closed door...

WIP Wednesday

Happy WIPnesday. I am still getting back into the groove of things after going home for the weekend. Here are some photos from my trip if you are interested. I did get a chance to make a few more (pink, purple and green) improv blocks.

And a test block for my October/November NuBees.

I need to do another test because the spacing on this doesn't sit quite right with me. Look for a tutorial soon on my version of a weave block.

Here is how I am fairing on my progress for 2012:

1. Tales from Earth and Sea (a roller rink quilt Elizabeth Hartman design)
2. Spinning starts quilt (I think I made one more spinning star but I am too lazy to take a photo.) 
3. October Nubees blocks
4. Nubees block quilt
5. lunch bags 
6. Christmas gift for K
7. 24 figure 8 scarves for Christmas presents
8. Honey quilt (also Elizabeth Hartman) (My sister wants this one so that knocks off #10!)
9. Scrap buster placemats
10. Quilt for my sister A

Weekend trip home

Hi Ya'll. It's great to be back in the south. Although MD technically is below the mason dixon line too. My mom LOVED her quilt. Here it is on her bed. Her walls are a light blue so it matches perfectly!

 The weather was cloudy all weekend so these were the best photos I could get with my camera phone.

The pillows are on the living room couch and spicing it up. I took these photos right before I left and my mom asked if I was taking a photo of Maggie (the tiny dog you probably missed in this photo). I said, "No, not Maggie, the pillows!" Side note, I crocheted that blanket for my mom a bazillion years ago.

 We ate pancakes with Huckleberry syrup brought back from my mom's recent cycling trip around the northwestern US and Canada.

Steamed blue crabs!

 My sisters and I got to play games like Qwirkle.

My youngest sister found this old picture of my dad when he was about 16. I cannot get over the glasses and the hair. He also dodged the army instead of fighting in Vietnam but somehow he snagged a jacket.

Old clothing patterns from my Bubby. I brought a few back with me. Maybe I will take the plunge into garment sewing? Too scared now, just hide under piles of WIPs.

Quilt people problems

When your suitcase is already filled with just the quilts you are bringing home.

Good thing I only need clothes for 3 days.

Philisophical Pfridays

Hey look up. Any ideas on how to get my custom header to look normal???|

Fridays are for thinking about anything but work. So grab a button from my sidebar to play along.

I've been thinking about friends and family lately because I am going home on Saturday for the first time in over a year. I am pretty terrible at keeping in touch so I will be armed with gifts to make up for me being a bad daughter/sister/friend.

My mom will finally get her Bargello

I'll show you a picture of it on her bed and let you know what she thinks of it when I return next week.

I also made these placemats a while back and never photographed them until today. I will give them to my longtime friends. The center blocks were made using the same improv piecing technique I spoke about in my latest WIP wednesday post. 

 

The blocks were sashed in a cream from Connecting Threads and bound with the same cream. I usually use a contrasting binding but I like the floating effect this gives.

 

Brown Town

 

Purple Pop

 

Blue ocean

 

I quilted with loops. Here is a close up of the quilting and the fishy.

 

Red Hot (I know the names of these are sooo original)

 

Here are the other sides of the placemats. See I only made 4 but both sides are really pretty and unique so you will never get bored. Bow down to the placemats!

 

Think Pink. Love the little birds in this one.

 

Green Bean

 

Sunshine Yellow

 

Elephant Gray

Close up of elephant and quilting detail. I think this might be my favorite side. Or maybe the blue one. Its hard to pick a favorite. I love the style of these so much that I am making more of the center blocks and will be turning it into a quilt.

My pups help to take the pictures

Señor Leuko Pup

Madame Cypress Hound

This post ended up not being so philosophical but I can't be profound all the time. I will be away all weekend and in complete sewing withdraw when I return late Monday night. 

Happy Friday Quilteroonies.

WIP Wednesday - Spin, stars, spin

Happy Wednesday Bloggeroos. If you want to see my finished roller rink quilt - it is here. This past week I made progress on my spinning stars blocks. Katy over at I'm a ginger monkey hosts the quilt along for Anna Marie Horner's Spinning Stars quilt pattern (flickr group here).

These blocks take all my concentration because I chose to make it complicated using directional prints and building different colored stars with the 'C' blocks. Here is my Spinning stars paper piecing template. Each of these blocks will be 15" square when finished.

Spin stars, spin!

I got the urge to organize my scrap box at about 10:30 last night. Yeah....

Then I did some impromptu improv:

I whiped up these orange blocks from my measly pile of orange scraps. You can see them hiding behind the whites in the scrap photo above. The blocks were improve pieced and trimmed down to the size of my 6 x 12 inch ruler. I don't usually cut the scraps before I sew. That is why there is a gray block in there. It was found sewn to the solid orange in my scrap box so in it goes.

For those of you who know me, you would know that I am usually fast asleep by 10:30. This late night crafting is quite uncharacteristic but liberating. My spinning stars design is so constrained and requires so much thought that this was a true pleasure.

As I was writing this post I stumbled upon a scrappy blog hop going on at Ellison Lane Quilts first post here. My love of scraps compels me to join another QAL.

This weekend I am going home and I am very excited because

1) I haven't been back for over a year (I am a bad daughter, I know) and more importantly,
2) I will finally get to give my mom her Bargello quilt. She hasn't seen it since I started cutting the fabric so it will be a total surprise.

Stash building goodness

Evidence that Hawthorne Threads are having a tent sale:

A little bit of Hope Valley, Habitat, Parisville, and more. Most are 1/2 yard but I had to get a yard of Habitat pollen in green. I can't wait to back something with it. 

These are great stash fabrics. I realized I am seriously lacking in yellow.

 And I couldn't resist dinosaur text fabric from the Babysaurs line

Here they are again /sigh.