   | I have signed up for a fun swap at IFQ called Mosaic Color Play. For this swap, my Partner sends me a 4 1/2 inch square piece of fabric that I have to use as the center of the Mosaic block. I add my fabrics to her square and mail back the completed block. At the same time, my partner is adding her fabrics to the fabric square I sent her. It is a lot of fun waiting for the fabric square to arrive in the mail and then trying to find fabrics in my stash that compliment the square my partner has sent. So far I have made and mailed three blocks. I have received two and am waiting for the third to come in the mail. As soon as my partner receives her block I will be able to sign up again. |
I have been busy the past couple days working on some fall themed postcards for my swap groups. The two similar ones are for ladies in Stashbusters, and the Pumpkin Embroidered one flies out my partner in Fabricards.
I spent the afternoon working on this postcard. At first I was in the process of cutting out purple fabric for a quilt I'm working on. But as I was cutting, out of the blue, I thought that four of these purple triangles would look great on a postcard. So I fiddled with them on a blank 4x6 piece of peltex and started adding more fabrics. Then I thought to myself, it would look great with some hand embroidery on it. So I got out my DMC floss and fiddled around. I am still a beginner hand embroiderer and this is the first time I have done straight stitching to make a design, but I think it turned out lovely. Now I just need to decide who should receive this in the mail. :)
I spent most of this week working on a new knitting needle case. I have lots of needles but I don't really use them all. I got a good deal on eBay a few years ago for a whole pile of knitting needles. For a couple of dollars I got the few sizes I wanted and a lot of sizes that I didn't need. But being the pack rat that I am, I decided to keep the ones I didn't need with the thought that I may need them for some future project.
As I was cleaning out my room the other day I decided it was time for them to have a good home. For years they all have been sitting jumbled together in a drawer in my night stand, and I always end up looking through the whole pile just to find the size I need. So that very day, I went to the internet looking for a good pattern. I came across quite a few, but this one from Alexandra's blog was my favorite so I printed out her tutorial and got to work. I could have made this case from a pile of fat quarters, but since I didn't have a pile of fat quarters, I had to cut the pieces from my yardage. While I was cutting my large strips, I realized I only needed half the strip I cut, so instead of having lots of leftover strip peices in various sizes, I decided to make two cases at one time. 
I did alter that pattern a bit by sewing more lines on the first pocket row. I did this so I could add my crochet hooks to the roll. The pattern said these wider pockets were good for holding circular needles, but I don't have any of those and didn't want to make another smaller roll just for my crochet hooks. So for the one I am going to keep, I have one inch pockets on the bottom right instead of two four inch pickets. I also altered the pattern by adding some decor bond behind each of the pockets and a layer of fusible fleece to the outside fabric. The main reason I did this was because I didn't want the case to be flimsy and feel individual needles while I carried the roll around in my hands. I was worried at first that all that extra layers might make it too stiff to roll, but it turned out great. I love it!!
I have had a change of pace from quilting and have picked up my crochet hook. What started me in this direction was the other night when I was looking for a small quick spider web crochet pattern to put on my web postcards for Fabricards. Instead, I came across this pattern. Years ago I had printed out this same pattern with all the intention of creating this spider web. But for some reason I never made it. So that very night I went to my closet and grabbed my orange cotton thread and my size 7 hook and got to work. Three days later I finished it. It spent another couple days on my blocking board trying to get it to stay in web shape. Today I gave it one last spritz with the iron and took the pins out and everything stayed right where it was suppose to stay. YAHOO!! I now have myself an orange festive spiderweb doily to decorate my house this fall season. Right now it is all by itself on the lazy susan on my kitchen table. But next week I will get out the rest of my fall decorations and it will be lonely no longer. 
When I think of "Indian Summer" I always think of changing leaves near a nice lake. So I paper pieced some log cabins using fall colors and surrounded them by some blue fabric. I had some left over fusible fleece just the right size for this quilt so I used it as the batting. It sure gives it a different feel from the cotton batting I regularly use. This quilt will head on it's way to Deborah in Florida tomorrow. Hope she likes my interpretation of this theme. :)
This is my newest finish. The block I used came from The Quilter's Cache. It is called Tam's Patch. This quilt has been sitting for awhile just waiting for me to finish the binding. I didn't want another Halloween to pass without it being ready to use so I sat down last night and sewed down the three remaining edges. 
Have you ever known a cat to pass up a pile of quilts to sleep on? I thought for sure as soon as I placed this pile of unfinished quilts on my bookcase it would become the new cat bed. But I guess they weren't quite soft enough for my cat, Jasper. Here he is sleeping on top of a row of hard books instead. Crazy Cat.
This is my version of the Sweet Slice pincushion pattern. My son said he wasn't tempted to eat it, since it is a chocolate cake. So I suppose that leaves more for me right? :)
Quite a few blogs I read post what is on their design wall on Monday's. So I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and show what is on mine. This quilt is what I made out of the 388 half-square triangles I squared up in July. I still have quite a few of the blue and yellow ones, but I plan to use those as part of the back of this quilt.
My daughter was invited to another Birthday party. This one is an overnight party down at the beach. She is very excited to go. But we didn't have a present, and when I kept asking her what she wanted to get her friend she said she didn't know. I suggested last night that she make her friend a necklace with her beading materials. She didn't seem excited about that. She did like my Bow Tucks bag though and kept telling me she wanted one like it but smaller, so this morning when we still didn't have a present, I asked her if she wanted me to make her friend one. She smiled and said yes but wanted to know if I could put her friend's initial on it. I told her that would be easy and I got to work. I also told her to start making her friend a necklace in case I didn't get the bag done in time.
My daughter says it is great though and she loves it. I sure hope her friend likes it too. I had my daughter model the bag for my camera. Her and her friend both have the same first name. So this bag could actually be for her too. :)
This is my newest creation. I saw this bag last October at my guilds "Make it, Bake it, Sew it, Grow it Auction". It was a fun activity where we all bring something we have either made, sewn, grown, or baked and we have our own little auction to raise money for our guild. Up for auction was this purse, but in different fabrics. I bid, but unfortunately I didn't win. It went for more than my budget would allow at the time. But I asked the person who donated it what pattern it was and she told me it was the Bow Tucks Tote pattern. Well I got a hold of the pattern in February and finally just had the chance to make it. The fabrics I chose are some of my favorites in my whole stash. I have been looking at them for months not wanting to cut into them because they are so pretty, but now that I cut into them I realize I can carry my favorite fabrics around with me where ever I go. :) I really like this bag and it was the first time I used fusible fleece for a bag, and I must say I love it! If possible I plan to use fusible fleece in all my future bags.
Here is a photo of the inside of the bag per request. For the sturdy part at the bottom, I cut up my old cutting mat and covered it with matching fabric. I hated to throw out the old mat when I bought a new replacement for it, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. It turns out cutting it into bottoms for bags is the perfect way to salvage it.
