Water Color Paper Jewelry

Recently I came across some jewelry that my daughter and I made when she was in grade school (many, many years ago).  Her teacher even asked us to come in, do a demonstration and have the kids in her class make something.  

These were made using items we had around the house.  The watercolor paper my mom had being an artist.  Children plus jigsaw puzzle equals missing pieces so what to do with the ones left over?  And of course, plenty of broken crayons to melt.  

I still have the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and recently found where my watercolor paper was hanging out.  And I have a big bucket of crayons . . . somewhere in the house.  I'm actually thinking about doing this again.  They were fun and quick to make and I have plenty of beads, fabric, ribbon, buttons, etc. that I could add to them.  

This idea came from a magazine that I lost a long time ago.

Smoking Quilt, Part 2

As I was looking around for the smoke, for the smell was getting stronger, I happened to notice that my batting on the sides of the quilt were bunched up around my lamp.  Now my lamp is hot.  I've burned myself several times on it.  I immediately knocked the batting down away from the heat.  Oh, look, little wisps of smoke.  

It was a big round dark circle that had tiny colors running through it.  Actually kind of neat looking when suddenly it went 'poof' and I had a nice little fire started on my quilt. I'm looking around frantically trying to find something to put it out.  Wait, I've got a drink with me but I have to think about this.  What is it that I have with me?  A coke? Tea? I'm worried about staining my basically black quilt here  (Alcohol?)  No, I've got water!  I grab up my glass and pour it on.  

Who says quilting can't be exciting? 

Fortunately this did not touch the quilt itself and I was able to finish it.  For the corners I wanted a certain look: a fan.  The only way I could see to do this was to sandwich the pieces in.  My quilting group tried to dissuade me from this but I was happy with the results.  

On the back I used hand dyed fabric that I picked up in my travels but it wasn't quite big enough.  Needed to add so I did a 'brick' look and in the bricks I added the ties manufacturing label.  

 I do a lot of back art for my quilts.  The extra 'brick' fabric that I cut off from here went for the binding on another quilt.

Smoking Quilt, Part 1

I was working away on my husband's tie quilt some years back. These were ties that he had amassed from his job over the years.  Plus a few unusual ones I found at the local Salvation Army (one tie was made in Israel and another had the state of Michigan emblem on it).  I used moire fabric for the background.  I decided to machine quilt this very large quilt myself (big mistake in several ways).  

My sewing machine has been with me for years and has needed very little work done on it.  We were going along just fine, machine and I, when I smelled smoke.  Great.  I'm working my machine too much.  It can't handle all this fabric I'm pushing through.  I looked around, still sniffing, trying to find where exactly it's smoking.  Actually the machine itself doesn't appear to be the problem.  So . . . where's the smoke smell coming from?

Like to end my story?  

Lovina's Pressed Flower blocks

I have been absent from my blog due to a new job and having just gotten back from vacation.  I spent four days shopping 'til I dropped with my sorority sisters in Chicago.  Wonderful company, wonderful food, wonderful shopping although I did not find any quilt shops in downtown Chicago.  But I have been busy doing some hand stitching in the evenings while I sit and watch TV.  I have been making yo-yo's and attaching them to the blocks that I showed you earlier.  Thought you might want to see that I am making some progress (slowly but surely).

Quilts

What quilt can you make a teenage guy?  Wanting to make a quilt for each of my children as they graduated from high school I was stumped.  Easy to make one for a girl.  I belong to a quilt group and one day someone was showing their quilt made from monster fabric.  He still had half of it left over and did not want to make another one.  What was he going to do with the leftovers?  "Sell it to me!" 

A few years ago I spent one Saturday a month at my local library's book club discussing mysteries.  That first time we were handed a list of mystery writers to help get us started.  I looked through the list, saw an author that I'd never heard of before and read the general summary of what the entire series was about.  Found the first book and on a whim decided not to read the back cover or inside the jacket.  After all, I had to read it anyway for discussion, right?  (Everyone read whatever they wanted but they had to tell about the book they had picked).  What a surprise!  The mystery started out for 3 chapters with the one person I thought was the main character.  She got bumped off in the 4th chapter and her sister who we knew about but never 'met' came on the scene and was actually the main character after that.  When I was done I read the back cover that clearly stated who was killed.  What a let down that would have been had I known before hand.

I haven't read the back or inside jacket of a book since and I find I have enjoyed reading so much more. 

How do I determine what to read next if I don't know what the book is about?  I do read summaries and listen to people who are excited about what they are reading.  I have an on-going list of books to read that sound interesting and label them accordingly: mystery, romance, non-fiction, etc.  So after reading a mystery I may decide I now want sci-fi so I'll look at that list and grab a book.  By the time I get to said book I have forgotten what it was about.  Try it sometime!

Night Flight Quilt

Lindbergh's Night Flight is my signature quilt.  I have made several of these and given all of them away except for this one.  I hand quilted the top (probably my last one) and looking back I wonder what was I thinking?  I had it set up in the living room with four young children running around.  This is old and faded but I still love this block.  I am always searching for fabric to make another and am fortunate that I have friends who also help me with this.  I do wonder what others think when my friends and I are together and one of them hands me fabric saying, "Look what I found that you can fly over."