Sunday Snips

Sunday's seem to be family day amoungst the people that i know.  Many of my relatives and friends attend church, which I do not, and concentrate their Sundays with children and grandchildren, sisters and brothers.   So, I don't get email, or phone calls or really any contact other than my own son, who may say, "See you later", or What's for Dinner?" as he heads out the door before 7am on his way to work.  Or, my husband may say something on his way in or out, as it is usually a work day for him too.  My Sunday's are usually very quiet...

So, on Sunday's, I am often introspective and thoughtful.  

I generally read, or explore variations of my favourite crafts or arts and enjoy myself with little or no interruption, except if the dog wants to make a little trip out in the back yard.

 

I found, at a thrift shop, a little book of Friendly Wisdoms published by Carlton Cards in 1968 that I find myself looking at quite often.  This little booklet sits at my computer desk and I find myself picking it up and leafing through the pages (there are only 18) while waiting for slow internet sites to load. 

 

The art work has such a wonderful style about it and glows with innocent whimsy.

 

This bit of wisdom is such a gentle way of telling our children, NO, you are still to little to do that, but someday when you grow more you can certainly try it...

 

Little Boats must keep near to shore, bigger Ships may venture more.

Oh! You didn't HAVE to do all that!

I had in my head an idea to streamline some organizing of yarn and crochet stuff by rearranging some furniture, so I told my hubby, what I was thinking and then I went up to the sewing room.   I stayed there long enough to make this postcard, which will be mailed out today as I take part in the exchange that Darcey organizes for our guild...

Then I came out of the sewing room and all the organizing and furniture moving was pretty much done!  I love it when a plan comes together!  (and I don't actually have to do the work)

Store Maintenance and UpKeep

As I think most of my readers know, I operate an Etsy Shop.  Mostly my shop is so that I can create things without feeling too guilty that I am just filling up my closets! 

I so enjoy sewing and making things that I would be overflowing if I kept it all!   A few months back, I saw a tutorial for making dinner napkins -- I made dozens!  Then I found christmas fabric on sale and I made some more!  

Suffice to say, I have listed christmas dinner napkins in my etsy store, and you can find them here  or here or here !

Now, after my marathon of sewing quilts to donate to my quilt guilds charitable program, I have not really slowed down so I have been making quilt blocks to sell.   Making quilt blocks that have half square or quarter square triangles seem to be the most popular choices so the Ohio Star, Friendship Star and Variable Star are the ones that I keep producing. 

I am not sure of the reasons that someone would buy pre-made blocks, but I am thinking they really would be a quick project for a long arm quilter to put together to show off their skill on their quilting set up, do you think?   Aw well, I just like sewing and I am quite happy that someone will purchase the blocks I make, so then I can buy more fabric and make more blocks! or napkins or totebags or pin cushions... it never ends!

 

I also created what they call a Treasury on Etsy.  This is a grouping of items from different shops that I have found that appeal to me in some way -- in this treasury I came up with the theme of Umbrellas and if you go take a look, you will see that there are so many different products that use Umbrellas!  Check out my first ever Treasury at http://www.etsy.com/treasury/OTY0MTkyNXwyNzIzNDY5NzA2/rainy-days-and-mondays?index=0

It looks that today's weather here on the West Coast of Canada, is continuing cool and cloudy and rainy, but no snow!  Snow is not one of my favourite things!

Down for the Count!

 

Pearl and Walter, like kids, have fun wrestling on the bed...

Fall, Fearless and Fly - Challenge TWO

I am participating in a twice monthly challenge, over on the Artists in Blogland webpage (just click on the name or check my sidebar for the link).

This Second Challenge is all about taking chances, which most of the time I have no problem tackling!  You know when your mother would say she hoped that you had children just like you?  Well, I did! And I am so glad they are so full of adventure!!  In the last few years I have encountered a few stumbling blocks that have eroded my sense of adventure and I am working on finding my way back to my old self...

The prompts for this October Mid-Month challenge are:

Headline Prompt: Taking a Chance: When did you take a chance or a leap of faith? How did it turn out? What did you learn?
Color Prompt: What color do you like least? Use it!
Quote Prompt: "Don't refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase -- that's what wild geese are for." Anonymous

This time I am concentrating on the Headline Prompt: Taking a Chance, but it is almost impossible for a quilter who loves colour to ignore the colour prompt so using my least favourite colour is also part of this challenge...

To explain my process and a bit of my thinking, I have to say that although I did not stray far from my familar world of quilting, I did take what I had and use it in a somewhat unexpected way.

While making some quilt blocks using brown and beige, which definately are in the category of least favourite colours, because they really aren't colours are they.  Beige is muddied up white and brown is not quite black, both are sort of wishy-washy when it comes to the world of colour!

So, when I was trueing up each block (cause they need to be perfect) there developed a pile of slivers of fabric in that beige and brown.  I set that scrambled pile aside simpley because it shouldn't be wasted!

A few weeks back, I decided I wanted to learn how to do coptic binding, especially when I realized it is a way to SEW PAPER! How cool is that?

I got a coptic bound book made using black cardstock for the front and back cover, and there is sat... Waiting...

Waiting for the Take a Chance Prompt and this Challenge to come along.

So I proceed to 'muddy' up the front cover of my handmade book.
I layered it with white tissue paper, liberally glued on with plain old white glue - I really like white glue, cause when it sticks to your fingertips and dries, it is kinda like pulling off layers of skin without the pain of a sunburn!  Yeah, weird!

Continuing with the theme of white glue, I dumped those slivers of fabric on top of the tissue paper and pounced with a big paintbrush getting the fabric soaked in glue and well SCRIBBLED around the page...

And as a bit of an homage to those flying geese -- in quiltmaking, there is a quilt block called flying geese which is made up of triangles, so on the bottom of the cover I added some tiny bits of fabric to illustrate the flying geese... in red and green, just for the contrast from the neutral beige, greys and browns...

Fabric and white glue, created a very textured surface, but yet leaves the fabric and its woven threads quite clear.

So, now I have a journal to explore some of the ideas of creating my own patterns and images, using pen, pencil, paints, fabrics and whatever else enters my mind in the coming weeks of this challenge...

Time Keeps On Turning

This morning I posted my status on Facebook as -- Don't Panic! There are still 72 sleeps til Christmas morning...

I am the kind of person who is always looking ahead, sometimes way to far ahead, but being late or last minute has always felt too stressful to me and I really dislike being stressed!

My family doesn't do much at Christmas anymore, most everyone is over 21 so the child-like enthusiasum for christmas doesn't invade my home much, well, hardly at all actually.

Christmas and all of its build up is mostly memories.  And a major portion of those memories are piles of snow.   Winter on our small farm in Manitoba, about 20 miles outside of Winnipeg...

 

 

Memories of Family gathering for Christmas or New Years Dinner...

But one of the things I realized, I don't remember the gifts I got!  I remember gifts I gave, because even as a child I was encouraged to use my creativity.  One year, I gave my grandma and grandpa, painted and framed paint-by-number paintings, one a collie and the other a german shepard...  I remember making for my other grandmother a hanging rack for keys or other little things -- and that she put it on her wall in her tiny kitchen and it was there until she had to move from her home due to age and infirmity... So even at a young age I was thinking ahead of gift giving time, in order to have special things to give.  Oh yeah, my favourite gift I ever gave was to my Dad -- it was in the years when Pet Rocks were the "in" thing.  I made for my father an Automatic Cigarette Lighter.  I got a piece of drift wood and glued to it a fist sized rock, and also onto the piece of wood, I attached a small metal tin box. I filled the box with wooden matches -- it sat on the table by my Dad's chair for a very long time... 

I am thinking of taking a short trip over to visit my son in Victoria, BC in a few weeks and I am now waiting for some fabric I ordered - cars printed on a baby blue background - to make him some pillowcases...

So, No Panic.   I suspect all the things I plan to make for my friends or relatives will be done well in advance of Christmas Day!

Oh, and in case you think pillowcases might be just the thing for someone you may know for christmas -- here is the link and tutorial that I use... http://youtu.be/7moryq_ZRFY  which is an excellent video that shows each step and wonderfully explained by Robin Gallager...  Try it even if you don't give away the pillowcases!

Today is a great day to start thinking of what you can make or do for those around you, so you are ready well before Christmas and then you can sit and relax with everyone else instead of rushing around at the last minute...

Work in Progress Wednesday - Pondering

"Telling people how to be creative is easy - being creative is difficult." - John Cleese

The other day I came upon a half hour talk by John Cleese about Creativity it is on You Tube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg - this is the link if you want to take a listen, too.) but first finish reading here, then go listen to big John...

One of the points in his speech was about PONDERING.  Do you use this exercise when you are working on a project?  I have done this type of thought process for years without realizing that I was doing it.  I use PONDERING not only to be creative with my quilting, but for most everything in my life!  I ponder about juggling finances to include paying for brakes on the car.  I ponder about how to rearrange my living room to fit in my treadmill - it is currently on the balcony but the cooler winter air means it needs to be brought inside.  I ponder about what combination of meat, starch and veggies to put together for our supper each and every day!

For sometime now -- getting into the triple months of pondering - is a project for a machine applique class I will be teaching in February.  I have thought this would be a fairly small project but I added to the criteria of its creation, that it should also be useful and maybe even displayable at a future quilt show... so it has taken quite a lot of pondering.   It went from "going to be" a Door Quilt that was blocks with sashing, to being a Bed Runner with neutrals background, to back to being a Door Quilt with that neutrals background...

 

Currently thown on top of a pile of stuff while it waits (already quilted) for the new, brighter dresden plate pieces to be sewn

 

As you see, the cuts for the dresdens are still quite floral but the colours of each piece is quite a bit brighter or more strongly coloured. The first dresdens to the left and the new on the right in the above photo.

Another project that I am working on and pondering about is Christmas themed Quilt blocks -- these blocks when done will go into my Etsy shop for sale so that someone else can more easily create something for christmas.

 

A different sort of project that I have been pondering is "what is the next step" for this coptic bound book.   I have mentioned before that my hubby gets brown paper wrap by the carful every week because of his delivery job and I want to use that brown paper to make something. 

 

 

 So I listened to a couple of videos on You Tube and learned to do coptic binding.  Now I want to add some fabric and texture to make that black cardstock 'arty'...  Soon, I will get to it soon as the pondering of an arty cover has almost reached a complete idea!

 

 

 

One of the other things that John Cleese says in the video about pondering is that some people are quite lazy about it.  He means that they will latch on to the first solution and go with that, but other people keep on pondering until they reach that even better idea.  I think I am mostly a lazy ponderer, but I am going to make an effort to struggle through and ponder about it until I hit on an even better idea!

 

Now, go take a look at John Cleese's talk about creativity.

 

I am linking up with the Needle and Thread Network today.

Fall, Fearless and Fly - October Challenge

I enjoy an interesting challenge.  Therefore, I am taking part in the Fall Fearless and Fly (don't ask me what that means, tho) on the Artists in Blogland web page - you can pop over to the link provided and see the links to the others who are taking part.

The challenge for October began on the 1st and closes on the 15th - not alot of time to make a whole quilt to represent what I do!

There are three choices that ONE has in order to fulfil the challenge.  They are:

Headline Prompt: Inventing the Future: Where do you want to be 5, 10, 15 years from now. What's holding you back? What's propelling you forward? What do you need to do or stop doing to create your future?
Color Prompt: Warm colors (reds, oranges, pinks, yellows)
Quote Prompt: "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." Abraham Lincoln
 

Well, I knew that I needed to create a sewn/quilt project so with just a bit of rummaging through my scrap fabrics I came up with a few somethings that I think fulfill every one of those 'prompts'.  I started out thinking only of using the color (notice I am using the American spelling of that word?) prompt, but once I thought about it, I think I covered all three... 

I have made three Mug Rugs, or perhaps you might call them hot mats for the dining room table. They each measure about 6.5 inches square.  Random pieced, or crazy quilting, which ever description you prefer.

Inventing the future:

Now, in my life, there is actually less future to come than there has been past.  So I represented a very early 1970's print fabric that has been in my stash for awhile, and is a fabric that I used way back then in one of the first quilts I made.  Combined with that 1970's fabric are very recent 'Modern' style fabrics.  Since I have been a quiltmaker and sewist, I have so enjoyed seeing the trends as they change and evolve over the years -- my future?  To see more colour style and design!

The colour prompt:  To use yellow, orange, red, or pink.  I was not able to find a pink but then it says OR, so pink is not needed -- the orange and yellow, is of course that 1970's print, and the reds are quite new scraps.

And the Quote Prompt:  Now as I said, I have more of the past than there will be future and those one at at time days have been full of learning and living, growing and making a home and a relatively calm, enjoyable life.   So Yes, I have experienced those days and am so glad and thankful that many of them have made good memories.  Perhaps the future will hold things as facinating as the past days have...

There, my Fall Fearless and Fly Challenge, done -- Looking forward to November's Challenge!

Do Small Things with Love

My blog post title today is quite fitting, I think.  It is the title of a blog that I am linking up with today and that I have been following for a couple of months now.  It is quite inspiring to read the things that this young mother writes about.

And even though LOVE is such a huge word and very often so difficult to say; for some almost impossible to say and sometimes it is a word that some will say at any opportunity - does overuse make it less meaningful?

Last night, 2:44 am in fact, my dog Pearl began to make little whimper noises and to walk back and forth in the room.  She would go to the patio door that goes out onto our deck and scratch a bit.  So after trying to doze back to sleep, I finally had to get up out of my warm cozy bed and open the door to let her out into the back yard.

I turned on the yard light and stood and watched as she did a sort of circling thing in the farest corner of the yard from the door -- she was being sick...  How patient to wait 15 minutes while the human finally acknowledges that you need something!   So I stood at the door waiting for her to come back inside...

I took the opportunity for a bathroom break myself and when I came back into the room, this is the sight that greeted me...

 

Someone you know may need a lick, take the time to notice...

 

I am linking up today at Small Things with Love  and to

Felicity Quilts

WIP Wednesday - a bit of a dilemna...

I am making an effort to find my "voice".  I do believe it is somewhere between Traditional and Modern, and between using patterns and self expression...

Sometimes it is an odd place to be.  I find that I don't like frilly but I do like feminine -- soft floral shades and enhancements like embroidery.  I like a good geometric repetitive block design -- my favourite? Churn Dash/ Hole in the Barn Door.  I love the strong geometric contrasts of Modern Quilts and I totally enjoy the idea of threadpainting...

How to settle myself?  

This week (and last week too!) I have been wanting to create what places that sell high end stuff are calling a BED RUNNER.  Fancy hotels now seem to have them on the big fluffy down filled coverlets - probably to add a splash of colour to an otherwise neutral room...

Anyway.

I started out this project with pink and green -- they didn't go together even though I did get favourable comments -- were you just being nice?  Thats okay, it is good for the ego but it wasn't what I was aiming for, even though I thought it was, then.

I am still stuck on the Dresden Plate applique pattern and have cut and pieced about 20 of them!  I do get carried away sometimes!

So.  With the Dresdens, and this new background for them, along with a random placement of the dresdens, this is where I am...  The dresdens are temporarily placed and I am thinking of putting them a bit closer together...

Does it need more dresdens?  Should the dresdens be brighter, or perhaps darker neutrals?   Still a ways to go with this, but at least I think this is closer to what i want...  Hmmm???

By the way, please excuse the shadows and odd lighting, the sun was streaming in the window and it made for rather uneven light on my "design' wall...

Linking up with the Needle and Thread Network (clik the link on my sidebar)