Work in Progress -- Button Edition

Actually I am pretty much done with these buttons, just a few touch-ups -- although I kinda wonder WHY?

That is, why did I do either of these projects...

I have BUTTONS, Buttons, and more buttons!  Actually alot of them are quite old or fancy so I package them up and sell them in my ETSY store, but many are just plain ole buttons, the leftovers from sweaters and shirts and a few from coats and other ones when you buy six and you only need 4 -- you know that sort of thing...

Well, also being somewhat addicted to Pinterest, I have one of my "boards" as BUTTONS and looking through them the other day, I thought " I CAN DO THAT!" even though I really didn't need to and it took up time where I could have been vacuuming the stairs or dusting the ornaments or even washing the pots and pans, but instead I chose to play with buttons....

 

Not only buttons but a bunch of old costume jewellery that my Aunt gave me last summer -- those earrings and pendants really add bling to the buttons!

 

 

And really, do I need a reused peanut butter jar (painted on the inside with beige acrylic paint) with dozens of these things glued on?  HMMMMM....  I did have in mind that it might make a chunky vase for the occassional live flowers that find their way into my house, but then do the flowers want to compete with fake diamonds?

 

 

And then I was surfin' through some web sites and came across a quilt of 'canning' jars -- You've seen them, right? the jar shape with printed fabric with a variety of food prints or bug prints or...

And it crossed my mind why don't I do that and sew real buttons onto the jar shape... 

 

 

Does it need more buttons or not?

 

I can't seem to get a straight answer from the Quilt Inspector, Walter...

 

 

 

 

 

Work in Progress - Backlog!

Okay, time to admit there are some very old Works in Progress...

The first one is not that much of a "hidden in my closet WIP", but one that I got in a box of goodies that my Aunt sent to me about 3 years ago that was hidden in her closet for many years!  It was a single quilt block of a pattern that I had never seen before. 

It is quite a challenging design and with no instruction or pattern other than the block, I am going to have to first recreate it so that I can make copies.   The fabrics that it is made of goes WAY BACK I think to the early 1960's or 1950's.   I plan to draw this one out and make at least one new block in the coming week...  I think this would be really exciting to see done in some of those bright MODERN prints.  I may have to search out a few fat quarters from my LQS to get started on this one.

 

My second Work in Progress, is admittedly not even started yet, but it has been sitting on my work table for almost three weeks now.  It is a project for my cousin Peggy - and well, she did say there is no rush, but I don't think she meant it could wait for years -- so this one is definately inline for being worked on AND finished, hopefully by the weekend.  Making a couple of nostalgic BEATLES t-shirts into cushion covers for her Beatles themed guest room in her house...  Soon Peggy, soon, I promise!

 

 

And lastly but the largest and longest in progress is a group of blocks from, I think at least 5 years back...

 

 

I am part of an online loosely woven quilting group - we call ourselves RBQ (rather be quilting) and we have been emailing back and forth I think for close to ten years now!  And I have never met any of the ladies in person, but we have become quite intimate with our everyday lives, husband troubles, car troubles, trips to africa, and even a new baby born (quite some time ago, now)address changes and downsizing housing....  Anyway. a few years back we exchanged house blocks, my blocks have been stagnating in a basket that I uncovered the the other day when I was cleaning up the sewing room....

 

 

I am determined to get them put together before SPRING! I have in my mind a long narrow vertical orientated wall hanging, with winding applique leaves between the blocks and maybe a bit of embroidery or embellishements added as I progress with it...

 

Whew, I best get going on these!

I am linking up with a new linky party I found at I have to say.... 

and

to the Needle and Thread Network

Big Chunky

Yeah, well, that doesn't mean me!

A couple of days ago I went to visit one of my favourite crochet blogs  at http://fiddlyfingers.blogspot.ca/2013/02/spin-yarn.html and was instantly inspired!  Fiddly Fingers is in the UK and has some unique projects...  I'll let you visit and discover some of her other stuff for yourself (after you finish reading this post, of course)

My friend Doris gave me some really chunky yarn that she had picked up from someone else and could not find a good use for, so silly me took it and stuck it on a shelf behind my TV watchin' Chair...

Well, when I saw FiddlyFingers blog post, I remembered the super chunky yarn that seemed to have no good purpose and realized, it had found its purpose....

So.

 

 

An adventure in super chunky crochet, plus adding a regular worsted weight yarn, just to add another element...

The end result being a chunky crochet basket, and as luck would have it, not just any basket, but a basket that perfectly fit around a cookie tin...

 

Cheap cookies from Christmas time, with only the empty tin still hanging about the house...

 

 

The crochet basket, before it found that cookie tin...

 

And finally the cookie tin, combined with the crochet basket...  The lid to the tin will probably go into the recycle bin and the tin and basket looks like it will find a use in my sewing room, to hold some of my smaller notions, like sewing machine feet, needle packs and maybe a few other bits...

Now those balls of chunky yarn need not haunt me for another day, as they have found their rightful place in the world...

Thanks Fiddly Fingers!!

Liebster Award

I was recently given a Liebster Award, and being the Curious Cat that I am I wanted to know a bit more about this award...  The main thing that I found out about it is that it is an award after my own heart - there are no rules!  Really! There ARE rules that have evolved and like a whispered sentence in the ear going around a room, by the time it has gone through 10 or so ears and voices it has changed its message...

So, Margaret at http://www.margaretblank.com/ sent me this award and I am accepting it, but on my  own terms and on my own rules, because really, there are no rules!

At one time to get this award you needed to have fewer than 2000 followers, now it seems you need to have fewer than 200, someone lost a zero along the way...

Another rule was that you have to pass the AWARD onto 11 other blogs, originally it was 3 blogs, but remember there are no rules, so since I like very much to ignore or alter rules, I will let you grab the AWARD only if you want it, so leave a link to your blog in my comments, and grab the 'button" and write your AWARD post as you please!

Another rule is that you need to say 11  random things about yourself, well, since I talk too much and blab any and all details if someone will listen theres not alot of things that you probably haven't read before if you read this blog regularly....  But then too, I can keep quiet and listen especially if I am learning while listening!  Hey, does that count as two random things?  Sure it does, cause, There are no rules!

 

Walter

 

Archie

Oh, and I like my cats.

I love to sew triangles together - any colours and any combinations - you can never run out of ways to organize triangles!

 

Now if you are wondering where I got this notion of there being no rules to the Liebster Award, here is a link to a blog where the research has been done...

 

http://sopphey.onimpression.com/2012/05/liebster-blog-award-origins.html

 

 

and it makes me happy that I did not have to work too hard to change the RULES of accepting this award, and making it way less work that it at first appeared to be!

I'm lazy, thats another random thing about me...

Have a great Sunday!

Thunks 2013 - #1

What are Thunks?

It is a word that I have used in my own head for things that I have THUNK up sometime in the past but have not usually got around to actually doing...

So, On irregular posts for this year, I am going to give the name to odd quilts and or quilt tops that I have perhaps started and then changed to something else and then maybe even had to evolve them  into something mostly different than what it started out as -- usually because of not quite enough fabric of one kind or another, or because I stole fabric from one project to use in another and then the first project became rather DISJOINTED.

All the Thunks for 2013 will be donated to my quilt guild's charitable quilts program...

THUNK #1

 

Not enought blocks of one colourway and a few extras of the other...  The inside border is 2 inch wide christmas reds - three different prints and a 4" wide outside border.  This quilt top measures about 48 inches x 58 inches.

 

A bit odd but still those colours seem to work okay.  A good finish anyway.

 

And it's Valentine's Day, did you get flowers? or chocolate?

 

My husband got busy and started painting the hall and basement entrance area of our townhouse -- it has been unpainted drywall for 8 years...

My Other Life

I have been neglecting the sewing machine (but I did get the sewing room sorted out!).  I think many people find winter the time to spend time sewing, creating quilts or knitting sweaters and crocheting scarves...

Me?  I actually like to sew in summer...

But what do I do in the Dead of Winter...

 

Downton Abbey, a touch of culture... 

 

I watch TV and that includes videos from my past favourite TV series too...

 

Lonesome Dove -- I have an urge to watch the majorly long TV mini series from about 10 years ago... maybe 15 years ago then I watch the subsequent movies on the Lonesome Dove theme -- never did get into the regular TV series tho...

 

OH, and Deadwood,  three seasons worth of Sweringen talking a blue streak and wonderfully low language!  Words I would never dare say in my real life, but GEE, he makes swearing sound like music!

 

 

Oh My, The Walking Dead another one with incredible violence!  I don't know what draws me, to this one, but I sit on the edge of my chair, the tension as they say, makes the air so thick you could cut it with a knife...  One of the episodes in the first part of the season had me so intent, I actually slid off my chair and plopped down on the floor!

Now I don't watch all mayhem and violence... (or do I?)

Did you know, that all the episodes of the TV show Law and Order would not have passed the television ratings standards before 1981?  Do they seem tame to you now?

I do have projects that I could be sewing, or crocheting, or knitting but it seems January and February is my time to visit a different world...  And not to forget, the great old movie classics that I tend to put into the player on quiet afternoons,   Natalie Wood and Robert Redford in This Property is Condemned (you never get to see this one on regular tv) Kate Hepburn's Alice Adams (I love how she plays so soft but is the driving force in her family!)  Burt Lancaster in The Rainmaker-- oh the way he moves, pure sexual male animal, that one!

Is there motion pictures or television mini series that you just cannot resist and come back to over and over and over?

Next week, I will try to get some sewing or crocheting done and get back to the real world -- that is unless I get myself into a Jimmy Stewart or a Cary Grant marathon!!

Work In Progress - Walter's Distress!

Oh My!  Things have gotten a bit out of hand in my work-space!

Every Picture Tells a Story, and I have no excuse...

Like I said, I have no excuse for leaving my room in chaos, so today's work in progress is to clean and sort and organize and label, give away and recycle...

Soon to have a room that will be workable again, and soon to post that tutorial...

Patience, please!