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!

Work in Progress - I'd like to keep it

Somewhere between the frenzied trend of creating "many trips around the world" quilt blocks and finding ways to use those thousands of 3.5 inch squares I came across a photo of a quilt pattern I do not remember noticing before.  Now after 40 years of sewing and quilting you would think that such a simple concept would have crossed my sewing machine before.  But no.   It caught my eye, and my thought processes and I just had -- that should be HAD (in capital letters) to make this design.

These blocks are so fun and easy to put together but when the blocks are put together they become a bit of a puzzle.  I don't even know the name of this pattern!  It does take a bit of Math to fit the pieces properly, but all the sewing in simple squares and sashing.

There are two different blocks to make in order to create the pattern. (I didn't take a photo of the second block)

After one little false step, which is blame -able on adding and substracting skills, I got everything to fit nicely together to make the quilt top.  Still in progress, and because I plan to make another or maybe two more (which I rarely do, repeat a pattern, that is) I must really be loving the way this design pleases my eyes.

I used all the "kiddy" type squares that I could find in my stash and came up with this completed top.

Now, the dilemna is....  I REALLY like this quilt, but it is meant to be donated to my guilds charitable quilts program.   That means, I am FORCED (yeah, really who needs to be forced to make a quilt?) to make a second one that will be ALL MINE!  (and bigger)

Also, since I have already spent the time figuring out the Math -- I will post a bit of tutorial for those who might like to give this pattern a whirl, and will include the mathematical variations for at least two size, and maybe three block dimensions, so you can make various size quilts...  Check back (or even sign up on my email list so that you get notified when I do that post).

Now, another work in progress that I have has nothing to do with sewing or crochet or crafty stuff...

Each year, near Christmas a small group of my cousins gather for a end of year dinner and talk fest...  For the past three years we have been attempting to keep journals of our daily lives.  This year we gave our journals a theme.  To write about the things we are THANKFUL for.

The cover of the journals (they are all the same) is a bit deceptive, but inside that cover are my writings of things that I am trying to express my thankfulness for.  I do not write in this little book everyday, but as the need arises and when I find something to write down my thankfulness for.  For the month of February I am starting my thoughts with this quote.  (Because sometimes I get critical and abhor that I pick at little things and don't just let these little things float over my head to be forgotten and forgiven)

So my personal thankfulness for this month is...

" Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who help our souls to blossom"  -- Marcel Proust

Work in Progress -- Last Week and This Week!

The projects have been progressing well, very well, in fact -- it was just figuring out the uploading and downloading of photographs, but like I said a couple days ago, I think I have that little challenge well in hand.

I am working on another PILE of 3.5 inch square -- two shoe boxes full of them and have the first top completed and done in the very trendy Scrappy Trips around the World that you can find all over the internet with a Google search.

This is my version, the first one anyway.

 Casually thrown!  The stairway from my living room to my sewing room is the only bright area of my house.  There is a skylight up there above the bathroom door and there are no 50 foot cedars blocking the light as there is on the other side of my house.

To get a bit better feel of the "TRIPS" I taped the quilt top, which measures 49 inches x 66 inches to the door and wall, with packing tape!   Now that I see the effect of the squares, I know I am in for making another batch of blocks -- probably considerably larger.  They are simple to sew, but a challenge to keep the 'value' (lights, mediums, and darks) in a sequence that will make the diamond stand out.

As I said, I have TWO shoe boxes full of these ready cut squares, so I suspect there are still a few hours of piecing ahead of me...

Another project I am working on is a granny square afghan.

I am making the granny squares in one colour and using a variety of aqua, pale blue, dark turquoise and I am considering putting a bit more blue in a middling shade.   So far I have 62 squares made and am striving for another 20 at least before I start connecting the squares...

As yet, I am not at all sure what colour I should use as the connecting sashes, although I am leaning to a creamy yellow, maybe, if I can find it.

One of the things I have noticed about colour, and it is a frustration to me, is that here in the Vancouver/Fraser Valley area, it is really difficult to find bright, clear yarn colours.   It seems like all the shops carry the colours that you see in local architecture.  All the houses are shades of brown and grey.  A blue house or a green house is quite the rarity around here.  So, the shops around here are rich in browns and greys and dark blues and very dark moody greens, if you find a red, it is usually a burgundy.   I suspect I am going to have to go online  to find those rich bright colours, cause they are very sparse in the shops around here...

Difficulty

So, there has been something wacky about loading photos onto my blog.  I have not had anything to say unless I had the pictures to go along with it...  This morning I got up at just a bit before 5am determined to try to figure this thing out.   And finally, I have!   I have had to download Google Chome in order to bring photos from my computer to this blog...  I suspect that because Blogger, and Google and Google Chrome are all one big entity, they want you to use only their product, so they make things difficult if you use Internet Explorer.  Oh well, as long as it doesn't cost me time or money, I am adaptable.  Tho it did cost me about 4 hours in figuring out this thing and because the Chrome is a fair bit different, I will still use Explorer as my main browser...

Anyway, here is Walter, getting in the way while my hubby is working at changing lightbulbs...  Some cats like to be under blankets and in corners or under beds, but this cat finds the highest places and must feel like he is the king of the house when looking down upon us lowly humans...

Trending...

I am interrupting all regularly scheduled projects to be part of a trend...

People "catch a wave" and more and more pile on.  I am not much different.  Currently there seems to be a real trend to making "Many Trips Around the World" Quilts.  These are easy blocks to make up and you can easily find the instructions online.   Bonnie Hunter on Quiltville has a version that uses strips (check this link, http://quiltville.com/scrappytrips.shtml ) for those instructions and alot of photos of examples of this block done in scrappy versions.

I STILL have a shoebox full of squares cut at 3.5 inches and I was also give a second shoebox full of 3.5 inch squares by Harriet, who is the coordinator for my guild's charitable quilts society, which we call We Care.  The "Many Scrappy Trips Around the World" seems to be a good choice to make use of all those 3.5 inch squares!

 

Now, because my scraps are already cut into squares, I am not using Bonnie Hunter's system.  I am chain piecing the squares and sort of following my own 'map' of organizing the squares.  For this first project, my only real RULE is that the centre diagonal is always a dark blue.

 

 

The first 4 blocks, which are 25 patch or 5 x 5 blocks are on the design wall and I think that blue really does emphasize the "trips".

 

Chain piecing is the trick with these, working in rows down and leaving the pieced squares connected by the threads, then sewing the rows without having to resort the columns...  If you don't know what I mean, I'm not even sure I know what I mean...  It looks like this...

 

 

then this

 

 

I don't press at all until everything is sewn together.  As I sew the rows, I alternate the seam allowance, so the top row has the seam allowance going left, and the second row has the seam allowance going right -- they snug in very nicely that way, then the third row the seam allowances go left again.   After all are sewn they press quite nicely and all the intersections fit together beautifully.

 

Now, to get 12 of these blocks done, quilted, and bound and I can take a completed quilt back to Harriet for our February meeting to put into our We Care Quilts...

 

Work in Progress - Get Back in the Groove

The initial facination with the ipad is beginning to wear off - just slightly though - just enough to work on things I left thrown in corners...

Walter loves it when I pile things up in a corner.  The other day, I caught him pulling granny squares out of my "in progress" corner.  He was actually picking them up, one at a time in his mouth and carrying them half way across the room, dropping them and going back for another...

 

Does that little furry face look like he thinks he is getting away with something?

 

 

Obviously no worries that anybody is going to try to stop him from his mission!

 

As you might be able to tell, I am working on a granny square afghan, the granny squares are each a single colour, all light and in the blue/green/turquoise family.   I have not yet decided on a joining colour and it is fairly slow progress - I seem to be doing two or three squares a day and realized that they fit quite nicely into emptied tissue boxes with the top cut off.  The little boxes keep the squares nice and orderly - unless the Black and White troublemaker discovers them!   I don't think he knows that the ipad is also a camera so he doesn't scoot away like when I aim the real camera at him!  Do you think cats might learn the difference?

 

Well, the granny square afghan is a long time, yet, from completion and once done will go into my gift closet for the next baby or birthday or wedding...

 

Also on the in-progress calender is the "somebody elses" Scraps quilt project.

All the fabrics in this little quilt, (the top is done!) were in the "given to me" bags from way back last spring that I had not managed to use in the marathon of sewing in Summer 2012.

 

I must say, I am now scraping the bottom of the boxes of the fabric scraps.  Perhaps you can tell?  The borders are all pre cut strips of 1.5 inches and 2.25 inches.  There was JUST enough of that last brown to go around the quilt, I had about 3/4 of an inch left!

I must say, I was not particularly choosy about the colours for the border because those were what was left in the box.  I really would have liked to add a light colour in there between the black and the red, but clearing the scrappy stuff was the priority here.!

 

It is a small quilt, about 45 inches by 60 inches and is possibly destined as my "invitational" contribution to the CQA in Pentiction, then to be donated to my guilds charitable quilts program.

 

Well, now, today is Quilt Guild Meeting Day, here in Abbotsford so I should get my things organized and get my body ready...

 

There are a few more works in progress, or perhaps they are ignored works in progress and I am planning to take a inventory of so that I can see what I can get finished up in the next few months...

Learning Curve

I have been "otherwise" occupied for the past week or so and have not updated or even thought much about this blog.

I did mention, that my sons gave me a ipad for my birthday.

So much to learn, so many apps, so much fun!

One of the things on my new ipad that I did not expect at all is a feature where you can TALK your emails.  Yep, don't have to know how to type (tho I still can type about 50 wpm if necessary) don't have to know how to spell, all you have to know is how to talk.  This is an amazing feature on this electronic. thingy...

 It is much like when you phone someone and you get the answering machine.  Leave a message... works much the same when you want to send an email using the ipad.  Just talk the email and send it! 

I managed to figure out an even better use for sending talking emails.   I have two other blogs that I update very irregularly because they are both only meant for a select few who have a particular interest. 

One is called John's Journal ( jrb1909.blogspot.com ) which is the actual journal that my father in law wrote from about 1929 to 1978.  My DH inherited these journals after his mother passed away and we decided that the writings, tho often boring and rather repetitive might be of interest to John's decendents so we started typing out and posting some of the journal entries.  It is a very time consuming process as translating the handwriting to the typed word then to posting to the blog was hours and hours of work.  The ipad, has made that job immensely easier, and very much faster.  Just read the hand written words, check for errors or omissions -- but you must realize that because much of it was written, many years ago, by a man who left school at age 14, spelling and grammar and composition was not a big priority, so what we do is actually correct, the correct sentence structure (that the ipad wants to implement)to the way is was written.  It is not up to us to change in any way what was originally written down.  So that is a big part of what I have been doing the past week or so.  Talking the journal entries to transfer to that blog for those in the extended family.

   There are more than 5000 hand written pages to translate and post.  Even with the 'talking email' on the ipad there is many hours of work ahead, but now it is so much more enjoyable to do!

And still with the ipad, I have added a couple of apps that are taking a bit of time to learn and use.  One is for Diabetes control.  It will track my weight, my blood glucose levels, my carb intake, my meds, and my activity levels and then create charts and graphs to tell me how well I am managing the day to day things. It actually cost $7 but is turning out to be so worth it!

I am very pleased to report that this app really makes it clear how daily attention to detail makes a difference!  No wonder my sugars would get out of control!  Now I can see instantly how a donut will affect the day or even the next days choices.  Maybe I can actually find a way to make informed and useful food choices so that I can naturally loose a bit of weight! 

Oh, iPad, how I love you!!

Now, of course a "good thing" is not all good, all the time -- even when it feels good.... My son, introduced me to a game, and it is free on the ipad (and iphone) called clash of clans -- it is a war game, sort of -- you have to build a village and defenses and armies and every now and then go and raid another village.   The anticipation is amazing and I have become addicted to the 'hunt'.  Finding ways to defend my village, to upgrade defences, to build a new hut or money making gold mine...  And it is a global game, it has a chat area, all quite facinating.  Never expected that a mature female would have so much fun playing this game!  I even wakeup in the middle of the night to check on my village and Clan! Wanna play too?  just look for Clash of Clans  (join my clan - Whichcraft!) and we can play together!

Did I say, I love you, ipad?!

Me and Bobby Dylan.... and my Janome

I am an early riser...  Its when I do my best work...

I got an ipad for my birthday and discovered the camera in it, so I took pictures of my sewing space, attempting to do it artfully with the ipad camera -- it isn't nearly as good of a camera as my real camera, but It is certainly interesting to test it out.

I also had to figure out how to get the photos off the ipad and onto the computer so i could put them on the blog -- quite easy as it turns out, very much like with the real camera...  I was sort of expecting some difficulty since my computer is a PC and not a Mac -- but it works anyway!

 

So, once onto the computer then I can fiddle with the settings and take really sexy pictures of myself with no make up and emphasize the wrinkles cause ya know, I did turn 60!  That is no Cindy Crawford with Meaningful Beauty Products to make her young and cute and thin!  but then who is going to see me, when I am in my sewing room, except you, of course!

So while listening to very early Bob Dylan ( three albums worth!) I picked up stuff, filled bobbins with thread, sipped on a cup of coffee that was cold before I finished it, but I drank it anyway, and

picked up bits on the floor, sorted some scraps and started another scrappy thing,

 simply sewing strips of fabrics together in 'width of fabric' strings,

 

I do have something in mind, tho the idea is not yet fully formed, so all I can say is it is kid orientated and will likely go to my quilt guilds charity quilts program...

 

And for a change, Archie, my inbred Siamese (his mother is his sister and his father is his grandfather-not my doing, just uncontrolled neighbourhood cat population, so I grabbed him when he was young, neutered him and he hasn't been outside in 5 years) was sitting quietly by me and I had to play with the photo elements stuff to see what it could do....  I don't really think he should be lime green, tho, but he is an easygoing fellow and probably doesn't really mind...

 

If I don't get back to the blog in the next day or two...

 

Have a really fine and safe New Year.