Ta da... ta done!

I am finished with my Crazy Mom QAL that also qualifies for Patchwork Times monochromatic quilt challenge since it is yellow. Lots of yellows!



Three hundred and sixty two different yellows - no repeats. There are novelty fabrics



not only chickens but



a sock monkey too! And there are tone-on-tones and dots - lots of dots. My 25 years of collecting yellows has served me well. This is a BIG quilt - it is 96" square - yikes! (that's why I took the picture outside so I could get far enough back to get it all in the picture)I know I wanted it to be a generous size but I may have gotten carried away. I will be taking this to my long arm quilter next Monday night at guild meeting. I'm envisioning an all over floral pattern done in a variegated yellow thread. I know she'll be using cotton batting, probably Mountain Mist White Rose and it washes up wonderfully. Nice and squishy and you get great texture. I can't wait to see her work her magic.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A sampler for Sunday.....

and this one is a bit of a primitive.



I wish I remembered the name and the designer of this piece but I don't have a clue. I love the sentiment "Good things come to those that stitch". Who of us would argue with that? Whether it is cross stitch or embroidery or quilting I love all the crafty pursuits that employ a needle and thread or fiber. I stitched this on a lovely piece of pumpkiny linen. Such a great color. Here's close up of the house on this piece...



so it satisfied my self-imposed rule that the sampler had to have both an alphabet and a house. I'm glad I've gotten past that now since I have found several samplers lately that don't have both elements but they are so pretty and I can't wait to stitch them up.

I have been pretty productive this weekend and I've finished up a couple of projects. I will take some pictures tomorrow so I can show you the Crazy Mom QAL that I got all the borders on and I got my Shaelyn shawlette blocked and the ends woven in too. And I made some pretty thank you cards last week and now that they've arrived at their destinations I'll show you some pictures of those too. I haven't played with my stamping/card making toys for a while and I really enjoyed myself. Nowadays when I make cards they tend to use lots of different crafty techniques like stitching on the cards and buttons and felt and other goodies.

I have big plans for my upcoming week - lots of things I want to get accomplished around the house and of course several crafty things too. Hope your week is productive too -

Happy stitching-
carol fun

They are calling me.....

can you hear them? Okay this has been up on my design wall for several days.



It is an well-aged Stack-n-Whack that I had forgotten about.(oh this pic looks better than on my design wall. I just figured out how to crop my pictures and I eliminated all the yuccky parts of my design wall. How cool is that? Yes I am totally blown away by my own ineptitude - LOL) Anyway, in looking at the blocks I still like them and there were plenty - 98 totally finished blocks. Why did I stop on this? I got no clue. All the blocks are cut from this fabric



which was taken from the illustrations in the book The Quiltmaker's Gift that has a 2000 copyright date. So that means this fabric was probably produced in 2001 or 2002 and has been languishing in a giant ziploc bag for the past 9 or 10 years. It still looks great. Maybe ziploc bags have rejuvenation properties? Hmmmm... here's a closer look at some of the blocks. They have a cool milleflori (can't find the right spelling) look - like a glass paperweight.



The blue and red I'm using resembles a sun print and it is of the same vintage as the focus fabric.I always am captivated by fabric that looks like a crazy quilt and they make great Stack-n-Whacks. I've moved some of the blocks around since I took these pictures and I think I have the final arrangement. Sewing them together will be mindless and that's right up my alley.

Last night I was trying to finish my Crazy Mom QAL.(See my post of 1/6/2011) I'm on the last plain borders. I got one side sewn on and then in attempting the second one, I realized I cut it too long (no wonder I couldn't ease in that extra 2 inches) and then I ran out of bobbin thread(grrrr) and then I lost my concentration (I have the attention span of a fruit fly) and went from stitching a 1/4" seam allowance to a 3/8" seam allowance and had to pick it out. So I decided it was time to call it a night - hey you don't have to tell me 10 times, although it did take 3 "issues" for me to catch on that I should quit. Oh well -

So I need to do the last 2 borders on the yellow Crazy Mom QAL, then I want to sew these blocks together. This SNW will make a nice size lap quilt and then there is that Hoopla fabric I bought a couple of weeks ago. It is talking too. It is nice bright colors - kinda like a brand new box of Crayola crayons. I loved a new box of crayons when I was a kid. I think you could get a box for a dime or a quarter -- yeah back long ago and far away, a misty water-colored memory (sorry for all the old song lyrics -my mind just works that way)

Happy stitching-
carol fun

I am going to have fun.....

with this book!



Oh my goodness the quilts in this book are wonderful. I thought Kim Brackett's first book, Scrap-Basket Surprises was great but this one has me over the moon. I like how there is a mix of quilts some done with a Moda jelly roll line or a Bali Pop and others just done with the quilter's scraps. There is also a mix of pattern styles from traditional to more contemporary styles.

Here are a few of my favorites so far....



Summer Daze stitched by Darlene Johannis



Flower Boxes stitched by Karen Williamson



Bali Breeze stitched by Kim Brackett


There are 18 quilt patterns in the book and I don't know which one to pick first. I also love the Tipsy Baskets done in lots of Kaffee Fasset prints and the cover quilt, Picnic. I see lots of Moda fabrics in this quilt from different fabric lines and they all look great together.

Ok - this is not a paid endorsement- I just really really like this book. I just got the book today and I've picked it up to page through over a dozen times. I've been quilting for over 25 years and it isn't often that I get this jazzed about a book. I think this would be a great addition to any quilter's library whether you are a seasoned quilter or a beginner.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

The little sampler that taught me .....

a big lesson!



This Sampler Sunday offering is from Ewe & Eye & Friends and again I don't remember the title. I think it had something to do with Napa Valley or Sonoma since that was what had been charted rather than Modesto. I stitched this up after we had transferred by my husband's employer from Modesto back to Ohio. We spent 3 years in California and it was an interesting time. Modesto was a nice Californian town to live in but I truly missed the change of seasons and my grandmother back in the Midwest. I was very happy to come back to Ohio.

Now to the lesson this sampler taught me.... hand-dyed floss can bleed - A LOT!!! Since I don't stitch in a hoop or a frame my pieces need to be ironed when I'm finished and I like to use steam. Well when I ironed this piece the mulberry bleed horribly. I tried rinsing but it only helped minimally and in the end I took a q-tip dipped in bleach to remove the mulberry stains from the linen and from some of the berries and stitching.





I know I know -- not the greatest idea but it worked and I am okay with this not being a piece for the ages.

From then on I have pre-treated my hand-dyed fibers. First, I rinse them in warm water and swish them around in a clear glass dish - some colors you think would run don't and others are a complete surprise with how much dye is released. I have also seen that more hand-dyed fibers are sporting colorfast labels. I like that a lot. After rinsing, I lay them out on paper towels and squeeze out the excess water. Since I'm usually doing a bunch of floss at one time they sit for a while and even when you think all the excess dye is released you see tell tale stains on the paper towels. Okay after I've done the first rinse and set them aside for a minute I rinse them again in a bowl with a capful of Retayne - a dye fixative. I return them to paper towels and take them to the ironing board where I steam iron them dry. Yes this is a lot of work but I haven't had any problems with hand-dyed floss bleeding when I do this and I can stitch confident that I won't have problems when the piece is finished and I iron it for the final time. Does anyone else pre-treat your hand-dyed fibers? I'd love to know your technique.

Well I did get a little sewing done this weekend and I'm almost finished with my Crazy Mom QAL top and I put up an old UFO Stack-N-Whack piece on my design wall. I'll show some pics this week and maybe I'll have some progress on that front too.

Hope your week will have some quality crafty time.
Happy stitching -
carol fu

Today I am .....

Home Sweet Home -just like the quilt says!



We are experiencing the White Death here in southwest Ohio. I figure I shoveled about 3 inches off the driveway already and they are predicting another 3 to 5 inches before the day is over. My husband and oldest son had no trouble getting to work but the evening commute may be another story. Now my husband's commute is tiny - he's 3 stoplights from home. From our kitchen table to his desk takes about 5 minutes on a regular day. My son's commute is another story - plenty of expressway driving and hills, lots of hills, up and down - not going to be a good time.

Last night I finally got all of my winter quilts hung thanks to my oldest son - boy having a child with height is sooo much easier than dragging a stepladder around the room. I ended up doing all Debbie Mumm quilts in my family room. I think the Home Sweet Home quilt was a DM pattern. I don't actually remember, but I do remember that adding the words was my idea. That big open blue sky just needed something. And then there is my DM snowflake quilt...




This one hangs next to the mantle with all the snowguys. Every block is a different combo of off white/white and blue DM fabric. And I had forgotten about this one....



This was a Thimbleberries pattern - I think a BOM. I only used DM fabrics and you can see I had plenty to chose from. This is my favorite block...



sunflowers and the background has a spider web and a little spider on it. It is nice to think about sunflowers on a snowy day like today.

Okay - I think I'll sew a little and then go out for another round of shoveling. I consider it my aerobic exercise for the day. Hope you are snug and warm wherever you are!

Happy stitching -
carol fun

A Snowman Sampler for Sunday

Remember how I said I believe there is no such things as too much snowman decor, well here is another example. My Sunday Sampler this week is the Snowman Row by Bent Creek.




I stitched this on a lovely minty green linen and I framed this one myself. I found the frame in my storage room and it was plain white so I sponged it with some green alcohol inks and I like the way it turned out.


Even though this isn't a big frame I thought there was too much open space in the upper portion so I sewed on the snowflake buttons with a silver cord. I wish the frame was a bit wider and I might re-do this piece but not this season.



This is my foyer in its snowman finery. The sampler, my tablerunner and lots of other special handmade accents. I call this my ode to Amy arrangement, in honor of my dear friend from Nebraska who made several of these items.




That great tree is handmade from one of my favorite collections of Basic Grey papers - Amy made it for me and it sits in a little silver flower pot.



And this wonderful little framed snowman is another of her creations. It is perfect for this display in its brown and aqua colors. The little scalloped circle says "The chill of winter is warmed by friendship".

To the right of the table is my snowman tree - all the ornaments are snowmen - the overflow crowd from the mantle display. Here are a couple of my favorites.....


All in all I think it makes a nice entryway display. Now if I could just paint those blah beige walls another color I'd be sooooo happy, but since this is one of those tall 2 story foyers and I have a healthy fear of falling off a ladder (it has happened on several occasions in my life) no paint will be applied here for a while. It was painted about 10 years ago and my husband painted it and used his outdoor aluminum extension ladder to reach the top. Too scary for me. I figure nowadays if I fell off a ladder and hit tile floor in this foyer I'd end up breaking multiple bones so I'll live with the beige.

Happy stitching -
carol fun