A Sampler for a rainy Sunday

Oh the days do fly by! It is Sunday again and I have another sampler to share on this rainy Sunday. This one is The Brown House Sampler by The Middle Row.



I was totally smitten by the tulip border on this piece and I love how the alphabet wraps around. I stitched this on a pretty rose colored even weave and like most of my samplers it just has a simple wood frame. I also like the addition of the bird on the tulip and the orange tabby cat. He reminds me of our previous cat - such a good cat, a cat with a dog like personality.



I've been bouncing back and forth on different projects this week. I got some knitting done but I don't have a matching pair of socks finished yet. I worked a bit on my wonky butterfly quilt and finally got ALL the fabric back on the shelves. And I did a little cross stitch too. I received the final installment of the BBD AotH series and I do love the final bonus chart. I think this will motivate me to pick that project back up for the summer.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Hot Flash #914

Here is my entry for this edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I call it Hot Flash #914 and yes I did make it during that "special" change of life - LOL!



As I talked about earlier this week, I love brights and I love novelty fabrics and this one has a ton of them. I made the quilt in 2005 and it was shown at the NQA show in Columbus Ohio that summer. About a month after the show I got a letter from Klaudeen Hansen to ask if they could photograph it and include in in the 2006 Quilt Art Engagement Calendar. I was so flattered and immediately contacted her to say yes. They took a wonderful picture of this quilt and I was so excited when I saw it in the calendar.

This quilt is modeled on a antique quilt from the 1860's. A friend of mine was making a reproduction of this quilt using fabrics that were representative of that era and I admired the graphic quality of the quilt, but it wasn't my palette, so I did my version.



I love the princess feather center and all those log cabin blocks were foundation pieced - lots of papers to remove but very accurate. To put my own touch on this quilt I used a different novelty fabric in the center of each log cabin block.

There is a dragon which reminds me of my youngest son's fascination with these mythical creatures...


A horseshoe for good luck...


Tony the Tiger, a nod to my youth...


Of course, a polka dot chicken...


And not to be forgotten, ELVIS!


Enjoy all the entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, I know I will!

Happy stitching!
carol fun

7 Day Forecast Makes Color a Necessity!

I watched the weather report last night. The 7 day forecast is for some rain every single day from now to eternity. Ok maybe that eternity part is the voice in my head, but it sure seems that way. So to counteract the gray that will be omnipresent I broke out one of the most colorful quilts I have every made. A quilt that totally changed my quilting palette. Here it is.....



It is affectionately titled Carol's Crazy Kitty Cottages or as my oldest son refers to it - the Crack House Kittys. There are 36 different crazy cottages and each one features a different cat in the window. (I love novelty fabrics!) This one is my favorite.



A cat wearing a polka dot underwear. I know that just makes you shake your head and mutter to yourself that "this is just wrong on soooo many levels" but it makes me happy, which clearly shows the depths of my mental issues - LOL! And here is another one that makes me smile...



I love the expression on this cat and that he seems to be peeking through the foliage.

And I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to make that bright yellow picket fence turn the corner.



This quilt was created from the 1999 book Freddy's House by Freddy Moran. This book blew me away. First it has beautiful pictures of her color saturated house and studio. Red, electric purpley blue, turquoise accents, a sunny yellow studio with a black and white checkerboard floor. I covet that studio! And her quilts are just a riot of color and pattern. This book focused on the house quilts Freddie has made and she has made A LOT of them.

When I purchased the book it was love at first sight with the quilt on page 86 called "The Stars at Night". I couldn't wait to start this quilt and it wasn't until I got the book home that I realized that this quilt is in the "Gallery" section - you know the quilts for which no patterns are included. arggh! Okay, I will figure it out myself- and I did! I made the houses 8" square and every one is a different combination of doors, walls,roofs, chimneys and windows. And that little square in the bottom left hand corner next to the door - I considered that to be the garden spot for each home and they are all different patterns too. I worked on this quilt for a whole summer when my kids were out of school and I even quilted it myself. I'm hanging it in my basement family room where my sewing space is and I can see it from my behind my machine and it makes me very happy!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A Mother's Day Sampler

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who do the hardest job you'll ever love! I hope that someone spoils you today and that you have a lovely dinner you don't have to cook. That's my idea of a great day!

For Mother's Day I want to share this sampler I did 24 years ago. I remember I finished it right around Mother's Day when my oldest son was just two. Oh time has wings, doesn't it?



This is from Told in a Garden by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum and is titled Family Treasure II. It is stitched on a khaki color Aida using DMC flosses. I that turquoise and rose color combination matched my bedroom at the time. I love the lacy edge on this piece and the verse still melts my heart.



I count the stitches
Line by line
And watch the thread
Record the time
My eyes were strong
My hand was true
And filled with love
Made this for you


Happy Mother's Day!

carol fun

Focus...

is not my middle name. I think my middle name goes something like "bounces around like a bb in a boxcar", at least that is what my sainted father use to say about my behavior. So last week I started 3 new socks and over the week I have knitted on all 3 of them. First, the Lorna's Laces Zombie BBQ yarn in the rpm pattern.




Second, the Gale's Art Crayon Box yarn in the Charade pattern.




And third, Fiber Optics Kashmir Tequila Sunrise yarn in the Pyroclastic pattern.



Now you can see I have made nice progress on each of these socks, but if I had focused I could have a pair of socks finished by now instead of 3 single unfinished ones - sheesh - just bouncing from sock to sock. (Here is a link to Knitty.com for socks. Lots of free patterns in case you aren't on Ravelry.com) And then there is the cross stitch I'm working on. This is Country Flower Sampler by Cedar Hill.




This is so close to being finished. A couple of stems, a little back stitching oand fill in those 2 flowers and it is done! Maybe I'll buckle down tonight with this. My big motivation here is I want to start something new - imagine that, I know you can. Oh I did get all 121 butterflies sewn together for the center of the wonky butterfly quilt. Now onto the borders. I really want this one ready to start quilting by the beginning of next week. The deadline on this will come quick.

Hope you've been productive this week. Starting a new project is soooo much fun but finishing isn't bad either.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Design Wall Monday - Butterflies Continued

I was semi-productive this weekend and I have ALL Wonky Butterfly blocks sewn together. I actually made more than the 177 that I need and I think I'll incorporate the extras into the back.



This is the center of the quilt - 121 blocks -set 11 X 11. I tried to keep the colors moving about and this is the point in every scrap quilt where you could spend from now to eternity moving them around or just stop and sew them together. I am hoping to get all these rows together today and I know that I will move blocks around even as I sew them up.

I'm putting a border of butterflies around this center. I have to cut some more spacing background pieces but it should be pretty simple. Its a good day to sew. It is raining again. I'm beginning to grow moss on my northern side with all this moisture and my hair is becoming terminally frizzy. Off to wind more bobbins!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A aampler for Sunday

Okay if April showers bring May flowers, what do May showers bring? Today it brought me a headache and no energy. Luckily I already took some pictures the other day when we had sun of this oldie but goodie sampler.



I have no idea who the designer was or what the name of this piece is. My memory banks have absolutely no information on this one. I liked the simplicity of this piece. I used just one overdyed floss and all the letters are stitched in eyelet stitch and each row between the letters is a different decorative stitch.





I know that I chose it because the big orange tabby reminded me of our sweet cat that we called "Khat" - pronounced "cat". I got the idea from a book by Susan Wittig Albert in her China Bayles series. There was a cat China inherited that she named "Khat". I love this series as it includes lots of wonderful information about herbs and flowers and gardens along with the murder mystery. I love Susan Albert's books and I'm currently reading the first book in a new series for her called the Darling Dahlias and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Happy stitching-
carol fun