Tempus Fugit.....

...time sure does fly,doesn't it? The weekend totally got away from me. It was almost midnight when I realized I hadn't posted a sampler for Sunday and since Sunday was pretty much Monday at that point I did the only sensible thing and went to bed. So I'm back to try again today and I have appropriately chosen this piece which strongly advises "tempus fugit".



This is a clock that hangs in my studio area. It is by Drawn Thread done in DMC floss on a linen.



I like the little girl flying the kite. Yesterday was a good day for kite flying. There is a big park not far from my house and there were several people flying HUGE kites there when I drove past. It looked like fun.

And on Saturday I spent some quality time with my Juki and got a bunch of these little pinwheely blocks together.



This is the Kitchen Sink pattern from Scrap-Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett. I love this book and saw that she has another book coming out in January. Its called Scrap-Basket Sensations. If you click on the link you can see some of the quilts in the book. I can't wait to add it to my library too.

These are all Debbie Mumm fabrics and these are a couple of my favorites.
This guy makes me smile - a happy chef - wish I had one to cook for me.


And this furry guy reminds me of Big Dude who has become quite a happy cat. He enjoys watching the birds from the comfort of our screen porch and has all the kitty treats he wants. Life is good!



Hope your week has quality crafty time - I have lots of projects I want to play with. I'm almost finished with my Beatrix Potter sampler and I'm almost finished with another 22.5 Degree Shawlette. I wound several new skeins of yarn and can't wait to cast on another little scarfy shawlette. I've got several patterns picked out on Ravelry and the allure of a new project is soooooo enticing!

Happy stitching -
carol fun

In Honor of Veterans Day

Today and every day we owe a giant debt of thanks to those who sacrificed so much for our freedom.



My father was a veteran and saw much he could never speak of. My son lost a dear dear friend in Iraq - only 20 years old. There is no way to truly repay such sacrifice but we much always remember and revere them.

Sunday stuff...

Oh I have a little of this and a little of that to show you today. First I have a sampler for Sunday.



As I remember this is a Chessie and Me and it is tiny - only 3 inches square - and if you've read this blog for any time you know that most of projects tend to get BIG. As I look at it now I marvel that I did so much of this over one thread. What was I thinking??? I suppose I could see the threads better back then. Anyway it includes some of my favorite things - a house, an alphabet and a cute kitty. Before the Big Dude sauntered into our lives we had a sweet tabby cat we called Khat. (The "h" is silent.) He was a Pavlov's dog kinda cat. He use to greet me every time I came into the house and followed me from room to room and if the doorbell rang he was the first one there. Loved that cat. And speaking of cats (isn't that a great segue? LOL)......



this is another one of my Raggedy Old Annie's primitive dolls. I found that great fur fabric and knew I had to make a kitty. Notice the kitty is wearing pajamas with cats on them and the kitty is belled for all to hear.


Isn't this a sweet face? I definitely need to make more of these dolls.

On the knitting front I want to show you my 22.5 Degree Shawlette.



I blocked it last night and it got longer and a little less dense and now it drapes nicely and I love the scalloped edge.(Ignore the flabby white arms.... I do.)



The yarn is called Amazing and it is from Lion's Brand. I used the Ruby colorway. I picked it up at Joann's in Centerville - they have the nicest yarn selection of any Joann's in the area. I wore it today an my older son told me that it looked very nice on me - made my day.

Hope your week has lots of time in it to do crafty things. Happy stitching-

carol fun

Where does the time go?

Saturday? How did it get to be Saturday already? Well the week flew by and I did get a few things finished up. That's a good feeling. It was definitely a knitty week. I got the mate made for two pairs of socks - now they're not lonely anymore - LOL!



First is this pair- the pattern is Embossed Leaves and the yarn is some I dyed myself. The base yarn is from Knitpicks and it gives a nice stitch definition.



And there is this pair - the pattern is a simple K3,P2 rib and the yarn is Blue Moon Socks That Rock. I love the wild colors and I love how it pools (yes I know that annoys most knitters but not me, I search out yarns that will pool - I'm crazy that way - LOL) The name of this colorway is Cattywampus - dontcha love that name? I just ordered two more skeins from them - Crabby McCrabbypants and Count Cluckula. I'm not sure which grabs me more the colors or the names. (Another thought - I think it would be great to have a job naming colors of paint, yarn, threads, etc. It appeals to the English major in me that I didn't pursue in college - oh well.)

In the quilting side of life, I just got this quilt out and threw it over my stitching chair.




The fabric is an older collection by Chez Moi from Moda. I found the pattern in a magazine as I remember, and I sketched it out and went home and figured out how to make it with a jelly roll.


My long arm quilter did a great job with this one. I love all over designs done in variegated threads.

Check back tomorrow and I'll show you another primitive doll I made. Little Elphaba is going to live at Stephie's house which makes me very happy. And I'll take some pics of the 22.5 Degree shawl I finished - perfect timing since we had some snow flurries last night - brrrr! I'll need a warm scarf or two or three - so much cool yarn just waiting to be knitted!

Happy stitching -

carol fun

Trick or Treat...

First I want to thank all the people who came by my blog and looked at my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. There were some lovely comments made and I do appreciate them. When you have the time go check this out - it is fabulous. There are little pics of the quilts and you can click on them and it takes you to the blog entry and there are some wonderful stories to go with the quilts. Amy had done a super job with this event and I am thoroughly enjoying all of it.

Well I know it is Sunday and I usually show a sampler but I don't have a Halloween cross stitch piece. Maybe next year. I do have a great Birds of A Feather Halloween chart that I've been aging. It may reach its maturity in the next 12 months.

However I do have some Halloweenie stuff to share. First is this sweet green thing....


She's so ugly that she's cute! A kinda young Elphaba - like from Wicked. (OMG - I just realized that my friend Stephie would probably love this little doll. She's big into Wicked. I think she may have a new home soon.) Anyway sorry for the divergent thought but you knew I'm that way - LOL. I made her a couple of years ago when I was on a big kick to make primitive dolls. She is from a pattern by Raggedy Old Annie's. The pattern was titled the "Sweet Uglee Sisters" and showed two primitive dolls. Somehow my convoluted brain came up with the idea to make her green and give her crinkly purple hair. I loved making these dolls and did quite a few. As I was searching for little Elphaba I found a basket full of doll body parts - yikes! Arms and legs and half finished heads - oh what a gruesome sight. I want to put some more of these little gals together. Most of what I have started are in more normal body colors and I saw on some one's blog (why didn't I bookmark that?) about a project that is making dolls for women's shelters. I'd like to participate in that.

And I have a Halloween quilt! This is a stack-n-whack made entirely with Debbie Mumm Halloween fabric.



I still love stack-n-whack and the blocks with the 60 degree triangles are my favorites because each block has 3 different possible arrangements. My favorite blocks on this quilt have Frankenstein on them - kinda looks like they're doing ring around the rosie, doesn't it?



And this one is cool too. Makes me want to sew up some more stack-n-whack and I do remember seeing several giant plastic bags filled with half finished stack-n-whack blocks under my cutting table. So many things I want to do.



Hope you have a great Halloween night. I didn't get my candy till this morning since I knew I'd eat it all up beforehand - not good. And did you hear the news reports about which candies are the worse for you? I don't want to know this. Don't spoil it for me. I know candy has calories, too many calories but I don't want to hear about it right now - maybe never. LOL!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Blogger's Quilter Festival - Fall 2010

Oh I am so happy that I got my butt in gear and decided to do this. There are sooooooo many wonderful quilts to look at. Thank you Amy for coordinating this event!
Here is my offering -





I made this quilt back in 2008 for the NQA show in Columbus,Ohio. It is based on a pattern by the talented Bonnie Hunter. I have a rather large stash of brights. Not bragging but a "rather large" stash is a polite understatement. I have a LOT of fabric, in fact on numerous occasions friends have brought their spouses into my studio to show them my stash and in EVERY case the spouse has turned to the quilter and said "I'll never complain again about the size of your stash." So I figure that my purpose in life is to keep the peace in other quilter's homes. LOL! Amy asked a question about how many yards of fabric are in your stash -ummmmm.... I don't know how much I have and I don't think I want to know.....ignorance is bliss!

Anyway this quilt was made using fabrics I already owned. I auditioned a lot of fabrics so that I could get the transitions to be as smooth as possible. There are LOTS and LOTS of dotty fabrics. There are over 250 different fabrics in this quilt. When I started sewing I was just going to sew different colors together but after the first panel I knew I needed to give it some structure so one color didn't run into itself from panel to panel. I was very happy with the way the piecing turned out but when it came time to quilt it I was at a loss as what to do. Finally, I decided just to do it as simply as possible. There are swaths 7 squares high that are done in parallel lines to accent the peaks and valleys and in between I did some random free motion stippling all with a variegated thread. The binding is an orange KP Kids fabric that had multi-colored snakes on it and I cut it to take advantage of the diagonal motion of the snakes.



Well a group of us always go to Columbus on the opening day to shop the vendors and see the quilts. Notice I mentioned vendors BEFORE the quilts. My group believes that you must have good vendors to make a good show and you need to get in and shop those vendors first because the good stuff will go fast, annnnndddd... the quilts aren't going anywhere. They'll still be there when you finish shopping and they give you time to mull over all your purchases and think about the items you didn't buy and then you can go back and buy them before you leave. Its all about the shopping!

So it takes about 90 minutes to get to Columbus from Cincinnati and for the ENTIRE ride up to the show I complained that the quilting on this quilt wasn't good. In fact, I had convinced myself that when I got the quilt back I was going to pick out all the quilting and send it to my long arm quilter. During the ride I got a call from my friend who is a quilt judge asking me where we were and when was I arriving. We were still at least 30 minutes away. We got the show and again my phone rings and my friend asks me when I am - "Shopping the vendors" was my reply. Well she insisted that I come and look at my quilt right now. This was out of character for my friend who is very sweet and easy going so I trotted my butt to the front of the hall and there was my friend standing in front of this quilt and the quilt had a big ribbon on it! OMG!!!! I was in shock, I never in a million years thought I'd ever win a ribbon in a quilt show. This quilt won 3rd Place in the Scrap quilt category. My friend had known of my win but couldn't call and let me know since she had helped out with the judging of the show and they are sworn to secrecy. Needless to say this quilt is very very special to me. I love how the colors played out. It is a bright and happy quilt that makes me smile. Hope you like it too -

Happy stitching!
carol fun

Ding dong......

oh the UPS man is here! I let my fingers do a lot of walking online last week and now lots of it has arrived on my doorstep. Such pretty colors and soft squishiness! First there is this stack of gorgeous wool felt from Wool Felt Central at Prarie Point Junction. Ooooooohhhh, aaaaahhhh!



There are 90 different colors here and a chart that gives you the DMC color equivalent. I like that. I have several wool projects in mind - some Christmas ornaments and crazy quilt from Wool Crazy and some flower blocks from Flower Festival. I love having this stash to chose from and it is such wonderful quality. I've ordered from Wool Felt Central before and their service is top notch.

And then there was the yarn order. Now I had a gift certificate from Simply Sock Yarn in Fort Wayne, Indiana for part of this (thanks Stephie and Cathy) and by the time I decided what I wanted to purchase with the gift certificate I was over the amount of the gift but not quite to the level for free shipping. Hmmm.... pay the shipping or order one more skein and get free shipping - sheesh that's a no brainer!



The first yarn I put in my cart was this little quartet of yarns by The Unique Sheep. It will make a pair of socks where the colors gradate. This is the Glee group (dontcha just love Glee? I can't get enough of that show--oooops sorry I veered off there, didn't I?)



And then there is this yummy skein from Pagewood Farms. It is the Prism colorway of Denali. I think it is going to be a shawl. Several of my friends are planning a KAL and I want to do it too.



And there are these 3 soft soft balls of Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace yarns. I have an additional ball of another colorway in my stash and I'm going to make a couple more of the Baktus scarves with these. See this great Baktus from Fibermania's blog. I love how if you alternate 2 colorways you get a wonderful stripy pattern.

I haven't heard back from Wyndam Needleworks about my Exampler Dame graphs. Hmmmm... I think I need to shoot off an email about those, cause you know I can't wait to start stitching them. Don't even mention all the other projects I already have going. You know how much fun it is to start a new project! LOL!

Well I'm not going to have a ton of time this weekend to play. I have a wedding to go to on Saturday and a birthday celebration on Sunday. And today the Ohio Bar Exam results were posted and my dearest older son passed the Bar!!!! I am so proud of him. Lots of good events to celebrate this weekend!

Happy stitching!
carol fun