Finished a pink and blue box

I tried out a couple of new techniques here one was the gathered ric-rac in Alli Aller's  crazy quilting book and folded ribbon roses.  

i have always been a little intimidated by folded ribbon roses and I still am a little. there must be a trick to making them so you don't get that square look.

i lined this one simple with the same pink cotton I used on the outside as the white box looked too stark to leave plain.
so now I have three boxes and two purses to sell in my ETSY store when I get it up and running hopefully by the end of the month. I want to do a little more research on it an get a better banner together.
But I think it's gonna happen.

i'm going to try not to panic or obsess or any of the other silly worry-wort things I usually do when I jump in feet first.

I figure I'll give it 6 months to see how it goes and if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out.

Hearts and Hands For Sendai

I am participating in a project to raise funds for the recovery of Japan. The quilting community as a whole is welcome to participate!  Traditional and crazy quilt blocks will be accepted!  I am posting the guidelines below for those that are interested in joining in.  Please contact her with any questions you may have. I look forward to working with everyone!  I know this will be a fabulous project upon completion!  Stay tuned here or at the CQI blog for updates on blocks as they come in!!


Hearts and Hands For Sendai


This project will be dedicated to helping those affected by the earthquake tsunami disaster in Japan. Per Hideko Ishida's request, all quilts will become a part of an exhibit in Japan where money will be raised by viewing the quilts. Ultimately, these quilts may be auctioned and the proceeds given to a charity designated by Hideko Ishida, our Japanese CQ Sister! We will keep everyone informed as time progresses. This project is open to the quilting community at large! You may track details on the Crazy Quilting International blog, http://crazyquiltinginternational.blogspot.com or the ICQA Facebook page http://tinyurl.com/4h3x28a .

Guidelines are as follows:

Theme: Friendship and re-building of a country

Finished block size: 8 inches

Colors: Jewel Tones

Style: traditional or crazy quilt blocks will be accepted

For traditional quilt blocks, there are no pattern restrictions. The only requirements are the size and the colors. Finished size is to be 8 inches (20.32 cm). Please allow a half inch seam allowance. Colors are jewel tones. No restrictions to the type of fabric used.


For crazy quilt blocks:

_ Cut foundation at 9 inches (22.86 cm), piece the entire foundation.

_ Baste a line at 8 inches (20.32 cm) to stop embroidering

_ Do not add beads or charms past 7 ½ inches (19.05 cm)

_ Zig zag edges to prevent edges from fraying.

_ Add your name and address on the back of the block.

_ Mark the block with “UP” to show which side is the top

_ Prefer all fabrics used be “fancies” (ie: silk, satin, taffeta, velvet) but if you have

some kimono fabrics or other oriental themed fabrics in your stash you are

welcome to use them.

_ All beading MUST be double stitched and knotted with BEADING THREAD!!!

NO exceptions!!! These items will be handled a great deal and beads, buttons,

charms are among the first to begin to loosen. Embellishments – may be done

by machine or by hand.

_ Lace and other motifs are acceptable and must be securely attached

_ Trims are acceptable and must be securely attached

_ SRE is acceptable

_ Tatting and crocheted butterflies and dragonflys, etc are acceptable and must

be securely attached

_ Please sign the back of your block

Please refrain from using any reference to the rising sun as this has political connotations in Japan.

If you have any questions, at any time, please just email me or call me; Leslie pinyoncreekq@q.com . All completed projects will be mailed to me no later than June 30, 2011. Please contact me for mailing address information.

We are asking for an entry fee of $10.00 dollars for each block. This fee will be accrued and forwarded to either Hideko or a charity of her choosing. This is to generate funds to help Japan as much as possible.

Funds can be sent vis a vis check, money order (payable to ICQA) or Paypal, icqa4u@yahoo.com. Please check gift for the donation. I appreciate everyone’s participation and look forward to seeing all the fabulous creations!

march BJP done!

well i had a major course change concerning my march project, were the concept changed completely!

this was the original concept

with the bird grasping a key in it's claws, up untill yesterday when the key broke! 

I hate when that happens, except when it happens and I get an even better idea!

so now I'm back to using the dogtag concept with feathers and beaded fringe.   since the phrase this month is "whatever is done by only me is your doing my darling" the fringe represents that which has influence over me and that which i influence.

you will notice that the bee has three fringe elements coming from it and the remaining two don't.

that's because this represents my children. it is for them I "do" have done and will always do.they are the reason i can laugh in the face of adversity and go on. they are represented by the ladybug, the dragonfly and the snail, (i'm the bee BTW) the butterfly represents my DBF, the pyramid with the eye of horus represents wisdom and knowledge and the key represents the mysteries I have yet to discover

Here it is all together. I still don't know whether it will be a barrette, a pin or a necklace, I'll take it one step at a time shall we?

 

Starting March BJP

I'm swiping an idea from Gerry over at Olderose and Susan over at Plays with Needles and showing you how I come up with my own ideas'.
I do this in a variety of ways you see creating for me is sometimes a chancy thing, it doesn't all come to me at once, sometimes I have to go a huntin' but most of the time I get inspiration from books, paintings and other peoples blogs. a snippet of this a smattering of that, then drawing them in my sketchbook, where I try to organize (if you can call it that) the things that come to me or I just come across by chance.

I've finally come up with an idea for my March BJP phrase "Whatever  is done by only me is your doing my darling"  It started out with an Idea for a tattoo I had of a bird in flight over a garland of daisies and roses with a dogtag held in it's beak stamped with "what ever is done by only me" and numbers important to he and I.

It has evolved into this bird holding a key in it's claws, stamped with "whatever is done"

the key is stamped, I have shaped and bound the tail and started the bird body on a felt base, instead of my usual muslin because Gerry recommends it and her birds and bunnies are wonderful!  I've never tried doing it this way, having always thought it would be too bulky but with Gerrys tutorials  I decided i would give it a try the next ime I had a motif like this to do and I need a bit of extra bulk to this birdie.

as you can see I've started on the outline of the body of my bird with a tight chainstitch and have the wing standing in line next. I plan to embellish the wing heavily with beads then attach it to the body separately to give it more stability and a little extra padding, though I haven't quite decided what to do with the wing yet I've gotten this far on inspiration so the rest of it can't be far behind!)

snow today gone tomorrow, maybe not

The weather around here can be unpredictable, we are surrounded by mountains on all sides, Mt Rainier to the south, Mt Vernon and the Cascades to the south, Mt baker to the east and the Olympics to the west, the you throw Puget sound in the middle of it all and fun stuff happens.
so I have gotten used to rain, wind, rain, sun, rain, rain, Squirrel!
(just seeing if you were paying attention!)

snow pellets!

wednsday I got up, looked out the window on to a typical gloomy overcast day, wandered to do my business, got a cup of coffee, turned around to look out the window again to find it had snowed an inch of snow pellets! DUDE!
it all melted by noon, no biggie.

Thursday it snowed till noon and melted by 3 so I went out to get some groceries, I was 45 minutes in the store. by the time I got back to the car there was a light dusting on the ground. by the time I got up the hill I couldn't see the lights of the oncoming traffic! eek!

poor rhodies out my front window

 still fluffing

Not that I'm complaining, mind, I know people have been getting socked this winter with the white stuff but I'm at the top of  2 mile long, 450' hill and just an inch or two louses things up around here so bad, you'd think it was Armageddon! and today we got temps in the teens, which turns the roads into ice rinks. with more snow predicted for this afternoon.
I'm making suppa tuscana!

brr!

Me thinks it's time for a roaring fire, hot tea and lots of sewing! he,he!
I like this!

My Dear BF and a critter update

it was my dear BF's birthday lat week.
he hates it when I make a big fuss over it.
but it his BIRTHDAY I can't not make a fuss!
so this year I toned it down just a little.
I made him Tacos for dinner
and a german chocolate cake with lots of
coconut filling, heavy on the chocolate.

and I made him a present.
nothing big just a little thing to let him know, I'm glad he was born.
cause that's why we celebrate birthdays yes?


I used a batch of transistors that were lying around after a motherboard project of his and fiddled with them, added the heart key hole and placed it in a small shadow box.

then took some Fimo and made a heart box out of it  stamped it woth swirlies a clock face and some meaningful words and baked it as per instructions

added a fan motor a resist indicator and more transistors on the heart bead and glued it all on with E-6000 (I love that stuff!) there are pictures inside of us then and now, but they don't photograph well so I didn't include them here.

the heart fits inside the box and the box is small enough it fits inside your (his) pocket.
like I said just a little something.


the critter has made off with one of the candles off the candelabra in the organ room, this time I can't find it.
Hmmm. I think it's time to go nuclear on it's fuzzy butt!

doing the odd stupid thing

you know how you feel right after youv'e done something fabulously stupid?
I'm there.

I'm not generally into self mutilation but I do, do the odd stupid thing every now and again.  usually it's a live/learn sort of thing, this time I was just being lazy.
 

we have a lovely fireplace and I do love a good fire.

while making kindling from chips too small for the woodpile,
i cut myself along the knuckle of my left pointer finger with the ax.

don't get all wobbly on me it was just the little 3lb hand ax and not the big ol'12lb solid steel one. my DBF just sharpened the damn fool thing too.

but boy howdy! OWwie! I forgot how much fingers bleed!

I doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would and it's all bandaged up, disinfected and what-not but its all swollen and discolored. eew.

note to self-#3478.6 wear gloves next time, dummy.

A picture frame

I have finished this picture frame and I love the result but it took so long to finish!















do you have endless debates with yourself?

















over which color red tread would look best here or there and if i'm going to go through that, I'd better go through this.













then there are the distractions of organizing, clearing, separating those beads you just mixed together by accident and oh I need something from the store, it's 4 days into a project that should have taken 2 at most!





So now I have 2 boxes a little purse and a picture frame to put up on my fictitious ETSY site, can you open an Etsy store with only 4 pieces?

then the debate of what to charge for them because you know your never going to get out, what you put into these pieces.

no one would pay that much for a smallish box so what to charge?

then for me final procrastination point to not opening a store for my things,
and it's on my mind because it's that time of year again,
how do I figure out my taxes for it? boo scary!

I think I'll go make more boxes instead!

BJP-wherever you go

Wherever you go, I go my my dear.

Februaries part of the poem is done, though I can say I don't like the result as much as the idea that garnered it.
I was thinking of 2 pair of footsteps on a garden path but I couldn't find footprints in charm form that weren't baby feet., so I made 'em out of sequins.
which turned out ok but the result isn't stunning,
it's kind of blah.
there is always next month!)

mystery critter

I have a mystery critter.


time for my dog eared hat, violin and pipe!



I noticed after we came back from chirstmas vaca that one of the candelabra candles was on the foot pedals of the organ AND it was chewed around the top. I noticed those same chew marks again this am. and it has me wondering.









I remember this happening some time in the summer also though I can't remember when and I didn't notice chew marks on it that time.





so I have a critter and I don't know what it is, other than it has two tiny front teeth.

yes, know, it could be a mouse. I thought of that,but then why would it be eating only these two candles?













and not any of the other candles around the house?


and how is it getting up there in the first place?












the candelabra is very tall and I don't know of any mouse
or rat, for that matter, agile enough that can climb a wrought iron, 5 foot, candelabra or jump the two feet from the chimney vent to get there, do you?


if you do please keep it to yourself my night mares are strange enough with out that in them, thank you.


not to mention get into the cabinets and eat the ramen
noodles through he bag like they usually do when they get in?

hmm?

so what could it be?


could be a bat trapped in the house living off bugs in the night
and hanging about in the chimney vents during the day.

that would explain why we haven't been inundated with spiders this winter.
though why haven't we heard it flying about the house at night?

Ok you can't hear them squeaking, they are ultrasonic after
all but they would have landed on something by now and
knocked it over don't you think?

the next big Q is how do we figure it out?

now if it is a rat or mouse type critter I have no problem
going all Dalek on their furry buts, but I am less inclined to kill a bat.

they do after all perform a service of bug removal and i'm all for that!

my DBF has suggested we set up a web cam or rig the camera to a motion detector to catch the perpetrator in the act ( geek-boy in action!)


I have to get this figured out by spring break or we will have the daddy of all freak-outs, when one of the girls or the boy is sleeping in the organ room
(he-he-he, you said ORGAN, he-he-he)
Anyway,
like i said I have no problem killing a mouse critter but I don't want to kill a bat.
all vermin are not equal one serves a purpose.

SO, anyone have any better idea's?

many little boxesand BJP update

I have made a few of these little boxes over the holidays and everyone who sees them loves them.









I am wondering if it would be a good idea for me to open an ESTY shop, most of what I do is small bits and pieces.



like the tree box it's 2.5"x4.5"x3"high is cloth covered and has a green satin cushioned interior











but i don't know if there is a market out there for my little boxes.







I have discovered I enjoy making these little boxes they are relatively easy and depending on the box size fairly quick to finish.


See i even made myself a label!









these two are the small ones.









the yellow one is just a little longer measuring 3.5'x5..5"x3.5 high, also cloth covered but no cushion inside.






























I also finished "Whatever a moon has meant " for the BJP but it's spot doesn't come up untill june. looks like I need to get going on the ones I have been putting off.

tho the january piece is done and so is aprils i need to finish "wherever you go" for february and come up with a decent idea for "whatever is done by only me is your doing my darling" for march.

so to ESTY or not to ESTY?
I've gotta fund this fabric/bead/ribbon/lace addiction somehow!

mom's place

the last leg of our journey was to my mom's place in Chicago. here's mom









finally open the presents!












where art and music are every where

































the silliness knows no bounds

































ahh! whats that!











Oh! a hug! I can deal with a hug!












where everyone can just relax.





















and fiddle about onthe computer some more