More Color Added

I'm making progress on this quilt. I've been adding more color to the girl and other than a few tweaks here and there, I'm about done with her. She hasn't whispered her name to me yet. Not sure if she is going to.

Next I'll concentrate on kitty. Kitty hasn't told me his name either. He's actually looking a little bluer than I wanted. I guess that's what happens when you apply gray tones over yellow.

New Work

I mentioned in yesterday's post about working on something new. Well here it is. I'm not quite finished with it as it needs a backing and edge finish. At this moment I'm unsure how I want to finish the edges -- traditional binding, faced, etc. So I think I'll think about it. Any thoughts?

It measures about 21" tall and 15" wide.

Oh and I also need to come up with a name for it. One of my favorite things to do. NOT!!!!

Something is Progressing

This quilt has changed since you last saw it about three posts ago. I've added the design outline and have started filling in the color.

I also started a new, smaller quilted wall hanging today. Maybe I'll have something to show you with that tomorrow.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Chair Stealer

I'm here!!!! The past few days I've been working on a project that I'm unable to share with you at this time.

While I was working yesterday, my assistant found it very necessary to steal my chair. She does this quite often when I get up from the sewing machine to iron something or get something.


I'm going to get a second chair for my studio, so when she does steal my chair I can wheel her to the side and sit on the other chair and work. I haven't been able to find the right chair yet.

New Block of the Month & More

Block #2 in the Two Creative Studios Block of the Month is now available. You will find the instructions here. Here are the two versions I made.


Also over at Two Creative Studios are two new free projects. One is the coffee sleeve. I showed you some I made in a previous post. Well this week I made a couple more and created a tutorial at the same time. These make great gifts. You'll find the free project here.


And here is a really cute free project that Sue created. These fabric frames are so fun and easy. They are very versatile and can be used for displaying other things besides photos...like ATC's, postcards, and more. You'll find this free project here.


And here is a photo of the prize package that was given to the Block of the Month winner for block #1. There will be a prize drawing for every block, with a final grand prize drawing for those who made all the blocks. Maybe you'll consider joining in? You can start making your blocks at any point.

Something Quilted

I stitched the rows of strips together that were on the design wall in the previous post. Then yesterday, I sat down and quilted it. This photo is taken before it has been washed. I use wool batting so that even more quilted texture will appear after the washing and drying step. I took this photo without the flash so that you could better see the texture that is already appearing.

Creating Strips and Scraps

Well I must have been on the super sewing highway this week, because I ended up with way more yellow and cream strips than I imagined I would. Shown in the first photo are a few rows of strips.


And over here on my design wall are more rows of strips.


Here are the resulting scraps that are created from straightening out the strip edges. While these ended up in the garbage, they do look rather pretty.


So I think I will end up with two or more quilt backgrounds from all these strips. I'll know more on that when it comes time to calculate what size I want the background to be for the focal design.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2009

This is the second Blogger's Quilt Festival that Park City Girl has coordinated. The first one, last spring, was very successful. I didn't share a quilt in the first festival, but decided to participate this time around.

Here is my entry.


I made this quilt in 2004 and named it Pink Pickles. It hangs on my living room wall. The paper piecing pattern was from an issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. I used all hand dyed fabrics in this except for one commercial print on the front and the back is also a commercial print. This is just one of the many quilts I've made that I really like.

If you didn't come upon this blog post by way of Park City Girl's festival links, you'll see all of the other quilters who are participating here.

Coffee Cup Sleeves

I made these sleeves a month or so ago and because they were for an online challenge sponsored by Roc-lon, I didn't show them. And then I got busy with other things and forgot to show them after the challenge was over. The sleeves are made with their multi-purpose cloth.


I didn't have any foam coffee cups at the time I made them so for the photo above I rolled up some heavy interfacing to act as a cup. And the next photo shows them while they were still flat, before I stitched the ends together.


The coffee sleeves are painted with acrylic paint. This is some cool fabric and it has so many possibilities. The composition book covers I showed you a couple of posts or so ago are made with this material. If you decide you would like to get some to try, you may find it at your local JoAnn store or online at I Have a Notion.

Stitching and Pressing Something

As I was chain stitching these strips together I got to wondering how many miles of thread I was using. Then I starting wondering...wouldn't it be nice if our bodies were getting some sort of exercise benefit from all this sewing machine mileage? In a perfect world.....right?

So, a few posts ago you may remember that I asked you which of the three comp journal covers you liked best. Well I didn't share which one I liked. My favorite was, again, not the one or two that the majority seemed to like. Oh well. Does this mean that I need to create more work that I don't prefer? Hmmmm, something to think about.

Starting Something

Here's the start of a new project. I wiped out some things that were high priority in the past couple of weeks so I feel like I can make a start on something new. Not that I don't still have some priorities, but those deadlines aren't looming so close.

I want to thank those of you who visited my studio tour (previous post). I enjoyed reading your comments and some of you asked me how I created my slide show. I thought I'd share that here so that if there were any others that wondered, you can all know. I used a software program called Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0. All I did was import all my photos and set them up in the order I wanted them, added narration and effects between the photos. While this was my first time to use the program, I found it a bit challenging at first. Once I started figuring things out I was feeling like I was becoming pretty proficient with it. I'm sure there are many more things that this program will do, one of which is the ability to edit some video formats. I know this isn't the latest version of this software either, but it's the one I have and I don't have a video camera.

I have been around to visit some of the other studios in the Open Studios Virtual Tour, but I haven't gotten to all of them and plan to visit more as time allows.

A Tour of My Studio

Now Available

Creative Ways with Books and Journals
by Sue Bleiweiss and Terri Stegmiller
For more information on our new book, click here.

Twelve by Twelve Reveal: Twelve

Today is the reveal of a new group of quilts based on the theme of "twelve". You'll see all the quilts revealed over on the Twelve by Twelve blog. They'll be appearing throughout the day.

Here is my quilt for this theme. You can read more about my quilt over on the group's blog.

Twelve by Twelve - The Board Game