Done and Gone

I've finished up the kitty bag that I was working on over the weekend and it's now off to a new home. Another kitty is currently waiting on my work table waiting to be put together, but first I have a few other things to attend to. Maybe I can get to that one by the end of the week.

I tried a new-to-me food yesterday and found it very yummy. I tried spaghetti squash. I have now tried three types of squash within the past year and I think this spaghetti squash and the acorn squash are my favorites so far. The other one I tried was butternut. I made the spaghetti squash in the microwave (the directions were on a sticker that was right on the squash). Easy peasy! I garnished it with some tomato sauce (I had a jar of pizza sauce in the fridge) and a sprinkling of cheese. Yum! I felt like I was eating spaghetti, which I love. Do you eat spaghetti squash? What's your favorite way to eat it?

Winner of Masters Art Quilts Vol. 2

One week ago I shared a wonderful new book with you and gave you a chance to enter a drawing to win a signed copy. Here is the book:

And here is the winning number:

The numbers correspond to the order in which the comments were received.  And the winning number is 7!  That number corresponds to the comment left by Deb Levy.  

Yay Deb!  You won the book.  Congratulations!

Thanks to all of you for stopping by and entering. If you would still like a chance to win this book there are several more give aways going on. Stop by this post at Lark Crafts to see the other bloggers who are participating in this wonderful blog hop event.

Kitty Bag in the Making

This is the next bag I'm working on.  I've got the fabrics up on my design wall in the places I think they will be for the final layout.  Next is cutting and sewing.

Do you watch Project Runway?  I have to say that I'm not enjoying this season yet.  There's way too much drama and bickering for me.  I would enjoy it so much more if they'd concentrate on sharing their design development and their trials and errors with creating their designs.  I haven't seen the shows starting way back in the beginning at Season 1.  I think I started around Season 5, but not sure.  I don't know if all the seasons have been more or so like this one or not (I've enjoyed the other seasons that I watched) but so far I'm not rating it very high on the satisfaction scale.  I suppose some viewers enjoy all the drama, I guess I'm not one of them. I can take a little drama, but give me some sewing and design stuff too. What's your take?

REMINDER:  In case you missed my post from last Monday....I'm having a give away (random drawing) for an autographed copy of Masters Art Quilts Vol. 2.  Check out the post here.  You have until midnight, tomorrow night to enter.

Thursday Offerings

Composition notebook cover

My third attempt at garment sewing.  I shared the first one with you a while ago, and I won't even show you the second.  I didn't like it and I don't think it was my fault....it was the pattern...yeah, that's what it was!  I like this one though.  It does have a couple of areas here and there that I need to improve on but overall I think it's good and my skills are improving.  Oh, and this one was a stretchy fabric, a heavy jersey or something like that.  Heavier than a typical t-shirt fabric.  Nice and soft.

The latest offering from my sketchbook.  I worked on this one over the course of several days.  I would get to a point and then not know what I wanted to add next, so I took some time to think about it.  Time to flip the page and start a new one.

Hope you are having a wonderful week.  Gosh I can hardly believe the weekend is almost here already. 

Check out This Book

Masters Art Quilts Vol. 2 - Major Works by Leading Artists
Curated by Martha Sielman
Published by Lark Crafts


When I received my copy of this book, I couldn't wait to rip open the package and start flipping through the pages and sniffing that brand new book smell (yes, I love that brand new book smell, you can call me weird).

But most of all I was very anxious to start browsing through the line up of art quilt artists and view the works of art each had created.  Forty artists are featured with a wide scope of work, each coming into the art quilt arena from varying backgrounds and diverse experiences.

So many of the quilts pictured are so unique and intriguing and I often find myself wondering how the artist came up with the concept or was it even planned.  I'd love to be able to reach into the pages and touch the quilts and experience them further.  But knowing I can't, I am happy that a book of this magnitude is available, otherwise I would not have been able to see such beautiful works of art.

If you love art quilts, or even just art for that matter, you won't be disappointed in what this book offers.  So much fabulous inspiration, color, texture, and wonder.

I have the first book in this series and I have had it on my coffee table since I had finished reading it.  I like to pick it up and shuffle through it now and then because even though I read through it completely, I still find new and interesting things that didn't catch my attention before.  I'm sure I'll feel the same way with volume 2.  I hate to put volume 1 on a bookshelf though.  Hmmmm, maybe I need to get another coffee table or can one coffee table handle two such fabulous books?

Have I got a deal for you!  You can win a copy of this book by simply leaving me a comment here. The copy you win will even by signed by Martha Sielman.

You must leave your comment here by midnight (Eastern time) on August 28. I'll announce a winner (random number drawing) here on the blog on the 29th.  Please be sure I have your contact information if you are an anonymous commenter.

Oh and it gets better!  You can have many chances to win a copy of this book as there are many bloggers like me who are participating in this fun give away.  You can see all of the participating blogs by visiting this post at Lark Crafts.  Good luck and have fun!

Sketch-Doodling

Recently, fellow blogger friend, Leslie of MarveLes Art Studios, introduced me to a new artist by the name of Joanne Fink.  Immediately I fell in love with Joanne's work.  And it renewed my love for sketching/doodling/drawing/Zentangling (there should be one word that encompasses all of those, don't you think?)  How about Zendooetching?

So I hadn't been doing any Zendooetching for much much too long and I really don't know why this happens.  I really am bad that way, in going through streaks of doing something a lot to it basically being non-existent.  Does that happen to you too?

But after seeing Joann's fun drawings and Leslie's response to this style, I got the fever.  So every night after hopping into bed and before turning out the light, I worked on a page in my sketchbook.  Here is what I have as a result.

 

 

 

 

These were fun and I know (because I'm being realistic here) that I will do them for a while and then who knows what.

Oh by the way, check out these fun videos by Joanne here.

More Kitties and a Wrestling Match

Bag 1

Bag 2

I finished making a couple more totes yesterday. Both of these are basically the same except for a difference in fabric placement in a couple of spots, and also the kitty cat is different.

I'm having so much fun with these and I've got two more planned out. Not sure when I'll get to those, hopefully by the end of the week.

Bag 2, above, is already spoken for and I will plan to get the other one into my Etsy shop soon.

I started putting on the binding on my king size quilt yesterday, and will hopefully finish with the machine stitching on that today and start on the hand stitching as well. I usually don't create such huge quilts and I'm finding that working with this king size monster is such a work out. Trying to wresting it around while stitching the binding is proving to be my deciding factor that I probably won't make another this size for a very, very long time. I think if my sewing space was set up differently, in a way that is king-size friendly, then I'd feel differently about creating large quilts.

In other news...this month (Aug 16-Sept 15) over at 3 Creative Studios, we have a wonderful guest artist, Margaret Applin-Happ.  I love Margaret's work and she also sells wonderful Thermofax screen designs in her Etsy shop.  Margaret is sharing her techniques on creating digital imagery over at 3CS and will offer new information throughout the month on the 3CS blog.  Please be sure to check that out.

Tail of Two Kitties

I was in a painting mood today and spent a couple of hours on these two. They are approximately 8"x8" and painted on 140 lb. watercolor paper with acrylics. The backgrounds were done on them previously.

What are you doing today?

An Orange Kind of Day

I'm happy to say that I've made a start on my Twelve by Twelve orange color play quilt. Yay! I started with the above neutral fabrics. As I type this the quilt is almost done.

Happy Monday!

More Completed Projects

Wow, I can check some more stuff of my "to finish" list. Yay!

These two handbags/totes were made at the request of a client who purchased a previous kitty bag from me. Actually she requested one blue kitty handbag but I decided to go ahead and make two bags and give her the choice. Well lo and behold she purchased them both. I'm thrilled that both bags will have immediate new homes.

So, what's up next on my "to finish" list? I've got all the supplies ready to start quilting on my wonky star quilt. Just need to get it sandwiched together and go. Oh and I need to get my next Twelve by Twelve quilt completed soon. The color theme is orange and while orange is one of my favorite colors, I just can't seem to figure out what I want to do with it.

Getting Ready for Winter

What??? Who wants to think about winter now? Not me, that's for sure. But I know it will come soon, sooner than I want it to and I am getting back to my wool sock knitting. I sort of took a break from knitting for a couple of months.

Here is the pair I had been in the middle of working on and now they are completed. The colors in this yarn are rich and gorgeous and look much better in real life. They are lovely mossy greens with touches of golds and purples.

And here is the next pair that I've started.

I think I have about six pair ready to start wearing right now, and I have about 6 or 7 more skeins of yarn to knit yet. I have no idea how many pairs of socks I'll end up making as I love to sit and knit when sitting in front of the TV. Which I haven't done at all this summer...sitting in front of the TV that is. But now, every Thursday evening, Project Runway is on again so I will now have some knitting to work on while watching all the drama.

Finally Photos and a Give Away

I finally got a great day for taking photos outside.  I kept hurrying throughout the photo session because we've had so many birds flying around lately, especially the Purple Martins, I was fearful of a flying bird dropping landing somewhere I didn't want it to.  Luckily we (me and the quilts) survived.

First up is Sea Glass.  It measures 53" x 47".

And next is the table runner I worked on last week. This could actually be a table runner or a tall, skinny wall hanging. It measures 18" x 41.5".

Both of these will be appearing soon in my Etsy shop....either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Are you wondering what the give away is? Well hop on over to the 3 Creative Studios blog and check out this post. You could have a chance to win a 6-month membership to The Quilt Show. Hurry, the deadline to enter is August 8.