BOM Placemat

One of the guilds I belong to is doing a block of the month, but after so many years of doing these, it becomes a question of what to do with these blocks. So, this year I have decided to make placemats. Thanks to 3 Creative Studios for the idea. Check out their blog for some really good ideas and freebies. Anyway, the first block is "paper pinwheels". It had a plain 6" center so I decided to replace it with a pinwheel, added borders to the sides and this is the result. I won three, one yard pieces, from the same line in 2003! It's wonderful fabric but really didn't go with anything I had or any project on my to do list. Sad that it had to wait so long to become part of something but I'm happy with the way it turned out. If you look close there is some of the salmon-y color in the little flowers.

Finger Painting?!

I'm almost (notice I said "almost") embarrassed to post these pictures, but we had too much fun not to share. The first picture shows the gelatin "plate" with a few squirts of paint on it, paint bottles, and Brandy's hands. You can make the plates in any shape....we had rectangle, round, domed, and large square ones. It's really amazing just how tough and firm these things are! We were able to pick them up, wipe or rinse them off with water, plus you can re-use them for several weeks if you store them in the fridge. Just make sure they are well labeled....can you just imagine what would happen if someone tried to eat some?

Okay, next picture is Kaye's large square plate with various colors on it. See the big comb? That really created some interesting patterns. Once the paint is on, a piece of pfd fabric is carefully laid on top and pressed into the paint. We used a brayer, rolling pin, combs, and a baker's bench knife, not forgetting to mention our hands, to spread all that paint around. The gelatin plate "gave" just enough to allow us to push and skoosh and smush all we wanted. It really was like being in kindergarten or even pre-school.

Yep, those are Brandy's hands again. We gave up on the plastic gloves! Acrylic paint washes off!

It took us awhile to figure out that we were probably using way too much paint........some of the pieces are stiff as a board! Think a sewing machine needle will go through 1/4" of paint? We tied a clothes line across the kitchen to hang some pieces and the rest are on the floor. Now the big challenge is what on earth will we do with these? Some are "very interesting", our polite way of saying yuk, but you just have to imagine some neat stitching and embellishing on them.

Yo-yo's and Applique

Yo-yo's....I need many, many more of these cute little things! This project was put away for awhile (not telling how long!), and almost forgotten. It seems that January is the month to dig out our ufo's or phd's and make a list of those projects begging to be finished and this one was yelling pretty loud. Anyhow, the pattern calls for 384 yo-yo's. Yes, 384!! Not to mention all the applique and bias stems! Each hexagon block has 6 yo-yo's.......that comes out to a lot of blocks, 64 to be exact. Time to re-think this project even though I love, love the finished quilt, it needs to be quite a bit smaller. The design comes from Barb Adams and Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs and is in their book "Lovina's Pressed Flowers".

There are just too many new and exciting patterns, fabric, and techniques that I want to try, to ever get everything finished. Example in point: tomorrow three of my friends are coming over to play with jello! I just put my gelatin "plate" in the fridge to harden. Phil just rolls his eyes and shakes his head when strange things happen around here. Anyway, what does fabric, gelatin, and paint equal? Check back in a few days to find out. If you subscribe to Quilting Arts magazine, check out the cover of the Aug/Sept issue for a hint.

Surprise Package!!

This package came in the mail Saturday morning from Marina who lives in Australia! I couldn't wait to open it, especially since it really did come as a total surprise! Marina was my swap partner last fall as part of the Stitchers Angel Swap hosted by Helen Stubbings. We've become cyber-friends and e-mail back and forth about once a week. It has been so much fun and very interesting to exchange information and ideas with someone on the other side of the world. Marina is sweltering in the heat of summer while I'm trying to stay warm 'cause it's the middle of winter here. What's even more interesting is the fact that we both have been working on an on-line bom from Bunny Hill Designs!! Of course, I'm way behind on mine....but that's nothing new for  me! 

There is a calendar called "Wild Australians" (animals indigenous to AU), three big pieces of fabric, which I have a plan for already), and a copy of Patchwork.  Now, what Marina doesn't know, is that there is an article in the magazine that references my other Stitchers Angel, Deb Gardiner, who is a designer of dolls and other things!!  Is all of this a coincidence or what?  I thinks it is pretty neat and so...Thank You, Marina, you are a keeper.

Patchwork Posies and UFO's

Happy New Year everyone! One of my "resolutions" should be to post more often! I've been reading all of your blogs and forgot about mine.

Well, I've been working on this little quilt from a workshop with the gals from Blackbird Designs, Barb and Alma. Yes, it was a couple of Januarys ago and I've been trying to hand quilt it for the past year (or so). My hand quilting goes ver-r-ry slowly, but I am determined to finish this one. All of those little round buds were supposed to be appliqued circles which were replaced by yo-yo's because they are more fun to make plus they add a little character. The background fabric is creamy tan like the full photo, not off white like the close-up.

I've spent the past week trying to re-organize my sewing room along with a lot of other bloggers. lol My DH tells me that it seems like I'm alway putting things away or just moving stuff from one spot to another....he's right. Time to weed out things I know I'll never use - craft & quilting stuff - and find homes for those ufo's I'm never going to finish. Why do so many of us, crafters and quilters, seem to always have multiple projects going on at one time? Is it because we are creative and the creative mind never stops? Or do we just become bored without multiple projects to work on?