Happily finished with

two more of my UFOs.  Yippee Ki Yi Yey! 

The first to share is the BBD Easter Blessings all framed.  This piece has been stitched for awhile and laid  placed carefully  in the   armoir that holds my stitchy stuff.  Glad I'm focusing on getting things completed around here, it feels really nice seeing it hanging up in the bedroom now. 

 

The colors of it are perfect in the boudoir which hosts a very outdated mauve color that I 'm not changing.  I just may make a new quilt to go with those colors to update the bedrooms look, Sonya's Windows may be perfect.   I know you can't see it but each piece I stitch I  insert my  name and year into the piece so it's hardly there. 

 

Here's a closer view of the frame selected, I just love it!

On Saturday it was Small Business Appreciation Day.  Luckily I supported 3 small businesses with my typical support. 
Tip Top Frame for the piece above.
A Mano, a local bead shop 's class  that I attended so I could get another UFO finished.  I wasn't able to complete it there,  but made major headway on it so later that night I continued on and was able to finish it Sunday morning. 
oing another little happy Dance!




Ice bracelet completed! Yaaah!

It was very simple to make and I have another ICE Bracelet kitted in light green and coppery red that is so tempting to get into just now.

Perhaps in a week or two it can be started while the making of this one is still fresh in my mind. 


Thanks for stopping by and letting me know what colors work best for The BigEZ.  I appreciate visiting with you and the input.  What ever you are doing today, do it with ZEST!



Jane
Off to pick up PGS#3 from preschool.....




 

I'd love to do that!

Joanne at Thread Head recently posted some of her feather quilting that she's been practicing. 

WOW! 

is all I can say. 

 

Her feathers and quilting designs are fantastic.  I want to be able to do that!

Here's the blog post where she discusses what she did.  Meanwhile I have this little baby I want to get quilted. 

 

I think I may draft a meditating Budha or similiar icon in this since feathering it seems way  beyond my reach just now. 

Even though this piece would be fantastic feathered.  Any ideas? 

It's a project I started a couple of years ago with a precious friend, Trudy.  She actually gave me  the Ricky Timm's fabric after she and another friend attended one of his classes in Colorado.   

I'll percolate some ideas a bit longer since today I'll be cutting that aqua for a piping and the white,

and yes,

I said WHITE for the binding. 

 

Enjoy your day,

Jane

What's around my Home,

A glimpse of several past projects that are displayed for Thanksgiving and during  the Fall time.

 

I can't remember the name of this pattern off the top of my head. 

When I run across the pattern I'll come back to share which one I used. 

The batiks collected to do this project were so much fun to shop for and I remember well the efforts of machine appliquing around those curvy leaves.   The horror of slicing them in half . 

But also the satisfaction when they were reassembled and placed back together. 

 

For the table / candle mat, I used an eyelet yarn to fringe the outer binding after using my favorite Kona Cotton Black to enclose the quiltlet edges.  Would you believe I used 2 bolts of Kona Black so far in my life time!   Both of these pieces are still a favorite of mine.   Another favorite is the pottery face planter made by a local potter artisan, Vera Vivante.  

 

A painting of DH's that is left up year around.  The colors in this are so deep and rich. 

 

The photo does not do it justice. The frame is one I picked up at an auction for $12.00. What a deal! Needless to say the mat boards to finish it off were about 5 times that price.

 

Still, The Elk was named because of my continuous response.  Several years ago, while hand quilting this wall hanging my friends would inquire what I brought to work on.  My answer always was and thus the name just happening for it,

"Still, The Elk". 

 

 

I quilted a puzzle piece outline through the center of this piece horizontally

but when it came time to do the vertical cross pieces I just didn't have it in me.

I did outline quilt the leaves in the leaf print border and did a bit of assymetrical diagonal lines in the inner borders.

When I called it good enough to exhibit for the fall, my thought was to quilt some more on it during the winter, just not sure yet which year I may attempt that! Perhaps some year.

The outline of the elk, foreground and tree is Ultrasuede and was easy enough to work with. The most difficult part besides the hand quilting was finding strips of the sky fabrics to flow with the fiery sky look I was attempting.

I'm happy with it. 

 

Enjoy your Black Friday weekend.  I may go shopping tomorrow before that beading class.

 

Jane

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Blessings

My baby girl turns 35 today.   What a wonderful creature and person she is. 
Beautiful, smart, strong, capable, talented, friendly, kind, loyal and a wonderful part of our family both as a daughter, sister and Mother.  




Happy Birthday Honey.  
{Of course I couldn't ever be biased! }








It seems like it's a tradition now to go to a local indoor water park to celebrate her Birthday and since  it falls just near Thanksgiving and this year was no exception on pilgraming to the water park just before her Birthday, since this year it falls on Thanksgiving Day. 



A nice time was had by all.

 

PGD#1 age 7 trying out her surfing skills, she's another lady in our family with a can do attitude.  

Thanks for those genes Gigi! 

 

 

 

Her Brother PGS#3 almost age 4 spent his time fearlessly in any of the allowed slides and tubing rides besides the kiddie pool with his friend, Ophelia,  Sam's daughter, the daughter  of my daughter's coworking friend. 

 

 

My time was spent from the Hot tub area to my chair near the kiddie pool watching the youngsters play and reading my book.  Happily I was able to finish Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts just this am in my own home. 


What an enjoyable book. If you're not familiar with her writing I hope you give it a try. All the books I've read from her so far have been very nice reads. Her storytelling and character development is grand. Each person within stands ni his own story line and has a unique part in the overall story. Such an unusual mix of different traits of the human spirit is shown and you believe these people could be from your own neighborhood.

I hope you enjoy it too.



We did get home rather late last night and what a lovely surprise in my mail.  A squishy package in the mail.
Corrie and Des were hosting another weekly giveaway at Quilt Taffy and I was selected as the random generated winner. Thanks so much you two. Here's Marmalade made by Bonnie and Camille for Moda Fabrics.

So peeps for your viewing pleasure here's the scrumpious charm pack, how sweet it is!

I love the warmth of those colors, they are just yummy and it will be delicious to work with them. Sorry, my mind is thinking up all the flavorful ways this pack can be played with. LOL Thanks again Corrie and Des, I appreciate it.

May you and yours have a Blessed and Wonderful Thanksgiving Celebration.    Jane

 

 

 

 

Auditioning the Big EZ

 

I was able to finish the August block of Lil'  Miss Shabby Chic and now I'm starting the November block Stitchery of the same LMS.

As you see it's not yet pressed but will be when I start assembling these stitchings into quilt blocks. 

Maybe I'll start that when I start stitching onmy last block,  the 12th one.

 

 

I was able to finish quilting the Big EZ two days before I thought I could get it done! 

Can I get a Hoot Whoot!!!

 

 

This is what I used for the backing and it shows the quilt design nicely.

The quilt feels wonderful so far with the quilting done.

Weighty,

but not that heavy, just right!

                                 

I wish I had just a bit more of this fabric because then a biased binding of this would work beautifully,

but I don't.

So I'm audtioning which combination of fabrics to use for  the piping/binding.

 

I found this stripe fabric in my stash and the colors work nicely with that large floral focal fabric. So an option is Striped piping with a white Binding? I really like the look of this so far, but white on the edge???!!!?


Stripe Piping w/ White binding, Option 1

Aqua pipng w/ white binding, Option 2-


















Striped piping with Aqua Binding, Option 3?











Perhaps the stripe piping with the aqua binding which would be much easier for housekeeping purposes since this is for PGD#1's bed, and I've never used a white binding before or have seen too many others that have either.  The down side to this is that her bedroom is a softer pink and that aqua may not look the best.   Also since orange is her favorite color and the orange in this quilt comes out more of a dirty yellow in the pics it's a nice blend to introduce it in her bedroom. 



From a distance this is how the quilt top looks with the auditioning white binding showing how both the aqua and the striped fabbies look as the piping.   It's a nice clean look and the one I am perferring just now.  In my eyes, the quilt seems to be asking for white edging. 

 Please help me out, which one?
Any ideas to help me out of my dilema? 
Have you ever seen or used a quilt bound with white? 

I'll be ruminating over this, so any wisdom or ideas you 'd be willing to share, I'd appreciate.

I have 'til Sunday before I'll be cutting and starting to sew the pieces together. 

All of my pictures can be enlarged for a better view if you wish,  just click the pic to see more of the details.




Ahh....., it's so nice not cooking the Thanksgiving Dinner today.  DH and I will be  going to a restaurant to have our Holiday dinner.  DS and his family are celebrating with my DIL's family and DD and family were going to spend it with SIL's  home, ( that was actually  cancelled  last moment just before our getaway, and now they are on there own).   Glad I had time to post this though truth be told, I am missing the aroma that once spilled out of my kitchen on the years gone past and the warmth of family surrounding us.     

Enjoy your blessings, Jane
 

Still here on the Big EZ

I'm progressing along nicely on the Big EZ.   I think I've gone through about 12 bobbins full of thread so far and seems like it's taking longer than it should for a twin size quilt.   The next time I'm quilting on the DSM, my plan is to actually count how many bobbins I use.  During break times I've been spending quality time on the computer and have run across even more quilts that I want to make.  Lord knows where they'll end up but I am really trying too stay focused on this quilt before I'll allow myself to jump to something else.  Boy, that AADD that I self diagnosed  is really adding trials  and of course a spark to my life while I doing my crafts.    LOL

I did pick up my JOY from the framers. While on the track of getting UFO's finished around here, I was able to bring two CXS (counted Cross Stitch) pieces to two different framers. This one, Michaels did on a frame I had in for it.    Initially I was going to frame it myself, then reality and being afraid of messing it up shook me into bringing quickly to Felicia at Michaels.



Joyful Summer, designed by Country Cottage Needleworks
stitched on 28 count white linen
with the called for threads 2/2

She did a nice job with centering the design.  I just wish I had changed to a non glare  glass.  No matter how many times this photo was taken, there was a glare and flash. 
Be it daylight, night time with indoor lamps on, or the camera flash, it continued to get the "flash on the glass" effect.  Talented, Aren't I?








This one was the best out of 5 shots!  You can click on it to get a larger view if you wish. I know my photography skills are lacking, but they will be getting better.  DH and I just went to an adult education class on photography and learned quite a few tips.  We only went for the first lass and the instructor, a local photographer and DJ said we could contact him at any time to ask additional questions.  It was a two night event initially with a week in between classes.  But because of Hurricane Sandy the first class had to be cancelled.  When it was scheduled, there was only 3 night break between classes and not enough time for us to play and practice what we learned in the first night.  Yippee!  Now I know how to turn off the camera  flash. 
The camera  we are using is a Canon Powershot A590IS and it's an 8 megapixal/4X Zoom  which we've had for years.  I can see a new camera coming into this household soon, very very soon.  First things first though, Christmas shopping and the kitchen remodel need to be completed and paid for first.   We also were able to check out that all of the Nikkon lenses we have from our old 35mm manual Nikkon  will fit the new Nikkon digital cameras.  Good to know!  That will save quite a bit of mula so I can use it elsewhere. 

I also was able to reorganize my beading stash recently.    It took about 12 hours (3 days)  to go through the copious amount of packages, little containers and organizers that were tucked away in several areas through out the home.    I consolidated, cleaned and laid out a plan how to get some of those UFOs completed while sorting. 
Part of the plan is to attend a beading class after Thanksgiving to continue doing the Ice Bracelet I started with a friend well over a year ago.   I am intimitated to continue making this on my own and need the encouragement of more saavy beaders so with this already paid for and scheduled I can see this finishing up too. 

While cleaning up this mess, I found a couple of kitted earrings that I wanted to make.  Staying true with the wish to finish more  projects I attempted the silver manipulations to make drops for pierced earring wires.  Eeeks!  E-gads...The result was too catywampus, so I tucked those in with the ICE Bracelet class parts and am hoping for  a refresher on that technique during that class too.  It's been ages since I've done any of that and it shows how rusty I am.

Besides that bit of kits I also ran across the 2 extra magnification lenses for the MagEyes I use for beading, CXS and even embroidery.   Another project is hatching in this evil brain of mine.... 

 BUT STOP, I say!   Finish the quilting on the BIG EZ first!

Breathe........ 

Stay Calm and Carry On,

Jane

Meandering on the Big EZ

Not too much going on just now.  Recovering from a nasty flubug that gripped me quickly on Sunday.  Uhhh!  Thought I was actually passing another kidney stone or two but no just neuro muscular pains.  Probably from heaving so thoroughly. The  Official diagnosis from Dr, I kid you not "You've got a case of the "Pukey poopies".  Hows that for a proper dx?  LOL
Sums it up nicely and it's just what it was.  Though my insides still feel like a huge battle was fought and lost,  but I am starting to feel at least human again.  TG!


For my creations I've been trying to add a couple of threads to the Miss Shabby Chic I started last year.  I'm on my 5th block now and doing the August one.  Hopefully I'll be done that be this weekend and can start another block, maybe I'll do the September one next.  I made more headway this past Saturday when our Circle of Friends Quilt Group met at the local fire station.

Perhaps I can push my efforts on this and try to get the other 7 done by the end of this year.  That means one block a week so I should be close to the year end if I can keep up. 

Also, I played around for awhile trying to get a good quilting design for the Lil' Miss' Big EZ quilt.   Drawing on the white board is such a great concept and so simple which I dearly thank Dawn Ramiriz, The Pajama Quilter for.  Ever since I saw it on her DVD, I have been using it and besides the apparant auditioning the design it also helps muscle memory to draw it out so it actually comes out better as you progress.  Practice.... practice... practice. 

My final decision was for  a wonky stylized flower. 

Here's a peak or two.

I'm only about 1/4 th of the way done but here too I'll be putting forth a small effort each day.  I was thinking if I sew 2 bobbins worth of thread each day, then by Thanksgiving if not sooner it'll be quilted and ready for the next step.



I use big yellow pins to mark where I need to start the next day
when I hit a road block while quilting.  Makes it easier to start
right back up without searching. 

I was progressing along fine and then my tension seemed to slip. 

I could see my bobbin thread looping on the top (aka: eyelash) and knew I needed to lower my top tension number. 

So I decided that was enough for today

and will clean my machine

and do the adjustments needed

to start fresh tomorrow. 

 

 

Oh why, oh why  does this have to happen just when I'm on a good flow?  Beats me!  But I will prevail.  

Que sera!

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your day,

Jane

Thoroughly spoiled

Celebrated another Birthday today and I am grateful for Family, Friends and my life.

Namaste,
Jane

Hockey Boy

Second time on ice.

Watch me Meme! 
It's the most fun to slide on my knees, look how far I go.

Learning and living his dream since he was 2.

What a workout for this lil' duffer.
What a cutie!

Check out lil' Hockey Boy.  He wants to be the goalie.   He is just adorable and such a sweetie pie and has a natural athletic ability.  He's learning to ice skate and just started Hockey (a dream he's had for the longest time it seems).  For the past couple of years he'd "skate" with his socks on my hard wood floors pretending to be a hockey player.    Now if only we can get him to pronounce his S's, C's and other letters correctly.    lol

Enjoy your day,
Jane

Passion for my Ginghers

 

 



Sorry for the Glare, I still need help with my photography skills.

A blurry shot of the beaded  tassel.
Oh I need a tripod to help stabilize these little tremors.

 

 

 

I was able to make time to finish this Sheperd's Bush Scissor fob for my Gingher Scissors - Sonia.  The design has been  stitched for  months.  Again with this kit I wasn't thrilled with the trim that was included in the kit for  finishing it  and despite shopping when ever possible and using some vendors that I had done business with in the past,  I came up empty.

I was even shopping on ebay when I found Nancy2500 with an assortment of chenille and cluny lace trims besides some charms, Heaven!  

While waiting for my order and working on another project I rumaged through my  DMC 5 storage bin.  Eureke!  I stumbled onto this glittered ribbon I bought years ago from Ribbonsmythe, Ahhh yes, thinking to myself this could work. and Viola!! When my little Circle of Friends quilting group recently met I brought this to work on.

Instead of having the ribbon trim just end tied and left dangling as per the instructions, a little cascade of beeds with a  beaded tassel  was called for in my eyes. 

 

Since it took me several  days to finish stitching on the ribbon imagine my delight when my shipment from Nancy came.  Yippee! 



Such lovely trims and charms.  So what what else could be better than the  little scissor charm that  I just received to make the fob  complete.  Perfect!

 

Check out all the other trims I received from Nancy.    I found out she also has a web business for hand dyes and trims through her blog.  And guess what else?   She'll be hosting a tremendous giveaway starting in December.   So when you have time and if you are interested in items like these,  go to her site: Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.    Her trims are beautifully done and she is a very generous vendor.

Jane
 

 

A nice Halloween

Janice or The Wild Thing?

Remember last week  I mentioned a friend called out an SOS for her Halloween costume?  Well here she is with all of her animal friends.  This teacher goes all out in everything she does.  She actually borrowed an inflatable Frankenstein so it could attend the creepy story she read during reading.   I actually didn't do that much, brain storming, sewing animal sleeves on pillows and figuring how to show all of her friends with her.  Too Cute Janice, great idea!

Then this little moppet as the Bride of Frankenstein.  Her costume actually is from an alien costume.  I had sent a video clip of the Bride of Frankenstein to her Mom so she could buy the appropriate materials for me to make a costume about 3 weeks before Halloween. 

Well my DD went to the closest Joann's, about 90 minutes away with the expense of a Ferry ride and bought cob web material in plastic packaging and a black shimmery spider web  lace that she thought I could attach to PGD#1 bridal outfit.  initially it's what we discussed but DD didn't want lil' Miss bride outfit distressed and it's still a little big for her.  What she bought just  would not work, so I brought her to the den and pulled out that clip and showed her how Frankestein's bride was dressed.  A satin type sheet even would work, I could make her dress from that or fabric similiar to that then use a white turtle neck shirt underneath it if she could find it.  Luckily she found this Alien costume that worked just fine. 

 

Not to be left out her little brother PGS#3 was a monkey and truer words were never said.  He didn't let his Dad put the Monkey face hood on, it's too hot, etc.......  He's only 3.

Preschool getting lined up for the Halloween Parade, check out the lil' monkey towards the end.

And not to leave out my other two grandchildren, PGS#2 just got his learner's permit.  Congratulations!
And PGS#1 just turned 19 on the 30th, Happy Birthday Honey.  I miss you.