A Few Small Projects

I made this little trivet to go with some of my new kitchen decor. 

It is a similar pattern to the design in the door I did in painted glass.

It's about 5 x 7. 

This is the 9 patch I was talking about, that is cut into

4 parts then put back together. This was on the Moda Bakeshop site.

I want to try this again with brighter colors and see how it 

works out. I'm planning on turning these 2 little blocks into ATC's.

I need to get back to Hubby's 3 Stooges quilt. I only have the binding left to do. I don't like putting binding on so if I don't watch myself it could lay there for weeks. After I get it quilted the fun level goes down hill quick for me. But I saved it from the UFO pile once and it just can't go back there. So I'll try to start on it in the morning. 

Rainy Days

Not much going on today but did want to share a site I found with Free Amy Butler patterns on it. These are some very cute quilts and several nice accessories too. 

Was reading several blogs yesterday and found this really good idea. The link was on Fiber Fabrications and took me to Moda Bake Shop my first visit was very enjoyable. Wonderful fun projects and tons of ideas. The one very simple one that caught me eye and I'm going to try it this afternoon, is a pattern made with their crazy eight charm packs. The project is listed under the name of Christmas table topper and was done by Rachel of PS i Quilt. It's such a wonderfully simple idea and I just love it. She starts off with a 9 patch and then cuts in into 4 parts and reassembles into a wonderful block. I'm going to try it with some precut 2.5 squares I picked up at the quilt show and see how it works. There was another pattern on there that really took me back and it was the little stuffed strawberries made of red cloth with white dots. My mom used to make these when I was a teenager. They are using them for pin cushions but mother would always make a bunch and put them in the little wooden baskets that you would buy real strawberries in at the farmer's market. Oh nice memory. Well need to get back to it, doing some framing today and need to get it done.

A Sunny Saturday

Today was a beautiful day, with the weather being a bit warmer here. 

Hubby and I went out to run some errands and while being

driven around I was pondering the fabrics I'd use on the

Birthday Block Swap. I wanted to use different fabrics

and have picked out 3 groups.  

The first group is blues and greens

with a little dragon fly tossed in.

The second group is one of my favorites, Civil War Prints.

And last some cute pinks that I got while on vacation

in Gatlinburg at the Cherry Pit.

This last fabric is just something I picked up at Walmart

a few days ago when in there looking for oven mitts. It 

was just too cute to pass up. I always make little Christmas

theme gifts to give to family at Thanksgiving and this fabric

will make very cute pot holders I'm thinking. 

Yes, Angel I got this for you mostly.

This last photo is one of my entries for the Tomato Festival.

The tattooed tomato said it all. I Love East Nashville.

I do indeed. All the photos around the tomato were taken

a few days ago when I was out plundering in the neighborhood.

They are all the local watering holes, 

good eateries and other favorite places.  

I do love this neighborhood, it's such a quirky mix.

Roaming The Old Neighborhoods

I've lived in East Nashville the bulk of my life and just love it here. Over the years the area has changed in some ways but in others not so much. 

A drug store where I got ice cream when I was 6 is now a restaurant, and beautiful old homes became gift shops. I'm thankful to the beautiful old buildings still being there to trigger my memories. The reason I was out roaming around was to take photos of the area that will be used in one of my entries for the Tomato Festival art show at the Art & Invention Gallery. Every year during the festival they have a big show of Tomato Art. So yesterday with great weather I took a walk threw this beautiful neighborhood and took tons of photos and of course stopped and shopped and had a few great snacks. 

I Dream of Weenie is a great place for lunch if you're on the go. It is inside a yellow VW van. It's really cute and the food is great. My dog had vadalia onion relish with rosemary and was yum. It's VW can be seen in the background in the next photo.

This is the gallery that has the tomato art. They have wonderful art

year round, but for one month it's tomatoville. The day of the 

festival they close the road and have a craft show in the street.

They have lots of kids activities so it's for the whole family.

After a good bit of walking and more photos I ended up at Sweet 16th. OH DEAR.

Well you just have to go in and get something. I fell pray to a Heavenly Scone and a peach oatmeal square. This little bakery is just wonderful. If you are in the area and haven't tried it out yet, well shame on you. I don't have words for how wonderful their goodies are. I near drove off the road when I took the first bite of my peach oatmeal square it was beyond wonderful. Every thing I've ever gotten there was great and the husband/wife owners are super nice folks, always a great smile when you go in.

I then ventured out to JoAnns and bought batting and of course fabric and it made a wonderful ending to a great day.

Tiny Tiles and Little Details

Things are coming to an end with the kitchen remodel.

I'm glad too. It's been a huge learning experience.

This is the door from our kitchen into the laundry room.

I used glass paint and the faux leading to give

myself a poor man's stained glass window.

Yesterday we (mostly my hubby) did the tile back splash.

I was in charge of cutting the tiles apart and just

being the extra set of hands he needed.

The 1" tiles were in sheets of 12 x 12 and they went

up pretty easy. I love the look. So on Sunday we'll

do the grout and the kitchen will be DONE!

It seems like it's taken a long time and it 

all started back in March when we picked out

our cabinets. It was sure a mess around here

while it was being done, but all is back

to normal now. The dogs have recovered

from the days of nail guns and compressors and

are back to snoozing on the couch.

I also did the small upper cabinets glass to match

the door. I did get rid of a huge amount of my

pig collection and only a few came back into

the kitchen. I'm trying to be clutter free.

So after a bit of house cleaning today I'm back to

quilting. AAAAhhhhhh.

I've promised myself I'm finishing up some of those

dreaded UFO's prior to starting anything new.

The oldest quilt is on the machine now ready to be 

quilted. It's for hubby. I found this 3 Stooges fabric 

many months ago (years actually) and made him a 

lap quilt for the sofa. I'd intended to have it done

by last Christmas, but you know how that goes.

Still not finished with my second entry for the

tomato festival and need to get on that very soon.

Not to mention the 2 swaps I've signed up for.

Being busy is wonderful.

Block Swap To Celebrate A Birthday

Linda B. who has the very entertaining blog Fiber Fabrications is having a block swap to celebrate her blog's 200th post. I think I got that right, let me know Linda if I've goofed. Anyway she has this lovely vintage quilt that will be our inspiration. We will each make 12 blocks using this pattern. Our signatures will be in the center section. This will make a beautiful quilt when I get my 12 different blocks back. As always I'm way ahead of myself thinking of those finished blocks coming my way.

I'm pretty sure which fabric I will use for the square sections. Linda has left the colors up to the quilters so our personality will show. Thanks Linda. The long center section will be our signature section, and that will be in muslin. Linda said it would be interesting to see someone trying to figure this out many years from now. A finished quilt made from these blocks will be kind of like a time capsule. I'm not sure at this point if I want all 12 of my blocks to be the same colors, thinking not. I have several different types of fabric I really love and would love to do several blocks each using these fabrics. It will be fun no matter what. I'll keep you updated when I've started my blocks

Finished quilting a baby quilt for a friend on Monday. I was wondering what to work on next and thought it might be a good time to deal with some of my UFOs. They do haunt us don't they. I have 3 or 4 up stairs in my fabric and cutting room that cry from time to time to be finished. The oldest one was started for my hubby pretty much when I started quilting. I didn't really have a clue then and started something that wasn't working out so I just put it aside and have given it little thought since then. So yesterday I got it out and the top just fell together and is now finished. I had the back fabric with it and now it's on the machine ready to be quilted! Now that wasn't so hard was it. I will hopefully get it quilted by the fist of next week. 

But for today we're tiling our kitchen back splash. Hubby has done tile before but not on walls so this will be a little different for us both. It's glass tile too which neither of us has done before. It will be very pretty when finished but for now it's an adventure. This is the very last thing to do to the kitchen. I've finished the faux stained glass door and window treatments and it's all coming together. There for a while it was  a real mess, so glad it's all behind us now.

Olivia - She's Ready For Her Close-Up

Olivia has been finished for almost a month, but I just now got

around to getting her photo done. 

I made this little lap quilt for snuggling on the couch. 

I've been a fan of Olivia for ever and  started collecting 

the fabric at the 07 Paducah Quilt Show.

I've bought way more than I needed 

(couldn't stop myself) over the past 2 years.

 

A Few Quick Projects

One of my quilting buddies, is making a baby quilt and it has animals on it from the jungle. The fabric is called jungle babies. It's real cute and this fabric that I made Leroy out of is from that collection. I made Leroy to go with her baby quilt. This was the first time I'd tried to make anything like this and it was a little odd to start off with

but in short time it all made sense. I'm not a big fan of following a pattern and prefer to just wing it. Most patterns seem to me, to be written for people who know how to sew and use patterns. They never seem real clear to me. It may be just me. 

Since I'd not been sewing much I needed some

instant gratification and made a few ATC's.

I really enjoy making these tiny little quilts.

One ended up so nice I didn't want to cut it down to ATC

size so it will become a greeting card I think.

I did some fabic dying the other night and use these

little experiemtns for these ATC's. I'm new to dyeing and

it's really interesting to see what happens. 

Some of the dyeing I've done on pre-printed fabric

has turned out very interesting and very often filled

with surprises.

How One Hobby Effects The Others

With the kitchen being almost done (only 2 things left to do) I'm 

getting close to being able to get back to quilting. 

These are the new window toppers in my kitchen. I just

love this fabric and I"m going to make cushions for the 

dinning room chairs to match. My little flying pig

is so happy to be back on top of the stove.

_______

One of the two things I'm still working on is the door that is between my kitchen and laundry room. The laundry room/pantry used to be the back porch of this old 77 year home. 

When this porch was made into a room, way before we bought this place the original door was never taken down so we've kept it, glass door knob and all. 

I put the faux stained glass on it many years back. It was a pond with dragonflies and cattails.

This no longer went with out new decor. I wanted a  craftsman style design on the door and decided on this simple Frank Lloyd Wright design. It is, with a few edits from the Lake Geneva Inn, in Lake Geneva WI. ca. 1911.

The edits I made were to make it easier for the technique I'm using. 

The white background is my layout taped to the bottom of the glass.

While looking on line for the colors used in this style of window I came across so many beautiful stained glass sites. I've seen a lot of stained glass quilts at the many shows and I've always wanted to give it a try. I've even bought the "leading" to use and have it in the stash upstairs. So I'm planning on my next project being a stained glass experiment. I may make an ATC just to try it out, before moving on to a wall hanging. 

With so many books, fabrics and trims I have a tendency to forget what I have stashed away. Sometimes I need a gentle reminder of what is up there in all those goodies. This door reminded me of the beautiful stained glass quilts I'd so admired and wanted to try. 

Another reminder of a something I wanted to try came this weekend at the 4th cookout. While the guys were cooking (we loved that by the way) I was looking over a new book I'd gotten, Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein and Paula was working on one of her 2 cathedral window quilts. She is doing one on a muslin background and it has bright colors as the windows. The other one (my fav) is on black with the windows being material from ties. It's beautiful and both are 100% hand done. Something I admire greatly. Paula loves to do hand work and has the tinniest even stitches. Something I dearly need to practice on. I need to make at least one window and put it on my bulletin board as a reminder. I keep new blocks and other new techniques there to inspire me, and to tickle my memory.