Let Them Eat Cake!

Today I got a wonderful surprise. I dropped by JoAnn's to take Jeanette her birthday present - the kendle case I showed you several days ago. Look what she brought me! Wow! It's even better tasting than it looks! She's a wonder with cakes and I am so honored for her to make this killer cake for me. So I shared with the girls at the sewing circle and still have plenty to have with hubby. My birthday was Saturday and to still be getting wonderful things... lucky me. This also smells to die for. 

untitled finished

As I'd planned I finished the hand work on this untitled piece 

last night - between the movie and a yummy carrot cake with 

coconut icing cup cake. 

Got outside today to take some better photos. 

 Close up of the quilting on the background section. 

and of course the nasty hand work

on the binding on the back. 

I've gotten several cool names so far:

Frets Afire, Copper Aflutter, Weaving A Mystery

Memories in Time, Spirit Dance, Spiritual Warrior

and The Eve of Retaliation. 

Just leave a comment of a name you think will fit

this wall hanging and if yours is selected for it's 

name you'll win a nice selection of fabrics. 

Winner will be announced on May 2nd.

Thanks for your help. 

New Work In Progress - needing a name

It's been a wonderful day so far. I took the weekend off - no classes scheduled and no plans - ah bliss. So I started my day off with coffee and a sticky bun on the deck and then moved into the sewing room and have been buzzing away happily ever since. I made a mug rug to go with the Kindle cover and then started this wall hanging. It's now down to my very least fav part - hand sewing - just hate it. But hopefully I'll get this done while watching TV tonight - tonight's movie is Forbidden Planet - 1956 syfi classic.  I need to go ponder on dinner. 


A Little Give A Way
This piece is un-named - if a name hits you please leave me a comment. The person who comes up with the name I pick out for this piece will win a nice little bundle of fabric. The winner will be announced on May 2nd. So leave as many comments as you like. 

A Fun Day

This morning Angel came down and we headed out

for the Farmer's Market and looked at a lot of plants. 

She was getting stuff for outside and I got 2 new house plants. 

 Everything was very pretty and the weather was perfect. 

 My little sister, my friend. 

 Then we went to one of the antique shops and 

I fell in love with this bookcase. 

A present Angel got for me at the flea market. 

The top one is so me and

my hubby related to the bottom one. 

We had a good lunch out and also went into

this fun shop where all the stuff is from the 50's - 70's.

It was a real flash back in time. 

Kindle Cover

This Kindle cover is for my good friend Jeanette. 

Her birthday was Tuesday and I didn't know the size of 

her Kindle so I put an IOU a Kindle case inside her card. 

Got the measurements and drew up a pattern. 

I did some of my typical funky patchwork. 

Couldn't decide if I wanted a button or hook & loop?

 Quilted a good size section of the fabric.

Nothing fancy, but should hold up well for being toted around.

Used bamboo batting to keep it soft. 

I also cut out a pillow case this am 

and will move on to that next. I went threw all my

fabrics a little while back and some of them just

weren't as wow as they once were to me. 

So I put all the ones with no wow appeal aside 

and those will become pillowcases. 

When I first started quilting I bought any fabric that I liked

and never thought about how it would work into a quilt. 

I have a good bit of strange stuff now. 

LIke today's pillow case...

what was I thinking?

A LIttle of This and A LIttle Of That

This morning we put our new deck box together. It was pretty big

and holds our folding chairs that are fabric and the cushions I made

for the metal table & chairs. This will keep them out of the weather

and sun when we're not using them. Hubby even taped up the holes 

in the back of the box to keep those pesky wasps from making this their new home. 

 I wanted to do some sewing today on a project for a friend

and when I was straightening up the sewing room for this

I put Klunker on his background quilt just to see how he 

looked and was very pleased. There is still much work

to do on this and as soon as I've completed the quilts

below I'll get right back on this. 

This beautiful hand cross stitched quilt was done by my dear friend's mom and I'm putting the binding on it for her. There are 2 of these - she made one for each of her daughters.
Since it's a Christmas quilt I found some pretty white on white fabric with tiny holly leaves for the binding. Hopefully I'll get the first side of the binding done today.  I did fall into the couch for a little while with a cup of tea and a TMC old B&W movie. Oh well, I'm a sucker for movies.

Zen Coffee Note Cards

Yesterday I got all of my new Zen Coffee not cards posted on Etsy. 

These can be purchased as singles and sets of 4 and 8. 

You can mix up your sets any way you like. (6 designs)

 Klunker of course and his new friend Sally.

 And the new cup series.

It's going to be raining all day today and I'm baby sitting. My friend's dog had surgery 
yesterday and I"m going over to keep him company while his mommy and daddy are
at work. He's not fond of storms and it's going to be nasty today. You just shouldn't be 
scared and in pain too, poor little guy. Think I'll give my hands a rest and read while
I'm over there today, and hope we don't hear the tornado sirens. 

Klunker Assembled and Ready for his Background

Yesterday I got Klunker all glued together. I have a little tweaking to do, 

but he's pretty much done. 

Hopefully today I'll get a fair amount done on his "ocean". 

There is much free motion to do on that. 

 Each section of copper has a number engraved into. 

This way I wouldn't loose my mind trying to put him together. 

Working out the puzzle of glueing him together. 

 Finding just the right parts for his eye. 

Who would have thought that this glue would work so very 

well for glueing porous and non-porous items together. 

Now all glued and ready for his background. 

More drawings for my note cards. 

This coffee set will have 4 designs. 

Sewing Withdrawal

Well it's just been days since I've done any sewing - 7 as of today. I do feel like I'm not quite centered when no creating is going on. I have had time to squeeze in a little doodling but that's about it. 

With Earth day this month I wanted to share the tote bag I made from a bird seed bag. 

There was almost nothing left over from the original bag. They only thing tossed out 

was from evening up the bottom. The wonderful Edna showed me how to make this. The only thing you need to keep in mind is don't use your regular sewing machine needle. She had me get a leather needle and it worked great. I just used regular thread too. So now Angel has a big old tote for her treasure hunts at the flea markets/yard sales. The handles were cut off the top of the bag above where the pretty bird drawing is. 

This morning I finished up Angel's hand print zen doodle.

I used water color pencils to color this in - you use

very little water. Just enough to blend the colors. 

And speaking of zen doodles this was done for the back of my new

line of note cards which will feature my doodles. 

The name was a suggestion from Stefanie when I told her

I did all my drawing in the morning when I'm having my coffee. 

I really liked it and drew up this cup of my favorite beverage yesterday. 

So after many days of no sewing - tomorrow I'm planning a good sewing day

with Stefanie and maybe just maybe next week I'll be back on my 

normal schedule and can go to my sewing social - I sure do miss the girls.

For now I need to watch a DVD workshop by Malka Dubrowsky. It's a new twist on Shibori techniques. It is a download from Quilting Arts. I LOVE their DVD Workshops. 

Any time they are on sale I always try to get any I can. I really lucked out

on this one when they had a special for 10 cents! Who would pass that up?

What's Up In My Studio

These post cards sold today! Yea. I'm glad they will be staying

together as a set. 

I am making a hand zen doodle for my 

sister and got the line work finished

this morning. I will be adding color

to this like I did on mine below. 

I colored this with water color pencils. 

I was a little apprehensive that the water 

would warp the paper, but it didn't and I 

really like the way it came out. 

Have been working out of the house this week so

not as much sewing going on. Have several projects

needing my attention. Quilt bindings for a friend, finish up 

Klunker's background and I have another quilt that is just

getting started. I'm also thinking of adding some zen tangle note cards

to my Etsy shop and I need to get working on them. 

Life is never boring at least. 

The Little Things I Enjoy

Monday between the time the electric was off,

due to some nasty storms I did get a little sewing done. 

More post cards for my Etsy shop. 

I was down to just one left in the shop.

 Lion's Gate

Nightshade 1 of 3

Nightshade 2 of 3

Nightshade 3 of 3

Have been ignoring my zen doodles and this morning started this hand print

for my little sister. It may take up to a week to finish if I can get this much done

every day. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy this doodling. 

Klunker Has All His Parts

Yesterday I got all the scales cut out and torched for Klunker's body. 
He's looking pretty good. He still needs a little tweaking but he's close to finished. 
The eye I have in place is temporary and I'm on the hunt for a better one. 
So now I can get back to Klunker's ocean. 
I have a beautiful selection of sea colors of Sulky threads for his free motion. 

Have jewelry class today and then Edna and I are off to 

one of our favorite hardware stores. Looking for

goodies and tools for mixed media and jewelry. 

Maybe I'll find Klunker's eye.

Klunker Gets Some Face Time

Yesterday I had time to work on Klunker more and

finished his top and bottom fins and his face. 

Now to find the perfect hardware for his eye...hum what will it be?

These giant scissors hubby got for me are really coming 

in handy for this project. 

His "rivets" are brads from my scrap booking goodies. 

The metal I'm using is 40 gauge copper sheet. 

The shadowing is done with a mini torch. 

Today I'll work on his many scales. 

His background has been started as a raw edge applique 

quilt, but there is tons of free motion yet to be done on that. 

All the while I'm working on this I'm thinking on 

how it will be mounted. I have several ideas, mount on 

plexiglass, canvas, hardbord, clayboard - just not sure yet.