I HEART Etsy

So let me tell you, if you don't know, about my love of Etsy.  It is like Ebay, but for crafty, homemade items.  Like quilts, fabric, patterns, etc.  I spend hours looking at stuff.  Mostly looking, sometimes buying.  What is superb about Etsy is the new bunch of pics that show up when you first go to the site.  It is usually some beautiful, color-coordinated assortment of stuff.  Check out the one I got tonight...

I love aqua and red.  Someday I'm going to make an aqua and red quilt for myself.  But right now, all I can do cruise Etsy, longingly....LOL.  But this is what I discovered today.  A fabric moratorium has no impact on buying finished quilts from Etsy sellers.  You see, I really think that I have an obligation as a fellow quilter to support some of these artists.  Let me show you what I bought today.... ;-)  from moonspiritstudios....

How cute is this little Poppy wallhanging.  It is only about 8" x 17"....so cute for my classroom. 

From QuiltsandQuotes...a heart!

Now how shizzley is this little heart wallhanging.  It is barely bigger than a postcard, but oh so adorable!

Etsy is easy to use, easy to pay, and what a place for all sorts of crafters to get together.  Oh yeah, check out the bookmarks (hand dyed fabric) that I've purchased for my family.  They come is lots of colors...

Now, the lady who does the bookmarks also sells her fabric.  Rubymountaindyeworks is her Etsy shop.  Super cool stuff, if you aren't on fabric restriction.  Also, there are lots of independent fabric sellers/shops...you might be able to find fabrics that are hard to find (because you let them linger in your stash too long before making your project...lol...GUILTY!).  There is also jewely, crocheted items, and origami...everything!!  How cool....LOVE IT!

Honestly, I was hesitant to buy a quilt someone else made.  But then I thought, hey, I'm a good quilter, but I'm certainly not able to make everything that I want to...or everything I think is cool.  So why shouldn't I support a fellow quilter who is making some great stuff....and having fun at it??!!  If you haven't checked it out, do so immediately.  The search feature at the top allows you narrow your search...but be warned, you can end up with 90 pages of "quilts".....lots to choose from!  It is also a great place to get ideas....

Returned quilts...

So I got two quilts back from Jade today....and they look fabulous!!  Check out Joyce's rail fence quilt for the charity auction..  It was quilted with "double plume"...

And here is my vintage shirt leaf quilted with Blowin' Wind...

If I can get this bound in the next couple of weeks, I can hang it behind my table in the dining room.  Yes, you will probably get another picture of it when it gets hung ;-)  Unfortunately, dear readers (all 3 of you), I started back to work this week and won't be able to be as crafty as I'd like to be.  But I did let Rebecca do some fabric shopping in NY so I'll have a fabric post tomorrow....But remember, I'm on a fabric moratorius so it isn't anything I purchased....LOL!!

Christmas plaids...

I came across the blog Quilt Times yesterday and noticed she is having a Christmas quilt along....just a bunch of people working on some Christmas projects and sharing ideas.  I decided that it seemed like a good idea to me so here it goes....

First, I had to go shopping in my stash today.  Here is my bin of reds/orange vintage shirting plaids...It probably weighs about 40 pounds....

I pulled out some reds that looked like Christmas...

Then I pulled my bin of beige/brown/greens....

I managed to find some greens...

Combined they look like this....Christmas!

Anyhow, I'm thinking of making a tree skirt using Amandajean's tutorial and a quilt...either one to hang on the wall, or a quilt for the couch.  Maybe both, who knows.  This should keep me busy through the fall....

Dream On quilt top..

Well, it is almost time to go back to school so I haven't had as much time to work on quilts.  ;-(  Anyhow, I have been working on that layer cake that I got a few weeks ago....the Dream On one.  I've never bought a layer cake before and I wanted to try out some stacking and whacking and shuffling.  This is how it started out...

Did I show this before?  I made random cuts on the left and right, sort of wonky.  Then wonky cuts on the top and bottom.  Then wonky cuts again on the left and right, and then top and bottom.  Then I shuffled the top center fabric to the back...and the top two fabrics on the inside round (the white and blue) to the back.  Then I started sewing, and trimming, and sewing...etc.  I finally finished the blocks, but didn't square them up.  They were about 8" if I recall.  Here they were...

Don't they look pretty?  The more I worked with the fabric, the more I realized it looked like bed sheets from the 1970's.  Do you think they meant for it to be like that?  Is thay why it is called Dream On???  Anyhow, I decided that I needed to add some white ala crazymomquilts so I cut some 2" and 3 1/2" strips to add to three of the sides of the blocks.  The blocks were sufficiently big enough so that I could trim them to 10 1/2" squares.  There were 42 squares in the layer cake so I made a quilt that was 6 blocks across and 7 blocks down...finished size of about 60" x 70".  I did the layout of the blocks similar to a confetti quilt....I made sure that no two colored squares touched each other...and there was white all around the edge of the quilt...no colored squares along the edge.  Here is how it turned out...

Sadly, the Dream On fabric hasn't been fully released yet so I can't buy the backing fabric..or binding.  Not that I'm ready to quilt it anyhow.  I'm going to try to stipple it on my Juki ---after I do some serious stippling practice!!  Stippling on a home sewing machine is A LOT different than stippling with a longarm.  When you longarm, you move the machine to make the design...with the Juki I have to move the fabric to make the design since the machine doesn't move.  I tried it a month ago and failed miserably so the quitter in me gave up and set it aside for another day.  Well, I guess that day is coming this fall ;-)

Next up, pull something out for Christmas!!  Yes, I'm going to put my Halloween quilt on hold for now since I doubt I can have it done it time...but Christmas quilts/tree skirt still have some hope of getting completed.  Because of the fabric buying moratorium, which is going fine by the way, I'll be using vintage plaids for my holiday projects!!  Yeah, I love it....

Looking backward and forward at the same time....

This saga begins with a prologue, circa early 1980's....
My grandma on my father's side was big into crochet.  On her many trips in the Winnebago with my grandpa, my grandma would crochet large (queen-sized) afghans in a zig zag pattern.  So one year my family received one such afghan to put on our chocolate brown naugahyde (vinly? faux leather?) couch in our walnut paneled den.  See, my family was into brown (some still are) and peach and light green.  The afghan we received was a tri-colored little number...it was 10 rows of light pink, 10 rows of medium pink (bubblegum), and then 10 rows of hot pink.  Yes, hot pink.  Then the pattern repeated again.  And again.  So because it came from grandma, it was placed/displayed prominently on the back of the brown couch.  If I had a headache and needed to lay on the couch, I couldn't lay under the afghan because it was SO BRIGHT that it could actually worsen the headache.  At the time I figured grandma was color blind...though well meaning.  My Mom must have wanted to cry....LOL.  I don't know what happened to it, it just faded from my memory (well, it has been 25 years).

Present Day 2010....
Last week I decided that I needed to wash the 1930's (mostly white muslin) quilt on my king-sized bed.  I told Rebecca that we would just put on another quilt and give the 1930's a rest for a while.  That night, I stayed up late (probably blogging or reading blogs) and went to bed in the dark.  When I popped out of bed at 6:00 am the next morning, I almost fainted from shock.  The quilt on my bed was my Valentine quilt I made a few years ago...I love this quilt, mind you, but just hadn't seen it in a while.  Here it is....

Instantly, a pain shot through my brain from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe (I think the one where we feel shock and anxiety).  THE QUILT WAS SO FRICKIN' BRIGHT IN THE MORNING SUNLIGHT!  And all of a sudden, as I was looking at my quilt, I could see grandma's zig zag hot pink afghan.  And I realized, OMG I'm turning into my grandma!!!  LOL.....

So if that wasn't bad enough, I got looking at my new couch the other day....

OMG, the chocolate brown couch, the hot pink quilt on the back....I'm reliving my past!!!  What is next???  Parachute pants?  Bangs that stick straight up?  A mullet?  Macrame?  Help....I'm becoming my parents and grandparents!!!  Oh nooooooo.......;-)

Rebecca has a problem...I'm just saying...

So last night I told Rebecca how I would need a men's XL orange shirt to make a bias binding for her name quilt...once it is quilted.  She bought this lame story and we headed to Goodwill.  It wasn't a sale day, who goes on full price day???....Anyhow, you know I'm not buying any more fabric...in fact, I spent much of the afternoon sitting on the couch patting myself on the back about my mature decision to not buy any fabric.  So I'm feeling really proud of myself as we enter Goodwill and head towards men's shirts--completely bypassing the jeans for booty bags.  Not even looking at them!

Then we get to men's shirts and we find an orange shirt right off the bat.  But still we keep fondling the shirts like perverts....I happen to spy two XXL Christmas plaid shirts...never been used--still new.  Rebecca decided these would be a good purchase to make a holiday quilt.  Then there were a couple of white/blue plaid shirts.  I was speculating that they were also twins...but alas, different manufacturer.  But very close...anyhow, after touching them they became ours as well.  And then, the coup de gras (did I spell that right)...the red "Made in Sri Lanka" skirt...100% cotton...

Then, she keeps groping the black and gray shirts...asking if I need anymore for my Halloween quilt...seriously, she has to be stopped.  Because I had to be the grownup and say "No dear, I think I have enough and I don't want to overbuy because what would I do with lots of leftover black vintage shirt fabric???"....out of my mouth, I actually said that and put the smackdown on the idea of more shirts....

Anyhow, here I am trying to "manicure my stash" and Rebecca is shopping like a mad woman.  She dropped $31 at the Goodwill...and had the nerve to ask for a sale calendar for August.  What...is she nuts?  See, I cleaned up so well that she imagined that all my fabric was gone and I needed more....LOL!  I just crammed more into Alli's closet!  We are our own worst enemies....

On a side note, I just saw my neighbor lady heading off to the gym.  Her husband told her she was getting a little fat (maybe 15 pounds overweight) so everyday she heads to the gym.  At these moments I don't mind cleaning my own pool filters and doing my own yard maintenance....LOL!  Screw that....hahahaha.....how does she fit in crafty time will all that driving to the gym, working out and driving home--easily wasting 3 hours of her day!  OMG Carol....stop the madness!!!

Fabric buying moratorium....;-(

Moratorium definition


1) A period of time in which there is a suspension of a specific activity until future events warrant a removal of the suspension or issues regarding the activity have been resolved.

So I started cleaning my sewing area...which has been an embarrassing disaster all summer long.  And not only was that area horrible...I let my sewing take over the living room as well.  And Alli's room...and on top of the dog's kennel...and the bench near the door...and the kitchen table.  Seriously.  It is out of control.  So I'm not going to buy any fabric (or vintage shirts)....for a year.  Or until next summer.  Maybe if I make all my quilts in the queue I can celebrate and buy something next summer....

Exceptions to the rule
1.  I can get gifts of fabric...like from Santa at Christmas....hint:  Bliss....
2.  If I need backing, or something to finish a quilt, then (with Rebecca's approval) I can buy fabric to finish a project.  But not for stash building....and not any more than I need.

I want to make a point of telling you all (all 3 of you) that I have donated several large trash bags of fabric to the high school home ec teacher for her textile/fabric design class.  And I do actually make things...I'm not a total hoarder....but I'm real close!!!  I've been thinking that maybe I could open an Etsy shop and make little baby quilts or something to use up some of these fabrics....maybe.  But with school starting I don't know about it...but it is on the back burner.  Anyhow, this means NO FABRIC SHOPPING WHILE ON VACATION NEXT WEEK.  OMG....how sad.  But it has to be done.  And while I'm at it, I need to diet as well.  But why kick myself when I'm down??? LOL...one thing at a time!!

A fun Monday....

So I worked most of the afternoon on Rebecca's name quilt for her office.  Here it is, pinned and ready for some wonky hand quilting...look it is on my design wall...LOL...that would be the tile floor ;-)  Someday, when the kids are gone, I'll have a sewing room again with a real design wall ;-)  And an exercise room....where I can store more fabric!!!  LOL....

Another good thing...Joyce returned from her travels with my Dad and she picked up some fabric....batik candy!!  I think I might make a French Braid quilt using these strips...with black in between to make the braids pop!!  Thanks, Joyce....;-)  I also got a couple button lanyard kits from the Stitchin' Post....she actually got to go to Sisters....

As I mentioned in my previous post, Nancy's Quilt Shop is going out of business.  ;-(  Anyhow, everything was 50% off...fabric, patterns, templates, books....so I picked up some backings.

I found enough yardage to back a quilt from the Fresh line from Moda (to match a layer cake I ordered) and some orange from Fresh for the binding.  And the purple flowers is to back a purple and aqua quilt I have in mind.  And the beige plaid is to back a buggy barn quilt I plan on making for my bed.  And the Kaffe is to back a Kaffe quilt that I have stewing in my mind (I already have the fabrics for the top) and the cherries...well, I don't know.  They were just cute and inspiring.  The gray on the end is to back the Halloween quilt ...with the vintage shirts.  And the Kaffe book is perfect for my classroom....talk about integrating geometry and quilting!!  I spent $250 which means that it was really about $500 dollars worth of fabric.  OMG....I was on fabric restriction...but how could I miss out on this opportunity?  I want to go out again today but the darn pool guy is supposed to come by and fix a few pool tile....darn it!!

Anyhow, Rebecca is working on cutting up some of my vintage shirts so I can pack them away neatly and then I can clean up my sewing room.  In fact, that is what I'm supposed to be doing right now.  I'd better get something done....I hate when the summer starts to come to an end!!!  Work sucks....it really gets in the way of my quilting!!!

What a day....Rebecca's rag quilt!

So Rebecca finished clipping her quilt for school...remember, her colors are orange and black--The Chaparral Cowboys.  Here is her raggy quilt....it measures over 5 feet long and about 2 1/2 feet tall...

And here is an up close picture...even the letters were flannel-backed and ragged....All the fabric is from vintage shirts....except the white, of course!!

On another note, a local quilt shop, Nancy's Quilt Shop in NW Las Vegas, announced that it was closing its doors.  The 50% off sale started on last week...that is 50% off of everything!!  I made a point of buying lots and lots of fabric for backings....I'll post pics tomorrow.  ;-)  It is sad to see one of the 5 quilt shops in town close down (due to retirement).....

I've been busy...

Well, I noticed I hadn't blogged in a while and I didn't want anyone to think I was being lazy and taking lots of naps or anything like that....LOL!  So I've been wrapping up a few projects....a big one is Rebecca's Chaparral quilt--you might see finished pics today or tomorrow.  I also made myself a little booty bag from a toddler's size 3 jeans and a vintage red/white/blue with a silver streak vintage shirt for the lining.  The pic isn't so good, but here it is...with a little pouch for cards/cash...

I also finished Rebecca's floppy frog that I started in June and then set aside...

I'm also working on her matching name quilt for her office at work...it will also be in Syracuse blue and orange....I have two letters done!  I plan on quilting it when we are in the car in New York visiting her family...

Today I need to go in to work and set up my classroom...hopefully.  And work on the name thing....and watch a bunch of TV at the same time ;-)  Happy quilting!!

Joyce's Quilts...

OK, I didn't make these but I'm not ashamed to post other people's work on my blog!!  LOL....So this first one is a HST quilt made from a layer cake for a charity auction.  My Dad's girlfriend Joyce made it and we had it quilted by Jade at Quilted by Jade in Las Vegas, NV.  The panto is double plume and the quilt looks just fantastic!!!

Very nice texture....LOVE IT!  And this next one is a rail fence quilt made from a jelly roll that has been gathering dust in Joyce's stash....Romantique, by Fig Tree, I think.... It is now with Jade waiting to be quilted...it is also for the charity auction.

And here is Rebecca (and Buddy under the quilts) madly clipping the boy rag quilt for the auction....She says she has a system now so it goes easier....

In the background is the new couch....turns out chocolate brown couches show everything...every kernal of popcorn, spare hair or thread, dog hair, dog drool....etc.  ;-)  We need to stock up on lint rollers now....Anyhow, now I'm going to cut orange fabric for a Chaparral quilt for Rebecca's office.  The school colors are orange and black (heinous)....anyhow, we will do what we can!!!

UPDATE:  the baby quilt is washed and dried....here it is!!

OK...still cutting orange squares for Rebecca....

Lazy Sunday....Moda Charm bag

So I didn't get much done today.  Alli got all of her squares sewn with an "x" for the baby rag quilt.  I did get together the fall leaf quilt and it turns out that I don't need a border or it will be too big for the wall.

I washed a bunch of new shirts from Goodwill.  Buddy thought they looked comfy....I have so many shirts and ideas but I lack the time to implement them.  And then I get sidetracked with making little bags...

And I mean little bags...This is a pattern from the Moda Bake Shop...a little charm bag.  Little.  Really little.

See how big it is relative to the rotary cutter.  The base inside is fabric-covered cardboard measuring

2" by 5".  Seriously.  Maybe a lip gloss for Alli...or a little sliver of a library card (but not both).and then it is full!  LOL...But I learned a new technique for holding the inside and outside of the bag together.  I've done reversible totes, but this method actually sews together (??) the inside and outside.  Anyhow, well worth the time...and I liked putting on the the little pleated cuff...super cute!  It is Alli's now....but I'm going to make it bigger and try one for myself.  Bigger.  Much bigger.  ROTFLOL.....;-)  On a side note, my rude and completely unsympathetic ex told Alli she can't bring home (to her other house) any more purses.  I, of course, disagreed with this and told her that this one only counted as 1/4 of a purse so I could make at least 3 more for her before it became a problem.  ;-) 

I guess math teacher trumps P.E. teacher any day!!!