GEARING up for Market

Was Labor Day labor-free for everybody? Probably not for any quilt designers out there...but I'm not complaining. I'm a little late on getting my act together, but it feels good to have definite plans in the works.



I'm very excited about my next project--I've always loved Joanna's fabrics and am thrilled to see how well her latest line goes with Brenda's first collection!

The plan involves roses. No surprise there, right? When you have roses, you have leaves. Lots of leaves. While I love fusible web for applique, all that tracing gets tedious. I don't have a tv in my studio--and the only place I could fit a tv is where Melvin lives.

So I rely on my laptop to keep me adequately entertained.

Honestly I wouldn't know about a single show on tv without Pam's help, but my very favorite show in the world was introduced to me by my kids. I'm sure every designer has their preferences, but I can't live without this one.



Pam is getting anxious--she does much of my blanket stitching for me and the clock is certainly ticking. So yesterday was spent tracing leaves. And fusing leaves. And cutting leaves. 143 leaves, to be precise, with possibly more for the border.



Pam enjoys blanket stitching--says it's relaxing. Which it is. Not sure she'll find 143 leaves "relaxing", so please don't tell her, ok?

great start to the week

While I should have been home sewing, Pam and I were presented with an opportunity we just couldn't pass up...



Here we go, across the bay...



To visit a friend who just happened to be in the area...



Pam now has her coffee, so let the hours of chatting commence!



How on earth will we decide what to have for dessert? Luckily, any choice is a good choice here...



Holly let me use the most delightful placemat for my cake...

It was a great visit (if you haven't yet taken a peek at Holly's upcoming fabric on her blog, go over there right now...and trust me...the coordinating prints are just as wonderful.

The visit had to come to an end...if we stayed much longer we'd be ordering dinner. Not like that would have been a bad thing...



Easy to get distracted on the way back to the car.



And it's back across the bay for us...always oddly comforting to see San Francisco in the distance.

Now tomorrow, it's sewing and more sewing!

moving day!

Yay!! They're finally moved and settled in...here's Nick taking a break...


and here's the quilt! Too big for them to hold it except for sideways...I am not a contemporary quilt designer so decided it would save time and effort to find someone else's pattern to use. Even better, this is a freebie!

You can't see the quilting--but Darla of Wildflower Quilting did an awesome job.

They had TEN people help move them...not sure how I managed to get a couple pics without random arms and legs!


It's probably a good thing I'm too far away to visit them frequently...because I am ITCHING to iron those slipcovers and switch the positions of those two lamps.
I know, I know...it's their apartment...

But it is cute and I'm so happy they let me in on the fun!

apartment warming

After I completed the top for Nick and Kari's quilt (more on that later!) I was faced with a rather impressive pile of leftover fabrics. Tragic, right? I didn't want to overwhelm my son and his girlfriend with mom-made stuff, but it was tough to stop.



They agreed that custom pillows might be cool, so this is what I came up with. I used the pillow pattern in this book (which I just happen to have on hand...)



Here's what the back looks like, so you can see it's basically a reversible pillow, which will allow Kari to flip Nick's over if she'd like to ignore him for awhile.
Which trust me--will happen.



I couldn't let my previous potholder experience deter me--I discovered that round ones are ever so much easier to bind.



For this very utilitarian towel, I fused a strip of the quilt's focus fabric on the front and added rick rack.



For the dish towels, I traced the bird image from the fabric, enlarged it and appliqued it to the front of a dishtowel. The circle towel coordinates well, plus it was darn easy to do.



I figured they didn't have refrigerator magnets, so I covered a couple of buttons and glued heavy duty magnets to the back.



Finally, I added this super cool tile trivet I found here on Etsy!

All of the projects were lots of fun and kept me occupied during the waiting days before the big move.

P.S. If you haven't been over to The Quilt Show yet this week, you need to go check out the Daily Blog posts--we had SO MUCH FUN! Be sure to enter Pam's contest so you can win a Star membership of your own!

from this...

I know, not very inspiring, is it...



To this...
Hey, it may have possibilities...



To this:

and finally, to this!



Which reminds me...now where did I put that quilt??!

sewing savant

It's no surprise that I love making quilts. It's actually more accurate to say that I love sewing.

Applique has never really been a problem for me--of course I have gotten better with practice.


This morning I have to admit I came across a project that completely defeated me. After ripping it apart four times, yes four times, this is the best I could do. Here it is, in all its wonky, misshapen and barely-held-together glory:




Beaten by a potholder.
Sigh.

...LATE to report...(get it??)

As everyone else has already reported, a fun day was had yesterday at a certain person's super cool studio!


We all had projects to share...if you didn't already know this, NOBODY embroiders as beautifully as Monica does. Seriously.


Pam, being more accustomed to the celebrity stunt quilter life, was prepared by actually coordinating her wardrobe to her latest quilt (you'll see). Show off.



As for me? I tried avoiding the camera(s).
With limited success.

A break from painting

Painting my kitchen is turning out to be quite an experience. A slow, tedious experience. And I have to say I will never do it again. I've always wanted white cabinets and that's what I'll eventually have, but it's costing me some sanity I really can't spare.
But it's coming along. One of the only things that's keeping me going is looking forward to the day I can hang this vintage towel on my stove!

So the ideas keep coming for Nick's apartment...just hope I can get everything done in time. And that he and Kari don't end up rolling their eyes at my efforts!



Back when Pam and I were at Prairie Queens I picked up some of this amazing Paula Prass fabric--totally not what I usually go for but I love it and hoped the kids would too. And they do! The quilt is turning out a bit bigger than I'd planned...I'll get a better pic when the top is finished. I can say that these are the biggest half square triangles I've ever made.

So it's back upstairs for me to hopefully finish the quilt top and move on to the next project!

a brief intermission

The leg is on the mend so I'm in a rush to get as much as possible finished around here before the next heat wave. The last few days have been great so I've been doing lots of painting in the kitchen. BTW, if you're wondering how to make a small kitchen seem larger? Start painting it.

Anyway, bits of sewing have been done--both for the Sisboom Room and for Nick's new apartment. Those pics are still on my camera, which because of the downstairs upheaval, I cannot find.

So I thought I'd leave you with some pics from last summer--it's of a place I was dreaming of returning to back when it was 110 degrees here. So what do you say? Shall we go to the Isle of Sark?

Cars are not allowed on Sark, so after the ferry from Guernsey gets you to the island, you take a tractor up to the top.

Toby will take us on a tour.



If you love gardening, Sark is a great place to do it.




Toby knows where all the great views are.





How about some more garden photos?

We have to check out the dove cote...a wonder if the doves have to follow a schedule so that there's always one for the tourists to photograph.





Shall we investigate the garden maze? Of course!










My favorite part was being lucky enough to see these two adorable hedgehog babies...


We'd probably better head back to the dock...the ferry will be here soon to take us back to Guernsey.



Well, it's time for me to get back to dismantling the kitchen--but before I go, I want to wish Ailsa a (slightly belated) Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

If you haven't already, please hop on over to Pam's to wish her the best birthday ever and a year full of Pam Kitty Mornings!

aaaand, we're back down to earth

Turns out, there's only so much a summer skirt can do.

I'd planned to pretty much take the summer off this year. Just too many family things going on. So it seemed like a good time to tackle some household tasks as well. The Sisboom Room is on temporary hold since Nick will be living here until August. Paint chips are already tacked up, but in the meantime, there were other rooms to address.

Actually, when you consider that we've been in this house for 11 years and have raised 3 sons here, what room doesn't need some attention?

Oh and let's not forget all the furniture that Nick will be taking with him that needs to be painted to fit in with their color scheme. Which reminds me of the furniture that's staying that could be freshened up with some new paint.

A logical, organized person would address one room at a time. One project at a time.

A sane person wouldn't get so very excited when her husband announces he's having a dumpster delivered for the week.

You can see where this is going.
Furniture everywhere!
Tearing apart ugly old kid-abused computer desks!
Running to Lowe's for armloads of spray paint!
Learning that Lowe's is having a sale on house paint!
Gathering more paint chips!
Running back to Lowe's for multiple gallons of awesome Martha colors!
Gleefully tearing off strips of old wallpaper in the kitchen!
Teaching Nick the pure joy of using spray paint!
Going back outside to move the painted coffee table onto the patio before the sprinklers come on!
Seeing that the table isn't heavy at all!
Somehow losing my grip on it and smashing it into my right shin!

Watching everything come grinding to a halt.
A very painful and ugly halt.
Sigh.

It's been a week now. I still have to keep my leg up for a big part of the day. If I'd been considering any of the jewel tones for my rooms I could just take my leg to Lowe's for color matching.

So this has meant no cutting. No sewing. Just a few minutes here and there of ceiling painting and wallpaper stripping. And feeling just a bit sorry for myself. One positive--I found a totally appropriate app for my iphone--if you have an iphone and plenty of time to spend not accomplishing anything, I recommend "Yard Sale". It's the best .99 I've spent in ages. It's basically a seek and find game, but you're finding stuff at different yard sales and then you take the items home and repurpose them! You glue things and sand things and get this--you spray paint them!

Some of the reviewers of the game seem to feel that pretending to make a shelf is boring. That decorating a pretend room is stupid. It's not. It's the only thing that's kept me sane this week.

"Sane" being a relative term, of course.