Archive for September, 2008

September 28th, 2008 - Completed Snowman Stitchery

     Well here it is. The completed top. All I have to do is find a backing and quilt it. There won’t be too much quilting, just enough to hold it all together.

 

That’s all for now.

Talk to you later.

M-K

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September 28th, 2008 - Pushing The Right Buttons

 I couldn’t figure out why my last post wasn’t “published”. I guess I should hit the publish button rather than the save one. You’d think by now that I would have gotten that right. At least I didn’t have to go and get Mackenzie to help me. Finally chalk one up for me!!!!!

 I can’t seem to get into the sewing frame of mind. It has been well over a week since I have done any sewing of any kind. My sister seems to think it’s the change in the weather. It seems to be getting dark a whole lot earlier and I seem to be more tired than usual. I have great plans but no ambition. But I did start something different.

                                        I decided that I had to do something creative so I tried a little needle felting. I started this at 10p.m. and was finished a hour later. I have never tried this before except for a demo at their booth and I even watched tv!  It’s a sunflower pincushion that I picked up in the summer from a fiber show in Charlevoix, MI from Back to Back Fiber Products. When I was at the Novi Sewing show I stopped at their booth and the lady thought she remembered me from there. So I got another thing done. At least it didn’t sit for a few years to age.

 

 I wanted to try it out on a piece of denim. So I cut out some petals, a leaf and a center and started felting away. It’s just a tiny bit harder to poke through than if you are just felting wool and it takes more pokes to secure it . I should have cut the piece of denim a little bigger and then I could have made something out of it. I hate to waste stuff. I think it looks okay. I really like the way the sunflower turned out and I was thinking of making some for Christmas gifts. I really like the way the fiber embellishment dresses it up. Oh the possibilities!

That’s all for now.

Talk to you later.

M-K

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September 28th, 2008 - Novi Sewing Show

Yesterday I went to the Novi Sewing Show with a few friends. Here are a few of the goodies that I picked up.

 I bought some buttons for a couple of bags. The coloured ones are some kind of polyester resin made in Germany for a bag my niece made for another niece. She couldn’t find any buttons that looked right so I said that I would look at the show.The  chinese coins I plan to use on a bag that I made. I want to have some kind of dangly things like beads or fibers coming from the center of the coin. I hope it turns out the way that I would like it to.

 

 Next are a few notions that I thought were a must have. They are a lot cheaper in the States than in Canada, so I always try to get a few every time I go. You could get really carried away at this booth. There were lots of tools for all aspects of sewing.  And every kind of plastic storage container that any sewer would like to have to organize her sewing space.

 

 

 

 I found this mini ruler set at Country Stitches booth. I really like using the “Quilt in a Day” rulers for flying geese. It comes in 2 sizes and I thought that it would be so easy to make a border of flying geese using this method. I once made a quilt or should I say I am in the process of making a quilt using this method with the larger set of rulers and it is really easy and quick to get the blocks done.

 

                                                                           

                                                                            

 Oh, before we even got in to the show I saw this lady’s purse and I just had to ask her if she made it. She told me she had and that she also taught a class the night before at an area quilt shop. I asked her the pattern name, Bow Tucks Tote, and I looked for it through the whole show. Only one vendor, Renee’s House of Quilting, had it but only in a kit. I probably could have ordered it but I just had to have it now.  I like the colours of the kit so I bought it and I also bought another bag pattern although the picture on the pattern doesn’t do it justice. 

 

I found some needle felting supplies from Back to Back Fiber products. The sculpty pumpkin head was cool but the kit is missing a few things. stuffing, which is okay but the nylon that you use to make the head might be a problem. Who wears those things? I’ll probably have to go buy a pair of panty hose to make this.

 

 

 

 

 I found a piece of homespun for the border of the snowmen stichery. Not very many of the vendors had yardage of quilting material. Only one booth had homespuns and this was a prepackaged item in a 2 yard pkg. Most booths had fat quarters and 1 yard cuts. I think only 2 booths had bolts of quilting fabric and there were long lines at them.

 

 

  I also found this jacket pattern. I usually don’t like the quilted jacket patterns because they are very boxy and with a shape like mine I would look like a square box. This jacket actually has a waist in it and I think it would look kind of funky in pieces of recycled jeans. I won’t be putting the pockets on the chest because I don’t want to draw attention to that area. But I think I could make this in a variety of different fabrics and then have a choice of jackets to wear that aren’t the wind breaker type but a little dressier in the right fabric. The sample at the booth was made in a solid black with a dark asian print in muted colours on the front. Now to get busy and start sewing.

 I bought a new ironing board cover and pad for my board. I have an extra large board and it’s hard to find the right size cover. The last one I made and it’s not heavy enough and it’s not going to last much longer.

  I probably won’t go back to this show next year. For the amount of money you pay to get in,$12.- with the $5- fee for parking  and a day off work I didn’t think it was worth it. There seemed to be way less vendors than the last few years that I have gone. There didn’t seem to be any new fangled gadgets that one would just have to have. The only things that really interested me were the new quilting machines from “Innova” and a sewing machine table from”Arrow Cabinets” that i thought my niece could afford. Maybe the cost of gas and the slow economy inhibits vendors from far away to justify coming to this show. I hope things pick up in next year for all our sakes.

Well that’s all for now. Talk to you all later.

M-K

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September 19th, 2008 - Snowmen

Here is the almost completed quilt top. Talk to you later.

M-K

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September 13th, 2008 - Rainy Saturday

I managed to get some sewing done today. I finished the September block for the buck-a-block BOM and so far that’s all I’ve done. I have the finishing kit for this quilt so that as I complete each block I can add the border to make a larger block.

Today it is supposed to rain all day. A good sewing kind of day. But then there is a knock on the door. It’s the utility company, telling me not to go in the back yard due to a tree branch on the high wire. I had looked out the back door earlier to feel the weather and heard an arcing kind of noise. I looked around and didn’t see anything and thought nothing of it. Apparently I missed something. 

Here is the tree branch resting on the wire on fire. I went into the boys rooms and asked if they wanted to see the tree on fire. At first we stood at the back door and watched the branch burning and then we went into my bedroom and sat on the bed watching it. It was pretty interesting how these things catch on fire. First it smokes a lot and then burst into flames and then smokes some more. Bits and pieces of the tree were falling to the ground. Once the power was shut off the flames stopped and it just smoked. Or should I say steamed due to the rainy weather. Then the tree trimmers showed up and this guy shimmied up there like a monkey.

 I couldn’t believe how high up the tree he went.  He trimmed all the branches that were smoking and then trimmed any branch that could possibly touch the wire. When he was done we applauded. How’s that for entertainment!

 

 

Now back to the quilting. Here are a few of the snowmen stitcheries. I have completed them all and will now make a quilt out of them. I don’t know if I should make a wall hanging or a throw . Any suggestions?

I like the December one the best. Maybe it’s because snowmen are a wintery thing but they are all very cute. I can’t wait to see it all finished. I never saw them in a quilt I just bought the patterns from “Hearts to Holly” in Charlevoix. Since then my sister taught the “Twisted Stitchers”, a group of stitchers that meet monthly, this project. She did all the blocks but has yet to make a quilt out of them. I’ll have to beat her to it. She is gone for the week on vacation so here’s my chance to do it.

 Well if I want to sew I had better get to it. Don’t want to waste this rainy day. But first I have to kill the centipede that just ran by. Does anyone know how to get rid of these gross insects. They are really creepy. On Thursday I killed a huge one up by the bedrooms. People tell me that they eat other bugs, so we must have a lot of other bugs because some of these babies are huge and gross. And then there are the really little ones. Just talking about them is giving me the creepy crawly feeling.

I’ll talk to you all later and I’ll show some pics of what I have been doing today.

M-K

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