Pin Toppers Continued

So I got my polymer clay. And played with it. Which was actually a lot of fun. I'm getting better, especially at making things smaller.
Here are some of my early efforts. What do you think?

Pin Toppers

Have you seen these? They may be the cutest thing ever. Seriously. This came in the mail today.

I love sunflowers. I have since I was a little girl. My e-mail before the grown-up one was sunflower2817, my soccer and volleyball numbers respectively.
Now where did I find such cuteness? Etsy, of course. Specifically, Gigi Minor's Pinks & Needles. I'm very excited.
How excited? Well....I decided to give making them a whirl. But Micheal's was closed. No polymer clay. Does this stop me? Of course not. I decide to practice with regular clay. Now I know it's not the same but it's still good practice. So I made up these. Minus pins, and I know the camera isn't so good so the detail is somewhat lost, especially on the pear leaf.








So what do you think? Should I venture out to get some of the right materials tomorrow? Maybe a new hobby.

Basting and nothing else

I've really got nothing but basting and a few little lines done on DH's quilt. This week just did not want to co-operate. I've had to deal more with the whole issue of my son's brain, and trying to get to the bottom of all of this crap.
Maybe I should send this picture taken at Tuesday's lunch to them?

The gentlemen are, respectfully, Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario, and Chris Bentley, Attorney General of Ontario, and Memember of Provincial Parliament. The women? Purple is my little sister Tasha, that's me in the middle, and my mother, Special Assistant to Chris Bentley, beside me.
Yeah, they chose the wrong girl to mess with. Funny how they expected to be able to hide behind the institution, except we're more connected within it then they are. I'm being petty, sort of, but I don't care right now. I'm hurting, angry and disillussioned. And Little Bit is still away with her bio dad so I can't even throw myself into entertaining her.

Back to quilting which is what this blog is about. I've appliqued some more of Lover's Knot, only to find I'm about five 4 patches short. So I spent yesterday driving to different stores trying to find some more of the fabric. And having a store clerk try and get me to buy discount embroidery thread, seriously who argues with a customer who likes the more expensive stuff? And by that I mean the $3.85 for 220 yards, Gutermann Dekor. I'll use Coates and whatever for piecing, sometimes, but not for anything else. The breakage and lint build up are ridiculous.
We have a newer discount fabric store that has just opened up and it is SOOOOO nice. You can actually move around, and the clearance is actually neat, and you can actually FIND things! Imagine that.
I know the argument for Local Quilt Shops. I even agree with it. But right now I just can't afford it. Wanna know why? Because quilt shop fabric is $15-18 a metre! A metre roughly is 39.5 inches, so a yard and a bit. Now I'm known to gasp order up from the US, ok generally it's what I do, because it's the only way I can afford quality fabrics.
Fabricland (discount store) carries Northcott, which is awesome, because it goes on sale! So Northcott I can get for a reasonable amount, awhile after it's out. And while Moda is the fav, hands down, Northcott has SUCH a nice feel to it. So smooth and silky...oh now I need to go fondle my stash lol.

A new BOM?

Well maybe... I'm thinking of joining the Fat Quarter Shop's Pennsylvania Dutch Block of the Month. I don't know... it's gorgeous, the fabrics are Minich and Simpson, the same duo who did Prairie Paisley, which I loved.
It's the cost to be frank. On top of the monthly cost, I get to pay $9 just for shipping, and that adds up, big time, that's $108 for 12 months. And really it's not worth it. Not that much. So, I'll be good....maybe.
Well scratch the above. I just went and looked at the site, it's only $4 shipping, much more reasonable. I ASSuMEd the other because the last BOM I did with FQS that's what the shipping was. The Pennsylvania Dutch is a grand total of 20.99/mth for Canada... Ok not being good doesn't sound so much fun, or necessary...
Picture taken from FQS

The only block I don't like is the house. Never really got the whole house blocks, and the border fabric I'm only so-so on...but the overall look is so nice.
Hmmm....going to have to think on this one.

Lover's Knot

So I got the 49 four patches cut down to 6 1/2 inches. This is NOT my favorite thing to do but it's done now. Here are the cuttings from that...well a 3/4 of them. The other have been stolen for another small scraps project. More on that later.


I have appliqued 21 of the blocks. I need to prepare more of the pieces before I can do anymore on this one.

Yesterday we got the batting and backing for DH's quilt. Tomorrow I plan on ironing the backing and getting the whole thing basted. I also am having Little Bit's new, to her, captain's bed brought over. Which require me cleaning her room. Which will not be fun but oh well. It will make things easier.

Crap

All is not well here. I have had a very stressful, and frankly, disturbing few weeks, resulting in my getting confirmation from a pathologist, that my son's brain was kept after his death, we were never informed, and if not for me reading his autopsy report, we would never have known.
How does one deal with that? Honestly. WTF. What am I supposed to do? WHY???
It seems that when ever DH and I are getting back on track, wham, something else comes by to knock us off again.
I won't bore everyone with detail but this sucks. And I dislike using that word but seriously. How else can you describe it?

And just for icing, it's the same hospital I'm scheduled to have my hysterectomy at. Why can't things ever be simple?

Self pity party over.

I'm going to go to the discount fabric store near me, get some batting for DH's quilt and who knows what else. Retail fabric therapy sounds good to me, if only for a few a little while.

An hour a day...

So yesterday I decided to spend an hour sewing and see how much I could get done. So the timer was set on the oven and away I went.



I finished 34 four patches, and pressed the freezer paper applique pieces on about....hmmm 12 * 6 is 72, divide by 4 is 18, so got 18 of those blocks freezer papered up. All in under 40 minutes.
I managed to cut out most of those while Little bit was at gymnastics,


which is a sanity saver for both of us. She needs to be a monkey, and I need not have heart attacks watching her do it on everything, and anything. Most of the pics are blurred because you have to shoot through glass. Just yesterday, Little Bit was able to do her front pullover all by her self on the uneven bars, which are her favorite after the rings, where her upper body strength has the instructers all in awe.

Oh, I almost forgot. I changed the border fabrics for Lover's Knot. It's now going to be the pink for the inside border and a brown for the larger border. DH didn't like the pink, so when I was at the store yesterday, I happened to the display, and it jumped into my arms all on its own. Honest ;)

Bennington Quilted!

I actually quilted and bound Bennington. I'm rather impressed with my self as I normally loose interest/confidence after I've pieced the top. It helped that it is little, only 30x30.



I added the stars in the middle of the empty space to see if I could do them. I'm thinking of doing DH's quilt myself. Everyone has 6 month waiting lists for the long armer.
So I'm contemplating attempting it. Maybe. We'll see.

On Lover's Knot news, I've gotten a lot of the four patches done, and discovered that this pattern has way more steps than neccessary. Which irritates me. But oh well. It is suppossed to be fun, so I'm just ignoring that fact. And apparently having oops with pin and the needle.

Progress

This went together so well. Here's both before and after borders.



I used up scraps from DH's quilt, and then used the scraps from this one to make this little thing.

I added the binding and hanger today.

I really enjoyed working with this line. I'm going to have to get Minich & Simpson's new lines too. The colours are similar, and I really enjoyed playing with them.

I've already decided on my next project...



I went through all of my older magazines, the binders of patterns, it was fun. I'll have to get a picture of the pattern shelves. I like looking at it. It's possibilities, without the commitment.

Schnibbles

Schnibbles....say it out loud. Isn't it a fun word? I love the little "Schnibbles" patterns from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. They're cute, often classic, and can be made from precuts. Is there anything else you could want? Carrie Nelson, the pattern author, even includes unfinished block sizes, so I know how much I messed up! LOL.
So, if you can believe it, I'm not sick of Prairie Paisley yet. So I found a charm pack in my stash and decided I had enough leftovers from DH's quilt to make "Bennington".

I have always like the bowtie block done in the friendship circle.
Normally, I think there is enough empty space to need something in the centre but not here. Each bowtie is only 4 1/4 inches so it really makes a nice smaller quilt.

And we are cut and ready to sew. Which may be my favorite time the whole process. Ready, but not into it enough to be making a lot of oops. ;)


Soon my pretties...hehehe

And just because here's a pic of Little Bit at the splash pad, having a ball as always.

A Hard Weekend

This has been a hard weekend for me. Friday was my son's 4th birthday, which we celebrated by cleaning his headstone, and leaving a foil balloon and flowers at his grave. You see my son died at 5 days old from a horrific genetic disease.
This is always a hard day but this year I have the knowledge that I will be having a hysterectomy in September. There will be no more children for me.
At least not biological, and by the time we can afford to adopt, well I don't know what will happen then. I've more or less given up on trying to figure out what will happen in the distant future. Every time in my life where I make plans I've had to deal with some serious disappointments. So I try to live in the now as much as possible.

Yesterday, we had Little Bit's last soccer game of the year.

She played really well, paid attention and was really trying to get in there. She has to be told which way to kick the ball, which the coach forgot to do before the game. Once she had that figured out she was great. All the kids got this little trophy, which means the world to Little Bit. She still has hers from last year, and it's definitely one of her prized possessions.

Yesterday afternoon, in a all day deluge of rain, we had the annual pool party for my mom's side of the family at my brother's (formally my mother's) place.
It was nice to see many of my cousins, and all the little girls. We had 9 girls under the age of 6, and one 10 year old. The 10 year old was wonderful taking care of the little ones.
All of 3 of my siblings were there, which sounds great except we don't really get on all that well.
I have to admit to being cowardly and going out to gazebo were the guys were. I spent most of the afternoon very pleasantly, and managed to keep them from killing themselves trying to fry the turkey.

So maybe it wasn't such a bad weekend...hard but not bad.

Progress

I got the last border sewn on DH's surprise quilt. Now I just have to find a long arm quilter.



I got a lot of applique ready while Little Bit was at the park this morning. All the sashing is cut out for Lillebet's Garden. All the blocks are done, and the applique is going well. Little Bit and I picked up 10 spools of embroidery thread this morning. She got to choose one and she chose, huge surprise, dark pink.
This is the prep. I have found I love having applique ready to glue baste. This is such a nice thing for me to have at the park etc when Little Bit is playing. I can watch her, but still be occupied. I have to confess that, after a while, I really do find it boring, sitting around watching her play. Especially after a few hours at the park.



Little Bit for DH to help dress up on of the dogs...they are so patient with her.

More Lillebet's Garden

I'm really enjoying doing this applique which for me is odd. I'm terrified of applique.
Seriously, it makes me want to cry. But not this method. It has me actually contemplating more applique. Crazy.
Here is 54 flowers, and a jar of the cutting from it.

See this is one of the things that drives me nuts about applique. The waste. Some of it is me, and my terrified of not enough, so I cut to generously around my applique, and then give it like 1/2" turnover allowance, which ends up meaning fewer shapes, and more waste. But some of it is inherent to to whole concept of cutting random shapes from large rectangles.
Hmmm...this is sounding more and more like life. I'm starting to conquer fears, especially that of failure and censure. Trying to take random events in my life and create something beautiful from it.

Here are most of the leaves and some of the berries or whatever the yellow is supposed to be.

I'm going to hold off finishing them until tomorrow or later. I think this may be a good thing for me to do at the park while Little Bit plays.

She's coming home today after an 10 day vacation with her bio dad. I miss her terribly. I'm hoping she has had a fun time. She didn't want to go, but normally comes back generally happy and in good health.

So, I'm off to work on the sashing to Lillebet's Garden and try and find a long arm quilter nearby for Prairie Paisley.

A break from Paisley for Lillebet

I took a break from DH's Prairie Paisley to work on Lillebet's Garden. A BOM I started last year and got tired of the ugly fabrics.
I still think most of them are ugly but I'm hoping in the larger overall look you won't notice that.
I've now finished all the sampler blocks, though I may redo the the last one. It was the third on with Y-seams yet it was the one that is kinda wavy.





We'll see after I get all the evil sashing done, and finish the applique.
I have all the flowers cut out and pressed to the fabric. I'd say I have about half of the shapes glue basted. The pattern has a 56 flowers and 80-something leaves.


The leaves get interesting because I had started last year by using freezer paper but have discovered something new, I haven't finished testing yet, so no grade or mention til I'm sure of my feeling towards it. I'm hopeful of an A though.

With all the rain I've been enjoying the clouds and just the refreshing way things have been looking. Yes there has been a lot of rain but it hasn't been dark and grey and blah. It's actually been nice.
I'm always surprised by the the little things.

Here one of my flowers that never bloomed or really grew much on my balcony decided to give some beauty after all, eh?