31 December 2013

It is SO good to be back

I know you have all been wondering about Judith's and my play date. WELL... does nivana mean anything to you. My Muse was back. It had been 6 months and lots of hugs ensued!!

We were SO excited and Judith created like a whirlwind and I took photos. BEST of all she is coming back this Friday for more fun. I have a few new toys to add to the table

 Exhaust vent and washing machine hosing.


These will be shared Friday and the chain below was Judith's offering from last week.

Without giving too much away, Judith was so excited about what we had (she had) done that she wanted to be the February guest artist on the FIRE blog. Good going Judith!!

So on Jan 2, you can check out what Judith will be doing and I know, I will be playing along and adding my take on her work. Please feel free to add your own work as you try these truly unique techniques.

27 December 2013

Winners

Today is the day and I used my random selector



The Japanese Quilting piece by piece goes to Upstate Lisa



Bobby Britnell's New Book
Stitched Textiles: Flowers goes to Marjay



The winner of Sliver quilts is Marjolin



And the winner of the Fabric Dyers Dictionary is Mia



If you don't know my email address just use the contact form at the bottom of this page and your new books will be winging their way to your homes around the world.

Happy New Years to you all!!
Beth

24 December 2013

Two more books to win

Here are two more books for anyone to comment on.

This seemed interesting and had some good improvisational ideas:








The Fabric Dyers Dictionary is fairly new and filled with recipes for getting just the colors your are looking for.






SO to recap. The Japanese quilt book is a US only book because of the heavy weight but the other three books are up for grabs by any followers in the world.
Best of luck and a Happy Christmas, Solstice and New Year to all. 


Winners announced Friday Dec 27th.


22 December 2013

End of year give-away

I have 2 really wonderful new books. Since one of them is VERY heavy, I am asking for comments from US followers because of the cost of postage. SO the other book will be for followers from outside the US only. Here they are:


This book is packed with quilted bag projects including full sized patterns. You can get a great description on the Amazon website.



This is for followers from outside the US only:



Comment away and at the end of the week I will pick a recipient. I may even add another book or two so stay tuned. Final selection Dec 27th.





17 December 2013

Judith is coming for a playdate

Finally after all this time, I feel confident that I can "do a day" with another human.  Six weeks of Chemo left and I am so chuffed!! Can't wait to be normal again.
Now to really get your interest going, this is what I bought for the play date.


Oh Yeah!! and more to come.... Dock rope and bilge hosing.

12 December 2013

Preview of coming attaractions

36 circles done. These are SOME of them on my bed just to preview and I have to say I am very pleased. I have spent countless hours agonizing over assembly. I want as few joins as possible yet keep the pieces to be joined small enough to quilt as I go.



My plan so far is to seam 6 across, cut oversized batting and backing and quilting the entire strip to within an inch of each edge. This way I would have 6 six foot strips to join. I can use the strip method from the tutorial


Or maybe just seam them without a strip. I am "planning" on adding an olive 2" boarder then a purple 3" boarder and finishing with 1/2 binding since they are replaceable with wear.

Each circle will have it's own free motion quilt design and you KNOW the spider web with the black shiny spider with be in residence!!

06 December 2013

Blocks done ...almost

I finished sewing all the curved blocks then while stacking them in units found I was 9 short.


Best thread EVER

Remember this is the fabric I ran out of which I dyed pouring random unmeasured amounts of dye in a cement mixer.


cement mixer (BIG) from Home Pot

I HAD to make more so I went down without a camera  but with the cement mixer and starting pouring random amounts. The purple came out great (four yards) but the olive green ( 3 yards) was a challenge and the colors I was adding kept striking so it came out fair. Not really a matchy-match but good enough to use as sashing with the purple as a buffer.

You can see the random colors in the olive on the left

I cut out 2 olives and 18 purples and will sew them together, organize the  4 block creations and sew them tomorrow.


 Today I am going to Bangor, Maine (45 minutes away) to get a few things including a leather foot for my Bernina. Expect some amazing this to be done with that. I have 4 big bails of leather.
My REAL up front project is finishing the wool piece for the fire blog. I must have that done, photographed and posted through December THIS WEEK.

The upside of making another 4 yards of purple is that I can use the QAYG method now that I have strips to join with. More about this "plan" later.

03 December 2013

kitchen finished finally

When my parents moved in with me 7 years ago, their apartment was my former kitchen. I took the small dining room in my house and extended it out making a huge kitchen which you have seen as my "wet studio" in many blog post.
About a year and a half ago my brother painted the long empty wall this darkish blue with plans to add open shelves later .
Well, this week that day finally arrived when our carpenter Dan, came  and did a few small home repairs one being the addition of the much awaited shelves. 
Over years I have collected various pieces of pottery, most from Germany where I lived with my first husband. Some of these pieces I bought at age 18 and many although very cheap in price have great sentimental meaning . One is a small cobalt tea pot I bought for a mark (at that time 25 cents) but it means the world to me. 
Here is the process:




I sanded down this butcher block top of my dishwasher (IKEA) because of multiple burns and stains. The latest burn was dark and deep and although I did a good job, the burn is still a bit visible. To sand deeper would have left deep grooves so I am happy.



See the little cobalt tea pot in its place of honor? I love that little tea pot. There is an entire story about that day. It was an amazing day.


Preparing for Thanksgiving day dinner.

01 December 2013

Free 6 month membership to the Quilt Show"

Both taken now!

I have 2 free 6 month memberships to the Quilt show to give away. The show is a mix of traditional and art quilting but is moving closer to the art quilt genre. It is online so anyone can view the shows. I have been a member for years and even though there may be a show with traditional quilts, I rarely fail to learn something.
If you are interested. contact me via my contact form at the bottom of the page.