Chrissy's Bag

Chris has been wanting a travel bag and many hours, 7 pockets, and two zippers later, this is hers...  I took a class with my friend last Saturday and got everything done except the top zipper and putting it together.  I finished it tonight.  It is definitely one of a kind! 

The Red, White and Blue Top is Done!

And needs to be quilted with the long arm.  I showed it at quilt guild this week and it received much applause.  These are not really not my colors, but a lot of folks really like them.  I still have several of the red, white and blue strips so I am going to put some on the back too.   

Egg Baskets and a New Project

I made the bigger egg basket over the last 12 months, meaning that I started in Dec 2010 and finished it in Jan 2012.  Most of that time, of course, it sat in the basket cupboard not being worked on...  the smaller one I finished in one afternoon last week.  The big one has a 18" oak rim and the smaller one has a 6" oak rim.  The big one has a braided god's eye that I took apart and put together at least 4 times before I got it right.  The smaller one has a traditional god's eye...  Both have twill handles and rims made of cane.  I have resolved to make at least 12 new baskets this year.  One a year just isn't enough to justify calling myself a basketweaver...     

This is a new project that I am starting soon.  I love the outline stitch, find it very relaxing to do and really just love these bird designs.  The problem...I hate to trace these detailed patterns on the background fabric.  I usually use a lead pencil, I trace lightly and my lines disappear, or I don't trace enough of the detail and my design doesn't look right.  I just purchased some Transfer Ease, a product that you run through your printer to copy the paper design on the water dissolvable interfacing material and then embroider over, followed by a cool water rinse to dissolve the interfacing.  I'm going to try it, since I hate tracing, but if you have a better way, I'd love to hear about it.  Thanks!      

World Wide Swap and Some Gifts

This is my contribution to the world wide swap.  I have belonged to the on-line yahoo goup Liberated Quilters for several years and since the folks at Liberated Quilters include Europeans, Australians, Canadians, and a couple women living in South American, we call this the World Wide Swap.  (Emily...One of the South Americans is a current Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia.)  I received several big pieces of fabric from Kasey (thanks Kasey) and am sending off this package to Pat in Saskatchewan.  It includes a couple old linen tablecloths, old buttons, several pieces of fabric, some hand-made paper, and a chocolate bar.  I hope she likes it.    

This is the start of the Valentine gifting.  I made these pillows for Chrissy.  She has ecletic taste in stuff and likes both elephants and seahorses, so this fabric line was perfect for her.  The back is a really cool stripe with all these colors in it...   She will see them now, but doesn't get them for a couple more weeks.  I'm also doing a few other little Valentines Day gifts, but since they are surprises, I'll show them later.   

January Sunrise

I was driving to work along M13 between Saginaw and Bay City when I stopped and took this photo looking out over the Crow Island Wildlife Refuge.  It was stunning.  The whole eastern sky glowed orange for a few minutes and then the sun was up...    

Coffee Bags

I know this is old news, especially for my girls that made them over the holidays, but these were fun.  They are made of recycled coffee bags from Zingermans in Ann Arbor.  Each of the girls chose their own fabrics from the stash (and I wish that I had photos, but of course, we forgot to get them), and each constructed their bags differently because I didn't have any pattern, but they are all engineers so they all did a fabulous job.  This must have been a good idea; 2 of the women at work got recycled coffee bags from the shop in Bay City and after seeing mine, are making bags too.  The update on the red, white and blue lone star is that it is 56" across, not 70'.  I'm not sure where I got that idea, but it is all together and I'm adding borders tomorrow.  The red, white, and blue is growing on me.  I have Winter Moonlight up in the foyer for the winter months, but I'm thinking that the lone star might be a lovely summer quilt to hang there.  Pictures will follow. 

  

Red, White, and Blue!

Red, White and Blue!  I was shoving fabric and books around last week trying to decide what to do on the annual guild retreat.  My class had been canceled and the coordinator said we were to work on our own projects.  Hmm...  I didn't have any started that I wanted to take on in public...  But, there were many exceptional quilters going to this retreat, which meant that I could get help and I needed to practice piecing (for those not acquainted with the terminology this word means matching all those points for which traditional quilts are well known).  Then I picked up Eleanor Burns book on Radiant Star quilts.  These quilts are a bit like piecing on steroids.  LOTS of points!  Her books have great instructions and I had been thinking of trying to do one for a while.  I needed a focus fabric for the "radiating" portion of the star.  My friend had given me a big piece of this American flag fabric and I put some other reds and blues from the stash with it.  The points and center are navy, the white in the star is the "white" background.  I took a flat white with me, but wasn't really happy with it and found this fabulous white fabric with overdyed grays and tans on it that was perfect.  The star is put together here (more or less flat and pretty well pieced), but all the background and border fabrics are just hung on the design board so I can see how it will look.  The star is 70" across so this will probably be a pretty big quilt.  I am thinking that this will be a long arm project too with the background quilted differently so that the star will really stand out.  Thanks to Carole and Pat for the help at the retreat. 

I know I have been particularly slow about blogging, it seemed like I just didn't have much left to say and wasn't doing enough to justify talking about it, but now that the holidays are over (and we had a particularly good time this year and made bags from recycled coffee bags, very fun!), and Don and Emily got fabric in Africa, I've made a couple cool baskets, made a couple really funky pillows, started a new guild exchange, am planning the African quilts, making a couple fun things for birthdays, taking a class for a new basket next month, doing some embroidery, working on the long-arm, planning to go to a wholesale quilt show in April, going to visit Kate in Florida in March...well, I guess I still have something left to say!