2012 Recap

I've been so busy finishing up my recent ladies that I forgot that you were here waiting to see what I all made during last year.  While some bloggers make up a mosaic, I have much too much to even attempt that!  I will show you some of my favorites though after I list my achievements:

1 set of potholders
17 mini abstracts
21 mug rugs
6 crayon quilts
19 bitty block sets (3.5" blocks-12 in a set) plus 3 sets of polaroids
36 pincushions which included 20 Christmas mice
9 lady quilts
4 placemats
25 doll sized quilts
1 lap size quilt
4 baby quilts

And some of my favorites.......remember that you can click on any of these pictures to see them bigger:











And a few mug rugs:









Now some bigger doll size quilts:







And bigger yet:





Whew!  I hope I didn't bore you.  There were more favorites than I thought!  Some of them I did so early last year that I almost forgot about them.  Which is your favorite?

Now I better get to work!  I'm completely out of stuff that I can show you until February......I guess I work too far ahead sometimes!  Tomorrow I need to work on my bitty block set....the theme for February is monsters and MINE is adorable!  Just wait until you see him!!!  Such fun I have here all by myself!  lol  Until later, my friends.........

Sewing & Baking

Well, no time like the present to start the holiday baking, I say, and thanks to all your nice comments, and interest in my cookies, I'm going to devote at least one or two posts to just those starting next week.  First, though, I want to show you the last two mug rugs I made......(and if I have time, I still have ideas for about 3 more, but who knows if the swap will be over by the time I have time to get out the machine again???  It's only been two days, and I already miss sewing.)

First, let me introduce, "Rudy":

"Rudy" ended up at 6 x 9 inches and was super simple to make.  I have come to realize that the simple mug rugs are the most admired, probably because they're the easiest to copy.  lol  (Which, incidentally,  doesn't bother me a bit, I might add!!)  I'm here for inspiration.....

Then, since I hadn't done a crayon method quilt in awhile, I thought that might be fun for one.  Who knows what will happen after it gets laundered though.

I called that one, "Let's Decorate".  It's 8 1/2 by 6 1/2" and was done with my usual crayon method which I've described many times.  Personally, I'm not crazy about that one......probably because I like brighter colors for Christmas.

THEN..............ta-da..............I made 1 of three pies I will be bringing to my sister's for Thanksgiving.  I love making this one since it can be made ahead of time and frozen.  (Just call me, Mrs. Smith!)  And tell me, who doesn't just love a good pecan pie?

There are a million recipes for pecan pie on the web, and I think mine is either from there or a combination of a few different ones, but the thing that I LOVE is my pie crust recipe.  It's super simple and has never failed me:

NO FUSS HOMEMADE PASTRY

Mix 1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt with a pastry cutter until blended

Slowly pour in 3-4 Tablespoons ice cold water, stirring until mixture comes together.

Shape dough into a ball, press into a disk shape, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes.

On floured surface, roll chilled dough into circle to fit your pie plate.  Flute edges.

For pies needing prepared crust, bake 450 degrees 10-12 minutes.  For all other, bake as recipe suggests.

Happy baking!  And I'll be back next week with a bunch of cookie pictures and recipes (since I'm not sewing..........phooey!)

Something Old

I haven't been sleeping, really!  I've been busy creating a few new ladies which you will meet soon.  In the meantime though, I thought I'd show you a quilt that I created some time ago and sold.  I'm sure by now that you can recognize that this was made using the crayon method.  I called it, "Prairie Flowers" and it was 12 1/2 x 17 1/2.  If you go to the Houston quilt show, look for it in the Blumenthal Lansing booth.  In case you don't know, they are the one of the biggest distributors of buttons in the world and most of my quilts use only their buttons!  (Maybe that's why they like my quilts????  lol)

First, the drawing:

Then the coloring......

And the finished quilt:



And a close-up:



So there you have it.  I did do two more quilts which I can show you right after the voting on the 21st for the Little Quilt, Sew, Vote Swap group.  Since my new ladies are still in process, chances are that you might have to wait a week or so to see some of them.  One will be for a Christmas gift, so that one will remain secret for some time, I'm afraid.  Until then, I'm going back to work...........I am having so much fun!

The Crayon Method

I think more than anything else, people ask me how I do my crayon method of quilting.  I thought I had explained it many times, but perhaps once more is needed for understanding.  I have done several of these quilts.  Some have had borders and some not.  Some even had trapunto.  Lately, I have been just making up a design on paper and doing rather simple things.  I think the addition of buttons add a lot and maybe the quilts look fancier because of them, who knows?  So, I will try to explain the method again.  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures to go along with all the directions.

First, take a plain white sheet of paper and make a design that is pleasing to you.  Make sure that you have used most of the paper because any areas left unsewn later, might gap.  Do your drawing to scale.  (In other words, make the drawing as big as you want your crayon quilt top to be excluding any borders you might want to add later.)  This is mine.  I called this one, "Bloomin'"

Note that I left several areas with circles.  I do circles to represent where I will place my buttons later although sometimes I do color those spaces too.  When you are satisfied with your drawing, go over it with a black sharpie pen.  This is so you will see the design through your white fabric.

Now, iron and cut a piece of white fabric 1/2 inch bigger than your drawing.  (Lengthwise and widthwise).  This is in case things are not exactly even when you are done quilting it.  When you are done, take your fabric and lay it over the darkened drawing, making sure the drawing is centered.  Now, trace your design onto your fabric lightly with pencil.  When you are done, take a piece of freezer paper the size of your fabric and iron the shiny side of the paper to the backside of your traced design.  This is to give the fabric the stability to color on it without the fabric wrinkling.  Using your Crayola crayons (at least that's the brand I use), color the fabric staying in your penciled lines.  When you are satisfied, remove the freezer paper, and take the colored piece to your ironing board.  Cover it with a cheap piece of muslin and without going back and forth, iron the piece section by section until you smell wax.  This is making the crayon a permanent part of the fabric.

If you want to add borders, now is the time to trim the front and add them because the next step is to make a quilt sandwich.  I use a free motion (or darning) foot and use #30 weight black thread to outline my drawing once I have everything together.  (I use 505 spray adhesive, so no need to worry about pins.)  And when I'm done, and have added my buttons, it looks like this:





This is one of two with flowers that I did recently.  The other one I sold to the craft coordinator for Blumenthal Lansing Co. (The biggest button distributor in the world).  It will be on display in their booth at the quilt show in February so look for it there.  The one above was done for a swap.  It's already sent, but the recipient hasn't gotten it yet.  Won't she be surprised?

I made one more for that swap.  It's not my usual style to be sure, but I thought I might be able to fool the group into thinking it was someone else'.  I was wrong!  I called this one, "Touch of Asia."



Check out that 1/8 inch straight line quilting.  I thought I'd never get done!!  Good thing I have a big stash of white thread, huh?  So, that's the scoop for today!  Not much else new here!  Until next time.....

Triplets and other stuff

The other day when I was thinking of something small to make for some friends, (just as little surprises), I checked my own flickr pages to see if there was something I could duplicate.  Surprisingly enough, one mug rug popped out as the clear winner!  I adore this mug rug!  It is SOOO me!  Lots of white, wonky colorful seaming, fun quilting, buttons and tiny binding.  You've seen it before:

Now, I must admit, that I have never used a mug rug for a mug.  Oh.....I've taken pictures with mugs, and glasses, but for me, especially with a portrait style, my mug rugs get hung on a tiny little spot in my kitchen right by the back door so I can smile every time I let the dog out and in.  I sew an O ring on the back in the middle top and I'm all set.  I wondered if my friends might do the same, so I got to work and pretty soon I had triplets:

Too bad they're all a bit different!  I guess that's what happens when you sew wonky without patterns!

On another note, my partner received the (not so cool) quilt I sent for the QT swap.  We had to do quilts containing items starting with the letter of our partner's first initial.  Here is the one I sent to Amy:

You'll note I did it in the crayon method.  I didn't have a clue how I could get all that stuff in there any other way without working for a week.  Hopefully, you've spotted the alien with an afro in the airplane, astrology, arrow hitting an artichoke, arch, address, alarm clock, anchor, ant, alligator, apples dotted with lots of asprin and the "A".  Quite a challenge, I must admit!!

On another note, I must show you the most precious picture I have seen in a long time.  I met a lady from my area on a forum recently, and after talking to her and becoming friends, and having the Havanese breed in common, Wendy has been sending me pictures of her new "baby" named, Harvey.  He is only 4 weeks old on this picture and it'll be another 4 weeks until he comes home to live with Wendy, but I've been having such fun going through this journey with her.  Isn't he a absolute doll?

Every Monday, Wendy and her husband go visit him at the breeders and get just a bit of lovin' until they can bring him home.  How cool is that?  I LOVE puppies!   I couldn't stand it so I, too, contacted that breeder and my hubby and I are going to visit her (and see Harvey in person) in about 2 weeks.  Perhaps I just might consider getting another puppy someday too, who knows?  Harvey's litter is all sold!  What would really be ideal, is for us to visit every litter she has when they're about 6-8 weeks so I can get my "puppy fix" without actually buying one.  Wouldn't that be cool?

Oh, one more thing.......and this is to the reader who asked me what that red thing was on the white twig on the Charley Harper cardinal quilt from last time, but who has a "no reply" blogger and can't receive answers.  (One of my pet peeves, I must admit, especially when asking a question.)  The straight red lines are his tiny legs and the red circle on the white twig are his little feet holding on for dear life!  Go back and look!  It'll make sense when you see it!

Until next time, happy sewing!!!  I'm on #2 Charley Harper cardinal.  Seems I can't just make one of anything lately.  lol

Close, but no cigar (yet)!

Do you remember my last post where I was having trouble with my new iPad?  Well, I'm sorry to say that I'm no further now than I was then, but look what I ordered and what came in today's mail:

I'm thinking that between that goofy book and the Geek Squad from Best Buy (who will be here between noon and 4 pm tomorrow), I will be up and running in no time!  (I hope!!)  In truth, I actually bought the  "senior" book because I thought that older people are probably not as technology savvy as someone younger and the book might speak their language.  ('Course I do...........JUST........fit in the senior category myself, but don't tell anyone!)  And, talking about lack of any kind of technology knowledge....HELLO....you're looking at her!!  I sure hope I can be civil tomorrow........and the "geek" has patience!  Lord help us!!  lol  I will let you know...........

In the meantime, I want to show you another crayon quilt.  I really like this one and have decided that I will use the drawing again, but do it in applique.  Perhaps in solids.  That should be interesting, I think.  I wanted to do connection circles and this is what I came up with:

When I posted the finished quilt on Flickr, someone said it was maybe my brain connections.  I like to think so.....all colorful and fun!!  How cool would that be, huh?

Here it is all colored, but not stitched yet.  This one looked pretty good, even at that stage.

I love it done though.  It ended up at 16 1/2 by 17 1/2 inches with a border quilted with 1/8 inch lines.  That took forever, but I think it really makes it special.





I named it, "Connections"!  It seems to fit!  lol

Woe is me

I bet you have never met anyone in your life who couldn't get one of these up and running:

Well, honey, you know one now!!  Our 40th wedding anniversary was Friday so DH and I decided to get an iPad.  Now, we all know tons of people who have one and use them, right?  Hello!!  I mean, DH has an iPhone4S and I use a MacBook, so setting up an iPad shouldn't have been too tough for us, right?  NOT!!!!  Seems that my MacBook uses one e-mail incoming and outgoing code and DH's iPhone another code so nothing coordinates the way it should.  We were on the phone Friday afternoon with 3 Apple genius' for over 3 hours and they haven't a clue what to do.  The suggestion was to call our e-mail provider to straighten out the problem, but when DH did that, they insisted it wasn't their problem and to call AT&T which is DH's phone provider.  You can only guess what AT&T said..........YUP, they told us that it wasn't their problem either and the e-mail provider had to be the culprit.  So.....isn't this just ducky???  E-gads, I HATE technology!!!  Hate, hate, hate it!!  In the meantime, the new iPad sits on the counter and can't do a thing.  You can only imagine what I am thinking!  TAKE THE DAMN THING BACK!!!  I didn't need it up to this point, and I don't need it now!!  Screw it!  What really took the cake is when one of the Apple genius' (named Barbara) told me that she talks all the time to an 84 year old grandma who "just loves her iPad".  After all of this, I'm wondering if the grandma loves her iPad so much, why is she constantly talking to the genius named, "Barbara" all the time???  Hello????   Did Barbara think that comment just went over my head?  Hello!!!  NOT!!!  I wish I could write dirty words because I'd really like to!!!  Give me a sewing machine any day of the week!  At least the frustration isn't as bad!  (At least most of the time.)  lol

On another note, the Sew, Vote, Swap #5 is over and it's always such a fun surprise discovering which quilt will come my way.  This time, I received my #1 pick made by Lindsay who is also known as "Fly Girl Fly".  Her entry reminded me of the fantasy of little girls:



If you remember, or perhaps I didn't show you, this is what I made:



Other than that, not much is new.  I haven't been sewing like I should.  (Has anyone??)  Not much is going on in Flickr lately (as you might have noticed), and I only need so many quilts for us so why bother making more?  (What a lazy attitude, huh?)  I do have something in mind that I want to try, so hopefully, I will get to it this week.  Problem is that if it turns out good enough, I might save it for some swap and won't be able to show you anyway.  Bummer!  One of these days, I should make something big though.  That would take up some time and some fabric.  I'm thinking with all this little stuff I make lately (and using the crayon method too), I could be set for fabric for at least the next 20 years or so and surely that's not too thrilling!

"Summer Whimsey"

I think I told you awhile back that I recently joined the QT Swap with a "Backyard" theme.  Originally, my plan was to perhaps do a birdbath with wonky birds, but then, as the weather got warmer and warmer, my thoughts went to another medium that I haven't done in ages!  When I was a little girl (well, actually I don't think I was ever a ....."LITTLE GIRL", so let's say....... a young girl) I used to love to play with crayons when the weather was warm.  (I'd do a lot of reading then too, but that's another story!)  I'd get out my coloring books, or just drawing paper and be entertained for hours.  SO, I thought why not break out the crayons again?  I got to work and drew this:

Can you see the bug?  What's better for backyards than bugs, I say!  I wanted to make him cute though.  After I was done drawing, I made the lines darker by going over them with a fine magic marker so I could see the drawing through white Kona.  I cut a piece of fabric the size of the drawing, adding an inch to every side, just in case it wasn't straight when I was done and traced the drawing with a pencil to my fabric.  THEN, I took a piece of freezer paper ..............................(for all you who have already read these instructions on a former post, you can skip this part, okay?) and I ironed the freezer paper (shiny side down) to the back of the traced fabric piece.  (This is to give the fabric strength so you can color it.) When I was done, it looked like this:

Not impressive, to be sure.........but, we're not done yet!  After you finish coloring, remove the freezer paper from the back, and going to your ironing board, lay a thin (cheap) piece of muslin on the top and then iron.  You should smell wax........be careful not to burn it!  This melts the crayon into the fabric fibers and makes the color permanent.

Next, make a quilt sandwich just like you would for any other quilt, and taking only black thread in both the top and bobbin, outline all your lines with a free motion stitch.  (HINT......do NOT lower your feed dogs!!  You will have much more control.)

When you are done, your quilt should look close to this.  (Except I also added hand stitching, a few colonial knots and a bunch of buttons for more whimsey:)



Did you check out his googely eyes?  (I LOVE googely eyes!  lol)



Cute huh?  I'm not sure my partner thought so though.  She didn't say much!  Perhaps it was because of the back.  They don't look pretty at all with this method, but what can you do?

So, don't all run for your crayons at once now!  It is fun and I promise you'll feel like a kid again but most of all, you'll stay nice and cool!!!  Have fun, my friends!  Until next time..................

Hurray.......

There is something that I forgot to show you........so I thought while I was at it, I'd sorta fill in the blanks on how to make it.  I did post the directions for something similar a year or two ago, but everyone needs a re-fresher every once and awhile.  Do you remember my crayon quilts?  YOU will love this!!!  Soooooo fun and easy and they turn out almost like a watercolor picture.  This one I did as a mug rug.  I think it was about 8 inches square.  (I'd measure it, but I already gave it to a friend to hang in her house as a spring decor.)

First of all, I want you to get a solid piece of paper and draw a flower.  Try to make the petals go off the outside of your square.  (Or you could make the square bigger to start and trim it later, it really doesn't matter.)  Now, cut yourself a hunk of solid white fabric a bit bigger than the drawn flower and with a pencil, lightly trace the drawn flower onto your white fabric.  (Hint:  If you cannot see the image, darken your drawn flower with a sharpie marker, but wait until it's dry before tracing.)  After that is done, iron a piece of freezer paper (shiny side down) to the back of your white fabric.  This stiffens it enough so that you can color it without the fabric shifting.)  Get out your Crayola crayons and color to your hearts content!!  Note that I had plenty of white fabric on the side of the image to test colors, so you might want to consider cutting a bigger white piece of fabric than you would need.

When it is done to your liking, remove the freezer paper from the back, lay a piece of cheap muslin on the top of your flower and iron it until you smell the wax.  DO NOT BURN!!!  This seals the colors and protects your iron at the same time!!

Next, fuse the back of the flower with a piece of fusible fleece, or thin batting and pin to temporarily adhere.  Stitch around the flowers with white thread and remove pins.  Do any fancy stitching now like the french knots in the middle for effect.

Now for the tricky part.  Use a kids scissors with blunt ends and cut as close to the batting as possible.  Discard your cut pieces.  This procedure will make your flowers POP as they will now have two layers of batting.  Now, sandwich as you would for any other quilt.

Use a size 16 needle and #12 black thread and free motion quilt around each flower, burying the threads as necessary and quilt as desired for the remainder with desired thread.  Trim and bind as normal and do any additonal french knots at this time and wa-la!  You should have a darling flower mug rug!

2011 recap

I'm sure by now, you've seen tons of mosaics from other bloggers recapping their sewing successes in 2011.  Unfortunately, I won't be one of them!  I made much too much to even begin to put it all on a mosaic (or two or three) so I thought I would instead just list my finishes:

20 "Ladies" Quilts
2 Crayon Quilts
24 Mug Rugs
12 Pincushions
7 Lap Sized Quilts
1 Baby Quilt
44 Doll Sized Quilts or smaller
3 Lap Quilt Patterns
4 Coasters
12 Hot Pads
12 Felted ornaments
4 - sets of Bitty Blocks
4 Size 3 Kids Outfits
1 Magazine Publication

Whew......and then I wonder why I don't read so much anymore?  Who has the time????

You might like to share in some of my 2011 favorites:































And last of all:



Wow!  There were more than I thought and I probably missed a few in there too!  I hope I didn't bore you.  Sometimes it's fun looking at that old stuff again.....even for me!  lol

I have tons of ideas for 2012!  Lately, I have pulled out the solids again, so we'll see what happens!  I hope you'll stick with me through this process.  I so appreciate each and every one of you!