It is Snowing in Texas!

We are getting an unexpected snow storm here in Texas!  It was literally 70 degrees here yesterday and today it is freezing with a blizzard.  Our wonderful neighbor, Claudia, took these today when my Mom was out trying to get a picture of the snow:

Christmas Cards

For the first time, I made different cards for Christmas.  I had a couple of duplicates, but mostly everyone got a different card.  Here are a few of my favorites . . .

This was one of the last cards I made.  I cased it from a beautiful card on splitcoast stampers.  Please note that it is one of the few cards I have made without ribbon.  Most of my cards have ribbon despite the fact that my dear husband doesn’t like ribbon and always discourages it’s use!  You can see the original inspiration with all of the details here:  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1497571

I really wanted to post this card so that I can give full and complete credit to my girlfriend Jennifer!  She originally designed this card.  I just stole the layout and added more ribbon which probably wasn’t necessary!

This was also one of my favorites and I can pretty much take credit for the design (which is unusual since I almost always start with someone else’s card if only for inspiration.)

Here are a couple of cards that started out as 3″ x 6″  from a Stampin’ Up workshop.  I thought they were nice but of course I wanted to add additional “embellishment” so to do that I cut up the cards and remounted them on standard 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ cardstock with additional stamping.

I have a few more but I’ll save those for another day.

Design Wall Wednesday

It has been ages since I posted, but I figured I wouldn’t wait until the New Year to start again!

This Wednesday my sewing room is also our second guest bedroom.  My parents arrived today and my in-laws got here yesterday.  So, my design wall has a bed in front of it.  I’m including this photo with the blow-up mattress since it has a quilt on it that I don’t think I have shown, although I may have.

I’m calling this my Christmas Trip around the World.  I bought the fabric and did all of the piecing on our last big trip.  The quilt ended up being a little small for the bed so I put it on sideways.   I really love the paisley fabric that is on the border.

The blocks on the wall are part of an exchange I did with my Day Bee.  Six members participated and we each made one of the rows.  I don’t think I’m going to assemble it in the traditional way.  I want to keep the packages in a row but the other blocks I’m thinking I’m going to organize in some kind of block layout.  Standby for more details . . .

Apples Arrive!

Well, the “secret” gift that I referenced a few days ago has made it to Wisconsin.  You can pop over to my friend Pat’s blog where she posted a lovely picture.  (My pictures never come out that good. ) I hope this doesn’t put too much pressure on Pat to finish the row-by-row.   That was NOT my intention! 

It was fun making the apples since I had such good memories of our visit including our tour of the Miller Brewing Plant.  Pat and her family were wonderful hosts when we visited a few months ago.   We had a great time! 

Work in Progress Wednesday

I spent the morning quilting this trip around the world at my friend Paula’s on her long-arm.  It was a pleasure working on the big machine but I’m not that happy with my results.  I didn’t have that much control and of course I couldn’t see what I was doing in the busy border.  My pattern ended up a bit oversized and inconsistent.  I know it is just practice, though . . . Paula was great to have the zippers on before I even got there so it only took me about three hours to quilt this queen size quilt.  

The paisley fabric was the first thing I bought on our last trip.  I just fell in love with it – can you see the little purple flecks.  I bought the rest of the fabrics and various places along the way.  The green was a perfect match but it was a pain to cut for the border.  It shows like a stripe and I didn’t want it to look wavy so I fussy cut the whole thing.  I also practiced mitre-ing the corners even though the quilt probably didn’t really need it.  I sewed all three borders together and then did the mitre.  I think that is the right way to do it.  It seemed like a lot less work than mitre-ing three separate borders. 

For a change I can say that this quilt is for me!  I will use it at Christmas time on the blow-up mattress that we use when both of our parents come to visit.  Now, off to make some binding.

A Michigan Garden

This is the quilt that is on its way to Michigan right now . . .

The pattern is the cover quilt on the booklet called Livin’ Large by Heather Mulder Peterson.  I made a mistake when piecing it and had to rework the design so I guess now I could say “inspired by”.  Our hosts in Michigan had mostly yellow in the house – I hope they like green! 

 

The florals were from a fat quarter pack I bought at Hancock’s of Paducah when we stopped there on our most recent trip.  That is a great place for fabric.  I love that they carry the whole line of fabrics and have an unbelievable selection.  I hadn’t seen most of the patterns they were carrying before – they seem to do an excellent job keeping up with current patterns.  I spent three hours in the store while my wonderful husband patiently waited in the truck. 

 

Most of the florals in “A Michigan Garden”  were Kaffe Fasset fabrics but the brown and the border fabric came from my stash (along with the backing.)  I haven’t bothered doing a Stashbusting Report since I completely destroyed my “no-buy” pledge while we were on the road.  There were just too many great quilt shops.  I did come home with four completed tops from fabrics I bought on the road but there was still bags of fabric tucked behind the couch! 

 

I quilted this on my home studio frame with my PQ1500.  I practiced the flower quilting for almost a day before starting the quilt but in the end much of my work doesn’t show at all – especially in the border.  I am loving using Aurofil thread for quilting and piecing these days!

I got the idea for the quilting design from the “Pajama Quilter“  Dawn Ramirez.  I really enjoyed her DVD.  It doesn’t talk about quilting technique but she spends her time showing  great quilting designs both on a white board and on the fabric.  I am at the point where I like my frame again.  It isn’t a long-arm but I can get decent results in a lot less time than it would take to baste and quilt on my table. 

One of our local guilds had their Show this past weekend.  I used the Gammill Premier Plus and the Baby Lock extended-neck machine.  I liked the Gammill much better and prices seem to have come down significantly.  You can go home with an 18″ Gammill for under $10,000 (which was about the same thing they wanted for the BabyLock.)  That price included the lower-end table but it did seem like a good value – if I had $10,000 looking for a home!

A Thank You Card

I know not all of you are interested in cards but this one goes along with a quilt . . . I made a thank you quilt for our friends in Michigan who hosted us on our last trip.  I will post quilt photos tomorrow.  This is the card that went along with the quilt in the mail yesterday:

I’ve been enjoying making cards with friends since I’ve been home from our latest trip.  I did a lot of sewing on the road but I didn’t do any stamping!

Design Wall Monday

We’ve been home for almost a month now and it has taken me that long to get the urge to post to either of my Blogs!  I still need to wrap up the posts to Airstream Adventures.  It was a great trip and I still have some terrific photos that I should upload.  While I haven’t been blogging, I have been doing a bit of “crafting” since we got home and Alan even completed a beautiful project that I will share in the next couple of days. 

Today, I’m going with my friend Pat’s traditional What’s on Your Design Wall? Monday.  My Day Bee is doing a Christmas row-by-row quilt swap.  I got the Santa’s!  They took twice as long as they should have because I made them twice.  I didn’t paper piece them the first time and I wasn’t happy with the end product.  The blocks finish at only 6 x 7″ and I thought my seams were just a bit too wavy so I went back and re-did most of them with paper foundations I made in EQ6.  I am much happier with these!  I think you have to imagine them with eyes, though . . .

 

While making the blocks, I generated this big pile of debris which I just haven’t been able to bring myself to throw away, yet.  It just seems like it should be good for something!  There are a couple of decent size pieces that will go in my scrap bin, but the rest of it is destined for garbage – that seems like a waste.  One of the down sides of paper piecing does seem to be the amount of wasted fabric. 

 

I almost completed another project this week, but it is a secret.  It is on its way to a new home and after it gets there, I can tell you more.  Or, maybe the recipient will share . . . Here is the debris pile from that project:

Quilting on the Road

We are still on the road.  You can read about our travels on my Airstream Adventures blog:  

www.ciemian.wordpress.com

Stashbuster’s Report Week 19, 20 & 21

I’m still not making great progress getting anything finished, but at least things seems to be looking up a bit.  I read my friend Pat’s blog and she just finishes and finishes and finishes all of these beautiful quilts and other projects!  Check out her site for some great inspiration and links to other wonderful sites . . . 

• Fabric in:           6 Yards (Backings for donation quilts)
• Fabric used:     12 Yards
• Net Fabric this report:      -6  Yards
• Net Fabric year to date:  -41 and 1/4 Yards

Progress:

• Finished Paula’s Quilt (-6 Yards)
• Worked on Bear Creek Raffle Quilt
• Finished piecing Alan’s Choice (formerly known as Annie’s Choice)
• Sent in Stashbuster’s Penalty Strips (-2 Yards)
• Cut fabric exchange squares (-2 Yards)
• Gave away all of my black and white scraps (-2 Yards)
• Finished re-stuffing and stitching heart pillows for Guild

Goals for Next Couple Months:

• Piece Chairman’s Challenge Blocks (Road Project)
• Turn leaves for green and red Christmas blocks and work on applique (Road Project)
• Continue utility quilting Old Masculine Quilt 1
• Make handles for clothesline tote bag
• Complete quilting and binding of Challenge Quilt Test Block

I do have a lot of extra fabric in my house right now.  I am co-Community Service Chairman and we got a large donation of fabric.  But, this isn’t mine so I’m not reporting it.  I may set some of it aside (but not in my stash) for me to make Community Service/donation quilts with but I won’t mix it -  I’ll have to be extra careful not to report it when I do use it up! 

This will probably be my last report for awhile.  We are heading out on the road and I don’t expect any of my projects to actually get to the point of being interesting enough to report.