GEEZ!!!!

hello my fabric junkies. for all of you that bid on ebay for heather's fabrics BEWARE of anything that is posted as out of the ordinary! i have a seller trying to dodge a refund BUT the most annoying part of this is that she is PERSONALLY bugging heather ross to clear up her dispute. one of my HEROS is going to think i am a nut!

west hill horses. three colors. she claims she has 3 yards of a beige colorway! what! beige! the picture was beige as well. this would have made it a factory misprint. can you imagine having a factory misprint of heathers fabric? valuable? i think so. stupid on my part? definately.

so...if you think it is too good to be true...guess what? it is.

love to all

waiting for julieann and jackson to get here so i can START his munki quilt. the first in a very, very, long series of munki quilts. let's see six kids....one married...five to go. how many grandchildren will there be? OH MY!!

The blocks for the 3x6 bee

i forgot to show you the failed block. i placed it back together as i have already removed one of the middle seams but you get the idea. i really like the block.....i am just a "wee" bit short of 12.5"....isn't that a bummer?

here are the fabrics i am using for the next block....the colors are brown, orange and pink...i think by looking at the fabric i am missing one....i am also using munki lipstick...one tube..in coral.

SIS BOOM! my jennifer p. is organized!!!

hello my fellow fabric junkies. a couple of things.



number 1. i am having difficulty with paper piecing so if you are going to use the method for paper piecing that i am using in the previous post consider a couple of things BEFORE beginning that project. ASSUME that your computer and printer system may change the size of the template to accomodate your printer and secondly check not only one measurement but place your entire 6.5 inch square up ONTO the template to make sure it will be the full 12.5 inch block. i will be returning to that project as soon as my kona comes in. i ran out of black and cannot find it locally plus i needed a few other colors.

i may or may not continue with that block. i will try one more time and if i have the frustration of the last time...no way. however, i think it will be okay now that i have discovered the issue.

as i begin to clear out the studio for the remodel i am trying to decide how to file the fabric. for today i started with my jennifer paganelli. if you like/love jennifer p. as i do now is a great time for picking up some basics as they are on sale and you can pick up great deals! i decided for now to color coordinate and box "by designer" just for now as i pack them into the boxes. it just makes it easier.

















i will try to share as much of
my collection as i can duringreorginizaton/remodel....then, a giveaway of "one" of these lines....which one? i am debating flea market fancy and munki munki however i am open to suggestion.

here is my jennifer p. stash to date (not including charms)














thanks to all of you! pick up on these sales! you know that wonderland has been released temporarily in tomato and sugar. i will get to my wonderland soon! now i am going to work on that block while trying to get ready for company this week. i will go quiet next week as my precious daughter and grandson will be here! yay!!!!! i need to make some more softies as well. jackson loves his treeling! i also need to start on jackson's munki quilt. my first one! i cannot wait but i have to get ufo's out of the way first. i wish i could do five things at once like some bloggers but i just cannot. especially with a studio that is out of order.

love to all!

pieces of this and that

well, i am paper piecing for the first time and although it is easier to get your blocks to come out exact (which i love) it does require more fabric and time than i thought it would. so lesson number one.....huge chunks of fabric are worth it. this is just the first piece of the block i am working on for the 3x6 sampler quilt mini bee....i know it took me a while to get started but i am going now. i chose this circle of geese pattern. the tutorial is here. it took me forever to make up my mind. i wanted to do this one from the start but everyone said it was really hard. i tried to find another one but i kept coming back to this and....you never know until you try, right? i think it will be interesting to see how the different backgrounds influence the design. i am going to experiment with that as i go along but i do not see myself doing it in traditional white....for this bee anyway. i love clean white lines and sashing but my hive was rather challenging in the color selections. i am still pulling and debating.

i wanted to thank all my swap buddies for their incredible generosity and amazing fabric collections. it has made my own stash look pretty darn good. special thanks to ellen, melanie and marg for all the extra time and effort spent with me. you ladies have been a blessing in many ways and are exceptional people as well as quilters.

this little pile is one i picked up today...i know....STOP BUYING.

speaking of quilters, i ran into a photostream tonight while surfing around. i hope she does not mind me mentioning this but her quilting is quite simply gorgeous. she is new to flickr so take a look at her work. she stated she had been quilting quite some time......it shows. you can find it here.

tomorrow i am going to document all of the projects that i intend to accomplish to date. i did not want to say for the year. i go so slow and i am still quite behind with many ufo's left over from the new years challenge and next week i have two visitors coming to town to celebrate someones first birthday! yes, julieann and jackson will be here! yea!!!!!

love to all,

my sympathy and empathy to bek

my encouragement to marg

leslie

A Softie for JACKSON

i can't believe it has been a year but it has. my precious daughter julieann gave me my first precious grandson jackson.

he is still reeling in toys from christmas so the request was for more practical items.

i went shopping today and bought him some clothes....and tons of books. he loves to be read to and he can read himself if you understand "heaven talk." that is what my husband calls baby talk. she will need lots of clothes changes i believe.

i did order this book. i have made him toys before and he really loves all of them i have made.....beebee and red have been hits. so tonight i made him "treeling." i thought it turned out really cute and was easy to make. i see lots of possibilities here.

Eye candy out of disaster

one of the things on my list to do is to renovate my sewing space. i am extremely fortunate to have a large space that, if done right, should be awesome. i am so indecisive. do i have things built in, fabric storage.....in airtight containers to protect it? in small shelves so i can see it? do i group it by color? designer? what do i do with all this stuff i have accumulated? it is daunting. one good thing that has come out of this is i get to pull out all my fabric again and fondle it...this is where i get stuck most of the time. i start planning even more to do.

many thanks to my swap buddies for my growing stash.....everything is so pretty. that is another thing. the old stuff...what to do? you know.....the fabric you will never ever use. do i donate it? sell it to some newbie on ebay? pattern storage.....oh my. ribbons, fabric paints, art supplies, large amounts of tracing and design paper. bins and bins. then there is the mobile cart with all the things you need to quilt. most of you know...this is a lot of stuff. oh....see this mess? small portion.....and audrey stays!

anyway...back to the eye candy.

when this is over a giveaway to celebrate!!!!

quilt #1 2009....WOW was this fun

this one is not mine....yet.

in my quest to teach myself to quilt i have encountered so many facets of this fascinating art form. that is what pulled me in....the art of it. i had seen quilts, owned a few and actually lost one that i would consider valuable as i had no idea at that time in my life what EXACTLY went into this. the quilt that was lost was a native american quilt made for my daughter. i won't go into how or why it got lost but it does bring up an interesting fact.

i do not think the majority of people understand what really goes on in the mind of the quilter. she can be 98 y/o or ten years of age when she begins. she can remember generations of women in her family doing this or she may have never been exposed to it..or sewing..at all. i fell into the latter.

the fact that i lost a native american quilt is nauseating to me now as i am native american and the history of quilting runs way, way back. i began to research this style of quilting and actually got sidetracked by another ethnic group. i backshelved my own ancestry to experiment with what i had found.

i do not know how many of you out there have seen or heard of gee's bend quilters, a group of aftican american women living in gee's bend alabama who have been quilting for generations in as unique of a style as i have seen. to save space and time i will refer you to the history here. in researching this i found that they are actually in danger of becoming overcommercialized. i read that in the washington post. they are still making their quilts and selling them for very high prices. knockoff companies are making rugs, etc. ...you know the gig.

they have recently released kits for us to try. i bought one as i am a kit buyer. i can't help it. i know it is lame but if i am unsure i need some kind of direction. i quickly found that i could have done this without the kit BUT the fabric that was supplied was worth the kit. i will confess at this time that i do not care for batiks. i do not like the fabric or the result. i hope i offended no one, that is just my personal taste. the reason i mention batiks is the gee's bend fabric is somewhat similar.....very somewhat. the fabric itself is heavier than batik with a higher threadcount. it is hand dyed so the imperfections are there. discolorations but not tie dyed looking. i did wash it first as i was afraid of running as the colors are very, very rich. when i removed even the tiniest pieces from the dryer i had to cut maybe....three strings....now i have washed some fabrics that were unrecognizable when i removed them. i had one i had to throw away (joanns....ahem.) i did not use one pin to hold any piece of fabric to another throughout the entire project. it was not necessary. i made subtle changes to the pattern, adding or subtracting a color or pattern. i did add a few very tiny kaffe fassett striped shot cotton pieces because they worked. the gee's bend quilts are made from old workclothes and the people making them, like me, are getting their materials from goodwill and the like to achieve this effect. i would consider using some, but i would not stray too far from the wonderful, richly colored gee's bend fabric. i fully intend to make more of these. i think they are fabulous....so now i have to make the decision to stick with tradition and hand quilt or freemotion it. it seems in order to keep the original theme i need to handquilt or so it is telling me but.....i hate to bind so......marg? are you there?

this quilt was originally made by qunnie petway and the name of it is lazy gal. thanks for listening to this long rambling post.

i have already planned a second which is pictured at the top of this post.

happy quilting!

les

the best mail day ever

sometimes when the stars line up just right, the wind shifts and become the winds of fortune this happens. it is rare. i came home from a harried trip to the store and my sweet husband had all these packages lined up on the table for me....he said....this looks like it could be good.

i grabbed them like a spoiled child and ran down the stairs to the basement..i.e. my sewing room. do you ever get nervous opening a package with a pair of scissors?

it was better than well....christmas, birthday, sex...you name it. the dog was concerned over the noises i was making.

hope valley....the entire line, the flea market fancy i have been working so hard to find and obtain, sweet little minny muu that i now adore, my new obsession gee's bend and the books i have been eyeballing and fingering for months......all came IN ONE DAY.

i am a very fortunate girl...in many ways. i hate being materialistic and i have posted about a lot ot things, love of life, appreciation for the perfect husband, family, grandchild....but today...i am going internal on you and saying this is one of the best days i have ever had.....*guilt*

RESOLUTION: IN THE MOMENT

for the first time ever i had a problem saying goodbye to the year. it has been the most wonderful year in my life. so much has happened to change me and my life forever. all of it good. i am moving forward with the attitude that this will just be my life from now on. i am not thinking of the possibility of anything going wrong, new wrinkles, aching joints or any of those things that aging and the movement of time bring. i am "in the moment." yes, that is my resolution. each and every moment is a lifetime in itself to be savored in all its glory because i may never have another moment like it again. this includes my coffepot acting up, getting clogged with grounds this morning while i peacefully slept then awakening to coffee, grounds and some obnoxious noise. does anyone know how wiley coffee grounds can be to clean up?

anyway, happy new year to all. may you all feel the way i do at the end of next year and remember "in the moment."