Challenge Quilting

Have you ever had a piece of fabric that was soooooooo ugly, you just didn't have any idea what to do with it, yet you can't seem to part with the goofy thing????? Well, this was my issue when this piece of spotty brown stuff was "gifted" to me years ago. It was course and rough feeling, not quite like burlap, but close, and so darn ugly that it intrigued me enough to hang on to it for years. I found it again and decided that it was time to use it, or loose it. After some thought, a pattern for a sweatshirt design surfaced and the idea of the wall hanging came to life. I had all the fabrics in my "stuff" to complete this thing accept 1 piece for the overalls for baby bear. I did have a nice plaid print but it was a very bright black and white plaid, which was not going to work for this. So I put on my thinking cap. I have tea dyed things in the past, so I thru a piece of it, in tea. It tinted a little, but it wasn't dark enough, so I tried coffee dyeing. That didn't really do much for it either. I was bound and determined to not go out and buy anything for this ugly fabric thing I was about to embark on, so I opened up the cupboard and searched for something to use to make this fabric darker. Ah hah, there it was Soy Sauce. Nice and dark. I soaked this piece of tea and coffee stained fabric in soy sauce and Yahoo, it worked, the perfect shade I was looking for. Who would have guessed. Now here is where the lesson begins. Let me start with "DO NOT DO AS I DO", do as I say, and forget this stupid method. Yep it worked, but when I decided that the fastest way to get this thing dry and ready to use, was to press it. Well...

Not sure if any of you have had the opportunity to smell burning soy sauce, but it ain't one you really want to experience. Can you spell NASTY? There was a thick layer of smoke hanging over my sewing room, that burned your eyes, not to mention the horrid mess that was left on the bottom of the iron that took forever to scrap off. Even "iron off" groaned about cleaning up that mess. What was I thinking? A drive to get some fabric dye might just have been the best solution after all.

I am happy to say, that after the mess was cleaned up, I was delighted with the end results, but they will not and I do repeat, NOT be repeated ever again by me. This wall hanging is one of my very favorites though, and is one of the three that I will have hanging in the library.

Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Please don't spend it trying to prove or disprove my soy sauce dyeing experience. Just trust me on this one!

:-)

I've just gotta share this!

I know, I know, you have seen enough fusible applique to last you a life time and then some lately here, but I came across this wonderful website that I just have to share with you all. Angies Bits and Pieces http://ajpadilla.com/
This Angie is one talented gal. She lives in Ecuador, and designs all the wonderful things on her site. It is $25 a year to join, which is a bargain and a half, once you see the great things she has. There is my favorite fusible applique or for those who have the patience, regular applique, an entire block library, paper piecing, something for everyone. I spent a few days after joining, downloading and saving everything. I want to do it all. Please check out her site, I think you will be wildly excited with it, just as I am.

This little beauty is in her kids section. I made this up to hang in the childrens section of the library. They are having a quilt show again this summer and were looking especially for small childrens quilts. I was really torn between this one, the Princess and the Pea, or Jack and the Beanstalk. They all are darling, but this won out for me. I am going to make the others, but they won't be done in time for the show.

Hope there is plenty of eye candy for you all, on her site. Be sure to read up on her girls too. They are so young and designing their own quilts too. Life just isn't fair. Some people get all the talent!! :-)

Enjoy all her site. It's definately a keeper!

Patriotic Swap

I've been working on my Quilted Table, Patriotic Tablerunner swap this week. It is done and ready to go into the mail. I can't reveal my swap partner just yet, but this is a part of the package that will be going out. You have no idea how hard it was to just look at the M&M's, but for the record they are actually wrapped up in a package now and out of my sight! Whew, it was tough to leave "M" alone, I have to tell you!
Hope my swap partner loves them as much as I do!

That's one big chili pepper

I was looking for something to make to thank a co-worker and came across this cute little pattern in and old issue of Quilters Home Magazine. It was perfect. She loves chili's. Did I really stop and read things before I jumped in, oh no, of course not. This thing is a monster. Somewhere in the 50-60" long range. I was a little shocked when I got the supplies together and printed out the pattern. Of course I printed it on my regular printer which cut off most of everything before I realized that it needed to be printed on my big printer, which was now making this thing huge. I decided to do it anyway, and I have to say, it sure is cute done. It was a little daunting with the size of it, but well worth it in the end. Now if she just has a room that is big enough to put this in????????

Anyway, I sure do hope she likes it!

This week brings me to doing a lot of quilting. I am making quilted bedskirts for about 35 beds. It is a much bigger job than I had planned on. I finished 4 in 12 hours over the weekend. Yikes. Guess I know what I will be doing for the better part of the summer. Glad there is no big rush, the lodge they are going to, will put them on room by room as I get them finished. So you know where I will be and what I am doing for the rest of the year! LOL!!! No time for me to get into much trouble it seems. Darn!! :-)

I have also started on a quilt for a display in the childrens area at the Englewood Library next month. I am very excited with my little Cinderella Quilt. Hopefully I will get that finished up this weekend and post some photos.

Just a note about last weeks quilt posting. My "Finding the Right Tree" quilt is now proudly hanging on my dining room wall. Not the usual dining room decor I know, but the family thought it was pretty darn comical, and didn't have an issue with it in there. Who knew! About the time you are sure you know them so well, they change on you. I think it is just to keep me guessing! Maybe a conspiracy of some kind! Hummm.

Let your imagination run wild and dream up something really big for yourself this week!

Ta Dah!

I don't ususally post mid-week, but I finished my surprise and can't wait to share it with you all. WARNING WARNING it's a little off color. Please don't anyone be offended by this little guy. I just thought it was hysterical. We found this pattern at the Pueblo quilt show, and the gal sold out the darn thing in the first 30 minutes. Just goes to show that I am not the only one with a warped sense of humor. Anyway, she was good enough to reorder and mail it to me. This pattern is from http://eatcakegraphics.com/ If you, like myself have never heard of them, it's worth a trip to their website to visit. Holly has the most wonderful sense of humor and has done some really fun things with fusible applique. I am definately going to have to place an order with her. I love the December 26th Santa doing the happy dance! And the cat that sneaks up, on the other and yells BOO! Too funny. Also love the one of the wind blowing all the kids around. Where does she find the inspiration for these little darlings?? Or should I comment that I am astounded that someone has the same crazy sense of humor that I do. Now if only I had the vision to create from it. But no, I just live in my warped mind life! tee hee

It is so refreshing to me to find humor in things. Bottom line is, that there is so much going on in our world and so little that we can really change, that you might as well, develope your sense of humor and just have a good laugh at things. It is medically proven that laughter makes you live longer. I read that somewhere, really I did, but even if it isn't true, I definately don't think it would hurt any of us.

With that thought in mind this week, please go out and find what really makes you laugh and have a good one on me. For all tragedy in life there is a silver lining and we all need to look towards that. One smile is worth a million words!

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Spring has Sprung

While we wait for it to really happen here in Colorado, I do understand that it is here according to the calendar anyway. We have snow one day, rain one day then it is 80 degrees and then snowing again. We never really know what to expect next. My flowers were coming up and looking great, then the snow took them away. So I had to do the next best thing I could. I got out my scraps and made my own flower garden. This one is weather resistant. If left out side it will probably not survive long, but on my wall it will last forever, or at least until I find some to replace it with. :-)

This little project comes from a new book I picked up last week at JoAnn's, with a coupon of course! It's called Rainy Day Applique. Loads of fun quick fusible applique projects and all the patterns for them are on a CD. Perfect for those quick little gifts and using up scraps of things. Most of us have so many scraps that we can make up these kind of things with little to no out of pocket expense. If you love fusible applique, this is a great book.

I am in a 2 day Anita Goodesign embroidery seminar this weekend. What can I say. There was little sleep last night for all the ideas running thru my head. The shop hosting this, is so good to us. We did nothing but learn, sew and eat yesterday. Breakfast, snack, lunch, and a wonderful chocolate fountain for afternoon snack. So now I have gained 10 pounds and 10,000 new embroidery designs. But it's all good! Wonder what's on the menu for today. Should I bring my stretch pants perhaps????? hehehe

I am just about done with my little surprise project too. It is such a hoot, I can hardly wait to share it with you all.

Till then!