All the Better to See You

Well, I finished up another one of those PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) that have been lying around forever. I had such a good time thread painting on him, that it makes we wonder just why I let it sit in a bag for so long????? Now I am wanting to start yet another new project, but I have promised myself, I would not do that until I get some of these others done. :-(   :-(   Hate it when I have to discipline myself!
I do have a couple of quilts that need to be done for some friends, my ,mini-swap quilt, and I need to finish up my projects from the classes I took at MQX, then I will be back on the road with my half done projects again. So I guess there really isn't time for anything new is there?  :-)

You will see that my blog has changed a bit again, thanks to some great advice from a blogging friend. Thank you so much Diane for sharing your web designers tips on what works best for viewing web pages. I hope that all will find this much easier to read. The white letters on the black background did make your eyes roll, now that I think about it!  :-)  It is so wonderful to have such a great network of blogging friends to learn from. Bloggers really do bring out the very best in people. We share our trials and tribulations in everything we do, to make life easier, as well as inspiring each other along the way! While we can all have issues with technology from time to time, it has been such a driving force in bringing so many of us together, that I can't imagine where we would be without it. If I haven't told you before, thanks for being there. Every blog I have read has enriched my life in one way or another.     

     

"Sucka" for a SALE

Send me a Dharma catalogue and tell me about a "sale" and it's all over with this girl!!!  While I am not too sure if it was the combo of those two, or their dynamite deals on "Muck" dyes with catchy names, whatever it was, I had to have them!  The sun was shining yesterday and it was almost 80 degrees, so I donned the traditional ratty shorts and sleeveless dyeing attire and headed outdoors. These are the wonderful results of yesterdays labor. :-)  From the top down we have Mild Wing Sauce, Pepto Dismal, Varicose Violet, Wet Rhino, Spray-on Tan, and How Now Brown Cow. With those names can one really go wrong? Dharma tells us, that the dyes are not up to their standards, so they sell them very cheaply! I happened to love the results, standards or not, and would have had to have the dyes with names like this anyway. What a marketing bonanza for them!  :-) Allowing them to be named by their members on Facebook brings a whole new meaning to social networks doesn't it? :-) 

I just can't get enough of playing with dyes. I dyed a full yard of fabric of each color, then after 30 minutes I pour off the remaining dye into a plastic beer cup with a fat quarter mushed into it. That way I get 2 different colors from the dye bath. Many are just a shade lighter but in some cases, you will see a tremendous change like in the Wet Rhino color. I wasn't expecting the slate blue color that resulted from those leftovers! Whatever the results, I am hooked and very sad that it is just too cold today to go out and play some more!  :-)   My dyeing mop up rag even has some interesting potential don't you think?

Had a chance to escape and find some inspiration last week. There is nothing better than taking a friend and spending a week vacationing and quilt showing. We went to MQX in Providence Rhode Island. Since neither of us had ever been to Rhode Island before it was the perfect time to take advantage of this show. On a tip from a co-worker we went down to Newport first. Wow, wow!! I have no words for how spectacular Newport is. If that isn't inspiration enough in itself, I have no idea what would be. This town is not only filled with spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean, but is loaded with Mansions and there is a fabulous 3 1/2 mile Cliff Walk between the backyards of these wonderful manions and the ocean.

                                                

Mid town is a page right out of Norman Rockwells drawing books.              

Now this is a place I could live! I am thinking that I could probably move my quilt studio quilt nicely into this place. There might even be enough room for all my "Stash"!  Maybe that is! :-)     And when was the last time you actually saw a real working fix-it shop? In this throw away world I found this very refreshing.                         Captivated with the roofs on some of these places.

Now on a more serious side, this really would be my preferance for a new dig!  This manions is a Vanderbilt Mansion, built in 1890 for 11 Million Dollars!!!!!!!!! It has hard for me to wrap my head around that figure in todays world, no less the 1800's.. Really did they even have that much paper to print it all on in those days????? The tour thru it was unbelievable, and definately one of the highlights of my trip. Sadly though, you could not photograph the inside. There are no words to even begin to tell you how spectacular it is on the inside. For as beautiful as the outside is, it's nothing compared to inside. Yet the town has many many of these old wonderful places.

Now lets talk food!!!Lobster Rolls  :-) Shrimp Pizza. Just to die for.

Lobster Sliders. Now you haven't lived until you replace those hamburger slider for Lobster!

Yeah ok, I am back to the real world today and back to watching what I eat, but it was all worth every bite last week!  I will get settled and share some of my MQX experience next time! Til then, plan your visit to Newport! You won't be sorry. :-)

OH MY!!

Yikes, even I am shocked at what I managed to drag out of a cabinet. Drat those darn cabinets, they just hide way too many sins! I have updated my list of  "PIGS", and now it looks like I have my work cut out for me. I hate to admit it, but there is another cabinet, that I know has a few very old things in it. Maybe after I get this pile done, I will search in the nooks and crannies of that one!  Maybe, that is!

Time to finish those pesky PIGS

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter. It was quiet here. The boys were gone so I took the weekend to finish up all the little projects that have piled up over the years. I decided it was time to address those bags boxes, and piles of past projects. You know, those we just had to start, only to become enchanted with yet something else, so they get stacked up and pushed into a corner. While cleaning out thoses corners I found stacks of fabric, that I distinctly remember carefully picking out, but now I have no idea what it was even for! I have racked my brain, to no avail!

So no more for me. From this point on, I am putting my projects in Ziplock bags, with the pattern and anything I bought for the project. Not that it is going to help me with what I have already managed to collect, but hopefully as I get thru all the projects my mind will remember where some of these other things go!  :-)

In the mean time I have logged quite a few of the unfinished PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) and posted them on the the left side bar. As I finish them up I will log them as done, and my goal is to get thru this list this year. It's a hefty goal! I am the queen of "side track" when I see a new quilt in my local shop or at a show, but I am going to put my best foot forward and try to get thru these things. I will be posting my results as I go. I find that having a commitment helps me. Hopefully in my quest to finish up things, it will inspire some of you too. I get such great joy in reading blogs from quilters and find so many motivating ideas thru them. Let's all dig out our PIGS and dig in! I'll show you mine if you show me yours!  :-)  Anyone up to the challenge??

My first finish is this Purple Mystery Quilt from Patchwork Planet July 2009. The piecing has been done since that day, and I can happily say that it is now quilted. While it took way too long,  the timing is great with Spring on it's way. The flowers are just starting to come up in my garden and the snow is finally gone!  :-)