Red, White and Done!

I finished my Journal page for July! Yeah! Even though it's now August. The idea came to me soon after I got a book, Fabric Leftovers by D'Arcy-Jean Milne . I follow many bloggers in Australia, New Zealand and the UK and recently I was thinking about how expensive fabric can be in those parts of the world and also how ingenious these quilters are about using scraps and old clothing for quilts. With that in mind, I found some scraps I was going to toss and decided to be economical, green and ingenious like my fellow quilters.



I also love Tonya's style of quilting, especially her "threadies" and "crusties". In fact, I emailed her last week when I was having trouble finishing this piece. She offered a "kick in the pants" (Ton, I'll take a raincheck on that! LOL) but I ultimately didn't need it. You see, I was waiting for the piece to "speak to me"and frankly, it wasn't talkin'. I tried beads and fancy threads but nothing seemed right. As I was pondering it the other night, my DH peeked in to see what was going on and I explained my dilemma. He said "Maybe it's not talking because it doesn't have anything to say. It's telling you it's finished." And with those words, I realized he was right. Sometimes, less is more. So I added the twisted string binding and called it done.



Here is the result:

I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea but it was a really fun project. The technique uses rug hooking canvas and I just traced a basic design on the canvas and wove strips randomly through the canvas. After the weaving was done, I used a wide zig-zag to hold the strips down and then went back and did decorative star stitching in the white stripes and blue block and a wavy stitch on the red stripes. Here's a close up:

And now another project is done! Now, I'm off to finish a couple of bags for an exchange I have going on and a doll quilt!

Pictures from My Garden of Weedin'

I have been hopping around and saw some great pictures of Melanie's garden and thought I should post some of mine since this is where I am spending a great deal of time lately. We are in the process of putting down mulch in all of the beds, which is a thankless task. But it sure keeps the weeds down so in the long run I guess it is a good idea.



We put in a small pond about 5 years ago , took all of the grass out and replaced it with beds and a stone path. DH thought it would be less work! Ha! Ha! But he loves puttering around in the yard.






We love sitting out here in the evening watching the birds come in to feed. You can't see the feeders but there are 6 of them! At times we need an air traffic controller out there! LOL

My gargoyles are there to protect the yard but as you can see they are often asleep on the job! Chip made this appearance yesterday morning. I was looking out the upstairs window and thought my gargoyle had grown hair!


On the quilting front, I am trying to do bits every night but I'm not always successful! I have a bunch of deadlines coming up with my Round Robin, PCs, and my journal pages. Summer is a tough time for me, quilting wise, I just LOVE the hot weather and need to be outside.

I was on Libby's blog for her blogiversary and have promised to PAY IT FORWARD! Sewww, the first three ladies who post will be treated to a treat from me by the end of October! If you have never been to see Libby or Melanie, please drop by! Both of their blogs are refreshing places to stop and visit on a hectic day! They are super ladies and super quilters!



Well, I'm off to Block Island this weekend and will try to post again next week. I find I am good about visiting everyone and I do leave comments but if I have visitors, NO ONE is HOME! So I will try to be a better host here at Quilt til you Wilt. Have a great weekend!

Teddy Bear on Parade

Here is a picture of what I have been working on lately. Isn't he cute?? I bought this pattern which includes, I think, 10 blocks in Houston last November. I am thinking of doing maybe three or four of them for a wallhanging and interspersing Bear claw blocks. I have another nearly finished. They are fun to do and I love how the varigated perle cotton looks. I got that in Houston also, Valdani makes it.

On Friday, I will be attending my only quilting class this summer. My guild has again invited Michelle Scott to instruct us, this time in Machine quilting. It is a technique class and I am really looking forward to it. She is going to show us how to do some bobbin work, work with different types of threads and show us different ways of becoming more comfortable with machine quilting. I'll post my samples if they are worthy next week.

Well, til next week, quilt til you wilt!~

Check of vitals - Yep, I'm still alive!!

I know it has been a while but the summer is sooooo short and I sooo love the summer!! But thought I would check in and let you know what I have been doing!


First off, NEWLYWED LUGGAGE UPDATE~ My nephew's luggage mysteriously showed up on his front doorstep in Jacksonville on Wednesday of the second week of their vacation. Luckily, a neighbor noticed it sitting there and took it in. But alas, Nate was without clothes the entire trip. As for the Bride, Mrs. Brandi did not get her suitcase until this past Friday. It showed up during the night on the doorstep in Florida. She too was without her lingerie for the entire trip. Despite having only three outfits, a bathing suit and a toothbrush, they had a wonderful time.


Of late, I have been working on another postcard exchange. This one I could not resist! The theme was Summertime, my favorite time of the year. Here is a picture of the one I made for the exchange. Arent't those flip flops cute?? I found them in the scrapbooking aisle.





This next picture is of one that I just received! Who doesn't need an extra pair of sunglasses?? This is from Christi in Illinois. I can't wait to receive the rest of them!






I also just received a Surprise package from Christine in England. This was another exchange of fabrics and embellishments and we will now make something with at least one of the items sent to us and return it to the owner! FUN~ Christine sent me several lucious pieces of Liberty of London fabric!! I am working on that project due at the end of August.

I have also been trying to wrangle my scraps into order, cutting and sorting etc. and I am working on some redwork, well actually BROWNWORK, since I am using brown varigated perle cotton. I will keep you in suspense until tomorrow and will post the first block which I finished watching my boys whoop the KC Royals. Go SOX!!!!

My DH and I are super busy with plans just about every weekend. So during the week, I am trying to keep things in order and that leaves very little sewing time but I am trying!!!

Anyway, all is well at McIrish Annie's house. Mr. B and Holly say "MEOW!"

I will post the brownwork tomorrow! Have a quilty day!

7 random things about me

I was tagged by the "Diva of Quilts" to disclose 7 random things about myself. Since I don't have anything quilty to show, here goes....

1. I can cross my eyes. I have been able to do it since I was a kid and it always creeped out my sister.

2. I have a tattoo. I went through a mid life crisis and got a tattoo on my right shoulder. It's the Irish Claddaugh with shamrock tendrils.

3. I was the lead in my Kindergarten play. At least I was supposed to be... We did the Wizard of Oz and I was Dorothy. That is, until I threw up all over my little brother, Mike, at his Christening party (poor baby!!, he was never quite right after that) and ended up in the hospital having my appendix removed. I was replaced by the teacher's daughter, who I am told was not half as good as I was! LOL

4. My husband and I are huge Rock n Roll fans. We are basically spending my son's inheritance on concert tickets and we don't like the cheap seats. LOL~~Neither of us could afford to go to concerts when we were younger, so we are reliving a part of our past. We have seen Bruce Springsteen at least 6 times, Tom Petty about 7 times, Aerosmith, Neil Young, ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac, Simon and Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones.. This summer we are going to see The Police and ZZ Top. If someone we like is in the area, we are there!

5. I have a sweet tooth. If given a choice, I would have dessert for dinner.

6. I'm afraid of heights. I would be a terrible candidate for the Amazing Race because even a 4 foot step ladder is scary. However if I am enclosed, I'm usually ok like on planes, helicopters and ferris wheels but on the edge of a cliff not so good.

7. My favorite Disney movie is The Little Mermaid. I love that movie! I guess I am Ariel at heart, a rebel, an adventurer.

Well, that's it. I'm a cross-eyed, tattooed, rock and roller who loves sweets, can sing all the words to "Somewhere over the Rainbow"and all the tunes to the Little Mermaid but not on a ladder.!

HELP!!! ANY SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!

As you saw from my previous post, my nephew and his new bride headed to Italy via British Airways on Monday. Here it is Thursday and THEY HAVE BEEN WITH NO LUGGAGE!!
Apparently it was misplaced at some point from JFK to London onto Italy. British Airways doesn't seemed too concerned. My nephew and his bride are really in pickle on a limited budget as newlyweds and without clothes etc.

Any suggestions, ideas, would be greatly welcomed! I told my sister if there was an answer out there, my girls in blogland would know!!

I feel so terrible for them!! Neither has ever been out of the country before and on their honeymoon!!

Back from Jacksonville

Well, we are back from our trip to Jacksonville. The wedding went off without a hitch and the happy couple are on their way to Italy for two weeks. Here are a few pictures...

The first picture is the handsome groom, my nephew Nate. He is a graphic designer and my absolutely favorite nephew!



And here is the lovely bride, Brandi... She is a first grade teacher in Jacksonville.


My son, Alex, was a groomsman. He and Nate are 7 years apart but have always been close as they are both only children. He was thrilled when Nate asked him to be part of his wedding. As you can see, he had a great time at the wedding. He is on the left with his partner from the wedding.


Here is my sister, Kathy, the mother of the groom, and I. She got all the skinny genes in our family. LOL. Hard to believe she has a son that is 27 years old. Ladies, she works really hard to stay in shape. Up at 4:30 every morning to go to the gym before work. She and her husband, Bill, have a beautiful home on the St. Johns' River where we stayed for a couple of days before the wedding.


Here is a pic of my DH, Bob, and I at the wedding. This is where the ceremony was held. the Club Continental overlooks the St. John's River. At one time I suppose it was a mansion but now is a small inn and a super place to have a wedding.



And another of my handsome guy!!


And finally, a picture of the Bride and Groom during the Best Man's speech which had averyone in stitches..
My other sister and one of my brothers were able to come from Massachusetts for the wedding as well as my mom and one of my favorite uncles. He was a hit on the dance floor doing the Electric Slide!

It was a super time and I was so happy that we were all able to get to Florida to see Nate and Brandi on their special day as well as to have a chance to get caught up with my family.

Well, tomorrow back to the grind....

June Update

I know I have been away for a while but I have been plugging along with different projects that had definite deadlines. I finished all of my postcards for the postcard exchange. They went out in the mail on last Friday. These are a few pictures of them before they were mailed.

This top postcard was made from a wax resist piece that I did about a year ago. The nice thing about making postcards is that, since they are only 4 inches x 6 inches, you can use leftover pieces, orphan blocks or experiments!
The second card is called Never Enough Time. It is stamped and I added pieces from old watches under mesh with a little saying. I really like these and did a half dozen of them.

The leaf postcard was a sunprint that I did last summer. I just added some decorative stitching and some gold stamped leaves to it.





The fish postcards were fun to make. I let the fabric do most of the work then added the fish stamp with fabric paint and added some beads and eyelash yarn for seaweed and the binding.

This was a fun project but doing 25 was a bit of work!! But I did sign on for another group that will limit the exchange to seven.

Since I had a couple of extra cards, I sent one to my favorite British blogger, Anne ,who so generously shared a project with me from across "the big pond". She is a fabulous quilter. I don't know where she finds the time with a house full of kiddies and a hubby!

I also sent a card to my good friend, Finn. Her blog is the first quilting blog I ever visited and she was one of the first to comment on my blog and has always been so encouraging. But all of you who know Finn, know that!! If you don't know Finn, drop by her blog. Finn got the ferns. She is down to earth, like Mother Nature. Her blog always has a calming effect on me. *Hugs* Finn!!

Lastly, I have posted a picture of my latest journal page. The journal pages are 8 1/2 x 11. When I started this class, I thought it would be easy since the piece was small. Boy, was I wrong!!! Working in this size requires a whole different mindset and perspective. But I am really enjoying it as it gives me an opportunity to try different techniques on a small scale.



The beach scene is for June and in anticipation of my trip to Florida. I LOVE SUMMER!! So this one was a no-brainer. The sky and water are handpainted fabric which I did about 2 years ago. The beach has real sand and little shells on it and a cool texture to it.Those bumps and wrinkles are on purpose. LOL!! This was done with expandable paint from Pebeo. I just painted it onto an ugly piece of fabric. (The fabric doesn't have to be ugly but I think it's easier to paint over ugly fabric than pretty fabric. LOL) I added the shells and sand and let it dry. The magic occurs when you hit it with a heat gun! It expands and makes all kinds of nooks and crannies. I then painted it and added a little glitter. I don't recommend sewing it, though you can, but it sure beats up the needle. I just used Steam a Seam to attach it to the water and sky piece and then secured it to the batting.

I also used my new toy, the Embellisher, to needle punch the Angelina fibers into the water to make it all sparkly! I used my favorite binding of late, the Eyelash yarn around the outside. I think it came out pretty spiffy!

I really put myself into a quilting hole by taking on a bunch of challenges and classes all at once and I am now just about out from under them all. There is so much I want to do and learn but this last month quilting was almost like WORK~ I don't ever want that to happen. Sewww, I am planning on cruising through summer with a couple of bed quilts that need to be finished and quilted and some redwork for those days on the beach.

I am headed to Florida next Thursday for my nephew's wedding. My son is a groomsman and all of my family from here in the Northeast are headed for Jacksonville. I can't wait to see my sister, Kathy. Our visits are too infrequent. So, I will post pictures on my return !

Postcards in the works

Remember how much fun it used to be waiting to see what the mailman would bring?? Well, I have been receiving the most beautiful postcards from all over the US, Australia, Scotland and Germany. If anyone is thinking about doing an exchange, JUMP IN!! It is great fun and I have been working diligently to get my cards done. Here is a picture of two cards I made last weekend. I actually made ten of these, all a little different. I did some sun printing with cheesecloth last summer and cut it up postcard size. I then used fabric paint and a stamp to put the fish on, then added some beads and stitched eyelash yarn on and around the edge.













I am also deep into my Art for Quilters class. This class has been great! Here is my homework from Lesson 2.


Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. My DH brought me breakfast in bed and cut tulips from the garden. I spent the day in my sewing room and I watched my beloved Red Sox win a game in the 9th inning!! My son was in Vermont working but I received a great phone call from him. He is due in tonight so I am off to the store to stock the refrigerator.

This weekend I am teaching Saturday morning at the LQS and then headed off to Rhode Island for a concert with my DH.

Here and Gone

Things have been pretty crazy at work and home the last few weeks. I have had to scale back some commitments, many of them quilt-related. I guess a girl can only do so much!! I may not be blogging as often since I need to get caught up with work projects and have limited free time but I will be visiting every chance I get and will try to post at least once a month.

I just wanted to share a special email I received on a day when I needed it most; just to show how we keep track of one another! I got a great email from Melanie at Covered Porches yesterday. I had posted on the 365 Yahoo challenge board that I was not able to continue with the challenge. She emailed me to tell me she was thinking about me! How sweet is she!! Thanks, Melanie! That really made my day! All of you ladies with your wonderful comments and help add that extra sweetness to a busy day!

Anyway, I just wanted to update everyone on a couple of things that our guild has been doing. I am so very proud of the work we have done over the last few months.

As you know, we were making pillowcases for the Hole in the Wall Gang as one of our charity projects. On Tuesday, all the pillowcases were collected and we had made 195 pillowcases!! One of our members will be making the delivery to the camp later this month.

Our Victorian Tea was held April 27th and the gross receipts were reported at the meeting. We raised over $5,000.!!! Of course, the expenses need to be deducted but we anticipate that this will put about $4,000 into our treasury. We primarily use this money to bring in teachers and lecturers.

We are also working on lap quilts for the local retirement home where we often hold meetings in their dining room as well as quilts for the Connecticut Children's Medical Center for the pediatric ward. We also just finished putting together a quilt for "Relay for Life" made up of blocks from our members. This group will be holding their walkathon this month. The cancer survivors and their families will be signing the blocks and the quilt will be raffled off by the organization.

I have to say we are a pretty busy group for 60 members!

I know that many of you are members of your local guild but if you aren't take a look around for a guild in your area. It's so great to get together with women who share a love of fabric and quilting. And it's a great opportunity to help your local community by covering them in quilts.

PQP Update! I'm here and quilting

I know I haven't posted in a while but that is because I have been very busy!! Work is crazy and I ran up against some quilting deadlines for my guild. Anyway, I have been visiting and commenting all around Blogland. Here's a PQP update!


1. I finished adding my border on the Round Robin I am doing with three other gals from my guild. This belongs to Linda. I thought the rickrack was a fun approach. Our first border had to include curves so I used the rickrack and the little circles in the corners. This lady's GD LOVES orange! Needless to say, she has quite a collection in her stash.











2. I finished my March Journal page. Our class was a week ago today. I started this on the previous Tuesday and finished Friday morning . II love this class because I am trying different techniques I have been wanting to try. The small size 8.5 x 11 is perfect. Now, I have celtic design out of my system. I'm happy with this. These little pages sit on an easel next to my little tree that I decorate monthly depending on the holiday or season. I have a good start to my April page.



3. These are the some of the pillowcases I made for the Hole in the Wall Gang plus six that another guild member had cut but didn't have time to put together SO I took them off her hands (what's a few more??!) This was a great project. The ladies in our guild went all out for this charity event.
All pillowcases are due at our May 8 guild meeting. I'll let you know what our grand total was!!



4. Juliann had asked me to post a picture of the bag I have been working on. Here it is! I will be teaching this as a quick project class at my LQS in May. I cut lots of strips so I could pick and choose and I guess I went a little overboard!! I had enough to make four bags. I wanted to practice putting it together so I would know what I was doing when I actually teach the class. I know this looks crooked and I'm not going to lie - it was !! LOL. I didn't realize it til I took the picture. I was so intent on finishing the beading that I never really took an "overall look" at it. But it has been straightened out and donated to our guild's Silent Auction which is part of our Victorian tea that takes place today. It is a big fundraiser for us.



5. I also have signed on for the 365 Challenge started by Leanne Beasley. I have started pulling my fabrics together and have my freezer paper and Zig pen ready to go. I am part of the Yahoo! challenge group and the ladies are really going to town with this project. I will hopefully be starting this June 1, after I finished the postcard exchange.

6, I am also making postcards for the Art2Mail group I joined last month. I need to get 25 postcards made and mailed by the end of May!!! Here is a sampling of the ones I have already received.




7, And, finally, I signed up for a Quilt University class "Art for Quilters" being taught by Marilyn Belford. You may have seen her "Rundy" portrait quilt. I saw it in Houston and it is fabulous. Marilyn will be teaching us some fundamentals of art which can be applied to quilting, particularly art quilts.

Here is my first lesson completed. It was really fun!

And finally, a KITTY update!! Because what is a quilting blog without a gratuitous kitty picture?? Bailey (left) and Holly (right) were born in September so are now experiencing the "great outdoors" for the first time. Since they are indoor cats, the closest they will get is the windowsill! We put the screens in last weekend on our one nice day and they spent the day in the window.


SEWWW, as you can see, I have had a pretty full plate, and right now I just find that my time has been better spent quilting. Stop by again soon!! I promise to be a better blogger!