Blue stars

When I made big sister a quilt, Alyssa felt the fluffy batting and sighed; I like them fluffy like this! So it was the moment to plan her quilt. She looked through my books and picked a pattern and it needed to be blue. Two weeks later this is on her bed;

I do love the simple saw tooth stars, they just have a happy feel. Actually I found the quilt like this today;

She he had spilled tea on it and washed it out and left it outside to dry. I put it in the machine of course, living in the tropics it is always a race between us and the ants as to who gets where first! You can see how very ‘fat’ the batting is. All my kids request this type of batting, which makes it impossible to FMQ. I figure they sleep under it, they might as well have what they like best.

i am also nearly finished my Leanne’s house quilt, it would be done but then I decided I will go in and FMQ the whole thing. That cannot happen today, I have to lean the house, shower the puppies, meet my daughter for lunch, do some banking and teach a couple of classes.

There is always next week, right? I hope you have a wonderful weekend and something fun to sew!

See you soon,

Cathy

Oh my!

Ok, here I go again. I will try to show you what I have made recently:

I made add a new bag with beautiful linen. I use it every day and I like the look and the feel of it. I am also making a quilt for Alyssa , her choice of design and color.

Ok, typing with one finger is not so cool, I will be back when I can do better!

have a wonderful day,

Cathy.

Two hot chicks sunbathing

I am trying to blog from my IPad as I. Have no other option right now.

Mini books

First I am happy to tell you that I got away for a sleep over at a beauuutiful island! It was fun and good just to get away. There were nice patterns in the sand from the outgoing tide.

 

Wouldn’t that be an interesting quilt pattern?! We did not know what to expect as off shore Samet island there was  a massive oil spill the month before. Thankfully we were on the other side of the tiny island and the water was clean.

 

If it looks like paradise that’s because it is! then again, this was taken during our morning stroll at six thirty! Not too many people around as you can see.

 

Yours truly. I just love a quiet beach. So that was a nice outing.

Then this week I got to play with my craft things. First I made some inchies, felted ones.

 

A yellow one that will go travelling. Felting with more wool roving which makes for a bird in a nest, and the lower ones with shells from the island. I collected quite a few bits and pieces and brought home some sand as well.

Today I sat down to make some little books.

 

First, a white softy, hand felted. I love the feel of these little books. I am trying many different ways and materials to see what I like and what looks good.

 

This one got a bit of lace. I stitched it lightly to the cover and glued it. glue never stays where it should in my experience, so lace wass a safe way to prevent any trouble.

 

This one was sown to the cover and embellished with coral pieces.

 

Meet the linen minis. Linen and lace, I really want to make more of these, such a nice combo.

 

They are not called minis for nothing.. I have a thing for tiny things. Now f I can figure out how to add a key chain, I will be all set! who knew that one piece of A4 paper could make a book?

 

Leather edition. Leather and glue doesn’t really work well for me,mostly because it shows every smudge. but I do like leather journals, so this I could see in a bigger format as well.

 

Hmm, did I mention that they are small, you know, like really, really small?!

 

Meet the three happy sisters. these are hard backs, if you can consider dog food boxes hard. The fabric is glued on to the card board and the first and last pages glued to the cover. “Real books”, if you please. they have colored pages inside.

 

A friend brought me back some mod podge  from the States and I had to try it out on all sorts of things. Nothing is safe when I get the good idea to test something. I now have a beautiful new light switch in my room instead of the old yellowish one, thanks to some fabric and mod podge. I covered a small terracotta pot, a wooden box, the back of my phone and this little book. This cover is a piece of cotton with a few layers of said gluey stuff. I love it, it didn’t even smudge the cheap ink from my printer. I now have a future in collages and altered whatevers! I glued all the books today with it,as I think it dries faster then regular white glue.

 

So here is my new collection of little books. Not bad for one morning of work, or play really.

 

They are sitting on the shelf now. Now I know why we call it a book shelf! I can make a whole library of these. Amaris suggests  make a Harry Potter series or The Hunger Games. I am not sure about that, but we’ll see.

which books do you find the best? I am curious to know!

I hope that you have fun making something pretty this week!

See you soon,

Cathy

Another finish!

Well, I’ll tell you what finished, my camera batteries did yesterday when I wanted to take pictures of my new quilt. I promptly went out and bought new ones, but lo and behold, they are nowhere to be found today. Funny things do happen! So I got these pics by slowly taking one or two and then waiting for the battery to give it a little bit more for one more shot! It’s one way to spend a morning.

Anyway, I finally finished my June doodle:

I was worried about sewing circles. I did not need to worry as the beads cover my shortcomings very well,lol!

I certainly was not stingy with the beads on this one and the painting was lots of fun. As usual, once I start, it just takes on a life of its own. It’s stopping that’s hard!

I also found a way to display some of my inchies. a nice wooden frame from the 2$ store (Yes, we have that here!) and a piece of canvas.

This looks presentable sitting on my shelf like that! 🙂 I am very happy with it and plan to add or exchange the inchies every month or so. Actually I am working toward 100 natural colored inchies, which I hope to frame under glass.

Something like this. this is not my work, sadly, it’s from the book Inchies by Peggy Donda-Kobert. They just really look good in collections.

You see what I mean? This is from the same book. I am keeping my eyes open for interesting bits of nature to stick onto my 100 collection. I think I will raid the kitchen for some coffee beans and anise stars and the like. That’s nature too, right?

Aaaaand I finished my log cabin quilt.

From this to….

this in three days. By the way, I do not recommend anyone to sew 36 circle wreaths in three days. My shoulders are not thanking me, but i AM HAPPY NEVERTHELESS!

Monday I dyed a batch of fabric, as I wanted the back of the quilt to match. It was a major flop and I now have five meters of assorted pink and peach fabric! I did get a piece for the back of this quilt, but not really the color I had in mind. I will try harder to follow the Thai instructions on the dyes next time,loll! Or the English ones underneath, once I scratch off the Thai with  steel wool.

 

I quilted it with feather wreaths. I felt very brave doing that to be honest. It’s my first time to not just do an overall design. I marked the spine and went for it. I used four different thread colors to go with the fabric.

 

It was really fun and I want to do more wreaths like this. they just come together so nicely. I was about two thirds done when I decided to make the wreaths in any direction without turning the whole thing around every time. It worked too! 🙂

 

And it has been approved as a lay mat. This is not truly it’s original goal, it will most likely travel home with a friend to cooler climates. I absolutely love the terracotta red and the browns in this. I will try again to dye some more fabric in these shades. My first hand dyed quilt and my first log cabin. It’s 60 inches square.

 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

I know I will, I am invited to a nice dinner with a friend in a beautiful hotel restaurant along the river in Bangkok tomorrow.

I hope to be back here soon with new batteries to tell you about my adventures in book binding.

See  you soon,

Cathy

 

 

 

 

I got lost!

Hello there! Remember me? I am still alive, although you probably think I fell off the planet. I cannot believe that a month has passed and I have not been blogging.

Well, no use crying over spit milk, I did finish a few things and start too many others.

Let’s see, Tiger’s quilt

 

Here it is, all puffy like. at first I wanted to trim the border, then I thought to applique something onto it, but in the end I left it as it is.

I also finished Irmelin’s baby quilt, but have no picture for it. 😦

Then I had a long weekend and played around. First, I put together a pink baby quilt, which I have the top for and have bought the batting, but just cannot get around to quilting it yet.

 

I had great fun fusing the flowers and sewing zig zag stems, somehow I really love this little quilt. I need to finish it soon. Then I cut into my home dyed fabric and decided to make some log cabin blocks. I started out with four, then upped it to 16.

 

Ok, the colors are much better in person and since it is evening I cannot get better shots. I had great fun laying them out all different ways, but I knew I wanted to make a barn raising. I think that’s what it’s called, right? It looked so good that I made some more, you know, to get a bigger quilt!

 

Aha, obviously I still needed the corners at this point. I got this top assembled and liked it soo much that I could not finish it without dying some more fabric the same color for the back and binding! I am afraid it will be one of those never ending projects. I went and bought the dyes and am now tempted to want to make it a full 80 inch square quilt. Hmmmm, I really, really like the colors, they are very calming and pretty to me. What do you think?? 60 ” or 80″. It already went from 40 to 60. well, I don’t have the same kind of cotton in the house and am a bit shy to go spend a lot more this month, so we will see how this goes.

Yes, two unfinished quilts!!

I did buy a new set of Inktense color pencils, 36 colors!, and spend a couple of days trying and learning how to blend and get different effects.

 

Stitching, coloring and then applying fabric medium, or the other way around. the trick is to not let the medium leak out  beyong the color as it does stain the fabric. You can see that on the flower top right.

 

They say practice makes perfect, I am not sure about that, but It does improve some with time. this one is not stitched yet.

 

this one is BIG, about A 4. there is something sooo relaxing about painting and playing around like this, it’s therapeutic!! I will spare you having to see all the other pictures, but I now have plenty of in between stitching projects for when the mood hits. On these pieces I just put  very little pencil around the edges and then smudged it with the fabric medium. This works best for me to get soft colors and not mess up with the medium.

And then……. I  found felting needles in Bangkok. What are the chances? I have been wanting to learn felting for a while. So whlie teaching a grammar lesson I look outside my room to see a mom peacefully felt a small animal! I went to talk to her and ask where, how and how much. Bangkok s a city of about 12 million people and it can take you forever to get anywhere in heavy traffic. getting lost a few times does not help either and monsoon season likewise is an added hindrance. But I soooo wanted those supplies. Imagine my pleasure when she had bought her stuff just three minutes away from the school!!

Here are my humble first attempts,

 

A tiger. Now honestly, I do not need a tiger key chain, but the kits have all the wool, needle and instructions to make it and I felt it would be good to learn how to do it right. He is friendly fellow and here to stay.

 

This is such easy fun. Alyssa was intrigued , so she helped me put some swirls and mentioned that they look like eyes. we decided to follow the idea and made this happy  person together. His curly locks where borrowed/stolen from my fancy felted journal that I bought on Etsy and showed you last time.

Today I was sure I would clean the house, but alas, the needle called to me. I started to make two little book covers as I am also attemting to bind my own notebooks. I know, I know, I have a lot of plans!

 

This is from a ball of wool that I have sitting on my shelf. I don’t have a felting mat, but a Scotch Brite works just fine! the spongy side of it. Alyssa’s sales pitch to Amaris was cute: “This is fun, you can get rid of all your anger by poking the stuff!” Which she did again this morning. we also played a game by looking at pretty wool batts on Etsy and choosing a favorite from each page. That was her idea, I was trying to bookmark some options to buy.

 

In the works. It wouldn’t be me if it didn’t have some beads on it. but there are so many nice things you can make like this and it is sooo easy! The needle is sharp, and it does hurt, that is the only real danger. I am very happy to have begun my felting journey, one more thing to keep me busy!

 

Here are my little notebooks I made, nothing very fancy, just paper and painted card stock, but I did sew the signatures and I like the process.

 

And here is my center block for the Round Robin. a simple star with some puffy applique. I am looking forward to this swap, having never done one before.

Ok, I hope you had fun seeing all my different attempts!

I hope to be back with some finishes.

Have a wonderful week!

Cathy

Big and small= inchies and quilts

It’s been a good week, maybe two weeks? I never manage to keep track. I’ve got lots to show you!

First, my inchie obsession continued. this time I made the base from torn wool, which I fused to cotton backing.

 

I don’t know what it’s called, the stuff you put into man’s shirts’ collars. Cotton with a sticky iron on side, very stiff when done. This worked great to give these tiny babies some shape.  I also laid some embroidery thread on top and then sewed it all down on the machine.

I decided to edge them by hand this time, to see the difference. It’s a good thing to do while watching a movie! I didn’t do that, but I did convince my son to drive me to town to get small needles, strong glue and more cotton backing! I needed the small needles to sew the beads and the glue for some of the bigger pieces.

 

And here is my new little set, called the blues. My favorites are the two flowers left top and the big pearl in the middle. It just makes me happy to look at them!

here is my latest way to display inchies. What do you think?

I also want to learn felting now, dry and wet. I always wanted to, but this could come in handy for inchie bases!

And then I remembered that there is a real world and other things I should be doing too!.  🙂

I have a new finish!! This has been in the works for half a year, due to the hand sewing and stitching. It’s from Lynette Anderson’s book Country Cottage Quilting. I enlarged the pattern,  not thinking that of course this would mean a lot more stitching!!

 

Make some cute hexie flowers.

 

Cut many fusible backed felt flowers. Fuse, blanket stitch and embellish. It should have been French knots, but I opted for seed beads instead.

 

Make a couple dozen yo yo flowers, sew on, embroider and enjoy. I love these, my first time really to make and use yo yos, but certainly not my last!

 

and you get something like this,

 

and this.

 

You get the idea, in the end you get…..

 

A quilt. who would have thought! I made a pillow too, and my friend took one look  and wants it for her new baby, which will pop out soon! Happy me!! So she is buying it off of me and I could not wish for a better home for my newest quilt!

 

Here is Bandit checking if my seams meet properly! The dog quilting police!

 

You paaass, but only of you put some more treats on this quit for me!

 

I FMQ’ed around all the birds, flowers, stems and spools, but quilted the rest in the ditch and diagonally to keep the quilt very soft. I am glad I did it that way as it is soo nice and cuddly now!

Aand I finished one more block of  Leanne’s house BOM. I have been busy, right?

 

A few flowers,

 

a few more,

 

lots of tulips,

 

and this block, which admittedly, I put together wrong! No matter, I like it anyway.

 

Tadahh, block 6 is finished! I am now working on 7, which has a lot of applique.

Just for good measure, I started another quilt, a kid’s one. This will travel to Sweden to my niece’s child.

 

I have always wanted to make a zigzag quilt, so I took the opportunity.

 

I did not name this child, but I did have fun fusing and blanket stitching her name. Now I have to go out and buy more white fabric and fluffy batting. This will be a ‘fat’ quilt, you know, it gets real cold in Sweden. I am still trying to decide how to make this bigger. Do I add one or two more zigzags, or a very wide border. Right now it is 40 inches wide and 60 inches long. Any input would be appreciated. I like the balance of the look right now, but it should be wider. Maybe I will add 10 inch white borders? Most zigzag quits I see have the design right to the edge though. Hmmmm.????

Alright, I have to stop here, but not before I show you a book I bought on Etsy.

 

Isn’t it cute? I fell in love with it and it will help me learn about felting too. It should be somewhere up in the skies flying my way now!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with some free time to sew!

See you next week!

Cathy

Inchies, here we come!

Well, so I went and bought a cute book all about inchies. Here is a peek, not my work, obviously:

How pretty is that?  I think I will have to start looking for an old window frame!

Today going to work on a motorcycle with my son, a new traffic policeman came over to chat with us instead of directing his traffic. “Oh, yes, I just saw your daughter, she likes to walk. Is it for exercise? Your son here, is he half blood also?” ( I never heard it put quite like that before, but ok;). To my son:” Do you speak Thai. Yes, there is a lot of traffic today.  So you are half Filipino?” My son had the good sense to open his visor and answer the man politely. All the while chatting I was thinking; Nice of you to chat, but what about the traffic??

First day on the job at our intersection and he had my whole family mapped out!! Ahhh, Asia with all its unique faces!!

Back to the inchies, I just had to give it a try, I wanted to make them all in browns for today:

I have a long way to go to neaten the edges, but I love them so much!

I have to say, these babies are tiny!! I thought I knew what an inch was, but they are really, really small. It makes them cute though. I zig zagged them on 3mm, I will try to make that less. I also had thick batting, which is a pain, a good stabilizer might help them not to fray so much. I hand edged a few too and I like that. Net I want to work with a glue gun, some things cannot easily be sown on. ( I tried some shells tonight and small stones.

Work station, I like my new little boxes to keep the beads in, very handy.

So,  a year from now I will look back and smile at my feeble efforts, but right now I am happy that I jumped in and started them.

Here is the book I bought, well worth it with beauutiful pictures! It cost about $12.

They suggest to glue a label on the back with your name or the name of the swap. That would also hide the stitching on the back. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but I will try.

My head is buzzing with ideas, a set with shells, a set with stones, a set with stitching and one with cute buttons…… I hope I can sleep tonight!

I will be curious to hear how this is going for others, what batting is good. The book also suggests using artfoam and/or no batting for some of them.

We’ll see. I have to go to sleep now, but tomorrow is another day!

Inchies, here I come.

Sleep well,

Cathy

Oh my stars, a finish!

Happy dance! I have finished my star quilt. Ohhh, it feels sooo good.

 

Ok, full disclosure, I finished it a couple of weeks ago and it has been on my bed ever since.

This is probably my favorite star, seeing I love orange!

 

It wasn’t big enough for my bed, so I added borders and squares and more borders, lol! I didn’t have enough batik to make it bigger, so this was my only option. I like it and it’s a monster now. I forget how big, around 90 inches long and 80 wide. I would show it to you on my bed, but I can’t, since Alyssa is still sleeping there.

 

For the back I used a second hand sheet, actually a duvet cover, and it was big enough, yepee! I had to piece it together of course. I love the colors and the ‘patchwork’. It’s such a nice match. I also ran out of fabric for the binding and went out and bought a couple of fat quarters to match.

 

What do you think?! I really, really like it, I guess you figured that out already. Batiks and me, we were meant for each other!!

 

I quilted it with spirals and loops. In the first border I tried the famous ‘worms’ from FMQ challenge fame. Well, I can’t get them even, but that’s ok, I’ll live.

 

Do you see my worms 🙂 The little squares all got spirals in them and the stars got loops too, because that helps me to fill in blank spaces and to get from one place to the next.

 

The small stars are 4 inches, the medium 8 and the big ones 12. This was really a fun quilt to make and I enjoy the fact that it looks so random when assembled. It will have a long and happy life on my bed, I think!

What else? Oh, I also made some small place mats.

 

I have wanted to make some wonky stars, so this was my chance.

 

These are very easy to do really! I like the free style to just stick on any scrap and flip it over.

 

I made six of them and then could not figure out a nice design to make them rectangular. My scraps get very limited at this point, so I just kept them square. they didn’t seem to need a lot of quilting either, I just stitched them in the ditch.

 

Fun, I love small projects like this, they finish pretty fast!

Aaaand I have a post card for this month’s swap. The theme is wedding, so this is what I made:

 

My son drew it for me onto the fabric and I took it from there, paiting, sewing and beading, my usual thing!

 

All blinged out.

I have to go teach my sweet daughter how to cook a curry for lunch, so I end here.

Have a wonderful week ahead and have some fun sewing !!

What are you up to this week?

See you soon,

Cathy

Better something then nothing!

I am not sure where my time has gone, but I know I haven’t been on here for a looong time, so today I will just post a few pics about what I have sewn recently.

May doodle with Christine Pollhaus.

It combines easy trapunto with fabric painting, free motion quilting and lots of beads. I just love doing this kind of thing!

I made a small bag to hold my little flashcards at school. I am happy with the colors!

Three zipper bags to give to a friend, her color choice, not mine, but I like these little bags, they are very handy.

You can never have to many bags,  and I do like the dots all over!

And this bag is for me. It’s very big, it’s from Amy Butler’s Style stitches book. I can put half an elephant in here, it’s so big. Ok, maybe not, but it does a very nice job of holding a lot of extra fabric and looking pretty sitting on my new shelf. Storage and home decor in one!

My fabric post card for May. I cut up a skirt that a friend passed on to me, the fabric is so nice and shiny and I don’t wear skirts anyway.

 

I don’t know why I like black and white designs these days, but it does look classy. These cards are so easy and fun to make, it’s a wonderful way to try out new things on a small scale.

Have I been quilting at all?

Well yes, I finished the star quilt, but I have to show you that next time!

I am going to catch a nap before work, I hope to see  you soon!

Have a wonderful week,

Cathy

 

P.S. Remind me to tell you about my trip to Vietnam!