International Siggy Swap - Ludy Nelson

I got this lovely angel siggy from Ludy Nelson in Maastricht, Netherlands. Since I had never heard of it before, I had to look up Maastricht on google maps. If you drew a line from Brussels to Dusseldorf, then another from Antwerp to Bonn, Maastricht would be close to where the lines cross, and it's about 50 miles or so from each city.

Ludy tells me that she drew the angel herself. I love how she has taken the angel from the angel fabric and made it her own.
I'm still working on the first of the three pink fur backed baby quilts. It's all quilted and trimmed. It just needs to be bound and labeled. More on that later.

A Birthday Gift, a Siggy and an Oopsie

Over the holidays, my friend, Virginia, came to visit one afternoon bearing lovely belated birthday greetings. Just look at all this bounty. Two charm packs of Moda's L'amour line, along with 4 coordinating fabrics, a festive post-it block and some of my favorite, hot chocolate. Virginia knows me very well! I'll have to think of something extra good to make with this beautiful fabric. 8)


I also received this lovely siggy from Elizabeth Trenteseaux from Bondues, France. I love the little sewing basket, a popular siggy motif. I looked up Bondues since it was completely unfamiliar to me. It's just north of Lille, almost on the border with Belgium. I looked at the satellite pictures, it looks as though she lives in an area containing attached homes, with narrow, but very deep backyards that back up to a plowed field. Nearby is the Bondues Golf Course with enormous homes on grand lots that look like they could be in Southlake, TX, only with MUCH more lush vegetation. 8)

And finally, I had promised my friend, Brandy, that I would mention the hand crank Singer sewing machine that she has for sale, at the last Blanketeer meeting. I totally forgot about it. She has the pictures on her blog here. It's a very cool old machine. I know Brandy hates to part with it, but she's saving money for an adoption. Just check out all the decals. It seems to be much more heavily decorated than the Featherweights I've seen. I wonder if that is reflective of a more ornate, Victorian era?

First Steps Baby Quilts

I've had these three Baby Fats "First Steps" tops finished since June and sandwiched since Christmas, so it's definitely time to finish them up.

They are backed with a lovely soft pink Minkee-like fabric, with tiny little embossed stars. I wonder if it will have as much drag as the real Minkee fabric; I was able to do larger stipples than normal because of it. I was able to get my favorite Presencia thread to match the back.
The three tops are very similar, but no two are alike. The first one I'm calling "First Steps" Pink & Blue Striped baby quilt. They are all going to get stippled, but I'm going to have to hunt up some more leftovers to do the binding.
The second is called "First Steps" Yellow, Blue & White. Look how wrinkled it got! Fortunately wrinkles like this don't affect stippling and they all come out in the wash.
And the third is called "First Steps" Yellow, Blue & Pink. I think the reason these three wrinkled so much is that I used a donated batting, much thinner and wrinklier than I normally use. When I spray basted the sandwiches together, this batting "remembered" its wrinkles very well.To say I don't like this batting is an understatement. It still had a bit of cotton seed in it. When I went to pluck it out, it formed a sliver in my thumb. I couldn't get it out for days! lol I'm going to use this stuff up (very carefully) then go back to my old standby.

Silk Handbag Complete - First Finish of the Year

I had never made a handbag before, so I'm really pleased with how the Silk Adaptations "Character" bag turned out, even though it's quite a bit smaller than I thought it would be. In the interests of "Finished is better than perfect" I decided to purchase the handles locally instead of sending off for them.

At first I simply sewed the tabs to the purse, but whenever the handles flopped down, the tab seams were exposed. I didn't like, that so I went to The Artful Bead and found these cool square beads.
They only had six beads left and I bought them all, four for the handles and two for the zipper tabs. They were a major pain to sew on, especially below the handles. I had to scotch tape them in place, then sew through the tape - it took me the whole Cowboys game for 4 beads!

They were worth the trouble though, because now when the handles flop over, the seams are completely hidden. 8-) I'm less certain about the zipper tabs. They are pretty enough, but they seem to give the overall bag a less sophisticated look. I'm planning to give the bag as a gift to my Mom. Being a redhead, she wears LOTS of autumn colors, and her favorite winter coat matches the orange in the purse. Her tastes are very sophisticated, so I'm not sure about the zipper tabs. (It might not be an issue for long anyway. The tabs are really more decorative than ruggedly functional, one harsh yank and we won't have anything to worry about anymore. lol)

Anyone in our home would see that this lining matches the silk pillows in the den. 8-) It's a nice sturdy woven silk (that didn't want to ease nicely AT ALL into the corners like a more slippery fabric) but should be much more durable. I also used leftover silk from the front of the pillows because it coordinated so well, and added more neutrality to the vibrant mix of orange and purples. The purse is sitting on what's left of that silk. I love being able to use fabric that I've squirreled away for YEARS on totally new projects. 8-)

Here is the side view.

And here is the bottom. Yes there really are patches EVERYWHERE. lol It feels good to have it done!

One Project a Month Challenge 2010

Kris at Tag Along Teddies and Pat at Happy in Quilting are running the One Project a Month Challenge again for 2010. I really enjoyed participating last year. It really motivated me to get projects finished. So, even though I never won anything in 2009, I'm taking the challenge again. I've updated the OPAM badge on my sidebar and left a comment on Kris's blog with my name, email and blog address so I should be all set. They're limiting the challenge to the first 150 participants this year and I didn't want to be left behind. They said the challenge was opening tomorrow, but I forgot it has been tomorrow in Australia since early this morning. lol

Silk Adaptation Character - My First Handbag

On the last day of the Las Vegas Shop Hop I bought a handbag pattern called Silk Adaptation Character along with a packet of silks called Radiant to complete the bag. Naturally I started cutting out the silks after I read the instructions, but before...

I read the list of stuff needed to complete the bag. (What the heck is fusible fleece anyway?) I pressed on regardless, and found a "pleasing" arrangement of squares (per instructions) and sewed them together. This silk was a DREAM to sew with. They had you fuse interfacing to the back of the silk before it is cut or sewn, so it is very easy to handle. They also specify 3/8" seams, which seemed HUGE to this quilter, but the silk ravels easily, so it's a good idea. I had forgotten how well fabric moves through the machine using a full-sized foot. I DID have to constantly refer back to my camera to keep the colors in the correct order, but I finally got it all together.

I managed to get everything pressed correctly so the seams would meld, and all my seams match up well- a first for me. I also managed to find the fusible fleece at JoAnn's. Now I just need to decide on a handle style, some narrow cording for "doodling", a zipper, and narrow ribbon for a zipper pull. No worries. lol

Lavender and Yellow Baby Quilt

Finally, an actual quilt on this quilting blog. lol A few months ago, a friend of the Blanketeers donated a completed baby quilt top, along with plenty of batting and coordinating fabric to finish it off. I volunteered my services and here it is, all done after sitting all sandwiched and ready to quilt for weeks and weeks.
It was only 30" by 40", so it was quick and easy to stipple. As you can see, the back matches the binding. I tried doing a single fold binding again, this time making it 2.25" wide. It was still pretty tight and I had to pull pretty hard to get it to overlap properly. 2.5" would probably be better. I think I'll use 2.75" on the Minkee backed quilts; they are very thick.

I just love my new camera. Look at all those stippling nooks and crannies! 8-) The colors are very accurate too. I can fix the aperture wide open for lots of natural light. My mini-tripod works great when I have something to stand it on.

Well, I got my December finish done, and I'll have something to turn in at the next Blanketeer meeting too. All in all, a productive few days. 8-)

More Siggies

I got two new international siggies. This lovely one is from Elfriede (Elfie) Novotny in Vienna, Austria. I'm glad my new camera is working so well, otherwise I don't think you would have been able to make out the delicate spiderweb background and the spider would have been out of context. lol

This cool kitty is from Gert van Raalten in Utrecht, Netherlands. I think Gert may be the first male with whom I have swapped siggies. There just aren't that many male quilters. The kitty's name is Arnie, just like my "nephew" the golden doodle. Gert recognized me from this blog; how cool is that?

This next siggy is very special because it is from my sister, Cindi (Arnie's "Mom"). It is a picture of her... sigh... tattoo; and a very lovely one it is too. Now Cindi doesn't sew, but she sent me this fabric, which coordinates exceptionally well, so I put it together for her (well, for me, but you know what I mean!) And no, Cindi is not confused as to the year. She drew the center in 2008, then lost it for a year. 8-)

This next siggy is from my sister-in-law, Denise. We last saw Denise and her family a year ago on Thanksgiving, when we all met in Shreveport for Turkey. This year we missed them because we were up in Green Bay visiting Cindi and the rest of my family.

Carina (age 6) is Denise's daughter. She drew this lovely flower for her Aunt Susan, and I learned that the words "on point" have absolutely no meaning to a child. 8-) I put these two siggies together as well. I really like the butterflies for Carina, and her Mom's fabric coordinates, which I think it appropriate!

I'm pretty pleased with my new Cannon Rebel. I set up a little tripod on my ironing board and played with all the settings until I got the results I liked. I think I'm getting lots more detail than I did with my old point & shoot camera.

This is what we woke up to on Christmas morning. It was beautiful, but very icy. Everywhere the sun shone was clear in few hours, but despite temperatures well above freezing, shady spots still have snow two days later.


I could not believe how warm it was in the sun. I played with my camera wearing just a sweater for 20 minutes without getting chilled. There was no breeze. After the blizzardy gales of Christmas Eve, it seemed very quiet.

The delicate nandinas wore their winter coats well.

So did the sturdy boxwoods.

Merry Christmas from Great Big Giant Santa!

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's GREAT BIG GIANT SANTA!!!! My buddy, Joe P, got all excited on the phone at work in early December. His daughter had located a GBGS and wanted to know if she should buy it. Joe told me how they used to have a GBGS, but it wore out and they could never find a 12 foot replacement, only a dinky little 6 footer instead. Needlesss to say, she got the green light, and GBGS was on the move. Joe promised me that it could be seen from down the block. lol I wanted to try some night photography with my new camera, so here he is, in all his Christmas glory... Great Big Giant Santa!

Along with (apparently) Dumbo, his Christmas sidekick.