Something About Nothing

The word of the "month" for The 12x12 Project was Chaos.  An appropriate word for the months of November and December.  When the word was released my first thoughts were of the hours of shopping still ahead for the holidays and so an image of Chaos formed in my head for the quilt. I tried to use warm colors to help give the feeling of movement and pandemonium but I'm now wondering if I didn't put too much chaos into the piece. 

I love when I finish a homemade Christmas gift. . . and there is nothing like finishing a gift just 15 minutes before you are scheduled to give it!  Wahoo! Such was the case today with a quilt I made for our good friends who happen to also be our neighbors. Elmo enjoyed his new toy - not handmade but enjoyable all the same. And Dawn and Marco loved their quilt. I forgot to get a close up of the quilting. There are leaves quilted in the white portions. And the back is a Kaffe print that I love. When asked what they did to help Mom with the quilt my daughters responded truthfully. . . "We stayed out of her way." And now that the sewing is done it's time to bake!

Just finished this little sample quilt for Whimsy Cottage  and I really like how it turned out.  The "pattern" is taken from this book: The method I used is at the beginning of the book.  She also talks about doing curved piecing.  I am loving the quilt but I am seriously disappointed with the picture.  No matter how much I try I seem to hold the camera at a slight angle causing the photos of my quilts to make them look crooked.  The top is always more narrow than the bottom and it isn't the quilt.  The quilt is square - This crookedness is all from the lousy photographer.

This years Quilt Challenger for Quilters Holladay was based upon this website.   We were to make a quilt that was 50 cm wide by 2 meters long using any fiber or technique we wished to use.  I decided to experiment with soywax to make a batik.  I painted some swirls with thickened  Procion Dye and then flicked spots of dye allover.  I then waxed the swirls and all the spots I wanted to keep.  I did this on my back patio in October.  I really liked how easy it was to melt the soywax in my make-shift double boiler but soon realized why it's really best to use wax in a warm enviroment - the wax was cooling too quicky on the fabric.  Luckily my friend Anne, the fabulous batiker , showed me a little trick in her class this summer that saved me.  Anne likes to keep a knife hot by sitting it under the coils of the hot plate.  This hot knife can then be used to remelt any wax that has refused to pentrate the fabric...

I saw a great project on the Mod Podge Rocks website which I thought my two youngest would love to make for friend gifts.  Turns out one thought it was fabulous and the other wanted to be on the computer. What a surprise. Those of us who liked the project had a great time. I found these great little frames for 50% off at the local craft store. We scraped off the Christmas bit and modge podged cute paper on top. We really made a big mess. These are a few of the nine my daughter made (glue still a little wet). And here are the five I made. What are you making this Christmas?

I've been a bit absent in the blogsphere because I've been busy shopping as well as making presents for Christmas and some of those gifts are for people who read my blog.  I wouldn't want to give away any secrets.  However, I just finished one project I can actually share because it's for me and I already gave it to myself so it's no longer a secret! I think I may have to make more of these for other holidays.  Perhaps even one to replace the cardboard Happy Birthday sign that has been hanging in my kitchen for the past 5 years.  If anyone is interested in learning how to make one of these I can write up a tutorial and post it here.  They make up very quickly.  Just drop me a line and let me know.

I'm thankful for my family and friends and the memory of many wonderful Thanksgiving's spent with them. Hope you have lots of extras.

It is getting to be that time of year where I need to really get my act in gear for Christmas if I truely want to make gifts.  I love sharing the things I make but as the items are gifts for the people who read my blog (well they look at the pictures actually - they rarely read what I write so I could tell all about the projects and not just post pictures ;)), I can't really share anything.  However I do have something to share that may be of interest.  I've run across a couple of blogs with great gift ideas and I thought others might want to check them out to get some great ideas: Chickpea Studio - My friend Juliette is very creative and posts fun projects to her blog. She has a list of tutorials down the side of her blog with fun projects.  She and also writes tutorials for Berninas Sewing Republic. I've made her key wristlets and crocheted baskets. She also has a great tutorial for a fold up, take along crumb catcher to put underneath a high chair....

They've all grown up a bit since these photos. This sleepy birdy became. . . a little princess in blue. And the little princess in yellow wore her big sister's poodle skirt for Halloween last year. . .   And this little superman was always some sort of superhero. . . including the sports legend kind.

Baby it's cold outside! The current theme for my 12x12 group is "Cold" and I suppose today is an appropriate day for my "Cold" quilt to make it's debut because we had our first snowfall.  My yard is covered with about an inch of the beautiful stuff but it won't be there for long since it is warm enough that everything is melting already. I had many ideas go through my head for Cold: cold turkey, cold shoulder, cold feet, snow, ice, icicles, and snowmen to name a few. I sketched out many of these ideas but when it came down to the wire this frosty face was the image I decided to go with. My son says it looks more like an image of warm than cold because of the big puffy coat.  However my thinking was more along the lines of a cold so frigid that even a big puffy coat will not keep you warm. A chill so cold that you don't want to open your eyes for fear of freezing your eyeballs. Perhaps I need to add more frosty bits (glitter perhaps?) al...

Halloween 1979 I'm the one dressed as the Hillbilly. And yes we seem to be the only high schoolers dressed up for Halloween in the entire cafeteria.  That's just the way we rolled. And I'm glad we did! My sistah is going to shoot me for posting this photo but I think it's the only photo I have of her in a Halloween costume.  By the way, I made the clown costume for myself for the previous Halloween and wore it to school too.  I love the pillow we put under the costume to make my sistah look fat because, of course, ALL clowns are fat!  However in this case she looks more preggo than fat.  Ah, good times. 

I work part time at a fun quilt shop: Whimsy Cottage .   Occasionally I work in the store but generally I send out the email newsletters, keep the website up to date (click on the words Whimsy Cottage and you will visit the website) and I also get to make fun samples like the Koala I made last week and this Amy Butler Birdie Sling Purse I finished up today.  Whimsy is unique because Nancy, the owner, loves pure color and it shows in every part of the store.    I have enjoyed being allowed the freedom to explore color while working at Whimsy.  I have amazed myself as I have helped cutomers pick fabrics for their quilts.  I think it is easier to help others pick their fabrics but I am also much more confident with my own color choices.  I have grown as a quilter and an artist over the past few years and I attribute a lot of that growth to my associations with the owner, employees and customers at Whimsy.

New Melly&Me Pattern I made up as a sample for the shop . I just think she is so cute. I love that I get to do these kinds of things!

Last weekend was sister's weekend in Chicago. Ever since my Mom passed away in 2002, my sister and I have tried to spend a weekend together in Chicago to enjoy one another's company, go to a Cub's game, visit friends and visit Mom's grave. This year was a little different.  We didn't even plan the weekend around a Cub's game because we had a different goal in mind this year. Last December one my sister's best friends, Damien, decided he could not stay on this earth any longer. His decision was devistating for my sister and many others. My sister and his friends have tried to reach up out of their pit of despair and contribute to the world by raising money to benefit the San Francisco SPCA, one of Damien's favorite charities. My sister organized a few fund raisers in San Francisco while another friend, Cathy, prepared to run the Chicago Marathon in Damien's memory.  The marathon and an afterparty with a  raffle would be the culminating e...

I'm following again. Following a prompt to learn to mix dyes. I started with Turquoise, Fuchia and Bright Yellow and made this silly color wheel. Color wheel in the center with gradations on the outside. I've made color wheels in watercolors but never in fabric dye.  It was a very similar experience but still fun.

I showed you these when I picked them a while back. They were delicious - and still are delicious because I bottled them. My friend Marie wants to learn to bottle fruit so I took pictures of the process to help her along. The offical instructions for canning peaches can be found here   and I'm just adding some pictures to help out with the visuals.  Sometimes the instructions can be a bit vague if you haven't done this before. Always  use a USDA approved recipe to keep your family safe and healthy and use a water bath canner.  Steam canners have been deemed unsafe because they do not keep the temperature consistent. The first thing to do is to remove the peach skins.  We do this by blanching the peaches in boiling water for about 30 - 60 seconds.  Quickly remove the peaches from the boiling water and plop them into a sink full of cold water. I cut my peaches in half before slipping the skin after they've be...