Something About Nothing

I will often write blog posts in my head as I take photos and then later forget to actually write those blog posts on the actual blog. Such seems to be the case of late!  So I will attempt to catch up on two now.  On the last day of the Pie Plates retreat Bonnie and Brenda always have a big show and tell.  There are always lots of beautiful projects!  I wasn't able to grab photos of them all but this gives you an idea of the talent in this group:  After show and tell there are lots of fun giveaways.   Bonnie (center) enlisted the help of her beautiful nieces in giving everyone a prize!  I won this great stack of fat quarters from Riley Blake! Hmm, what should I make with them? And after the retreat, I put my fabric blade in, sprayed a little basting spray onto the fabric to make sure it stuck good to the mat, and cut out Sylvia's leaves!  Are you impressed with the Silhouette yet, Sylvia ?! I cut a lot more than these but for

One of my breast pockets was published in Quilting Arts Magazine.  I'm thrilled to share the pages with so many talented makers.  There were about 250 pockets entered in to the challenge.  So glad they had so many submit entries!  They are all so beautiful!

My friend, Sylvia , and I decided to split a 100 yard bolt of Mistyfuse . We are at a quilt retreat right now and finally able to split the bolt.  Our friend Helen helped with this big chore.  Many hands make light work! This is what 50 yards of hand rolled Mistyfuse looks like. Isn't it pretty!  It reminded us of cotton candy. Now here is the crazy part - Sylvia has NEVER used Mistyfuse! She bought it because I said it was fabulous.  That is a lot of trust!  Well and there are lots of other testimonials of the great product online but mostly it was me. ;)  So I had to show her how to use it. She is making some leaves for a project and so she cut pieces of Mistyfuse to cover her fabric.  Took it over to the iron and covered it with my Goddess Sheet.  She has a small sheet, but my bigger one was better for this project.  A little ironing. . . . . .and it's fused and ready to go! We had planned on cutting her leaves with my Silhouette portra

I took a little trip to Colorado last week with my daughter and while there I coordinated a visit with Luana Rubin,  philanthropist, fabulous quilter and co-owner of equilter.com . I got the full tour of the warehouse. LOOK AT ALL THE BEAUTIFUL FABRICS! Be still my heart! I LOVE solids!!!!  There were more colors behind me too.  I guess I should have taken a panoramic photo to get it all in.  I wasn't thinking very clearly.  It must have been the smell of the fabric intoxicating me.  Part way in to the tour Luana had to tell me that it was okay to take photos. I had my camera in my hand the entire time but I was just soaking it all in. Batiks!!!! There were many, many rows of fabrics that I didn't photograph.  They carry full lines of fabrics. There were more Alexander Henry fabrics than I have ever seen in one place!  OH they were all so lovely!   EQuilter is a great place to check for fabrics after you hit your local quilt store. They carry LOTS of bea

The Printed Fabric Bee theme for February was the Forest Floor. I've been playing with the idea of mushrooms for this project. I drew a little mushroom forest for inspiration. . .   . . .and created a stamp from the drawing. I also designed a mushroom stencil I planned to cut using my Silhouette Portrait electronic cutter and then WHAM!  The Hard Drive on my Mac Crashed! Fortunately I had most everything backed up.   Sadly my mushroom stencil was not in those saved files.   On to plan B: Using my stash of leaf stencils and my mushroom stamp. I started with a piece of snow dyed fabric,  because it's always a great base for surface design.  I used Setacolor transparent blue paint for the leaves.   I wanted to give a soft semi-transparent feel for the first layer of leaves.  Next I mixed an orange brown from my Setacolors to stamp a few more leaves . . .  . . .and mushrooms.  And even with all this beauty I felt like something was missing