At Long Last . . .

I have something to show you!  Yay!  I've actually spent some time in the quilt studio and have gotten some things done.  My friend Candy came over and helped me get the quilt studio picked up and organized again, so I had room to sew.   I'm finally feeling more inspired, and have been sewing.  Now the room isn't as picked up as it was.  That's the way it goes, isn't it?

Apparently, I still cannot take a picture straight.

Here are all my blocks, so far, for the Country Threads On-Line Sampler.  I am all caught up now.  Yay!  I actually have June's blocks done at the beginning of the month . . . . amazing.

The blocks for March

March had 3 blocks, 2 at 12 inches and one 6 inches.

April's blocks

All of the blocks, so far, have had a 12 inch block and a 6 inch block.  April's block was the easiest so far.

May's blocks

June's blocks

By the time I finished May's blocks and the 12 inch block for June, I was pretty tired of pinwheels!   (Seven of 'em, if you're counting)  That 6 inch block was supposed to have pinwheels where the 4-patches are.  No way was I making 5 pinwheels that finish at 2 inches!  I really like this little block with the 4-patches.  Keep it simple.  The 6 incher looks washed out next to the indigo in the big block, doesn't it?  I'll have to do a few more in those muted colors to balance it out.

There are going to be a ton of half square triangles in this quilt, and I'm afraid that they're being saved for the last step.  Not looking forward to that !  I'd rather do a few every month instead.  I have been saving whatever HST's I have left over from the flying geese units.  Maybe that will help!

One of the ladies in my guild really liked this panel.  So much so that she bought a whole bolt of it!  She passed them out at the last guild meeting, and we're supposed to make it big enough for a Quilt of Valor and it needs to be done in time for the quilt show in October.  I'm still thinking on what I want to do.

A couple of weeks ago, I was the lucky winner of the giveaway over at Pinkadot Quilts blog.  I won some of Kelly's hand-dyed fabric scraps and this darling pincushion!  Don't these make your mouth water?  Ooooo, not sure what I'm doing with them, but I'm enjoying petting them for now.  Maybe I'll take them to play with in my class with Gwen Marsten in a couple of weeks.

Here is Shade getting in the way helping me in the quilt studio yesterday.  He stubbornly insisted on sitting on the very end of the ironing board.  He really didn't fit very well, but he was gonna do it!  Silly kitty.

Yesterday I saw this squirrel laying on the fence outside of my kitchen window.  He lay there long enough for me to get the camera and take about a dozen pictures of him.  This is the best one.  He had been lying kind of behind that sprig of lilac so that he was obscured, but eventually he turned around and I could get a good shot of him.  After a bit, he grew tired of the paparazzi imitation I was doing and got up and left.  I wondered if maybe he was sick.  I don't think I've ever seen a squirrel lazing about like that!

We're supposed to finally have some warm weather this week.  It's about time!  But I think I'll still be sewing.  I've got more in the works and I have the time to sew this week.  Happiness is a busy quilt studio.

I hope you have a creative week!

A Winner and Some Other Stuff

My hollyhocks are finally blooming!  The purple flowers in the background are some of the foxgloves that are blooming now - and they're everywhere in my yard!  


As promised, Random Number Generator picked a winner for the giveaway today.

And the winner is Audrey of Quilty Folk blog!  I'll be contacting you for your snail mail address and will get the book in the mail to you as soon as possible, Audrey!

Recently my DH took a business trip to Taiwan.  When he asked me what I'd like him to bring back for me, guess what I answered?  Fabric, of course!  Well, little did I know that it would be a big adventure for him!  Long story short, it involved many stores, finding people that could speak some English (DH doesn't know Chinese), taxis and a lot of trust in strangers!  Here are the directions he received from a shop owner to give to a taxi driver to get to where there was fabric to purchase:

And here is the beautiful fabric that he brought home:

There is a yard of each fabric!

Look at the cool selvage!

And look at the fun, dotty plastic bag it came in:

full

empty

What an awesome gift!  He's definitely a keeper. *grin*

Some other sights around my yard:

Last year's (or possibly farther back than that) hanging basket got put on the side yard, hanging from the fence.  Whatever was in the basket died over the winter, and I hadn't gotten around to tossing the basket yet.  Today I discovered that it's now a fern nursery!  Yay!  I love ferns.  Now I have to find their permanent homes in my yard.

And in the back of the house, on the corner, is a bird's nest.  She's not too happy when we're out on the back deck.  I can't see her well enough to tell what kind of bird she is.  We think perhaps some kind of sparrow.  I have no idea if there are eggs or babies in there.  Time will tell.

the photo is straight, I can't pin things to the design wall straight!

Here's what I'm working on lately.  This is my Witch's Pantry from waaay back, when Lazy Gal Tonya was having the House, Home or Pantry Quilt Together.  You can see my beginning on this here and here.  I think this has "marinated" long enough.  I finally now know what I want to do with this.  I was thinking of what to do, and I had a sudden flash of what it could look like.  I love when that happens!  I want to get it finished, so it'll be ready for the quilt show in early October.  I made some more jars because I thought I needed more variety in the jar shapes/types and also the lids to the jars.  Then I edited the jars to a number that will work for what I want and decided on the layout, so now I'm ready to sew it together.  Photos soon!

Happy quilting!

Giveaway!

Gee, I think it's time for a giveaway here at Indigo Threads.  I haven't done one in a long time.  I missed my blogiversary this year (4 years!).  And just recently, I passed the 200 posts mark, and also passed the 100 followers mark as well!    So, in celebration of all of these milestones, here's the giveaway!

A copy of "Back to Charm School" by the ladies of Country Threads, Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene!    These ladies are just about my most favorite quilt designers!  And their patterns are so well-written and easy to understand and to do.

People Will Find You Interesting If You're Interested in Them
I love this pattern of Baskets or partial Bear's Paws.  This may be the one I make first! 

The patterns in this book are for small quilts, table toppers, table runners etc. that are made with charm squares, those cute little packets of 5 inch squares.  And each quilt pattern is named for some element of "good manners" that we were supposed to learn as children/young adults.  This is Mary and Connie's 2nd book of charm square patterns.

Never Wear Gloves at the Table
But the simplicity of this pattern is also calling to me. 
   

I don't know about you, but I find charm squares almost irresistible!  Kind of like penny candy.  Just delectable little packets of fabrics!  But then, I get them home and they sit there on the cutting table because I don't know/can't decide what to do with them.  This book will answer that question and help you use those charm squares.  And the best part?  If you don't have any charm squares, Mary and Connie were nice enough to include alternate directions for using scraps, fat quarters or yardage!  I love that part!

Better to Be Overdressed than Underdressed

So, now to the nitty gritty: To be entered in my giveaway, just leave me a comment.  Please make sure, if you're a No-Reply Blogger, that I have an email address for you so you can be contacted when you win!  (or you could go here and learn how to change that setting.)  You don't have to be a follower, but if you want to do that, it would be nice!  I will leave the comments open for one week and will draw a winner on Monday, July 16th.

Here is my latest small quilt.  Well, it was made quite a few years ago, but I just found it again and decided that I need to get it quilted up.  This was made as a test of a template that I got at a quilt show -  The Magic Triangle template.  And I think it was very successful!  Quick and easy, with no fabric waste!  I used Fat 1/8ths to make this, and I went with scrappy within the black, red and the white/cream fabrics.  I think these were the very first reproductions I ever bought.  The scrappiness is subtle within the body of the quilt, and a little more obvious in the border.

Note: This pattern is NOT included in the giveaway book!

look how nicely everything matches up!

I haven't gotten this basted yet.  I'm still trying to decide how I want to quilt it.

I really like this method of making the Magic Triangles.  I have plans for using up some of my Christmas fabrics making this block, but I'll  probably use a different setting.  That's one of the things I really like about this block - there are a number of different ways to set them together.

Good luck in the Giveaway!

Winners!

We haven't been having the snow that so much of the country has been getting, but we have been grey and gloomy with quite a bit of rain around here. As much as I like winter, I'm actually getting tired of it. Yesterday the sun came out for a bit, and I spied a bright spot of yellow out in the yard. Isn't this a welcome sight? The first crocus this year! They are struggling though, as the deer are trying to munch on them, which is pulling them up by the roots. Yesterday while out driving around, I saw a fruit tree in bloom and also a rhododendron in full bloom! Last year we didn't get this sort of happening until April!

OK, now to get to the giveaway. I'm sure everyone has just been holding their breath, waiting. . .

Since I couldn't interest either of the kitties in this, DH did the drawing for us. (In the lovely pottery bowl that he made . . . it's not for sale. It's mine, all mine!) First up was the drawing for Giveaway #1: Spots & Dots. *drumroll, please*

And the winner is . . .

Melinda of Melinda Quilts ETC!

Next was the drawing for Giveaway #2: Handdyes.

And the winner is . . .

Wendy of Inky Threads blog!

I'll be contacting both ladies to let them know they've won, and to get their snail mail addresses. Thank you to everyone for your participation. This was fun, and I wish I could send something to everyone that entered.

I remade the wonky Windmill blocks for Clare. You can't tell from the photo that they're any different than these, but these blocks are actually the correct size! They are currently en route to France.

I've been trying to work on the Lazy Gal Liberated Amish Challenge, in spite of the sinus infection that won't quit. (more antibiotics, thanks) I've decided on this 9-Patch quilt as my inspiration, but this quilt kept calling my name. So I gave in.

I'm calling this my "warm up" quilt. It's quite small, as the star blocks are only 6 inches. See that missing border? For this challenge, we have to include words somewhere on the quilt. That is where my word will be going. It's currently under construction. One more letter to go. Then I get to decide if that border will be the top, bottom or side of the quilt.

Here is the palette I've decided on for the 9-Patch quilt I'll be making. These are Cherrywood fabric and I love these colors.

Here's the first two 9-Patch blocks I've made. I was really testing the size on these. I'm not sure they're wonky enough, or exactly how wonky I want to make this quilt. I'm planning on approximately lap-sized, and it will be for me. So I just have to make up my mind what I want. But I have lots more 9-Patches to sew. I'll be throwing in some wonkier blocks than this, at the very least. I was uninspired by these at first, but I'm started to get excited now.

Today the LQS was having a Fat Tuesday sale, today being Mardi Gras! Not that I need one more fat quarter, but she had all the FQ's on sale for 1/2 off! So, two FQ's for $2.50. I wanted to show my support for this store that is struggling to make it, so this is what I bought. No particular reason, I just liked these. They looked bright and cheery!

A Win and Some Experiments

Look what I won! Jill over at The Quilt Rat had a giveaway recently celebrating her one year anniversary in combo with her 100th post. I was lucky enough to win one of her gorgeous postcards! I love it! I'm continually impressed with her talent. If you haven't visited her blog, please go visit her. She does awesome work!

In my last post, I mentioned that my sister and I played during her visit with us. We played with fabric and dye. We set up tables etc. in the garage (due to cold and wet outside) and got messy! She had never tried anything like this, so she had a lot of fun.

I had found Rayna Gillman's book "Create Your Own Hand-Painted Cloth" at the library and wanted to try doing some monoprints. (You can see Rayna's work at her blog studio 78 notes)

Here are my monoprints. I'm not very happy with them. I'm not entirely sure why, but they just don't appeal to me. The one in the upper right in the photo I over-stamped with the spiral, and I like that better. I haven't decided if I'm going to try more of these again later or not. In the piece 2nd from the left, you may be able to see a leaf print. More on that below!

After the monoprints, I tried printing some texture plates. I think the one on the right is OK, but not the one on the left. My sister did some and her's came out great. Of course, I didn't get a photo of hers - duh!

Remember the monoprint that's the 2nd from the left in the 1st photo? I off-stamped some of the paint with the fern stamp onto the fabric that's on the left in the photo up above, because I didn't want to waste the paint. I liked that one, so I tried doing some more stamping. I tried the dragonflies first (middle fabric), then I did some more dragonflies and added the leaves in the piece on the right. I don't think the dragonflies on the 2nd one (with the leaves) came out all that well, but I like the leaves!

The next thing I tried was the bubble wrap (above on the left). That was fun, although I found that if I wasn't careful, it wiggled and I didn't get a good print. I also had to print my new stamp with the flowers. I'm pretty comfortable with stamping, as I've done it for years with cards. So, I tried the leaves, mixing the paints right on the stamp. I think this is the best piece to come out of these experiments, mostly because I think the whole piece works together. Although it's kind of predictable, maybe.

Here are my wipe-up fabrics. I always use another piece of fabric to wipe up the paints, because why waste all that lovely paint? I love the watercolor look of these. Often my wipers are the best fabrics I make. Maybe I should just do those!

Here is a stamped piece that my sister did. She didn't like it and I did, so she gave it to me. Also, here is another wipe-up piece.

So, I learned that I don't have to do fabric painting/dyeing in the summer outside, except for the fact that in the damp cold, it takes forever to dry. I also learned that monoprinting is harder than it looks. Some of these pieces may get over-dyed, because I think they're too stark with the white background. I think that may help them. So, not too successful an experiment, but I learned a lot. I guess that's not too bad.