something new for me!

I never buy a whole line of fabric -- really the most I've ever gotten is one or two pieces from a set, and then I feel like I'm caving somehow. BUT... when I saw the first pictures of the new "Indigo" line from Timeless Treasures I knew I was hooked. I thought about it for a few days and placed my order. I ended up buying the FQ set along with a yard each of a couple of the designs because I had decided to make myself a new Bow-tucks bag. I love the first one I made a few months ago, but it was time for something different!

So, I got the whole thing put together during a quilt-group get-together this afternoon, except for a button. Above is the front; here is the back:

and the inside, with a plethora of pockets:
And to round things out -- a couple of recent Friday Block Party blocks. I did a lot of seam ripping on both of these, 'cause I kept putting things in the wrong places (despite having the photos in front of me the whole time) -- I'm blaming it on the heat!

Freaky Friday

OMG I do so wish my blackberry had a camera! There is a woman ahead of me in the sandwich line with an indescribable hairdo -- gelled and sprayed to the max -- it sweeps out behind her in tiers like a hightlighted Christmas tree. What WAS she thinking?

p.s. Make-up to match
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Now -- in 3D!

I finally finished the last birthday block in this series -- seems like it's been going on forever! Kate asked for a block with "a substantial 3D element". My first inclination was to crumple up a piece of fabric and stitch it down on another piece of flat fabric... and I might still try that... but then I remembered that I had two of Rebecca Wat's fabric folding books that I had never really cracked open. So, here's a photo where the color is pretty much correct,and here's a photo with no flash and slightly out of focus, but you can see the texture
The stars are from one of the books -- I'm pretty good at origami but this was something else! And the folded ridges were something that I remember one of my local quilt friends doing a few years ago (hi Kathy!)

And since I had 3D on the brain, I decided to try these circle socks:
The texture part is just on the legs; the rest will be plain. I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock for the first time, and the color changes are pretty amazing! The pattern is available on Ravelry.

Finally, Bucky celebrated the solstice by bringing in a friend.
A little hard to see on the rug, but it's a lizard about 7-8" long. A very frisky lizard, I might add. I trapped it under a wastebasket and called the DH to "do something"! He took it somewhere out in the garden, still very much alive.

what's on my wall?

Judy L. started the "what's on your design wall" trend for Mondays, so here's my current report! I have two big pieces of insulation board covered with batting; they're portable, sort of... if I'm careful I can move them from room to room without breaking anything!

Wall #1 has an assortment of Friday Block Party blocks -- these are almost all of the 12" ones that I've been doing mainly in earthtones with beigy backgrounds. I'm having fun pulling the first fabric almost at random and then finding things in the stash to go with, and I've discovered some long-forgotten treasures!
The other wall has some bits from a project one of my mini-groups did a couple of years ago. The idea came from a book... can't remember which one... and the deal was that you made a block and gave it to the next person and they either made more of the same or made components, or made complementary blocks. I didn't really love the project and I made it worse by starting out with a "hither & yon" block that was too complicated for people to deal with. It's one of my favorites (upper left and lower right on the design wall) because the parts just seem so quirky -- what are those silly pinwheels doing there, anyway?
I feel some pressure (gentle pressure, but still...) to assemble this into something coherent. I'm sure it involves making some more blocks, but I haven't spent enough time thinking about it yet -- after all, it's only been a couple of years!

old and new

This quilt was made by the grandmother-in-law of one of my business partners, and when we set up our new little office last summer, she started talking about how nice it would be to hang it in our "conference room". I had a couple of small quilts of mine hanging in the other room, which we share as an office. Eventually I picked up the quilt at her house, and sewed a hanging sleeve on the back, and then it sat for months while we a) tried to figure out how to hang it without ripping big holes in the wallboard, 'cause it weighs a ton and b) waited for one of the husbands to come and help.

Recently, she and her DH have been shuttling back & forth across the country dealing with aging parent health issues (and a funeral) and I decided to take matters into my own hands! I have to give credit to my DH for the inspiration to create a frame to hang it from, but I did it all myself -- very easy, actually, except for wrestling all that fabric around and trying to keep the frame upright while screwing the little brackets into the wall.

Of course I got a big teary hug when she saw it on Monday... and it's situated where she can see it when she's sitting at her desk. It's all made by hand, a little wonky, with some interesting jacquard bedspread material on the back and wrapped around to the front instead of binding.
And the new: I finally put the last border on my Shakespeare in the Park top. This is too big for me to quilt so it will be next up to send off for some swirly stitching!

did you get tagged?

In the last few days I've received a half dozen emails telling me that someone has tagged me to look at their photos, and I must click yes or no or risk offending them terribly. I hope no one's offended, but I deleted all of the messages! A couple were from people I didn't even know... I did a little googling around and discovered that tagged.com bills itself as a social networking site like facebook, but basically it's just a big spam machine. As soon as you sign in, it hijacks your address book and starts sending emails to everyone. (They do offer a link to block all emails from tagged.com to your address -- I was hesitant about clicking because it seemed like it might just be another scam -- but I went ahead and clicked. Since then I haven't received any more of these...)
I am determined to figure out how to take photos that are in focus! I have a CanonA560, and it's supposed to focus automatically, but I'm about ready to trade it in for something more "manual". I know the thing about holding the shutter button down partway to get it to focus, but everything still comes out a bit fuzzy. Anyway, I wandered around the front yard this afternoon taking random pictures and the kangaroo paws above were the best. I do like that you can see the fuzzy texture of the red buds.
I finished putting together the log cabin top, and I really like it-- in fact I think this one will actually get quilted pretty soon. The group is planning to start up another "robin" in August so I'm thinking about what my next starting row will look like...
Finally -- another knitty finish! It's funny how the variegation in the yarn played out so differently in each sock, don't you think? These are the basketweave rib pattern from Charlene Schurch, and they worked up pretty quickly (for me, anyway -- a couple of months)

blocks and more blocks...

These various log cabins were the product of a row robin in 2007, I think. They're six-inch blocks made by five other people and me, with a "theme" fabric and mostly with yellow centers. I really like them, but for some reason they stayed in a bag for more than a year -- I've finally pulled them out and started putting them together with some almost-black sashing between the rows. More soon...
And -- I'm a winner again! just got my last block lotto winnings finished, and then I won again in April. Aren't these adorable?
Here's Bucky again, in my favorite pose.