Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Granddaughter Audrey

Our Art Quilt Project

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audrey-fabricsHehehehe.  A baby and a bucket of fabric scraps.  I’ll be picking them up for the next month!  What was I thinking!?

Well, let’s just say I was rushing things a bit.  The technique worked well but the materials I chose didn’t (not their fault, mine) and the child doesn’t quite have the attention span yet for a project this size.  I’ll try again, but smaller next time  🙂

We played outside for a while but after I took her home we both came down with colds  🙁  Oh well.  We are on the mend!  As I was leaving Audrey at home with her parents I was cooerced into taking one of Sarah’s quilts.  I have no idea why she wants ME to quilt this – she’s quilted several in the past few months and done just fine.  Another “oh, well”.

sarahs-quiltI hope to quilt this (and a few more) and make videos as I quilt them.  I love machine quilting art quilts (maybe that’s why she gave it to me to quilt?) and I now have the space to both quilt and take video, so these few that are waiting will be the test.

The red flowers are texured heavily, they are a product of Bella Nonna and Sarah just loves them. She has made several of their quilts. In fact, if you like it I think you should stop by Sarah’s Blog and tell her to make a video of her making one! Doesn’t that sound like fun?!?

Audrey’s Corner

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I just finished carrying what I hope is the last bit of extra special quilting necessities (translates to years of accumulated quilting stuff) upstairs to the new studio.

audreys-cornerAudrey is coming this weekend and her corner of the studio is all ready for her.  The high shelves (put up last night) hold most of my sorted scraps (there’s a huge bucket of unsorted too) and the grey metal shelves hold books and magazines I use in teaching.  Plus Audrey’s stuff.

The piece of board with the huge clips has a bit of batting and white fabric that Audrey is coloring and sticking bits of fabric to.  I bought a new product this week and I hope to try it out with her this weekend.  We are going to try our hands at art quilting!  I’ll try and turn the video camera on but no guarantees – she likes to get behind it 🙂  {Grandma thinks she’s a future producer!!  Yay!}  LOL

Check back Tuesday for the recap and please have a safe Memorial Day Weekend.

New Fabric!

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Oh what a great trip to Anchorage! To visit my favorite quilt shop (Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe) and see the familiar faces and the new, gorgeous fabrics. Heaven!! Then Sarah arrived with granddaughter Audrey and the *real* fun began 🙂

Confession: I do not shop for fabric. I have asked (that being the polite way of saying ‘forced’) Sarah to pick my fabrics for me for years. Last time I went to Quilt Market I just gave her the cash and said “buy what you wanted but didn’t get”. She always picks the best stuff 🙂

When I buy fabrics and show my choices to people, they politely force a tight smile and whisper “oh, how nice ..” and turn away quickly. It’s true. Honest. I am a total loser at picking fabrics. That’s why I buy the fat quarter bundles or have someone do it for me. I relied upon Doris, my all time best quilt shop friend, and now Sarah. Hopefully Audrey will take after her mom and have a good eye for color too 🙂

So anyway, Audrey and I played with the shop toys while Sarah selected my sashing fabrics for the two projects I have in the works now.

The quilt shop owner, Maret, found a minute between class sessions to say “Hi” (she is a total sweetheart) and take a look at my projects and THEN I spied, hidden at the bottom of a rack, my most favorite thing of all – -scrap bags!! Yay! I *love* buying scrap bags! At the counter Sarah spied a bit of left over ribbon with bunnies on it so of course we had to have it. What a wonderful day!

Empty Nest

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At what point does “whew, I am so glad I don’t have to clean up after them anymore!” turn to “Oh, how I miss the pitter patter of their little feet…”?

My answer – -‘not yet’! LOL 🙂 Hehehehe

The baby bunnies went back to their outside home, as healthy as I can get them, my 22 month old granddaughter is home in Anchorage after spending the weekend with me and Tom is fishing in Homer (a long way away). I am……home alone!

Let’s see if I can finally be productive. You should see my ‘to do’ list. I was remembering quilts that I need to finish in my sleep last night. Then there’s some painting I’ve been putting off, cleaning out more stash, scanning photos & backing up computers….

My little helper got me started yesterday before she left….

A few baby days

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I made the mistake of being tired and worn out just before spending a weekend with Audrey. At one and three quarters, she has about twenty thousand times the energy that I do! Lucky baby 🙂

We had fun in the front yard watching people and their kids and dogs walk past the house on their way to the festivities on Third and Fourth Avenues downtown. Here’s Audrey reading the instruction book for Sarah’s videocam. Can you see the baby foot in the second picture? That’s her taking a nap while I work on the computer. Why didn’t I sleep then too?

4th of July Weekend in Seward, Alaska

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Sarah and Audrey are coming to see me on Thursday, and Audrey will stay with me for a few days. Seward is known for it’s 4th of July celebrations, the most famous of which is the Mt. Marathon Race. This internationally known race begins 2 blocks from our house, which is downtown. The race trail goes to the top of Mt. Marathon and down some snow slews and ends back at it’s starting point. It’s a rough trail race. If you look closely, you can see the trail to the peak in this photo.

Seward is a small town of about 3,500 people. No traffic lights. One main street. Several thousand people will be here for the 4th – even more if there is a cruise ship in port. Fourth Avenue is blocked off completely for about a mile, as is most of Adams Street – the street we live on (seen here). Usually we stock up on groceries in advance and just don’t plan on leaving the house because it’s almost impossible to do so with the traffic that converges on downtown.

Audrey and I will have a front row seat for the festivities – it should be a blast! Here’s a list of the events – if you are coming here please note that the fireworks are on Thursday night not Friday night.

I have not had time to do any more sewing on the Funky Fuzzy Quilt, but I will post as soon as I am able to get back to the project 🙂

Booties Part Three

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I was in Anchorage for a few days and I spent some time with Audrey. I brought up a small bucket of the things she’s used to playing with when she is with me, and here’s how that went:

She dove into the bucket, first after her necklaces and then ended up dumping the whole bucket onto the coffee table. Then she went for the purse – and she knew exactly what she was fishing around for in there – her cell phone. No, she doesn’t have her own phone at the tender age of 1, I just slipped one of non-functioning phones that we have in the house that haven’t been recycled yet.

She grabs that thing every time and flings it right into place and wanders around jabbering at the top of her lungs. It’s hysterical. Especially when she gets her arms going – I can tell that her mother must gesture a lot when she’s on the phone.

I finally talked her into trying on the booties (way too big – what a surprise – lol) and she liked them. After a while she tossed them aside for the bigger version. I am afraid of taking her shoe shopping now….. what have I started?

Booties Part Two

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Using the tracing that I took of Audrey’s feet and some quilted muslin from a machine quilting class, I cut out my estimation of the pieces. I love estimating and I do it all the time 🙂

I pinned the pieces together and I could tell right away that I had overestimated! I could put these things on a moose!

I unpinned and trimmed 3/4″ off the upper – all the way around except for the heel, which I had already sewn.

I re-pinned and then stitched, using a walking foot – which was a bad idea, it didn’t like the bulk, especially at the gathered bulk in the toe area.
I still think that the booties are too big, but I’ll wait and see how they fit on Audrey. I would like to inset some cuff material and make them into pull-on slippers. I have some fake suede for bottoms and maybe fleece for the uppers, with a cuff for snugness?

Booties

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What happens when you try to hold steady a wiggly giggly baby with one hand and trace around her ticklish feet with the other hand? Chaos. And this kind of scribble:

Heather Bailey has a free pattern for baby booties that I want to try. I’ll make a tester first, to see how they fit, and then make a real pair for Audrey. Her feet are quite a bit bigger than the pattern that Heather offers, so I’ll modify as I go, using her basic design and tips for construction.

She’s Baaaaaack :)

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Audrey, my granddaughter, is back with me this weekend. I put most of the quilting stuff away and got out the camera. Knowing your priorities is a good thing. We’re going outside to look for some mud puddles to stomp in. See you later!