December’s weekly theme- GEARS

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What a theme I picked to end the year….

These little gears were a real pain in the you-know-what to cut out. I designed about 4 gears total, because more would have killed me. The cramping in my hand over cutting the templates, and then the fused fabric, totally sucked.
On the other hand, they look somewhat as I intended. These are ideas for a larger design I plan to do for my dining room, which happens to be a golden yellow with black furniture. I wanted a more “steampunk” look to them, but I will need more flourishes and “lace” to go with the gears in the larger work to pull that off. In the end I am happy with it. This does complete “year two” of the weekly quilts. I’ll post more on a look back at whatI learned in doing them in my next post.


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The rest of November’s themed weekly quilts

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November slipped away from me, but because I went to West River on retreat with the Baltimore Heritage Quilt Guild, I did get a ton of sewing done. I also did keep up with the weeklies, and here they are…



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On the mend

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It’s rotten to be sick, and this cold really knocked me for a loop. I was so drained, I thought sewing this weekend would be impossible.

Luckily, I felt ok enough to sew a bit today, so I got a couple of things done.
I also found a few minutes to scan everything I have done lately for your viewing pleasure.
These monsters were so freaking cute to do. I can definitely see patterns for these in the future.

These ATCs are for trades I’m involved in over at ATCSforAll.com.


Lastly these are November’s theme, fall leaves. Anotehr topic suggested by the DH. Those perfect leaves are silk leaves bought from a craft store.


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Monsters! and a crafty weekend

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Check out all of the work I did in one weekend! Whoa!
First off, October’s weekly theme is “Monsters” of the cute and evil varitety… I made about 6 sketches, and will work from those. The sketches are about an inch high, and I was surprised that the monster translated well into the larger format.

Next are some thread jellyfish for a swap on Mailartworld.com.
Last, a table runner for Halloween that has been quilted for ages, but never bound…
Lest you think all I do is quilt, here is a “candy corn” hat I crocheted. I did this in one evening watching tv…
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September Family Collages – #4

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I traveled so much in September I barely had time at home, much less time to post these lovelies. I knew I would be on the road a lot, so I prequilted the backgrounds, and took along the baggie of things to attach to them in the collage style. I was the perfect hand project to take with me on my travels and I would consider this again for that reason. The fabrics all came from a fat eighth pack of Fossil Ferns all matched in these muted colors, and it was the perfect pallatte for the theme. Additionally, the photos were all fused onto the colored prints, for a texture and added “sepia” effect.
This particular quilt is all about the wedding I can’t find a record for. My grandmother never celebrated her wedding anniversary, and no one seems to recall when it was. Neither grandma or grandpa are with us any more to tell us. When doing research on this, you have to know where and when in order to get a copy of the record. How silly that I can find a record of a wedding in the 1700’s, but not from the 1940’s. It’s like a big secret I’m not supposed to know.
I ran out of the little burgundy trim, which was supposed to go all the way around the quilt, not just the word “secrets”. The edge feels a bit unfinished in that I had nothing to really match or go with it in my travel baggie. The big key is from some big junk box from my mom’s old house, and the mini keys are to all of my diaries I kept as a kid. I feel that the border still needs something to darken it up, but I don’t want an oppressive color either…

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