An Extra Posting Found!!

 

just saw this one left in the bin as a draft.  So, two in one night is great! 

 

I ran across a jelly roll of this wonderful fabric and just had to have it.  It is another design by Michele D'Amato.  (My black jelly roll quilt is from fabric by her, also)  My students didn't want to be in the picture, but this one just couldn't figure out how to hold the quilt and not be in there.  I told him I would delete him out, but I didn't do it.  LOL  He will just have to be in the picture.  I thought I wanted to applique something - a flower or leaf - on here, but my mother repeatedly made comments about how beautiful the fabric was and if I was going to do something, then maybe I should do an outline of a flower.  That way more of the beautiful fabric would show up.  This one is all in browns from espresso to cream.  I did a small light border, a larger leaf print border and then added a small border of dot fabric.  This is the first quilt I have made where the outside border is the smallest or equal to the smallest border.  Apparently this was all the rage in Arkansas last year.  I will definitely do this again on another quilt.

 

 

Anytime I go to the Country Store in Lovington, NM or see them out at quilt shows, I am compelled to purchase their brown bag specials.   What is a brown bag special?  It is, of course, a brown bag filled with 6 different fat quarters.  You don't know what you are getting, but just that you are getting 6 fat quarters.  Oh, yes, the good part is, they only cost $5.00!!!  What a bargain!  I can't pass this up.  Last year on the shop hop I challenged everyone in my group to purchase a bag and make something using only the fat quarters found in the bag.  Below is my little project.  I knew they kind of went together, but was worried about the turquoise and the floral print clashing too much.  By cutting up the floral fabric into smaller chunks and putting the turquoise between two other prints, I think I have neutralized them enough that now they go together.  I would like to add some borders, etc. but for that I will have to get some more fabric of some kind.  Since I waited a year to get this one together - I made the square in a square pretty quickly after I brought the bag home - I guess it can wait around a little bit longer until I decide what - and what fabrics - I want to add to it.  

 

I got bored one day and picked up my box of 1 1/2" blocks and started sewing them together.  When I got it to a size I was happy with, I pressed it all out and saw a 2 1/2" strip that had come as a "sucker" from the latest shop hop so I sewed that all around, trimmed it up a bit and put it on the wall.  In the next few days I decided that it needed something else.  I pulled out another box of blocks - I think these were about 3 or 3 1/2".  Sewed and added them as borders. put another 2 1/2" strip around it all and called it good.  Put it on the design wall and walked away.   Then I got the great idea to turn it on point.  Pulled out the 5" squares, put a 3" border around and yep, I am liking how this is turning out.  Stay tuned and we will see where else this one goes.

 

one last note - at retreat I was looking at what one of my friends was working on and was surprised to see she was quilting this little beauty.  It's my Divide and Conquer pattern.  That was a pleasant surprise.  She is going to add the red/hot pink strip as binding and was showing it to me when I commented on the quilt.  It's beautiful!!  So much fun to see your patterns made up by someone else. 

 

 

Paintings and Kaffe Blocks

Life has been very busy and I haven't had time to take pictures and get on here to show you what has been keeping me busy.  Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a private Wine and Canvas party where we painted the picture below of what I call Tata's and Tutu on a Hanger.  I think I made the boobs way too big, but that is real life for me.  I wasn't really impressed until I took it off the easel and thought, this isn't as bad as I thought it was. 

 

 

It is sitting on top of a shelving unit along with another private party Wine and Canvas I did back in May.  I don't know if I posted it on here or not, so please bear with me if this is a repeat.  This one is Paisleys and Posies.  They were fun to make and I really want to make many, many more in the future.  

Here they are together with all the stuff that adorns the top of that shelf right now. 

 

I have been doing a bit more than painting this past week.  I also put together the blocks for my KFC Exchange Group blocks for October.  This one is called Mrs. Lacey's Choice and was a lot of fun selecting the fabrics to use in this fun block.  I love the way the fabrics work together to create the patterns.  I can't wait to see more of these blocks put together. 

I don't think I posted last months KFC blocks so here they are.  Ignore the ugly carpet, but I had forgotten to take the picture of them on the design wall and had to quickly take one to post on the group page. 

The cold front is blowing in so it's time for me to get in a nice warm bed.  I will soon try to post the other things I have worked on during my little bit of down time, retreats and just playing around.