ok Amy, I’m kicking off with one of those "I’ll get to it in my golden years" projects. of course it’s from one of my japanese craft magazines. interestingly, it’s from the first of such magazines I bought a year or so ago, and it remains my favorite project. guess you never forget your first japanese craft love.
a patchwork of crocheted knit, fabric and tweed hexagons. looks so flippin cozy!
and of course I’ll have time to make a matching pillow too.
I finally finished the Plain Spoken quilt I pieced together in February and I have Kim to thank. After seeing her stunning p.s. top for the Modern Quilt-Along I actually turned around and took another look at the quilt that has been hanging over the back of my sewing table chair for 8 months. I just love the bright rich colors Kim used for hers and was wishing I’d gone brighter on mine. Oh, yeah I did. I remember now — I love these colors! Funny thing is I’ve been working on a quilt design to use some of my folky prints and the solid colors I wanted to use were a mustard yellow and a dark dark blue/gray. Oh yeah, those colors are right here. You know when you crave certain foods because your body isn’t getting enough of a certain vitamin or something. That’s what this was like. I never got my mustard/gray fix and was planning new projects to sate that craving. Now I’m all set and can put that other project on the backburner and start working on my quilt for the Modern Quilt-Along, “Book Club“.
The quilting came out ok. Nowhere near as beautiful as the tiny little perfect waves I saw on this same quilt pattern at the FunQuilts studio when I took my class, but ok. It’s so difficult to quilt a big project on a home sewing machine that I’m always happy that it turned out at all. This pattern was funny because as I was yanking and pulling the quilt from side to side trying to make those turns I could feel myself making this crazy face — leaning my head to the side and grinding my top teeth back and forth over my bottom teeth. Too bad I couldn’t set up the camera to capture that for SPT!
Catching up feels so good! Two outgoing packages that got jammed up at the sewing machine are ready to go out.
Here’s one going to Jen
Here’s my dishtowel apron for September’s Tie One On. Thanks for coming up with another great theme Amy. I didn’t have any twill tape on hand but I did have a big long piece of soft cotton embroidered lace that I tore off a thrifted sheet years ago. I think it turned out cute and once again proves that if you keep something around long enough it will find it’s destiny.
These are the fabrics I have picked out for my next set of projects. The colors are based on those in this amazing print Kim sent me.
Speaking of colors, I’m loving these too. Tim took this photo at a vintage auto show we happened upon in Indiana. Oscar was very pleased with it. He kept running from car to car and pointing and yelling “CAR!” to anyone who’d listen. He was quite a hit.
Paige kitty loves school. This Fall she is starting kindergarten and she is over the moon excited about it. So excited in fact, she’s had no time for Summer activities. It’s been pencils and books, letters and numbers all Summer long.
When the rest of the kids are at the swimming pool Paige is playing teacher.
Paige is very pleased it is finally August because that means the first day of school is right around the corner. It also means back-to-school shopping. Paige picked out a new plaid dress, a new backpack and a new pair of shoes. She had some trouble deciding between the orange loafers and the brown t-straps but in the end the mary janes won out.
Finally it was time to head to the store for supplies and then home to pack up her backpack.
Now that she’s all set, shoes are polished, backpack is packed, ribbon tie is tied the only thing left to do is practice waiting for the bus.
A captivating gang of 24 huggable, lovable creatures to sew—from classics like Margot, a topsy-turvy doll, and the button-jointed teddy bear Bjorn Bjornson, to irresistible Evelyn, a wool felt inchworm decked out in mod glasses and a kerchief, and Koji, a fiercely cute spiked softie monster. There’s something for everyone here—from kids to grown-ups and from beginning sewers to advanced dollmakers. Published by STC Craft, August, 2010.
