A Religious Post for Easter - From ME???

100 Blocks  easter dress

Talking about getting into heaven by Father Guido Sarducci.

Buggy Barn Crazy Chicks

Nobody says you can laugh at Heaven!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/0AKvRvL5r3A?rel=0

100 Blocks Bunny

Chicks I made to go
with the big chickens

Happy Holiday to you, however you celebrate it.  I will be working in my quilt room.  

Here are my chicks and bunnies for your viewing pleasure!

I really need to finish that quilt!

All I did this week was work on my Nudes Bathing, and that is so small.  I am getting excited about working again, now that my life seems to be leveling off a bit.  So maybe I will begin to make a serious dent in my stash for a change.  But I am still 20 yards out, so not too shabby.

BUT.....that said........I got some vintage fabrics from Cousin Karen on her last visit.  From her mother's stuff. I was stoked to see it.  But it does add calories!  I will count that next week and show you some fabulous pieces.

used this week	-0.75
Used March	-5.25
added this week	0
added March	14.75
used YTD	-43.5
added YTD	23.25
stash reduction	-20.25

No Sew Saturday - Bad Bad McGee

Tonight we are off to a dinner party at the Donahue's beautiful home.   It will be good to see that group again, it has been a while.  Carrie and Andrew are off to Natchez to celebrate their anniversary #4.  We are grand-dog sitting.

Chloe - the good one

Hugeaux - look at his hair sticking up!

We worked in the yard today because it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  I bought marigolds, begonias, coleus and zinnias to mix in with the caladiums that were so prolific last year.  I know most will come back but some were rotted to mush.  So there was some space to put the new beauties I planted.

I do container gardening because of the idiots dogs I have running around.  Even so, I am not sure the ones I put out today will not get up earthed by the idiots  dogs.    I can't find where the photos from today went in my computer so you get my lovely pansies I just pulled up.

Frank bought me a little sit upon stool that rolls along the flower beds.  It is too cute.

After doing all that work we chilled on the deck for a while.

McGee and DiNozzo w Frank

I went to take a bath, Frank vacuumed, then bathed.  When I came out to the kitchen, McGee had struck.

Hugeaux

We keep their dog food container wedged under the microwave stand so they can't get into it.  For 28 years we have had that there, with never a problem, until McGee.  He works the box out from under the stand, opens it and fights anyone off who tries to enjoy his efforts with him.  I mean, he works to get that out of there.  So I changed the way I put it in there.

And he looks so innocent here

Today, he MOVED THE MICROWAVE STAND to get to the food container!  He is like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of Basset Hounds.  Gotta admire his tenacity and the ability to keep thinking of ways to get at it.

Oh, and see my Japanese rock garden behind me?  I love it.
One day I will have to show you how we use grass to make it look like the water falling over the dam and rippling in the pond.

Making Those Still Shoveling Snow Very Jealous

 From February on the left and today on the right, we ar greening up!  These are the same trees a month apart.

Momma and Daddy Cardinals - Look how fat he is!

Azaleas in full bloom

Wrens stacked on the feeder!

Off the Wall Friday - Nudes Bathing

I had a chance to get the backgrounds quilted.  I am not really good at this part. As I went along I got more comfortable with the process and began to loosen up and enjoy the stitching.  I wish I had done more planning on the hills and grasses but I like the water and the nudes.

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, so when you finish here, go check out what her 200th blog post looks like!  So cool to be in this group of talented peoples.

If you want to see how I did things prior to this stage you can look here and  here and here.

I am ready to put the leaves so the backgrounds needed to be quilted first.  I sandwiched the top and back with a fusible batting Pellon 725 I think.  It is not heavy, but just the right weight to give stability and body to the piece.  Keep in mind, it is small, about 8 x 11 or so.  I think the walker may be a bit longer than the swimmer.

I used my Connecting Threads thread for all but the sky and the nudes.  I didn't have the correct color so I dug into my rayon threads and pulled a nice nude color.  My machine auto corrects for thread tension but it needs a few stitches to realize I have changed the thread sizes!  I don't normally use the rayon thread so I had to remember that, after making a couple of thread snarls.

I put the nudes on by fusing them to the quilted background.  They were
cut out using the paper template, so they already had fusible on them prior to being cut out.

Here are some close shots of the quilting on the two pieces.








Looking good! Aren't their butts too cute?  The swimmer is a bit lopsided, but hey, so am I.  I would give anything to have a butt like hers!

They needed hair so I had to search high and low in the quilt room for about an hour to find my stash of embroidery threads.  I had a wonderful reddish brown, and so the nudes became dark gingers.

I am going to play with the tulle tomorrow and then add the leaves.

I am loving them!  How about you?

Oh, one more thing.  I did a
cockatoo a few years back with a technique similar to how the back
turned out on these.  Here is an interesting project for you to think about.  Quilting from the front in this case made this on the back.  See the outline of the swimmer in the leaves?

My cockatoo is done from the back to look like this on the front!

Swimmer Gets Some Leaves

I have been talking out the problem with several people over the last few days.  Trying to get some insight into any ways they can think of to attach the leaves.  I keep envisioning floral wire and floral tape.  I said this to Ann and she says, Oh, I have some in my car!

I really thought she was joking, but she did have some in her car!  I got several feet of the tiny wire, which I thought would be the perfect thickness.  I have previously tried clothesline, electrical wire, copper wire, and fabric.  Nothing had worked.

I think this is actually going to work.

I cut the wire into a short section that would reach from the top of the piece to the bottom.  These long nosed pliers are older than I am, they came from my dad's shop.


 Here are the leaves and the stem wrap.  I found a fabric that has yellow batik leaves and green background.  It would make a nice mix of color for the stem or branch.


Out came the hot glue gun.  It is the new one I bought about 2 months ago.  This one is a lot better than the other one because this one is low heat (I don't burn myself on it, which I did a lot of with the hot hot glue gun) and it has a trigger squeeze.  The other one you had to push the glue stick with your thumb and it got tiring.

I started assembling the leaves.  I cut the tip of my index finger at Carrie's Easter Brunch when I was washing the sharp knives.  It hurts like a son of a gun.  And, guess what?  You NEED that finger to do this!

Two sets of leave

Here is the Swimmer (heading off the page I see, she must be upset with all the attention) and two sections of leaves.  I made one more, and I like it with a lot of leaves.

three sets of leaves

I like the leaves and I think this will actually work.  But I need to quilt the background and add my swimmer first.  Before I get into putting the leaves on the background all that needs to be done.

Whew!  I sure am glad i didn't wait to the last minute like SOME people!

Watching Dateline is Costing Me A Small Fortune

Don't ever watch NBC's Dateline.  Because we had nothing to do this Sunday and wanted to watch the Amazing Race I now have to change out all my Tupperware glasses, get rid of my toothpaste and canned goods and get all new stuff.  The football game threw everything off time so we had to watch Dateline to know when the Amazing Race would be on.  Bad move!

I might have to ditch my eyeglasses and have all my fillings drilled out as well.  I have to look at all my plastic stuff and toss out anything that has a 7, 6 or 3 on it in the recycling triangle.  Those are the bad chemicals.

Do you know how many generations of Tupperware we have?  Frank was invited to all the Tupperware partied in a ten mile radius.  He would play silly party games to get that strawberry huller with women who thought nothing of having him in their midst.  He was, after all, home room mom, girl scout leader and PTO President.  In any other marriage he would have been accused of having affairs, but he only had eyes for the Tupperware.  Tupperware at our house it is a truly revered item.  Frank's mother used it.  Anything Frank's mother used is sacred.  Truly, yes, sacred.  Like god-like.  And cannot be spoken against.  I really don't care for Tupperware because it never gets dry in our dishwasher, it keeps a pool of water on top.  Stupid things, those glasses.  But, they are the Sacred Tupperware, we know that.  Now I may can get rid of them.

Which is why I thought it was amazing to see my chemical/oil and gas employed husband freak out when the reporter on Dateline said, "Tupperware made before 2010 is likely to contain BPA."  And  because I am old, my Tupperware is old.  Actually all the mothers of young children way back when have either moved or have put their kids through college and no longer need Tupperware money coming in.  So he has lost his "drug" connections.  I didn't encourage making more for obvious reasons.  The mothers were getting younger and skinnier and I was getting older and fatter.

After looking in the glasses cabinet, WOW!  He went insane!  His brain was trying to rationalize that something his mother liked would harm him.  He was having a hard, hard time.  He had to go lay down for a while before he looked at the cabinet containing the storage containers.  Oh, my!

So we now have no toothpaste in the house.  No glassware to drink out of, I am using my hands to drink out of the sink faucet.

(time passes)

So today is Tuesday and I now own glassware again.  True glassware.  I don't think we have ever owned glass before.  It feels heavy in my hands and I envision shards of it on the kitchen floor made out of brick pavers.  And going through contortions trying desperately to keep basset feet out of the kitchen when there is milk to be claimed within easy reach.

The glasses are washing in the dishwasher presently.  And soon will fill the shelves with their crystalline beauty.  And I feel healthier already.

Nudes Bathing Continued

the Nudettes have progressed one step more. However, I did not work on them Monday.  I cleaned house.  Cousin Karen and son Matt were up for the State Science Fair at LSU today.  He has gotten through his school, the regional of 11 parishes and now he is competing on state level.  His project involves the osmosis of oxygen in algae plant cells.  Amazing.

Last year he was interviewed by Duke University as part of the program where they recruit pre-high school kids for their University later on.  Amazing.  He is 14.  Even more amazing.  So Duke tracks him academically.

He and mom Karen were inundated with bassets last night!  And they loved it.

Walker

Swimmer

The Nudes Bathing have progressed to where they are no longer formless ideas.  They have bodies!  I added a bit of hair made with yarn to see what it would look like.  But I am actually going to use embroidery thread for the hair.

And I need more leaves. A lot more.  And a natural looking way to put them on.  I need to go look at trees today.

 This is the fabric I used for the transition between water and land.  It looks like sand and does the work for me by employing the stripes in the yellows and greens.  I could not have done a better placement of color for that part.

The Walker needs something in the background, like mountains or something.  What do you think?  Is she too large scale for the background?  I have another smaller figure I could cut out.

Here they are with the hair and the tulle placed in the water.  I love the way it looks like their bodies are submerged and you are seeing though crystal clear water! The tulle makes such a difference in the pieces.  I thought, well, maybe it doesn't really matter, but it does!

I bought three blues and this one is the perfect tone.  Maybe if I had some of those crystals it would look like the water was sparkling!

It is not looking like anything I had in my head.  Does that happen to you?  The failure of the process between your head and your hands?  I guess the fact that my head has all the fabric in the world and my hands are limited to what is in my room!

I am stoked, so many people are loving this!  Thank you all for your comments.  I totally appreciate them.  I had the largest hit of people looking at the post of all my posts so far!

Nudes Bathing- Design Wall Monday

No, silly, you won't get a picture of me!  LOL

So....that settled, I am building the background for my nudes bathing.  There will be two of them.  We work very small, 8.5 by 11 inches and I wanted the nudes to be larger than my fingernail, so I decided on two since I couldn't decide which one I loved more.

Remember we conjured up those girls bathing in the pond just beyond the view of the village men?  Here is where they are bathing.  I guess they are bathing at dusk.  But maybe it is dawn.

I started with blues, lights but mostly dark blues.

I fused the backs and cut them up.  Lesson #1 - Take the paper backing off before you cut up or you will spend the evening taking tiny pieces of paper off tiny pieces of fabric.

After I got the water put together where I liked it, I started on the sand and the land.  I already had a nice piece of sky.  Love that yellow and orange sky!

So I built the land and made a bush.  Lesson #2 -Always be aware of where your pressing sheet is in relation to your piece you are fusing and your ironing board.  I fused my piece to the ironing board a couple of times.

Now for the nudes.  I can't draw worth a lick.  Lesson #3 - Learn to improvise!  I found some bodies on the internet and re-sized them to just the right size.  I had the forethought to purchase some peachy pink nude looking fabric when I got the tulle from Hobby Lobby.  So I guess that is Lesson #4 - Think ahead and assemble all your parts.

I had no idea what color I needed for the water so I got 1/4 yard of three different blues.  I was just in front of a lady who was purchasing every piece of every color of every bolt of tulle they had.  I was very lucky to be ahead of her.  She said she was making tu-tus for her daughters class.

 Boy was I glad to have been in front of her and not an hour later!

Lesson #5 - Be in the right place at the right time and you will be a happy quilter!

I got some leaves made for the seclusion feeling.  I have about 1/3 to 1/2 of the leaves made so far.  They are not difficult.  I fuse fabric to two sides and cut away everything that does not look like a leaf!  The most difficult part is then running them through the sewing machine and not getting them caught in the needle hole!  But the good part is that you can just cut off the offending end and you still have a leaf.  Not like the half square triangles I make!

I have to figure out how to put the leaves on.  I want them hanging and I am trying to think of ways to make them hang on something.    This is a 3-D piece so they need to stick out.

I will play with the water and the nudie girls on Sunday because I need to think on it and I am getting tired..  And the dogs are clamoring for a walk.

And I want you to know I got up before Judy this morning and thought I would be first to post.  But as I ate breakfast she posted, and Nina Marie got first place!

Mystery Quilt - Down Under

I gave you the first installment here.

This is the second one which is March.  I have to run these just after the delivery at the guild, so you get them late.  But here it is:

Mystery 2013 Clue 2 - March

I've been sewing ahead on this project for the past 3 days and am happy with "the look". I do want to really encourage you to try to add additional fabrics to the DARK and LIGHT selections. I wound up with 3 fabrics in each category and it makes for a much more interesting quilt to use more than one fabric.

So, Let the CUTTING Begin

You will need to have a ruler for rotary cutting which is a minimum of 4 inches in width so that you can cut a 3.5" strip. My favorite ruler for strip cutting is a 6" x 24". I do not fold fabric into 1/4's to cut, but only in half – Width of Fabric or WOF.  This is more accurate and you get those nasty "V" cuts if you only fold your fabric once to cut.

A 24" ruler allows you to cut across a folded piece of fabric which will be about 20-22" across.  Each is cut WOF and 3.5 inches in width. Depending on your fabric you will thus have a strip 3.5" wide by 40-42 inches long.

DARK Fabrics: hopefully you are using 2-3 or more fabrics for Darks
Cut 34 strips. Save excess uncut fabric.

LIGHT Fabrics: again, if you have 2-3 it'll be a more interesting quilt top.
Cut 28 strips. Save excess uncut fabric

BOLD PRINT Fabric: (this should be one fabric).
Cut 14 strips. Save excess uncut fabric.

---

Get ready for next Installment:
Have a box of Gallon size zip lock bags handy. (these are approx. 11" x 11") and will be very handy for storing and organizing your sewn pieces and blocks.

Beauty in a Sunset and How Your Machine Works

I want to be here.  Right here in this photo.

 I took this one snowy morning in Colorado many years ago.  We were traveling back to Denver and were happy to be heading home after a wonderful vacation.  It was in the dead of winter.

Such beauty in this world.

In the interest of imparting knowledge to you, please go look at this video of Dawn explaining how our machines work.  I think you will find it interesting and worthwhile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOD5pLcYz3w

I did pretty well in the fabric usage department.  Although the things I worked on were small in stature.  The fabrics for the most expensive pattern in the world arrived this week.

And I finished the two Saints Pillows for my nephew Matt and his mom Cousin Karen.  I guess Matt is my cousin, but I think of him as a nephew kid.

And I completed two small pieces for the Fiber Group, Bamboo Bonsai and the Green Peace Piece.

Oh, and the baby quilt Low Volume Baby, Everyone Wants One But Few Get Them is finished and off to Carrie for the shower.  Still one to go, but I have some breathing space, she isn't even pregnant yet!  LOL.  That was a shocker when Carrie said that.

used this week	-3.15
Used March	-4.5
added this week	4
added March	14.75
used YTD	-42.65
added YTD	23.25
stash reduction	-19.4