Uptown Girl Purse - Got a Start....But Barely

quilting from the underside batting

I thought for sure when I left this morning for the Red Stick Shop that I would be coming home with a purse nearly completed.  Instead I have the bare beginnings.

front and back quilting

I cut out the pieces last night,  and must have gotten confused.  They say a few things differently and I interpreted them differently from what was meant.  In one place I cut only twi pieces rather than the four needed.

So even before that I left all my rulers and rotary cutters and pins on the table by the door.  A lot of good it does me to have the stuff ready and not take it.  It also included my rice crackers and fruit that were supposed to accompany my veggie/protein lunch.

And I left the extra fabric at home because I am learning to trust myself.  But I sure proved myself wrong this time!  LOL.

Front with a set of pleats

So here is where I got to.  It will be really nice.  If you recognize the fabric it is from the group that cousin Karen brought from her mother's stuff.  The vintage stuff.  I think I am going to have to change out the lining, this is too fragile for lining in a clunky big purse.

but I sure do like those polka dots with the houndstooth check!

But I did get a set of squedge rulers like the ones that Charlene taunted me with in January!  And I see a chunk ton of potential.

I am off to a crawfish boil tonight!

Well.......I Did Something Small Instead

I did quilt some today, in fact I did my May Challenge project for the Fiber Group.  Itwas supposed to be something with text.

I set out to work with these shirts:









And had an idea from the internet to make a piece that had a saying from Star Wars on it.  Why I chose a fork I will never know, but it turned out fabulously.


And those shirts ended up to be a really cool piece!

Not much fabric used on these small pieces, but they sure are fun!

I Have to Do Something BIG!

I have to do something big.  Really big.  I have the start of another nude, which I think will go on the front of a purse.  Yes. I am confident enough to put a nude on my purse and walk about town! LOL.

And, as Anne points out, she has points!  LOL.  I am anxious to see what Anne comes up with for her nude.  Maybe lounging in the desert sunset, with a greyhound by her side!

I love the dog I did here.  I took a picture of DiNozzo walking away, which wasn't easy, believe you me.  They never want to leave me alone........and I cropped it, and blew it up to desired size.  I printed it in black and white.  I love the way it turned out!  Just love it!  I may have to give up Nudes for Dogs!

While I was at Hancock's yesterday waiting for Press and Ann for dinner, I found a marking pen and eraser that I will try.  I need to
make the lines to quilt upon that will define the figures.  Like her butt and DiNozzo's butt, yes he will have a butt too!

And the big think I need to work on is getting the Halloween quilt basted and the Mystery quilt basted and the other Mystery quilt finished.

That ought to kill about 150 yards of material as they are all huge quilts!  I told ya, BIG

Remember the blue Bunting I caught at the bird feeder when I got rid of the pesky rodents squirrels?  Well, I took a Craftsy class and learned how to pixelate a photo in     Excel of all places.  Amazing.

So you should see that quilt grow and expand in time.  In the future, in the future.

My Future Husband - Oh... Yes!

Hey, gals, I want to introduce you to my future husband.  I am now trying to figure out a way to get rid of my current husband.  This new guy, he is a really great guy, just check him out!

Don't you want one like him too??????

Stash reduction report as follows:

used this week	-1.33
Used April	-4.58
added this week	0
added april	0
used YTD	-48.33
added YTD	23.25
stash reduction	-25.08

The small bit of usage is from the left over blocks of the Halloween Quilt that I made into two table runners that will be quilted in June in the Quilt Your Quilt Challenge.

I have a bit of usage with the Nude Walking Her Dog piece, but it is pretty small right now and I want to use the panel in a purse.  So I will wait and count the purse all at once.

ANNE - You there in the desert?  You want to do the purse together?  I'll introduce you to my new  guy....................LOL

She Wore Shoes And Nothing Else!

Silly girl, she wears high heels to walk the dog in the forest!  LOL.  But aren't they cute?

I think I have finally settled on the placement.  All but the figures are fused in place.  I had to do some rearranging and scootching.  Scootching, you understand that, don't you?

I have to work on trees, I don't know how to get trees any different than these.

Check out my house.  See the tree there?  I need to make better trees......just sayin'

Off the Wall Friday - Nude Walking DiNozzo

She is taking her dog for a walk in the woods.  He loves being in the woods with all the wonderful smells.  She enjoys seeing him alert to animals as they scamper out of their way.  She is fit from all the walking they do, it seems like every weekend the pair can be seen walking on the woodland path together.

And her cute butt (don't you just love butts on quilts?) is rivaled only by his!

I should put a poop bag in her hands!

The background was a bit of a thing to do, but I think I have it down.  

And the pair sees a bit large for the background, but hey, it is my interpretation of things!

How do they look so far?  It sure does look like DiNozzo!

I am hooking up with Nina-Marie at her Creations Blog.  Check out what my cohorts are doing!

Can a Sewing Space be TOO Clean?

Not that mine is in any way in danger of being near that potential problem.  I wanted to start on the Handbag with the Nude but I can't for the life of me find the darned magazine I used for the  pattern.

I had it in my hands and I said, plain as day, "I will put this HERE so I won't lose it in the CLEANING of the quilt room."

Now, who knows where HERE is?  Certainly not me!  I have looked in all the places I would think it would be.  And then several more.

While I was looking I noticed McGee chewing on my needle case.  OMG!  I rushed over and found  about half the needles.  So I called the vet and tossed him in the car.  I can't make him throw up needles!

They x-rayed him.  And luckily didn't find any inside of him.  But I don't know where the rest are. I don't think DiNozzo would eat any, certainly.  McGee was the one who had it.  Once again, I saved that dog's life.

Now I am home again and looking for my book once more.

I did find it, so that is the second good thing since lunch.  I had lunch with Ann so that was good.  So I guess it was the third good thing today.  Now I am going to look for fabric to pull together.

Anne, are you ready to work on the purse?  I can walk it through with you if you want.

Friday Off the Wall Delayed a Bit

I spent the morning doing bathrooms and cleaning the cat box in preparation for new litter.  It is amazing how long it takes.  I have always had a housekeeper and doing it myself is a drag.  I loved my housekeeper, she did such a wonderful job and was like a member of my family.  When she retired I just didn't want anyone else in there.

I have to tell PattyA about our trip to Los Angeles, CA.  I still chuckle when I see the type of painting that Rothko does.  Our trip to the museum was to see the Klimt paintings recently brought back to the US from German bondage.   Carrie was with us, it was our last vacation as a family with her before she went off to college and life on her own.  Carrie, of course, is very modern, very contemporary and very much an artist.  She does beautiful work.  I will have to show you some of them some time.

So.

We are in the  Museum of Modern/Contemporary Art or some such name, and I saw this huge canvas painted red with a thin thin thin line of khaki color running through it.  I said to her, I could do that.  She got all fluffled up and informed me that there was no way I could do that, there was so much more that went into a painting then I ever knew and it was an incredible work of art.

OK.

So the next few paintings were looked at, and there was a huge canvas with a series of thin thin thin white lines running through it.  Not learning my lesson, I said, hey, I could do that one too!  When I was set upon again by the girl, telling me how it is painstaking to mix the correct paint, to know what color to put where, to understand art so deeply that one thin line moves the artist to another dimension and saves the world from nuclear warfare and brings peace forever and ever.

OK.

We went into the next room where there was a reclining figure of a woman birthing infants from her underarms.

I didn't say a word.............

PS - the Klimts were amazing and I want to make a quilt out of one of them one day.

Mark Rothko? Are You Serious?

I sat in court this morning and read nearly all of the new book by Elizabeth Barton -Inspired to Design.  It was very close to the class I just took with her through Quilt University.  Now I want to create something.

*My beloved Quilt University is closing!  So sad, her husband has been running it, keeping it going through her sickness.  But now he is letting it go.  Through QU I have learned under some quilting artists I would never be able to afford in time or money, like Elizabeth Barton and Betty Alofs to just name two.

Being close in nature to the class, I will have a better opportunity to understand what she was saying in there.  I was so lost because I didn't have the background in art studies that most of the class had.  She taught to those and left me squarely behind!  I sat with Carrie, my artist child, and began to understand some of what she was saying.  But with the book now, I can work and go on journeys to find my understanding and not get trampled in the rush.

I think if you are an Art Quilter, you should check out her work.  She creates what I would like to do.  I don't think I can say it any better than that!

Don't click to look inside, it won't work.  But you can go to amazon.com and do it there.

I don't get any money from this, darn it!  But I do like to pass along something I find helpful to me.

She suggests looking at a few artists and finding what you like to look at.  I found I did NOT like to look at Mark Rothko.  I can do that........just saying.

Working on my Second Million

Every so often I have to count the change collected in the laundry room and add it to the bank account.  I generate quite a bit of money too!  The other good thing is that I also find interesting things in there too.  Stuff with which I can  embellish quilts.  (Aren't you impressed with my use of English?)

This morning, while it was raining cats and dogs outside, I counted my container of coins and stuff.  This is what I found:

 For a total of $7.11.

And the other thing I did instead of quilting and sewing was to try frantically to change my default browser back to Chrome from some random one I inadvertently checked while trying to get the computer shut down when the lights flickered.  They never went out, but I didn't want it to surge either.  What an idiot!  I don't do any of this often enough to warrant remembering it.  In fact, I NEVER do it unless I do something stupid!  But now I am back in business again.

I am guessing we have had about 1 1/2 inches of rain in the last two hours.  It was so heavy I couldn't see the street sign right across the street.  I live at the apex of a T configuration.  Where the upright meets the horizontal line is where my house is.  I look down that street.  It was raining so hard I couldn't see the street!Of course I can't find a photo of it right now.

Now I will attempt to finish the backing of my Halloween Quilt and ready it for inclusion in the Quilt Your Quilts Challenge we are doing in June.  Come one, someone needs to join in with PattyA The Quilt Lady and me.  She can't win it all!

I have prizes!

i Came, I Saw and............ I Gathered ALL the Nuts!

If you have followed this blog for any time now you will know I have a war on the squirrels.  And they have been winning.

I know, they are cute little things that scurry around in the fall, with cheeks full of acorns, burying them to feed their squirrel families in the long winter snows.  (South Louisiana, no snow.)

But they destroy my feeders and they eat all the seeds from the bird feeders, leaving the birds starving and unable to feed their

Seems like I was wrong again!

little birdy families over the hot summers.  I don't care if they eat from the ground, but leave the feeders alone!

(The blue jays are too large to sit on the perches so they hover and grab the black sunflower seeds and take them to the tree to open them!)

When we had the Swissys (and not the bad basset boys) the feeders were in the back yard.  No one ate the seed cast off (arils, if you are a crossword fan) like they were gorging for the winter snows.  But the bassets will stand there and eat every blasted one of the cast off seed coverings, until it comes out of one end or the other.  Or both.


So I had to move the feeders out of

Never seen this guy before
what a beauty!

 the back yard and into the side yard.  Now the squirrels are really close and I can't let a dog out to scare them off!  The idiot children just hit the window and bark necessitating me closing the blinds to cut off view.  Then I can't see the stupid birds.......

Daddy Cardinal posturing to the
metal bird on the feeder!

And I live in darkness.

Momma cardinal
 finding seeds in the grass

So I hunted for a thing to do to keep the squirrels away.  I saw on
QVC as I was flipping channels one night, that there is a book called 10,000 Things You Need To Know or some such name.  And he mentioned there was contained within, a remedy for
squirrels raiding the bird feeders.

(I can't figure that face behind the dove....doesn't look like it is some revelation, or anyone I know.  An odd apparition to say the least.)

So rather than spend $14.95 plus shipping in 3 easy payments, I went to the internet.  I figured he had to find his
10,000 things somewhere.  And i
f he could, I could too.  And did.

So today, there is not one single squirrel on my birdfeeders all day.

And you have seen the wonder of all the birds who have flocked in to partake of my excellent seed.  Sans squirrels!

I have finally won.  I have no problem with the pesky rodents eating at the bottom but stay off my feeders and let the birds have a chance!

Drawers Organized

Accomplishment #2 - Getting the drawers in my closet organized.

Put a big fat check mark by that one!  DONE!  It is amazing.  And I attribute it all to the cardboard wraps!  I know my stalker reads my blog because I saw the individual purchase a set one day.  Can't fool me!  LOL

Here are before and afters:

Drawer 2 before 

Drawer 2 after

Drawer 1 before

Drawer 1 after

Here are two I forgot to take the befores of

Drawer 3 has space!

Drawer 4 - Dyeing stuff

Here is the whole set up,
 suspended drawers in the closet

Accomplishment! Design Wall Monday!

This is my Design Wall Monday Report.  Since I am engaged in CLEANING UP I thought I would show you what I am doing.  I have several posts this week about the whole deal, so come back and see what I can accomplish!

Even though you didn't tell me you were astonished at what I was ACTUALLY going to do, I totally feel like I accomplished a lot.  Wait till you see the before and after shots!  Prepare to be AMAZED!  If you want to read the story of the bookcase my dad built, go here.

Of course I have to do before shots for you to ogle.  It really is a mess, but there is no place to put any of this stuff.  I started by moving the pieces of stuff, I don't dare call it JUNK, to clear out a space for the bookcase to go.  It slid easily in place and is not going to interfere with the fan, thank goodness.  All puffed up in his best OSHA voice, he says, "WE need to make sure it doesn't cause undue damage to the fan before any of this can happen."  Yeah, right, power to the man!

Here is my poor ironing board laden with my extraneous stuff.  Remember, not junk.





After about 3 hours of work, I came to this place.  Did I throw away a lot?  Did I put any in a pile to give away ...........only tossed one paper bag and three huge Hobby Lobby bags I kept for some unknown reason.

 I guess that puts me squarely in the category of Ultra Pack Rat.  I accept that designation.  UPR Proud!



Here is the bookcase in place.  Or most likely  very close to where it will live.  I want it closer to the other bookcase to form an L.  Like a nice quiet library.

Now I will work to fill it.  I warn you, when you see the next picture, it will be of my stuff put on the shelves in no apparant order.  That will come in later bursts of energy.

 Here is the bookcase filled with my precious stuff.  There are many things there that represent the entirety of quilting.  From just plain ideas, to fabrics, to cut out fabrics ready to be put together, to blocks ready to be assembled to tops, to tops, to things that just need to be quilted.

Keep in mind that I still have to go through and organize those shelves yet.  I think I want to get the same size containers and organize like that. the small drawer unit between the bookcase and the window is a series of drawers.  I can clean the useless office supplies out and put in my sewing notions and small stuff.  It is not really sturdy but it will hold a lot of small things in a small space

Before

After

 Here is the far shot of that part of the room, I can put a Before next to it, wait a second.......well, this is how ie worked out to be.

I really feel open and  cleaner.  I did sweep and debated about how much of the tiniest scraps to toss.  Yes, really.  You never know when you are going to need those splinters of fabric.  What if they stopped making fabric and you needed a quilt?

Stash Report - You Are Going To Be Entertained!

Have I got a treat for you!

I didn't get much done, in fact I don't think I got ANYTHING done this week.  It was a wild week with Frank spending a week in the Houston Airport one night.  (Think about that one for a minute.)

But I have great news.  You know how I have to clean up my quilt room, DESPERATELY   Well I took a step in that direction on Saturday.  But first let me tell you a story.

When Frank and I got married 40 years ago, we were really poor.  Like $400 to our name poor.  And we moved into an apartment in Baton Rouge for him to finish college at LSU.  And we had no furniture.  My friend had made a sofa.  I sure wish I had pictures of it.  It looked sort of like a huge bean bag.  And it was the most comfortable thing ever.  Her husband bent over to pick up the newspaper one day and threw his back out.  No more low-on-the-ground sofa for them!  So we got it.  After we were able to afford a real sofa, my cousin got it.  And she used it until she got married when she turned 40.  It was certainly a comfortable and well loved thing.  

My dad was a fairly good woodworker and he offered to make us three bookcases.  They would give us our 3rd, 4th and 5th pieces of furniture ever.  After he graduated and enlisted in the Air Force we moved those bookcases from Baton Rouge, to San Antonio, to Wichita Falls, to Abilene and back to Kenner, LA (a suburb of New Orleans where we grew up).  When we bought the house in Hammond, north of us, there was no place for the bookcases and Frank's mother took them in Shreveport, LA (the very farthest north of Louisiana).  And when she moved to Baton Rouge to die they went to my mother in Laplace and then to Baton Rouge when she moved to Assisted Living.  Now, with her in hospice, they live in our storage shed that holds most of the stuff that used to belong to Frank's mother (because he can't get rid of it).

So this long story has brought you to my quilt room.  I was impatiently waiting for Frank to get off my computer and I was folding up some fabrics.  I imagined being in a library with a bookcase extending into the room and holding all my stuff that is sitting in the middle of my studio floor.  It hit me that I needed a bookcase!

So we have struggled for the last two hours, putting one of those bookcases into my studio and cleaning up some of that center room area.  I think I can get a lot of stuff into that bookcase.  It is currently standing in the hallway, waiting for me to make room for it tomorrow.

My hallway? you inquire.  Carrie and I painted it when she was a wee girl of maybe 12.  I can't imagine painting over it.  She designed it, created the stencils, and chose the pattern and the paints.  She was a designer even then.  That is a commissioned watercolor of my beloved Max, my greatest dog ever.  He was my shadow, my thoughts were his.

I am excited.  My room will be cleaned.  And my dad would be very happy to know I am still in possession of his work.  He has been gone since 1989.  Not all my memories of him are happy, but this one is.

Yes.  And I still have two bookcases left!  LOL.