Yellow

Today I am posting some ATCs that I just completed and mailed off.  The theme was Yellow.  I decided, since I seem to be doing a lot of wishing for Spring lately, that I would add to that thought.  Yellow is the color of Spring.....

Here are my ATCs for this swap.  I sent off two of them and kept one for myself as I usually do.  The next color we must do is Orange.  Have to start collecting up little bits and bobs for that one.

We have lots of visits from the little gold finches in our garden and I can always tell when Spring is approaching because their feathers begin to turn yellow.  Unfortunately no such turning yet.  We have a finch feeder right outside the window where I sit to do a lot of my work.

Yesterday was a fun day.  We went up to Wilkes Barre, our nearest big city for SHOPPING.  I was happy to be able to get to Barnes and Nobel and to JoAnn fabrics.  Found all of  the items on my "need" list at JoAnn's.  I didn't even go to Michaels cause I had found everything  at JoAnns.


Now I have no excuses to not finish a couple of planned projects.

Where or where does the time go.

Does that seem like a theme.  I get going good on blogging and then I get sidetracked.  Actually that is true about many things in my life.  I am easily side tracked.

     For those who were following my quilt making adventure......  I took the quilt top to my local quilt shop and my friend Rita is going to machine quilt it for me in the next couple of weeks (I hope.)  While there I signed up to take a quilting class to make a pretty wall hanging.  That will be early in March so don't hold your breath for any pictures just yet.

     I spent some time "reorganizing" up in my studio.  Didn't get a while lot done but did throw out a big trash bag of junk.  Even for a saver like me this was junk and needed to be gone.  While doing that
I did find a box full of stuff to "share" in a sense.....  I am now in a swap with my friends at Belle Papier (a yahoo group of paper artists.) and another swap with friends from a group called Remains of the Day.  It is a yahoo group formed by the leader of a Class in journal making.  We make journals out of "junk" mail, stray papers and what ever comes along.  So I filled 6 gallon size baggies full for the Belle Papier Swap and 10  quart size baggies for the ROD swap.  Of course it feels good to send them off but the other side is that I will be getting that many in return. At least it will be different stuff. 
Here is a picture I took of the baggies going to the Belle Papier swap.  You can't see much but you will get the ideas.  I forgot to take a picture of the ones for the ROD swap.

 Here are a couple of links back to when I first joined the Remains of the Day Group.  I didn't blog much after the first bit of work.  But you will get the idea of the cover anyway.  Maybe someday I will do a blog just on it. Again, just don't hold your breath.
http://agardenersart.blogspot.com/2009/12/altered-art-and-christmas.html
 http://agardenersart.blogspot.com/2009/12/continuing-with-remains-of-day-project.html
 In another area of my life, I have been doing a lot of sending and receiving of postcards from the Post Crossing swap group. And some from SwapBot as well.  I have been getting cards from all over the world:  China, Belarus, Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, Sweden and Australia among the many.  It is fun to find the cards in the mail every couple of days.
   When I was taking an   on-line class for decorative box making which I talked about in an earlier blog I made a box to hold the post cards.  Here is the box. It is covered with hand made paper and the graphics include logos from the two groups.  Maybe not so easy to see.  There is also a picture of a few of the cards I have received

And that is a bit of why I keep getting side tracked, going from one hobby to the next.

So I have been missing..............

I had every intention of posting here a number of days ago but obviously good intentions aren't always carried through.

I did finish the quilt, at least the piecing part.  I am going to have someone else do machine quilting.  I just don't have the space or ability really.  Here is a quick picture I took.  It looks like of messy, can't spread it out anywhere so you will have to wait until I get it machine quilted to see the final project I suppose.
It does seem a bit of a jumble but I supposed that it part of it.  Anyway, I love all the colors as they remind me of my teenage years.

Since I have finished the quilt top, I have put the sewing machine away (I donated the old one to the Salvation Army)  Now I am spending time working on various art type products.

I belong to a group called ATC-Art Dolls where we create and swap paper dolls.  All are "artsy" none are tradtional.  Sometimes they are done full size, other times they must be the size of Artist Trading Cards which at always to be 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches.  The dolls can be bigger but must fold up to fit the size and to be able to be put into a holder.
Here are two I just finished and mailed off today.  The theme was clocks and clock parts.  As I said, not traditional.  I used graphics, not actual clock or watch parts but I suppose I could have if I had the parts and they were small enough.  The arms and legs are "clock hands" and are attached by tiny little brads so they can move.  The head is as well.

I made a clockman and a clockwoman.

They are different but I think they are fun. 

Snow and quilt squares

No cat pictures today.  Instead you get to see some of the snow we were blessed with over night.  

The building in this picture is the back part of my antique shop and next to it,  my husbands workshop.  

It was the first real snow of the season.  About 6 or 7 inches I think.  The roads are clear now and I actually went to the grocery store a bit ago.  No problems walking or driving.

Last night I finished the sewing of 28 of the squares for the quilt.  Still have to sew 7 more I think.  Each square is a different combination of the fabrics.  It has been interesting trying to make it that way but so far so good.  So this is a picture of the 28 squares. 

I hope to start the final ones this evening and maybe finish them off tomorrow.  I have some other projects I need to start so really want the quilt top done by the weekend.  As to quilting it, well we shall see.  Being a bit lazy I will probably send it out to be machine quilted.  In the good old days I would have set up the quilt frame in the living room and quilted it by hand.  But probably not now.

My quilt fabric is being guarded when I am not around.

I am still working on the quilt.  But my cat Spooky isn't too sure she likes me doing it.  Or maybe she is just protecting the fabric.

It really is coming together but there doesn't seem to be much to show yet.    I am hopeful I will have all the squares done by the weekend.  Then I will take a picture before I put them together. There are 35 squares.  Probably the best thing is I am getting more and more familiar with the new sewing machine.  I am feeling quite comfortable with straight sewing.  My next project will have to be something with a little bit of decorative stitching perhaps.

I worked on my quilt, sort of.

q While my cats were napping yesterday I was working on my new quilt project.

     I spent a couple of hours on it yesterday afternoon.    The first thing I had to do was a LOT of cutting with my rotary cutter and mat.  Then I did the next step which was to start sewing some parts together and cutting them again.  Sort of like a puzzle.  I had to go very slowly and measure a lot.  But have to admit it is fun and I sure am enjoying doing the stitching on my new machine.  The first picture here shows the pile of some of the parts I cut and the second shows some sort of put together.  Lots more to do.

During the day it snowed off and on, but since I didn't have to go anywhere it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.   Oh yeah, my antique shop was open  but not so busy because of the weather, so I wasn't interrupted too much.

I hope to have more to show you tomorrow.  Maybe some things actually beginning to look like a quilt top.

The First Project

Yesterday I started collecting up the fabric I will be using for the first project on my sewing machine.  I am going to make a lap quilt using fabric with '50s colors, you know .... pink, turquoise, coral etc.  I found a lot of these at Wal-Mart, believe it or not, awhile ago.To get the rest I needed I went toJoAnn Fabrics.

I found the pattern for a quilt using "fat quarters" and that is what I will do.  In case you don't know a "fat quarter" if a quarter yard of fabric cut a bit differently. To make it more useful they take a 1/2 yard cut and cut it in half. Therefore a quarter yard. That means you can use it more easily in quilting and other crafting projects.

There are 12 different fat quarters.  Today I hope to start cutting them into the required sizes to make the quilt.  Yesterday I ironed them to make cutting easier and more accurate.  I will show a few of the cuts as I make them so you will understand what I am doing.  So tune in tomorrow.