She did it!

Well, she did it.  It took an incredible amount of patience on my part and ripping out a few seams on hers, but she made the block, took a picture and posted it.

You can see her post here:  http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/2010/02/hannah-maes-block.html

Give Aways

I NEVER win anything that I enter.  EVER.  Last month I won the block lotto, so I thought I'd start entering the random give aways I find.

Here's the first one:

A layer cake, a quilt pattern and a skirt pattern.  Enter to win at A Little Bit Biased.

Second one:

The grand prize is this beautiful quilt.  Enter to win here: http://lilatuellerdesigns.blogspot.com/

Update on Miss Mae's Love Letters

The weather here has been wonderfully bright and sunny.  Which makes it hard for Miss Mae to stay inside and sew when the other kids are outside.  I pointed out to her that if she wanted to finish her block in time to enter it, she needed to work on it.

Here's where it's at.  Right now it's about 4 3/4" tall, so she needs to add borders to make it the right height.

She has done all the sewing and most of the pressing and trimming.

Tomorrow's a no school day, so hopefully she'll get it done.

Spring Blooms

It's the end of February.

Daffodils are blooming.

My hyacinth is slowly being eaten by slugs.

I'm actually impressed I got any blooms this year.

My evergreen Clematis is in full bloom.

It's climbing near my front door.

It smells heavenly.

All of this is normal Spring Blooms.

But this?

Is not normal. 

A rosebud in February? 

My climbing Joseph's Coat is usually the first of my roses to bloom, but this is insane. 

First Completely Done Quilt - Well - Mini Quilt

I've pieced quilts before and tied them. 

I've never done the "free motion" quilting before.

Never bound a quilt (I usually sew them right sides together and turn them right side out.)

I decided I needed to do the whole thing.

So I did. There are tons of mistakes and goofs in this tiny liitle quilt.  It only measures 9 1/2" x 11 1/2"

The top is made from left over bits from Miss Mae's Bargello Top. (Still unfinished)

The backing is some super-thin, "vintage" pansy fabric from the early 80s that was gifted to me by my Mother-in-law.  Couldn't really toss it, without using SOME of it.

I zig-zagged the back of the binding on to the quilt, completely missing some on the front.  Good thing I had already sewn that on!

 

I learned a lot, like - free motion quilting is MUCH more difficult than it looks.
I'm still not completely sure on how to make the binding corners lay flat and look neat.

 

But, Muffin loves it, and so does her dolly.

Busy Working...having a great time...

So, I've been actually working (outside the house) this last week.  What was I doing?  I was Wardrobe Mistress for Eugene Ballet's production of Dark Side of the Moon.  What does the Wardrobe Mistress do?  Lots of steaming, ironing and washing before the show and lots of standing backstage with threaded needle and safety pins during the show.  Now my garage is full of costumes that need to be repaired, washed and hung up in storage.

Here's a clip of the performance:



We got a totally wonderful review from our local paper.  It truly was an awesome show.

Entertainment: Arts "Ballet’s interpretation of Pink Floyd is money" The Register-Guard Eugene, Oregon

Half Way There

I've recieved 20 of my forty blocks...

Love Letters

Two More Blocks!

I recieved two more blocks in the mail today!  So, instead of folding the mountain of clothes on my bed or reading my Ecofeminism book for class (blech!) I played with layout.  

It's hard to wait to see what colors will come...I'm kinda thinking about a colorwheel-esque layout....hmmm...

Tic Tac Toe

More lotto blocks arrived today.  My brillant husband had the brainy idea to scan them as they came in so I could "play" with layouts without making a huge mess and taking up the dining room table.    So here are the first 12 blocks, scanned into photoshop.

Then I played a little bit, skewing the blocks on a black background just to see....

That same brillant man also pointed out that the point of the lotto was to USE the stash so therefore I shouldn't buy any fabric to use in the finished quilts.  Arg.

Design Wall Monday

Right now I've got the beginnings of some words blocks and tic-tac-toe blocks that have arrived.  I keep telling myself I'm going to cover my board in white fabric, but as you can see, it has yet to happen.

"W"

This afternoon while Daddy was watching the Superbowl we worked on the "W"

She set the S next to the W to help with sizing.

This time I did less directing and more questioning.  She did pretty well.  First she sewed the pinks to the backgrounds. 

She pressed and trimmed after sewing each seam.

She set them back in the layout so she could see what she should do next.

Yes, that is my hand helping to hold the ruler...she made me nervous!

She was so serious about doing it right!

She figured out the E is just a sideways W.  "Oh, Mom!  The E's are going to be totally easy now!"

First To Arrive

These are the first blocks to arrive.  I picked up the mail this afternoon and didn't recognise the return address....then I remembered my winnings!  I'm totally excited and can't wait to see what comes next. 

I don't have a design wall, so they're tacked on my cork board.

Miss Mae's Sewing Skills

Miss Mae has been watching me make blocks for the block lotto for months now, and she asked if she could try to make one.  After getting the okay from the group, she and I sat down this morning while the others were at dance and thought about what word to make. 

Trying to explain terms of endearment to a seven year-old was hilarious.  I told her it was a nick-name you call someone you love.  She thought about it and came up with 'booger,"  "silly goose" and "goof-ball".  Can you tell what I call my kids?  Anyway, after trying not to laugh, I suggested she think of a name that anyone would like being called.  She choose Sweetie.

We got out the graph paper and she printed her word, using only straight lines.  (Easier to sew)

Next, we laid out the fabric strips in a shape to build an "S"  I had pre-cut a bunch of 1 1/2" x 6" strips.

Then we trimmed the strips until it looked right and then added strips of background to fill in the holes.

First she sewed the end pieces to the background strips.  She pressed them, and used the ruler and rotary cutter to trim everything square.  No pictures of this, she made me too nervous using the rotary cutter!

Then she sewed the horizontal pieces to the middle pieces.  The machine was on turtle speed, which was just fine!

She pressed and trimmed after sewing each seam, which helped to keep things straight and even.

Here's the finished "S"  with a narrow strip on the right, to add the next letter to.  Pretty darn good for a second grader!

One letter down, 6 more to go!

Wire and Glass

Just finished these, gonna go drop them off at their new home this afternoon.  Kind of sad though.  I closed both my etsy shops....I just don't have time or the drive to deal with the orders.  Wedding stuff is all custom made to order...my life is so crazy right now... I'll open the rose shop in the spring time, but I'm done with custom orders for a while. 

By the way, these are super simple to make, just wire and glass seed beads.

Scrappy Log Cabins

I recently began working on a new production.  I'm stage managing at The VLT, we're putting on The Clean House.  During rehearsals, while the director is "directing"  there's very little for me to do.  I decided to work on a project out of a book I got for Christmas.  It's paper pieced, which makes it ideal for handwork.  The blocks finish at 6" so they fit nicely in a quart sized ziplock in my purse.  The project needs 88 of these little blocks, I wonder if I'll get them all done during these rehearsals.

I went through and prepped a bunch of strips, all pinned together, so there's really no thinking involved at all!

Electric Company

My kids are allowed 30 minutes of tv each weekday.  Currently all three of them are glued to Electric Company.  Which, for me, is WONDERFUL!  Electric Company starts at 5pm.  Perfectly timed.  Miss Mae gets home from school around 3, one of them needs to be dropped off at dance by 4, and we're home by 4:15.  Then the other two have 45 minutes to play and/or pick up their rooms.  The rule is - can't watch tv until the rooms are picked up.  Works like a charm. 

Here Muffin and The Boy are glued to the couch.  (Miss Mae's at Dance)

Now I can make dinner in peace.  :)

Love Letters

This month's block at the block lotto are "love letters"  Pieced or appliqued terms of endearment word blocks.    My first attempt was "Lover"  totally failed, tossed it in the trash.  My second one, "Cupcake" came out better.  Still not perfect, but getting there. 

Next was "Baby Doll"  Which I opted not to connect, so the winner can use them side-by-side or vertically.

Then I decided to try thin letters - I have an idea for a super long "love letters"  so I wanted to perfect the letters before attempting it.  So here's "Hunny Bunny".

I think this turned out super cute!  I'm only allowing myself to use fabrics from my stash for the block lotto, and I was totally thrilled to find a use for the polka dotted background.

Stay tuned for more!

I Won!!

I won the block lotto for January!  I was one of six winners!  The blocks are tic-tac-toe blocks and I've been playing with how to set them....I get 40 blocks.   This is what I came up with for 20 of the blocks.

I figured that the blocks are already wonky, I could frame them wonk-ish-ly (which also would also allow me to fix any of the blocks that aren't perfect.)  The blocks finish at 12". 

I'm not totally in love with the black, but it seems to pull the color out more....we'll see what happens when the blocks start arriving.  :)

Totally excited!