Friday, September 17, 2010

in and out

Recently...

In:

(from so very long ago) a coordinating! doorstop and a plastic bag dispenser from Corrie for (the first!) Urban Home Goods swap...

urban home goods 1st received--doorstop front


urban home goods 1st round received, doorstop back


urban home goods 1st round received--plastic bag dispenser

my stunning dqs9 quilt from Anita...

dqs 9 received 1


dqs 9 received detail


and lots and lots of bee blocks and swap blocks for the second Mod Bento Block Swap.

Out:

spider web blocks for Greta...

asb may 2


asb may 1

sampler blocks for Leanne...

tbk august 2


tbk august 1

and 3x6 mini-bee blocks for the whole hive.

3x6 bee 2nd quarter

on the machine now: Corrinne's giveaway winnings.  More on that next week, fingers crossed. 

Happy weekend!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

the right track

dqs9 front & back

Most times, when I make something, I picture it and then do it. Which is not to say that there aren't changes and mistakes along the way (case in point)--but the finished product is usually pretty similar to what I had in my head to begin with.

This swap was different.

What I ended up with could not be farther from my original plan, which I had deliberated over for quite some time as it was.

I do like the finished product, but there's a part of me that's kind of grieving for my first idea. I'm not sure there will ever be another time to use it.

Maybe, someday, for myself.

Onward. The front is fairly straightforward, though I did get a chance to play around with positive and negative space.

dqs9 front

I had planned to hand quilt the entire thing, but then I discovered that I really know nothing about hand quilting. I kept the bird (since that motif from the back...

dqs9 back closeup

...was the inspiration for this final version), but opted to machine quilt the rest.

dqs9 front detail

Bound, labeled, sent (again!) with hometown-made lemonheads, with half an hour to spare.

Friday, September 10, 2010

alex in wonderland

The amusement park, not the fairy tale.

We visited Amarillo, Texas this past (Labor Day) weekend, where my husband was born and lived until he was four.

We rode horses, saw cars growing out of the ground, "hiked" Palo Duro Canyon, went to a rodeo, toured his family's old stomping grounds, and had tacos and margaritas for (my birthday) dinner...

steer skull and broken glass


stable window


from the canyon floor


walking to the cadillacs


at the rodeo


boot hill cemetery


through the trees


...but the highlight was certainly our trip to Wonderland.

Which Alex loved "this much"--

i love it this much


which was delightful in itself, but not too bad either was the perfectly glorious sky that was the backdrop for the perfectly glorious colors of this place.

snowflake in lights


ferris wheel


coaster 1


carousel


See any quilts in there? Thought so.

Also, I somehow managed to photograph a rainbow.

water ride rainbow

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

eggplant and bone

first attempt.

s

first-and-a-half attempt.

htss

the right track.

strips

strips sewn

finished now, and in the dryer...just needs a label.  photos tomorrow, before I mail it, right on time.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

an owl haikoop

Have you heard about the Embroidereading Contest, hosted by Melissa at Checkout Girl?

owl haikoop


Alex is into owls—like really into owls—and loves to ask me again and again about where and how they live. One day on a forest preserve walk, he asked, “why don’t we see owls?”—even though he knows they’re nocturnal. It’s as if it fascinates him that there are creatures that are allowed to stay up past his bedtime. That question became this (haiku) poem about what an owl is doing while we’re up and living.

The only things I bought for this project were the floss and the hoop—all the appliqué fabrics are scraps or cut from thrifted things…the cloud is batting, the owl’s body is from a wool herringbone blazer. My fabric is less than organized, but I just knew I had this tiny scrap of yellow dots, and I was miraculously able to find it to make the sun.

My one regret (besides the fact that the word "sleep" looks a little bit balloonlike--I was using my own handwriting!) is that the weather here is dreary and so therefore is the photo. He is much perkier looking in real life.

I'll be celebrating my birthday and my blogiversary in Amarillo, Texas...see you next week!