Wool Applique

This week I received a lovely little package in the mail - a prize from fellow blogger, Kerry from Kerry Stitch Designs. It was a package of 3 beautiful embroidery threads. These aren't your regular threads either. Check out that price on the red one!

I have been admiring Kerry's work - it's in the same style as Sue Spargo, who is one of my favorite quilt designers ever! In fact, I think I saw Kerry's City Bucket pattern in a store in Utah last time we visited and I remember loving it and thinking hmmm I think I follow that lady's blog! She sells it in her Etsy store - go check it out, she has beautiful designs! So a HUGE thank you goes to Kerry for the beautiful prize. I am a big fan of wool applique and will absolutely be using them.

Two summers ago some friends and I did a wool pincushion round robin. We each made a base of wool and started some applique to give it a theme, then sent it to the next person who added to it, who sent it to the next person and so on. This is Sharons, of Daisy Cottage Quilting, and was the one that I worked on last and sent back to its owner.

I did the birdhouse and word "wool". Isn't the whole thing beautiful?!

This next one is Anna's, of Bohemian Journey, and it had one more stop before it was sent back to her.

I did the watering can/flower. If this were mine I don't think I could stand to turn it into a pincushion. I'd have to frame it and hang it in a prominent place!

This is my one when I sent it away. Looks pretty empty, yes?!

It did made the rounds and is still hanging out with my friend Brenda of ">Pumpkin Patch Primitives, waiting for her to get inspired! (I need to get pics of Brenda's Fall themed one!) Luckily she lives in my town so I know where to find it hehe! She showed it to me one day when I was visiting and oh my goodness it is nearly all filled up! I don't have a photo of it but there is one on Brenda's Wool Crazy blog which you can see HERE. I think I'll tell her it would make a great Christmas gift for me this year...hint hint Brenda!!

Party Time

Our girl Sofia had her birthday party today. I now remember why I haven't done this for 4 years. Between the money spent, and the cake making, house decorating not to mention a bunch of screaming 10/11 year olds running all over the house, it's exhausting! Add to that the fact that I got to bed around 3am after going to the Breaking Dawn premiere last night and it's been quite a day.

We had a Hawaiian theme...

...and the festivities included games, one of which I was shocked none of them had ever played. It's called Pass the Parcel and is a staple at every party in New Zealand.

I just presumed it was here, too, but apparently not. However, it was a huge hit!(Google it!)

We also had photo shoot and these are some of the pics we got...

And even though this isn't the best shot, it might be my favorite. The lone boy invited to the party (he's our neighbor and Sofia told him he HAD to come and watch her brothers - she's such a little stinker! But I'm so glad he came!)

He's such a cutie patootie! he's like Sofia's third brother :)

I had fun making a cake to match the theme...

Sofia was SO happy and I have had so many hugs and I love yous tonight. It was definitely worth the hard work.

Needless to say, I didn't do any quilting at all today. I know I have some new blog readers, and I want to let you know it will be back to quilty business asap on this blog!

Busy Busy

I have literally not had a second to blog today and I have 5 minutes to do it right now!

This morning I had to do birthday party shopping for my daughter's party tomorrow. Then I had to cook dinner NZ style for some guests (this one is from NZ too! Yippee!)

Then it was straight to my first ever Pack meeting for my son's Cub Scout troop (SO much fun!)

And now myself along with 7 friends are off to the Breaking Dawn premiere! Can you say busy?!

Taking Photos

For a couple of years now I've been wanting to make a set up to take quilt photos like on the Holly Knott website. They have a wonderful tutorial called Shoot That Quilt on how to make the stands and photograph your quilts. I bought everything to make the lamp stands 2 years ago and finally, today, made them and now have it all set up in the basement.

The impetus to get them made is our girl Sofia is having a birthday party on Friday and we're going to take photos of all her friends as part of the festivities. We're talking about 10/11 year old girls here - I think they'll have a blast posing, and then I can email the pics to their Moms.

I took some test shots after school of the kids and some boys we babysit - they didn't get all fancied up, but I think the photos are still great!

The stands are super easy to make, and cheap too! If you can use a screwdriver then you can make these stands. Screwing these brackets to the 2x4's is all it takes...

The most expensive part were the special lightbulbs at $15 each, but I think there are some much cheaper alternatives out there now since it's 2 years later.

I can't wait to see how photos of quilts turn out with this setup. Guess I'll be doing some playing tonight!

And local friends - want photos done?? Come on over and let's play!!!

Tessellation

My girl Sofia came home from school today all excited because her teacher had asked her to bring in a quilt her Grandma made for her with tessellating cats on it.

They are studying tessellations in class and Sofia remembered I had told her the cats were tessellating, she told her teacher, and the teacher asked her to bring in the quilt. She has a VERY cool teacher! I also remembered a small tessellating quilt I made a few years ago which you can see I blogged about HERE, that I'll send with her too.

I don't have a lot of fall themed quilts in my home - I absolutely love the fall, but don't really work a lot with the deeper fall colors in quilts. I remember throwing a bunch of Kaffes in there to make it a little more exciting for me.

This mini quilt is usually on my bedside drawers covered in books, sewing supplies, the lamp...you name it, but I took it off the other day to give it a wash.

Now that the years of dust have been washed off it, I can actually see how bright and vibrant it really is. I had forgotten!

I just found a blurb I wrote about making it way back in October 2008 on Nancy's blog, With Thread In Hand. I wrote...

"It's a little wallhanging, 20" x 22" and I'm calling it Acorn's Fall as I have seen so many acorns so far this fall that I believe this Fall belongs to the Acorns!
I designed the quilt myself and did wool appliques on the borders. It was a little tricky to piece, as the shapes were curved, but it sure was fun! I wanted to design a pieced yet curved shape reminiscent of an acorn. Even the border fabric looks a bit like acorns! I quilted simple curves on each piece to look a little like an acorn 'cap'."

Gosh I'm so glad I wrote that - I never would have remembered the inspiration! Not to self: Start a quilting journal and write down the inspiration for each quilt I make!

Miscellaneous

I didn't get anything quilty done in particular today as I've been busy getting photos taken of the project I'm doing for the Stitched project. I'll be teaching how to needleturn applique this tree...

...Oops I hope I was allowed to tell you that!!

I also had to take a pic when I saw one of our cats lying on the quilted pillow I bought at the thrift store Friday...

Cats and quilts. They just go together!

We had the most beautiful unseasonably warm day today so I took some pics of Sofia playing outside in the fallen leaves. Here she is just lying in them...

So you see, I did nothing big in particular, but a lot of little things. That's what most days are like around here!

Library Bag

So when the hubby got home last night I told him about the internet not working and after fiddling around with things a bit he found the problem. What is the first question you should ask yourself when things aren't working? That's right - is it plugged in? Ahem...no it wasn't!! Oh boy was that a blonde moment for me or what?!

At least it's all working now and I get to show you the bag I was going to show you last night.

Sofia got a last minute invitation to a birthday party yesterday. This is when being able to sew comes in very handy! She chose the fabrics and I sewed up a library book bag for the birthday girl.

We topped it off with a flower safety pinned to the bag so she can remove it and pin it to anything she wants.

When I make these bags I add Craft Fuse to the lining and handles - it makes it nice and firm and sturdy. I think I need to make my boys library bags, especially since we go every week. Luckily Christmas is coming up! I feel a tutorial coming on - anyone interested?!!