Atomic Art

This is our new metal sculpture by Steve Cambronne.  I first saw his work in Atomic Ranch magazine and knew that one of his pieces had a future in my house!

The wall above our door is officially perfect.

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And that’s just the greens!  I’ve been working throughout 2009 to make bazoodles of green hexies.  I had to after sending this one away to its new home in Australia.  My original plan was to fill up a Cuties box.  And however many hexies I ended up with would be what I had to use to put the quilt together.  I want an organic asymmetry to balance the perfect symmetry of the hexagons. But I got hooked on cutting out Cia’s templates, and entirely too carried away by my piles and piles of green fabrics.  I couldn’t stop.  My Cuties box runneth over.  So my husband, the organized one, gave them their marching orders.  Much easier to count them!

But you know me, I felt sorry for the little creatures–they’re going to spend the rest of their lives in a prefect, orderly hive.  I set them free one last time.

2010 is going to be the year of putting these little sweeties together.  They will be joined by a select group of other colors.  I shocked myself at how big this quilt has the potential to be.  But then again, that’s how it goes for me.  I always try to cram just one more different fabric (and just one more, I swear!) into a design.  And before I realize it, my innocent little wall-hangings will fit on a queen-sized bed.

I also have one more big fabric shopping trip planned before the end of the year.  I know that I’m going to want to cram a few more greens into the pile.  I’ve made a deal with myself–I get to add more as long as the hexagons are made by New Year’s Day.  Then the piecing begins!  I swear!

And Now I Can Show Them Off

Four quilts finished in three weeks’ time!  I often set goals to give quilts as gifts around Christmas time, but I rarely accomplish those goals.  Except for this year.

For my friend John:

For his lovely mother, Miss Lillie:

For my daughter, Kiwi:

And one that I kept for myself:

And now if I can keep hauling my lazy self out of bed before the butt-crack of dawn, I might possibly catch up on some other quilting goals that are long overdue.

I’ll Always Have the Dent it Made on the Floor

This is what remains of what had been my favorite wedding gift from 21 years ago.

It was a cut-glass candy dish that one of my dad’s army buddies brought back from his service in Europe during World War II.  He wrote the nicest letter to accompany the gift all about what my dad meant to him, and how he wanted to give me something that represented the connection between our families.

I’m not much of a pretty things on a shelf kind of person.  I do love pretty things, but I like functional things–which is one of the reasons why quilting is so dear to me.  The lovely candy dish was immediately conscripted into service as my safety pin holder, which I used faithfully as I pinned each and every quilt.  I was always very aware of its precious nature, and it was a faithful reminder of my father.

All it took was one slip of my fingers.  It bounced off a chair and smashed on the floor, sending shards of glass and safety pins flying across the hardwood.  I think a few tears got mixed into the mess, too.

But I knew it was always a possibility.  I guess I’d rather have enjoyed using it for 21 years, than have it sit on a shelf gathering dust for the rest of my life.  Mr. L.V. “Pete” Mhoon, your gift may be broken, but it will never be forgotten.

Thanks, Sam!

I received my DQS-7 quilt this week.  It’s so sweet!

Sam’s a busy lady!

Each time an ancient quilt of mine gets worn beyond repair (yes, 20 years will do awful things to quilts made of before-I-discovered-the-difference-quality-fabric-makes fabric!), my oldest daughter commandeers it as her own.  I am not willing to show any pictures of these shredded messes, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.  Although she is proud of these quilts and unwilling to let me send them to the great beyond, it drives me crazy to have them around.

The poor thing hasn’t had a new quilt all her own since she was a toddler, so I’m working like mad to make her one before she ends up moving out.  Here’s a little peek at what I have so far:

There’s not much to indicate the scale, here, but these are three large panels of Amy Butler solids.  They’ll make up the main body of the quilt, and all the bazoodles of these will be appliqued on somehow.

It’s a good thing that the DQS8 won’t be until after Christmas.  I need to continue to work on things that we can keep!

Aaaaaand I’m Back!

Yes, it’s been a while since I blogged.  What a nice summer vacation.  but more about that sometime soon.

DQS7!  Here’s a little peek at what I’ve been up to:

I think my swapee is going to like it.  I was inspired by a little trip to Sisters, Oregon.  I was there just two days before the big outdoor show–and I couldn’t shift our trip a single bit.

I KNOW! I cried.

But there were a large number of quilts already on display inside the businesses in town, so I got to see those.  And my over-indulgent husband wasn’t satisfied with my purchases until I had been back inside The Stitchin’ Post three times buying whatever struck my fancy.

I KNOW! I cried.

I saw a number of gorgeous and inspirational quilts from Jean Wells’ book (and when I bought the book, I found ONE copy on the shelf which had been signed by Jean!):

And while my own color choices aren’t nearly as organic, it was the technique I was more interested in playing around with.  Great fun, that!

And I think I’m finally ready to blog again.

They’re All Mine

Because I don’t have to share!

Summer Evening on the Prairie

No kids this week.  No husband, either.

This calls for a convertible ride with a friend out across the prairie through the windmills.  It was a glorious sunset!

Before There Were LOL Cats

There were WTH animals!

Even in 1999 when this Philip de Leon for Alexander Henry was produced, I wondered, “What the Heck . . .?!”  I was not entiredly enamoured of this fabric, but I thought it would be worthwhile to have some for the historical kitsch factor.  I thought the fake URL’s and email addresses were too far off base to be amusing.

So what if they didn’t exactly look like real URL’s.  Now that I’ve dug it out of the pile to take another look, I find that I really like this!  Take a close look at the hen-pecked rooster.  That hen is all, “What’s this on the credit card statement–$15 a month for World of Warcraft?!  Get off that thing right now and take care of these chicks!”

The cats are obviously planning their take-over of the internet.  That LOL Cat lexicon didn’t invent itself, you know!

Friday’s Froggies & Other Fun

Friday has rolled around again and all I can say is at least my Friday dig through the stash gets me blogging once a week!  It’s been a very creative and productive week.  The tan I’ve been developing might give the impression that all I have really been doing is sitting by the pool.  Well, maybe . . . .

My daughter has been putting some additional touches on my kitchen cupboard renovation:

She has plans for a couple more doors and a set of drawers.  She’s set up her easel and been doing a lot of other painting now that school is out.

I hit a garage sale early one morning and found this sweet vintage reptile purse:

The lady selling it was from Japan and said it had belonged to her mother.  She told me that her mother used to always carry it very properly when she was dressed in her best kimono.  Any ideas what it is?  Snake?  Some kind of lizard?  Whatever it is, it’s in pristine condition.

As psychologically taxing as it was is, I finally broke down and cut into some of my Echino by Etsuko Furuya.   I bought a great old Danish Modern chair from a thrift shop a few months back, and I’ve put off making new cushions because I’ve never done even the most basic upholstery work and it scares the heck out of me!

So far, so good, but I think I need to wrap the foam in batting.  The cushion has a definite “Grandma’s Lake Cottage Circa 1962″ feel to it at this point–although the awesome colors and fabric go a long way to counter the effect!  The extreme look of the piping is not terribly forgiving, so I’m taking further pains to make sure I get it right.  If it turns out well, I may not be able to allow my son to hide it in his room as is currently the plan!

And these fabrics just leaped out at me this week:

Please picture it also in a lime green colorway.  I know it’s in my house somewhere, but I couldn’t put my fingers on it.  This is a KP Kids print by Kari Pearson.  There was a time about 10 years back when I could not get enough KP Kids–obviously in every colorway I could find.  I had a two little kids, a baby and another baby and the adorable factor of any given fabric was a big draw for me.  The pile is deep with novelties, I know.  What can I say?  They make me very hoppy!!