Kaleidoscope Quilt

Hi!  I've started a kaleidoscope quilt.  Well actually, I went to a class last Sunday at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts in Kensington, (love that place by the way).

Sewing the pieces that make up a "wedge" was almost like crazy quilting.  Placing the pieces on the design wall, took two or three times before I got it right.

Now sewing it together is a bit more challenging. 

No matter how slow and careful I am, I still struggle with angles.  I've ripped out three seams so far, including this one:

As much as I love my dear sweet Molly, she's driving me nuts by sitting on my seat every single time I get up to iron a seam.  

I'm feeling anxious so I think I need to take a break and watch a trashy soap opera with a cup of coffee! 

Check in tomorrow.  I hope to have most of this finished!

Where Have I Been?

I'm not faithfully posting like I thought I would do when I started but I've been busy, busy, busy!

First, every year I buy an amaryllis.  I look forward to watching it grow and finally bloom into something magnificent.  I'm going to post this very exciting process so you too can share my joy.

Day One:

Exciting huh?  Just you wait!  It will get better.

This is my latest tote bag: 

I've made lots and lots of these but this one is fast becoming my favorite.  I decided to try and line it.  

This picture doesn't do it justice, but I simply love how it is coming out.  I pondered and pondered how I'll make the handles.  A friend of mine told me she usually goes to thrift stores and buys purses with real neato handles.  I went to our thrift store in town and didn't quite find anything that hit me.  My favorite handles I made were braided out of jean material.

I found a REALLY big pair of men's jeans, (and I mean REALLY big).  Then I found a green and a brown pair of khakis.  Woo hoo!

Now the challenge is to finish the tote.  I'm already itching to do other things.  Focus, focus.

I'm working on an embroidery project.

There will be two more panels on either side of this one.  There is a product called transfer-ese which is my new favorite thing.  No more light boxes!  You just print the design right on to a sheet of this magical neato stuff and viola!  A perfect image.  Imagine the things you can do!  Somedaaaaay, I'll transfer one of my zentangle designs and stitch that up.  Oh my, my.

Now Dear Jane.  I've got a couple more blocks done.

Now in the spirit of doing things differently than everyone else, I came across these fabric cut outs at an Etsy store.

Oh my goodness!  I love, love, love these.  They are backed with something, (not sure yet what, maybe Wonder-under), and all you do is iron it on your project.  This idea is perfect for my quirky thoughts.  They will also soften and/or, more importantly, cover up mistakes.

Oh the possibilities!!!  We've got the instructions for the first two rows of the Dear Jane quilt and won't meet until January.  I have another neat idea that is out of the box.  I'll work on it a bit before I post.  

So today is Saturday and I don't need to go anywhere major until Tuesday.  Will I be finishing my tote bag?  Work on some Dear Jane blocks?  My embroidery project?  Oh no, no, no.  I have another project in mind.  Anyone who says they are bored in life never discovered the world of creativity.  It's awesome!

Thanks for looking!

Stars

I spent the day today making crocheted stars.  I'm experimenting with different types of yarn.  They are double sided and kinda big.  

Yesterday I went to piping class at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts.  It was great!  Piping adds pop to a project.  I love it!

I thought I'd add a picture of my lovely, elusive Molly.  She's so cute.

Tomorrow's election day.  Don't forget to vote!

Dream Space

Look at this most wonderful room.  I would never, ever leave it.  Look at all the light!  Look at the cutting table!  Look at the ironing board!  Oh and look at the sewing machine!  The windows!  Oh the windows!  Wonderful.  Just wonderful.

My iron crapped out today so I went to Kmart.  I haven't been to Kmart in years.  It was kind of a neat store.  I bought a Sunbeam iron that I don't know how I lived without it and I discovered an over-the-door ironing board.  It's so cool!  My studio is just a bit more spacey now.  Neat.

Tomorrow I'm going to a class on piping.  Can't wait!

Thanks for checking in.

Name Change!!!

 I have a new blog name.  I felt like I needed to change it because there is a very talented lady who has a website titled lynnmariedesigns.  My blog is really just about all my crazy ideas and stuff I'm working on so my new blog name is:  everythinglynn.blogspot.com. 

Soooo, I joined a monthly fiber journal club. The title of this month's task was "What Was I Thinking."  After some thought, I narrowed it down to this:

There was a time in my life when I had five cats!  I loved them all, but seriously, five cats is way to much.  I now have two, which is a lot easier to manage. Isabelle thinks she is the boss of me so I let her think that.

I just finished my first attempt at Monkey Bread.  Being not much of a baker, I discovered that if you want your house to smell HEAVENLY, bake anything danish.  This is my orange sweet roll monkey bread:

Living up to my reputation, I changed my mind on the fabrics I will be using for the Dear Jane quilt.  I found it to be sooooo boring using white fabric for the background so I decided to go BOLD!  Turquoise, brown and red with batiks!  It will be stunning.

I'll be working on redoing row one today and tonight at the open sew with my fellow quilting friends.

On a last note, I didn't lose any power during hurricane Sandy but I was nervous.  When I'm nervous, I using like to pick up a crochet project.

This is Tunisian crochet and will probably become a small tote.  I hope to add a strip of beading and try out that snap bag technique using the retractable tape measure.  I don't know who discovered using a tape measure for a closure but it's so cool.

Thanks for checking in!

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