WTH?

Uh, how many Chinese people are missing their fingers?

StabAlizers?

eagleroadHOSE.com?

Peeking...

One thing at a time Sweet Jesus

Every one knows I have enough felted wool to cover the entire exterior of my house.  There's so much of it, it's not even stored at home, because there's no space. 
And what good is that?  Absolutely no good. 
I don't make anything out of it because I'd have to go some place else, dig through storage containers, and then when I dug out what I wanted, I'd have to put it all back so it's neat and space-saving.  How's that for dumping a bucket of ice cold water on your creativity?

I went to Sharon Englunds house to felt her wool for her (touching wet slimy wool gives her the heebie-geebies) and one creamy sweater over felted.  It's so dense you can't see daylight through it.  That won't work for the projects she's making, so she gave it to me.

Great.  Another felted wool sweater...I need that like I need another over-due bill in the mail.  Right?

Of course, I take it.

So what do I do?  I actually make something of it, aaaaaaand I finish it!  Can you believe it?  I can't!

Just sitting there looking at the sweater I thought the hem on the sweater would make a really great hem on mittens.  After figuring out a badly-planned pattern tracing around my hand I really got into it!  I needle-felted the green lines on the tops of the mittens.
I knew I wanted some leather for the palm, because wool is really slippery to hang on to anything.  But all my leather is at the wool storage...

So I do end up digging through my leather...but only one container...they're so crammed with leather that they are dern heavy.  I didn't want to lift the other container so I decided to make do with what was in the top container.  And I did dig through the top box of felted wool and brought home another sweater, but we'll see if I actually get to that one.

So it's evident that I might get something made from the wool if I only have a limited amount infront of me...too much of it overwhelms me.

But I did make something, and it's all Sharons fault.

Thank you Sharon!

What is it?

How to make money doing other peoples UFO's!

As if I didn't have enough UFO's of my own, a couple years ago I had to buy somebody elses UFO at the Textile Centers Garage sale a couple years back.

Recently during a temporary lull in creativity I made an attempt at 'just doing anything' to keep me in the sewing room...just picking something up that's already there and look it over and see what I damage I can do.

There was a 2-gallon ziploc bag full of somebody elses UFO that kept staring me down, so I had to take it out and look it over.

When I bought it I hadn't really looked in it, but could see through the bag that there were finished blocks and some packets of pieces that looked like a monthly block challenge.  Now when I opened it there were 9 finished blocks and those packets were the monthly blocks, but just the scraps from these original 9 blocks.

I opened up all those packets thinking I'd do something with the scraps and that's where I struck it rich!  There was TWENTY smackaroos folded in the instructions for one of the blocks! Twenty bucks, twenty big ones, twenty dead presidents, twenty clams, twenty beans.  Finding it made me feel like a millionaire!

And then what to do with the blocks, which of course now I had to do, since it already rewarded me with the bacon. 

I've always been wanting to make door-hangers.  A piece of quilted art that covers a typical interior door.  So these blocks will be my 'victim'.  One of the blocks had a color range I didn't like with the others and then I had to make 2 blocks to get the length I wanted. 

Although I always express my desire to keep things simple, I never can when I create...I always have to make it complicated.  So I want a two-sided door hanger...if that comes to fruition you'll hear more about that later.

Isaac is now 16 years old! Can you believe it?

I made this quilt for Isaacs 16th birthday.  Orange is one of his favorite colors, so that's the front, and the green/blue is the back.  I thought the dark would be the top, but now that I see a photograph, I turned them upside down.  I guess there's some psychological thing going on if I want the top to be light and the bottom to be dark as if earth and sky, and it's not good to have those two mixed up!  And something needs to be done with my terrible photography skills.
It's almost 60" wide and 80-something" long.

Sexy Dish Towels

I finished the dish towels for Roxie's graduation present.  She graduated last year, but on my part, a gift being a year late isn't actually that bad!  My average is much worse.  Sublime Stitching has really funny embroidery transfers that put the fun back into those sweet dishtowels our grandmothers made for us.

The middle one is suppose to say "Reform School Girl", but since Roxie is Catholic, I had to change that!

I still love listening to audio books while I create, so I know that the Rockabilly Angel took 6.5 hours, because I started it at the beginning of the book and finished the towel at the end of the book.  I guess I'm a slow embroiderer!

Straight as a laser line...

Some years ago I got this laser level (for free after rebate!) and I've used it for quilting ever since.  I use it to line up anything that's longer than my rulers.  It's not only handy, but has a really entertaining attribute: it can drive the cat bananas!  (Of course I make sure she can never see into the laser.)
The angle of the laser line swings so it can 'fine tuned' point down immediately, or adjusted to shoot across the room.  The gizmo even has a hole, so I can use a strong pin to attach it to my design wall.    
If I were to get a new one, I'd want one of those that shoots two lasers, at exactly 90º apart, like this:  Black & Decker BDL400S Bullseye Crosshair 90-Degree Auto Leveling Interior Line Laser  Then I'd really be square!
Now if someone could just teach me how to get that date off my pictures...

November Snow

The snow is very wet thus heavy.  These three cable/phone lines are hanging so low, the bottom one is touching the fence.

The north west parts of the Cities got a foot of snow!  It was heavy, wet snow, and broke branches off trees and pulled down power lines.  And I've been sewing!

Heikes finished quilt!



Blocks made by various Stillwater Quilters, Quilt top assembled by Heike, Machine Quilted by Lynn Kammpi, Binding machine sewn to the front by me and Hand sewn to the back by Heike.

Barb and Heike holding up the quilt Heike finished.  Barb won these blocks in the block drawing at the Stillwater Quilters Retreat at Wapo and gave them to Heike.  Heike finished it at the MCQ Quilters Retreat at Wapo so she could take home a finished quilt.  Any other Stillwater Quilters get theirs done this quickly?  Hmmm?

Quilters Hands

Quilters Hands

Ironing

Machine Quilting

Pop Drinking

Machine Stitching

Hand Sewing Binding

Writing

Enjoying the feel of textiles

Machine Sewing

Machine Sewing

Hand Sewing

Ironing

Texting and Eating Popcorn

Ironing

Rotary Cutting

Machine Sewing

and Spritzing

Quilters Hands

Another Quilt Retreat and more busy hands...
  Sharing pencils
    Rotary Cutting
      Touchy-feely
         Leaning
           Holding the Camera
             Preparing fabric
               Coffee Break
                 Machine Quilting
                   Machine Quilting
                     Cutting Fabric
                       Stretching Wool
                         Machine Sewing
                           Machine Sewing
                             Scraps
                               Thinking...

Camp Wapo

The Crossfire Building

Foyer



Entry into Assembly Hall that we use as sewing space.



Sewing tables all around the edges by the windows and two tables in the middle for communal cutting tables.

And communal ironing boards

Sewing space at night.  OooOOOoOOOo!

A kitchen for our private use.  Coffee maker, micro, sink, dishwasher, fridge and freezer

Our bedrooms have 4 bunkbed sets like this, except one of them has a bigger bottom bunk.
I think I took these the last day...when we didn't make our beds!

Dining Hall