Craftapalooza III

Oh. What. Fun.

Karen hosted Craftapalooza this time.  What a treat to visit with the girls and do crafty things in her super awesome craft room!  Surrounded by all her pretty things you couldn't help but think creatively.  There is even a sign commanding you to

 Jennifer wanted to learn to quilt the top she made.

Karen set her up with a practice piece. 

Look how happy quilting makes her!

 

Karen with her "cheaters".... she looks happy 'cause she's sewing AND she can SEE what she's sewing.

 

Sarah made a few baby/toddler sized leg warmers for her Etsy shop Cooped Up.  Amy is in the background.  She's smiling because she just confirmed her travel plans to a warmer place are intact.

 

Jennifer is quilting away on her first quilt!!!

Look are her go!  So happy! 

It's going to be a nice comfy snuggle-under quilt.

 

Here's Colleen in a rare moment between crafting.

Actually Col has been in crafter-denial for a few years.

Her craft was paper grading.  She's funny.

 

Sophie was a great hostess.  She made everyone feel noticed.

And she dressed for the occassion.

 

Col brought cheese cake.... Mmmmmm.  

Ahhh, sitting in a beautiful craft room among family and friends,

with cheese cake and coffee. 

Doesn't get much better!

Karen and I had a camera shoot showdown.

She let me win.

It was wonderful to abandon responsibilities and just enjoy the day, recharge the batteries, and talk and laugh and create. 

I didn't create much but I did soak it all in. 

Thanks Karen!!!

You and Me and You and Me and . . . .

Welcome to the fourth episode of the Krafter Show.  (I can't believe it hasn't been cancelled yet!)  Please remember all stunts performed are done by a professional and on a closed course.  Don't try this at home!

I like it!

Look what came in the mail!!!  It feels like Christmas.  I want to peek!!!  Karen wrapped up items to add to my Brown Paper Bag.  I think I guessed what one is .... of course I had to play with the packages . . . . but the rest - I haven't a clue!   Now I just need to figure out how to put them in my virtual bag.  Oh, the troubles I have.   Thanks Karen!!!   

Rae says I need shrinky dinks in the bag.  Good idea!  Gotta get me some.  Rae says a sewing machine is in her future... another convert.... she doesn't even know the fun she is in for! 

Simply Dotty

Take one plain, boring, bland, white mug.

Add a pink and brown polka dot mug warmer wrap and it gets better.

Add hot chocolate and it gets even better!

I made this for the Iron Craft challenge. There are some really creative ones at the Iron Craft Flickr site.

I Heart U

For the WOW challenge.... a valentine with no red or pink.

Can't Wait To Dig In!

Doesn't this look like fun?!

I'm making this pattern.....

Rambling Rose

I just can't decide on a flower color, but I want it to be anything but red.  With the green ric rac for stems I thought red would look Christmas-y.  Maybe it should be a few colors????

A Long, Slow Finish

We all know the housing market has been slow, but geezzz.  I've been working on this one since last Spring.  Finally finished.

Lust-y Bunting

From the WOW challenge... one of the seven deadly sins.

From the Iron Craft challenge... "just bunt"

And from my Brown Paper Bag... paint.

 

Next week will be a combination of a valentine with no red or pink, a coffee cozy and some buttons.

I Spy Bunting

For Iron Craft #3 "Just Bunt" .......

I have 200 4" squares of novelty fabrics from a swap I was in last year.  The intention was to make several I Spy quilts.  It hasn't happened.  But ten of those squares made some fun bunting.  Fits just right on the kitchen window where the grandkids can see it at meal times.  190 squares left.  I can make bunting 19 more times :)

Envy

It's funny how we sometimes envy someone else's clothes, homes, life styles, etc.  And then there are those that envy ours.  But when we think about whether we really would like to trade places, we discover we're pretty happy with the way things are.  

We moan and groan about our lives and our problems. Then we learn about the things that other people have to deal with and somehow we're content with what we have and wouldn't want to trade the problems either.

The WOW challenge this week said "take one of the Seven Deadly Sins and craft it".  Homespun Sue is living in the city and longing for the country.  Fashion Loving Sue is living in the country and longing for the hustle and bustle of the city.

Flights of Fancy

Project Quilting Season 2 has started!

The first challenge rules said:
- use at least one 6" square each of red, blue, and yellow
- all of the that fabric needed to be on the front of the quilt
- cuts were allowed to make no more than 4 pieces
- any other fabrics or materials could be added

I decided I wanted to use ONLY those three squares.  I cut lots of paper squares trying to figure out how to use the rest of the fabric after the balloons were cut.   Cutting the balloons left a funny curved piece with sharp corners that was the biggest challenge. 

After playing around I finally discover that cutting the triangle off left a piece that could be folded so the long edges met and it looked (sort of) like a kite. Adding embroidery floss tails completed the look.

The triangle became an airplane.  And the little triangle from the bottom of the balloon became the propeller or nose of the plane.

The balloons were quilted with a layer of batting, then another layer of batting was added before they were appliqued to the background.  The baskets are open at the top and made of tea-dyed burlap.

The quilting is lots of puffy clouds.

What flight would you fancy?

The Krafter Show - Episode 2

This week's rules...
WOW:  anything with a moustache
Iron Craft:  make a draft dodger
The Brown Paper Bag item:  glass beads

The next challenge includes...
WOW:  something inspired by one of the seven deadly sins
Iron Craft:  bunting!
The Brown Paper Bag:  paint

The Brown Paper Bag isn't nearly full.  If anyone has suggestions for additional items to toss in there I'd love to hear them. 

Iron Craft #2 - Warm

The instructions said "make a draft dodger".   I made a few last year and stuffed them with batting and fabric scraps and had a really hard time stuffing them.   Iron Craft suggested pipe insulation as an option.  So much easier!!!

The materials...

Pipe insulation for innards, green fabric for body, brown felt for legs, black foam for antennae.

 I sandwiched two long strips of fabric with batting and quilted straight lines to simulate body sections. Then cut 24 legs and glue basted to the edge of the fabric and sewed another long strip of fabric on top. Switch sides and repeat.

   

 Two brown beads for the eyes were sewn on before the face end was sewn together. After all sides were sewn and the face end sewn it was easy enough to turn right side out. A little bit of batting went in for the face, followed by the pipe insulation which went in with little trouble.

Another nice thing about the insulation is that it has a hole in the center that's just right for stuffing the tail end into if you don't want to sew it closed. Or you can sew it closed and still stuff it for a neater look.

The Password Is.....

Does this sound familiar?

Not so very long ago I had only a password for my ATM card and for voicemail for my pager.  That was it.

The pager is gone, thank goodness. And the passwords have taken over. 
There's still one for the ATM card. 
Another for the bank account online. 
A password for the mortgage website.
One for the credit card account.
And for the gas card account.
Another for the cellphone website.

One for the blog. 
One for each of two e-mail accounts. (There are at least three more e-mail accounts but they don't get used because I can't remember the password.)
A password for etsy.
For Flickr.
For Facebook.
And Amazon.
And iTunes
One for Piknic.
Another for YouTube.

And since I telecommute...
One job has a password to access the program that will connect to the computers.
More passwords for actually connecting to each of three computers.
And one to log-on to Windows once I'm connected.

The other job has a password for the website.
One for the blog.
Another for e-mail.
And one for Facebook.

HELP!!!!!  (That should be my new default password.  Hmmm)

I lost count a long time ago.  Each time I have to create a password I think I'm being really smart and choosing one that will be easy to remember.  Hah!  The smart thing would be to use the same one for everything but they all seem to have different requirements.  And besides, I'm not that smart.

So I need to write all these down.  And now I have a place to do it....

WOW Week 2 Challenge - Moustache

What?! 

Moustache?!   

This definitely was a challenge.

(And I definitely have been spelling definitely wrong for the past three years.  ooops)

Until I discovered the Moustache Convention....

Thanks for the challenge Jennifer!

The Iron Craft challenge requires a draft dodger.

I drew glass beads from my Brown Bag.

So this week's episode of the Krafter Show will feature a moustachioed draft dodger with glass beads?!?!?!

Inchie Wallhanging

.... or "Bulletin Board Art".

Three inch sized quilts on a fabric tube with a key ring for a hanger.

Love

Heals

All

And three beads at the bottom on another key ring...

These inchies are addictive!

The Krafter Show - Series Premiere!

The first challenge is complete. I won't get the extra points for having an item that can be gifted or listed on Etsy, but I will use it in my sewing room.  

I like the "I'd rather be quilting" magnet but it looks kinda big and funny.  Thanks to Lois I had a brilliant idea.  The size of the magnet and lamp seemed just right for an "inchie"!  So I made my first one. 

So fast.  So fun.  So cute.  So small.  Really.  They are small.  Just an inch!  Do you know how small an inch is?!  Just the right size for this project.

Wrap up:
1.  Iron Craft ... repurposed a lamp
2.  Wow ... used yarn to gather the lampshade cover and to dress up/weight the bottom of the lampshade cover; used magnet to cover a blemish on the base of the lamp
3.  Brown Paper Bag item ... used cotton balls as pom poms on the end of the yarn bow
4.  I'll use it!