Swapping Tins

On the Crazy Quilting International group, we had another Tin Swap.  Participants were asked to decorate a tin approximately the size of an Altoids tin. We were all given swap partners.  In finished my tin yesterday (a day late, I might add, but that does not surprise you, does it?).   It is now on its way to Sandy R, so I can now show a few pictures.

Above: The top of the tin.  I pieced a small covering for the lid portion in Sandra’s colors of burgundy, green and pink (with cream and gold accents).  To keep the ends from fraying, I backed it with fusible interfacing (the knit tricot kind) before beginning the stitching.  It really helps when working in such small scale.

 This is a side view.  After the top was stitched and glued down, I covered the various edges.  It was a lot of fun auditioning potential trims for this job!

I always like to add “feet” (four wooden beads) to my tins so they stand up a little higher. It also allows you to select slightly longer trims for the sides. The bottom was first covered with a thin green fabric (you can still see the writing beneath it, but that is not a big deal; I just wanted the tin covered).  The purple flower was just a machine-embroidered motif on the fabric. I thought it would be cute to include it.

The inside is a quilted satin fabric - a vintage piece I have had for years and use sparingly here and there.  I actually did the inside FIRST by glueing down the two lining pieces and then glueing trims down to cover the raw edges.

And of course, once it was finished, I filled it with some lacey goodness for Sandra!

Until next time,

April CQJP Block Done

Well, better late than never, right?  I finished my fourth (April) block for the CQ Journal Project, and this one was really fun. I am pleased with it.

As with the other blocks, the stitching is mostly on the seamlines, and in the colors of the central needlepoint panel.  I want a lot of the black to show and the surrounding blocks to complement, not compete with the needlepoint.

The block (above) had a large green piece which I felt was too strong, so I covered it with a black venise lace motif (available in my Etsy shop, by the way) and enhanced it with stitching.    Below is the fourth block in place.  Everything is just pinned.

I may end up switching blocks one and two. But until all of them are done, I will wait. I am not even sewing any blocks to each other yet.   And I am thinking that once the blocks are done, I may want to add some further stitching and bits of that aqua blue here and there.  Possibilities!!

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This year I have so much to do in the garden. But now that I am retired, I can work early in the mornings for a couple hours, which I enjoy.  I tend to overdo things if I am not careful, and my back can always be counted on to let me know when that happens. So, I am pacing myself and tackling one area at a time.

One of my goals this year is to simplify things, and see if I can reduce the amount of overall maintenance.  I will always plant my front step flower pots (scheduled for this week) and tend to my roses; that is sheer joy. But weeding and removing grass is killing me. So this year, I am on the attack, with chemicals (Preen among them).  I have tried for years to avoid chemicals, plant groundcovers, and use other strategies. But no more. Weedkillers are my new best friends. Along with weed cloth and rocks.

Here is a before and after of one area.

Before: Weed City

After: Clean, neat and pruned. This bush will be overflowing with roses by the end of the month!

Below is my snowball bush; an unruly monster on the east side yard. I will prune it, like last year, after it blooms.  And that lavender is going bye-bye later this week. Then everything will be hoe-d nicely.

And this is the rest of that bed. What a mess!  The tulips are almost ready to be cut back, and the irises are coming on, as are the rose bushes. And just to the left of center (behind the irises) is my glorious poppy bush.  Right in front of the urn is a peony bush. A little weeding here (actually, removing grass) and this will look nice. But those ground covers are not working to keep out the weeds, so off they will go.  Then I will mulch, use Preen, and cover with landscape bark. Simplify.  Many of them need to be thinned out (poppy, irises). They’ll be transferred to the west side yard that we dug up last year.

Below is part of the west side yard, where I will plant lilies, irises and campanula. I have to wait for July to divide those, so for now I am hauling in more soil, mulching and treating it.

These irises on the side yard are about to bloom, so watch for more pictures soon!

Well, that’s all for now. I was going to show you some more problem areas and tell you my plans, but DH is pretending he is dying of hunger, LOL.   Backyard pix next time. Maybe I will have some progress photos on some of my other areas, too.

Tonight my plans are to piece a Snowball (4” round) and another project which I will share later in the week.

Take care!

CQ Mag Online New Issue

CQMagOnline`s second quarterly issue of 2012 has just gone live.  You can read it here.  Naturally I am excited because I have two articles in it plus an ad.  :-)

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Right now I am overwhelmed with family stuff, yardwork, my Etsy shop (do stop by; so much new stuff!!) and CQI moderator obligations.   And, honestly, I don`t know how much to share on this blog.

I didn`t get a picture of the finished owls I made for a private commission. I could kick myself. I was too busy photographing lace while the owls just sat until this evening when their new mom came to pick them up, LOL.

We are helping with our neighborhood garden again this year. In addition, our group has acquired another entire lot in the neighborhood that increases our garden area by a factor of 4. The legalities were just worked out, so we are getting busy this week (if our backs and the weather cooperate) to whack weeds, till, remove rocks, hook up water, etc etc, in hopes of planting in two weeks.

So that is it for now.

Missing in Action

Sorry I haven’t posted lately.  I have been busy with CQI responsibilities, spring garden work, Etsy and a private commission (among other things).

Here’s a peek at what I have worked on this week:

I am doing 8 in all.  And I think they are so dang cute!!!  Will show and tell more later this week.  Tomorrow I plant raspberries bushes and onions, shop for seeds and maybe do a little housework before descending into my studio for some sewing.  :-)

Hope you are having a wonderful spring!

Hugs,

Happy Easter

Regardless of how you celebrate (or don`t celebrate) Easter, I hope your weekend is a happy one. And for those who might enjoy them, here are some vintage images for you.

This one would have been fun to caption   ;-)

Hugs,

Caught up!

First of all, may I tell you how much I hate the Barred Chain Stitch? Or the Alternating Barred Chain Stitch? Or the Twisted Chain Stitch?  They are all “TWISTED” and they all should be “BARRED”. IMHO.  That was the Week #12 stitch for TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) 2 weeks ago.  Last week was a catch up week, which I did.  :-)

There is something about this ol’ brain that just could not grok that stitch.  But I did it! badly  And in the process, I finished up my March CQ Journal Project Block.

The Barred Twisted Alternating Evil Stitches are in hot pink in the middle.  I worked from the two outer rows (awful) to the two inner rows (tolerable).  The other TAST stitch in this block are the woven wheels in the upper right.

The hot pink silk ribbon was part of a gift from Lorraine of Creative Daily.  She dyed it herself, along with some threads.  I won a drawing on her blog, and she included so much yumminess in the package. I will show you a picture of all of it tomorrow, but I couldn`t wait to dig into the threads and ribbons. And they are absolutely delightful to work with!

Here is a picture of the three blocks for January, February and March:

After the three blocks are sewn together, that large black area from the right of #2 to the left of #3 will have some motif that spans them to help disguise the seam.  I am leaning toward a silk ribbon floral arrangement.

And here is the needlepoint picture with the three blocks in situ.  Everything is just pinned at this point.  In April, I will work on Block #4 in the upper right. Too much green, so it will be covered somehow.

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Hey, have any of you heard about the (second annual) Sewing Summit?  It will be held right here in Salt Lake City in October of this year.  Registrations open on Tuesday morning, and I am there!  Check out the Sewing Summit here.  And that reminds me that I haven`t shown you pictures of my new sewing machine yet, like I said I would.  Soon, though.

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Hugs,

Catching up on TAST

I am still doing my TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) and CQJP blocks, but am running a bit behind. (haha - the first time I typed that in, I typed biG behind. No comment).

Here is my Running Stitch (Week 10) example.  Not exactly exciting, but colorful.  :-)  I had never done this one before, and would like to do more of it (if only to practice, LOL).

And these are my woven wheels (Week 11).  This was also new to me, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  I will be using them a lot in the future.

These have been stitched on my March CQJP block, over a patch that had machine embroidered (ugly) flowers and leaves.  I just situated the three woven wheels, one done in two colors, over the flowers on the fabric.  And then just added some lazy daisy flowers to round it out.

Back to work on my block; I just realized today is April 1 (so far, no pranks have been played on me or by me), and I need to finish a couple things on it.  Yikes!!

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Hugs,