Crazy Nine Patch Quilt - DONE!

The Crazy Nine Patch quilt for Little Miss is FINISHED!! Whoohooo!! Go Me!! (Been at it since 6:30 am...on and off between chores and the other things that interupt me as is my usual!) So excited to be DONE. I forgot how to do the binding - so there was a lot of "fudging" along the way....but I like the homemade look of the stitches....even though it was done on the machine (except for the binding)...it is by FAR not precision work! But like I told the quilt shop natzi lady who blasted my technique--I don't plan to enter any county fairs with this one. (And uh....hello, mean quilt shop lady? whatever happened to "the customer is always right?") Anyway -- it is definitely a labor of love, not perfection! Just wanted a playmat for our little Peanut when she visits....I hope she likes it! Can't wait to snuggle her in it!

I used the DMC Pearl floss and tied square knots in each block corner (or close!) - and I thought that would be all that I'd do to quilt it all together....but I decided instead to just run it through the machine - curvey lines from side to side to get more of a "puckered" look...hoping it softens up with washings and gets that nice worn, well-loved and used look.

Thanks for peeking in on me and your kindnesses --- loving our artistic shares!!

Quilt Queries Answered

Hi all!! Thanks for the nice comments on the CRAZY NINE PATCH QUILT! In answer to the questions:

This one is for Miss Sirryha....started as a little something to wrap her in at night when taking her in and out of the car....but now I see it as more of a playmat and all around "her blankie!" I can't wait to do a photo shoot of her perched atop this in the grass - blowing bubbles together!! The photos don't do the colors justice...they are VERY vibrant. And I decided against yellow for the backing.....going to go with the paler teals/greens for a backing and binding. Also bought some varigated teal DMC cotton pearl floss to tie off all the corners.....just to add a little extra texture.

Did not do any sashing - just stitched all the blocks together -- 5 across, 7 down. The blocks are 8 inch squares. (Started with 36 nine inch squares....as you cut and stitch the pieces, the blocks whittle down an inch.) I want to do an embroidered "made with love" patch for the back....but the quilting will just be real simple, since there is so much going on with the fabrics on front.

Note to self: it was so HARD for me to keep cutting down these fabrics! Felt like I was loosing the beautiful patterns....so either start with LARGER squares (so each section is bigger) - or - stick to smaller prints. Lots of options here, it was hard to decide where to stop cutting, but in the end I am happy with the overall piece now that the top is done.

Will post more pics when it is all done! Thanks for looking and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Crazy Nine Patch Progress!

Whoooeeeeeeeeee! It pays to get up at 6:30 am on a Saturday!

Ready to stitch together the top! Then to search out some sunshine yellow fabric for the backing and binding.....cannot WAIT to finish it!

I am Crazy. Thus I have begun a Crazy Nine Patch Quilt.

Yes, I know I have another quilt that is not finished (gettin' there, Lyndee! Honest!)

Yes, I know Ethan is almost 15 and I haven't finished his Bar Mitzvah scrapbook. (In my head I have...I promise it will be done before LANDY's Bar Mitzvah!)

And yes, I know the house will not clean itself, the laundry will not do itself, and the refrigerator will not restock itself. I will get to it. Seriously. Eventually. Maybe even tomorrow.

But for now....the baseball game is on....Rob is cozy on the couch...and the sound of the sewing machine is soothing to me and reminds me of Gram.

And this fabric is delish. (progress photos of the actual blocks tomorrow!)

EDITED, SATURDAY MORNING, 7:10 a.m.: Some pics of the blocks so far!! Cannot wait to just stitch these babies together in one big panel (no sashing...that looks too "country" to me). Think I can get it all done today? Time me!

Oh crap. I put the MISTAKE one on the TOP. I really need to hire a professional photographer!

Mourning my DayDreamingBoy.

Awww crap. My beautiful JASON voted off! boohoo! I know he couldn't win it...but I wanted him to have his hometown hurrah on the "Final 3" week.

Oh well...there is always the SUMMER TOUR : )

Peace. Love. JASON.

Shout out to SHANI!

Hey Girl!

This one's for you....since you asked so nicely and all : ) hee hee!

How excited are my INSPIRED PEEPS to be starting an ART GROUP?? I am so excited...and I have the GREATEST IDEA....READY??

OK...here's the idea I plan to submit to the group.....

I have been thinking of the EXCESS in my life...too much STUFF...too many PRODUCTS unused (and yet I still want MORE.....what is the deal???) and I am completely bored with everything on the walls in our house....I want new art but cannot justify the expense....you get where I am going with this???

So I have been EYEBALLING these two large pieces in our dining room....they set me back about $80 each (Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% off coupon..not MOMA or anything- but still!) - so I cannot just toss them.....but I don't like them anymore. So I thought....wonder if Rob would mind if I GESSOED OVER THEM and made something ELSE! Something Anahata Katkin-esque...maybe a MANDELA....or something like what EMILY FALCONBRIDGE DID HERE. Start a whole new LOOK to the haus.......

Reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose. How about making ART out of STUFF THAT YOU HAVE AROUND BUT DON'T WANT ANYMORE? Of course I would not expect anyone to SHIP something huge....but maybe a little something....take a frame that you no longer LOVE and reinvent it. Take a plain notebook from your STASH OF A GADRILLION and create an art journal for a special friend. Make a wall sculpture out of a few old paperbacks (folding the pages into designs....saw it a while back in Home Companion Magazine and WANT TO DO IT!)

I thought Jilliene would especially appreciate the GREEN take on this! : )

Ready. Set. Hope. GO CAMERON!

My cool and cute redheaded girl friend Cameron (second from right in the photo!) is doing the AVON WALK in support of breast cancer. Her team is "Hiking for Headlights" - clever, girl! (you can buy the teeshirt here.) We can't wait to read your posts, Cameron---we know how hard you have worked on your fundraising and training!! WOOT!! You go, girlfriend. Hike on.

All done!

Ahhhh....nothing like having something fun to do during the NFL DRAFT ENDLESSLY DRONING ON...(not there is anything wrong with that, if that's your thing, of course.)
So here is my APRIL 25th Scrap Your Day layout.

Notes to self for next time: TAKE MORE PICTURES! And pay more attention to the PHOTO PROMPTS (I didn't do enough of the "step back" for the landscape shots)....other than that....I am pretty happy with the first layout of this project!

Hey Cameron---I figured out a way to recapture some of the "hidden" pretty paper---back the photos in the "flip book" with the patterned paper - can journal right on it or just leave at as a pretty surprise (like that nice treat you get when the purse you LOVE has lining as yummy as the outside!)

Can't wait to see everyone's!

Scrap Your Day pages.....

OK! OK! I am sharing the pics of the pages I prepped for our "Scrap Your Day" project....note I have not decided on BINDING yet....maybe tomorrow I will figure that out!

Just slapped down some favorite patterned papers...just like Shimelle's sample (if it ain't broke, and all!)....How much do I love the new Daisey D papers?? Like watercolor/mixed media/collage pieces of ART! I could barely stand to CUT them!!

I didn't take NEARLY enough pictures yesterday! (Note to self for next month!) but I did get that damn alarm clock shot in.....

more shares later!

April 25th Eve!

One more sleep 'til PHOTO DAY! I have my camera battery charged and memory card in place. (I really need to dust the bedside table before I go to sleep tonight if the first photo is to be my alarm clock upon awakening! Damn. How did housework get involved here?)

Finished putting my backgrounds together tonight....kept it VERY simple (totally scraplifted Shimelle's sample!) and am SO HAPPY I DID NOT BUY ANYTHING NEW FOR THIS PROJECT (so far)...looking forward to the "inside front cover" work....I am ready to GO!

Scrap Your Day Project with Shimelle! Let's GO!

OK ladies,

• I have trimmed my base pages
• Downloaded the Photo Fact Sheet #01
• and I am going to prep all my pages tonight as I watch IDOL (and hopefully that will NOT include watching BROOKE or JASON GO HOME!! NOT YET MY SWEET HIPPIE CHILDREN!! I love them! Let Carly or Sayesha go home first!!)

And...just how impressed are you that I have only spent $5.96 on supplies since returning from INSPIRED!?!? (Two Prismacolor colored pencils, a good pencil sharpener (the little silver metal kind), an a gum eraser.) I am DYING for all the pretty papers Shimelle is using on her project...but I am determined to USE MY STASH instead. Seriously. No really!! I mean it!!

P.S. Can somebody email STELLA and ask her to play with us? I cannot find her MOO CARD! STELLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Play Day!

Well...so much for the mountain of laundry I had planned to tackle yesterday after my mid-morning appointment. (I did one measly load! Shameful!) I just couldn't PUT THE PENCILS DOWN! Kal Barteski.....can I say again how INSPIRED I am because of you?

So Nik...as you requested...here are some photos of the ART JOURNAL I started in Stephanie McAtee's class at Inspired. Filled it in with the scraps left over from the textured papers I used for the 8x8 page swap (thanks, again, Justy for doing such a great job pulling that together!)....and when Rob got home from work I sat and doodled while we chatted and watched a few shows we DVRd this week.




ALSO - thanks to JILLIENE for the great idea to add the 8x8 pages to the INSPIRED workbook! Now I just need to add the photos and journaling....here are a few shots of some of my favorite pages from the swap. (And yes...I punched each hole in each page individually--with help from DH on the really THICK STUFF.....then remembered I have a CROP-A-DILE NOW! duh!)

My hands are all inked up again. And that makes me grin. : )

And last but not least.....thanks, Aimee for the beautiful PAGE YOU PUT TOGETHER OF US!! It's in the BOOK already and now I just need to get the rest of our photos in there! I love you BFF!

Swirls.

How much did we LOVE Kal Barteski's class? How much do we love her TINY ART? ....these and Donna D's swatches are so inspiring to me right now. Last night I was too tired after work to really get going on a full-on project/creative session.....but I did sharpen all my watercolor pencils and started some mini-canvases of my own.... don't know if I will add them to my art journal from Inspired or use them as background papers for scrapbooking (likely not...why do I never do that?) or just make them individual works - maybe for cards or just inspiring words/phrases/thoughts to tack on my bulletin board. Lots of possibilities!

Love the CIRCLES and SWIRLS : )

Happy Birthday KATIE!

Inspiring artist KATIE (Aimee's daughter) and the FLOWER BOOK she wrote and illustrated during dinner on Wednesday night! I love it! And how cute is that birthday icecream sundae?? (Cheesecake Factory --- great presentation : )

Thanks for sharing your Mom with me for an evening Katie and Robby! Hugs!

STAYING INSPIRED!

OK...going to be LATE FOR WORK but needed to give a shout out to my inspired BFFs!

How about DONNA D and all those canvas swatches??? Does she NEVER SLEEP? I am still not UNPACKED....the laundry MOUNTAIN is overflowing...and yet all I want to do is play with my new colored pencils ("pencil crayons" for those Canadians tuning in!)...

So IDOL was on...I always doodle and keep a list of who sang what....and last night I started my SAVINGS for next year's Inspired event in this cute little HEN piggy bank that has been on my desk for eons....(dollar store find that just made me grin).....here's to Kal Barteski showing me how to use the WHITE PENCIL CRAYON (overtop colors....how yummy is that???)

Staying INSPIRED. See you tonight, Aim!! xoxo

INSPIRED.

Well...turns out I barely took ANY PHOTOS AT ALL.....because we were too busy having a BLAST and CREATING ART! (because we are ALL ARTISTS! if you don't believe me....ask our teachers. They are professionals and they told us so!!)

Couldn't WAIT for work to be over today to come home and PLAY WITH MY PROJECTS some more....sorry I don't have more photos to share....I promise to post pics when all my projects are completed!!

In the meantime....a SHOUT OUT to all my fun new BFFs!! Love you ladies!

Now GO BE BULLETPROOF! (Photo is the canvas outside of Kal Barteski's class...LOVE HER WORK!)

INSPIRED at INSPIRED!

Hey all! Saturday night is here TOO SOON! Having dinner then back to the ALL NIGHT ART FORUM from 8 til midnight.....then it is all over. Boo Hoo. Aimee and I had a BLAST and met lots of new BFFs....cannot wait to show you all our cool projects...but we did not take enough PHOTOS YET! Gotta make up for it tonight. But here are a few quick peeks......
Aimee and I and our new BFF Cameron (cute redheaded girl on the right!) with -- wait for it ---- THE CATHY ZIELSKI!! Love her. She is as FAB in person as she is on her blog.







These pics are from the STEPHANIE MCATEE "Transformed" class...Aimee and I loved having all PAINTED UP hands like REAL ARTISTS. Made a mini book/art journal out of two manila file folders....inks....paints...stamps...tape transfer techniques. Very artsy. This is my favorite page in the book so far. My cool new BFF Cameron said the INK DRIP was like "flatlining til you get to ART then coming alive again." TALENTED AND CLEVER girl! More later -- gotta go CREATE ART!