inner light from a lanier sunset

joan brought me this wall hanging she made for her son. this is an 'opposite' twin to one she made that i quilted pre-blog.....or did i blog it...i can't remember, so i'm posting it again....(they say the mind is the first to go)

i think she said he's going to hang it in his office. imagine how cool it would be if somehow i ended up in his office...i could freak him out big time...pretend i was psychic or something....is your mother's name joan? etc...sorry, moving on.....(i hope he's not a defense lawyer or a parole officer....)

i like how the green inner border turned out....i didn't ruler measure, i eyeballed measured...i like the organic feel that gives. i choose this design becasue it echoes the triangles in the piecing.

the 'preblog' one won best use of color at a michigian (?) quilt show. it isn't hard to see why...(don't tell anyone, but i like black background one best)

photos of the critters

this weekend was very productive....for photos, not filling the freezer. *sigh*

first this little guy. this is an eastern screech owl. he's only the size on your hand, like if you had you hand up to signal someone to stop- that's how big he was....such a cutie. i wanted to bring him home and call him 'squirt'.

then i saw that doe and her two little ones again. this weekend the deer were much more cooperative and seemed to pose for pictures. (Actually it was windy, so they were all nervous. they'd take a few steps and stop and look around....easy to take pictures)

here's one little one...

and the other...(does this tree make my butt look big?)

then i saw the three point buck...he wasn't as pose-y as the girls were...

then this fox squirrel was running all around behind my blind. he decided that he would pose for me....look at the white on his nose...fox squirrels are HUGE! a regular grey squirrel is about the size of a rat...a fox squirrel is as big as a ferret...turns out- they like to live in areas that have lots of long needled pine trees, so i counted the ones around my blind. i stopped at 25....he's sitting on one that fell over.

i hope you have enjoyed my pictures as much as i did sitting in the woods watching...wish my blind was big enough for everyone to come and sit too....it's so peaceful out in the woods....except when the 'neighbor' decides to mow his yard at 5:00 saturday evening....*grr* til next weekend....

quilting makes the quilt

so my friend Lynn brought me this little tree quilt. it's a popular pattern that pops up this time of year...and i realized that this would be a great quilt to illustrate how quilting can make the quilt.

here's the unquilted top. it's nice- we have a beautiful pine tree. the fabrics are fussy cut to provide shadows which add a nice dimension of depth and perspective.

here it is quilted. notice that the quilting enhances the quilt top design. we still have a tree; but now the sky has wind, the pine tree has needles, and the snow has drifted. the quilting adds to the story of the quilt without becoming the focal point....

that in my opinion is my number one objective when i'm brought a quilt to quilt. i am suppose to enhance the beauty of the piecing without upstaging it, add to the story- not rewrite it....that to me, is a successful finished quilt. i think that's why i'm driven to quilt- the challenge of subtlety of design....choosing designs and motifs, picking the perfect thread color, then the execution of quality stitches....as martha says, "it's a good thing" and i love it!

look what i got

my friend vicky gets a gold star....she sent me pictures of her block from my BOM...

it's pretty! i like the turq/green color scheme! great job vicky....if you send me a pic of your block i'll post it here....actually- i might look into starting a flickr group for this...more on that later...

i post new directions for each block the second monday of the month. i've included a quick link list in the left sidebar as well..that way you don't have to look for them all...

i'm not the only one....

i was reading gina's blog, and she posted a link to a site that is doing the most beautiful applique and pieced free online BOMs....

see, i'm not the only one...i'm totally doing the southern gentleman one....someday....yeah...moving on...

you'd probaly like the link...it's Fat Cat Patterns by Sindy Rodenmayer.

we all need another project like a hole in the head, huh?....i'm totally playing devil's advocate right now....*shrug* and?.....

finally fixed

so back when the waters were arising- i had to move some of my quilting stuff upstairs. that included customer quilts. i didn't think anything of hanging them in the spare room's closet...then a couple nights later i heard a loud noise. barney heard it to, so i was relieved that i wasn't going crazy....the next morning i went to start moving everything back to the studio and found the source of the 'crash in the night' yup, the closet rod waved the white flag and admitted defeat. but it died doing what it loved best....i hope....moving on....

so davis finally finished 'fixing' it. and it has been dubbed quilt weight friendly...the new shelf is twice as wide as the first one, so i can fold my quilts better and they fit up there...all the way to the ceiling...*bites lip*

and yes, those are all my personal quilt tops....except the 6 to the left....

my name is shannon and
i'm a quilt-a-holic...

binding yardage

i realized i haven't posted an 'easy math' for a while, sorry...so i'll fix that. here are two charts for yardage needed for binding. this chart is based on 40" of usable fabric...

to use the charts measure your quilt. add the width and length together, then multiply by 2. add 20 for miters and tails (and if your like me- ooppies). take that number and find it along the top of the charts. if you want bias binding (cut on a 45 degree angle to the selvage), use the bias cutting chart, if your cutting straight grain (cutting selvage to selvage across the fabric), use that chart.

nice and easy, lemon pleasy...

such smart phones....

so davis got me an itouch for christmas last year. i listen to music when i quilt (it keeps the voices pacified :) )
so i have the ability to download apps for games and such....so just for fun i searched itunes for 'quilt' and was quite surprised! i wasn't expecting to find anything...

there are quilting apps!!! one is a fabric calculator, another will calculate the size of side triangles to cut for on point quilts, and if you have the iphone- they have an app with blocks and what sizes to cut your fabric for different sized blocks....the only bad thing is that the block one- you have to have a iphone, but the two others will go on my itouch and they're FREE!!!

now- those are some very smart phones....everyday i am continually amazed with the technology we have....

living on the 'wild' side

when i tell people i hunt i'm sure it conjures up images of me running through the woods brandishing a weapon shooting all the 'cute' animals....well, i have to tell you that although a few people do hunt like that- i don't!

i get as much enjoyment watching wildlife as i do hunting. like this weekend...me and davis have moved to a different area of our hunting club, and to be honest i'm loving the new area (it's a llloooonnnnnggg walk) the other area i would sit and watch trees grow and squirrels run around....BORING! but in my new spot, i'm overlooking the edge of a swamp and the abundance of animals always makes for a fun weekend hunting...

this is a collage of the view from my stand, affectionately called 'the bottom'. i do hunt from the ground...going up a tree scares me....you can fall out of 'up'....

anyway...i tried to take pictures, but  the animals don't cooperate and wait while i turn my camera on, then pose....but i did get a couple pictures and you'll just have to trust me on the rest...

here's a pic of a raccoon than ran through on sunday morning
and a doe out in the field

i also saw a fox squirrel (haven't seen one in a long time) he is tan colored with a black head, and around his eyes and his nose is white (i tried to get a picture, but it was still early/dark), an owl, and a hawk. i did see lots of deer! it's coming up on our rut (deer mating season) so i saw lots of...um... deer foreplay.....well, the bucks are ready, the does could care less...i have a few deer that are regulars to my area. i have 2 three point bucks, a nice 4pointer (if he makes it through a few more deer seasons he'll be a nice trophy. he has the biggest 4 point rack i've ever seen.), a 8 pointer, and a 10 pointer that i haven't got to get a good look at (shooter or not? from the quick glances i seen- i dont think he's is.) and i have a bunch of does...i spook them out walking in in the mornings and scare them off in the evenings when i leave...i'm loving it! me and davis believe that with the unusally warm weather(it was 70 yesterday afternoon) that the big bucks (what we want) are nocturnal....*darn it* that's okay....full rut hasn't started and with all the does i have seen, big boy will have to chase during daylight hours...and i'll be waiting...

i love it....

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.


the creator of this little video, Jarbas Agnelli, had this to say:

"Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.


I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper.


Here I've posted a short video made with the photo, the music and the score (composed by the birds)."

enjoy

follower give away winner

congrats to vivian!!
vivian shot me an email with your address....half_square @ hotmail.com (remove the spaces...)

i'll post a picture of what she won when she gets it....

thank you to all my followers!! (and the lurkers)....i always try to post stuff that i think you want to see/read...
i'll be having more giveaways... i'm thinking the next giveaway will be around the time my visitor counter hits 10,000...til then....
happy stitching!

another lamp...

remember at the quilt show how i bought all those wooden spools? (they are getting extremely hard to find...at a decent price)  well, this is what i made....i've had it for a while, just looking for the right shade...i might 'embellish' this one....it looks a little plain...i'm thinking grommets with a fabric strip woven through...

i bought the jar at Hobby Lobby. it's specifically made for crafting. it's a mason jar with nothing on the outside. then i went to HomeDepot (a great walk around place) and bought a lamp kit. i drilled a hole in the top of the jar's lid, and following the directions, put the lighting kit together...

isn't it just too cute...a great addition to my quilting themed decor...these lamps were my first go at homemade bottle lamps...even at the end of that post this idea was emerging...

surprise!

the mail man made it to bonnie's house....see what i made for her....

autumn braid

this quilt got picked up and is on it's way home...it belongs to nadine (whose burfday was yesterday- happy birthday nadine!)

i quilted it with what i call an electric meander....it's just a straight line meander. i used a yellowy thread named straw gold.....

Charity quilting

so these are the two latest quilts i quilted for the stitchin' sallies. they are from a class i taught to them last year (?) from the book 'cutting curves from straight pieces' (what a mouth full book title huh?) the book is no longer in print i believe...(at the time of the class, they were having a hard time finding it)...

i did my cotton candy E2E on both....i used a grey blue thread on this one. it looked like a no match on the cone, but it really did look nice on the quilt...it's called copenhagen....

i like that it shows in places....look how pretty it is in the black inner border....since they are charity quilts i can explore ideas....play with thread colors on different quilts...

this one i used a black and white variegated....and i used a medium grey named 'graphite' in the bobbin...same E2E....

i like the contrast of the thread on this one as well...i like that the quilting shows. the quilt looks quilted, but in a subtle way. it doesn't scream....i'm not feeling very well today- woke up with a migraine today...*grr* wish i knew what triggered them so i could have a little warning it was wanting to visit....