paducah baby!

so i mentioned some big news that had to do with Paducah, KY.... as most quilters know, Paducah hosts the super bowl of quilt shows. it is a juried show.....

...and i have the pleasure to announce that the quilt i worked on with Charlotte, Crimson Radiance, was accepted and will be hanging in the show!! *happy dance*

i quilted this quilt back at Christmas and wanted to wait til it made it's debut in it's first show, the MidAtlantic show, before i blogged about it. it won Best Use of Color in the traditional category. (thanks to my friend Mary for the picture)

it is Charlotte's original design inspired from a workshop taken from Jenny Beyer. i spent, i think, around 50 hours quilting it. it has two layers of batting, a wool on top of a cotton. that's where the 'trapunto' effect comes from. i used 8 or 9 different colors, and changed the threads as i went.

it is quilted completely freehand. i did use a ruler for the straight lines and i designed my own stencil for the 'trapunto' area as well as the rest of the quilt. it took me three days just to do all the motif designing...what to put where and in what thread color....

i have plans to attend the show...i have found a place to lay my head, but right now the final deciding factor will be gas prices. i drive a full size V8 truck....so you can sympathize with that...so i have my fingers crossed that i'll get the opportunity to attend...

if you go, i'll be the one with blue hair......i'm sure i'll be easy to spot :)

DA DA- DONE!!

my lucky tquilt is done and hanging in it's march home.

i had to bribe lucky with a cookie to get him in the picture with it....he hates having his picture taken. he must get that from his mom :)

speaking of- i went and got my picture for my passport today....i was a little shocked! i didn't recognize the woman in the picture!  then i realized that my bathroom mirror posses magical qualities. i discovered i have my very own Mirror of Erised, and have started charging admission.....

yup, that's my story and i'm sticking to it.....wonder if it increases the value of the house??

SAL 2012 #2

here's the latest and greatest installment in my Scrap Bash SAL....

happy stitching!

edited to add:

don't forget to add photos of your blocks to the Flickr group. i like to see what and how yall are doing these :)

pretty please :) with a cherry on top

tuesday musings

(p.s. Santa uses the alias Ted....)

i went and voted in the GA republican primary. my voter registration guy was Santa, you can't take pictures inside the polling room, but i swear Santa checked my ID....no kidding, rosy cheeks, white curly hair and beard, and blue eyes complete with the mischievous twinkle.! He was even wearing a red golf shirt with a white collar. people, you can't make this stuff up! as i walked away i said, "i've been a really good girl" he laughed just like Santa!!!  i did ask, he is a Santa at christmas for private parties and such.

it's a small room and there weren't many people there when i left, and he waved and said "have a good day" i said "and to all a good night" he laughed that Santa laugh again. guess you would of had to been there....a little christmas magic in march :)

i plan on posting the second set of instructions for my Scrap Bash SAL tomorrow, and i have some big news that i'll share in a post all by itself......hint- paducah baby!

30s repros Block Swap

just a quick reminder (and for those who might not of heard)

the deadline for the block swap is quickly approaching. there's still time if you want to play.

all info in this post...

the blocks that are coming in are gorgeous!! i'm so excited about the quilt.

here's what the layout looks like in grey scale.

this is going to be an awesome quilt....i've already bought inner and outer border fabric as well as backing. like i said, i'm super ready toget going on this one! i even know how i'm quilting mine.

i love grover!

this is my all time favorite grover sketch....i wish they would do a box set of classic oldies...

thank you boys and girls :)

Pinterest vs Creative Commons

photosource

there is alot of talk in blogland about pinterest and violation of copyrights. i wanted to address that as i think it suits my blog and pictures from my blog ONLY!

i can understand both sides of the fence, but i'm not naive.  i have always felt that once you post something publicly on the web, you lose the control of where it goes and who is doing what with it. i feel that once i post something on the web, it's really not mine anymore. if i don't want to share, then i don't post.

pinterest's terms of use state that you must have permission or own the rights to pin a picture. by pinning you agree to the terms of use. that's all here, if you want to go check it out for yourself.

i can understand how some artists would take pinterest pinning as a copyright infringement, but to me, quilting is a visual art and we share that passion by posting pictures of what we do in our blogs.  we are inspired by others' fabric combinations, we learn about new patterns, techniques, and books, and heck, we just like to look at pictures of pretty quilts. there is apparently a way to add a code in the html code of a page to disable the ability to pin, so if you want- you can do that. you can add a watermark to uploaded images so that they can not be stolen for use in stock photo sites (i choose to take really bad pictures that are not properly staged with horrible lighting :) )...if you are really serious about protecting your art, there are ways to do that.

i personally use pinterest as a source for all the cool stuff i find out on the web. it puts it in one spot where i can find everything. i use to have to save it all to my hard drive. now it's all in one place where it can be 'policed' by the owner and shared with others. what's so wrong with that?


so that being said- you have permission to pin anything from my blog!! PIN AWAY :) i feel it's a compliment to have someone pin pictures from my blog. my flying goose tutorial has been pinned and repinned many times.  i only ask that you do pin a picture properly so that the source link is my blog. there's nothing more annoying than seeing something on pinterest and wanted to find out more and it has been improperly pinned so the link source is wrong *grr*

ta-dah deja vu

i fixed the build out on the one shirt i didn't like. it was the first one i cut and started sewing, so it's understandable that it wouldn't look right.

 the difference is almost not noticeable when you see the before and after next to each other, but i think it makes a huge difference and is much better. now to finalize the inner border options. i have some fabric on order that i'm waiting to see what it looks like before i decide.

okay, i promise to shut up about this quilt now....

tah-dah

i have all the blocks finished....now to let it 'breathe' a bit and see what comes to mind for the inner border.

i'm debating re doing the two sides of the second shirt in the third row....the green coping strips stick out to me.

i think they should be something pieced- maybe pinwheels across the bottom and FG down the side?

my stash threw up

i thought i'd share a pic of my studio during making the lucky quilt....a quarter of my stash lives under Nemo and i have it color coded in drawers. when i need a specific color, i pull the drawer and sit in the floor and go through it til i find the just-right fabric. it's all very scientific...

if you want the full (clean) tour, it's in this post. 

notice that big empty spot in the middle? care to guess what fits there?

yup, my loyal studio assistant. he has move when i need to get to the purple drawer :)

so here's the latest in progress shot of the lucky quilt. i've decided to not sash and cornerstone for a very good reason.

i've had this 5 yard chunk of paper weight just waiting to go on the back of the perfect quilt...and i have decided the lucky quilt is the lucky quilt ;)  if i sash the blocks the quilt will be to big to fit the yardage i have....so it was a simple design decision :)

i'm also going to sew the label to the backing before i quilt it....i've had a couple of customers bring their quilts to me like that, and i like the idea of the label being 'under' the quilting....i plan on writing a tutorial on how i do it, so stay tuned!

spam

as some may know, blogger has added a two word comment approval verification. i turned mine off cause the second word is a pain, plus it is uber hard to read...i've not had too much trouble with spam comments and i'll just take care of it as they are posted.

but i had to laugh when i got this spam comment on my weed wacker post:

There are a great number of cases of users who end up injuring themselves due to unsafe operating practices of weed wackers all over the world. Eye injury is the most common type of injury caused by propelled debris from the rotating monofilament line. Following these few safety tips can prevent further serious threats from using a weed wacker. 

safety is always a important concern, so i shall be especially careful and wear all proper safety equipment when using my quilt *LOL* that 'propelled debris' is sneaky and will get you every time.... it's all fun and games til someone loses an eye *snicker snort*

lucky dog progress

thanks for all the comments about my lucky dog tshirt quilt.

i decided to just cut the shirt logos to size and piece that into a block that will finish 18inches. i'm thinking i'll sash and cornerstone cause i do want the biggest quilt i can get without it be obvious.

you can see my progress with the shirts down the center.

opinions needed

i'm working on a new quilt and i want some opinions.

i've been collecting lucky shirts for years now, and now that i have 12 i wanted to work on the quilt. my goal is to get it done *fingers crossed* so i can hang it at the top of the steps for march.

my favorite is the dog and crossed bones (middle shirt, second row) i was really pleased to find the 'happy go lucky' shirt (last shirt, second row) because i always said if lucky had been a purebred, that would of been his 'registered' name....

i'm keeping the color scheme green- i have green dog themed fabrics, green fabrics, and shamrock fabrics. i also have the backs of the shirts, which i have if i want to incorporate.

but here's my conundrum:
the logos and shirts are all different sizes. the biggest is 15inches square and the smallest is barely 6inches. i won't be able to cut them out all the same size at all.

so here's what i was thinking- what if i just cut the shirts out in even sizes (6", 8", 12", etc) and then use my green fabrics to build the blocks out to 18 inches. then i could sash the blocks....

do you think it would work and look okay?

someone's already making use of the scrap pile :)

pillowcases

i love making pillowcases for the bed. LA-HOV! so when davis sent me an email asking for cases for the little travel pillows he has, i was all over that like stink on poop. he said the polyester cover was rough. i think he's just spoiled by the soft cotton pillowcases at home *giggle*

i was just happy to be able to make and send him something. he travels so much and lives out of his duffel, so it's hard to send him anything cause he would have to pack it around....so i was more than happy to finally have a chance to make him something he can use.

he asked for something cajun and i had just recently made pillow cases for the house from a mardi gras fabric i found at Hancock's. so that's what i did.

(happy mardi gras to ya! this tuesday is fat tuesday!  Laissez le bon temps rouler.)

his traveling buddy is a huge bama fan, so i picked up some roll tide fabric to make one for him.

it was hard to even buy alabama fabric being a TN girl....but thankfully there wasn't anyone else in the store to see me.

house guests

i am pet setting three cats. davis's daughter had the opportunity to travel to Japan for a couple months and now i'll have in-house dog sitting in trade. lucky is getting old and it's better if he stays here.....

i have been missing Lucy and was thinking that i might like to revisit having a cat in the house.

these three have changed my mind.
they get into everything!! and i totally forgot how stinky cat poo is *whew*

this is Skylar. he's a mean sadistic cat. i trust him about as far as i could throw the house. notice the distance of the photo. he snores when he sleeps....it sounds like someone slowing squeezing and releasing a squeaker toy...it's kinda cute, i guess.

this is LeaLou. she finally came out from under the bed. it only took a month. she drools and has a distinctive smell. she's so stealthy that sometimes the only way to know she's in the room, is the smell.

this is Fatsy. he's my favorite. they aren't mine, so i'm allowed to have a favorite. him and barney actually play together. they 'chase' each other around the love seat then Fatsy takes off down the hall, Barney looks all rejected and looks at me whining.

they will be going home soon....

hoppy valentine's day.


 a big *SMOOCH* to my husband!