Sunday, November 24, 2013

Mary Catch Up

It's winter.  We have snow on the ground.  But today is beautiful - the sun is shining, we went for a walk around the 'hood.  Nice.

And of course I've been sewing.  I decided to try going into a craft show so in the limited time I have, managed to get enough stuff together to set up a respectable spot at the Silver Springs Crafters' Market - just down the street from my house, so very handy.  My sister Chris shared the table with me to promote her custom cakes - "Cakes by Christine" - of course!.   We were very happy with the way the day turned out!  We made back the $25 we paid to have a table - which was our goal.  Chris gave out many of her cards.  I actually gave out a surprising number of mine to quilters who were interested in my long-arming.  Quilters go to craft shows! 

Chris made about 50 "cake pops" and sold about half of them, Joe made about 60 wood coasters, sold about half of them, I made a number of things and sold quite a few of them.  My inventory wasn't as scientific!  But the biggest surprise is that I sold one of my quilts!  That was huge because I wasn't expecting anyone to buy a quilt.  People don't got to craft sales to buy large expensive items, quite the opposite - small and inexpensive is the key.  I had put out 2 Christmas quilts and 2 to show my long-arm quilting thinking other quilters might be passing through. 

I sold one of the latter.  I called it "Winter Stag" because it was blue and white.  I used the "Quilt in the Headlights" pattern from the Dare to be Square book by Boo Davis.  I just finished it last week and never got a pix of it.  So I have learned a couple more lessons this week: 1 - always get a pix right away and 2 - put quilts out (I could have put out more, but didn't) because someone really might want to buy one! 

Enough chit chat - here we go with some pix!

 First up - this darling little bird!  Joe must have snapped its pix recently - I found it in the "bucket" - it is so cute I had to post it.  I don't know what kind of bird - sorry - but it was perched on our garage roof.
Here is Maxine's "Crabby Christmas".  I found the Maxine panel at a vendors' market at a recent quilt show and couldn't resist.  And I wanted to try that wonky star block so thought Maxine would look good surrounded by wonky stars.  This is the result.  Final measurements are 54"*54".

 I finished off a couple of Halloween table runners (front above, back below) - but missed Halloween by a day.  Oh well - always next year.  That's the good thing about quilts - they never go bad!!!

 Here are a couple of Xmas table toppers - same, but different due to more or less random fabric placement. 
 This is a "No Rules Quilting Design" - I called it "Remember Summer? II" (I already have a Remember Summer from last year - hence the "II").  I designed this to have lots of negative space for quilting.  I'll be posting the quilting close-ups to my new NoRulesQuilting.ca blog.  So take a look over there.
 Below is the back of "Remember Summer? II".  This is a print - I did not piece this, although some thought I did.  I love this fabric.  I got it for $4/yard online from the Fabric Depot in Portland Oregon.  Can't beat the price and I love the print! 
 
This is the pix of "Quilt in the Headlights" from the Dare to be Square book - which I made but of course mine looks quite different as my fabric choice was much different.  In mine, the deer and antlers are bright whites/greys and the background is various blues running from royal to navy with black for the eyes and nose.

 Above are two of Joe's coasters - he's been practicing with his CNC router which allows him to do quite intricate inlays - so the rose and hummingbird are not painted on - it is all wood inlayed in wood - even the darker "red" on the bird's throat is wood - I had to ask him because it does look like it's painted on!  I think he's getting pretty good with his machine!

Below is what I have come to think of as my "Pain in the Ass" table runner because it was a pain in the ass to make!  I had to cut a million small pieces and put them in certain spots - rules!!! - I'm not good at rules!  But after a lot of fussing and fuming (the Diva's will all attest to this as I made it at the quilting retreat we all attended) I finally got the darn thing finished.  I really liked the pattern and it turned out quite well - but I won't be making one again for awhile!  :)
I know there are a few other things that I missed - but this is the big stuff.  Stay warm if you're in the northern hemisphere and enjoy summer if you're south of the equator!

Divas Catch Up

I've been very negligent about blogging in the last few months - since spring, really.  It is an indicator of how crazy busy I've been.  I don't think things have changed all that much, but I will try to focus on getting a decent post or two up today.  We've had at least one, probably two Divas Days and maybe more.  But one of the "benefits" of getting older is that the memory is pretty much shot - so I'm going to do a post of Divas Catch Up instead of the actual days.

Starting off with, here are some pix of our Gourmet Diva Sue's masterpieces.  Believe me when I tell you they taste even better than they look!





 Here we have Diva Joan demo-ing Quilt Aerobics.  Something I generally try to avoid!  :)  I would have  been over at the table stitching away.  Dorothy is always recognizable by her sock monkey slippers (at left in pix).
 This is one of the quilts finished - I quilted it on Max then Joan took over to do the binding.

 Quilting from the front....
 And the back...  it's an all over sort of swirly/spiky design.
I'm pretty sure I have missed posting pix of many of our Diva's quilts - but Kristie (our Organizer Diva for good reason) keeps careful records of our activities and I believe we are well over 100 charity quilts since we began back in about 2008-early 09.  Not bad for a few ladies who were all working full time at the beginning - now two are retired but the rest of us are still putting in our office time.  Pat on the back, Divas!