Fun For Friday - Glue, Paper, Scissors

Happy Last Friday of August!

Last Friday I hosted a little luncheon here at my house.  I've seen quite a bit of mason jar crafts lately and was inspired to make these as favors for my friends -

I mod-podged vinage pattern instructions onto the jars and embellished them with pearl buttons and ribbon.

I put crushed shells in the bottom and a tea candle.  They could also serve as pencil cans in the sewing room or little wild flower vases.

I also worked on my Illustrated Discovery Journal.  I started this scrap book over 15 years ago - long before pinterest was even thought of.

This was a companion to Simple Abundance, one of the most transformative books in my life.

Here are some sample pages.

This is where I glue images of things I like, styles I admire, items I'd love to buy or own.

There are no rules or order, just a book of my tastes.

It is very therapeutic to sit with my school supplies and arrange pages.

Lastly, another real classy lunch date with Norma - Bendix Diner.  Norma says it has been here for over 60 years.  Looks like it too.

Now this is New Jersey Diner and Dive if ever there was one.  Look at this picturesque location!

Norma had chili dogs and I had a ruben.  We shared the onion rings.  The food?  Not bad.

I don't know about you, but I'll be thrilled to welcome September tomorrow.
I'm really looking forward to Autumn!

Hex Vex in Review

Thank you everyone for your interest and comments on my header quilt, Hex Vex.   Today I'm reviewing it and providing the sizes of paper pieces I used to make it.  You can see the original post here.

I was inspired to  make this quilt after seeing Kim McLean's version on the cover of Quilters Newsletter Magazine.  Kim was inspired by an antique quilt.

Here are the sizes I used:

3" hexegons (the solids blocks and 1/2 make the edge pieces, and 1/4 make the 4 corners.

1 1/2" diamonds (these make the 12 point stars, also the little tumbler blocks and what I call the the plaid blocks).

and 3" diamonds (these make the large tumbler blocks, or the same fabric to make repeat designs, etc.)  Also these are used to make the giant stars.

We ordered our paper from Paper Pieces on-line.  They also have printable work pages that are blank to help you with size and layout.

Studying these quilts is the best way to figure out how to design blocks - the variations are almost endless - it is about manipulating the color values and using printed fabric for dramatic effect.

Here is my friend Jill's Patriotic Hex:

And another example of a great scrappy hex:

My buddy Rachael is working on a beautiful one here.  She is showing combinations that I hadn't seen before!  Her project is for a raffle quilt and looks like it will be stunning!

If you make this project, please share photos with me, I'd love to see them and post them with your permission.

Fun For Friday - My Favorite Dolls

Happy Friday!  Today I'm sharing a quilt that I made in 2002 and one of my favorite collections.

Dollies and Butter Cookies (the quilting looks like the cookies you eat off the top of your finger - Salerno butter cookies)

I hand quilted it and embroidered the faces and hair.
They all seem to have a different personality -

I'm so sorry, I don't know who to give pattern credit to :(

Here is my black dolly shelf in my sewing room

These dolls speak to me in a way that is hard to explain.  I think they are sweet and humble.  I love the Color Purple, and Toni Morrison's novels and Addy.  It must be a civil war connection somehow, but I really don't know.

Years ago I made a group of dolls like this one.  Aren't the braids a hoot?  I stained the fabric with coffee and tea and put it in the oven to make it look old.  I just made the dress without a formal pattern.

Here is another one I made in a doll workshop.   I think the teacher was quite surprised when I pulled out my black fabric.  I just love her.  She's an older girl.

I made the dress, apron and bloomers.  It was fun to dress her.  I painted on the boots and added the button.

Her face is painted and I added little gold hoop earrings, which are jewelry jump rings.   Her hair is black knee highs cut into strips that I braided.   It was a joy to make this girl.

I recently acquired a few new doll pattern books.
Who knows, a new one may be in my future.

Have a great weekend everyone and I hope you enjoy meeting my sweet dolls today.

We got Pinned

Last week the cup cake club got together as Susan's house to make a little pin cushion - how cute is this!

All Creative Credit goes to bitty bits & pieces, Kimberly Walus.
Thanks for such a great tutorial.  You can get it by clicking here.

Thanks Jill for the great idea,  I just can't wait to get started!

Look how cute all of Jill's red supplies are -

Crafting is hard work, as you know, so we took a  break for lunch.  Aren't these the prettiest plates?  I wish I had this in fabric.

I love a fresh summery lunch.  Chicken Salad, bread and fruit, lovely.

After our break we finished our cute pin cushions.

The metal stamping really gives these the finishing touch.  Thanks to Jill's DH for lending them to us.

Hanna sent a quilt back home with us this past weekend.  Her dorm room is so small the beds have to be bunked and she's top bunk, so 2 extra quilts is too much.

This is Good and Plenty  (named because there is so much black and pink.)  It was a challenge quilt as a result of a polkadot fabric exchange.

I had forgotten to include it in this post about challenges.

Sorry about the floor shot, the design wall is in use.  Thanks coco for your help!

The backing is pieced together greens (as if that needed to be noted). lol

A polkadot shaped label, just for fun.

Hope you are all having nice weather and that you are enjoying the end of summer.

FFF - Earthly Delights

Happy Friday!  Today I'm posting a few garden shots.  Overall it's been a tough year here in NJ with all the heat and drought.

Here are my front pots.  I went with a lime green and red scheme and for a foliage look instead of blooms.

This one is at the front door -

A pot of New Guinea Impatiens.  The impatiens I planted look horrible all leggy and sad - to much heat this year :(

Hydrangea bush seems happy -

Finally!  Here is the bird I watch for all summer.

I hung the humming bird feeder in May.  Nothing, zilch.  Then last Friday on a cloudy and rainy day, he came 8 times that I counted.  Yesterday he came again several times, it was also a cloudy, rainy day.

Thanks little hummingbird!  You have completed my summer bird feeding dreams!  Click here to see what a happened last year.

Have a fun filled weekend everyone.

Stars & Crowns

So, I didn't intend to make a commemorative Olympic quilt this time around......but I did.

Here is liberated Stars & Crowns -

The agony of the bleeding.  One of the blues ran :(
I have worked on it, but it is not coming out.  I had 2 color catchers in the wash, but it folded on itself before the spin cycle.

It started with an idea and a 5 minute sketch.  I had thought I'd make just little quilt.  I wanted to showcase the US and GB since we both have RW&B flags.  I bound it in gold which I thought looked great, which surprised me.

Here you can see how I visually worked out the 2, which I thought was the toughest shape.

Here is a close up of the liberated elements.  I machine quilted it in a diamond pattern.

Making these letters was easy and fun -

I rearranged the continents from a panel that I had to fit as many as I could.  My daughter called it "mom's Pangea".

Simple label -

I used YLI Kimono Silk Thread and a Microtex 70/10 needle with Hobbs 80/20 batting.   I'm still making fabric balls after trimming the edges.

This gives you an idea of size.  It's more like a banner.  In this photo you can see the blue bleed before the 2nd washing and oxi-clean, etc.

Happy Summer 2012 Olympics everyone - See you Rio!

Now what are we going to watch?