Tooting My Own Hown, but fun links too!

As Jo has said today on her blog post today, this is a shameless promotion post! The new issue of the online CrazyQuilt magazine is up - and it's here!

There are several pictures of my CQ work in the Reader's Gallery and I wrote an article on stitching spiders and webs. There are many, MANY great articles in this issue as always AND some wonderful and inspiring pictures in the Reader's Gallery!

This is a great online source for inspiration and it's the only magazine, online OR in stores, that is exclusively for crazy quilters. Go now! Go visit Jo! Most importantly......Go here!

Stitch On! (SEE? I DO know how to put hyperlinks in my posts! LOL!)

Crazy Quilt Puzzle Finished & Framed!

Crazy Quilt Puzzle
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I have had this wonderful puzzle depicting an antique crazyquilt done for some time. G just finished framing it for me and soon it will hang in my workroom where it will daily offer inspiration.

I purchased this puzzle at a store called Big Lots for only $4 and I ended up doing the entire thing myself. G, who loves puzzles, sat out on this one and never did even one piece despite a few fits of frustration on my part.

According to the box, this is a depiction of a crazy quilt from the Shelburne Museum and manufactured in 2003 by Ceaco, Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts. Their website is http://www.ceaco.com. This type of puzzle is called "a double". The box contained 600 pieces, but 300 of those are small pieces that fit into the center of the other 300 pieces. Once you get the larger 300 pieces together, then you are faced with the challenge of finding the places for the tiny 300 centers.

The puzzle is 27" x 20" (69cm x 51 cm). I put it together on a piece of foam core board because I knew I wasn't going to take this puzzle apart and put it back in the box. When I had finished it, G put 2 coats of Matte Liquid Puzzle Saver on it. Then we started the hunt for a frame.

After going crazy looking, we discovered the only way was to purchase the frame in pairs of frame pieces. We found the sizes only available at our local Michael's Craft Store and yesterday G got it put together yesterday.

Isn't it great? Wanna see closeups? I will take a few tonight perhaps and post them on my Flickr site. So, come back here later and click on this picture. That will take you to my photostream where you can see the close ups.

I'd really like to see this quilt in person! If I ever get back to Vermont, I will make it a point. I visited Vermont in 1990, but we never got to the Shelburne area.

Stitch on!

Delta Crazy Stitcher's Latest Round Robin

Fly Stitch Christmas Trees
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Our local stitcher's group is doing another round robin right now and the first block I received was actually Andrea's little tree skirt for the mini-tree she has on her desk at work for the holidays. She had pieced it and done a little work on it already.

This picture is of one seam I did. I used silk pearl thread and made the beginnings of what usually ends up as what I call "Fly Stitch Lace". However, this time I stopped after two rows. Then I turned each peak into a Christmas tree by adding a star on top. Lastly I used some back stitching to make trunks for the trees.

I don't know where I got those little stars, but I didn't have any gold ones which I would have preferred to use. Still I really like how this came out.

There are 3 other close up pictures of what I did on this little tree skirt on my Flickr site so if you click on this picture you will be taken to where you can see the other things I did.

I'm working on the next block in the rotation right now and it was pieced by our group's resident art quilter. I am finding it a liberating experience to work on this unusual piece. When I see the free spiritedness (is that a word?) of her work, it makes the crazyquilt work I usually do seem very structured in comparison!

Just wait till you see it!

Stitch On!

Standing Guard

While taking my regular morning walk through the back gardens this morning, I was astounded to see how tall these sunflowers are getting. Every day they seem inches taller. Funny thing is that the package said they'd be getting about 5 feet tall. When G measured last, the tallest was 12 feet high. The flowers also don't look much like the picture that was on the seed packet.

Early this summer I read in our newspaper about the honey bee crisis and it was suggest that one thing gardeners could do would be to plant sunflowers. Next time we were at the home improvement store, I picked up a package. Every last seed germinated within a week of when I poked them into the dirt in a row behind G's zucchini garden.

All I expected was some lovely 5 foot tall yellow sunflowers that I could maybe cut and make flower arrangements. Above is a close up of what I got. Some are yellow, but most are red or dark rust-colored like this close up shows. Gorgeous is the word that comes to my mind when I begin my walk each morning.

Tone On Tone - Beige to Brown

Tone On Tone - Beige to Brown
Originally uploaded by lasassone

While searching for something else the other day I ran across this 8 inch block that I made a few years ago. Actually I never quite finished embellishing it. It was made for a project in our local crazy quilt stitching group and when that project never quite materialized I stopped working on the block. At that time I had thought of a project for myself in which I could use it.

Tone on tone blocks are fun to piece and stitch on and I thought perhaps I'd do a few more colors in that scheme and maybe eventually have a color wheel wallhanging of sorts. So I put it away with that intention and then forgot about it until I found it this past weekend.

Last night I finished the spider and his web and did the featherstitching on the bottom middle seam while I was watching tv. I also beaded some of the stitches which I think you can see better in the two pictures below this post.

I may do a white on white block next before I move on to blocks in yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple, burgundy, red and finally orange. Upon completion of the orange or last block, I would have 10 blocks which would make a nice wallhanging. I may not do the blocks in that particular color order because sometimes working in a particular color is set by my mood at the time.

At present I am working on a large white on white block for Leslie Erlich's Breast Cancer Project quilt. Leslie pieced the block for me to embellish and she and I are calling it "the tornado block" because she actually pieced it the afternoon a tornado ripped through her town of Windsor, Colorado.

I think I'll piece an 8" block to work on along with Leslie's block and perhaps I can try out a few stitches on my little block before I do them on the big block.

Stitch On!

Brown Spider and web

Brown Spider and web
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Center Bone Ring Motif

Center Bone Ring Motif
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Take It Further Challenge June Done!

Take It Further Challenge - Whole June Block
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Only 8 days late! My June TIF block is done. As usual, if you click on this picture, you can see detailed pictures of each corner and the center in my Flickr album.

This block again uses two fabrics from Judith Baker Montano's Ornamentations design line. This month they are the center and the top right corner fabrics.

All of the seam stitch combinations are copies of stitch combinations that I've collected over the years from vintage crazyquilts. I really used my notebook of stitches on this block!

In the upper left corner is a beaded summer sun which in the guise of a heatwave really started our month of June here. This is another of those motifs that I found at that garage sale a couple weeks ago. The center is again a vintage Swarovski Lochrosen rhinestone with a center hole.

In the upper right corner I have hand appliqued an image for Father's Day that was a freebie offered by Janet at vintagevogue.com. Father's Day here was a barrage of phone calls from our 3 daughters and pretty much otherwise an ordinary day. G lost his father back in 1949 and his step-dad Papa Tuggle has been gone for a few years now. My dad passed away in 1992 just short of his 91st birthday.

In the lower left corner is a rose charm rather like a bush that I've had for some time. Last year we removed the rose garden in our back yard because the bushes were over 20 years old and were not doing well. The space just became a flower bed which was attractive when we were showing Hydrangea House to sell and move. Since we've been unable to sell and have decided to stay here a couple years in the hopes of the housing market recovering, we decided to replant the rose garden. In June we saw our first Mr. Lincoln tea rose!

In the lower right corner is the month name and some garden tool charms because G's vegetable garden fairly bolted in that heatwave and we have been deluged with all kinds of squash. I did the little zucchini outline picture with one strand of floss, but may still do something more to it because I am not liking it at all. At the very end of the month we also started getting tomatoes from the many vines, but July looks like when we will received our multitude of tomato blessings.

In the center I have done the spider web with 1 strand of DMC floss in one of the colors (#3033) Sharon picked for the TIF June color palette. The spider is also done with one of the colors (gold #436) from the June palette.

So there you have it. I'm halfway through the year of this challenge and I really LOVE all the blocks I have done. I have learned a TON about color by participating in the challenge, much of which I think will enhance my crazyquilt work in years to come.

Each and every month as I have pieced the blocks in the colors that Sharon has chosen for the month I almost always have failed to really like the naked block, However, as I have finished each of the 6 blocks, in turn each has become my favorite. I can't WAIT to have all 12 months done and get these blocks together intp a wall quilt that will be MINE, ALL MINE!

Stitch On!

Coming Soon!

This picture of my Tuscan Zucchini Salad is just a coming attraction of sorts to let you know that soon my recipe blog will be up and running. Called "Lulu's Girl", it is a place where I will share my original recipes and also many recipes from my Mum's handwritten recipe book.

The recipes in her book range from ones from my grandmother and Aunt who worked in food service from the 1920's to 1950's and ones my Mum collected for her own cooking beginning in 1925 when she and Dad got married.

Hit the link and stay tuned if you love new-to-you recipes!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July - Independance Day - for those readers in the USA!

The image above was a freebie from Dover books in one of their sampler newsletters. I don't know when; it could have been years ago or just last year. I just found her on my computer this morning and thought you would like it. By the way, if you click on it, you should be able to save it or print it out.

Today won't seem like a holiday to G and I because it will be just us two here. In years past we always had all the family & sometimes friends here for a swim, barbeque dinner and table games or cards. But sadly friends and family move on or pass away. Both G's and my parents have passed away and our 3 daughters are married and scattered across the USA as are the 7 grandkids who will be enjoying the holiday in their own ways.

There will be no barbeque dinner even for G and I. We will be enjoying the bounty from our garden. Here's a picture of the great zucchini flood of 2008:

And this is what's left after multiple deliveries to friends and neighbors yesterday. The 8-ball zuchinni in the back there will be what we are having for dinner tonight. We had hamburgers a couple nights ago for dinner and there were patties left over. They will become the core ingredient in a stuffing I will make for the 8 balls. Half of one each makes a meal for the two of us usually, but maybe I will jazz up some store-bought potato salad with hard boiled eggs and a little mint to have with the stuffed 8 balls. I will stuff and cook all of them because they make make a great quick lunch warmed in the microwave. No sandwiches this week!

Are you hungry yet? Well, stay tuned here to see the announcement of my new recipe blog called "Lulu's Girl" where you can find the recipe for the stuffed 8 balls and more. I started out wanting to blog recipes from my Mum's handwritten recipe book, which I'm lucky enough to own. A lot of the recipes are from as far back as 1925 when my parents got married. The blog will be a mix of her recipes and mine and you'll be able to tell the difference - Trust me!

Well, now it's back to stitching on my Take It Further Challenge June block. I've gotten carried away and done all 4 major seams with the proper colors of thread but also with 4 vintage stitch combos from my collection of stitches from antique crazy quilts. I'll post a sneak peek soon!

Stitch On!

Take It Further - May block

Take It Further - May block
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Take It Further - May block

Well, here is my May TIF block finally finished! Still behind, I must move on now to embellishing the June block which I have already pieced. But first a few details.

Firstly, this is the first month that I have not used ANY of JBM's fabric line. When I considered the colors, this iris print almost jumped off the shelf and landed on my cutting station. It has two of the May TIF colors in it and I found it to be just perfect. Fabrics in the upper right and upper left corners simply were obvious choices and matched the posted colors. The batik in the lower left fell into place as did the pale blue from the Fairy Frost fabric line.

Now for some detail pictures....

Here you can see this month's spider and web done over the iris print. I used blue metallic Kreinik blending filement for the web and stitched the spider using 1 strand of navy blue silk floss.

Here you see in the upper right a beaded summer sun. I found a bag full of these metallic trim pieces at a garage sale a few days ago and thought one would be most appropriate for the May block because May was a tremendously hot month here in Northern California. The center of the sun is a vintage gold Swarovski Lochrosen rhinestone. The rest of the beads are just gold seed beads. The seam treatment below the sun is one from my collection of vintage stitches.

On the upper left of the block I have appliqued an image on cotton that was an online freebie from Janet at Vintage Vogue some time back. Mother's Day for me was a quiet one this year with the exception of 3 phone calls from the 3 daughters. I really miss not having my Mum around to send flowers to and make calls to on Mother's Day.

On the lower right area of the block I placed a remembrance yellow ribbon and flag for Veteran's Day in honor of all our veterans but especially for the many men in my family who have fought long and bravely in wars from the Revolutionary War to present. There are too many names or I would have stitched them all in this patch. A few of the recent ones are Papa T, Uncle Roy, and my brother.

I think the seam treatment shown here turned out particularly well. It is also a copy from my collection of vintage stitch combinations.

Scroll down to my posts from the past couple days to see more close up details, ok?

Stich On!

Another sneak peek at May TIF block

Upper right seam
Originally uploaded by lasassone

This is a seam treatment I have just finished on my May Take It Further Challenge block. I had this seam stitch combo in my notebook where I collect interesting stitch combinations that I see on vintage crazyquilts. I used a size #8 silk pearl thread which I think was a Rainbow Gallery thread. The beads are unusual in that they aren't the usual silver lined seed beads. They are opaque and I wish I had other colors of that type of bead. I really like the look of them.

Tomorrow I have a couple more things to do to this block and hopefully tomorrow evening I'll unveil the whole sheebang!

I downloaded the TIF July challenge colors this morning and struggled a bit with the colors. I have pulled 5 DMC colors, but am not sure they are the final ones I will use. I sure wish the color bars in my DMC chart were removeable so that I could lay the colors directly on the screen to compare with the chart.

I guess though I'm lucky that I even HAVE a chart. I read the other day that DMC has stopped making the charts with the actual thread samples in them, so if you've been thinking about buying one and you can find one, you should seriously do it now. I've heard from one of my thread sources that the new charts which are only printed are not so nice.

Stitch On!

May Take It Further Sneak Peek!

Here's a little sneak peek at the work I've done on my May Take It Further Challenge block. I have fallen behind on this challenge for a couple reasons but am now trying to catch up and hope to have this block done this week. I already have the June block pieced, so it's all about embellishments until I catch up and move on to the July challenge which Sharon will post on July 1st.
And here's a little bearded iris motif. This is one of the 4 designs included in the Summer Creativity Challenge on the Hand-embroidery list at yahoogroups. When I needed a motif for this iris-centered block (another hint there....) I copied the iris motif at 50% and it fit perfectly! It is done with one strand of silk floss and I back stitched it. I am less than happy with how the backstitching through tissue paper turned out. It was kind of an experiment. Next time I'll use outline stitch for sure.

Stay Tuned & Stich On!

Delta Crazy Stitchers 2008 Round Robin

Delta Crazy Stitchers 2008 Round Robin
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Our local group decided some time ago that we'd like to do another round robin together. With the summer upon us, we could only get 5 stitchers interested though, so this will be a quick one!

I decided what I really NEED now is a cover for my sewing machine, which is just inside my new workroom AND one of the first things a visitor will see. I know, I know - I haven't posted pictures of the 2nd room in my 2 room studio-suite here. The problem is mostly that I can't seem to find a time when the room looks neat enough to take pictures. It's embarrassing, but I'm constantly working on the work table and now I"m in the midst of a total bead re-organization project that is gonna take me quite some time. I use those screw-together little towers for my beads and have used them for years, ever since made beaded skating dresses for my 2 girls and a couple others. Back then you could buy these towers in the drugstore where they were touted as pill containers.

Now, however, there appears to be at least 3 companies in China making them and, let me tell you folks, the little jars that screw together cannot be interchanged! So, as I've bought beads it's been a mess and now I have towers that are not just one color of beads nor even one type of bead. When I want yellow beads, for instance, I must go thru the whole cupboard of towers and most likely will find 6 or 7 towers with some yellow beads in them.

The idea of this project is to unscrew each little jar, store the beads in ziplock baggies and then re-store them in the towers by color. This was all brought about by my purchasing a couple expandable 3 tier things for inside my bead cupboard. Right away I found that some of my towers were too tall fpr the back shelf because I'd combined too many little jars. So....do I return the tier thingees or do I re-organize my beads. G thinks I should do the reorganization and even volunteered to help me. Hmmmm, wonder how many beads will end up on the floor instead of in ziplock bags when he does this while watching television...............

So, back to the picture of my block.....I pieced this block to join in the round robin but I did it in a way completely different than I've ever done before. I actually determined the size I needed, drew the dimensions with a ruler on artist's newsprint paper. I then started drawing a crazyquilt block using a 5 sided piece in the middle. I did this because I knew what fabric I wanted to use as the theme. The faux cq print I have used in the center and all corners is the fabric that I will use for the front, top & sides of the new machine cover.

After I had drawn (and REdrawn) the block to my satisfaction, I laid a sheet of tissue over my drawing and traced it. I then cut up the tissue into patterns to be used on the fabrics that I had pulled to coordinate with the faux cq print. When I cut the fabrics out I added some seam allowance - usually about 1/2 inch in case I needed some ease one way or the other.

For construction I pieced everything but the corners and center first, then I fussy-cut the faux cq to fit. I love some of the curves I managed to get on this block and it will be interesting to see how the other stitches handle them. I may just have to apply this method of block construction again in the future!

Stitch on!

I've beem tagged

I have been tagged by Lil of crazyseoulsister. I have never done anything like this before because most seemed to have included a logo that I couldn't figure out. So, Lil, I'll give this one a try, okay? I tried the copy and paste with Lil's post, but egads, I got her whole blog, so here I go to try to delete and reorganize this dealy bob:



This tag by Lil is really just a challenge to name 6 unimportant things about myself so here goes...

First the rules-


1. Link back to the person that tagged you. ( I did that above!)


2. Post the rules on your blog. (You are reading them!)


3. Share 6 unimportant things about yourself. (See below)


4. Tag 4 people at the end of your entry. (See note below)





My List:


1- I have really bad sweet tooth and crave fast food. I've had the sweet tooth all my life and it might have something to do with Mum's love of baking, but it's a struggle to stay away from candy, other sweets AND the fast food. When I was younger I could eat ANYthing and never gained any weight so I would have some boobs! In FACT I used to drink milk shakes and the occasional beer before bedtime in order to GAIN weight. It didn't work. I weighed 92 pounds when I got pregnant with my first daughter, 142 pounds the day I had her and, alas, 92 pounds the day I took her home from the hospital. 12 years later I had finally had made it to 105 pounds and after our 3rd daughter was born I never quite lost the last 10 pounds I had gained. That was just the beginning and now, despite going to the gym 3 times a week where I have actually gained pounds from lifting weights, I tickle the 150 pound mark!

2- I was once told by a mentor who was one of my college professors that I was a Renaissance Woman. I'm not sure exactly what he meant by that; at the time I wasn't doing any work with textiles or anything else except trying to finish another year of college. I'm a closet writer and from that time of my life I have a couple unfinished novels for young persons sitting in my file cabinet. And a whole lot of research notes that I'm thinking need to be shredded! I view myself as very scattered and easily distracted. I keep multiple projects going simultaneously and flit from one to the other. Does that scream Renaissance Woman to you? And then there's the writing which I wish I could be more dedicated to, but then I wouldn't have time for stitching or reading or..........

3- I have 23 fair size binders full of Redwork patterns that I have printed off over the past 10 years from the internet. I'm sure I won't be able to stitch all of them in my lifetime, but I view them as a valuable library for my and my student's use. I'm hoping soon to have the time to downsize the designs (pulling duplicates) in each category and move them all into a lateral file cabinet I just bought. Come to think of it, many of you might know this about me because I recently shared pictures of my new Fabric Aging Room where those binders live. If I can downsize those binders, I can buy more fabric, right? LOL

4-I LOVE ironing and at one time when my girls were young, I even considered taking ironing in to make a little extra money. Does anyone iron anymore or do they just pay a laundry to do it? Perhaps with the current downturn in our economy ironing your own clothing will have a rise in popularity?

5- I've recorded a record.....don't get too excited. It was a gift for family members only and to listen to it first you'd need a turntable and 2nd I would be leaving the room! LOL! When I was a kid I wanted to be the next Dinah Shore. I took all kinds of gymnastic, dance, voice and piano lessons thanks to my parents. But when it came to performing on my own, I had truly awful stage fright. In high school I actually performed in duos and groups and went on to college to pursue anything that would get me to Broadway or Hollywood. Remember I said I was easily distracted? Well, marriage and children put those ambitions on the back shelf where they've grown old and moldy!

6- Like Lil I kinda hate tags and if you blogtag me I will probably not answer. lol It mostly is because of a lack of time to learn enough about blogging in order to do things like that quickly. I usually ignore a tag but but this one seemed easy. However, I'm not tagging anyone individually.

If you are reading this and want to play, feel free to copy and paste my posting!

And Let Me Know!!!!

Stitch On!

CQ Stash Acquisition 6/14/08

CQ Stash Acquisition 6/14/08
Originally uploaded by lasassone

On 6/14/08, Flag Day in the U.S., we traveled to Placerville, California to visit our eldest daughter and her 2 girls (17 & 19). On the way there while my dh, aka G, was driving, I noticed a new bead shop when we stopped at a Michael's in Folsom, California.

After lunch I asked my daughter if she had been to that bead shop yet and she said it was a really good one and I would like it because it has an amazing number of charms. She immediately turned & apologized to her father who had hoped to return straight home after our visit. LOL!

Since it was my turn to drive home, it's clear that we stopped, right? After 30 minutes and MUCH self-restraint and $30+ removed from my stash money, here is what I purchased.

I got the purple seed beads because I have always had a difficult time acquiring purple ones for my stash. I think it must be a difficult color to manufacture.

The snips are especially for beaders and are very similar to a pair of surgical steel thread snips that I bought years ago at a flea market. That is why, when I spied them hanging on the wall, I put them in my tray. I'm constantly losing the older pair, so now perhaps I can at least find one when I need to snip stuff. These say that they are good for thread AND thin wire!

I could not resist the mop leaves even though they were a bit pricey! I love anything that is mother-of-pearl.

The charms on the left are for my Mum's family quilt block. They are a set of measuring spoons, a cupcake pan and a rolling pin. She loved to bake, but as she got older she also loved to play games like yahtzee and pokeno, so I got the tiny little dice too. Now I just have to find a little deck of cards. She and I and my girls used to play a lot of cards. I'd venture to say my girls learned to play 500 rummy and poker before they learned to play children's games like Life and Monopoly!

The brass findings in the center are something that I just thought might somehow to be used to make fittings for victorian fans on future cq work.

The 3 very special rhinestone yellow flowers were made by hand by someone else and I bought them in order to include them on my "Yellow to othe Max" quilt in progress.

The strand of drop beads were in a sale area and I thought they looked a little like tiny chili peppers. They are red glass with a streak of yellow in them. Since my brother and his wife live in Arizona and we also hope to in the near future, I'm always on the lookout for things with a southwestern feel.

Playing a bit with these new things has sparked some interest in resuming stitching for me. I've been in a funk for about 3 weeks and am even way behind in the Take It Further Challenge.

In the next couple days (before Saturday at least) I have to piece something to take to our next local CQ stitchers meeting on 6/21. I measured my sewing machine today and I think what I will piece is a back of a sewing machine cover. I am still rearranging my workroom and it would be nice to have a pretty machine cover since the machine is right inside the door as you enter the room.

Smiles to you all!

Stitch On!

I'm honored!

Yesterday the blogger behind Feeling Stitchy featured my spider and web work! Was a big surprise and I am delighted someone else loves my spiders as much as I do. Check out her blog and Stitch On! I've been out of town all day and now must spend some time catching up on things around here so I can find some time to stich myself!

Take It Further - April Block

Take It Further - April Block
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Still trying to catch up around here with all the organizational activities and stitching obligations. Today, while G was away for the whole day playing golf, I managed to move my computer system into the workroom onto my new much-smaller desk. Talk about crowded! Let's call it cozy, okay?

So, I finished the April TIF block a few days ago. If you click on the picture here, you can also see more detailed close ups of the 4 corners and center of the block in my Flickr pictures.

The JBM fabrics in this block are in the center and at the lower left. The center spider web this month is made of copper metallic machine thread and Mr. Spidey is brown made with one strand of cotton floss.

At upper left is some simple silk ribbon irises. Simple is the only SRE I do. Our iris gardens began blooming in April much to the delight of the hummingbirds who also came home to almost daily drain the feeders in April.

The fabric at upper right was not only chosen because it was one of April's colors, but also because I thought it could represent G's vegetable garden which he planted in early April. In fact, just yesterday, Memorial Day, we harvested our first squashes - 2 eight ball zucchini and 1 yellow zucchini. Now the fun begins trying to keep up with the squash production. No tomatoes yet, but the bushes are 3 feet high already! Squash and tomatoes are the only things G grows. When I used to do the garden we had beans, beets and radishes, but he only grows what he likes to eat!

The birthday image at lower left was a freebie posted by Janet of Vintage Vogue and seemed most appropriate because on the last day of April I turned 66. One year on Medicare and I'm still kickin'.

On the lower right corner I tried to reproduce a seed pod from Mabel, our Maple tree. When we moved into this house, Mabel did little to shade our front window in the hot afternoons of summer. Now she is huge and every year in April she showers us with the "twirly bird" seed pods that the girl used to call "helicopters" and loved playing with.

The center stitching looks a little wierd I know, but I was doing my best to camoflage the fact that the center piece of fabric was not cut straight. You might not see it, but it's the only thing I could see after the block was pieced. Too lazy to repiece the block, I set about trying to hide the fact. There's not much special stitching on this month's block. I played a bit the my fly stitches on top of the birthday corner and the green line of stitching over Mabel is a stitch I found on an antique crazy quilt this month that I had not seen before.

Enjoy the close ups!

Stitch On!

This thing called My Life Quilt

Life Quilt Block #1
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Sometime ago I decided I wanted to make an old traditional redwork coverlet similar to those made in the early days of redwork embroidery history. As I thought about it, two ideas started to take shape in my mind. One, which I have now started, is composed of images that remind me of happenings in my life from birth on. This series of blocks will be all done in red. Some will be images I've collected over the years from internet site, some will be made from pictures that I find and others will be taken directly from photos from our family's albums.

The second idea, by the way, was to do my favorite vintage designs in colored embroidery stitches. I'm still collecting designs for this idea and perhaps I'll start the blocks after I have a good start on My Life Quilt.

I began calling this planned coverlet "My Life Quilt," but as I am thinking and stitching the designs, it might also be called "Sweet Memories". As I began choosing designs and stitching, the memories from my childhood began flooding back.

The other day when I emailed my older and only brother asking about the dog we had before we moved into the city, I asked some questions of him which prompted memories for both of us. After emailing back and forth all day, he asked me "You ARE writing all this down, aren't you?" In years past I think he had great ambitions of writing our family's story, but evidently that chore has fallen to me but it will be from MY perspective, not his.

Each of my redwork blocks will have a story behind it and I gather them into some kind of book or booklet that will accompany the finished quilt. I am not doing the blocks in any particular order, so they will be re-numbered when I get closer to finishing.

Life Quilt Block #1: When we moved into the city from our home in the country, I was only 4 years old and very shy from having never had any neighbor friends where I had lived before. I only had one friend who was the daughter of someone who worked for my father in his Jewelry store in time. Our mothers became friends and we often did things together. We are still friends today at age 66.

But I digress. When we moved into our wonderful house (which will become a block of it's own) there were a lot of neighbor kids and I watched them playing games together. They all knew how to jump rope but I did not. It was a struggle to learn with a bit of clothesline rope that was left over from when Dad strung the clothes poles for Mum with new rope. Throw it over my head to the ground, step over it and throw it again. I don't recall how long it took me to actually JUMP rope, but what a great feeling of accomplishment when I did. And, of course ahead of me lay learning all the wonderful rhymes and another challenge of learning to use a longer rope and group jump! I kept that short rope for many years through many moves. I even brought it with me when I was 10 and we moved to California where I could jump rope pretty much 12 months of the year because of there being no snow!

My Fabric Storage Room Uncensored!

Finally, you are probably saying to yourself! We have finally finished setting up the first room of my 2 room studio suite! Hey, I like that! I have a Suite! hmmmmm.

The photo below was taken from the doorway of what 23 years ago was my youngest daughter's bedroom. It's hard to believe this small 10 ft by 9.5 ft room held all the trappings of a pre-teen girl. After her older sister left for college, she moved into her sister's room which she thought was slightly larger. Slightly is the operative word. At best that room which is slowly becoming my workroom and the 2nd room in "my Suite", is about 10 ft by 10 ft.

From the door you can see part of the right wall which actually is lined with 4 tall bookcases. The top 3 shelves all along have various quilting cotton prints divided into themes which are written on those yellow cards you see sticking out. The bottom two shelves contain my binders of embroidery patterns and bundled UFO's.

Below the window in the center is a metal pattern cabinet which I purchased when a local fabric store closed down. The bottom drawer contains all my sewing and commercial embroidery patterns. The center drawer contains fat quarters of quilting fabrics. The top drawer holds miscellaneous craft supplies.

To the right of the pattern cabinet is a stack of 4 large drawers that each hold different items for crazyquilting. For instance, one holds all my metallic fabrics. On top of the pattern cabinet are 2 sets of little drawers - I actually have 3 of these - the third one is in the workroom. Next to them, on top of the 4 drawers is a new cabinet that I purchased last week at Home Depot. I'm waiting for the drawer dividers that had to be ordered and then I hope to consolidate all my "little things" into two of the new drawer units so that all my embellishments can be kept in this room.

In the center of this room you can see the cutting station that G built for me. I had this idea for some time and had hoped to have a larger one in a new home, but this will do for now. He bolted together 2 short bookcases back to back. Then we bought a white coated board slightly wider than my new cutting board and put it on top. You might be able to see that I have the cutting board clamped on so that it doesn't move. The extra width that isn't covered by the cutting board is great for laying notes, tools, etc. The back to back shelves of the base is handy and at present contain things that need my attention after we finish setting up the workroom.

Here is a picture taken from the corner to the left of the window. To the right of this picture is the doorway.
You can see above more of the themed fabric stacks, bundled UFO's and my downsized stash of Redwork, CrazyQuilt and Quilting books. On top on the left are plastic boxes which each contain different sized cuts of cotton squares and bricks. The suitcases on the top right contain linings, family quilt items and one of them is full of yellow crazyquilt fabrics. On top of the books are heavier fabrics for totes and purses.

Below is a picture taken from the doorway of my crazyquilt fancy fabric storage that is to the left of the pattern cabinet.
As you can see there are index cards in the front of each drawer with the color family name. On the bottom right you can also see that I am blessed with an OVER abundance of green fabrics. So much so that I cannot even close that drawer! I'm going to have to do something about that soon before they get dusty! On top of these drawers right now is a very unattractive naked board which will be dealt with later. On top the board is the ever present tv which is standing at the ready for when I spend loads of cutting time in this my Fabric Storage Room!

I have one other view of this room, but the picture needs to be turned and I can't figure out how to do that in Blogger's dashboard. So, I'm going to do a second post from Flickr where I have been able to turn the photo for you.

Thanks for visiting! Stitch On!

Additional View

Fabric Storage Room #3
Originally uploaded by lasassone

This is the wall to the left as you enter the Fabric Storage Room. The other half of the wall is the closet which G still lays claim to. For this picture, you can click on it to see a larger view and the notes that I put on the picture showing what is what.

On the top of the bookshelf are my button jars. Each contains a different color. The fabrics on these shelves are all cottons and are in "reads as" color groupings. The 2nd shelf from the bottom has a stack of Kaufman Kona cotton colors.

The little wallhanging was a college art class project. It's a memorial piece for my Mum who passed away right before I started the class. The hearts depict her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren at the time of her passing. It's title is "Lulu's Garden." I am the flower on the right, my brother is the center flower/heart and our older sister who died at birth is the folded heart on the left.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of room #1 of my Studio Suite. Come back anytime!

Stitch On!

Take It Further Challenge - March

March TIF Palette posted by Sharon B

Take It Further Challenge - March
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Just today I finished the embellishment of my Take It Further Challenge block for March. I will now move on to embellishing the April block which is already pieced. I have my fabrics pulled for my May block, but I haven't pieced the block yet.

On this block, as the previous ones, I have embroidered thename of the month and there's a web & spider in the center. I tried using a heavier thread for the web and I really don't like it as much as I like using the metallic threads. The spider is made with one strand of DMC cotton floss.

I did the clover for St. Patrick's Day and put the date of this year's Easter under the basket of eggs and flowers. I did that because this is the first year that Easter has been this close to G's birthday which is March 24th. 68 years ago in 1940 he was born on Easter Sunday.
The Easter eggs are 2 hole oval buttons stitched on with colored pearl thread and the cross is one of a bunch of mother-of-pearl that I won in an eBay auction years ago.

The gold piece on the upper right is a piece of an old earring with a rhinestone in the center. I thought it was rather like the sun shining down on this block. March is when flowers began to respond to the erratic bouts of sunshine we have here in No. California.

The Judith Baker Montano fabrics in this block are the ones at upper left and lower right. Every month there seems to be a lot of her fabric line that goes well in my blocks. It would pretty easy to even build the whole block around them.

So, now it's on to some work on the last block of a round robin that I have been participating in and then I'll be embellishing the April block. I have added 3 close up pictures of the March block below. First is the Easter basket area, 2nd is the earring medallion and the last one is of the center spider and his clunky web:

Stitch On!

Final block of Chocolage DONE!

Final block of Chocolage DONE!
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, there you have it! All 16 blocks of the Chocolage design set are done. In the next several days I will be working on the layout for the blocks. The Chocolage Design book includes a layout for a quilt top, being the contrary person I've always been, I will be doing my own "thing" with these blocks.

By way of answered some questions that have been asked about the fabric on which I did the designs, I want to say here that it is called "Alison by P & B Textiles." It's still available in a few places online because the other day I found some for someone who asked. I either found it by googling the name OR by putting the name in the Fabric Shop Search site. I am not sure which.

For this quilt top, I have a great chocolate themed fabric and 3 coordinates I will use. The blocks will be bordered with two of the colors that are in the theme print and I think the final layout will involve some very chocolate cornerstones. Of course once I get going with the graph paper, who KNOWS what the final product will look like?

Stay tuned & Stitch On!

Where I've been and What I've been doing!

Hey! I'm back and happy to report that almost all of the boxes are now unpacked. There are just a few left and a couple of wardrobe boxes but they have things in them like quilt batts, zipper bags of yarn, my mother-in-law's and my grandmother's quilts and some bedding. Haven't figured out where those things are going yet. I want to get my two rooms done first.

Right now G is framing and getting ready to install a 2 ft. by 4 ft. section of pegboard for over my computer desk in the workroom. Above that will be two 72" shelves that we have yet to buy. And after that, IT WILL BE ALL DONE and pictures WILL be taken!

So! What have I been doing? Well, get comfortable and I'll tell you.....

Sometime ago on a blog or website I read a hint about a nifty little thing that Home Depot sells for 99 cents. They think it's a carpenter's apron, but this tip was about using it for a quilter's tool apron. When we were at Home Depot recently I purchased one. They look like this:

Simple little thing, no? It's only 2 pockets because it has a double row of stitching down the center of it. I really like this idea. Back a few years ago when I worked at a fabric store, we had to make something similar to this to carry our scissors around the store. While it's handy to have your scissors when you walk about the house, I actually thought I'd like something with more carrying capacity and this would work much better for me.

A couple days after I bought this apron, I had a meeting here at the house and my friends were touring my newly installed fabric room with it's custom cutting center that G built for me. The Home Depot apron was laying on the cutting station and someone asked what I had that for. I told them about the hint I had read. One gal said she wasn't so sure she wanted to wear an advertisement for Home Depot but then commented that I, no doubt, had plans to change that being that I embroider everything in sight!

I laughed outwardly but in my head I was thinking she was right! So, I went searching through my stash for something that I could applique over the Home Depot logo. I found a panel of what I think are supposed to be quilt labels. The panel is called Awakenings to Spring by Maywood Studios. I laid several of the designs over the Home Depot logo and found one I liked. Since the design had a blank center I then went looking for something I could embroider in the empty space. I wanted my initial "L" and found an L with a Lily of the Valley pattern I really liked. Here are 2 pictures, 1 of the whole panel and a close up of the square I chose after I had traced the embroidery pattern onto it & chosen the colors of thread I would use. Yes, I know I should have pressed the panel before the picture was taken, but I did it afterwards and before I started embroidering.

I added a muslin backing to the embroidery before hooping it so that the orange logo would not show through. It took me a few evenings to get the embroidery done, but during that time I also removed the stitching from the center of the Home Depot apron. Here you can see that and also the finished embroidery:

I then removed the basting holding the front and muslin together and trimmed the design. Then I cut another piece of muslin the same size. I placed the design face down on the new piece of muslin and sewed around all 4 edges with the exception of about 2 or 3 inches at the bottom of the design. In the picture below I hadn't finished sewing all around it yet because I wanted to make sure to finish it to fit the front of the apron. Also below is a picture of it pinned in place and ready to be sewn.

Finally, by sewing this on the front of the apron, I not only covered up the orange logo, but I created a 3rd pocket in the apron and the embroidered piece is actually a 4th pocket! Here is a close up of the sewn edges and a picture of me wearing my new spiffy sewing apron/caddy.

Should anyone else convert a Home Depot carpenter's apron, please let me know and send me pictures, okay?

Stitch on!

Chocolage Block #15 and What's Next!

Chocolage Block #15
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, block #15 for the Chocolage quilt is finished. There's only one more design and I was going to begin it tonight, but I must interrupt this project for something a tad more important. You know what it's like, I'm sure, when inspiration hits? In this case, I read a handy hint somewhere and, of course, I don't remember where....... Out of that has come Inspiration with a capital EYE!

I'm working on a project that will make my life easier as I move from one room to the next when I'm cutting fabric and making "kits" out of my UFO's......more on the UFO's soon. I've planned something for the next few weeks that will hopefully jump start my creativity AND get you all talking to me as well.

What I'm working on right this moment I will soon share in a sort of tutorial post as soon as I'm done, ok? I'm hoping it will turn out as I envision and that you all will love the idea as much as I do right now.

Stay tuned and STITCH ON!

Chocolage Block #14

Chocolage Block #14
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, I'm sure glad that I have finished this block. I think it may have been the most challenging of the designs so far. It was almost all back stitching, but the itty-bitty words inside the Basic Food Group blocks I had to do with just one strand of DMC floss. Good thing I have that new Ott lamp in the front room! I've now moved on to block #15, but probably won't make much headway on it until perhaps Sunday night when the tv programs are good again.

Meanwhile I have my hands full getting ready to host our local CrazyQuilt stitchers group here tomorrow morning. I've cleared the tables and cleaned the bathroom, but the rest of the house isn't looking so hot. Still a lot of boxes to unpack and I've got to bake something for a snack to serve.

About those boxes.....you would think that now that I have TWO rooms instead of just ONE for my stuff that I would have no problem getting everything put away, wouldn't you? It's shocking to me that there are still so many things in boxes in the garage and sitting here and there in the house. I obviously kept too many things last year when I was packing to move. I kept things I was in doubt about because I thought I was going to have a whole basement for my things. Moving back in here to wait out this stupid housing crisis was not what I had in mind.

So, I have decided that I will have to do some more downsizing - especially in the fancy fabric department. I think I said before that I can't even close one of the fancy fabric storage drawers - the green one. Perhaps I can list a Friday ad on the yahoo crazyquiltING list when I get going. I really want to stay away from eBay - just don't wanna go there no more!

And cotton quilt backings! Wow, as soon as all is set up I am going to start putting together "quilt kits" complete with backings. What is left over is going OUT of here to the group I belong to that makes quilts for breast cancer chemo patients. I have SO much trouble letting go of fabric I love. I love it all or I wouldn't have bought it, right?

But meanwhile unpacking goes on with a lot of questionable things being repacked into boxes for re-consideration. Like-will I ever get back to rug hooking? Will I ever really DO that large needlepoint picture my daughter and I loved so much. And best of all for laughs: Will I ever finish the red sweater for G that I started maybe 10 yrs ago?

This morning G finished putting together the new oak desk for my workroom, so this coming Sunday will be spent moving this computer in there. I'm wondering how I can get away with moving it without disconnecting all the cables......I'm probably dreaming, but I SO don't look forward to figuring out where things go if I have to disconnect everything! Maybe I can put tags on the ends of the cables......

Stay tuned & STITCH ON!

Chocolage Block #13

Chocolage Block #13
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I finished this block last evening while I watched this week's result show from Dancing with the Stars. About that: I had hoped that Priscilla Presley would last longer, but alas she is now gone. I liked that someone closer to my age was getting a chance to show that older women can learn new tricks, ya know?

Anyway, with this block done it leaves 3 more to do. Once I get started on them, they just zip along. By now I feel l've gotten pretty skilled at the back stitch, but on block #14 the printing is smaller and I see that I will have to switch to one strand of thread for it.

Looking at this photo I realize I didn't do the best pressing job on it. It's looking a little strange & wrinkly. I usually press the blocks from the front first and then turn them face down on terry towling. I then spray the back of the block with fabric finish, press with my fingers any little thread tails I see sticking where they aren't supposed to be and then steam the block really well. I think I was in a hurry or very sleepy last night when I did this one. It needs to be redone.

Today on my agenda are my Take it Further Challenge blocks for March and April. I need to finish the embellishing of the March block so I can get caught up with this challenge.

Stitch on!

Take it Further Challenge

Take it Further Challenge - April
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, I've fallen behind again and haven't finished my March block, but today, looking for a little distraction, I pulled up the April palette and chose these DMC colors and fabrics.

The DMC colors are from the top 920, 3857, 890, 3078 and 814. 814 was used in March's colors for my block also. I found some of the colors in Sharon's April palette way darker than anything that DMC has available. But, I'm excited about the prospect of working with these fabrics I have chosen.

Two of the fabrics are the Judith Baker Montano fabrics from Robert Kaufman. The top one shown and the bottom one are the JBM ones. I do believe I'll be putting the top one in the center of my block.

But I must finish March's block first; I'm trying to be disciplined about this challenge. I get distracted with embroidery work that I can do in the evenings now that my favorite programs have come back on with new episodes. I find redwork type embroidery very relaxing and I now have a nice new Ott floor lamp next to my chair, so it's easier to see to stitch.

Over the past few weeks when we were making trips to and from the storage unit, I have finished one piece that is a gift for my brother. I've also recently gotten back to the Chocolage blocks. If you click on these pictures, you will not see a closeup with details because I didn't post them from Flickr, but they ARE in my Flickr photostream. And here they also are:

I can't seem to turn the cat's picture upright. So sorry if you get a crick in your neck. If you'd like to see a better picture, click on the first picture in this post of my April fabric palette and you can see both these last pictures in my Flickr photostream. I guess I'm still learning how to do all this and unless I do things everyday, these days I seem to have to relearn things over and over. Benefits of aging I do believe.

Back to unpacking! Stitch On!

2008 Roomie block

2008 Roomie block
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I have been bad about blogging and I apologize. Did you miss me?

I've had a medical issue AND we have been busy bringing our things back into the house from storage over the past 3 weeks. In order to accomodate my stash and other things, we are making a lot of changes in the house. G has put together at least 7 bookshelves for the fabric and books and now he's building a cutting station for the center of the fabric storage room.

In the workroom yesterday we covered a 4' x 8' sheet of foam insulation board with beige flannel and installed it on the wall for the design board I've always wanted. I still don't have the computer in the workroom, but that's because I can't seem to find just the right desk. The one I have here in the office won't fit in there and actually I don't think I have the room arranged right yet either. A new fancy Polder ironing board from Costco was a total disaster and had to be returned to the store when we discovered that it wouldn't open/raise up because apparently the levers were installed incorrectly at the factory. I think I may, for now, keep my old odd-shaped-no-longer-made EuroPro board with the off-center point.

As soon as the 2 rooms are all set up, I'll take pictures for you all to see. I can't wait to get back to playing with fabric!

But, about this block I finished today.....

All golds and yellows with prints containing purple and green, this block was sent to me by Kate H. to embellish. Each of the gals who are my roommates at the CQ Society's annual retreat in July in Omaha are doing a different color block. Our blocks will be made into a wallhanging which will be auctioned off at the scholarship & breast cancer research auction event during the retreat. We did the same thing last year with many $$$$ made. Last year our blocks were all black and embellished with jewel-toned stitching. This year we each are embellishing a different color block that Kate pieced.

I was disappointed that the colors of this block didn't photograph very true. The fabric on the lower right is a pale yellow asian brocade. All the fabrics are either yellow or gold. I used mainly silk pearl threads and a little ribbon floss. You can't see them well, but along the edge of the purple and gold asian brocade up top, I added a few gold Swarovski flat lochrosen rhinestones. Now that you know, you can probably see them!

There also are a lot of beads, as is my usual final step on a cq block. And an itsy bitsy spidey for luck! I am unable to attend the Omaha retreat this year, but am glad they still considered me part of the roomie group!

I enjoyed stitching on this block. Most of the stitching was done before Easter Sunday. The evening before Easter I began having some vision problems which are still annoying me. I experienced a Vitreal Detachment in one eye - my good eye, wouldn't you know! I didn't lose any vision; doctor says these are common age-related happenings - doncha love it? This getting older is not for sissies! Given time I am told that my brain will learn to not see the dirty-contact-lens-like view I have been left with.

Since my father lost his vision to macular degeneration, I was very concerned and then relieved when the doctor found no other problems. He put me on a vitamin supplement especially for eye health and I'm thankful I can be back to stitching now.

I did the beading on this block yesterday and today. I think that tomorrow I can get back to working on Jo's round robin block I have here and get it sent on to Hideko in Japan shortly. I also have another little project I need to send to Kate when I send this block. More on that later.

Stitch On!