Blogging Random Act of Kindness

Blogging Random Act of Kindness
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Recently I was looking at pictures in the Flickr group called Corners of My Home and I made a comment about a picture of a cabinet that had been posted. The cabinet was the focus of the picture, but atop the cabinet were some cute miniature chairs that attracted me since I collect them. Another member also had mentioned in a comment that she was a collector of miniature chairs as well and I followed the links to her pictures. Her name is Kim and her blog is Little Somethings.

We eventually ended up emailing each other and compared collections. I had made a comment about a little chair she had in her picture that was like the little "modern" in this picture. She mentioned she had a duplicate she would like to send me.

My intention was to do a trade with her but when she sent me this HUGE box of other duplicates she found when she went looking, her address wasn't on the outside of the box!

So, you see, this wasn't QUITE a random act of kindness but we treated it as such.

Very shortly after receiving the little chairs I was reading another blog that I love called My house is cuter than yours and I discovered that the owner of that blog, Mary, collects salt & pepper shakers.

A lightbulb moment! I remembered I had the remains of my Mum's collection of Salt & Pepper shakers around here in a box somewhere. So, I took pictures of the many pairs left in the box and offered them up to Mary to pass the kindness on.

She received them last Saturday and today she blogged about it and posted a picture of her new treasures.

Fat Quarters going Bye-Bye

Fat Quarters going Bye-Bye
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Surprise! I'm still here and I haven't finished another Redwork piece yet.

This is a picture of the results of the past couple weeks of cutting, pressing and folding.

In my major cotton stash reduction, I'm cutting and keeping only 1/2 yard of most of my cotton yardage. So far I've filled these 13 boxes with fat quarters sorted by color. I'm not quite half way through the shelves yet!

I'm down to cutting the novelties and these color boxes don't really work for novelties. I need more boxes so I can sort the novelties into catagories like tea, coffee, sweets, golf, sewing, etc. Alas, I have no more of these wonderful boxes and don't want to go buy anymore.

All of this has really brought it home to me how much I have indulged my fascination for novelty fabrics over the years. I'm a bit embarrassed.

So now I've resorted to making stacks in a laundry basket. I just have to remember to put something over the top of the basket at night because I think Katie (our feline boss) thinks I'm doing all this work for so she will have a well-padded bed to nap in!

Ah well, back to cutting & pressing. At least moving around like this is keeping me warm. After a lovely period of Spring-like warmth, it's raining again and they are forecasting snow for tonight. It's been many many years since we've had snow in this area; they are probably wrong!

Children of the World - Scotland!

Scotland
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

I must confess! During periods on UNinspiration while I was working on the Crazy Quilt block, I completed another block in the Children of the World vintage set.

I think this one is number 8 - 12 more to go! Now in the evenings I can get moving on these blocks again!

I've been spending days for the past couple weeks cutting up my extra fabrics into fat quarters to sell on eBay. My user name is lasassone if anyone is interested.

I'm only keeping 1/2 yard of any fabric except those which obviously need to be kept for quilt backings. I have to admit I have had rough patches where letting go of some fabrics has been really hard.

Of course if I didn't really love them, I wouldn't have bought them in the first place.....

RIGHT?

CQ Block done!

TXcancercenter
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

FINALLY! Today I finished my embellishment work on the 7" block for the Texas cancer center quilt. I just returned from the post office where I sent it out & away.

I actually really like this block. I generally don't work in this particular color palette so it was a growing experience for me.

The fabric with the seagull on it just about jumped into my hands when I began piecing and it was the inspiration for me to add the word "Soar". The colors seem a little distorted in my photo. Everywhere you may see a wierd gray color, it's actually a muted green and goes lovely with the other fabrics which are peach and rust.

The leaves were dyed with Ozcraft dyes last summer. The web was done with Coats & Clark metallic sewing thread and for the spider I used 1 strand of Splendor silk floss. I painted the face button with glass & china paints that are cured in the oven. The dainty flower trim on the curved seam is a purchased trim.

NOW BACK TO THE REDWORK!

Hall Corner

Hall Corner
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

I joined a group on Flicker called Corners of my Home and have been enjoying seeing pictures of how others use the corners of their homes for storage & display.

This is one of the corners of our home that makes me very happy. More explanation is available if you click on the photo and be sure to drag your mouse over the photo to see the notes!

We call this Katie's cupboard; don't you want to know why? Well, click on it already!

Redwork Children of the World Block #7

Redwork Children of the World Block #7
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

OK! I confess! I can't HELP myself. I'm enjoying doing these blocks SO much and I already HAD this one started when I pieced the CQ block.

There are 13 more to go! I'll be doing Scotland next! Did I ever tell you my Dad's family is from Scotland and we actually have a family castle in Stirling? I've never been, but my cousin went and snitched some pebbles from the fireplace & from the garden for me! Shhhh! Don't tell!

I really AM going to take a Redwork pause now and embellish the crazy quilted block for the TX cancer hospital wallhanging.

Nekkid CQ Block

Nekkid CQ Block
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Recently I was asked to become involved in a project with several friends for Breast Cancer Advocacy. As you may know, for the past few years many needle artists have been creating bras for a Bra Calendar and Exhibition.

This project, called the Way to Women's Wellness Foundation, has raised over $50,000 for Breast Cancer Research. It was founded by Victoria Adams Brown who is the owner of www.ribbonsmyth.com. She has personal experience with breast cancer by way of family members.

This is an additional project where several needle artists are creating crazyquilt blocks which will be put together for a quilt to be displayed at a cancer hospital in Texas.

This block is MY unembellished effort for this project. The areas that may appear gray in the picture are actually sage and light green. I apparently have a camera that loves peach and doesn't recognize certain shades of green! Who knew?

I will be taking some time off from my current Redwork embroidery project to embellish this block and will post another photo when the block is completed.

Children of the World Block #6

Children of the World Block #6
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Well, here's block #6. Lots of straight lines in this one. Isn't he cute in his little Uncle Sam costume?

The next one I'm working on now is Portugal and he's a little bullfighter!

As I'm finishing these I am pressing them from the back over a terrycloth towel to make the stitching stand out. My Mum taught me that when I learned to embroider as a child.

In fact, I think I knew that even before I learned to embroider because ironing the pillowcases each week was my first household chore. We never had plain pillowcases in our home. She did beautiful embroidery on pillowcases and towels.

I only have sadly worn pillowcases with her embroidery on them now - none are usable for pillows. One day I'm going to make a quilted wallhanging with pieces of the embroidery in the center of crazyquilted blocks.

Perhaps I'll use 30's repros OR the real ones I've collected. I saw something similar in the recent issue of McCall's Quick Quilts.

Children of the World Block #5

England
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Well, last night I finished this lad from England - only 15 more blocks to go in this set I'm doing from the 1930's of 1940's.

Redwork is such a calming form of needlework and right now I seem to need it. You can do it while riding in a car, waiting at an appointment and even while watching television.

Children of the World Block #4

Children of the World Block #4
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Well, it's nice to be BACK!

We had a little get-away-from-the-rain for a week! We drove to sunny Arizona to visit family and friends and to check out the new Sun City that Del Webb is planning out in the desert west of Phoenix, AZ. We were intrigued with the Sun City Lifestyle which we hadn't sampled before.

Evenings while we were gone I worked on this block and now it's back to reality (rain) and....

I'm on to the next one in the series - England - Coming Soon!

Stash Sunday - RED Fabrics

MVC-002F
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

This is my red fancy fabric drawer. Lots of lame' in there and Holiday fabrics and a ton of silk dupioni! More than enough to last me awhile!

Stash Sunday - Red!!!

MVC-001F
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

This is my red embellishment drawer - lots of goodies, vintage AND new in there! Enough to last a couple lifetimes of crazyquilting I'm sure!

Stash Sunday - Novelties?

Stash Sunday - Novelties?
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Novelties or Purple she said, so here's a small area of my Novelties - How would I pick just one? Some are "filed" according to subjects like the ones you're looking at in the picture....food, coffee and critters. the stack on the right is all florals and garden related prints.

I have had a "thing" for novelty fabrics for such a long time that I can't remember when I started. At one time I went through it all and tested for 100% cotton. Unless it was a super-duper, can't be replaced print, the poly-cotton blends went bye-bye.

Unfortunately that didn't lighten my load much. Besides these shown I also have stacks in themes of patriotic, cows, hearts, architectural, nature (rocks,etc.), ocean, fairies, wine/grapes, golf, sewing, oriental, and many more.

What do YOU do with your novelties?

Stash Sunday - Purple!

Stash Sunday - Purple!
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Well, she asked for purple and here is a shot of my purple embellishment drawer. The only fabric in there is the embroidered piece of a blouse collar a friend gave me. The leaves are vintage from Lacis's shop in Berkeley, California. I inherited the tatting from my crazyquilting Mother-in-law. The daisy trim at the bottom of the picture was someone's cast off item I found at a quilt show. Lucky Me!

Redwork Christmas Ornament

Redwork Ornament
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

I made this ornament for a close friend who collects mice. I found the cute mouse couple image somewhere on the internet quite some time ago and printed it off. I recently found it in one of my Redwork binders and knew I had to make it for her this year.

I think I need a new oval template though. Didn't realize how off this was until I saw this picture. I used the back off a wooden frame, but it's slightly wonky!

I just love this cute couple! I sure hope my friend is behind on reading my blog so that she will be surprised when her package arrives on Friday!

Well, I'm off to the grocery. It appears now that we will be spending Christmas Eve & Day up in the mountains at our eldest daughters home, so I need to bake a little more and buy groceries for my contribution for Christmas Morning breakfast!

Stash Sunday - Glitz!

Stash Sunday - Glitz!
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

This is a picture of my yellow/gold/silver/copper drawer that is just for embellishments - no glitzy threads in there - the threads are elsewhere! A lot of this is vintage stuff. Last summer I decided my embellishment color boxes had outgrown the lidded boxes they had been in for years. Some of the lids would not even snap on anymore.

So I went to Big Lots and purchased 8 of those 3-drawer roll-around storage units - as many as would fit under my old oak library-turned-cutting table. I quickly filled them up and had to combine the metallics in with my yellows to conserve space.

Did I mention that yellow is just about my favorite color? LOL!

Children of the World Blocks

Children of the World Block #2
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

I've had these vintage embroidery patterns for some time and recently I found the perfect Children of the World fabric to use with them to make a quilt. It's a print with many children's faces and they are dressed in costumes of their nations.

I chose 2 strands of dmc #304 red and an off-white Kona Cotton fabric to do the embroidery. The colors were picked to match the colors in the children's face fabric. I also have a Flags of the World fabric that I hope to incorporate into the final quilt as well.

So far I have completed 3 of the 20 designs and after Christmas projects are done I hope to get back to these. Each only takes a couple evenings in front of the television for me to complete.

If you click on the Italy design it will take you to my Flicker photos and you can see the other 2 designs I have completed so far. The one shown here is my favorite so far. I really perfected my colonial knot technique on all those grapes & spots! Isn't she cute!???

2005 Wood DollList's Toy Exchange

2005 Wood DollList's Toy Exchange
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

I recently participated in a Christmas Toy exchange on the Wood Doll list and this is a picture of what my Raike's Hope dolls, Shelby and Libby, received from my swap partner Deb's doll, Amelia Erin who is a Lawton 9" wooden doll.

The hats were handmade by Deb and are for playing dress up by these 9 inch carved & fully jointed dolls and they both received a Christmas stocking to hang this year too.

Libby on the right is all prim and proper, isn't she? But Shelby on the left seems bent on eating the gingerbread cookie! I think that's most appropriate. Shelby is named after my #2 granddaughter who has as big a sweet tooth as I have!

Delta Crazy Stitcher's 2005 Ornament Exchange

Crazy Quilt Stocking Ornament
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

Last weekend our local group, the Delta Crazy Stitchers, had our Holiday lunch which takes the place of our December meeting. We always have an ornament exchange and this is the little stocking ornament that I made for it this year. It's backed with a fancy ivory and metallic gold brocade.

Of course I forgot to take a picture of it's backside! Like everyone else, I find myself very busy this time of year. I'm lucky that's ALL I forgot to do!

If you click on the picture it will take you to a larger picture and I also have loaded up pictures of 3 other ornaments from the exchange.

Enjoy!

Stash Sunday - Thankful for....

Hand Painted on Silk
Originally uploaded by lasassone.

I have many things in my stash that I'm thankful for but this is one of 6 unique hand-painted silk pictures I inherited from my mother-in-law who was also a crazyquilter. They measure about 17" x 14" and the images appear to have been hand drawn on the silk and then hand painted. I think she may have bought these when she and her husband traveled to Japan after WWII. Perhaps even from a "street artist" if there were such people in the 1950's. If you click on the picture it will take you to my flicker album and you can see the other 5 pictures. I have kept these hanging in my closet for some time now; she had them rolled up. I've always thought I would make cq "frames" for them using the lovely oriental satin prints I have in my stash - another UFO I'm confessing to I guess!