Happy Birthday

Annie!

from my dear friend Carol (mamacjt)

 Is this just not the cutest most delightfully little happy birthday wishes quiltie you ever saw?!!!  It is such a sweet surprise.  (I didn't know she knew when my birthday was).  It arrived last Thursday.  Perfect for me to enjoy days before.  It's going to be coming out for 'everybody's' birthday to come now.  (Actually it won't ever get put away too far.  It's much too cheerful to be hidden away)  I need to see it often.

That wasn't all.  Look what fun came with it...

I guess today is the day I view the world through rose colored glasses... (I never do that.  I always look at the world head on).

Fun candles, a "gold" happy birthday necklace and some fabric pieces!

...and this fun little bundle from my other dear friend Shirley (freidasew).  Some of the world's best people live in Wisconsin.

I just love the detail in the sunflower and the leaf fabrics.  Look closely for the myriad of french knots in the flower center.  Gorgeous work, colors and absolute beautiful quilting!  That little post-its pad says: "I'll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go, please!"   ... that's what I want in a coffee.  LOL

 How fun is all this?!  I'm such a lucky birthday girl.

Carol and Shirley, thank you so, so much for the best birthday wishes ever!  You're the best!

My local quilt shop gives a birthday discount of half your age on your entire purchase.  I stocked up on some fun fabrics and a new book at a pretty nice discount.  There are benefits of getting old as long as you're getting old in the right place (meaning in my town where my local quilt shop gives this nice birthday discount).  After that, a Sundae at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, YUM!

...and I thought it was going to be a rather quiet boring birthday!  NOT!

Thank you!
Annie

Revisiting Bird & Blooms

Now Pillow #4

I haven't been very happy with the outcome of this piece and have been eyeing it daily and it finally began to speak to me of what I might change.

Original details on this piece are in this post. 

The flowers bothered me the most.  They were too lost in the background.  I chose some pastel pieces to cut swirls to add to the thread painted swirls.  The stems and leaves were also very lost in the background and got fabric highlights added to them as well.

A bit more collage was created for the background to get it to a 15" pillow size and I'm now pretty happy with this piece.

  The back is simple.  I find that I like making the zipper part of the design and choosing one with color contrast for that purpose.  With my pillow zippers I'm trying to pull the "fun" out of "functional".

I think I need to look into some charms to decorate the zipper pulls.  This one will need a bird charm.

4 months into the year and 4 pillows.  At least I'm not behind...yet.  Pillow #5 is on the design wall and it also is asking for a bit of something extra.  I wonder what that might be.  I'll have to muse on it.

Annie

Altered Dresden

The unPillow 

I have this fat eighth collection that my friend Carol (mamacjt) shared with me just before I fled Wisconsin. 

Fat eighths make me think small project(s).  But there seems to be a lot more to a fat eighth than meets the eye.  A while back I made a couple of small projects with these and then decided to challenge myself to how many quiltie things I can make with the collection.  My flickr group of projects is here. 

I pulled out the predominantly pink pieces for this quiltie project.  I used my little Easy Dresden ruler to cut the wedges.  I stitched in a center circle and then satin stitched a spiral inside.

The spiral felt off centered (even though it wasn't), so I did a straight stitch following the spiral.  It still felt off.  Then the stitched-in center piece looked way less than perfect, so I cut and fused a ring to cover that ugly seam and it all came into a better perspective for me.  Plus I really like the way that light colored fabric ring looks.

 

I loved how this looked the entire time I worked on it. 

With the fixes to the center, it took on a whimsical look so I added a pink "stick".  I was SO happy with it.

Then I put the pillow form inside and my spirits took a spiraling dive!  It just doesn't look right as a pillow.  I hate that!

I think the design gets too distorted.  So, now what?  Well, I think maybe I'll try putting a thin foam piece inside and try it as a chair back cushion.  I'll just have to wait until it inspires me to know exactly what it should be.  But dang it all, I wanted it as a pillow!

There were some scraps left after cutting the wedges and the inside of the fabric ring was left as well.  I put them into the back.

This means I'm still on pillow #4.  So, I'll be back...

Annie

Publishing Comments

Why don't the little "publish comment" buttons all work the same?!!!  I suppose it has to do with the system you blog with.  I've no clue really because I've no clue about this techy stuff.  I'm just guessing.  Does any one really know why this is?

The orange "Publish Your Comment" buttons work the first time, every time for me.

The white "Publish" buttons that turn blue when you click on them hardly ever work for me.  Once I tried off and on for two hours to publish a comment on one of these before finally giving up.  I've sent many bloggers a private message just so they would know I was there, and I liked what they did. 

It's so incredibly frustrating and I know you want me to come back later and try again, but that's getting even more time consuming.  Please know that I'm watching you work.  I will continue to write a comment, but if it won't take after a few minutes of trying, I need to move along in life.

Remember...I'm watching you work!  Why wouldn't I?  You're very inspiring!  I just don't always get to tell you so.

Annie

Wonky Quilt

Literally!

I don't know how the "Monk" in me allowed me to make this quilt.  I'll explain how it came about, but I first must post this

WARNING:

What follows may horrify quilters everywhere.

As you read, please keep in mind that I never pay attention to quilting "rules"...never.  Sometimes they make sense, but, mostly not.  I think most "rules" were created prior to the creation of the walking foot.

First of all I needed to make one more "whole cloth" quilt.  And I fell in love with these fabrics. 

I love the colors, the wonky flower blocks and the plaid stripe.  It will be horrifying to some to learn that I found these fabrics at JoAnn's.  They aren't a bad quality but they are printed wonky.  This I didn't see until I set out to cut the top to size.  This was so disappointing.  

Eventually I wondered if I cut the design straight if it would show that the quilt would not be "squared".  Horrifying that I would even consider cutting a quilt out of square, isn't it?!  It's an optical illusion.  The eye is fooled.  Well,  my eye is fooled.

These fabrics are on the narrow side, so my next decision was to not cut off the selvages...more horrification!  They are actually nice and flat.  They don't pull inward on the edges.  And being wacky as I am,  I hoped they would add some curiosity to the quilt.

But now the back.  I hoped with the stripe going up and down that the eye would continue to be fooled.  Nope!  With it being a plaid stripe with lines going vertical and horizontal, it was obvious that I cut the ends at an angle to match the top piece.  Even more disappointment!

And then my boundless determination set in.  I wondered if I could save this quilt by creating an optical illusion on the back to once again fool the eye.  Now I find myself working on the quilt from hell.  And wondering about myself, why do I have to be this way?!!!

The quilt back was about 1/2 an inch narrower than the top.  Why not!  Why should coordinating fabrics be the same width?!  So, a strip of wonky flower blocks was added to extend the width. 

 Now the tricky part.  I stitched flower blocks at various levels along the top and bottom so the eye can't easily follow the stripe/plaid lines, therefore not easily noticing the wonky angle.

I think it worked.  So I sandwiched it and started quilting it.  I'm sure it's horrifying but I started at a bottom corner and worked my way across and up the quilt.  And horror of horrors, I also did not leave much for extra batting or backing behind the front for quilting.  I have found that nothing really moves that much during quilting, so I've stopped wasting so much batting and backing fabric for the quilting stage.

I bound it with the plaid stripe backing fabric.

This is only quilt #5 for me.  Probably because of all the challenges presented by this fabric that I feel I conquered, this is actually my favorite quilt so far.  It's a small lap quilt measuring 42" X 64" but just right for lying around watching TV.  And I am horrifyingly thrilled with it's conniving bit of wonkyness.

I had some wonky flower blocks left over and a chunk of the plaid stripe, so I made this small quiltie.  Now here's the real shocker for me...

...if I made that lap quilt for you, do you think your little doggie would like the quiltie?  Yep, I made her little doggie a matching little quiltie.  I cannot believe I did that!  Really, I cannot believe a made a quilt for a dog!

Well, there you have it...proof that miracles never cease to happen!

Annie

Into the unknown I go. 

Michele of Quilts From My Crayon Box blog is hosting a Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin.  I've always felt drawn to try a round robin but the quilts were always bed sized.  That's a size that doesn't interest me.  So when I saw Michele had thunk up a small scale wall quilt, I jumped in.

I only have until the 18th to come up with my center block.  I'm not a fast thinker upper so I had to get started immediately.  Good thing cause I made rejects!

First reject block is this one...

  I like the block, but I decided it was too busy for this project.  It most likely will soon be a fun potholder.

My next reject block is this one...

These are four 3" log cabin blocks.  (They aren't actually sewn together yet)  I liked them and thought I'd make some more with mixed colors.  That plan didn't go so well so I moved onward.

This is the next block I tried...

This one could be fun to play with.  It could have more colors added or it could even go in a Fall or even a Halloween direction.  But I'm still not quite happy with the simplicity of it to be my focal point.

This post published without me due to constant Internet connection interruptions this entire week.  Because of that I concentrated on sewing instead and then this post published this morning without me...so, to finish.....

This is the block I've decided on...

A bit dull and boring looking here all by itself, but I actually have a plan for it when it comes back to me in December.  Well, of course depending on what my border partners add to it.  Possibly their border decisions will change my plan in the end.  I'll just have to wait and see.

I do love a good mystery.....

Annie

Look!

A Mini Round Robin 

Michele from Quilts From My Crayon Box blog  

is hosting a modern mini mystery round robin.

It really sounds fun and since it is small scale it actually is doable for me.  I'm joining in...how about you?  Oh, come on...be brave!

I gotta go decide on my center block now....

Round and Round we go,

Annie

Twister Tool Twist

(This is blogger's orange?!!)

When I first got my Little Twister Tool I really "needed" to give it a try.  I did not want to sew squares together, I wanted to try it on something I already had.  I'm a very patient sort wouldn't you say? The only thing I already had was some strips sewn together, so I lined it up on one seam and cut.  And then sewed those blocks together.  I also cut the opposite "waste" blocks for another one.  I then framed them in a green, bordered them with an orange  stripe, quilted and bound them, and now I have a couple of new Fall potholders!

I'm always "what ifing" and on the lookout for how a tool can be used for other than it's intended purpose...'cause I like different.  And I so like what came from this "what if".  Especially since this little bugger cost me $10 I'm real happy to have an alternative design for it.  I've even found some inspiration while putting together this post.....ooo what if...................

Happy Twisting

Annie

A Bird & Blooms

It looked much better in my mind than it does in reality.

  I'm going to re-visit this idea in the future to try to get closer to what I visualise in the ole noggin.

I printed off some fabric pieces and pulled some selvages.

One of the fabrics is a purchased print, the others are all printed with my printer.

I wanted a black and white background with subtle colors smattered throughout.  I think some of the printed fabrics are a bit too dark for my thread painted swirl flowers. I thought my selvages would work well for the smattering of color part and for the most part I am happy with that bit...with some improvement next time.

I sewed strips of the background fabrics and added selvages here and there and did fusible raw edge applique for my bird.

Then some thread painting for my swirl flowers.

This piece was to go into a frame that Dad made a while back, so I just stay-stitched the edges.

Oh for goodness sake, don't I ever dust my walking foot?!

That's a bit better.  I'm always telling myself I'll clean everything after this project.  Then I just start sending the new project through....I forget.

Anyway, for now and until I get a chance to play with this thought again, it is what it is.

Get ta stitchin'!

Annie

Our Blog Followers

Several comments about blogger's word verification included comments regarding our followers and whether or not the number of followers really means anything.

The number of followers/members can be a psychological belief that that many people are actually following our blog and it can make us happy to "think" that many people read our blog.  It can work psychologically in another direction as well.  When we go to someone's blog that has hundreds and thousands of followers, and that can make us think that we must be missing out on something really big at this blog. 

It's only a number, but it seems to be a number we all want to attain on our blogs whether it be a true following or not.

Personally I have about maybe 20 - 30 actual followers.  That would be my guess.  Of my 280some followers, 260 of them joined my site in order to have a chance to win a prize on another blog, Sew We Quilt.  They were extremely nice prizes.  I would also have to credit 15 - 25 of you actually following me found me by way of Sew We Quilt.  Because I only had 3 flickr friends when I started blogging.

I have an attraction to collage.  And all those little squares of followers up there make up a really fun collage.  But I do not in any way kid myself by thinking that many people are reading my blog.  They just wanted to win a prize.  A handful even returned after the contest and removed themselves from my following.

I guess I would rather have a collage of true followers up there, but I haven't figured out how to delete the prize chasers or even if that is possible.  In any case, I enjoy the collage, and I know that my new followers and my very first few followers are my "real" followers.  After my guest appearance and the prizes were distributed, I began to watch you join my blog as a follower (It must be because you want to follow) and I always go and check out your blog in return (if you have one).

It's your blogs there to the right that I love to check in on most because you're checking in on me too.  Some of you don't have a blog...yet.  But I keep checking so I know when you do start blogging!  I so appreciate all my true followers and thank you for all your generous and kind comments.

So, does the number of followers mean anything to you?

Now here's a fun one too...our

List of Blogs

that we follow.

Everybody wants to be at the top of everyone else's blog list. So, very soon now we no longer will need to know our alphabetical order...we'll need to know the order of importance for punctuation marks.

! * & " + ! * & " +

Who's winning on your blog?

Happy blogging!
Annie