It is still April......

Why has April seemed so long? I’ve been putting off blogging because there was always something to do instead. Except today I planned on doing some binding. So blogging is better than binding, I guess. 

I made these yesterday. I had a choice, try out some new to me blocks or bind. These won out. In my defense, I was able to reorganize a pile of scraps. Things ended up in three boxes. Chunky scraps, skinny strips and fatter strips. 

I started with 1 3/4 cut squares with all these. Adding two more 1 3/4 strips and three 1 1/4 strips OR two each of the 1 3/4 and 1 1/4 strips and two 1 1/2 strips. There was a method to the madness, while achieving a variety of looks. They will finish at 6 inch blocks. 

I babysit about 3 days a week. Right after they called off the schools, the daycare closed. That keeps me busy. 

For the record.... I did not put Zander in the dog kennel. He did this himself. He thought it was great fun. 

I’ve been doing jigsaw puzzles too. I bought a bunch in January, at first I thought I might have over done it, but it turned out to be a smart buy.

It started with this....

I love all of them. There were more, but you get the idea. 

Moonstruck is quilted and ready for binding. We went up to Minnesota to pick it up. I prepaid for it. So when we got there I had to call and tell them I was there. Without getting near each other, they came out with this quilt, and grabbed two more that were ready for quilting. Then off she went back inside. We packed a lunch that day. We didn’t even do any drive-thru eating. We also stopped at my cousin so we could trade puzzles. 

The mini houses were put together and quilted. Ready for binding. 

This is ready for binding...

All of them will get the same black and white stripe binding. The fabric is sitting right there. I have no reason NOT to start. 

It’s way too cold and windy to mow, or transplant some things, or clean some old pickets for a fence.

So it’s best to stay inside and work on the dreaded binding. 

Heavy sigh.

One more thing. This is June July and August. Only four more months and 2019 temperature quilt with be done!

Well at least the months will be done. It isn’t clear to me how I will actually turn it into a top. I can think about that later. 

catching up on things.....

Way back in July, my cousin Max, her daughter Emma and my sister Jane came down to visit.

One of the activities was making postcards.

To keep it simple, 

they used cards (cut up cereal boxes) that already had paint on them,

left over painted paper and words from my stash.

They both did a basic bird on the cards.

I never took a picture of the completed cards....

BUT,

Max sent me this photo. They painted a canvas dark purple, then used a toilet paper tube to make the white circles.

Emma's cards were then glued to it for wall art in her room. 

I thought it was so cool!

The peaches came in, and I started painting this old globe last month.

My middle son bought several boxes and we canned about 20 quarts.

It went pretty fast once we got going.

I also did some frozen peach pie filling.

Then a coworker of his had sweet corn that was going to waste. We went out there and picked a bunch. I spent yesterday freezing it. 

The globe is still not finished, but further along. All the land is black and the sea white. I am pretty sure the student I work with will be able to see the land masses much easier. 

June's block at block lotto was this sunrise block. 

I won these but I don't have a group shot of them all together. 

They are all just blocks yet, but I think I know what I will do with them.

I need to buy some more fabric! 

Officially these are called Spokes at block lotto. They are July's block. I was totally shocked when I won these too. I think of them as fireworks. 

This is the first batch of blocks that arrived in the mail along with mine.

August's block is called windows. These will make an awesome quilt. 

I donated all my chances for these. 

All the lotto block patterns can be found [HERE]

I bought the pattern and kit for this bag from Connecting Threads. It make two bags, one purple, one blue. I needed to get zippers, D-rings and strap stuff to make them.

I had to go to Des Moines for a few days to attend the Iowa Braille Summer Institute.

Helpful classes for when you are working with the visually impaired.

On the way I stopped for what I needed 

and finished one of the bags in the hotel room.

It is 9 1/2 inches wide. I want to make another one that is just a little wider now.

That black is the zipper, it just lays on top and is sewn down that way.

I like the look and will probably do more zippers that way on bags.

The Blue Earth Valley Quilters and Woodcarvers Expo is this weekend. Been getting ready for that. I still need to finish sewing a hanging sleeve for one little quilt. I better go do that, as we are setting up tomorrow! 

making valentine cards.....

Yesterday I punch out a bunch of hearts from magazine pages. 

I thought I would put them on painted playing cards. I went looking for them and couldn't find them. I don't remember tossing them, but it is possible.

Maybe they will show up some day.

Plan B.

I got out my Sizzix and punched tags from empty cereal, stuffing, cake mix boxes.

I had a stack, I cut until the stack was gone. I ended up with 30.

I wanted at least 21 for the first graders at school.

Time for paint. I used a sponge and started adding paint.

Dab dab dab. 

As one color ran out I poured a new color until all of them were covered in paint.

Time for the Mod Podge. 

Each tag got three hearts, 

the words DREAM BIG (I printed them),

and a strip of the black and white paper (from the shopping bag of a gift shop)

And, done.

With the front anyway.

Looking at this, I forgot one of my steps....stamping the swirl with ink.

I want to add names. But these kids are part of a trend to give your child a common everyday name,

AND spell it differently.

Beside having to spell out their last names, they will be spelling out their first names for the rest of their lives to make sure it is correct.

OH well.

Found this the other day. Needs fixing. 

Dang. 

Big sale at the quilt shop today. I think I am going over there for some shopping!

Christmas and the Celtic Solstice Mystery......

The paper piecing project...

Tractor joe calls our niece Amanda Panda. So, just days before Christmas, I was paper piecing. As I worked on it, I was absolutely sure I would NEVER do it again.

It is confusing.

And messy. But I kept going. 

Here is the finished mug rug. I think it is about 8 by 10 inches.

(the free pattern is here)

It is supposed to be a 6 inch block, but when I printed it....

it was more like 8 inches square. This was okay, some of the sections are so small!

Amanda loved her panda, and as the pain of this subsides....

I may even make another one someday.

The Money Tree....

I wanted a tree to dispense dollar bills that I had taped together into a roll. Only I had no idea how to make one. I opened up a box of never used Christmas decorations...

Found an angel to use instead.

This was for a 20 something nephew. He had the biggest frown of confusion as he followed the directions on his gift.

Just in case he only lifted the tag, I wrote "the dress, not the tag"

I cut a slit in the tube so the rolled money would pull out. He pulled about 10 bills out right away. I told him that I should have added "as needed"  so he re-rolled them and put them back in place.

I think he liked it. 

The mystery continues....

(intro to the Mystery quilt)

We are at step 5 with Bonnie's mystery. I am still sewing that step together.

I had a few done, so I played with all the sections.

This could go in a lot of different directions. I'll just wait for the reveal now.

And hopefully finish up Step 5 today.

late start at school.....

Quick post before I leave for school. 

I put together one little bag last night. Things are wrong with it....

like the handles aren't positioned the same on each side...

and the other side of the handle should be facing out.

For a test run, this isn't bad though.

I put some candy in it and will give it to the teacher I work with.

Now, I have about 3 days before I need more done.

One of those days is a shopping day.

tick tick tick

time is running out.

the charmander cake.....

Charmander is a baby fire lizard. He belongs with all the other Pokemon characters.

His tail has flames. I printed out a coloring page, then made it a little bigger.

I cut him out and drew around him to get him on the cake

I piled a bunch of candles at the end of his tail.

Then lit all the candles.

I thought the flames were plenty big 

the frosting was melting

and we needed to blow them out!

But, Crsipy says

"No wait, take my picture!"

Oh yah, birthday boy with his cake!

He was able to get them out and we all had a piece of cake!

letters....

I am taking an online class.

Letter Love 101...and I LOVE it.

Joanne Sharpe is the teacher, this is a link (click here) to her blog.

I adore her stuff.

for practice, she has us use a composition notebook

Crispy had one from 8th grade science.

It has been in a cupboard for 4 years....

waiting for me to find a new use for it.

he hardly used any of the pages

so I am, for practice

Over the years I have collected pens for scrapbooking. This is a good way to go though them and find out which ones are good yet...and which ones are dry and no good.

On to sewing....

The blue baby quilt is still not done!

I had a border on it and went to cut backing and batting.

I needed to piece everything. 

I wasn't very careful and ended up making it too SMALL.

Dang.

Then I quit working on it and everything just sat here.

Sometimes things work out...

The next think I knew, it was February and baby boy was born.

And of course he got a name.

Now I am kinda glad I didn't add more fabric to the backing and get it done before he was born. 

His name will make the backing bigger. My lettering class came into play here.

I stuck blue on the inside of the letters.

Yes, it is all working out the way it should.

painting and paper.....

This post doesn't have any fabric or sewing in it. This will be about what I do when I am not busy staring at fabric and wondering what to do next. (this way? that way? what color?)

This is about a free online workshop. [strathmoreartiststudio.com] The first one is doodles unleashed or some such thing.

I should have stopped at this point. It looked kinda cool. But no, I added doodles like the video showed.

These images are the before. When I finished, I was horrified by the doodling I did. It wasn't very pleasing to look at. (I never took a picture, it was late and dark outside) 

So I painted over everything and started over. 

I have come to the conclusion that I am not very good at doodling. 

I went back to what I know, stencils and cut-up sponges to apply the paint.

I will try again, but for now I am happy with these sheets of painted paper, as they are, right now.

All of them hiding 3 different workshop attempts. The sheets are 18x24 inches.

What to do with these now??

Well, 

My other latest obsession is making little books by folding paper.

Like this [8 page] or, this one that is [16 pages]...

I have used an old atlas page, 

12x12 scrapbook paper, (they are the tall skinny ones) 

18x24 makes the garden/love size with 16 pages

my paycheck deposit sheet, (the little white one) 

and brown packing paper. 

Plus several at school using unclaimed painted paper.

I think the workshop papers will be very happy becoming little books.