Pillows

I began to look around my house and everything seemed so blah blah blah for summer. So I found some old pillows covered in dull colors and recovered them in these cooler prints which changed the whole look of the room. They seemed to "happy up" our living space. I feel like summer has arrived and I love looking at them. My girlfriend just painted her living room and she is ready to cover her pillows to give them a happy change! It makes me feel good that someone follows my design change. I know pretty hard to believe!

Oh and not to "dog" anyone out. The measurements I received for Hannah's quilt were given to me by the father. He measured the mattress and not the over hang which is what I wanted. Therefore the cool, hip quilt I made ended up only fitting over the top of the bed. A word to the wise do not let your hubby's measure the bed. (Sorry cousin Ricky just had to say it) Back to the drawing board. Whatever...

Turquiose

I have been telling my Cousin Ricky and his wonderful wife Lisa that I wanted to make a quilt for their wild, fun, energetic, heart felt daughter Hannah. So I had in my mind pink. I think I always do because that is my favorite color and I like to work with it. When Lisa told me she is into turquoise I thought, "What is THAT? Is it Arizona turquoise and if so that will suck to work with because I just spent a day in Santa Fe and I am over THAT turquoise. Or is it ocean turquoise? Mmmm.... Water I LOVE that. So I gathered some colors I thought might go together then I went on the hunt for "turquoise". I new I needed a little something to pull it together and the lady at Joann's found just what I needed. So I bought it and you can see it showing through and how it made the rest of the blanket look "turquoise". I decided the pattern I would use would be stripes then cut them into shorter ones and sew together. It is a Denysee Schmidt classic. When I finished I had just enough to make four big squares then I would cut from there. After looking up the size of a full bed I knew I did not have enough. So I called Lisa and had her measure. AAHH This morning Lisa sent me the measurements 53X72! Perfect. I knew I had just enough to make into a "Happy Hip Hannah Quilt".

Bob the Builder

I could not find a table to put my big-ass new sewing machine on in my plant room. It seems as thought my dining room was always getting eaten up by the sewing machine and fabric. Ugh. We wanted something simple and that is hard to find. So after moping around on a rainy day Bob decided to tackle the project himself. I know that is very scary to some of you but I had complete confidence in "Bob the Builder". He went to Home Depot and bought the top and four legs. It was a little wobbly at first but our neighborhood inspector came over and suggested braces. So when Andy the inspector speaks we listen. He put the supports on today and the wobble is gone. In the background is Kylie's second scrap quilt to be put on her top bunk bed. This will pull the room together and make her happy. That is a good thing. I love my new room with my work table. I am going to stain it a mauve color or weird green. I need something that draws me in to be creative. If only it was that easy. :)

Table Runner

I am starting to use my new sewing machine and it rocks! I decided to finish a table runner and just let it rip. It is fun to try new stitches and it is almost liberating because you don't have don't have to think so much. After a day in the jungle it is really relaxing. Just let the machine do its thing. Kind of like rock n roll! We all know you can never have too much of that!

New Needles

I just purchased a new sewing machine. It is a Huskavarna 835. It has all kinds of new features that I am having a hard time to get used to. Oh well it is time for a new challenge and maybe this will inspire me to try new things. It is so much bigger than my other one and seems like a I am driving a bigger car. As I read the directions a new project will emerge I can feel it in my bones!

Doggies Everywhere

This quilt was made for a man from Texas named Ken. He found me on my website and from there we made a plan. He emailed me the pictures and I printed them on fabric photo paper. Then we decided on a background color and away we went. When it was time to find another color for it I would email him options then he would pick them out. It was quite a fun process and I learned a lot about myself. Hope it is making the dog lover happy!

Winter Blues

I took a knitting class at a really neat place called Loopy Yarns on the south side of Chicago. After a few weeks and a little drama I finished my scarf and hat. It was very stressful for me because I had to pay attention. Knit five pearl five over and over and over and over. Ugh So I felt like I needed to have some needle success and ended making a granny afghan. I just could not stop once I started! So there it is. I made the squares larger which gave it a bit of a modern twist but it really is drab. That's OK it pulled me through January and February. Amen to that!

Hannah's quilt

Hannah's quilt was started awhile back. She is three going on 13. Her mother is planing on giving this to her for Christmas. This quilt was my first scrap quilt and more of my pinks were used.

Kylie's quilt

Kylie's quilt was made ofof scraps. We seemed to be able to find many shapes and sizes and animals that were brought together for this occasion. Kylie had a blast looking for these shapes and sizes. This will make her bedroom much more grown up. You know she is in kindergarten now!

A little closer now.

CoCo's 50th Quilt

I have been on a 50th birthday quilt run lately. I am trying to make them for my friends for their 50th..we won't say that word again. I give myself a year to make them their piece of art. She wanted mauve and this is what I came up with. After I finished it I was in Joann's and another lady was making a quilt using some of the same colors. Far out! This lovely quilt resides in Bloomington, IN with all the other groovy people!

Scraps

I was feeling uninspired so I decided to clean out my scraps and just start sewing. I took my light scraps and created this quilt. It seemed to go in a child's room but I wasn't sure who would want this beautiful piece of art! I approached a free spirited co worker who has a daughter just like her. This will be "Hannah's" quilt. It is in quilt land being quilted. I can't wait to see it finished. Stay tuned for more.

Bella! Welcome to the world!

This blanket has a wild ass story behind it! My friend Cindy has a friend who has a husband who
has testicular cancer so they could not have children.  Shew! So, a friend of this couple was getting her nails done and began talking to the pregnant woman next to her. She confided in her and told how she could not afford this baby and wanted to find it a home. So this woman told of her of this couple and VOILA..Bella now has a happy home. I thought this was such a heart felt happy story I wanted to be a part of it. The theme of the room is "modern monkey" So this is what I came up with. I found the monkey material on E-quilter and had the rest. I quilted it by had hand and voila Bella (great name) is now a hip baby!

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Nancy's 50th

This quilt originally started as one big plain quilt using the material that is now being used for the strips. I thought that was boring and my good friend deserved more. So I decided to start making squares and this is how it is transpiring. One of the things I learned at Denyse Schmidt's quilt workshop was to look at things straight forward and farther back. I am used to putting them on the floor but this time I found a chunk of white flannel and tucked it under the rafter of my old basement and pretended I was in an old warehouse and I knew what I was doing. I bought some more greens to go with this quilt to give it some new dimension. I had just a little of the lighter green you can see on the bottom left. At first I did not like it but I think it will get lost when more squares are completed. Later today I am going to try and sneak into the taping of Oprah on Michigan avenue. Maybe she'll be giving away bolts of cool fabric! Wish me luck.

Aja

Monday night I had the pleasure of seeing Steely Dan perform Aja at the magnificent Chicago theater. This album was released in 1977. Wow that was a long time ago and sewing was never on my mind. My how I have evolved! After the concert I was having a hard time coming down from the concert. (I hate when that happens) So I began to read up and refresh my memory of their lives. Walter Becker and Donald Fagan were perfectionists and at one time did not listen to the final production of an Album/ CD because it was not recorded exactly the way they wanted it recorded. I thought how wound up can you be? I too was the same with my balanced creativity then I realized you can have unbalanced creativity and it is OK. It is hard to believe how the word "artist" can define so many people. When you are on your next creative adventure, cut lose, get wild and see if you wake up the next day. I did. Thanks Walter and Donald for a great night.

Patty's 50th

This quilt was started at Densye Schmidt's Bridgeportt

Conn. Studio.  It has since turned into Patty's 50th

Shorey's T - Shirts

This quilt was made from my dear college friend's T-Shirts. There were not many but they all had meaning to her favorite color is purple. The quilt now serves as a place to hold pins.  You know we love our pins.



Go Cubs!

Who doesn't love Snoopy?



Truckin.

Go Cubs!