Vintage Valentine Swap

These are the Vintage Valentine ATC's I did for the swap on FiberArtTraders. These were fun and very quick to do. I stitched the words on wire edged ribbon using my wonderful Elna Quilters Dream Pro. (Can you tell I am in love with my machine?) I first ironed the ribbon onto freezer paper to stablize it. I have tried stitching onto ribbon without first stablizing and had a mess. And, frankly, freezer paper is cheaper than solvy or tear-away and works almost as good. If you don't need to worry about picking all the little bits out of the back, then this is a perfect alternative.

Bottle Swap Update

I don't have any FO's to post. I have been very busy with alterations for a local modest bridal shop.

Now to the reason for this post. I had the best time mailing my New Years bottle. No, I didn't say receiving, I said mailing. I was standing in line. Booring. Then it was my turn at the counter. The clerk absolutely loved that I was sending a bottle. She went on and on about how cute it was. She showed it off to her co-workers and go the other customers wondering what it was as well. She even teased her co-workers that she wouldn't tell them how I got things in there. I even had a customer waiting at the end of the lobby to ask how I did that. And to say how neat that was and how fun it would be to mail things to her granddaughters that way.

So, YES, it is as much fun to mail a bottle as it is to receive one.

Project Spectrum

I was just reading Elizabet's blog http://veridianeyes.blogspot.com/index.html about Project spectrum. Well, I was intriqued and had to find out what it was about. http://lollygirl.com/blog/?p=585

This is just the thing I have been looking for. I have been wanting to explore color and the color wheel. This is just the impetus to keep me motivated to work at it in a structured way. I will be sharing my explorations here with all of you and invite you to join in and to share your thoughts on my experiments.

Items for Etsy Part 2

This is a rotating tiltable quilt hoop made by my Dad. This same thing happened here as with the quilt ladder. Mom wanted one and didn't want to pay the price they were charging. Especially not when we have such talented men in our lives. I think he did a wonderful job with this. In fact, several years ago, one of these was a birthday present for me. It has a "Handmade by" label on it and when I read that it was dad that made it. I cried. My parents had come to visit for my birthday. I was helping unload the car and carried in this gift. Of course, being wrapped in a white plastic bag, it was kind of a give-away as to what I was getting. But of course, being the good daughter, I dutifully pretended not to know about it. So, I knew what I was getting. The surprise was that it was made by Dad.

Items for Etsy

This is a Quilt ladder made by my husband. We are going to put these up for sale on Etsy. He really does and good job and I wanted to show it off. We had seen them at several quilt shows and I wanted one but couldn't afford what they were charging. Well, he says "I can make one". Of course I took him up on his offer! The next week I had my quilt group over for our monthly meeting and several of the ladies ordered them in woods and sizes. So, that was just the beginning.

Magical Business Card Case

This is a magical business card case made for a swap on Fiber Art Traders. This is a fun case to make with a lot of possibilities for creativity. You pull the ribbon and your business card magically rises from the case. I have several more ideas but I won't get them done in time for the trade. The pattern for this is found in the November/December issue of Quilting arts magazine in the article by NormaJean Brevik. She is the listmom for FiberArt Traders and she is a wonderful and inspiring person. Thank NJ!

New Years Bottle Swap

This is the New Years Bottle I received in the FGM Bottle Swap.

This is the second year we have done this and it is fun. You find things that are small or can be rolled or folded small enough to fit into a 2 liter soda bottle. You cut a three sided door in the side, you don't have to fit it all in through the top hole. :-) Then you tape the door shut, tape the address label over the door and mail it. And yes, the bottle is an acceptable mailing container.

Then it is even more fun when you receive yours and you get to open it. You would be amazed at how much you can get in there. Last year when mine came in, my 8yo DS said, "I can figure this out for you mom." I had been teasing him about how we were going to get the stuff out. He took the cap off and stuck his finger in, hooked a piece of material and started pulling. Needless to say, I stopped him after a few gentle pulls and showed him how to find the door and remove things without damaging them.

This years bottle, pictured above, arrived when my step D & S (8yo twins) were here so they got to help open and unwrap everything. I heard lots of "How neat" and "cool" and "another one!" As you can see, E-Fairie packed so many goodies into this bottle she even had me saying "another one!". There are some sewing and embellishing notions that I can't wait to try. A tube of iron cleaner that is perfect for someone who uses fusibles on a regular basis. Several floral pins, and a beaded ring that looks old, (E is this from your grandmother's jewelry box? I think you inherited it didn't you?) There is a pretty mirror compact that will fit nicely in my purse. There is a beautiful shell and a heart shaped polished stone, stickers, a little coffee paper note pad and more. Thank you E-Fairie!

This is always so much fun. Anybody out there wanna swap?

First UFO completed

I have completed my first UFO of 2007. Yeah!!! No it's not a quilt but it's still completed.
I found this great and reasonably priced tooled leather look vinyl at Walmart and knew I had to have pillows for my bed. They fit right in with the new chocolate and teal green colors I want in my bedroom. I am pleased with them even though the pic isn't the best.

Chistmas Tradition

These are this years ornaments for the kids. They are a free snowflake alphabet I downloaded. They are stitched with cream for the letters and gold for the stars onto dark red felt. I then layered a second square of felt and the ribbon and stitched a leaf stitch with my wonderful Elna. (Can you tell I'm in love) The outline stitch was done placing a thumbtack 1.5 inches away from my needle so that I got a perfect circle and then trim the excess felt. I also added 2006 under the initial in gold thread which is hard to see in this photo.

Every year my kids get new ornaments for christmas. They get to open these when we decorate the tree. I make sure they get dated and have their initials. Then, when they grow up and have their own house and tree, they have ornaments for the tree. I remember when I was first married and had my first house. We had a few hand-me-down ornaments and we filled in the gaps with candy canes. Then I guess that would be another tradition because, according to my 24 YO DD, the tree isn't complete until the candy canes are on it.

A new year, a new start

This is the year of organization for me. I will have to get organized as this year is starting out very busy. Work is going to be crazy for the first three months for the merchandizing. And I will be busy in the alteration business for most of the year. That's good cause I'm tired of struggling financially.

One of the ways I am getting organized is to list my UFO's. (We won't even get into the length of the list, Psst, 27) This is a personal challenge and contest issued on the FGM yahoo group. So, even if I don't win a prize in the end, I will be winning by finishing projects. And the people who will recieve the finished quilts will also win.

I am going to rearrange my sewing studio. This will make things flow more smoothly. Right now I find myself running in circle, literally, as my sewing table and cutting table are facing each other & I end up circling the table numerous times if I have a forgetful day. One of these days, if I'm feeling brave, I'll post the before and definitely the after photos.

I think that's it for today. Take care, Cory