doings of the day

I finished one doll quilt top. It is a series of three that will not
be identical but similar in design and all in batiks. The batiks were
all from Leoni's (nickelquilts@yahoogroups.com) swap which included
nickels and noodles of batiks. A noodle is a two and a half inch
strip that runs the width of the fabric. Of course I love this size!
The design is a riff on the Seminole strip piecing that is a motif in
so many Native American designs. I made one in denim for my son in
the eighties, after seeing an article in Threads magazine, and I have
always wanted to do some more. I will see if I can get him to send me
a picture.
These doll sized quilts are the perfect thing!
You can see the EQ version of the doll quilt
that I made to use as a guide, in the basket that I bought from the Dutchess county Fair.
The basket is hand made by a man from Ghana who sold it to us and it was the only thing we bought at the craft exhibits. It is beautiful no? and I carried it around all day. It was worth it. Behind it you can see another quilt pieced from Nickels and Noodles. It is not quite done.
O and for my Cinderella Task of the Day, I retro fitted a small box
into a garbage receptacle for my room. My old plastic one, from Ikea, cracked and I am
too frugal (cheep cheep) to spend twenty dollars on a new one!

Last blooms of August

The flower bed is wild with these self seeding cosmos and sunflowers. I reserve a bed in the garden just for them. After the June and July flowers have gone to sleep, they blaze forth in riotous abandon! And I love black eyed susans. They are a part of the landscape of my yard and the dreamscape of my childhood in Rhode Island.



I know the title refers to flowers but I could not resist this picture of Basil. He had four molars removed Monday and is still rocovering from the surgery drugs. He is pretty mangy looking here. I would like to dunk him in a soapy bath but Mike won't let me.

the Dutchess County Fair

Here are some pictures from the fair.

One Ogre Out of the house

Today I send my Ogre off to be transformed into a quilt. I have decided to have it quilted, so it will actually be a finished piece. Ah The Blessing of the internet to make these friends who are quilters!!!
Today is a dreary dismal chilly day. Perfect for staying home and sewing. I may work on my Ping blocks, or pin a top for machine quilting, or cast on a knitting project. O bliss! a day of fiber immersion.
Some idiot has decided t infect blogger blogs with some sorry garbage mind stuff so I have had to re enable my comment permission thingy. I do not care what adults want to look at but I do not want it on my blog or my friend's blogs. Don't these people have anything better to do than to push potty pictures onto quilty blogs. Good grief.

August Ogre Challenge

As far as Ogres go, this one was a creampuff, not so old as to be onerous, it was still very lovable and I loved working on it.I am so glad I did not leave it in a pile to grow old and surly. Any resistance to finishing it was akin to a parent who does not want her baby to grow up. I will have empty sewing room syndrome-NOT!
This this quilt was a joy to work on because it was a shared journey with a very special friend. And of course I am a Dear Jane/
Dear Hannah addict. I am not sure how I am going to finish it-send it out to be quilted or do it myself. I am leaning toward sending it out because I would like to see it finished in my lifetime.
This was the third Frenchy bag I made with the vintage wool. Making doll quilts and bags and small projects is a nice break from making bigger projects. You get to finish something in a managable timeframe.
Shorter days get me in the mood for knitting. But I have some other things to finish first...and miles to go before I knit.

on the road again

We went to Greenport and these are some photos taken from my car while in motion! Don't worry I wasn't driving.
It was a gorgeous day and I went to the Now and Zen yarn shop too! (click on title for the website).
There was a sale so I bought some cascade yarn to make a felted bag-brown-a luscious brown wool "noni bag"-actually it will be more of a valise. And....drum roll please......they were selling their beautiful Vietnamese silk roll up knitting needle cases--also fifty percent off and.....another craft case which had snap out pages which will be perfect when I start my new Dear Jane quilt.
Call me materialistic. Call me shallow. Call me content.
I loved the sign in the picture above. Pure tongue in cheek NY.

One Bag Finished

City adventure

On Sunday we drove into the city to go to the Met and to go to the City Quilter in Chelsea. I bought some bag patterns-Amy Butler and a cute bunny pin cushion pattern-to be made with wool. The red and black fabric comes from Jenny's Grandmother's stash. She is cleaning out some stuff to sell her house. Jen's great grandmother was an amazing seamstress. She was a fitter for models in the garment district in the forties. Her skills as a sewist meant that her family would not be poor when her husband died suddenly at a young age. I will make a bag for Jen from the fabric. It is called the Frency Bag, by Amy Butler, of course.In the Chelsea district (25th and 6th ish) there is a great out door market on weekends. We strolled through it and my eye caught this chest of drawers!
Is this not spectacular? However it was too dear and we passed on by. The image did not leave me however and Mike said "you could paint a chest like this!?" he did not realize that these were fighting words!! The chest was solid wood and six actual drawers and no way could I find a chest like this for the price they wanted -- and any how--do I have to do all the work --all the time???

...on we went , uptown to the Metropolitan, and here are some photos I took there. You are allowed to take pictures in some parts of the Met-no flash. These were taken with my phone~














Sometimes I feel like the camel.
Sometimes I am the Siren.
One of my favorite parts of the museum is the Temple of Dendur.
These are the Spirits who guard it.

After lunch at the Chipotle Grill-excellent- and three hours in the Met, we did go back to Chelsea and get that chest. It was the end of the day and it was a hundred and fifty dollars less.....

Not an Ogre anymore

In my WIP (work in progress) group where we are challenged to actually finish our quilt projects, August's challenge is to finish work on a project that has become an Ogre, or something that we have stalled upon due to our procrastination, or perfectionism, the twin "p"s of failure. So, I was stuck at this border, wanting to do justice to these beloved blocks. And this became my Ogre.
Now-thanks to my freind Tilde, who made half the blocks! and inspires me every day, and all the inspiring people who share their works of fabrc art on the internet, it is revived, and I AM going to finish it this month. Here you can see the progress: the hidden "p" in success.
I do plan on adding more applique to the yellow in the border. Life is good.