view through the barn door

I made this for my freestyle friday challenge to myself - 

go to http://theartquiltblog.blogspot.com/

to see more on the process.

I'm having a hell of a time trying to get decent photos. Its so dark and dreary outside so i have made this set up in my studio. I put lights over my design wall (right) and then shine all 3 of the lights from this pole lamp on it. It works pretty good but the sequins on the fabri around the window frame reflect the light and show up like white blobs.  not good.

The photo above is from outside and below is under the lights. I honestly don't like either one but have spent so much time on this i am just going to let it go for now. On to bigger and better things!

which photo do you think I should use for my etsy shop?

http://www.landscapelady.net

christmas "I need to make something handmade for everyone" disease

    Every year for christmas I have this overwhelming urge to make something for everyone I know as a gift. Every year I say to myself - "self, not this year - it's so much easier to buy stuff and you won't be stressed out".
At least for my immediate family I have gotten over it and buy stuff - we are wrapping gift cards creatively with poems included so that is my creative outlet for them, but I digress.
   So I did start out saying keep it simple and then started perusing all the different web sites for crafts and I started on twitter where there are all sorts of ideas coming to light daily and then lo and behold - I suddenly had a list of things I wanted to make. Since I am not super human, have a real job and like to sleep - I ended up making just 2 projects - but of course had to make a dozen or more of at least one of them.

For some reason I missed out on the whole mug rug
craze of the last couple of years, so I started in on
my scraps and had fun practicing machine quilting on
these. If you haven't made mug rugs before - you must! They are a quick fun gift or make some for yourself - I now have 2 at home and one on my desk, a great way to use up scraps.

for your phone and earphones

 Now these below are re-usable snack bags and once you get the first couple made, are fast,fun and addictive. They are lined and have velcro (make sure you get the kind with no glue so you don't gunk up your machine) on the whole top of the inside so they close nice and secure.

for your snacks

for your hockey pucks

for your dog treats

for more dog treats:):)

for your golf balls

magoo loves his treats!

the tutorial for these snack bags is here if you want to try some. If your purse or bag is like mine - you need about 5 or these just for your bag to organized. 

So that's what I've been up to the last couple of weeks - now I am going back to my real passion of making art quilts. I am going try to blog in an art quilt blog every friday and call it "freestyle fridays". I want to try something different each week and post the results - be it good or bad. Well if it's really bad it probablly won't see the light of day:)

I thought it would be a good challenge for me and I just hope I can come up with something every week. If not - oh well - but I will give it my best shot.

go to http://theartquiltblog.blogspot.com/ next friday to see my first freestyle friday quilt

(I have started it but I'm not tellin' what it is:-)

 

free articles from vintage quilters newsletters

This last thanksgiving my mother gave me stacks of old quilters newsletter magazines that she had been hoarding since the 70's. I can't believe she finally gave them up, they have been sitting on a shelf in my old bedroom, now the spare room - taking over most of the shelf. We both have hacked out different patterns through the years that we wanted but most of them are intact. My how quilting times have changed! I am going thru them and taking out an article here and there that I find interesting, but I am going to store them digitally because all spare storage space in my house is filled with bins of fabric like any good quilting household should be:-)

So I would like to share them with you. I have the articles in pdf files that I can't post here, but can put them on evernote (of which I highly recommend, but that's another blog entry) and when you click here you will be brought to the evernote notebook of the different files. That way (I think) you can also print them out. I'm going to test this to see if it works. Please leave a comment for me as to whether this works for you or not. thanks

 and just because this blog entry looks so boring without photos - here are some  pictures from my trip over to see my parents in early november - they live in the adirondacks in new york - so beautiful there, even in nov!

As of today, monday 12/5 I only put one file on to make sure this is going to work since this is my first time linking with my evernote files. I will be adding more after today and as a go thru my stacks will be adding in the weeks to come as well. 

this is abbey - isn't she beautiful - she is such a good girl!

The memory jar

This is a blog about my art quilting journey but the first post, since it's getting to be Christmas time is about the best christmas present I ever gave and received from my grandmother. She passed away this year at the age of one hundred and a half and right up until she died she could remember everything in her full life and loved to tell stories.
When she was a young 89 years old, for Christmas I took a jar and decorated it with ribbons and fabric. I then thought up 52 different questions such as "who was your favorite president." where was your first kiss? What is your favorite thing to cook? Did you have indoor plumbing growing up? (she was born in 1910 after all;)
I then typed up each question and cut each one out and folded it in half, sort of what you do in a raffle and put them in the jar. Next I purchased a blank journal for her to write in. I made up a poem that I can't remember now for the instructions but basically, each week for the next year she was to pick out one question and answer it by writing in the journal. Then next year for Christmas I wanted her to give me (her favorite granddaughter) the journal back as my present.
She loved it! She not only answered the questions, she pasted in old photos, newspaper clippings etc. I now have a cherished memento that is priceless. I encourage anyone that has a close elderly relative that likes to share stories to do make your own memory jar this year.