Hazel Quackenbush

Just a note to remind you that I will be posting the dolls in my doll blog. The link is on the right side.

Here is one pic of Hazel...the others are at the doll blol.

Uma

These two dolls are from a pattern called Uma and she is a forest Elf. I made two of them and changed the names to Autumn and Nightshade.

This is Autumn

I used Batiks for her body and clothing. She wears cuffs on her ankles with jewels attached. Her fitted outfit is all wired to resemble some sort of forest plant. All the clothing is wired and quilted except for the cuffs.

Close-up of her jewelry, made with glass beads, semi precious (japanese turquoise) and Swarovski crystals.

This is Nightshade

She is made the same as Autumn, only darker and also bejeweled, she has more turquoise lol.

Close-up of jewelry.

Here they are together. I love that I can pose them anyway I want.

More poses..

I used eyelash yarn for the hair. I just knitted a patch and sew it on. I sewed beads here and there on the clothing and painted the faces with fabric paint and glittered them.

I painted the faces with Decoart American SoSoft fabric paint. I also used the Shimmering Pearl and the Metallic lines as well. Painting your doll faces make them so much more realistic and natural looking. The paints blends very easily and even a beginner can do it. If you live in Orlando Florida, I will be teaching this doll at the Sewing Studio. I will teach you how to paint a doll face....write to me if you have any questions.

LOG CABIN DIAMOND STAR QUILT

This is the last step for the CLCS. I quilted it yesterday and instead of binding it with a seperate binding, I left a 1 1/2 inch of batting and backing all around the quilt.

I then mitered the corners by folding the two ends at the corner, on the wrong side, together and sewed a seam down leaving a 1/4 inch for the turning under.

I then folded that exta binding to the right of the quilt and turned under 1/4 inch and proceeded to sew it down on the right side. When I got to the corners, they were already mitered, so all I had to do was turn under the 1/4 inch, I had left free.

You can't tell that the binding is a self binding unless you turn it over.

This is a total scrap quilt, using only lights and darks but one theme (Christmas fabric). I love all the effects. I see the star, boxes, baby blocks and buildings.

The strip on top is a crazy patch I add later to make the quilt longer, using all the left over scraps.

One could have make the plain blocks also striped like the rest of the quilt blocks, but one was getting sick of it and wanted to move on to something else lol, and the plain blocks look just as nice.

Since this was a custom quilt, some things had to be custom cut. Looking at the quilt, you can see that when the star is finished, you need to fill some spaces in with half diamonds and that was easy. Just cut a plain diamond in half and leave 1/4 inch seam allowance before cutting.

I found some nice Christmasy rose fabric for the back.
For the four ends, I layed the quilt corner on the cutting board, lined up the top and the side and made a paper pattern of that area and added the 1/4 seam and cut that from fabric.

I am happy to report that I have put a good 12 to 15 yard dent in my stash lol.

LOG CABIN DIAMOND STAR QUILT

The quilt fits a single bed nicely but needs just a bit more to tuck the pillows.

I worked on the extention. I had some strips left over and quite a lot of odd pieces, there was a basket full of them and so, not wanting to waste, I decided on S&C (scraps and crumps.


I started working on some areas. I say areas because I dont' want blocks, I want the extention to kinda melt together as one piece.

After I had sort of a beginning on three different pieces, and a couple small ones. I started to built on them. I decide on 17 wide by 86 long, the width of the quilt. This piece will look nice on the pillow.

I feel great about using all the left over scraps. This will take a nice chunk out of my Christmas fabrics, after the backing etc, I will have to take a look and see what is left now.....I might have to do another.

These are the three area that I am going to join for the extention.





LOG CABIN STAR QUILT

HOW TO FIX A QUILT THAT YOU CAUGHT ON FIRE LOL. I will be the first to admit that I am a dummy hahahhaahahahahah..long story short, I lit a candle in the studio and thought I had more that enough room to finish my quilt top.

Somehow I flung the top around to sew one side and thought I saw a flash of light and low and behold the quilt was on fire.

I wasn't too unhappy when I saw that it was small, so I started to cut away the burnt parts.

Here it is all fixed.

The top is all squared up and ready for quilting.

DIAMOND STAR QUILT

I have been working on this quilt since before Christmas for next Christmas lol. I call it the Christmas Star Quilt and the purpose is to use up the Christmas fabric entirely. I think I have to make a couple more quilts to accomplish that feat.

This is what I have so far. All the main Paper pieced blocks are done and all that remains is to figure out the plain print diamonds and what value and where. I have it on the board to see the effect and I will switch it around here and there.

I love seeing more than one thing in a quilt. I love the box look and then the star and who know what else one can find when it is finally finished.

I might make a tutorial.

Pumpkin Seeds and Pumkin

My neighbor gave me two pumpkins the other day. I decided they must be dried up but the seeds would still be good. Sure enough they were. Where I grew up, we always had fresh pumpkin seeds to eat.

The seeds, however, came with their own superstition. They were actually called Macobi Seeds and those who were love sick or their lover left them, they would be eating these seeds. They were said to have Macobi. They were also called pepitos for those who were just eating them to eat them.

When one would eat these seeds, one would be quick to say, "I don't have Macobi" lol. I am just eating them.

I don't know what effect these seeds were supposed to have on love sickness. Imagine the seed itself, it may have some properties that was good for the feel good hormone " Serotonin". I would see people eat a whole bag full and say they felt much better lol.

How I made the pepitos: I washed and drained them and them put them on towels to dry. I then put them on a cookie sheet and all spread out and baked them for ten minutes on 350 to dry some more. I then removed them, sprinkled some olive oil (tiny amount ) and some sea salt and stirred them good and put them in for another ten min. I would stir them again and check to see if they were done. I think it took 20 to 30 min, depending on your oven.

To crack the peppitos (I am assuming that you don't have Macobi lol) put the seed between you teeth on the sharp end of the seed and bite down just a little and the seed will pop open and you can just pull the seed out with you teeth, it's all in the learning lol.

The pumpkins, were also good so I put those in a pan with a rack with water and steam baked them for pies and cakes at a later time. Here is one all done and scoped out.

Lone star

Oh gosh, I have been working on so many things. Here is one project I just finished. I took me a couple years to tackle but it is done. All quilted, binding and all. It's a king size 107x107.

Another view....


ok blogger won't let me upload anymore pics. I will try again later or from the other computer.

Checking In

Just checking in to let you know I am still here. I have been extreamely busy. I have lots more new stuff to post both on the this site and the doll site. I will try to do that by early next week.

Mindless Finished

All done with the black, one inch borders on. I enjoyed making this scrap quilt a lot. I see different scenes in it that were totally unplanned, except for the dog and the houses.

Mindless Continued

I finished the third piece and have join it to the rest. The section on the right bottom has an airial look about it. This is where value plays a major role, not that I intended anything of the sort lol

The white comes forward and the black on each side of the track,  make it recede so you can see a little depth. Then the section behind the white strip looks like a little town lol....one never knows what will come out of the S&C.

I will work on the long bottom piece next.

A friend sent me this link. I thought it so very sweet and the song by Demis Roussoss is just beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfbchq0xQmQ&feature=player_embedded

MINDLESS, MINDLESS, MINDLESS

This project was started on the 22nd, so I am a bit late with the posting.

I love my scraps and crumps, as you all know from the mindless stuff I post lol. Crumps, being a word I learned on a Quilt Board lol. I assumed the crumbs were the tiny bits that you couldn't call a scrap and which I don't throw away anymore.

One of my darling friends, knowing of my fetish, dumped some of her scraps and crumbs here. I keep the scraps from different friends seperated, as their stuff is unique to them. I can look at one of my scrap quilts and know exactly who is in them...yes, sometimes I do add and combine but mostly it is from the one person about 75%.

Because of certain circumstances, I have the need to do mindless right now, so all other started projects, that require some thought, are on hold. It is nothing too serious, just some things that happen and are normal.

So here I am with my S & C (scraps and Crumps). I sewed into the wee hours of the morning as I could not sleep and was feeling quite energetic and excited at the prospect of creating something from nothing.

This is what I started with.

I sorted the heap into HST (half square triangles), squares, long pieces etc. At that moment, I didn't have a clue what I was going to do.

Then I  piled it neatly by the sewing machine. Remember, I am not even thinking, I am just sewing here and there and I am feeling very joyful just doing that.

I knew my brain, given a chance,  would kick in eventually as it knows what I like. It is a funny thing, you know?

I started to sew all the HST together, all sizes. Then I sewed a long string of strips and they were going every which way but the mind was saying, " keep going". The strips was long and curving and etc.

I started this block and left it at that, as the brain wanted to do something else with another block. Then that was left and another started.

These are not finished by any means. I don't want a block to block look. I want it to flow together as a whole, so I have to do a connection somewhere.

I put the three together and I can see, where there is an outside strip, it gives the block appearance. I turned the top two with no strips on that side and I can see the look I like. I love the black intersperced here and there.

I now think I should put a cat and dog and a house in. I got some neat blocks out of the  "Sew Precise" software.

The two blocks on the top, show the striped pieces of the long string that I did. I filled in the curve at the dip and left the round part alone and then I cut the whole strip straight. I just add and square up as I go but love the crooked things inside.

I have finished four pieces so far and there's not much of the S & C left from this donation, lol, but I have more from another friend more or less the same taste in fabric.

I am calling them pieces because I don't want a block look. Here is how I started the fourth part and then the bottom half...it's sew as you go.

I have made stairways or ladders and when I do the next one it will be better. The more I do these the more I learn.

I even managed a house lol. These are the four areas now. I won't sew them together yet.

Here are four pieces together, so far.

Ok, that mess of S&C that I started on,  is gone and I had to empty another bag but these are larger piece, thank God! lol.

I am working on a long part going down one side of the four pieces and have more than half done. Notice my little doggie with the kerchief?

Then I just took a ladder and placed it in the bottom space and will work from there.

I will probably switch the pieces around once I get them done, After I finish the bottom of this piece, I will make  a long piece accross the entire bottom, so the quilt will be about 58x58 more or less.

Teddy and the T-Shirt scraps.

I thought this was so cute I had to share. I am in the process of making a T-shirt quilt for someone. I started to cut the fronts out and would throw the rest of it on the floor.

My little Shih-tzu, Teddy (he is 12 1/2) was watching deligently. As soon as a scrap would fall, he would grap it and stuff it under his tummy (mine, mine). Eventually the heap got a bit big. He then proceeds to jump up and down on it, throwing them in the air and then plunks himself down on top and went to sleep lol.

He woke up when the camera clicked. He doesn't like his pic taken.

Here is a double block that I built to accomodate the size I was working on.

Here is a single bock with a little building on.

I will post after it is quilted.

ODD BLOCKS FOR SURPRISE QUILT

I decided to go search for some quilt blocks I had made about 10 years ago. I thought I would make every block that was ever made and published. How was I to know that there are only 4,500 quilt blocks to do hahahhaha...so scratch that.

I found 20 blocks, 12 inches square. I also found about twenty four, 5 inch blocks from the time that I thought I was going to make the Dear Jane quilt...well so much for that and 5 or so years later lol.

Here is the collection of Dear Jane's.

Aren't they sooo cute. At 5 inch, you only need to make like 250 of them, I forgot now but it's a ton.

I played with them and put one of the bigger blocks that I found and surrounded it with the DJ's

The center block, the two large ones in the second row and the third one in the first row, were all  Judy Martin free blocks a long time ago. I am so glad I got Them.

Here is a close up of how it's made.

See all those little slivers in the star point? It makes the star actually twinkle at a distance.


Here is the quilt finished with all the blocks I found. I still four left over but those can be thrown in with another quilt I have in mind with some other little block from another project that I stopped lol.

I love it. It measures 59x71. I might add a border and make it a wee bigger.

I just made the border, I will try to quilt it tomorrow and post the final pic.

I have also started Mrs Farmer at my other blog.

Underground Railroad, all done

I have finished the quilt finally. It turned out to be 85x103, more or less. I used all joined plaid for the backing. I am not buying any fabric for a long time, so I am using what I have, besides I like a patchy backing, makes it cozy. I also used two different plaids for the binding which is about one inch wide.

Here it is on the bed.

Here it is hanging on the design wall. It is  way too big for the wall.

Here is the back.

A closer view of the plaids.

I used a very nice soft poly batting as I want the quilt to be soft and cozy.

Underground Railroad

All the blocks, but not arranged as yet the way I want them.

All that is left to do now, is the sashings and the corner stones and then on to the quilting.

Beauregard Surrounded, a block to recall the civil war.

Birds in the air, a block to recall freedom.

Lincoln's Platform, a block to recall the Emancipation Proclamation.

Rocky Road to Kansas, a block to recall the Exodusters.

Here is a tutorial on doing the Bird in the Air block.

Trace all the bird parts onto very light interfacing (iron on type). Place right side of fabric to the glue side of the interfacing. Sew on line and cut out leaving  an 1/8 inch seam allowance.

Turning the birds. I used finger turning tools from my doll kit. Cut the interfacing down the middle but not all the way to the points of the birds. Place tube inside and poke the corresponding tube down into the other tube and press on the fabric side until it enters the tube, then just turn it out.

Here you see the hollow tube going up and the solid tube going down into it, poking the fabric in. Just doing the points, the rest is easy.

Here you can see them turned and pinned. Now I will steam press the birds onto the block and the glue side of the interfacing will stick in place. Then I topstitch all around the birds. Start in middle not at the point.