Monday, April 23, 2012

simon's cat




I made these for my Lyd! Lovingly ripped from Simon's mischievous cat, I found images of Cat making a ruckus about being fed, which is pretty consistent with Lyd's behavior at 06:30 in the morning [Google search: "simon's cat+ feed me"] They turned out so well, I think I want to make a few more... They will be living in the store window through the week until the studio/ humane society event this Sunday. Then teh Lydia can eat in style. 


upcoming fun


  • June 24, 2012 (Sun) -- Quilts in the Gardens
    . . The Miller Homestead on Stone Manse Drive in Allegheny County's South Park
    . . 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.; admission $2
    . . (412) 835-1554 or www.olivermiller.org for information
  • September 21-22, 2012 (Fri-Sat) -- Peggy's Patchwork Pals Sixth Annual Quilt Show and Sale
    . . Slate Lick United Presbyterian Church, 106 Brown Road, Freeport, PA 16229
    . . 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Vendors and lunch will be available.
    . . For more information call Peggy Coriale (724) 295-3734 or Judy Kois (724) 337-1129
There was a show this weekend that I missed that I had wanted to go to, but thought it was happening in May. Missed my chance. I'm not aware of any other upcoming events this summer that I will be able to get to. Some of this is planning way in advance, but that's life as a grad student. Figure life out for the next six months, and it's pretty well set in stone. 

I cleaned house this weekend... sort of.  The upshot of all this:
  1. Winter wardrobe and bedding is all put away. Mostly all in one container.
  2. Clothes that I didn't wear for the entire season have been pulled out for resale/donation. 
  3. I discovered that I have 2 bags of queen sized batting, 1 double, and 4 [four, priced at $2 a pop from thrift stores] of baby/crib batting stashed in a closet. Fab.U.Louis.
  4. In removing my CD collection from the bookshelf to the fireplace cubby, I freed up space for more craft related things to be stored with all the other craft related things. 
The downside is that I can't find anything. Missing in action:
  1. My rotary cutters. The new Gingher, the pretty owl-covered Fiskers. Gone. Probably hanging out with the missing floral enameled Gingers that I haven't been able to find since I moved last May. 
  2. My acrylic rulers. All three of them. 
  3. Kaleidoscopic Heart and Human Again. I had set these albums aside to lend to people

Some bonus action: the sampler is done! After a lot of seam releasing, restitching, and additional patchwork construction to fill in new holes, I got the sashing stitched on sometime Saturday. 


It is now 5th in a queue of quilts waiting to be basted with a back and batting. I'll finish them all eventually. Maybe it's time to schedule the long arm quilting lessons...

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Happy Friday! I'm having the oil changed in my car this morning (about 75 miles overdue). I picked up my Singer from the repair shop last week after almost forgetting it was there, and I stopped at a thrift shop a few doors down on the way home.

I love thrift shops.What I need is a "find-a-thrift-shop" app. Concerning is the rising prices at the thrift shops, but I suppose they are feeling the squeeze just like the rest of us. Delightful for quilters unfamiliar with an area is the Quilt Shop Locator from Quilters Club of America and Fons and Porter. Did we mention it is free? On wifi enabled devices it only works where wifi is available, of course, but with a data plan, it works whenever, wherever, as long as there's power. The downside is that the app can only locate stores that have contacted Fons and Porter, AND if you are running a system other than Apple, certain devices remain unsupported. Sorry, KindleFire owners. You can't play in the app sandbox.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

stalled and terrarium fun

two, well, really, one and a half weeks of school left before I have a month (!) off from school. Then I have four summer classes, but details. I am very seriously thinking of purchasing a serger, after years of threatening, I think it's coming down to the wire. Preempted by a garment project that I am loath to start because the material will be fray-happy, and I just don't want to deal with that.

last month I took a class on terrarium building at Creative Reuse with GreenSinner. Since then, my container took one for hte team, and is missing a chunk out of the boom... so I'm watching it a little more carefully, and on the look-out for a new container.

setting it up with little plants...



A companion container!



All finished!

Chillin' on the patio outside

Sunday, April 8, 2012

"You may not like him Minister but, you can't deny...Dumbledore's got style"

Last early summer at Joann Fabrics, they were featuring a North African/ Indian decorating scheme replete with exotic furnishings, and, as I recall, a fair amount of paisley. At the time, I knew I was moving into a small apartment, and had been doing some homework about what sort of furniture pieces people felt worked best for small spaces. The repeat offender? Objects that pulled double duty and or were not "heavy" in the dual  sense of physical weight, but also visually - small spaces needed objects that allowed light to pass through them. I knew I would need a coffee table, and after reading other's blogs about small space dwelling, I also knew that unless said table could be moved quickly and easily, and was adaptable, I would hate it. 

While a LACK table from IKEA would have fit the bill, I'm just not that minimalist. 

And then these kids went on sale for $10 a pop. 

I did a little more homework, and armed with a can of spray-on primer and a can of Rustoleum #7929830 Lagoon, I got to work refinishing the Mallard and Avocado green side tables. The primer step is absolutely worth it, even though the dark table color was so close to the new, and the light would have been easily camouflaged. 

Why I love these pieces
At 16" tall and 11" square, they fit EVERYWHERE. When I have people over, no one is tripping over them, they're easy to move, and they carry the pop of color that I wanted to put on the walls, but would have turned this tiny space into a cave. They also have a hint of flair. I only wish I had two more, so that I could pull them together into a square. However, I would be equally as happy finding a tray that would nest over the tops