Mr. SnowMen Reveal Themselves...

Hi There!

I'm off to bed but I thought I'd show you my progress...



Pat's SnowMan is on my design wall, as well!

Have a great week!!!

Rosa

Black Light + Fluorescent Thread = Cool Video

Hi There!

Gilbert had a bright, colorful quilt on his Longarm, yesterday and our quilty friend had selected some bright orange, almost fluorescent thread.

He decided to attach our video cam onto his Gammill Vision and filmed himself!

Of course, it helped that he used the black light, on his Vision...

(click on image to view video)

Have a great weekend!

Rosa

13 Fuzzy Mr. SnowMen

Hi There!

Well, I worked on my Mr. SnowMen, this evening and took a picture of my design wall.



Thought this might put my project more into "perspective"...

Yes, the picture is purposely fuzzy, in hopes that it will still keep you all guessing!

LOL

Might be awhile before I show some more pictures....

Have a great week!

Rosa

The First Shovel of Snow.

Hi There!

I started assembling my Mr. SnowMan today.

I wanted to complete MY block 'cause I wanted to see the final product and I also wanted to see if it would pass MY inspection.

You see, I had HOPED to do the majority of the assembly with my sewing machine.

This was not meant to be.

(See picture below)

Unfortunately, the majority of Mr. SnowMan will now have to be hand appliquéd.

:-(

Thankfully, I'm not fussy and MY block will play nicely with the other blocks!



This body part was hand appliquéd - no problemo.

And this body part was sewn with my sewing machine. And, in MY humble opinion, it went together nicely.

Therefore, all of THESE (red) body parts will be done by machine.



All of the other "parts" will have to be hand appliquéd.

And here's the beginning of my 13 Mr. SnowMan blocks...

I've been cutting them (approx.) 13 inches square. I figure the recipient can always square it up to 12-1/2 inch square.

Sooooo, there's goes my ceremonial First Shovel of Snow.

My Snow People Swap Block has officially started!

*grin*

This is where I got my Mr. SnowMan block.
I've modified it a wee bit from the original pattern.

I just LOVE this book!

It's good for clothing, purse/tote, table decorations, quilting - table tops, mini quilts or bed size quilts and most of the patterns can be easily converted into hook rugs.

Hope you have a GREAT week!

Rosa

Mr. SnowMan - Some Assembly Required

Hi There!

I've been busy this week - prepping my Mr. SnowMen blocks for the swap that I started.

YES, 14 appliqued blocks are time consuming but oh so relaxing.

Here's some of Mr. SnowMan's appliqués....



Are you still perplexed and saying to yourself, "Huh?!?!?"



Well, as I start "assembling" them, I'll be sharing pictures.

Have no fear - I think he will look ADORABLE, once finished.

Different, but adorable!

*grin*

Tomorrow, Gilbert and I have a few errands. I need to pick up some more "background" fabric, for my Mr. SnowMan's. That should be fun!

Hope you all have a wickedly wild and wonderful weekend!

Rosa

14 is Better Than 12!!!

Hi There!

Well, I finally finished adding the staggered blocks to my lap quilt, consulted my friend Elaine who advised me to add a darker border and call it quits, after that.

I've never done mitered corners and plan on doing some You Tube research, to find out the best and easiest way to do mitered corners.

Wish me luck!



In the meantime, I've started up a "Snow People Block Swap". We were only supposed to be 12 and then, a 2nd group of 12 would sign up.

Well, unfortunately, only 2 people signed up with the 2nd group. Soooo, we invited them to join up with us.

Fourteen is MUCH better than twelve, right?!??

*VBG*

And without any further ado, let me introduce to you

Mr. Snowman.....
times 14 !!!!

I'm so excited about this snow people swap! And YES! I'll be posting pictures on their progress!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Rosa

What a Difference a Border Makes....

Hi There!

Gilbert and I - for once!!! - didn't have any errands to do today and we decided to just stay home and work (AKA play, for me). Gilbert quilted a quilt and I played in my Sewing Studio.

*VBG*

It took me almost all morning to sew and cut up those half square triangles and FINALLY add them to the log cabin blocks!

What a difference a Border Makes....
Twenty Four little Inches...

LOL

Seriously, to view a good rendition of that song,
click here...




Then, I added a 3/4 inch beige strip, to them.



Close-up of the beige strip.

Then, I found a piece of civil war strippy kinda fabric and managed to sew another border, with this.

And, I've decided to add a "staggered" blocks around it.

But I'm thinking that I might need another beige strip to divide the dark strips from the staggered blocks.

Suggestions, anyone?

Rosa

Wooly Flowers in my Baskets!!!

Hi There!

Finally finished my table topper!

Can't remember if I mentioned it but I decided to add some felted wool for the flowers, the vine and the leaves. It makes you want to continually touch them! LOL

Just need to find the proper back and ask Gilbert and Bertha to work their magic...



Then, because I had a lot of itsy, bitsy pieces of this and that and because I saw this design in my head, I decided to make a lap quilt.

The center hole-in-the-barn-door block measures 2 inches, finished!!!

Cute, eh?



And then, I log cabined around this 2 inch block!



Look underneath the log cabin.... See the tiny blocks?!?!?

Because I had a lot of teeny, tiny triangles, I decided to make some 1-1/2 inch half square triangles. These will finish to 1 inch square!

And that's pretty much what I'm working on, these days.... teeny, tiny triangles. I only need to make (approx.) 132 of these!

LOL

And, guess what?!?!?

Gilbert finished quilting the T-Shirt Quilt!!!!

I need to finish the binding on the batik quilt - on my agenda this evening - and tomorrow evening, I plan on starting the binding on this cute quilt!

Hope you all have a Super Saturday and Sunday!!!!

Rosa

T-shirts and Baskets....

Hi There!

I've FINALLY got this T-Shirt quilt top finished, late this afternoon!

And this afternoon, we went out and bought some special batting for this gorgeous quilt, and Gilbert hopes to start the actual "quilting", with his Longarm Partner, Bertha.

This is the "top" end of the quilt.



And here's the bottom part.

I purposely built up and surrounded the blocks with the same marbelized purples in hopes that the blocks would appear to be "floating" on a sea of purple.

The person that will be receiving this quilt loves purple, as do I!

*VBG*

And since my part of the job on the t-shirt quilt is finished, for now.... I let loose and pulled out these basket blocks.

No, I didn't get too far but at least its a beginning.

Today was hotter than yesterday! We went out for a few quick errands this afternoon and everyone would say, "It's a nice day out there, today." And I'd reply with a "Yes, but it's a bit too nice for me... if you know what I mean."

And we would both nod and chuckle.

Rosa

One Last Time...

Hi There!

Weather's a fickle thing...

In my little spot on this planet, its apparently difficult to predict, even!

Approximately 3 weeks ago, we FINALLY got some (nice) summer weather!

Approximately 2 weeks ago and up until the day before yesterday - Friday, it had turned into our typical (coldish) fall weather.

Yesterday?

Well, HELLO Indian Summer!!!

Temps rose to about 23 Celsius (75 Fahrenheit) and today, they're predicting 25 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit)!!!!



We decided not to take a chance and enjoy what will probably be our last barbecue for the season.

Yes, I know some people barbecue all winter long and, obviously, bring the food in the house to eat, but Gilbert doesn't care to do that.

Wishing my fellow Canucks a
Happy Thanksgiving weekend!!!!

Rosa

Tzat You Mah?!?

Hi There!

Today, after work,
I had a planned "Me" day!

I went up town and
went to visit my favorite store,
"Sudsmuffin"!!!

As I was getting low on my chocolate sugar bath scrub, I picked up another jar. This time, I chose "Satsuma". It smells like orange tangerines!!!

Mr. Sudsmuffin - the store owner and soap cook - told me that Satsuma means Japanese oranges.

I can believe that!
*g*

Well, after visiting with my friend at Sudsmuffin, I went to "Urban Deli".

While waiting for my cousin Gisele to meet up with me, I asked both my waiters if they wanted to smell my jar. They had heard of ... or walked by "Sudsmuffin" and had no idea what was sold in this store.

They were both astonished at the intoxicating and almost edible odor of my jar! I spent a good 5 minutes extolling the virtues and soapy wares of Sudsmuffin! I mean, when I'm passionate about something and truly believe in it - WATCH OUT!

I've had people tell me that I could easily sell snow to Eskimos!

LOL

After supper, Gisele and I met up with my Aunt - Gisele's Mom - at "InPrint" - a bookstore on King Street - where my blogging friend, Riel Nason, was having a book reading and signing.
(more about that in another blog)

While waiting for the book reading to start, I pulled out my jar and had my Aunt smell it. My Aunt has problems with "scents" - I had forgotten about that minor detail.

Anyhow, she LOVED the scent and had no real problems with it!

Imagine that, eh?


(All you need is approx. 1 tablespoon of body scrub and your favorite scrubby to get a great, foamy lather that miraculously rinses off CLEAN, quickly and leaves your skin SMOOTH and not yicky and scratchy!)

So, of COURSE I had the people sitting nearby smell my jar! Everyone that I spoke to about Sudsmuffin had either heard about them or walked in front of their store and never bothered to step inside and question WHAT they actually sell!

Moral of my blog?

If you walk in front of a store EVERY SINGLE DAY, on your way to work and you have NO IDEA what they do.... TAKE 5 minutes, step inside and say,

"HI! What do you guys sell? I'm curious."

Chances are , they would be more than pleased to show you what they sell or do!

*********************

Well, after the book reading, we went to our cars and it was rainy and wet and cold and blustery... a completely yucky evening!

I came home and took a shower to warm up with
my Satsuma body scrub!

Intoxicating and relaxing - all in one jar!

Rosa
(No affiliation with this company other than they're my friends)

And YES, they ship internationally, too!

Flowers in My Baskets!

Hi There!

A while back, I had asked Santa for
"Anka's Treasures", by Heather Mulder Peterson.

I just LOVE this book!!!

I've completed THREE (3) different quilts from this book and Gilbert's almost finished cutting up the logs in a Log Cabin quilt, for a FIFTH (5th) one.

And let me introduce the FOURTH (4th) one!

It's a cute basket table topper!

And apart from the appliqués,
it's easy smeasy to do!



This morning, I finally finished hand appliqueing the flower petals - 16 in total!!!

I've selected pre-washed felted wool - I just LOVE working with wool, for appliqués! Plus, it gives you a 3 dimensional look and feel to your work!

If you haven't tried felted wool yet, I suggest you give it a try!

In fact, I've so convinced with the look and feel of felted wool, that I've been considering designing a mini block and selling the kit on Etsy.

What d'ya think? Is Etsy the best way to go?

All suggestions are welcome!

Rosa

Staggered Block Tutorial and Other Stuff...

Hi There!

I'm probably the last one in the quilting world that didn't know about this sewing technique but I thought I'd share, just in case you didn't know how to do this easy, smeasy border.

Here's the measurements that I did, but I'm sure you could do them whichever way you wanted.

I cut my purple strips at 2-1/2" and the pink/yellow fabric strip at 1-1/2".

Sew them together, as in the picture below.

Once sewn, cut mini strips at 1-1/2" wide.
(see picture below)



Flip them end to end and sew them together.

Continue piecing these cuties together, making sure - obviously -that no pink/yellows get sewn together.



Eventually, your sewn strips get longer and longer.

Measure the length or width of your quilt to ensure that your strip is long enough and not too long.

I made the top and bottom of the T-Shirt quilt, so far.

Tomorrow, I'll work on the sides of this quilt.

Okay, enough with the tutorial.

If you're a newbie with these blocks,
I'm positive you understood. *grin*

Today, Gilbert and I went to our local CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) station. This year, CBC is celebrating their 75th anniversary and today, they had an Open House from 11 a.m. till 3h00 p.m.

Gilbert wanted to see how their cameras worked and how the programs were uploaded to the TV, etc, etc.

Anyhow, they had a spinning wheel and Gilbert and I each spun their wheel and we BOTH won a (quality made) T-Shirt!!!

(Can you say "spun" in that context?!??)

Cool, eh?

On a final note... remember my HP TouchPad?

HP was getting rid of them last month. You could select the 16 GB for $99.00 (regular 399.00, I believe) and the 32 GB for $149.00 (regular $499 or $599 - can't remember)

Anyhow, I decided to go with the 32 GB. Gilbert said for 50 bucks more, I might as well, eh?

And sometimes it's best to "Go Big or Stay at Home", eh?
(Isn't that a Poker expression?!?? LOL)

Well, about 2 weeks ago, Gilbert shows me this flyer. I nearly fell to the floor!!!

It's a company where you can rent out furniture and after a bit, if you want, you can buy your item outright, for a pretty penny.

Check out the HP TouchPad 16 GB - you can rent it out with these people.

And this "special" came out perhaps 2 weeks AFTER the big HP TouchPad dump!!!

Their everyday LOW price is $1,424.99,
for the 16 GB !!!!!

*shakes her head*

This is just baaaaaad.

Last topic of the day.

"Ophelia", our latest storm, is brushing past us, with lots of rain this weekend.

It's now 5h50 p.m. and I plan on taking it easy....
we were out on the roads all day today.

Tomorrow, I will be sewing up a "storm"!
Pardon the pun!!! LOL

Watch for another blog, Sunday evening!

Hope you're all having a
Wonderful Weekend!!!

Rosa