Category Archives: scavenger hunt

Friday Finds

I spent a little time at the carwash this week. Cleaning up the Yukon. But a little time turned into a lot of time when the battery died -in the carwash. 🙂 Seriously and I did laugh while some nice car washers jumped my battery. In the carwash. A week of fixing things. It really has been a year of fixing things so far. New car has been obtained and I am very happy about that. ( The dogs do not like the new car. I feel a little guilty about that. Soon the new car smell will be gone and they will be at home again.)

Doing good on staying focused. I have another small piece basted and have begun quilting it. Nothing to show yet. But I found some really fun things happening in blogland this week.

1. Kathy York has organized an Artist Quilt Village project through May and you can follow along through the artists’ blogs.

2. A few lucky people are at the Barn and posting about their time there- Robin Ferrier and Christine Mauersberger.

3. Lynn Krawcyzk has another great idea and is offering a thermofax screen of the month club. I just used one of her screens today and was reminded of what quick easy fun printing is using a thermofax screen. She only has a few spots left so go check it out. It is another addicting way to add design to fabric.

4. And for those of you awake yet, yes it is only Thursday. But Friday Finds sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it?

A Treat for You

For those of you who enjoy going to the Barn to study with Nancy Crow, I have a treat for you today. Judy Kirpich has been attending a two week master’s class and has so graciously been blogging about her journey. I haven’t had the opportunity to meet Judy but have only been reading her blog for about a year now. She is very talented and you will enjoy how hard she has been working there and her beautiful results.

I am off to sew for two hours. My kids have fall break yesterday and today. They will still be sleeping or doing the chores I have written out for them before we go pick up their friends at 11am. A new strategy : I have written my studio time on the family calendar for the next week. I am way too grumpy without it.

Be inspired by Judy today! Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Friday Fun

I am so excited. I am have been playing on a consistent basis for a month now. And this weekend friends are coming from Connecticut to visit and run the Grand Rapids marathon. ( They are trying to cover a marathon in each state…not for me but good for them!) We lived in Monroe, CT for 5 years and I do so miss the friends I made there. So it will be great to see them.

I am ripping out stitching from the previous machine disaster. Machine quilting is no fun to rip out. With each stitch I rip out, I wonder why in the world I kept going so long….So hope to have a finish for you next week. I have been working so hard this week, but it had been kids stuff and house stuff.

Since I have no real art to show you today, I will give you a Friday Moment . I found this blog-Amanda at Soule Mama and it is a really nice place to go to visit. She is renovating an old home and that’s something that I love to watch. That and the simplicity of a room that has nothing in it. An “Ahh” moment. At the end of the week.

My Friday moment- Lucy in the leaves loving fall. Aren’t we all? Storing it up.

Another link for you- Film in the Fridge. Someone in Burlington, VT who had carved out a nice little niche for herself and makes really fun quilts. I enjoyed her quilt from yesterday. And was excited that there is a new fabric and yarn shop in Burlington, nido. I will check it out at Christmas when we go there.

But first, I will enjoy fall. Be creative, my friends!

The Art of Patience/Scavenger Hunt

As a Physical Therapist for 25 some years, I always considered myself a patient person. Loved taking time with people and cheering them on as they healed. As a mom of nineteen years, I am fairly patient. But, I am only a teensie bit patient with my foot healing. I had grand ideas of doing all this hand sewing. But that is proving to be difficult if you need to have the foot above the level of the heart for forty eight hours. Hard to sew on your back! I can knit on my back though and am working on a hat. One more day of foot elevation and three more days of no driving. No crutches though.

I have found some really fun stuff for you to browse through. Another scavenger hunt:

1. General fun:
The month of April is quilting month at Sew Mama Sew. Go to the blog and there is a new post each day with fun tutorials and giveaways. If you are new to sewing quilts, this is a great month to follow this blog.

2 Thermofax Screen Printing:
If you have ever wanted to try thermofax screen printing, there is a giveaway on this blog. Lynn Krawczyk does some really interesting things and I have recently started reading her blog. A good review of paints used for screen printing this past week.

3. Hand Carved Stamps and Water Painting:
Amazing Vimeo tutorials on making a hand carved stamp at Geninne’s Art Blog.( I love her banner. ) If you scrool down on the right, you can pick up this tutorial. She is very talented as well. She is also a self-taught watercolorist. You can see a Vimeo of her at work painting as well. Good stuff.

4. Dye resists
Terri Jarrod Dimond uses a flour paste resist with dye on her fabric. Great results and another nice tutorial.

I could keep going but this should be a good start on some inspiration for you.

Happy Sewing, my friends! Make some art for me. Let me know if you find anything interesting.

Sources of Inspiration and Scavenger Hunting

I have been putting in lots of hours of machine quilting hoping to have a piece ready for a quilt show deadline. But in my quest to make it better than my usual machine quilting, I missed the deadline. I am ok with that-for now. I will save this piece for my quilt guild show. I am also trying to do a little closer spacing than I would normally do. Just working on those 2010 goals I set for myself. My eyes are tired and I know after this week I need a new pair of glasses.

After a long afternoon of driving and car problems yesterday, I just needed a little more than usual of filling up the inspiration tank. So, in case you might need a little more, here’s to some wonderful bloggers and artists.

1. Be*mused– She has been blogging for 5 years! I am in awe of that. My current goal is just to make it to post 100. There are some nice pictures of the Tokyo Quilt Show here. What a treat it would be to go there. A dream actually.

2.Scoutie Girl-This is a huge resource for anything handmade featuring new designers.

3.dottie angel– just too much fun and I love the puppy post. Go back a few days to see how cute he is. How creative is this. The banner is what I would like to perfect!

4.-Subversive stitch Lots of good info

5. Sharon Schamber’s network– click on free stuff within her network and if you are new to this you will learn soem good stuff. I also appreciate her basting method and might try it next time. Great tutorial on how to make your own ironing surface.

Ok now go have some fun and be inspired. If I finish my piece this weekend, I owe you a post!

Happy sewing, my friends!

A kind of scavenger hunt for you

I was looking for some information on fabric dyeing and I got lost on a few sites that you might enjoy. The first brought me to a girl, Annica, who had some great info on resist dyeing. She showed some of her wonderful pieces she made at a summer workshop. The workshop was at a place called Capellagarden. Under her post dated April 2007) I found the most beautiful pieces of fabric that were created there by their students. ( under summer workshops-images). Yes, I am sending you on a bit of a scavenger hunt. But on this cold winter day, I bet you look at the pictures more than once! The pictures of all the fabric drying on the line-wow! I want to dye fabric and have it look like that.

I received my prize yesterday for the Project Joy challenge. It is pretty tin full of fabric along with three fat quarters of fabric, The generous prize was from Penny at sewtakeahike. I am very easily distracted but will resist this right now. It would be a good spring project.