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right now

Feb 12, 2011

Weekend Forecast: Mud & Quilts!

Temps in the 50's today have all of our snow drip-dripping everywhere and creating lots of mud.  Good for the plants, not so good for working outside and kids running in and out of the house!  The warm temps did let hubby get out his tools and finish my light setup for my seedlings so I'll get around to getting the lights hooked up and hung to it later today.

terrible photo, but can you see the 2 artichokes peeking up?  Center & top right cell.


Below, over-engineered in typical man-fashion, it weighs a hundred pounds I bet, but when I connect the chains and lights it will work well.... but where the he(( am I going to put this contraption LOL?


This may be my last weekend to play with my sewing machine for more than an hour at a time since temps are expected to be in the 60's next weekend - so I'm taking full advantage of the mud outside now to get started on a quilt for a very important little girl in my life - any guesses as to who it is?  Here's a hint... she's the only little girl in our extended family, and her birthday is coming up very soon!


here's the colors I picked for the mod-tod(dler)-


Below, no - Loch hasn't taken up yoga - "Thing 1" has been playing chess like a pro lately and requested a "chess bag" so he could take his mad skillz on the road.  This is what I came up with, it is kind of like a yoga bag, I didn't use a pattern but I'm really happy with how it came out.  I used the skull fabric on the outside, a pale gray lining, and interfacing to stiffen up the bag and strap.  Drawstring cord with a toggle finished it up.  Took about 2-3 hours total probably, but I worked on it in 2 sessions yesterday so I wouldn't get too frustrated :)


Here's a close up of the fabric, I also used a flannel remnant to make a drawstring bag to hold his chess pieces, his chess board is one of those roll-up tournament size ones.  Some parts of the fabric could have stood to be a little more masculine, but I'm digging the skulls, flames and barbed wire.



Now I'm off to start cutting quilt fabrics.  The fun part was picking out the fabrics, and now is the stressful part, cutting the shapes out perfectly.  Then comes fun again when I can spend some time changing the pieces around until I'm happy with the design.  I'm sure I won't come up for air until Monday, so have a good weekend, y'all!

11 comments:

  1. The bag you made turned out great and I really adore the fabrics you picked for the little girl. I'm happy for you, that you get to enjoy your new sewing machine.

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  2. Your sewing projects are really wonderful. I love the colors. The quilt will really be fun too.

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  3. GREAT choice of fabrics for Loch's bag! Perfect for a young guy of his age. Very good job without a pattern.

    You and I definitely need to work together! I dislike picking out fabric (always am doubting myself over and over) but like to do the cutting. We could turn out a lot of product working together!!

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  4. I love the fabric you picked. It's going to be a beautiful quilt.

    Loch's chess bag is wonderful! The fabric is great for a boy.

    Have fun quilting!

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  5. I like your seed starting contraption...maybe you will just have to leave it where it is!!

    You did a great job on Loch's bag!! Are you sure that you are a novice sewer???

    Have a good weekend playing in the mudd!!

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  6. Sometimes I think I need to get serious about sewing, if only for the really great materials out there. I can't believe some of the neat patterns you got.....very cool.
    About the only thing I can sew is curtains. And guess what? Don HATES curtains and won't let me put any up. He's lucky I adore him, or I'd be trading .........again!
    :D

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  7. Thanks for the seeds - I'm looking forward to trying them! I'm going to be starting my broccoli Monday or Tuesday - wish I had that lighting set up! But then where would I put it? Love the chess bag!

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  8. Anke, Jane - thanks! Sounds stupid, but my new machine is life-changing LOL!!

    Mama Pea, I do love picking the fabrics, but I could definitely use a course on cutting!

    Sparkless, he's ready for the chess nerd convention - there's room in the bag for a pair of jammies :)

    Robin, I moved it into the kids' room LOL and I definitely am a novice, like I said, I used no pattern - you know why? I don't know how to read them, cut and piece them together :)

    Sue, you should! (says one enabler to another) I have to side with your hubby on this one, I don't like curtains, we have white plantation shutters on all the windows. BUT, that being said, if the style of my house was different and say more farm-housey, I would be shabby-chic'ing the whole place up in curtains LOL

    Alison, glad they arrived! Hope they all germinate well for you, one of the lettuces took 5 days for me, I was about to give up and they started sprouting this morning. The light setup is working well, I can get 4 72 cell flats in there, but we can barely walk around it, oh well.... :)

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  9. There are a few little tricks to cutting that make the whole process easier . . . and lessen the chance of an accident with the rotary cutter! Dang. Again, if we only lived closer!

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  10. I just got my first lavender and onions peeking out of the soil...oh I am so excited to think about what this year's garden may bring forth!

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  11. Very cool!!!! I really like that skull fabric. Makes me want to act all rough and tough.

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