Friday, February 10, 2017

UFO 1 & 2

The Mother ship has captured 2 mini UFO's!



I was cruising the internet recently and 
I was looking at Italian cement tiles for 
inspiration. 
I stuck 
GOLD...
or 
either found the end of the rainbow.
The tiles had endless possibilities for quilt inspiration. 




I opened up one of the tiles in Illustrator 
and traced the image and ended up with the quilt block below. 



I spent waaaaaay too much time tessellating the tiles. 
Here are 2 samples. 




After I spent a crazy amount of time cutting & sewing 
hordes of 1" strips of fabric I assembled them into 4 blocks below. 
This finished block is only 8" square. 
Oh...so tiny for so much work!!!!



Common sense says 
STOP 
what you are doing, 
and don't make a King size quilt like this!!!

So, now I bring you the fabulous
Italian cement tile inspired 
HOT PAD.
(It's the latest craze.)





UFO #2

This foundation paper pieced 
New York Beauty is from the Gridster Bee.
Susan Snooks of Australia chose this wonderful block.
You can view her blog here.

I was so excited to make my very first 
foundation pieced block I forgot to do something incredibly important.
ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOUR PRINTER IS SET TO 100%.
On my printer there are 
TWO 
places to verify this. 
I only checked one place and boo hoo.
I printed at the wrong size, and waaaaalaaaa,
I learned a valuable lesson!



I made a second New York Beauty for Susan 
and turned this block into...
you guessed it...
another
HOT PAD.



On the up side my daughter Claire is a fabulous baker 
of all things made with flour, sugar and chocolate.  
She just started a cake baking business, 
and both of these hot pads  
are on their way to her test kitchen. 

Claire - I can hear the hot pads fighting over whose turn it is 
to remove the cakes from your magic oven.   




And here's a peek at the second New York Beauty I made.


Off to the stack of never ending UFO's!






Monday, February 6, 2017

UFO sighting! AKA UnFinished Objects.





I see a UFO...
actually I see 20 of them!?!?!

Yes my friends, I have 20 UFO's.
(UnFinished Objects)
Today I am airing out my dirty laundry.
Here's an info-graphic to show 
just how many UnFinished Objects 
I have in my closet. 






The Mother Ship 
is calling in all her UFO's!!!!!!


Join me as I obliterate the 
nemesis of my nightmares....
UFO's!

I'll be reporting right here on the 
progress of these unruly projects.
Just like when you need to 
conquer a debt snowball 
you start with the 
smallest

debt

first.

Well...I'm starting with the 
smallest projects 
to get the 
momentum 
rolling.




Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Shattered Shimmers



Shimmer

is 

this 

quarter's

Four in Art

Theme




Shattered Shimmer by Simone Bradford



shim·mer
ˈSHimər/
verb
  1. 1.
    shine with a soft tremulous light.

    "the sea shimmered in the sunlight"

    synonyms:glintglistentwinklesparkleflashscintillate,
    gleamglowglimmerglitterwink;
    literarycoruscate
    "the lake shimmered"





As I was searching for fabric that shimmered
 I found this black and gold fabric. 
It's a stretch knit and a pain the rear to work 
with when mixed with quilting cottons. 
I think I'd rather spend the day cleaning a prison toilet 
with a q-tip than sew this fabric combo again. 

Image result for prison toilet


I was flipping through a CB2 furniture catalog and saw a
 cabinet door that had random zig zags on it.

Furniture + zig zags = quilt inspiration?
YES!




I went to the Road to California quilt show 
this month and scored this awesome little tool.



The blue sheet is made of screen printing film 
and when you wipe a 
chalk filled 
sponge across the surface it leaves a 
 ghost image  
of the pattern on your fabric.
The chalk is easily removed with a brush, steam or water. 



Quilting the scallops in between the fractured shimmers. 



Attaching the binding.




Front of Shattered Shimmers











And here's the final Four In Art project called
Shattered Shimmers. 




Backside of Shattered Shimmers




You can view other Four In Art artist below.

Bette Ayershttps://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2
Camilla Cathrohttp://faffling.blogspot.co.nz/
Catherine Chisholmhttp://www.knottedcotton.com
Elizabeth Eastmondhttp://www.opquilt.com
Janine Greenhttp://www.rainbowhare.com
Nancy Myershttp://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com
Rachel Rileyhttp://www.rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com