Something Wooly

Last year I joined a Block of the Month offered by one of my local quit shops. It took me 3 trips back to the booth to make the leap to join. My first thought was "it's made of wool, i have never worked with it except for a small wall hanging i got for Christmas" but the kicker was the Thistle that is in the center of the wall hanging. Now that it is finished I can tell you that I am hooked. I love working with wool and using Valdani Threads. Now I have to hand quilt and bind it.

A Sisters Request

My very talented sister asked me if I could make her something to hold her crochet hooks in. I did a little digging on the web and found this great blog by littlebirdiesecrets which had a great tutorial for what I wanted. With a little modifications I added velcro, a yo-yo with a button and a little metal lable from Joann Fabrics.
By the way: she loved it.
Bad news: I have to make her more because she has a ton of hooks.

Getting Scrappy Again

So I am still on my mission to use up my ever growing mound of scraps and I came up with a few ideas.
I came across a pattern for pin cushions and make a few for Christmas gifts and they went over very well for my sewing buddies. So I decided to pull out some of my scraps and make a few more. I added some buttons, ribbon and some rick rack.
I used bedding for lizards that you find at the pet shops (ground English walnut shells) which keeps your needles sharp.
Made the top by either sewing the top and layering it with muslin and a very thin batting. The bottom is felt to keep the shells in and also to keep it from slipping off your table.
Give it a try, they are easy, quick and now you have something to store your pins in.
Hint: I divided the big bag of shells into small sandwich bags so if the bag gets a hole in it I dont' lose the whole bag, just a little one.

scraps and more scraps

What do you do with a tub full of scraps?

Spend a weekend making 10" String Quilt Blocks and a ton of Mug Rugs that will be Christmas gifts for the office and friends.

Problem is I don't think I made a dent in the tub-o-scraps.

Oh well there is always next weekend.

Home of the Brave

In a previous blog of mine "In memory of our servicemen and servicewomen" I wrote about my involvement with the project "Home of the Brave."
I am so glad to say that on Oct 20th my friend and the Ohio coordinator Janet Alderman presented the parents of a local fallen soldier their quilts.

Here is a great story and photos (which was covered by The News-Herald).
I cannot explain to you the feeling I had standing at the memorial with about 100 supporters of this Marine's family listening to the bagpipes playing Amazing Grace.
When we presented the quilts both parents hugged me and it really brought 3 years of closure to me. I hope that these quilts will help the family heal the hole that has been left in their soul with the loss of their son.

So many connections were made that day. Janet found a way to contact one of her missing soldiers and the next day we found another. My thanks to everyone who made this possible esp the quilter Nancy in Erie Pa who quilted both quilts and also to my dad, from heaven, who I am almost certain helped me on my way to help the families heal.

Meeting Joshua

My day started out bad with spilling coffee on my phone but ended on a high note on my lunch break. I walked out of my local Marc's store and standing there was Joshua McKinley - Project Runway Season 9. I love Project Runway and watch it every time it's on. So imagine my surprise to actually meet him in person. Just sucks that my phone was in my car dead as a door nail so I didn't get a photo.

 Can I tell you how much that made my day?????

Lake County Fair 2013

The Lake County Fair is one of my favorite summer pleasures and I love coming on Tuesday to see what fellow crafters and quilters have entered into the fair. It is always exciting to see if anything that I entered into the fair won any ribbons. I was not disappointed this year.

This is an embroidery that I bought from Olive Grace Studios. It uses a technique involving coloring with crayons, embroidery and bead work. The frame I bought from Michaels. I painted it with Acrylic Paint "Blue Harbor," water washed it and when it was dry I used sandpaper to stress the paint. I really liked the way it came out. Plus I got 1st place.

This is one of the 1st quilts that I made. The pattern is Court House Steps. Thanks to my mother-in-law who helped pick out some of the fabrics to go with what I had. Not bad for a quilt that I made 7 years ago. BTW my quilt buddy Bonnie won 1st place and Best in Show for her "Brick & Mortar" quilt. It's on Girl!!!!!!!

I had this pattern for about 6 years and finally decided to give it a try. It was a challenge to transfer the embroidery designs onto the black fabric until I found this wonderful product by Sulky. It is a water soluble stabilizer that you can put into your printer and print your design onto it and then it sticks to your fabric, you just wash it away when you are done. I also decided to give some techniques that you use in Crazy Quilts to decorate the seams. Very excited to get a 1st place ribbon for this.

This is my favorite entry, this is a wall hanging in memory of my dad Charles Prentice. When he was in the army he was a Sharp Shooter and when he passed i got quite a few of his patches. Having them for 3 years I finally found the fabric I wanted to use to make a wall hanging. The photos of him are printed onto fabric that can be used in quilts and I top stitched some of his patches and attached some of his pins onto it. Note: I have to make 2 more for my sisters. My hubby (who hates fairs) came with me that night and made a bee line to it to inform me that I won 1st place in the patriotic category. This was the entry I was most proud of.

Wondering what I will think of for next year's fair.