Gen X Quilter

Look!  It's Darumaka! and he's hanging from your livingroom wall!

Darumaka is a Pokemon character.  He looks very pixilated because he IS very pixilated.

My dd#2 looooves Pokemon.  She's loved Pokemon for about 20 years now.  It's adorable.  Anyway, she started out a year or so ago making a knitted blanket of another character, Flaaffy.  She knitted a bunch of tiny squares and then whipped them together.

 

Cute, but a LOT of tying in loose ends. She decided to try making them from some of my quilting cottons instead.  Hence, Darumaka.

This is the back of Darumaka before assembly...and Opal the deaf catahoula, my dd#2's darling doggie.  (she's sitting on a sweater that dd#2 knitted for her)

 This next picture is her sketch of Reuniclus, another Pokemon, and the kit of 1.5" squares she cut out to build him from.

She assembled the quilt in rows and pressed seams like a pro.  Below you can see how tidy the back of the quilt is (and how cute her dog's nose is).

And here's Reuniclus all finished and laying out on her bed.  He's considerably larger than Darumaka.

Serious hat tip to Red Pepper Quilts for inspiring dd#2 with her quilt photos.  Here's the back for Reuniclus.  Note the safety pins.  dd#2 is quilting all this stuff on her domestic machine.

Gorgeous back.  Here's a closeup.

She's thinking pretty seriously about making several others and offering them for sale to other Pokemon enthusiasts.  If there's an enthusiast in your family you can contact her HERE.  Tell her mommy referred you ;)

Hedgehog Holiday

Happy Valentine's Day!

Originally published as hamie the hedgie at lollychops.com and more recently seen on the shabby, I couldn't resist making one of my own.

Meet Valentine the Hedgehog.

 

We now return you to your regular quilt blog surfing. :)

Harikuyo

My dull or broken needles got thrown away as soon as I'd had enough of them for many, many years.  About five years ago that changed when I learned about the Japanese celebration of Harikuyo Day.  Those who sew gather together to stick old or broken needles in a piece of wax (or covered styrofoam or whatever) and say a prayer for their valiant service.  I thought that was so sweet I had to start participating.

Now my dull and broken needles get their own section on the tomato until 8 February rolls around each year.  Then I say a few words over them before they are ceremonially wrapped in a tiny bit of paper and - ok, this is where my ability to celebrate ends - then they still get thrown away.

But it's nice to take a few minutes a year to sing the praises of these hard working tools in my studio!

February Football Fanatic

...so...did the Cowboys win?  :)

The Big Game

Why yes, I am ready for superbowl sunday.  How kind of you to ask!

THIS Will Be Fun

You might remember these fabrics...

from this post.  It took weeks to decide what the quilt was going to look like, but once that was taken care of...

it was a breeze to make the blocks.  Except the center block.  EQ6 doesn't help me much when I want to design applique blocks, so don't pay any attention to that center.  I wanted big splashes of green and Sarah Vedeler's GO! dies took the sweat out of cutting fabric.  Now I get to sew them down and embellish.  I'm thinking pretty seriously about piping the edge of this block with the dark red fabric before assembly, but then i'd also feel obligated to pipe the outer edge of the block assembly in the same fabric before adding the borders.  Suggestions welcome.

Worth Every Minute

There is just nothing sweeter than a brand new fresh off the press itty bitty baby.  This one is especially darling because she's my nearly daughter's first one.  The Swirling Vortex of Rubber Ducks now has a very important job.  :)

Welcome to the world, little miss T!

100 Day Hustle Wrapup

Kelsey's 100 Day Hustle sure helped!  Everything on my list except this quilt got finished!  I even got the small projects taken care of.  This red quilt is completed,

this christmas cutie is all done,

it started out as a panel and charm pack from Sandy Gervais' Reindeer Games line.

and I've already posted here and here about the other items on my list being done.

Thanks Kelsey, the linkups have been super fun to follow and it always helps to have friends' support!

You can see how everyone else did on their 100 Day Hustle list HERE.

Family Heirloom Status

Oh, and that dress?  It's twenty-six years old.

Comfort and Joy

Comfort 

...and Joy...

Comfort

...and Joy...

oh tidings of Comfort and Joy!

Reds Quilted

This top was made from the rest of the leftovers a friend gave me when she gave up quilting.  It's a very casual monochromatic quilt, whose greatest asset is simplicity.  The back came out reasonably well, I used up the left over leftovers to make it.  I'll bind it with the scraps of left over leftovers and be done with it.

The swirl quilting is almost like meandering for me, this is what I always doodled during history lectures (don't tell the professor!).

Merry Christmas to you all, and a Very Happy New Year as well!

Holiday Crafting

I picked up a circle die for my Go cutter a few weeks ago and this was the first thing I could think of to use it on.  I like the idea, but I'm not so sure about how the implementation worked out.  There will probably be a few more of these wreaths before I'm done.

Speaking of done, ta da!  the mudroom floor is finished!  This picture is a day or two old, the bookcases are back in the room and the haze has been mopped off.

Tomorrow my kids (and granddaughter!) start arriving.  I hope you all have an excellent holiday full of friends and family.

'Twas the Week Before Christmas

...when all through the house

not a grandma was resting, not even (something that rhymes with house).

That's the mudroom.  I'd thrown the single cheapest piece of hardware store carpet on the roll I could purchase over this icky cracked concrete floor a few years ago when we re-did the kitchen roof.  Now, SUDDENLY, two weeks before christmas I just HAD to get the carpet up and put down the tile that matches the rest of the kitchen and laundry room.

Here's Decaf lining up with all the boxes of books that had to be taken off the shelves so the shelves could be taken down so the carpet could be pulled up (starting to sound like a children's book where the punchline is about a broken balloon, isn't it.).  He's a really funny dog.  He lined up there and just wagged at me for a while until I got the joke.

Here's the tile down!  Yay!  Oh my aching back!  This morning I cut all the fussy bits around the edges and mortared them in.  Tomorrow morning I'll grout it all.

While I took little breaks during the day I made the rest of the cookies I'll be sending out for christmas.  Below is the VERY EASY Eyeore's House cookie recipe I learned from a dear friend in 1992.

Melt 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and a package of butterscotch morsels in the microwave.

Throw in a short can of potato sticks.  (No, I'm not kidding)

Drop by spoonful onto waxed paper.  Let sit until set!  I also made peanut butter buttons.  The hardest part of these cookies is waiting until they cool to eat them!

Decaf really likes peanut butter.  He can smell it as soon as I open the jar, so of course, he helped me keep track of the cookies.  Especially checking to see if they were cool enough to eat!

Are they ready yet?? [wag wag]

I haven't done any sewing in several days, but that'll change as soon as the floor is finished tomorrow.

Frittering Away the Time

My granddaughter and at least four of my children and their partners will be here for christmas.   First time in maybe ten years that this many of my kids could all be together at once.  Once they grow up it really gets hard to schedule holidays.

So Christmas is about thirteen days away and I have absolutely nothing better to do than quilt, right?  This adorable little panel and a charm pack of the related fabrics went together with some navy i had in the stash to make a top that I'll quilt up and throw on a piece of furniture in the livingroom to cosy up the space during our celebrations.

Beats scrubbing floors and ordering spare parts for the old crib I need to get set up!

Happy Stash Happenings

I had to go stash enhancing yesterday with a friend to celebrate my birthday. As always, it was fun to get out there and handle all the fabrics. This time I had a real excuse though - I needed to find some colors that I didn't really have in the stash for a quilt I'll be making for the SCVORD mom and dad.

Gonna make them a belated wedding/christmas present out of these reds, golds, and greens.

Don't know why I picked up this 12 days of christmas panel and backing.  Just feeling christmassy I guess.  Beth very sweetly picked up the tab on these as a birthday gift.  The brown circles will go excellently well with another gift Beth gave me - it's a panel of coffee cups.

Is this doggy bookmark the absolutely cutest thing you've ever seen?  I'll assume you agree unless you leave me a comment saying otherwise... The blues didn't come out well in this photo, but that's a super blue-y blue batik jelly roll on top of a stack of black and white prints.  Beth handed me these after lunch as a surprise!  She sure knows what cranks up my "Awwwww!" meter.

That's all the pictures I've got for you today.  I've been trying to get my little handmades done in time for gift giving season, and now I'm a little behind because I have to wash, dry and fold these things into my stash.  Poor me!  :)