messing around . . .

I may <ahem> have mentioned before how much I enjoy playing around in EQ.  This past weekend, I was doing a little work on a particular project (I'll save the details on that for another day), and I came across a photo I'd saved so I could work up the block in EQ as a potential project.

Barbara Black—My Joyful Journey—blogged about this Scrappy Plus block she was working on.  

I actually saw the quilt (in progress) in person when I took one of her classes.  It really caught my eye because it's so striking, especially when you look at it as the collective quilt (shown in that linked post, on her design wall).

The two of us talked about it a little, and I told her I thought it would be fun to do in my favorite colors ... purples, teals, pinks, and greens. Which happened to be the colors of the focal fabric I was using the class . . . 

I love this print ... it's so yummy!  I used it here (the product of the class)—

With purples, blues, teals, pinks, and greens. Definitely my palette of choice (unless it's pumpkin season).

Seeing the copy of Barbara's block while I was playing around in EQ prompted me to throw it together and play with the colors.  Here's what I came up with . . .

But like I said, you don't really get the full effect until you see it in a quilt:

I'm just totally in love with this look. I even really like the secondary design you get with the hodge podge of greys! But what really caught my attention?  When I saw the thumbnail photo of the purple floral print, below the thumbnail photo of the scrappy plus quilt . . .

I know it's blurry (it's really pixilated), but you get the idea...a beautiful mess. The similarity made me decide I need to put this quilt on my to-do list of quilts.

Or just put the picture of it on my desktop and enjoy it that way. <wink> Happy hump day

:)

halloween hoppin day three . . .

It's the last day *and* my day, YAY! 

When I first read the criteria of this hop — I’m going to make this really simple this year, I’d love to see a project with “Purple” in it, but seriously I’ll be happy also if it doesn’t …What’s Halloween tho without a bit of purple? You are free to make something new, or show a past project you’ve created — I knew this was a hop for ME!  Anyone that knows me, knows I love purple! All you have to do is look at a few of my past Halloween blog hop projects . . .

Wicked Blog Hop

Witchy Stitchy Blog Hop

Pick a Pumpkin Blog Hop

And select pieces of my current Halloween/Autumn decor . . . 

. . . to understand I'm all about including purple in the festivities!  Because, after all, Marian, of Seams to be Sew (our lovely blog hop hostess) is absolutely right.  What's Halloween without a little bit of purple?! ♥

Of course, the possibilities were endless, so I was all over the board with my thoughts. But then a late afternoon/early evening out on the lake gave me my *light bulb* moment.

Where we fish on Lake Guntersville, out near the dam, there also happens to sit a protected brown bat cave, right on the water.

At dusk, the bats fly out of the cave by the hundreds, and boaters come from everywhere to see the spectacle. I caught a bit of the excitement on video as we were hustling back to the marina . . .

Isn't that so cool?!  It's amazing to sit amongst them on the water. And see the waning light of the sky and how it makes every thing look a soft purple?  BINGO! Then I remembered I had a really cute pattern from Quilt Doodle Designs (that I've had for ages) that would be perfect.  

Isn't he (she?!) handsome?  Soft and sparkly . . . that's how I like my bats.  And PURPLE!  

Of course, I couldn't do just one thing. (I mean, right?!)  I'm also a huge fan of candy corn.  Did you know you can actually buy purple candy corn?

Yep.  Never have had it, but I'm curious how it tastes!  Instead, I stitched up a few candy corn bean bags in Civil War prints and backed them with, well . . . purple.

Because I can! And the CW print I used on the back ... I just love it!  It reminds me of fangs.  And candy corns.  Perfect, non? I filled them with crushed walnut shells ... and didn't realize it until midway through the process that there was also lavender in the mix.  Rather appropriate for the look, I'd say. *wink*

So there you have it!  I think my coffee table is getting a little full.  I may need to give away a few things . . . maybe a candy corn or two, some wool acorns and a few other fall goodies?  If that sounds fun to you, leave a comment by midnight on Friday, make sure there's a way for me to contact you, and I'll do a random draw and try and get the goodies in the mail so you have them before the month ends!

Thanks, Marian for such a fun hop!  Be sure to visit today's other participants, too!

Wednesday, October 21

Words & Stitches

Kathy's kwilts and more

me! >>>   Count it *all* JOY   <<< me!

Quilted Diary

Flying Parrot Quilts

Seams To Be Sew

Happy Halloween Hoppin!

:)

♫♪ i'm baaaa-aaaaack! ♪♫

I had a lovely time with the Panter crew in Irvine . . . lots of hugs and snuggles and kisses and laughter and good times. I hated getting on the plane, on the one hand, and leaving that precious family behind, but on the other hand, it felt good to be home and to sleep in my own bed and be surrounded by my Merkel girls and my sweet husband. Conundrum.

I'll share more about my visit, complete with pics, later.  For now, I really want to share whats going through my brain on the hexie train!

This past Thursday night was guild. I'm on the board again this year, in a rather innocuous position. My monthly job is to produce an article for the newsletter, relating to A Quilter's Journey.  I may share more on that later, too. Really what I want to share now was a little about our national speaker, who was Catherine Redford. She was a lot of fun and her lecture, Lessons Learned While Quilting, made me laugh. Her quilting style is quite a bit different from mine, but I enjoyed it and certainly appreciated her incredible talent!  

That being said, as she shared pics of her incredible quilts, I was very appreciative. Like I said, the lady has God-given talent!  But when *this* quilt appeared on the screen . . .

I sat up and took notice!!  (Sorry for the poor quality.  Lights were off! There's a better, albeit smaller, picture of this quilt on her site under the gallery.)

In fact, I couldn't get this quilt off my mind and had to pull up EQ to make up my own version . . .

Of course, my version is purple.

And bigger.  And has more hexies.  Two hundred thirty-two hexies, as a matter of fact.

I wanted my hexie flowers (and parts of flowers) to be BIG. So at first draw, I did 3" hexies and colored away. Then I looked at the overall size of the quilt: 158" X 179".  Holy guacamole!  Nice thing about EQ is that with a few simple keystrokes I could change the size of my hexies to 2" and change the overall quilt size to a more manageable 105" X 120".  Still a HUGE quilt, but wow, what a quilt! I'll be basting for a loooong time. But I've put the papers and the acrylic template on my birthday wish list!  ;)

I'm handstitching on a project I really can't share . . . I'm making my second (those little orangish hexies from my last post).  One was a birthday gift, the current one is for a swap.  Post-swap I'll try to remember to share a pic!  I'm also planning on getting into some wool later this after noon.  Pics to follow.

We spent the morning at Ellie's soccer game.  HOT!  But a lot of fun . . . they are so cute out there on the field, like little bumblebees!

Plus, I got to cheer with this sweet little gal . . .

Happy day!

Linking up with sarah did it! and her HeLP linky party.  Have a great rest of the weekend . . . Happy Fall, Y'all . . . and Roll Tide!!!

:)

g'morning, monday . . .

Looking for the Declutter Now! book review and giveaway?!  Check HERE.  

Where do I begin?!  How about this pretty sight from Saturday morning . . . 

It rained down furiously for about thirty minutes.  Long enough to give us the illusion of a winter wonderland, anyway!

The birds all came in like crazy when it finally stopped.  They acted like they hadn't been able to get to birdseed in ages!  It's funny to watch them when they're in that 'mode' -- the confrontations on the platform feeder are the best!  

All the birds make their moves, but the cardinals hold the ground.  There's no bluffing the buff ol' male cardinal!

Saturday afternoon I brainstormed an idea for a gift.  One that had to be made and ready to give Sunday morning!  After a few discreet texts with one of her daughters and some online searching, I took this S stitchery pattern from Mary Corbet's site, Needle 'n Thread . . . 

Used the crayon tinting to fill it in. . .

Outlined it in a variety of stitches (compliments of my recent Redwork course) . . . 

And turned it into a pretty cute little mug rug, if I say so myself.  

I love how this turned out -- I think I'll probably use it as a gift standard!  I'll just go ahead and start stitching up letters now.  LOL!  Seriously, though ... Mary makes available several different fonts for monogram stitching. These could make nice gifts for both gals and guys.  Linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching!

My stash report isn't too bad.  I added the Buzz Lightyear fabric that Kate sent, but I finished the top and back of June's quilt and a couple of little projects (and put two fat quarters in the mail) so . . . 

Used/donated this week: 3.25 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 4.0 yards

Purchased/added this week: 2.5 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 19.25 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -15.25 yards

I'll take that!!  I'll also go ahead and link up to Judy's Week #5 report over at Patchwork Times.

Yesterday afternoon I picked Sawyer up and we had our own movie night / Super Bowl XLVII / sleepover party.  Sawyer is a very enthusiastic football game watcher and matched me cheer for cheer (both in enthusiasm *and* volume)!! But he did finally decide that he'd rather see 101 Dalmatians so we put it in the player and enjoyed it until bedtime.  After I tucked him in and came back down (to finish watching the game, of course) I noted this:

He had told me earlier he wanted to take his shoes off, but it wasn't until later that I realized he'd very carefully set them right next to mine.  So sweet!!

Speaking of football ... how about them RAVENS??!!  I'm a Baltimore (Bal'mer) girl -- and the owner of the team graduated two classes ahead of me at Severna Park High School.  I was *thrilled* with the end result of last night's game, albeit on the edge of my seat for the entire last half, practically!  That's good football! The Raven's win inspired my color choices for this week:

Yeah ... I'm in mood to play with purple!!  I'm not sure what though.  Perhaps this cute little Butter Churn Variation I mocked up in EQ?

Maybe I'll darken up the purple and change out the blue for silver . . . !!!  Haha!! Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times! 

I also have June's quilt still to be quilted.  I need to get that finished, finished!

But before I do *anything* ... my quilt room looks like a small explosion took place. Yeah, that's top of the order.

It's worse than you thought it would be, isn't it??  Guess I'd better go get busy!!  Que sera ... first the dentist, a trip to WalMart and the post office.  *Then* I'll wade through my creative genius mess.

:)

it's a stash [report #52] wrap . . .

I can hardly believe that this is report number fifty-two . . . the final stash report of 2012.  And even with all the mega sales going on, I'm not ending the year with a bang . . . but rather with a little *ding*ding*ding*.  I was lucky enough to score a sweet little bundle of fat quarters, from Barbara over at Cat Patches, and her November NewFO linky party!  

Isn't it scrumptious-gorgeous?!  And it's *purple*!!!  I've had to be careful not to drool all over it.  I already know how I'm going to put some of it to use, too! (Think *words* and blog hop.)  Anyway, that sweet little pile of fabric was all that came in, and none went out, so here are my final numbers for the year:

Used/donated this week: 0.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 50.5 yards

Purchased/added this week: 1.5 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 194.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2012: -144.25 yards

It's been an interesting exercise to keep up with intake/outflow.  I will definitely keep up again for 2013, though I still haven't decided whether I've got any particular goals for fabric for 2013.  I've still got a day or two to mull it over.  In the meantime, you be sure to head over to Patchwork Times and check out the rest of the stash reports for this week.  I understand Judy to say her last report was to be for laughs only!

And for this afternoon, slow stitching will definitely be my occupation!  I've been working away on my redwork course . . .

That's my bird -- isn't he rather dapper?  I've got a daisy scroll, a pansy face, and leaves on my tree to stitch up this afternoon, as well as an apple.  Then I'll try and finish up my butterfly and maybe even move on to a new bonsai tree and a sea shell.  (And that's all just in Lesson 4!)  I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts and Slow Stitchin' Sunday!

Enjoy the day!

:)