Bedazzled?

 Sparkles aplenty! After two trips to the next town, I'm still short on crystals. The first tree on the left is missing a bottom layer of sparkles. I bought out all the clear crystals (in the same band) at Joanns and I'm hoping that there will be more at Michaels.

I love the fuzzy effect 

 The crystals took the most time. They are called "hot fixx" and they are ironed on with a little pen shaped iron. After I attached them with the pen iron, I ironed them with the real iron, on both sides. These sparkles are on for good! They will even stay through washing.

I even added two rows of piping

 During the middle of all the sparkles, my Son came in and said "Aren't you just bedazzling?"
What!? Am I bedazzling? I thought I was adding festive beauty, not a tacky embellishment (I hope).


Before our huge rain and wind came rolling in, I made a stop at a local artist's studio and picked up a few gifts.
 A couple of months back we went on a local open studios tour. There were so many artists this year that they spread it over two weekends.
I seem to be drawn to ceramic artists and this year was no exception. This years gifts will be monsters!

 Really, monsters! But aren't they the cutest! These little cuties were so popular, that I had to wait for the next batch to adopt some new family members.

 The artist had so many to choose from. It made it really hard to decide! But I knew straight off that guy with the bolt on his head was my new sugar bowl.
I loved both of those mugs, but I can't decide which one to keep and which one to gift.
And the tall nude guy has beautiful feet!
It's just so hard to decide! Maybe I'll keep them all. Everyone else can have socks, yah, socks, They are universal.

Check this out. I grew a honeydew. It's a bit late and a bit small (one bite) but I still grew one. I think this just means I need to start my garden sooner?
I'm just amazed I grew anything. Hopefully next year will be ever better. I had to start somewhere.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Take care, Brandie

Sparkle

Is there such a thing as too much bling?

After spending the afternoon attaching 260 Swarovski crystals, I still need more to finish this project.

More tease frames.
I'll be back when I finish.

Take care!
Brandie

Holly Leaves

Here you are, the leaves. Still looks like something is missing, no?
Maybe a bloom or four. I'm still working (thinking) on those.

I got mildly distracted. Quilts ADHD?
Here's a tease frame.

See those fuzzy feet on the right? That's Mr Dorian trying to grab the camera strap. This quick picture shouldn't have taken so long!
Not enough of a tease frame? Here's another.

Today I hope to add some embellishments and then I can use it to decorate.
These gentle swoops are much easier to applique than holly leaves, It's no wonder I got distracted!

Take care, Brandie

Holly Berries

After remembering that my eye Dr gave me anti-itch drops, I was back in business with my block.

Step two done. Now on to step three, leaves.

Mr Dorian came back from his appointment sleepy and drunk. He sleep all day and all night and is now back to his crazy antics and running from room to room catching poor Max. The pitter-padder of little feet? It's not a sweet as it used to sound. This is a serious commotion!

My mind is all in a whirl. I have three projects I want to do all at once! But if I don't stick to one at a time, I'm afraid I'll add to my UFO basket. My goal is to finish from that basket not add to it.
Oh if only I had more hands! And didn't have bouts of laziness!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go!
Take care, Brandie

Minty Stars

After a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend spent with family and friends, I'm glad to be back creating. I worked on  few things , mostly prepping for some appliqué and trying to find a few stash fabrics to make new pillows.
But most of this week has been spent cleaning up before the BIG Dinner and cleaning up after the BIG Dinner. I think it takes 3 days at my house to get all the good china and extra serving dishes put away!
And lets not talk about the leftovers! My tummy hurts just thinking about them.

Anyhow, lets look at this finish.

It needs a name, any suggestions?

During the Thanksgiving day chaos, I managed to get it outside in some good light and get a picture. I am really liking this quilt! These colors all go together wonderfully and I have surprised myself. I did have help, most of these came together in a fat-quarter packet. I just added three fabrics, so I kind of cheated. But I really like this quilt!

Since I have more of the fat-quarters left, I may make another for a gift. Maybe with a different block? I'm all about using up some stash fabrics.

I quilted "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow", "Walking in a winter wonderland","I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" and "Outside the snow is falling". These are all lyrics from Christmas songs. Each border side has it's own quilted lyric.
It finishes at 60 x 60. I'm good with that size. Now the hard part, keep it or gift it?

Here is my small bit of applique I finally finish last night. Well just this part of the applique. Next comes some berries! You all know how much I love berries.
I saw this pattern in the new Primitive magazine. I've scaled it down a bit and I may make it into a pillow or just a small quilt. We will see as I get closer. But as I sit here, I'm having a hard time with my eyes. There must be something out there that is making them itchy. This only happens a couple times during the year, but I hate it when it does. It's interfering with my day!
And today would be perfect as it's cool and the house is empty of the cat for a couple of hours. Today he has  an appointment with a big pair of clippers. Clippy, clippy!
For some reason this upsets Hubby when I say that. He also doesn't like it when I say I like the stream lined look.
He (Hubby) was so upset this morning that he was following Dorian around with the camera to take pictures of his ... lost parts. I'll spare you the pics of those!
Men, they are so silly!

Have a happy, fun, crafty day!
Take care, Brandie

Pre-Turkey Post

 Howdy! Happy day before Thanksgiving!

I finished 2 pillows last night and finally finished the quilting with the silver thread.

Late last night my Daughter pulled into the driveway. Hurray! Today we will be making pies.
I'm already behind thanks to a headache, which has finally subsided.
Then I tried to upload these pictures and was told that I've used up my free 1 GB of photo space. WOW, I guess I use a lot pictures in my posts. But I've never heard anyone complain, so I'll keep at it.

Have a wonderful day tomorrow!
Take care, Brandie

Let it Snow

 I have an almost finish. Yesterday I was all ready to finish up my Christmas stars and wouldn't you know it, I ran out of thread.

 I was using a silver metallic thread to put snowflakes (just like the natural ones, my are all different) in the center of each of my stars.

 Then I thought I'd add a few "snow" verses to each of the last borders. Then as I was approaching the end of the third border, in the middle of the word Christmas, I ran out of thread. Sheech!

 So later today when I go to town, I'll have to pick up some thread to finish this quilt up. I was so close!

I did add the binding though. I just added a couple of stabilizing rows of stitches and keep on going. So then is nothing holding me back tonight when I get home.

Tomorrow I'll try to drop back by, between pie baking, with a quickie post. I think I may have caught my mojo again. I couldn't leave my machine yesterday even after my back started hurting.

Take care, Brandie

Debut

Of the ugliest quilt in my collection. This quilt is so ugly, I'm going to have to hope the dogs will use it. Hahaha
But first lets admire the pretty boy posing for his photo.

You wouldn't know it from looking at that photo above, how bad this quilt really is. The seams are all funny. There are puckers where they don't belong. It's a mess!

I tried to take pictures to show you how awful this quilt is but the camera keeps making it look better!
I bet your asking why I continued if it was sew bad.
Well, here's the story. This quilt is on my Guild's UFO list. As you can probably guess there is a goal to finish all your UFOs listed during the year. I started with 15 and this is my 8th completion.
I unpicked, rearranged and almost gave up and threw this quilt away, BUT then I thought, I won't get the credit if I throw this quilt away. And they never said the quilt had to be pretty or even well made.
So I continue all weekend and finished this homely quilt.

This is it laying flat?

IT started out as a 7 by 3ish double wedding ring. After looking at my pieces and looking at the quilt, I decided that I didn't love it as I once did. The colors are no longer my colors and I really just wanted it out of that UFO basket and DONE.
So I unpicked a couple of rows and made new rings till I had a 5 by 4 DWR.

As you can see, the corners are terrible! Somebody please remind me that curves are my nemesis. We do not get along! Even 10 years after I started this quilt, I haven't gotten any better at them.

Even the feathered border doesn't help this quilt.

I appliqued the finished rings onto a plain blue border. I then quilting it all backwards, as in from the outside to the middle. Why? Because I hoped that by having a square border all around would help pull it all together.
It may have helped a bit, but it didn't elevate all it's issues. But again, The camera is making it look good!

I had sore arms from all the pulling and stretching I did while quilting this!
I'm going to keep this quilt as a reminder of what not to do and what pattern to avoid for the rest of my lifetime!
But I finished it and I do feel good about that. Even if it is an eyesore!

So I hope you are all feeling really good about your abilities right now. None of us are perfect and some of us can't do curves, in a quilt that is! I've got too many curves personally!
True confession from Paradise

Take care, Brandie

Buck Up

Imagine walking sleepily into your kitchen because your fuzzy was demanding milk.
You walk as though you're are sleep walking, maybe even with your eyes partly closed.
Then you happen to spy something moving outside your kitchen window. Something big.
Now your  eyes are open.
You gaze in wonder, usually you just see moms and babies wandering the yard.
It has been many years since I've seen such a large buck. He definitely opened my eyes and woke me up!

I think he was sneaking through trying not to alert the outside dog. Outside dog was busy sleeping.
Lucky buck.

Last night was my small group meeting. We made several flannel blankets for the local police and firemen. Someone from our guild donated a huge amount of flannel. These were quick and easy and will be very welcome in times of need.

That blue and yellow wedding ring is a UFO from my basket.
This was one of my early-early projects. I've since learned that a double wedding ring is not a beginners  quilt. Silly me!
I made copies from a book and every one of my curves was wrong. Nothing fit. After 13 rings, I put it away because of all the adjusting and unpicking.
I'm going to attempt to conquer this mess. Wish me luck and ignore all the yelling and bad language from my neck of the woods (I'll probably scare that buck like he scared me this morning!).

Have a wonderful weekend!
Take care, Brandie

Stars Flimsy

 Yesterday I worked on the sashing for my stars. I chose a pale green as my sashing. Why? Because I spilled my green stash fabrics across my blocks and a pale striped green caught my eye. I thought it was perfect, but alas, there wasn't near enough for the sashing. So I went shopping and bought one piece of fabric, this pale green.
I added another stash fabric for the corner stones. And then the same fabric in the second to last border. It was perfect also because it has tiny stars on it just like the other fabrics.

Just look at that perfect striped green, swoon

 Since I was just making this up and not following a pattern layout, I decided that I'd break up the last border with a star in opposite corners, to complete my red centers row.

I have a hard time with random. I just can't seem to do it. I try but I'm never happy.
So with this quilt I lined my rows up on the diagonal by their center square colors. It's too late now for me to nitpick.

So now that I'm done with the flimsy, I'm going to have to go buy batting. Then it's time to sandwich and start quilting.
This quilt seemed to take less time. I wonder if it isn't because I told myself not to be in a hurry and just enjoy the progress. That seemed to take the stress off my shoulders.
No deadlines, no hurry = Fun.

Take care! Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Brandie

Harvest

 My helper and I took down all the Halloween decorations and swapped them out for fall decorations. Some of us have a more of a "sense" to this than others.

 This is the one gourd that my garden produced. I'm still getting Roma tomatoes and I had another zucchini. But only one gourd. If you could see me now, you'd see me with a sad face.

 I brought out all my sugared fruits and veggies and arranged them in cornucopias behind the wood stove.

Sugared fruits and "Granny Panties" look good together, don't you think? I'm sure Hubby will have something to say about that quilt this year.

I did finish all my chores yesterday. Today I felt inspired to clean out my dresser drawers. I took everything out and instead of stacking my t-shirts on top of each other (making it hard to find what I'm looking for) I arranged them end on end.  Does that make sense?
So all I have to do is look for "that" shirt and pull it out. And of course that meant take the time to color arrange them all in a rainbow. I'm hoping that the drawer will stay much cleaner this way. We shall see.

Now that lunch is over, I'm going to try to cut some sashing for my stars. Next time I hope to have something quilty to show you. And if I don't get busy, the only thing I'll have to show you is my clean drawers! hehehehe

Take care, Brandie

Christmas Stars

 I finished all my stars! Now I need to come up with a proper placement for each block, without help.

I have an idea on how I'm putting them together. That's todays goal, after my chores. Today I'm just not looking forward to chores but I must do them before the dust bunnies take over.
And don't tell, but I still have Halloween decorations to put away! All play and no work, going on over here. I've been a bad girl!

As I was laying these out, I decided that 28 blocks is a bad size. I may have a few extra to use on the back or to make into pillows. It would be so helpful to not have a cat's opinion with everything! I could make up my mind better.

Have a Happy Monday!
Take care, Brandie

Something New

Folk Art Christmas III

 Have I mentioned before how much I loved Robyn Pandolph fabric? Well if I haven't mentioned it before, it's true.
I found a stack of fat-quarters in my stash from who knows how long ago. Let me re-phrase that, I re-found them. I don't want you all to think I have so much fabric that I don't know what I have.

So I got these FQs out and I decided to make more stars.
I cut my pieces and made a nice little stack. (Notice the FQs above, this is after cutting into them. Not much of a dent, No?)

 So I had this cute little pile of fabrics. Enough to make one of each color, making a total of 28.
I stuck them into my to-go box for easy traveling, in case we travel together. See them below.

 What? You can't see the box? Look under the cat.

 This is a plastic Rubbermaid casserole pan. It's a great size for picnics and potlucks. And it's the same size of the glass  ones that you have in your cabinets. But this one is lighter and has a lid, making it perfect to carry a project around. Apparently it's also the perfect size for 19 week old cat.

 Doesn't this make you think of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"? This bed is just right!
He really puts a damper on sewing time. I have to move him just to get my nicely arranged pieces. And I have the bite marks on my hands to prove it!

 Sooooo, long story short. I only completed 9 stars.

As I look at this pic, I see I have a stripe problem with the lower left block.!

Then the little *#^*head wouldn't let me take a decent picture!

I'm not in any hurry and I want to enjoy the process of quilting. I sometimes get myself all in a hurry and then get overwhelmed with anxiety over finishing it.
So I'm going to take my time and enjoy it. (I'm saying this out loud to myself)

In other news. I'm normal.
I went to a Dr last month for a yearly physical. Now that I'm getting older I felt that it was time to have a Dr at my beck and call. Honestly I haven't had my own Dr for over 25 years. So it was time.
I searched around, talked to my friends, even my hairdresser. I found my Dr.
I went to see her three weeks ago and I left with a hand full of tests to complete before I went back.
12 blood tests later, I'm normal.
Every test came back within normal ranges. Even the hormone tests. Normal.
Good cholesterol, normal. Bad cholesterol, normal.
Iron levels, normal.
Other vitamin levels, normal.
Liver and bladder functions, normal.
Thyroid, yup, you guessed it, normal.
Everything was normal, everything. I feel so boring! (I really not complaining. It just makes the story better to be so boring)

So there you have it. Proof that I'm normal. I'm not weird, or even strange, I'm normal.

I also went to my yearly eye exam yesterday. Guess what?
Yup, it's the same too. No changes from last year.
The only excitement I had all day was having my eyes dilated, not fun! I couldn't even sew or read or watch TV. what a boring day I had.
Today promises to be better. Next stop, my local quilt shop. Mommy needs a piece of fabric!

Take care, Brandie

Hexagon 1-9

 Since I'm between projects, I thought I should dust off my BOW hexagon project.

I pulled out my red and white scraps and finished up nine whole hexies! Amazing, no?
There is a hexie every week till the end of the year. Yes I started later than everyone else, but I've still been procrastinating.
If I make a couple every week, I should catch up soon enough. Then the problem of placement and how to attach them comes into play. That is worrying me even now. How are they going together? Because I don't like them butted up to each other like this. I'm also worried that I've done them wrong. Should I have made them more with the same fabrics? Should I alternate between dark and light? Are my colors boring? Is this going to work, or am I making an ugly quilt that I'll later donate to the needy?

Inquiring quilter wants to know now!
I guess I should "Google" Hexie quilts and see if I see a placement I like. Diamonds? Triangle? Something else?

Anyway, Happy Monday! Have a great day!

Take care, Brandie

If you are interested in this project, please contact Katja.