QAL Progress

I completed the second step of Kelly’s Between Charming Friends Quilt Along last night.  There was a lot of piecing and cutting but everything went along quickly and easily thanks to having learned how to strip…strip piece, i.e.  *wink*

The Quilt Along is spread out over eight weeks which makes this a relaxed and very do-able project.   Darlene of Quilting Daze  designed the quilt which she called Between Friends.

It’s still not too late to join in.  We won’t be told about the third step until next Wednesday so you still have lots of time to catch up.  The more the merrier!

Have a great weekend and as always…

Happy stitching!

Kaaren ♥

And The ‘Fob’ulous Winners Are…

First, allow me to say that the house wren babies survived the cat episode and left the nest yesterday.  I saw all seven of them take flight yesterday afternoon, each waiting their turn.  It was as though I was seeing my own children striking out on their own for the first time.  And the good news is I get to see it happen all over again because a new pair have been building a nest in in another of our houses for the past few days.  Maybe there’s something in the water?  *wink*

I’d also like to thank all of you who read all the way to the end of my last post to reach the part about the ‘fob’ulous giveaway.

I love to spontaneously share the things that I make with blogging friends far and near and with ‘no strings attached’.  Originally I had said that I would give away three fobs but decided that seven was a better number.

So without further ado, here are the winners as selected by the Random Digit Generator…and the corresponding names.

#4 – Shelley from Red Quilts (Canada)

#11 – Tudy from Tudy’s Craft Cupboard (USA)

#51 – Liven from Perlestrikke (Norway)

#62 – Sue-Ann from Buddy & Me (Australia)

# 83 – Janet from Quiltsalott (Australia)

#87 – Lori from Humble Quilts (USA)

#96 – Elyte from Tea, Fabric and other things (Australia)

Congratulations, gals!  Could you please email me with your snail mail addresses?  I just can’t wait to bring the envelopes to my small town post office.  The international addresses will certainly start their tongues wagging once again!

And one last thing.  I am diligently working on the face tutorial for Prudence.  I’m hoping to have it all put together by the end of this week or weekend.  In the meantime…

Happy stitching!

Kaaren ♥

A ‘Fob’ulous Day!

When I woke up yesterday morning,  dawn was just starting to break and a light rain was falling.  After plugging in the coffee pot, I then opened the patio doors leading to the backyard to let Mac, our Westie out.  I don’t usually follow him out until after the coffee is ready, but for some reason, I did.  I happened to look over to the birdhouse where we have house wrens as guests.  They checked in about three weeks ago to set and stay for a while.  Two days ago, I heard some feeble ‘peeping’ coming from the house, so I knew that their young-uns had hatched.

To my utter dismay, I saw that there was a gaping hole in the second house next to where they had made their nest.  The front of the house was missing!

I presume that during the night, the cat that I had shooed away earlier in the evening had jumped from the top of the fence where I had seen him, onto the birdhouse and somehow the face plate became dislodged.  I found the piece on the grass just in front of the pole.

Thank goodness momma, poppa and babies appear to be okay because their nest is in the adjacent house to the left.  Many sorties were made by both parents during the day to collect food to bring back to the nest…and no sign of the dreaded cat.  Everything seems to be okay this morning as well.

I don’t know whether the bird/cat incident threw me off or perhaps it was the dreary day but I just was not in a sewing frame of mind.  I can’t sit around doing nothing for very long when I got this this ‘fob’ulous idea!

I haven’t made any scissor fobs since last Christmas and after having a ‘fob’ulous time playing with my beads and charms for a couple of hours, here are the fruits of my toil! 

Would you like one?  If so, just leave me a comment and I’ll let the random number generator do it’s thing and pick three winners on Thursday, June 17th.  If you come up as ‘no reply’ meaning that I can’t reach you by email, then your name will passed over and we’ll spin the wheel again.  I will gladly post internationally.  And if you spot one that’s your favorite, mention that as well and I’ll do my best to accommodate. 

Scissors need their own ‘fob’ulous jewelry…don’t you think?

After having a ‘fob’ulous time making fobs, I also set aside some time to prepare and cut out the pieces for the Between Charming Friends Quilt Along.

Darlene from Quilting Daze designed this “Between Friends” quilt and Kelly from Cotton Charm Quilts is hosting the quilt along.  It’s still not too late to join in.

I am using ‘Dandelion Girl’ by Fig Tree Quilts not only because I had two charm packs in my stash but because I ♥ these fabrics as well.

This Friday we begin week 2 of the quilt along.  Another Christmas present in the works perhaps?

Have a ‘fob’ulous day and as always…

Happy stitching!

Kaaren ♥

I’d Like You To Meet…

Prudence.

Not too long ago I began making some mini or doll-sized quilts and although I do have several cloth dolls in my collection, none are really vintage looking and none were made by me.  So I decided to try to make my own and what follows is how Prudence evolved.

I recently joined a Yahoo group called ‘Small Quilt Talk’ hosted by Kathleen Tracy  and of late, there has been a lot of talk about dolls and doll making.  I love to read the friendly and casual banter about gals who have made dolls,  those who have ordered doll kits but for one reason or another they have remained as such and those who aspire to make a doll.  I didn’t realize that I fell into the last category until yesterday.

“Why can’t I make one?” I asked myself. 

I love a challenge.  So out came the sketch book and the preliminary drawings were made.  I fussed around a bit and finally came up with a pattern that turned out to be quite workable.   I didn’t want the pattern to be too large so I designed it to fit on a 9” x 12” piece of paper.

The first step was to make two photocopies of the pattern because in order to fit it on a 9” x 12” piece of paper, I had to overlap some of the elements.  

I then cut out the pattern pieces...

pinned them to some muslin fabric from my stash…

and then cut them out.

Before sewing the pieces together, I used my light box to trace the face onto the right side of the fabric.  Then I sewed the pieces together, turned them right side out and stuffed them with polyester fiber fill.

Next came my favorite part…bringing Prudence to life.   First, I painted her facial features.  I am an artist by profession and although I’ve never painted a face on fabric before, I found out that it was not much different than painting on canvas.

I wanted Prudence to look kind of primitive and demure…

because after all, she lived in the mid 1800’s. 

Once the face was created, I attached her legs and arms.

I then painted her hair and boots…and of course  gave her a ♥.

I started to make her clothing and to dress her when I remembered to add her name and to sign and date it on her back.

I have never made any kind of clothing before, so I was really out of my comfort zone now.  What I did was have a close look at how some of my other doll’s clothing was made and proceeded from there.

She was a lot of fun to make, especially since this was my first attempt at something like this.  I never did play with dolls much as a child so I guess I’m trying to make up for lost time.  *wink*

If you would like to download the PDF file of pattern that I designed and used, just click  here.

Would you be interested in a step-by-step tutorial on creating her face?  I’d be happy to comply.  Honestly, it’s not as difficult as you may think.

Happy stitching!

Kaaren ♥

It’s A First!

You see them everywhere in blogland.  There’s a ‘once-a-month-for-a-year’ club and there’s even a monthly parade.  They’re kind of on the smallish, table topper size, but HUGE in attitude!

What am I referring to?  Well, Schnibbles, of course! 

I just needed to get on the band wagon too so I asked my LQS if she could order in a selection of Carrie’s patterns and I purchased two…just to get started.  This was about a month ago and I had forgotten all about them until a couple of days ago when Mary, of Quilt Hollow fame, mentioned that she was going to make another ‘Picnic’…which just so happened to be one of the patterns that I had stashed away.

Instant inspiration and just the little kick start I needed!  So into my stash cupboard(s) I went.  I remember having bought a 70 piece charm pack of Civil War reproduction fabrics at the Vermont Quilt Festival last year so I found that, and along with some coordinating background fabric, I dove right in.

I thought this was going to be a piece of cake, primarily I guess, because of the size.  Wrong!  Although Schnibble quilts are small…’Picnic’ finishes up at 34” x 34”…they are quite labor intensive.  Tons of cutting and trimming and squaring up and piecing and ironing and did I mention piecing?  I don’t know how many hours are in this little baby but I can attest to many.

Don’t you just ♥ basket quilts?

The top is now complete and I ♥ the finished product.  It’s going to make a wonderful topper for our kitchen table after it’s quilted.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I must add that Carrie’s instructions are second to none…complete, accurate, very easy to follow and lots of visuals.

And if you can believe it, I received an email yesterday afternoon from Karen of Briarside Lane directing me to her blog to show me this…

She’s already finished stitching this month’s FFF design that I posted only 48 hours before!  Great job, Karen and thanks for sharing!  Your stitches are wonderful and you’ve succeeded in making my heart sing!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Happy stitching!

Kaaren ♥