A Little Friendship Bird AND... Hello from Hawaii!!

Aloha!Audie and I safely landed in Hulaland about 5:30 pm yesterday, Hawaiian time. Flight long and a little bumpy with turbulence, but we are thrilled to be here!

Above:  a little quilt I made and donated to my Quild in about 2004. My DDIL Donna held the winning ticket! She still has it hanging in her house -- love this girl!  "The Friendship Bird" has always been a favorite design -- I should make another someday. *g*

Below: Audie and Sidney on a small beach in Lanikai. Yes, the water IS this color! It is beautiful.

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Bill takes a pic of me on the same beach 'cove' in Lanikai... 29May11. We had just come from a yummy breakfast at Cinnamon's! Long wait, but excellent food. Yummo.

We parked the large truck the only place that was open... under a coconut tree! Yikes... some of the nuts were falling and we drove off just in time. Couldn't resist this picture, of Audie and Chris, though!

That's all for now... ALOHA ... will post more pictures later. Tonight we're headed for Waikkiki to walk the Boardwalk and listen to the bands... maybe even stay for sunset on the beach. I haven't been to Waikkiki since 2003, but I remember that it's lovely there.

Thank you for stopping by to visit -- I hope where ever you are that you have the time and inclination to make something that makes you or someone you love happy!

Hugs,





SPIDER WEDNESDAY & Other Strings n Things, & 10-Minute Quilt Blocks

Yesterday was Tuesday Friendship Group and Deb brought her Spider top -- isn't it gorgeous? A big "thank you" goes to Katrina for organizing our SpiderWeb Ring .  . . it has been a lot of fun! Go visit Katrina's blog to see a list of the whole Ring of quilters making Spider blocks.

Now to decide -- border or not to border? Here's one option:

I finished the embroidery on Sidney's SBS block and decided to make the little bird dark blue with a turquoise-green eye. Now just a small pieced border to finish it off. I'll take it with me to Hawaii on Saturday and finish sewing it while waiting in the airport. With a long two hour wait until flight time, it will give me something pleasant to work on.

Rani is new to our group  [but long-time friend] -- she makes beautiful quilts. This is her latest batik squares:

Also Rani's -- very colorful and with applique:

Pat has been busy sewing up more 10-Minute blocks from 5 inch batik Charm Squares. If you would like to see how to make these click here for a short how-2 video:

Pat is auditioning her layout [above] and the tape is to keep it all together -- she rolls it up and takes it home and everything stays in place! Good idea.

That's all for this morning -- I hope where ever you are that you find time to create something that makes you happy.

Hugs,

Do You Have A Favorite... An OLDIE BUT GOODIE???

Do you have a favorite quilt? You know what I mean... the one always hanging around where you can see it? One of my favorite quilts is quite small. It hangs on the back wall in the kitchen area. I made it a very long time ago -- in the 1980's, I think.  It is all made from bits and pieces -- just leftovers. It's one of those quilts, that the further you stand back from it, the stronger the movement-illusion becomes.

A friend and I had been fooling around with dying and marbeling just to see what we could come up with. After my 'main' project was completed for a Challenge, I had some bits left over... what to do with them? I strip pieced the bits onto little squares of muslin. I used mostly the hand-dyeds, but there were a few 'commercial' fabrics mixed in. The fun little quilt above was the end result of this experiment.

The feathers on the black border are quilted in teal thread. I love to draw feathers and used "paper folding" on this project. It is easy to cut a piece of paper for the border width and length, then fold it in half [long way]... open it back up. Now fold end to end, again and again [you are making "sections"]... now just draw a feather shape that you are happy with inside ONE of the sections, then simply keep folding the paper back over itself and tracing -- voila! Perfect and consistant feathers. Now transfer your design to the quilt top, layer and quilt. Works great.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. . . I hope where ever you are that you have both the time and the inclination to create something that makes you happy.

Hugs,

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY? . . . I'm Embroidering An SBS Block

What are YOU doing this gorgeous Sunday? I'm finishing up the embroidery on a SBS block for one of my granddaughters. It's not quite done, but here it is so far. . . please ignore the basting threads:

A couple of years ago I made Sid a quilt using several embroidered blocks, adding sashing, cornerstones, borders, etc., to bring it up to twin size.  This block is similar to the ones in her quilt and will be a 'picture' for her bedroom wall. I hope to create a small pieced border for this embroidery using some of the material left over from her quilt. My plan is to carry it with me on my upcoming trip to Hawaii and frame it to hang in her room. Easier than mailing it, ya?!

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by. I hope where ever you are that you have the time and inclination to create something that makes you happy!

Hugs,

BEARS n STRINGS n FRIENDSHIP. . . fun at Tuesday Friendship Group

First, as today is SPIDERWEB Wednesday, I should note that I have nothing new to report! ;( My top is finished, but not quilted or bound [please see pic of last Weds]. Perhaps by next week?!

Today is mostly about posting pictures. . . I hope you have fun with this "picture show". . .

Carolyn's red/pink/white/cream -- layout designed by her mother Darlene. They quilt together; isn't that nice?

Above: Pat's version of the "10 Minute block" made with 5 inch charm squares. If you are interested in making some of these blocks, go to U-Tube and search for "10 Minute Quilt Block". The video there explains everything!

Above: Susan's Batik Strings with the inner border, flange, and outter border added. This is a gorgeous quilt, but I didn't get a very good picture. I'm still learning about digital photography.

Two counted cross stitch blocks by Jill, a member of the Tuesday Friendship Group. The back of her work looks as good as the front! Wow, such neat work!

Below: Jill again. This time with one of her quilt-as-you-go blocks. I think the pins she used to baste with are nifty.

Chelsy is Pat's special friend and comes with Pat to all our meetings. Here she is 'helping' to pick out some sashing for Susan's string quilt...lol

Jill makes these tiny handmade and fully jointed bears... all the joints move and all are made by hand with the facial features embroidered. Darling! Hardly bigger than a small spool of thread.

Below: a sweater made combining quilted squares and handknitted pieces. Made by Jill.

That's it for now; thank you for stopping by to visit and I hope you enjoyed the pictures . . . it is time for me to get back to sewing some blocks that need finishing.

I hope where ever you are that you find the time and inclination to create something that makes you happy!

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

BLOG CANDY GIVE-A-WAY -- hurry, you only have 8 days!

Hurry on over to Cattinka's blog and enter to win one of her lovely handmade Key Caps! This is her Blog Candy in celebration of reaching more than 200 regular readers/followers. Go congratulate Katrin and leave a comment -- YOU could be the lucky winner!

Aren't they wonderful?? Good luck to all. . .

I've been working on embroidery lately and will get some pictures up very soon. Until next time -- thank you for stopping by and I hope you have the time and inclination to create something that makes you happy!

 Hugs,
Cyn; -)

SPIDER WEDs., and more strings n things, & a Touch of Crazy!

SpiderWeb Wednesday is here! Thank you Cattinka for starting and managing our 'web'. It's been a lot of fun. The block was drawn in EQ7 and so were the four setting corners in the border--they were all made with PPing. Not sure how to quilt it... does anyone have any suggestions??? I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. Thank you.

Many of the gals in my Tuesday Friendship Group are also making Spiders and other string projects. This is Susan's Batik Strings set 4-blocks-together and then sashed:

 Rosemary made a couple of quilts! She's one of our High Achievers! The quilt below is her take on an Amish String HST. This quilt will have more borders added to it:

I love Crazy Quilting of all kinds. This is a pic of a name tag I made about 1987 or 88. It is worn and frazzeled, so it is time to make a new one... here's the oldie [but goodie?? lol]: Oh, I should mention that this piece has 'real' fresh-water pearls & 14k gold 'liquid' beads sewn on it... nope, don't wanna wash it.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. I hope where ever you are that you have both the time and the inclination to create something that makes you happy. . . until next time. . .

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

A "Different" kind of Mother's Day Gift. . . I love it!

This year my youngest DD bought me some unique items for Mother's Day. What genius! All of this stuff creates a higher table and saves my back. Yippee Skippee... it works! 

 Here's what we used from the local hardware store:
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* Four 12 inch by 1.25" pieces of PVC Pipe [#40 heavyduty]

* Four 1.25" Rubber End Caps

* Vasoline and a bottle of Alcohol [not the drinking kind...lol].

I've had an old table that works well for projects, except it is too low and can be tough on a tall lady's back! Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here they are to show what we did... some Vasoline swabbed inside the rubber caps makes it easier to get them on the ends of the PVC pipe--the caps are a very snug fit so they will stay on.

A bit of Alcohol on a paper towel cleans up the black marks lickity split!

The pipe and rubber cap inserted over end of table leg. Notice at far left of picture how the table leg is shaped... where it curves, is where we took the measurement from to decide the length to cut the PVC pipe.

Voila! My old-too-short-table now stands 37 inches tall and is perfect for me! What a back-saver. A real bonus to this solution - - it is not permanent! The PVC slips right off when the table is folded for storage.

My next project is to make a "giant ironing" cover for this table to create a nice place to press large projects, backings, even holiday linens.

Today was our Tuesday Friendship Group meeting at one of the LQSs and we had a lot of show-n-tell. Tomorrow I'll post the pictures... a lot of them and some fun projects, too.

All for now. Thank you for stopping by to visit. I hope where ever you are that you have the time and inclination to create something that makes you happy!
Hugs,
Cyn; -)
PS: I'm sorry it's been almost 10 days since my last post, but I blew a disc in my back and have been in bed... yuck, what a waste of time. Some physical therapy for a few weeks and I'll be right as rain!