Cool Stuff

I thought I would share some of the great things I saw while at my sister's house.  This is a fused glass face that was hanging on the back wall of an art gallery, out in the parking lot, that we visited in Portland.  I thought it was really fun. It's about 20 inches high.

This is another fused glass face at the same place.

And here is the back door to the art gallery.  I loved this mosaic around the door!  We were having a beautiful sunny day, and this just sparkled in the light.  There was also a similar mosaic around the front door, but I didn't get a photo of that, because I would have had to stand in the busy street.  

Wouldn't this make a great border on a quilt?

And here is one of my birthday presents - antique album blocks.  In my favorite color too!

An extra 2 brown ones..  (excuse the lack of ironing)

Look at these great fabrics.

These will be challenging to work with, as all of the edges are on the bias.

I love this one!

This is Zoe, my sister's cat.  She is so funny - she's always sitting up like this.  My sister calls it "prairie dog pose".  LOL  She's a little portly, so she balances pretty well this way.  She sat like this for about half an hour.  She seems to enjoy it!

I'm still sewing on my Halloween Trip blocks.  I've got another 4 done since the last post, but no pix yet.  Maybe next time.

Happy quilting!

A Real Antique and a Mola

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Last December we went to Seattle for the day, just for fun. The first stop we made was an Antique Shop in Pioneer Square. I found this chest of drawers and fell in love with it! It's not real big, as you can see from the phone on top. It's oak and from "the late 1800's". The drawer pulls are carved. This is the first piece of antique furniture that we've purchased, and it was a good deal - under $200!

Later that day, we found a shop at Pike Place Market called "Milagros" that specializes in Mexican folk-art. We found a table full of Molas, and found this one of hummingbirds for a resonable price. DH was stationed in Panama while he was in the army, which is where the Molas come from. To read more about molas, see here or here. This is the first (and so far, only) mola we own. They're becoming very expensive. When DH was in Panama many, many years ago, they were very cheap - under $10!! I think I will have it framed to display it, instead of putting it in a quilted wallhanging.




Here is a closeup so you can see the stitches. They're so small - it's just incredible workmanship! And I love the bright colors!

While I was photographing the chest, Shade had to come check out what I was doing. Since Dunkel got his picture in last time, this is Shade's turn. Mind you, it took a lot of bad photos to get a good one. He loves to move at the last second, so he's blurry in most of the pictures. The last picture was when he was "helping" me sew by wrinkling the fabric. He loves to help me!

An Oldie But A Goodie

This is a doll quilt that I made about 10 or 15 years ago. It's a reproduction of an antique that I saw in "Miniature Quilts" magazine. (sorry, I don't remember which issue) The original was from the 1800's. This was as close as I could get to the original. I actually made two of these little quilts. I made 2 of each block, and the other quilt was sashed with double-pink fabrics and given to my sister, since she likes pink. (Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of hers.) I think the blocks are 4 inches square. I appliqued all the handles on the baskets while caring for my Mom after her heart surgery. I needed some sewing to do there, and I thought this wasn't too demanding. I don't do much applique because of arthritis in my hands, but this was soothing. And it gives this quilt good memories. I really enjoyed being able to care for her and the time we spent together.

For someone who has been trying to be careful to not buy too much fabric for the last year, I've gone kinda nuts lately! It just goes to show - I'm more of a fabric junkie than a quilter, I guess. I got the charm squares and then had to get some companion fabrics to be able to make something with them. They will be my project at the retreat I'm going to at the end of the month. The others are for various projects, except the witch undies fabric on the right and the blue/purple batik on the left. Those were just because I love them!

We went to Ikea last week and bought bookcases for fabric storage in the quilt studio. They are still in boxes and still in the garage. We did more "shopping" but no buying yet. Still trying to decide what to get, and working on the floor plan to see what fits where. I'm considering this for my sewing table. I saw it on Bonnie's blog. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

I got a good picture of Dunkel yesterday. He had to check out the fabric that I was photographing (see above). He wouldn't pose on the fabric and moved to the window seat. He was being very uncooperative - he really didn't want his picture taken and refused to look at me. That's why he looks kind of grumpy. But I got him anyway!

We saw the Blue Heron this morning, so it survived its encounter with the eagle. Yay!