Archive for December, 2012

Is it over yet?

Monday, December 31st, 2012

Tomorrow – tomorrow! That’s the day I allow myself to take down the tree! Can’t wait – very, very tired of pine needles every where and am waiting with trepidation for the dogs to knock the whole thing down with their next wrestling match. Actually one dog wrestles and one dog just lays down on the floor and takes it.

dogs under tree

But I digress. Tomorrow it all goes away – and that means all the Christmas quilts too! Including all the tree skirts. And I am loaded with tree skirts this year! The old family favorite stayed in the place of honor under the tree and did not get replaced by any of my more recent patterns. But there they were, both the One-Fur, Two Fur tree skirt and the Triple Dresden,  just languishing around the house so they turned into table toppers. With a bowl or tree strategically placed to hide the hole – Voila!

triple dresden on table   one fur on table

I though it was pretty clever yet stressful at the same time because people put things down on tables which means they put things down on my tree skirts!! Aaauuuggghhh! And it so hard to train a family to use coasters when they really don’t need them and shoes on the table has always been a bone of contention with me. Dog drool I remain helpless to fend off – then I remembered. They are just quilts and they are washable quilts too! So tomorrow, they get washed. Ooops, no. The dryer died Christmas Eve. The new one comes on Wednesday. Thursday they’ll get washed, maybe…

But enough about me and my plethora to tree skirts. Check out this one! Pink Flamingos!

flamingo tree skirt

Who knew that flamingos come in Christmas prints?! This was made by a woman who was taking another class with me, not the tree skirt class, and she brought it in to show. She made it for her son’s girlfriend who is a pink flamingo fan to the extreme! She added yo-yos and bells to the tips of the dresdens too! So clever! So hopefully, she has been gifted with it by now and I can share the creativity of this Triple Dresden Tree Skirt with all!

 

 

Jelly Roll Done!

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

rookie on bed

So the Jelly Roll Quilt is finished! And just in time!

I debated how to quilt it – wanting to do an all-over feather or really dress up the strips with fancy patterns but then remembered – it’s for the damn dog! So I meandered all over.

Then I groaned about the binding and how much time it was going to take to hand stitch that binding down since I’ve got a couple of more important quilts waiting for binding. Then I remembered – it’s for the damn dog! So I put the binding completely by machine.

I can’t believe I just made a quilt for the damn dog!

Jelly Roll Fun!

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

So I’ve been spending these last few weeks working on a second version of my Fantastic Circle for our bed. I highly recommend we spend time doing something for ourselves every now and then, by the way. Fantastic Circle works very well with Jelly Rolls and I purchased a great set from Hoppin Bobbin last month just for this project. The shop owner there, Kelly, cuts her own for the most part so these came totally out of her fabric inventory and my original plan was to make the Fantastic Fan in her fabrics so that when it came time to teach the class in her shop, it would help her too. Although I plan to do that, it will have to come off my bed to go there. And it will be a bit larger that the original pattern since it needed to be 102″. Its on the long arm now.

blue and green fantastic fan

I’ll post more pictures when its finished.

But I am digressing off the subject a little. The point is I bought jelly rolls and because I am making the quilt larger that the pattern suggests, I bought extra jelly rolls. Hence I have a lot of jelly rolls left over. Now, because this quilt is going on the bed and we have been gifted for “safe keeping” our son’s Blue Tick Coon Hound

damn dog

who insists on getting up on the bed, I keep an old quilt on top of the “real” bed quilt to keep his assorted dog debris off the bed. I’ve learned long ago with this very headstrong dog to pick my battles. The bed hopping was small compared to the others that I fight with him on a daily basis in my efforts transform him from “damn dog” to “good dog”.

Okay – because of the “damn dog”, in this case, I decided I did not want him sleeping all over this brand new quilt but I love the colors and didn’t want to hide them under the ratty bed-protector quilt. So with all those extra jelly rolls, I thought about doing a Jelly Roll Race quilt. It should be just the right size to cover his favorite resting spot on the bed and I can still have the beautiful colors in the room.

Now, although I’ve seen a lot of Jelly Roll Race quilts, I really had no idea how to make it. So off to Google. I found this great tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Company! Lots of fun to watch. Its a liberating sewing experience and since this is for the damn dog, (well, technically its to protect the bed from the damn dog) it seemed like the perfect solution for me.

So let the Race begin!

jelly roll race

I don’t think I’ll ever win the race but at least I finished!

jelly roll race 2