New Fabric. What to do with it?

I went on the Southern California Quilt Run this last week. I made it to 29 of 42 shops! Whew!!! It was really Hot yesterday. I decided that I was done. It is still going on today and is the last day. I think it takes 1000 miles or more to drive it.

I brought home this fabric. It started with the floral brown fabric on the end. I then found the blue floral linen textured fabric in the middle. Stupidly, I only bought fat quarters. After I got home, I called the shop and had them cut a yard of each and because it is an hour and a half away from my house, I had them send it to me. It is really beautiful fabric. Classically Home "Laurel Cottage" by Benartex. Well, I kept adding to the grouping and now I will have to make a quilt or 3. I think wall hangings. Maybe a group of 3 for the stairway. A few of these fabrics will be taken out because they don't all play well together. I think I would like to do stars but I am not sure.


If you can't handle spiders, then just look past the next picture. I am not particularly squeamish around bugs and snakes so I kind of think these big guy is cool. He is a Tarantula and was about 5 inches across. He was hanging out under the patio light for the good food.

My Vintage Crazy Quilt Project

Allie from Allies in Stitches inspires me daily. Her Blog is my very favorite. She is doing a modern take on an Antique CQ as posted on her blog. Go check it out. She is amazing!

A couple of years ago I started a CQ based upon an Antique CQ that I saw on EBay. This is it. I had hand dyed some silk dupioni in several colors and also some cotton. I used the antique CQ as inspiration to start the construction of a crazy quilt. I Love this quilt! It is so very graphic!

Anyway, I decided to try a Crazy Quilt based upon it. I had put it away for a few years but after watching Allie and her reproduction CQ, I found it and put it on my design wall. This is what I had done. Not much. It is all my hand dyed fabric and the fans are much wider than the original antique CQ. It is probably 2 1/2' wide by 3' tall. The strips are quite wide. I am going to put fans in the corners and Black silk in the center and on the edges of the fans and in the corners of the fans. I tried to dye black silk but it didn't come out black so I will probably have to buy commercial fabric for that part. I am not sure if I will continue with the outside piecing or not. I think I will look at it for a while and see what it says to me. I think that it will need layered stitches on each side of each fan.

Quilting Blogs

I found a couple of sites that list Quilters Blogs.

Check out QuilterBlogs. com. I can spend hours looking through the list. Go check it out and expect to spend some time there, also.

The next site is Quilting Bloggers. This is a great resources to make it easier to find new creative people.

Found!!! Ott Light Bulb

I found my Ott Light bulb! Yeah!!!! I had a package of batting that I wanted to use for my fireplace quilt and I unrolled it and out poped my missing Ott Light bulb! I was almost ready to go and buy a new one. I swear, I looked in every box of fabric and clothing I had since the move with no luck. I had all but given up on finding it when I found it. I knew I had put it in a safe place!

Big A** Bug

Ok, this is creepy. What the Hell is this? We were on our patio and it was getting dark and my Husband looked down and said "Is that a Bug?" Oh My God, Yes! What is it? It was almost 2 inches long and looked like a really bad ass ant! Sorry for the language but they don't have things like this in Missouri! If you know what this is, please let me know. I think we have moved too close to Los Angeles and it is a Transformer. It is going to turn into an Automobile or Bus or something! Decepticon!

Update: It is called a Dark Jerusalem Cricket. I have 2 web sites below that describe it. It is also called a "Potato Bug". We had "Potato Bugs" in Missouri but they were a quarter inch long and were also known as "Rolly Polly's". Big difference! I think I will keep these insect guides handy!

http://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Dark-Jerusalem-Cricket

http://bugguide.net/node/view/39450

Fireplace Quilt and New Design Wall

I added a small border with a brown batik fabric and I like this better. Now is when I need to decide how to quilt it. My friend Marci thinks I need to do straight lines. I think so too but they need to be tilted a little and not be stitched straight up and down. I will finish this and then try it out over the fireplace. My Husband is dubious about it. We will see......
I needed a design wall and I have gone around and around about what to do. I thought about covering a board with some fleece and hanging it on the wall but this would take up space that I could hang my quilts. I have been taping my Fireplace Quilt onto the closet doors in my sewing room in order to look at it. It dawned on me that this would be the perfect place for my design wall as it is an unusable space for anything else but a closet door.

I had some left over 3M Command Strip hooks and I stuck them to the little border above the closet door and bought some curtain clip rings to hang off the hooks. I then attached the fleece to the rings.

I now have a design wall that I can remove and store or pull aside in order to get in the closet! No more wasted space! I bought some little curtain weights in case I needed to weight it to hold it straight but I don't think I will need them. Problem solved!

Art From Waste!

I have been looking at my "Fireplace Quilt" for several days now. I don't know why I don't just finish it. I bought this brown fabric to make a small border thinking it might help get the look I want. Hmmm.

Anyway, yesterday I sewed together some of the scraps from when I trimmed the blocks for the quilt. I kind of like this. It is very small but I can see framing this piece and not doing anything else to it, leaving the raw edges. Art from waste!