13th Steet Studio

Almost Amish Challenge

To boost the number of fund-raising mini-quilts to be at my guild's quilt show, a local fabric store has been handing out fabric and challenge themes. For this challenge the theme was "Almost Amish" and each person was given two solid colored "Amish" cotton fabrics. For my quilt, I added in a pale blue fabric and some fish batik that a friend had given me. The quilt pattern is the old "Trip Around the World" design. Naturally, I call my quilt "Trip Around the Ocean".

Happy Valentine's Day

Here are some cell phone decorations and earrings that I made a while back. They feature felted hearts and balls, and some metal charms. Do folks put dangling things on iphones and droids like they used to for the older style phones?

Quick Quilt

This is a quick quilt I made from the last of a "jelly roll" of batik strips. I added in some narrower strips of turquoise fabric to help hide the fact that the remaining strips were a little repetitive.

Grandbaby Quilt

Some of us got together and made a baby quilt for the new grandmother in our group. Group projects are great when each step gets done by the members who excel at that step. The fabrics are picked by the person(s) with that great sense of color. Seams are sewn by the steadiest hands. The blocks are arranged by someone with the best attention for detail. The quilting is done by a master machine quilter. Everything quickly "just falls into place" and everyone is happy with the result. Check out this example:

Here is a closer look:

No Snow

We have had the mildest winter here this year. Last year the snow was piled up higher than it ever had been along our driveway. So far this year this is the deepest the snow has gotten:

I bet a dove plodded across this stone and then a sparrow had to show off and cross it in two hops....

Hopefully we won't have a late cold weather attack that takes out all of the plants and flowers that are thinking about leafing out and blooming now. Lets not rush to Spring just yet.

Here are some cold-proof flowers that I entered in the next show at the 1109 Gallery. Check them out. They are priced cheep.

Quilt Repair

My quilt guild has an event every November called "Country Store". That is when we haul in handmade items, fabric, unwanted sewing notions, etc., etc., and try to sell them to each other. It should probably be called a Swap Meet. I brought home as much fabric as I sold and more odds and ends than I got rid of, but that is OK. One treasure that I got was a grandmother's flower garden quilt done in brighter colors than usual. It had a lot of red, which I like, but that red had bled a bit and given the quilt a red and pink color scheme. It also had several holes that went clear though the quilt and a couple of chunks chewed off of the edges. Small holes. Small chunks. I patched the back with pink fabric to almost match the formerly(?) white fabric, then cut pieces of batting to fill the middle of the holes. A little stitching was added to hold the new batting in place and help pull the ragged edges together a bit. Then I appliqued down some patches on the front of the quilt and did a little quilting to replace the missing stitches.

As you can see, I didn't put much effort into perfectly matching the patches with the missing fabric. Close enough is good enough, I decided. Finally, I ran the quilt through a machine wash (with a couple of dye magnet sheets to help stop further color migration) to freshen it up... and tah dah... a beautiful new tablecloth:

Baby Quilt

Here is a picture of a baby quilt I made for my new grand-niece. She is a cutie! (The baby, not the quilt.) Close observers will see that I didn't quite make the stripe of pink hounds' teeth go clear across the quilt.

Things like that are only obvious to me after the quilt is completely done, and then they become all that I can see.

Sigh.

Tick Tock

Time to post or get off the internet, I think. Lets go back in time a bit to the trip to NYC in December. Much of the reason for the timing of the visit was to be able to attend "Crafts at the Cathedral", an event held at Saint John the Divine Cathedral on Amsterdam in NYC. I knew that my favorite clock artist Richard Birkett was going to have a booth there and I wanted to get another one of his clocks. My long suffering husband was going to be there to tote and carry, so I could buy as big a clock as I wanted. Here is the new addition:

It has a music box that works and a camera that doesn't. The music box twirls an airplane when it is playing. I had my choice of dozens of slides to put in the slide viewer, and Hawaiian Godzilla was my favorite. All of this and more is attached to an old roller skate.

It is fabulous! It even tells time.

One side benefit from the trip to Saint John the Divine was seeing the strange and beautiful "Peace Fountain" on the grounds of the cathedral. You can read more about the fountain here.

Later that same year

One of my resolutions for the new year was to procrastinate less. The fact that it has taken a week for me to post that announcement is not good.

One of my favorite blogs is Terry Border's Bent Objects. His latest book can be found here. His work always makes me laugh, and that is probably the best way to start this year!

Big Apple Fun

We got to make a quick trip to New York, New York... the town so nice they named it twice. One of my favorite places to visit is Habu. Not easy to find for someone used to seeing stores at street level, but worth the hunt. They have an assortment of unusual threads and yarns. I can't say that I have created much of anything with my purchases there, but I am collecting a colorful assortment of odds and ends of fiber.

Button Button

Check out this piano by Augusto Esquivel made from buttons strung on filament:

Go to his website here to see his other creations including a harp, a fire hydrant and a string bass.

Fund Raising Chair

No, I'm not the chairperson of a fundraising project. I decorated a chair that is being (silent) auctioned to raise money for the 1109 Gallery. I think the auction ends at the end of the current show "Wintery Mix" on January 22, 2012. So stop by, enjoy the exhibit and consider placing a bid.

Those fabric flowers look a bit wilted in this photo... I thought they looked better than that in person... but I did assume that whoever gets this chair would pull them off and just use the bare chair.

Thankful

A good time was had by all this Thanksgiving. The only problem was how fast it flew by. The bazaar was the usual mix of chaos and fun. Our booth did well and we were able to pick up some odds and ends of art and craft from some of the other vendors. Next year I swear I will not wait until November to start working on stuff for the booth!

 

Today is the Big Day

Today is Bazarre Bazaar. Don't miss it! In addition to the Zipper Mouth Monsters, I will have Poxasaurs(they have the pox...just look at those eyes):

And SteamPunk style pillows:

Bazaar Earrings

Lets put the bizarre in the bazaar. How about earrings that look back at you?

Pairs Division Part 6

Time for a slight variation... Here are two Zipper Mouth Monster Purses. They have handles and very little stuffing:

 

Pairs Division Part 5

For Bizarre Bazaar, more monsters:

Pairs Division Part 4

Even more monsters:

Pairs Division Part 3

More monsters for Bizarre Bazaar:

Pairs Division Part 2

Here are the next two Zipper Mouth monsters for Bizarre Bazarre: