Seed Pod Christmas Tree

During the Christmas holidays, my friend, Michele, came up with the idea of using seed pods from the local sweetgum trees to create Christmas trees. She gave me two of them, one silver and one copper colored.

Being me and with Michele's permission., I couldn't leave well enough alone so I've set out to embellish my seed pod trees.  The first one I tackled was the silver tree.  I added strands of chain with the junctures (messy glue spots) with a lacy silver bead cap and then topped the bead caps with 3mm rhinestones in multiple colors.

Coupled with the iridescent glitter that Michele finished the tree with, the rhinestones added little twinkles of color.  I really like how it's turned out.

Michele has collected an entire rolling tub of these sweetgum seed pods with an eye toward making more of the trees to sell during the 2014 holiday season. She also makes wreaths with the seed pods.  I've suggested making candle rings too. I think this is a clever use for an item that's more routinely cursed than treasured.

Peace,

Sue

Ring of Fire Snowball

I was "doodling" with fabric the other night as a ploy to avoid doing the dishes. Sitting at my sewing table, I had a pile of scraps from a recently completed quilt spread around.  I wasn't really trying to work them into something or use them up, I was doodling, much like I do with pencil and paper when searching for just the right look to an idea.

Next to me, on the table, was a copy of a pattern that I had printed off from Wombat Quilts, a blog that belongs to Cath Hall.  She'd created a snowball pattern and posted it on Wombat Quilts for all to share.  Her version of the block as done in pink and gray, and while pretty enough, wasn't what my brain said I wanted. (I've used the pink/gray color inspiration for a baby quilt that's due in April.)

Yes, I used Cath's pattern for my own block but with an added element.  Back in November, 2013 I attended a local class taught by Jerry Fujimoto and he shared with us a technique for adding ultra thin strips to a quilting block.  I've been saving 1" strips towards using them for just this purpose.  When creating Cath's snowball, I seized the opportunity to add a bright narrow stripe to the otherwise dark colors in my snowball.  Here's the way I did it.

I added a additional 1/4" sewing line in between sections 3 and 4 but didn't change the size of section 3.  This kept the finished size of the block at 12".  When sewing the line between the added strip and section #4, I lined up my 1/4" foot as if to sew on that line, then swapped out the 1/4" foot for my clear acrylic open toe foot and adjusted my needle drop as far to the left as I could without the needle striking the foot. I sewed the line and was rewarded with a narrow strip of orange/red that measured slightly less than 3/8".  

I really like the impact this tiny stripe makes to the overall block.  Here's the block completed.

I'm calling this block Ring of Fire Snowball. Now I needed to figure out what to do with the block.

As a member of the River City Quilt Guild I'm part of the Quilting for Vets group which is making small quilts for the armed forces veterans at the VA Northern California Health Care System at Mather Air Field. I decided to use this improvised snowball pattern for a medallion quilt for this group. By adding borders of several designs, the medallion has grown from 12" square to almost 40" square.  I'll be adding more borders to take it up to about 50" which should be a good size for a lap quilt.

Thank you, Cath Hall, for your generosity!  I had a ball making this block and follow your adventures in paper piecing regularly.

Peace,

Sue

My Fabric Stash

I've always been fascinated by quilts and quilting. Taking tiny pieces of fabrics and sewing them together to make a whole new fabric seems to me to incredibly marvelous.  The interplay of hues and values and they way they change your perspective is just incredible.  I think this is one of the reasons that I'm drawn to both beading and quilting.  It's all about COLOR!

I found this luscious fabric on eBay yesterday when I was cruising where I shouldn't have been cruising.  It's part of the new Palindromes collection by Paula Nadelstern from Benartex LLC. Isn't it just fabulous?! I love the wild colors and the saturation of colors.  I shouldn't have but I bought a few yards to squirrel away in my stash.

I think I'm part crow! I'm drawn to pretty, colorful, and shiny things and hoard them away.

Speaking of stashes, I'm here to admit that I have a stash of fabrics almost equivalent to my bead stash, which is to say that I will need several lifetimes to use it all.  I don't seem to be able to help myself! I really need to develop the self-discipline to stop buying fabric.  I have a metric ton of quilting fabric and an equal ton of fashion fabrics all stored in gigantic plastic tubs and stacked in mt bedroom. (No other place for it in this new, smaller living space!)

I'm considering sorting through the fashion fabrics and donating to charity those pieces that I know I'll never use.  Somehow, though, I don't seem to be very anxious to get busy on that project. I love digging into the tubs and re-discovering long lost fabrics, remembering their original destination, and conjuring up new ideas for their use.  But, it will be a monstrous undertaking and I'm going to stall a while longer before doing that.

I really need to get busy, so that's it for now.

Bead Swap Chistmas Tree

Several months ago I was prowling my local Goodwill store and discovered a tiny artificial Christmas tree is dire need of a new home and a makeover.  I paid the princely sum of $1.99 and carried my treasure home.

Stripped of it's string of ghastly plastic beads

I hunted the web for suitable lights in an appropriate size and found some on Amazon.com. 20 Tiny "globs" of glass strung along a silvery wire.  Just the right size for my purposes.  These were the first things added to my naked little tree.

With 1 strand of LED lights

Not very impressive against the bright light of the patio window but an improvement. During this makeover, I routinely annoyed my sister, Karen, and my best friend, Michele, with texts and emails of my progress.  Not sure they appreciated it but I had fun.  

The next step was to add a strand of 2mm clear glass beads that had been hiding in my sewing trims.  The beads had been crocheted together and obviously intended to be trim for a garment. I also pulled out a length of diamond-cut chain and added it for more sparkle.

Now began the fun part! I wanted to make my own little ornaments for the tree.  I'm a member of a bead swap group (beadswap-USA.com) and over the past year I'd collected a pile of gold colored charms from the swap boxes that came and went. I used every one of these charms (+/- 50 pieces) plus a smattering of my own stash. I had thought to use earring wires for hooks but they proved to be too big for the scale of the tree. I ended up using 1-1/2" eye wires to make my own hooks.

Tiny handcuffcharms!

Now almost every traditional tree has round ball ornaments and while I did have some round gold charms, it just wasn't enough.  I got out my glass pearls and clear glass bead boxes and got to work creating ornaments for the little tree. Just like making drops for earrings!

I really did get carried away with the ornament-making but I had such a good time!

Here's the completed project. I'm going to search for an acrylic box to protect it as I don't relish the prospect of having to dust and clean every tiny ornament.

Spike Your English BOM

Well, let's get this blog started with some preliminary pictures about what I've been quilting in the past several months.

This is the most recent in a series of paper pieced blocks that I've been working on.  I'm a member of the QuiltingBoard.com website. The members organize Block of the Month (BOM) sew alongs and this BOM is all about designs from Quilting On The Square. The program is called "Spike Your English" referring to English paper piecing.

I find I really enjoy paper piecing and am getting better and better at it.  The key is careful, careful seams allowances and pressing the heck out of the pieces as they're added.

Loosey Goosey variation

Flowers All Around