Sunday Snapshot #8

It seems you can't read through a quilt blog these days without running into the stunning Swoon pattern by thimble blossoms.  I finally got it for Christmas and found just the right fabrics from my stash to use for this!  It's a mix of fabrics I got as a gift & some I bought as a birthday gift for myself.  They play so well together and I added in a blue & green solid (Konas, but not sure which colors now) to help round it out.  I so wanted to use something other than white for the background, but everything else I auditioned just drowned out the other colors.  

So I went with Kona Snow - it's not exactly white, right? Right. ;)

ready, cut, sew!

Anyways, as you can see, I have all the pieces cut out - no easy feat for all 9 blocks - but here they all are cut, labelled, bagged and ready to go to quilt retreat!  Can't wait to start putting these blocks together!  I've joined the Swoon Along on Flickr and there are some wonderful blocks already up - go check it out if you haven't yet!

the future: part II

the continuing New Year's adventures of Bumblebee Tortuga!

We last saw our adventurers as they headed west out of Nashville - en route to Paducah and the 2nd state for the weekend.  It was fun to play tour guide on Saturday as we explored and it was a gorgeous day for New Year's eve - sunny & warm (upper 50s).  We stopped in at Hancock's so I could show off their fabrics [happy sigh] and continued onto the Quilt Museum. Yay!  Snaps was dutifully impressed with the quilts and it's nice to show-off my awesome place of work.  :)  She left a note on my office whiteboard - which I then found a couple days later. Thanks pal!

We continued the tour of downtown with a stop by the flood wall and hung around the river for some photos.  The water was fairly high - almost up to the bottom of the stage which was cool.  Most of the time there's a couple people sitting out (or in their cars) feeding bread to the seagulls.  That combined with the higher water made for a huge flock of 'em just hanging out.  We enjoyed laughing at the birds sitting in the river - the current was pretty strong so they ended up floating downstream and then flew back up to the start. rinse & repeat.  ha.   There was lunch at Kirchoff's deli and some free cookies as well as exploration of the wall murals.

super-sized Superman!

Then we hit the road for Illinois and the 3rd state of our trek.  There's not much going on in Metropolis aside from the casino, but who can resist a giant statue of Superman? Complete with souvenir shop?  No one - that's who!  Snaps & I had fun posing with the statue and afterwards crossed back over the Ohio.  We did our normal New Year's: snacks, movies, games, poppers and watching the ball drop in Times Square. 


Of course, since we're in Central time, it wasn't really 2012 for us yet.  Which, as Snaps pointed out was a bit anti-climatic.  true that.  We caught a couple minutes of coverage from Nashville as they celebrated midnight by dropping a huge music note above the stage.  

 It was a fantastic visit and  awesome to be out adventuring with a good friend.   I'm glad I had Monday off to get my head back into work mode.  (almost).  I watched the Winter Classic hockey game and thoroughly enjoyed my last day of vacation.

Blogger's Choice Bundle

I love shopping for quilt fabric.  I mean, what quilter doesn't?  There's something exciting about walking into a quilt shop, scanning the shelves for great prints and working with them to create just the right medley of prints and colors.  Usually, I need a space to lay out the bolts and un wrap them a bit to see how the prints play together, debating this one or that one based on color or scale or what I think might evoke the right feel for the quilt.  Obviously, this can turn out to be a long process because of all the wonderful choices at any given shop!  Sometimes I just like to combine fabrics without any specific quilt in mind.  


So imagine the thrill when I found out that Quokka Quilts was hosting a Blogger's Choice Fat Bundle contest!  In conjunction with the Fat Quarter Shop, we had to choose 12 fabrics + 3 coordinating solids to create our own bundles and enter them in the contest.  I kept seeing this pop up on several blogs and finally sat down to do it this afternoon. So glad I didn't miss the deadline which is tomorrow.


Here's my bundle, with the fabrics used below:

Kona Cotton Cerise
Good Fortune Reflection Dragonfly
Froggin' Yellow Water Vines
Lemon Grove Blue Starburst
Kona Cotton Canary
Crazy Daisy Turquoise Tile
Grand Bazaar Jewel Sun Dot
Sketch Purple Screen Texture
Bella Solids Turquoise
Morning Tides Yellow Water
Impressions Grape Taj
Terrain Berry Lichen
Terrain Berry Fern
Oval Elements Blue Lagoon
Good Fortune Reflection Yoshino


It took me about an hour or so to create - so many gorgeous fabrics!  So many that started me thinking of other color palettes and sidetracked my focus.  :)   I started with the Dragonfly print and let it grow from that.  I love the berry/cerise color and it fit so well with the purple & turquoise. I added the yellows for an added pop!  I learned how to use the online mosaic maker (which was awesome!) and it's my first link up too.  I plan to look through the other bundles in the next few weeks - what great inspiration for new quilts!

handmade giftings

Here's a quick catch-up on the Christmas finishes and projects I made for this year.  

Thundercats - Ho!

First up are the awesome coasters I made for my brother.  These were a spur of the moment kind of inspiration and it didn't take too long to figure out how to make them either!  I found an image of the Thundercats! logo online, printed it out and cut out the outline.  Then I traced it onto black fabric, cut it out and then cut out a circle of red for it to fit into.  From there it was steady, but slow work to machine applique the layers together.  The coasters are finished with a simple pillow turn and top stitch.  I was so happy with how these turned out and J loved them! Success!  :)

front 

back

For mom I made a sewing machine cover that would bring some more color pop! to her sewing room.  She's been wanting to bring more orangey-yellows in since her walls are painted turquoisey-blue.  It was a sneaky project because I asked dad to measure the machine for me so I could make it fit right!  It's also reversible with a blue & white print on the back.  Mom really liked this gift (right?!) and when she's not sewing I'm sure her machine will be dust protected and cute!

are you a fan of delicious flavor?

I found a neat picture on flickr of a pineapple block and was inspired to make a mug rug for Snaps since she was visiting for New Year's.  The first one I started has ended up more of a mini quilt size (18" x 20").  oops!  I have it set aside to finish up for my wall at quilt retreat this year.  Then I refigured my sizing and managed to get it down to mug rug size.  We both watch Psych and there's always a pineapple in the episode somewhere.  So now she has a pineapple of her own.

I'm also working on more mug rugs and my Japanese X + blocks for the swap hosted by Isabella the Cat on flickr here.  I'm so excited to get my blocks shipped off as they have been so much fun to make! They look awesome with scrap fabrics and I look forward to what kind of blocks I'll get back in the swap.  I'll certainly be making these blocks again and again [and again....]. 

So that's what I've been up to on the quilting front.  I got a couple of patterns for Christmas - including Swoon!  Hooray!  I love this pattern and am currently deciding which fabrics I want to use for it. I also got a 'jelly roll' set of batiks - which are a gorgeous blend of blues, yellows, turquoises.  Perfect for feeling summery now that it has turned wintery here!

welcome to the future: part I

Happy New Year dear readers!  It certainly doesn't feel like a brand new year at the moment - but it's still taken a few days to get used to seeing 2012 written everywhere.  After coming back to my little apartment post-Christmas it was time to go adventuring with Snaps!  So excited to have a non-family visitor come to play out here in KY.

Opry House

Together, Snaps and I hit 3 states in 3 days- Tennessee, Kentucky & Illinois - and did a little time travel as we celebrated the start of 2012!  We started out in Nashville on Thursday and went to see the Grand Old Opry House at night.  They don't give tours in December (just our luck) but we still managed to get a few pictures and that was good enough.  We also went and watched 'We Bought a Zoo' while out at the Opryland area.  Based on a true story about buying & running a zoo & it stars Matt Damon- it was a fantastic movie!  I got the book for Christmas and now I can't wait to start reading.

me @ the Parthenon

  Friday we headed into downtown which was full of people!  That night the Music City Bowl (college football) was going on so there were lots of Mississippi & Wake Forest fans everywhere.  Beautiful day with some scattered sunshine, a large dose of wind and warmish temperatures in the mid 50s.  We learned all about Nashville on the trolley tour and hopped on & off at several places to explore.  First up was the Parthenon replica from the Tennessee Centennial Expo back in 1897.  We hopped off the trolley, wandered the art gallery in the lower level and stared in awe at the 42 foot tall statue of Athena, visited the gift shop and on the way out saw the trolley just puling away from the curb.  Oops.  So we spent some more time taking photos while waiting for the trolley to come back again so we could continue our tour.

RCA studio B

We drove through Music Row and around Bicentennial Park where we stopped for photos with the capitol in the background.  Then it was onto the Country Music Hall of Fame.  As a museum professional, it's always fun to go to other museums and, in addition to the artifacts & exhibit, take in how they mounted labels, or objects, lighting, signage, etc.  I am not a country music fan per se (even living here in KY), but was still interested in some of the history of the genre and the way it developed.  There were some great [note: interesting...] outfits worn by stars through the years along with some fancy objects - Elvis' gold piano, a car with guns for door handles and more.  It was the first time I've been to any Hall of Fame.


Studio B [ignore the road signs] is where Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton & many more recorded.  It closed after Elvis died and has since been reopened as a museum in conjunction with the Hall of Fame.  Of course, the best part was running around town with Snaps!

jingle bells, jingle bells

Sadly, there's no snow here this year for Christmas.  It's certainly cold & windy, which is the usual for Chicago, but it's strange to not have snow on the ground.  Maybe we'll get some flurries yet! 


It's nice to be home for the holidays and relax around the house with family & fun.  No schedules, no alarm clocks, lots of laughter and lots of hugs - nothing beats being home for Christmas!  Yesterday, the ducks were out on the pond, swimming away; but today there's a layer of ice across the pond. 


Last night mom & I made Holiday Cake and skewered and browned the City Chicken.  Now all that's left is getting the City Chicken into the oven for dinner - yum yum!  This year was a small batch - only 70 sticks. The average is closer to 90.  I like the traditions that come with this time of year - the food, the decorations, the songs, hanging the stockings, etc.  Makes the season a bit more cheerful with the years of memories and repetitions of the traditions of the season.  I'm looking forward to Christmas Mass, now that  we have the new translations.  The new responses still trip me up here and there, but the prayers are beautiful and I'm sure will be especially so for Christmas.

Wishing you & yours a Merry Christmas full of cheer & JOY!

sneak peeks

Interested in some sneak peeks at my current projects?  Of course you are!  That's why you're here right?  Right!  ;)   Well, then you're in luck.


 It's been hard to find time for sewing lately.  Seems it's busy at work and home and even busy while I'm sleeping.  Not sure how that happens, but it does!   This week I've had all the School Blocks come in for our annual School BLock Challenge contest.  It's always thrilling to see what the kids have created and imagined and I'm extra thrilled because this year I have 176 blocks!!  How awesome is that?!  So I spent several days numbering blocks, databasing them and measuring to get ready for judging.  phew.


Then I had to work Saturday with a couple events - cookie decorating with quilt designs - yummy.  Mostly, the kids just decorate as they desire - quilt designs tend to be optional for them!  Afterwards, took my first trip to Bowling Green with N for a fun Christmas Party.  Great time out (even if it was people I hadn't met) & we road tripped to satellite radio's 90s station - talk about a blast from the past!


In be-tween that, and getting my Christmas cards written & mailed last week (possibly the earliest ever) I managed to squeeze in some quilting.  I've got a couple more mug rugs together, a project on deck, a secret project and some swapping interests as well!

secret project

Here's a glimpse of my secret project - can't give it all away yet!  I took some inspiration from a tutorial on Ellison Lane Quilts blog and am just about finished with this one.  It looks awesome and should be done this week.




My upcoming  project will be pretty quick to go together once I have the time to start it without interruptions.  I've seen this tutorial at In Color Order, and wanted to make this star quilt as a mini quilt for my sewing room wall.  At the Houston show I got the idea to use polka dot fabrics in varying colors and started to collect some good colors.  I've got the fabric all lined up and a fun dot fabric in white for the backing and will probably start this in January at quilt retreat.  
don't you just love these dots?!

Lastly, I keep reading and seeing posts about online swaps and want to participate in at least 2 next year.  I discovered this swap, via Flickr, and am excited to be involved!  It starts in January and is an easy block swap: making blocks, sending them in and then getting back the same number of blocks made by other people.  I just have to spend some time making the blocks now so I have a good number to send off come January.  The block is super awesome - we're using this tutorial  by Amy at badskirt blog.  Be sure to check it out!