Saturday, July 30, 2016

When Life Gives You 100 Degree Days...

MAKE SNOWMEN!!!!!
LET   IT   S-N-OW!
only 2 letters left!
Thank you Miss Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin for this wonderful free BOM!
He's done and July isn't even over yet!  I'm so proud of me!
This months background fabric is from a kit that Stacy sent me after winning one of her drawings on Facebook!  I'd already made the block that the kit was originally assembled for, so I've been using it here and there in the construction of subsequent blocks.
 
~Nancie Anne
 

Monday, July 18, 2016

July Doin's!

My husband & I took a little road trip to an event in Twin Falls last week, while everyone else was going the opposite direction to Sisters for the quilt show!
The added bonus was visiting two quilt shops that I hadn't been to before!
I am probably the only living quilter in Idaho, who had never visited The Gathering Place in Rupert, but now I've done it, and guess what, I didn't have to take out a loan!  But spend money, I did, in fact they decided it would be good to double bag my purchases!  Who can resist a back room full of wonderful prints that were on sale for $4.99 a yard!  Backings my friends!!!!  The only reason my bank account didn't need a complete transfusion was because I knew I'd be back that way this coming weekend, plus we still had one more stop to make.  A wedding in Twin Falls this weekend means we're heading south again and has provided me time to mull over some of the other lovelies that didn't make it home with me in the first round! 
After The Gathering Place we went up the hill to Hailey which is a little town just west of Ketchum and Sun Valley.  There we visited the Sun Valley Fabric Granary, which is housed in an old granary building with  brick walls, wonderfully creaky wood floors and beautiful glowing tin inset ceilings.  I was able to lower my bank balance on this visit too!  The vestibule entrance has a wonderful quilty star tile work border which I didn't notice until we were leaving, and nope, I didn't take pictures!  The only picture I took, was not of the banana yellow crop dusting plane buzzing back and forth over the freeway, but this Elk warning sign on the highway just west of Hailey.  I think it's quite effective in getting the message across, "Don't mess with Lincoln County Elk!  They're a cranky bunch!!!"
I love some of the road signs we see in our travels..., the blobby, almost puzzling antelope signs here and there, the bulls with the swishing tails in Southern Oregon, the wild horse signs in the open range of Nevada and the Mama & Bear Cub signs on the NE drive between Lake Tahoe and Carson City!
 
Now, I haven't shown this anywhere before, 'cuz it's a secret!  I'm counting on you not to tell!
 Our little Granddaughter is turning 2 in September!  ALREADY! 
Her Mama is planning a Mermaid party!
This is the completed test block that, will hopefully become a family of 12 little Mermaids in the very near future!
The original Aloha Mermaid pattern from Red Brolly has 9 Mermaids, but I'm increasing the length so that it will fit her big girl bed!  Fat Quarter Shop listed it as their Sale Pattern of the Month in June, for which I am so grateful, because getting even 1 little pattern shipped from Australia isn't cheap! 
I've decided that Mermaids, being mystical creatures who live amongst other with brightly colored sea creatures, can have any color of hair they want, and when I saw this aqua print, I saw wonderful floaty aqua hair!  Of course not everyone can have aqua hair...or polka dot skin! 
I'm thinking about Mermaid Names too!  Shelly, Finley...
 
 
Here's my progress on Buttermilk Basin's Free 2016 BOM!
I finished the last little bits of stitching and embellishment on the S block on Friday, while back Buttermilk Basin Central, Stacy, who was still recovering from the excitement of attending the Sisters Quilt Show, was frantically cutting and stitching up the N block! 
Poor girl!  The 3rd Friday of the month snuck up on her too!  Such a sweet girl!  She could've said, "Sorry, maybe tomorrow" or even, "how about next Friday?" but no...she doesn't want to disappoint!
I haven't named any of the previous snowmen, but I think I'm going to call this little guy "Shiver".
I used this luscious thick furry looking bit of grey wool for the fur on his hat, which reminds me of our Shiver, whose long cashmere-like fiber is still bagged up, waiting for me to dig the spinning wheel back out of storage & get practiced up enough to do something with it.  Shiver was not a large llama, but he had fiber...in fact he had extra special secret fiber.  Anyone casually looking saw a little guy with long brown fiber, pretty enough, but those who inspected closer found this lovely blue grey, hiding like gold to be mined, under the brown.  Such a funny boy he was.  I never think of him without the mental image of him kushed in his favorite deep puddle of irrigation water with that long fiber elegantly floating on the surface.  It was a picture that always made my day! 
 
 
Happy Monday Everyone!
 
~Nancie Anne


Monday, July 4, 2016

Happy Birthday America!!!

I'm not always successful, but I'd really love to finish a Patriotic Project every year. 
Memorial Day weekend found me making pillow tops that have sat on the back burner since, with all those baby quilts and birthday presents to complete.
So, they're in the same state they were in when I wrote about them, 2 well spaced posts ago,
but we are enjoying them while they're still in their awkward flimsy stage!
 
Here are some finishes from years past...
some more Patriotic than others. 
Others more flexible in their interpretation!
 
Liberty Road in Charlevoix prints by Minick & Simpson
 
Homecoming from the book Primitive Gatherings by Terry Burkhart and Rozan Meacham.
 
Star Spangled Stripes from Stitch n' Snip Quilt Shop in Garden Valley, Idaho is currently on sabbatical. (At the quilters!)
 
Housewarming from The Quilt House in Gardnerville, NV was their featured quilt in Best of Quilt Sampler in 2007. 
As far as I know, the shop still carries the pattern and the original quilt is still hanging proudly above their cutting counters.
 
Here is the view of the fireworks outside as I look past my left shoulder and out the window of my sewing room!
Every day since late last week I've enjoyed the evolution of this annual display and we agree, our Golden Rain Tree has outdone herself this year!
OOOH!  AHHH!
 
 
And now for a little levity...'cuz we all really need a good laugh these days!
 
Long wave our "Ethel Merman's"!!!
May we embrace them, and while we do, may we all be singing
"God Bless America" in our loudest voices!
 
~Nancie Anne
 
 

Friday, July 1, 2016

Bees, Babies & Miss Muffet!

I've been nose to the grindstone on projects in my little part of the world.  All the work on our daughters house appears to have paid off.  She accepted a full price offer last weekend.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all comes to an end with an uneventful signing.  Meanwhile, I've working on top secret birthday & baby projects. 

Our days are in the 100 degree range here right now, so binding the quilt that just came back is not on my list until cooler weather arrives, but it is cute!  It's one of the quilts I pattern tested for Sue Abrey at QUILT TIMES awhile back.  The pattern is called Red Sprinkles.  We dubbed my version Honey Bee Sprinkles.
 
Since we have a bee theme going on I requested this panto with bees on it!  I had no idea the motif would be as large as it is, but we're loving it!  My husband likes that there are stingers on the little bee butts! 
 
 
 
It is backed with flannel 'cuz I wanted as much snuggle power as I could get into it without going all Minkee on it.

 Please don't worry about Shooter & Maecee taking an immediate loving to it!  This is going to be a snuggle on the couch quilt, so they're going to be spending a lot more time, doing what Doxies do.  Burrowing under it, cuddling up and napping for extended amounts of time!  Our little dapple guy, Shooter had surgery a couple of days later to remove the Lipoma from his side behind his front leg and had some tooth extractions.  He is aging and along with that come things like lipomas and teeth that get loose.  In addition, he had broken a tooth and had an abscess due to that.

I mentioned somewhere in the last post or two that I had done some recent pattern testing.  It was Charming Pachyderms, a new Quilt Doodles pattern by that Cindy wanted to have ready by Quilt Market.  To see the original pattern, including her cute pudgy little elephant and enter to win the pattern or the fabric to make it with click HERE!  Here's my version.
I haven't decided on the back yet and, since I don't know whether we're having a Grandson or Granddaughter, I'm not in a hurry to finish this one.
I love her little elephant, but since I used fabric I have on hand, that has a bunny theme, I'm thinking the peek a boo applique will wind up being a bunny, rather than the elephant.  It's a quick, easy baby quilt that doesn't come off looking like a quickie!  It can be done in a multitude of fabric themes and I'm contemplating primary colors on a second version.

The top secret baby projects have been sent away to be quilted, as the baby shower date has been moved up into August.  Once those were in the mail, I rushed through getting Miss Butterfly Quilt's 2016 birthday present done.  I did some experimenting on this 3rd version of Tuffet making, and there are some things I would have liked to have redone a little, but time was of the essence and her birthday fell within one of my work weeks so time was at even more a premium!
 She's into Parisian prints and greyscale these days.
I couldn't resist the gorgeous knotted head on the tassel...it was a must add!
 
 and I wanted to change from the bun feet I had used on the baby tuffets to something more "shapely".
I spray painted them with black hammered finish paint.
Sorry the picture she texted me is dark, but here's the tuffet, fitting into her little vignette quite nicely!

Now her roommate wants one!

Today is the beginning of my 10 day stretch off and I have to catch up on Buttermilk Basin's "Let It Snow" free BOM.  I did get the 2nd T done, but the S for Snow & Sled have been out a week and I have it traced onto fusible but haven't picked the wool yet. 
 
I also need to get started on a project for our little Stinkerbelle, who turns 2 in September! 

Grammas work is never done!

Happy Fourth!

~Nancie Anne