Now you Ski Me!

I am working on a birthday present for my mom and here is a sneak peak of the soon-to-be-finished quilt. Ssh, no ruining the surprise! She loves to ski and the skier looks surprisingly like my mom (I included a picture of her, so you can see!) What do you think?

Until later, keep sewing and crafting.

Tena

Valentine's Mug Rug is Finished!

I finally finished the tiny little Valentine's Mug Rug for the Ipernity group. Here it is:

POP ART quilt Mania!!!

Lately I have been in love with Pop Art (more Roy Lichtenstein and less Andy Warhol mind you).  I just can't seem to get enough of it. So much so that I am doing a Pop Art inspired Valentines Day Mug Rug over at Ipernity with the Mug Rug group. (Check them out on my favorite links page).

I realized as I am almost done- whoa, Tena you are really going a bit nuts with this theme. Here is a sneaky peek at the mug rug, and I will post a picture when it is finished in the next few days.

And to prove my point that I am a woman gone mad for quilting pop art, check out these other pop-art inspired quilts that I am currently working on:

 

 

Hopefully I get my fill and find another theme to wear out!

Until later, keep sewing and creating.

Tena

My first swap was sent ... and received!

I had a bit of a challenge in my first swap, since my partner was really wanting something more traditional for her quilt- a specific block to be specific. However, I don't really do blocks (I have but they don't excite me to work on) so I made her something that was a little me and hopefully a little her. Here is the result now that it has been received on her end. She seems to like it, so hopefully she is not just being nice!

Come Join the Valentine Mug Rug Swap!

You're Invited! 

Make up the valentine of your dreams for a secret partner, you will not know who your partner will be until the week of mailing! Launch your New Year with creative freedom! Sign up's at www.ipernity.com/group/mugrug
look for the sign up thread in the discussions.

What happens when it just doesn't turn out like you hoped?

I am in a predicament- I have a swap coming up and the piece just isn't what I had in my mind when I laid it out on my computer. To my credit, I did try a couple of new techniques, one worked, and the other, well, not so much. I am on a deadline and I don't quite know what to do. The piece itself isn't bad necessarily, just not what I had envisioned. Do I send it, knowing that everything I create I won't love, or do I ask for an extension and create something else? I have gotten some feedback from friends and family who think it looks great, but my inner perfectionist, OCD, and self-conscious teenager is out waving her arms, doing cartwheels and generally being obnoxious, fingers on either side of her mouth saying "Neener, neener, neener."

So there it is. I feel better having said it aloud, and I am hoping for the best!

Until later, keep sewing and creating.

Tena

It's not always about quilting!

So the awesome power of social media has allowed me to reconnected with many people from my past and one of those happens to live right here in Tulsa! Anyway, she and I went to high school together and have not seen each other in almost 20 years, and tomorrow we are meeting for lunch. She is expecting her first child and I wanted to make something special for Baby Girl Sylas. So today I got busy and made some custom burp cloths for mom (mainly for mom) and baby.  Here they are! I hope she likes them!

Until later, keep sewing (and creating)!

Tena

To label or not to label?

So I realized that I needed a label for these quilt swaps (some even require it), so I scoured, literally scoured Ebay, Amazon and Etsy for a great option. I found a few on Etsy but they were a little pricey. So I have made my own and printed them out on this great printable inkjet fabric I found on Amazon. I absolutely love printable fabric sheets, especially for art quilting. Most of the time I freehand designs, but there are times when I just can't get things to look good, especially if I am doing faces of people. Other times I am a regular Rembrandt and the face can be drawn like I am a rock star. Go Figure. Anyhow, here are the cute (I think anyway) labels that I have printed up and I will add to the back of all the quilts I make going forward.

A Package in the Mail!

A real fabric addict and quilter gets very ( VERY) excited when a new piece of fabric arrives, and today was such a day for me. I ordered Michael Miller's Ahoy panel:

I also ordered this extremely adorable panel called City Construction:

I cannot wait to get started on projects using both panels. A family member recently saw my "Save the Day" quilt and asked if I would make similar quilts for her two young boys. She was quick to point out that each boy would need something almost identical (a slight difference so they would know without a doubt which one belong to which child).  Her first request was for the Save the Day quilt, but I realized that I would likely not be able to replicate the fabrics easily, so I decided that it would be better to start from scratch so that neither boy had a "better" quilt or a "more super" superhero. Of course I have a lot of projects going on so it will be a while before I get to these, but they are such fun!

As far as the ahoy fabric, your guess is as good as mine how I will use that one. I saw it online and I love it. It is a stretch for me since I do not typically start with a panel, but rather just layer the fabrics in an appliqué fashion. So maybe I will just let the design stand and play with some more intricate free motion stitches. That is where I could really use some work and practice so that might be the perfect piece to use.

Until next time, keep sewing.

Tena

New to blogging & new to quilt swaps!

So recently I have been participating in quilt swaps- mainly the "Another little quilt swap" and "Doll Quilter's Monthly". Most of the quilters have great blogs and I finally thought "Oh why not, it could be fun to document my quilting adventures and perhaps I can host my very own swap at some point. So here goes nothing.

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