Halloween Trip

I spent a busy week in Florida helping to decorate for the Halloween party...and of course playing with Logan. The Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts and White Rabbit looked sensational!!! Everyone at the party looked great...so nice to see such clever and fun costumes.





The decorating theme was spiders....this from a girl who called from college to scream that there was a spider in her room...1400 miles away...like I could do something about it !!! :)

The outside was spooky and bright.

WAIT!!!....There's Waldo!!!! HAHA!!!!

We thought Logan would like to be Batman for Halloween day...but he demanded his rabbit costume. I made this about 15 years ago for another little boy. He's in college now.

Another fun year....back to some sewing!

What A Surprise !!!!

I got a wonderful surprise yesterday when I was gifted a beautiful watercolor of our cottage by Nancy...a thank you for her visit this summer....painted by her good friend, and mine, Ruth. I have admired Ruth's work for a long time, so I'm delighted to now own this beautiful painting.

I DO love handmade gifts!!!!

Thank you so much Nancy and Ruth.

Some Snippets of Summer!

Here are my two favorite size 5 models...they got new jackets for school....these were great fun to make!



I had a wonderful Summer at our cottage on Lake Erie....spent about 7 weeks there from June-Sept....now it's closed-up for another year. I will miss those sunsets.



This year Nancy came to visit for the last week and after closing up the cottage we headed for Niagara Falls...the photo above is from our room at the Seneca Niagara Casino....and the building on the left is the Hotel Niagara....girl's dormitory at Niagara University 42 years ago....nostalgia :) My room was right in the middle!!

At 6:30 am on Wednesday we went down to see the Falls....Nancy's first time...it's always impressive. Then we began our 9-hour trip home.

Little Jacket

I had pieced a quilt...had it quilted...and never put a binding on it because I just didn't like it as a quilt....all I could see was a little girls jacket...so I cut it up and made this jacket. And I have enough to make a couple more things.




After I put on this binding I remembered purchasing some great buttons from my friend Priscilla....matched perfectly! She has amazing buttons from all over the world. http://www.priscillakibbee.blogspot.com/

Now I love it!

What a Summer!!!

One of our trips this summer took us to Rochester to see Great Grandma Murphy and the family...Logan thought he'd try out his skills at the piano....virtuoso????

After this whirlwind summer (so far) I had to come home and sew something....so I put together this Kaffe Fassett strip quilt....that satisfies me for now :)

We had such a wonderful time with our grandson when they visited our home on Long Island....Grampa loved taking him for walks around the Village.

Luckily we had better weather this year for the week at the cottage. He played on the beach everyday, helped me find beach glass, played with his friends and cousins at the playground....all of which made for some long power naps! We miss him so much.

Finished Quilts

Something made me just sit down at my machine yesterday and put the binding on my last two quilts....and now they are done! So I'm free to start pieceing some more quilts...but this time I'm going larger....bed size.



I really want to have quilts on the cottage beds next year....I thought I'd have them done this year....didn't happen.....so I'll start now!

I'm running out of the bias binding that Nancy and I had made from our dyed fabric....we need to find another place that will do it for us...it adds a very special touch to the quilts.

Another Vintage Fabric Bag

This is another of the bags I had cut out and ready to sew...so while watching SYTYCD last night I sewed. The blue is bark cloth and the pink is a lighter-weight twill-type fabric.

I put a pocket in this one. I have one more bag cut....but I want to bind my two quilts first....we'll see what wins.

Batik Play Day

Well....here is the result of my fabric from Batik play day. I LOVE the colors and the batik designs. And the process was fairly easy.



We melted soy wax in an electric skillet and preceeded to apply it to previously-dyed fabric using different techniques. Then I placed them all in a red dye bath and laid them out in the sun. WRONG!!!!!!



The wax remelted and left a slightly grease shadow aroung all the designs. I had to boil the fabric twice and was still left with not-so-perfect fabric. But it's usable (most of it) and lesson learned.

Jane Sassaman....quilted.

I'm back on Long Island and had a nice package to open on my arrival. My Jane Sassaman fabric quilt was back from the quilter, and Eileen at Designing Quilts did a great job once again.

http://www.designingquilts.com/



This fabric was bought already cut into tumbler blocks from The Quilt Shop in Danbury, CT. I love having pre-cut projects that I can pick up without much thought and just start piecing together....with great results!
http://www.thequiltshoponline.com/index.html

The backing is a P&B dot.

Change of pace...

As I'm preparing to go Upstate to open the cottage, I haven't found a lot of time to sew. I had this bag cut out so I quickly sewed it together. It's made from vintage barkcloth...just a good carryall.


And here are my newest Lilly Pulitzer fabrics....I found them on ebay. LOVE the colors and patterns.

Marcia

INSPIRATION...Malka Dubrawski

The first time I saw Malka Dubrawski's blog....magical...inspirational !!!! http://stitchindye.blogspot.com/



I had to have some of her batiked, hand-dyed fabric....and she sells it on etsy, so I picked up a few 1/2 yard pieces and some packs of multiple prints in squares....one of my favorite things :) She is published in numerous magazines and I love everything she does.

Making this bag was so much fun that I checked out her site today and bought some more packs...I know a couple people that may be gifted one of these. I love to support fabric artists, and even though I dye my own fabric, her's is different and fabulous and very reasonably priced.

Eye candy !!!!!

INSPIRATION....Lilly Pulitzer

When I first saw Lilly Pulitzer fabric it was in clothes that were for sale in Country Club Golf shops....my husband being in that business. I couldn't afford the clothes so when I went into a Lilly store in Southampton one day and saw rolls of the fabric on the walls I was so excited and had to buy some. The price of the fabric made it a small purchase. Then one day they offered a package of assorted squares...BINGO! Now I had many patterns of her beautiful fabric and I made patchwork pants for my then 4 and 2 year old daughters.

Someone else has taken over the fabric but the spirit of the original prints and colors is still there.

So this bag is inspired by Lilly Pulitzer...I have loved this fabric almost as long as I have been married...40 years!

I need to make some accessories for this....each a different print.....hmmm.

INSPIRATION.....Jane Sassaman

Jane Sassaman designs some of the most colorful, exciting fabric...so she was my inspiration for this bag made entirely from her fabrics.







I've never had the pleasure of taking a class with her....but that may be in my future :)

Again I used the same pattern as the previous three bags I have shown here on the blog.

Lilly!!!

I have always loved Lilly Pulitzer fabric....my kids had patchwork pants made with squares of the fabric I bought in 1979...I wonder where they are today (the pants!:)

So over the years I have accumulated yardage of many different prints and had the urge to make some little girl sundresses yesterday.

INSPIRATION....Kaffe Fassett

I'm dreading the next two days of work, so I'm soothing myself by sewing up some great bags. Tomorrow taxes (property) are due so we will be swamped. And since they will be late on Wednesday, and I have to tell them they now owe 10+% penalty and interest AND have to go to the County to pay it (they have had their bills for 5+ months!), I never know quite what their response will be...tears....anger...outright hostility....acceptance....excuses...etc.....it makes for quite a stressful day. So I sew :)



The quilting is my least favorite thing to do so it is somewhat generic...but it works for the bag.

I love these two Kaffe Fassett fabrics (dot is Michael Miller)...the colors are even richer than on my screen. And the pattern is now a favorite. It is the same pattern of the previous two I showed.

INSPIRATION....Heather Bailey

I had been sewing together some random pieces of Heather Bailey's new "Nicey Jane" fabric that I had bought at the Quilt Shop in Danbury last month. So when I had the urge to make a new bag last night I had some of the work already done....love when that happens!



I did alot of machine quilting on the outside and the lining...all of which has pellon fusible fleece ironed to the fabric to give nice loft. And it has lots of roomy pockets inside.





This bag is for the auction held at our beach on Labor Day weekend....we need more playground equipment!

Carol Taylor Class

A few weeks ago I took a fabulous 5-day class from Carol Taylor up in the Hudson Valley (great place to take a class)...and the piece above is my finished wall-hanging.



We learned myriad techniques and made many samples to be incorporated into a piece. Some students did as many as 4 pieces.

We started with a focus fabric and built from there. Carol is a great teacher....intense and fun.

My focus fabric is the piece bottom left....it is one of the drop-cloth fabrics from my Jane Dunnewold class.