Saturday, May 19, 2012

A very productive evening!

It's been a while since I participated in the Friday Night Sew-In, so I thought I'd better make a valiant effort for last night's event.
I had the center of this quilt done, using a Ruby jelly roll. I found a free online tutorial for a "strip tube" quilt, and thought it would be perfect for these bright cheerful fabric strips. The center has been done for about 5 weeks; I've been waiting for the pink border fabric to arrive so that I could finish the top. Thankfully, the mail carrier dropped a fat package into my mailbox yesterday - and there was my fabric! (It only took 4 weeks to get here from Tennessee...). I quickly got it washed, dried and pressed; cut the strips, sewed them on, and... (big sigh of relief), it's ready to sandwich with the batting and backing. The binding strips are cut, ready to sew together and then to complete the quilt after I get the quilting done. Next up was my Super Zigzag quilt - another freebie on the internet. I had cut and sewn a few of the print/white fabric sections, before realizing that I'd also need to cut fabric triangles to finish off the rows. I had about 40 cm. of the fabric left, and a quick tour of my 5 "local" quilt shops were all in vain. Then a quilting friend mentioned that another friend was closing her online quilt shop, and her prices were really good - and there, amid all the other white tone-on-tone fabrics, was my white fabric!!! I ordered it right away, and 6 days later, my fabric was here from Wyoming (the state, not the s.w. Ontario town). It also got the wash, dry, pressing treatment; last night I finished making all of the blocks, and even got a few of the block strips partially sewn. I laid it out on the living room floor, to get a rough idea of how it will look when the center section is completely assembled. Now I'll get the triangles cut and maybe finish the top tonight yet.
Now I've got to go - have one more quilt top to finish tonight, if possible - and then I have to check for a card for someone having surgery this week - just want her to know that we'll be praying for her...

Sunday, May 13, 2012

A card or two...

I decided that I was going to treat myself this past Friday night! Two dear friends (and Stampin' Up consultants) hosted a card-making workshop and I joined them for a few hours. We ended up making 6 cards altogether - some very pretty and time-consuming, others quick and easy. Here are 2 of the cards (I've already given one away, and the others are in my stash box).
The top card is a center-fold card, embossed on the right-hand panel. The left panel has a crimped panel - you then stamp a sentiment on the large scalloped circle; stamp 6 flowers using the Triple Treat Flower stamp (which I later won!), and then, after cutting the centers of the flowers out of 3 of the flowers, you stack and assemble the flowers, which then are attached to the card roughly around the sentiment. The second card looks complicated to make, but was actually quite easy, if you read the instructions! You need two CS panels, 2 pieces of designer paper, a length of baker's twine, a few circles, a template and mini brads. Attach the DP to the appropriate cardstock, wrap the twine around one panel, fasten those panels to the card. Then, stamp the image; using the template, punch holes around the dark circle, insert the brads, affix the sailboat circle, and attach it to the card. Add a sentiment, and you're good to go! It was wonderful to get out for a fun evening - and I now have a few pretty cards to show for it!