A Quarter Century, Minus 1.

Before I get on with "Thursday: It's Technical," I want to say THANK YOU to everyone for all the birthday wishes!  I love you all! <3 It's going to be a good day.

Also, I'll have pictures up soon, but Frances brought me my Ghastlies quilt back yesterday, and it looks fabulous! She always does such a great job. Varigated thread always looks great.

Whelp, back to the ol' grindstone :-)

Hi everyone! Well, I'm back safe and sound, several shades tanner and much more relaxed. The trip was a blast! San Francisco for 3 days, Anaheim for 6 days...it was fabulous. Since I've been asked, yes, we did see famous people! We saw Joan Collins, Adam Sandler, Camille Grammer, Pauly Shore and Lisa Ling. Didn't meet any of them of course, but hey, I'll take it! While we were in Hollywood, there was the premiere for the Phineas and Ferb Movie, which is where we saw Camille Grammer and Lisa Ling, both with their armies of children.

Confession time...I actually got back on the 7th. So I have been a seriously bad blogger! In my defense, I wasn't able to sew until day before yesterday. Yep, I'm still chugging away on that Halloween quilt, so that's all there is to say, really. Halloween...wahoo!

In other news, one of the best things about working in a quilt shop is being able to take classes basically whener you want...I got myself signed up for Crazy Among Friends with Frances Jagodzinski.

You can't tell me that it's not adorable. Well, you could I suppose, but I think you'd probably be lying to yourself on that one.

I am electing to do my quilt in bright colors, I think. I thought about Christmas colors (because I have a whopping ZERO Christmas quilts...) but I don't know how I'd work the American flags in there if everything is red white and green. I'm thinking brights will be the way to go. Nothing against this primitives colorway, but it's just not my thing...love the pattern though! So if you want to make this cool quilt, take the class with me (Hey Isabelle, it starts in mid-September... :D)

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say once I get this Halloween quilt done!

Not that I'm the most diligent blogger on the face of the interwebs...

(I'm not. You and I both know it)

Well...I can't say I've been up to much other than that Halloween quilt. I have no pictures right now, but I got all but 2 of my blocks fused down; now all I need to do is blanket stitch 'em! They're turning out super cute, and I'm very pleased with them. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted in the next couple days.

Speaking of the next couple days...

This will probably be my last post until about August 9th or so - it's VACAY, BABY! I'll be in California for 2 weeks. It's finally hit me after a year and a half of having 2 time intensive jobs, and I've been burning out pretty hard, mentally and physically. So I need a break, and a road trip with my friend Megan down to CA fits the bill. I'll come back happy, relaxed and tan (and probably with a set or two of Mickey Mouse ears). I just wish Mom was able to have an extended break too, because she needs it even more than I do. [Hey "Dante," stay OUT of the store on your days off! You're not even supposed to be here today :)]

So if I post at all, it won't be quilt related...it'll probably be Disneyland and palm tree related. 

Until then, have a happy and safe two weeks, and keep yourself in stitches!

Check out this blog!

So by now if you've been looking at my blog with any regularity, you know that Isabelle - one of my besties - has started quilting and is one of the folks that pushes me to get my projects done :D

Well, she has an art/quilting blog of her own! Her blog, Creativity Found Through Hearts, is her creative outlet outside from quilting. It was inspired by A Skull A Day, in which its creator, Noah Scalin, forces himself to do an art piece featuring a skull every day. It's actually a brilliant idea; to make yourself think creatively every day keeps your brain sharp and is a great way to express yourself without feeling like every piece you do has to be a grandiouse masterpiece. Well, Isabelle has borrowed the idea and is running with it, doing a heart every day in different mediums. So far she's done marker, glitter, acrylic and oil paints and buttons.

I'm really interested to see what she comes up with next, and reading her thought processes with each piece is really cool. One of the beautiful things about art is that everyone is inspired in different ways by different things, and everyone translates those thought processes differently. That right there is the single best thing about the arts all the way down to quilting. It never ceases to amaze me how 2 people can look at the same pattern, and have such different results - that's because they both started from the same place but had different visions. How cool is that? It just never gets old.

So please go visit Isa's blog and follow her on her newfound creative path!

I thought I'd share this because I think it's the coolest thing ever

This is a portion of my Stats page for this blog. It basically tells me how many pageviews per day I get and what country they're from, how many views per hour blah blah blah. Anyway, this is my rundown by country:

That is the coolest! People from far away are looking at my piddly little blog. Obviously most of my views are from the US, because, well, I'm in the US. But in 6 months, I think that's pretty awesome.

So hello to my readers from all over the world! Thank you for stopping by and I hope you liked what you saw and that you'll be back for more :-)

Happy 2 Years to The Cotton Patch

It's amazing how time flies. It feels like just yesterday we took over the shop and then I blinked my eyes and here we are, 2 years later and going stronger than ever before. I know for Mom it's gone even faster.

I remember growing up Mom read me a page out of her teenage diary. No juicy gossip of course, but what she read me still resounds in my head and heart knowing what the past was and what the present is. In her entry she was laying out her life goals and in that goal plan was "own a fabric store." Now, this was well before she started quilting, but she's had a lifelong love for sewing and fabric. Knowing that, and all the time I spent watching her sew when I was growing up, and all the effort she's put forth in her own quilting...all of it just makes me extremely, extremely proud of her.

I remember a few years ago I was driving over on Edgewater in West Salem, back when you could still talk on your cell phone and drive at the same time without getting fined, and she called me, practically shouting into the phone. Mom has an inexplicable and science defying way of just falling into jobs. She won't be looking for one, but the perfect one always manages to fall right into her lap. At first I thought something was wrong, but after a few seconds I realized that, holy cowabunga, she got a job at a quilt store - a place she's always wanted to work. What's more, is that she was friends with the owner too, and Judith just asked her out of the blue to work for her. How much more perfect could it have been?

Five years later, Mom owns the quilt shop. This really is her dream come to life. Sometimes we have these lifelong dreams that never come to pass, no matter how hard we strive to achieve them, or whether we do nothing at all, they just don't happen. It's not what is meant to be. I can't begin to say how happy I am and how proud I am of her that her dream has come to fruition and she gets to have that joy.

I also can't begin to say how blessed I feel to be able to be a part of the store and to have such amazing and positive people and things in my life. It's amazing how time flies, and how just 2 years can entirely change a person's life. I had tried to quilt before then, but it just never worked out. I got frustrated and I wasn't any good at all. But after 2 years, it has reawakened my passion for art and creation, a passion that years of criticism and negativity from people who no longer matter at schools I'm long gone from had tried and successfully extinguised. The last 2 years have changed my life entirely from not knowing what I want in my life and surrounding myself with largely neutral influences, to giving my life a strong focus, a rekindled fire and the happiness of having positive and joyous people in my life.

Last night we had a party to celebrate the 2 year anniversary of our family having The Cotton Patch. Mom thanked us all for all of our help, because without us, she couldn't have done it. Well, I want to thank YOU, Mom, for letting me have a part in your dream and for guiding me to a better place in my life. And thank you Dad, Debi, Carol, Barb, Myke, Linda, Bobbie, Karen and Renee for making it such a fun place to be.

Now, on to the pictures from last night! I know if I don't post them, certain people (MomandDebi) will have my head for keeping them all to myself!

Taco and margarita schmorgasboard!

L-R: Aunt Barb, Debi, Mom

What a view! and what GOREGOUS weather. Finally summer in Oregon!

I love being on their deck. It's so beautiful out there.

L-R: Debi, Carol, my roomate Lauren

Bahaha...caught Lauren mid-eat. Don't worry, she got me good later, just wait and see.

L-R: Aunt Barb, Mom

Man, you have to be SNEAKY to catch a picture of Dad, and dang it all he moved. Trying to get a picture of him is like trying to get a picture of the elusive Sasquatch.

Quilts and Margaritas: The Perfect Combination. And the umbrella is ADORABLE.

L-R: Mom and Carol. Anniversary gifts!

An organizer and stationary set! That will come in handy. Thank you Carol!

I think that's a card from Debi.

"Don't break the ties! If you break the ties that means you're going to have a baby." Note the look on Mom's face. Worry not, that only lasted for a second because naturally she quipped to me something sabout maybe I should break the ties so she can have some grandchildren all ready. *facepalm* Nice try, Mom.

See now if that had been break the ties for grandchildren she'd have chainsawed that off at this point. Thank God that's not true! And isn't it clever how Debi wrapped that? Fabric is the greatest. <3

Mackie is my homeboy. I love all the dogs, but I have a real soft spot for this little crosseyed Scottie!

A beautiful windchime from Debi! That's going to go perfectly in Mom's garden, I have a feeling!

Debi

L-R: Mom and Debi

Gah! I told you she got me. that would be me (L) with my face stuffed full of cupcake, mid humongous chew.

L-R: Debi and Aunt Barb

L-R: Mom and Carol.

L-R: Debi, Aunt Barb

L-R: Aunt Barb's head, me, Mom and Carol

Before Isa beats me up, here are the pictures of the finished quilts!

She wouldn't...I don't think...Hope not! lol. Seriously though, Isa helps keep me in line! I forget about projects and whatnot, and she reminds me to post what I need to post :-) This time I think I might be beating her to the punch.

Well, I didn't get pictures before they got put up on the wall, but hey, better late than never, right?

This is the Cocoa Cake Walk quilt from a few posts ago.

This is the Freshwater Quilt out of the Australian Quilter's Companion from a few more posts back.

I'm really happy with how both turned out. Anyway, this is a short one. I have more pictures from the quilt show back in April to post yet...but for now I'm just focusing on Graduation tomorrow. It's finally sunk in. I'm a freakin' college graduate. I have the hat and the tassel and the ugly robe and everything. Woo!

Wait, what? It's June all ready?! Shut your mouth!

Indeed. June all ready. Where have the last 6 freakin' months gone? Just wondering because apparently I've been asleep, zoned out or something. ::blink::

So. Those of you that know me know that to say I'm a workaholic is a disgusting understatement. I always manage to get myself stretched six ways from Sunday and then wonder why I'm so dang tired all the time. Lets put this is perspective for a moment, and then determine my sanity (oh, and a preemptive shut up to the peanut gallery :D). I have a "for real" job, and a "fun job." My "for real" job is mornings and part time, my "fun job" is close to full time (not including work done outside). I have a house, dog, family and friends that sometimes want some of my attention - thankfully I don't have to add a boyfriend or husband to this. Up until December, add full time credit hours at University to this, too, and last January (2010) I had a THIRD job in the mix. I have a side project that I'm working on and pushing through the system, that's super exciting (to me) and eating a lot of time (and patience...not my strong suit!). I'm a workin' machine! Honestly though, this isn't a complaint whatsoever. I love it. I'm one of those weirdos that doesn't know what to do with herself when she has "free time." Heck, I can't even manage to sit and watch my WWE without having to do something else at the same time...cross stitch, applique, sew, Sudoku, whatever...

I'm not trying to toot my own horn here (even though that's definitely what it's looking like, I know) but in the last month, I finished 3 projects. Pretty darn good for me I'd say! I'm a notorious project starter but not finisher. I forget/get bored/get frustrated and leave it alone for a long time/run out of fabric *gasp* and just plain don't finish. I'll start 3 projects for one I don't finish. UFOs GALORE!

That being said, in the last WEEK AND A HALF I have picked up 4 new projects and I have 1 quilting job I need to do for someone. Luckily only the latter has a deadline...

-I've got a super cute fall table runner, which will be neat...it's got little appliqued pumpkins on it.
-There's that damn chicken quilt, which, by the way, the pattern was wrongity wrong and I'm 5 flippin' inches short on my last border. Thanks for nothing, pattern! *grumble*
- There's a 900+ piece quilt from the latest Australian Quilter's Companion I'm doing...still gathering black and whites for that though...it'll be cool when its all said and done but good LORD I don't want to piece all that nonsense /whine.
-As of yesterday I picked up a row quilt out of a Guatemalan border stripe. It'll be pretty rad looking because I fussy cut the buh-jeezus out of the stripe, but I gotta get some go-withs to fill it out.

All in all, looks like I'll be staying off the mean streets of Keizer (I can't say that with a straight face...bahahaha. Keizer's pretty calm except for this guy, who after seeing him on the news I'm pretty sure is the posterchild for bat-crap-crazy

(True Keizer Story. I'm not offended by the sign, I mean, hey, beauty of the First Amendment right there...it allows you to demonstrate to the rest of the street what a looney toon you are. What I find funny as all get out is the fact that he originally had the spelling of neighbor correct, then changed it to a misspelling. Yeah I know, of course that's what I would take away from it...a grammatical error)

Well, after that dose of crazy, I'll leave you with my hound, telling me with his big ol' bug eyes that he wants me to stop trying to bind the quilt...little Lord Fauntleroy over here wanted to lay on it instead, but I kept moving it as I was stitching...I forgot, who is it that owns who? :)



"Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon."

Yes, I will always find an excuse to squeeze in a Ghostbusters quote. But let's be honest here...who wouldn't?

Anyway, I'm still trapped in my own personal binding quilts hell (::whine::) so I haven't been up to much other than that. Even the chicken quilt is on hold! Well, for the moment. So while I'm busy not being at all productive, I thought I'd do a blog about tips...safety and otherwise...that I use on the daily (when I'm quilting) or that I haven't tried yet but people at the shop keep telling me (I promise I'll try them out eventually!). If I know/remember who I heard it from, I'll attribute it to them (no last names for privacy's sake!)...if not...well, thanks for the tip whoever you are!

• I know we're all really careful not to hysterically wave our rotary cutters around and to not use them to hack at fabric as though they were a broadsword, but accidents can and do happen.  A good way to lower your odds of filleting yourself is to keep your fingers away from the edge of the ruler when you're cutting, and to ensure that happens, place your pinky on the outside edge of the ruler. This helps prevent the ruler from sliding and guarantees your fingers are away from the cutting edge. Suggested by Koleen. Nothing is ever 100% foolproof (not even those stupid gloves), so you may still get cut if something bizarre happens. Always be careful!
• Here's another tip for quilting injuries...we get stabbed by pins and needles, occasionally sliced ourselves with a rotary cutter or scissors or run our fingers over in the sewing machine (bad news) - sometimes we get blood on our work...eek! This sounds gross but I swear it works (unless you have gotten a significant amount of blood on your work, this is more for pinpricks and papercuts): Dab a little bit of your saliva on your (non injured) finger and put it on the bloodspot on your fabric. It may take a couple tries, but it will remove most if not all of the blood. This is great in a pinch if you aren't at a place where you can stop and wash your fabric or your quilt. Also, did you know there is a reason why little kids (and some of us big kids) stick our cut fingers in our mouths? It looks and sounds icky, but our saliva is a natural coagulant - if you have a minor cut or pinprick, saliva will stop the bleeding. Suggested by Helen. Just promise me you won't go spitting on other people's cuts...it only works on your own blood, and really, that's just nasty.
• If you don't have a no-slide cutting ruler or if your grips are worn down and you're not ready to buy another, in the mean time try placing Press n' Seal wrap on the back of your ruler. It is translucent, so you can see through it reasonably well and it has enough tack to it to keep your ruler from sliding on your fabric. I tried it - it leaves no residue on either your fabric or ruler. Suggested by some lady in the Tips portion of The Love of Quilting with Fons and Porter.
• Patterns can be a real pain in the butt to wrangle with by your machine sometimes, and storage can be an issue with all of those many pattern and their little plastic baggies they usually come in. To cut down on the storage issue, I numbered and wrote the pattern name on the bottom of the page on each page of the pattern. Then I shoved those pages in the clear binder sleeves and stuck them in a binder. Any applique pieces and patterns I slip between the pages in the sleeve, or keep the little baggie and slide it in with the pages. As for those little baggies the pattern came in, if they're salvageable, I use them with other projects to keep my cut pieces in so nothing gets lost. Otherwise, when you need the pattern just take the page you need out of the binder and there you have it, all nice and contained by your machine. This is my own method, and so far it's worked pretty well!
• Ripping out stitches just plain sucks. If you promise to be super careful, you can quickly and effectively rip out those stitches with your rotary cutter. Open the seam enough to get the blade in there,a nd using small strokes, let the blade snip the thread. You need very little pressure for this! Once your thread is all chopped to bits, use an emery board and run it gently from the inside of the old seam to the edge of the fabric. This will remove those little threads! Mom taught me this one :) We won't be held accountable for any injuries stemming from this tip! The key is to go slow and be very, VERY careful.
• If you're not comfortable using a rotary cutter to take out a seam, using your seam ripper you can do the same thing, run the sharp part of the ripper down the seam. Or, as Loretta suggested, cut every 4th stitch - it'll come right apart without having to snip every single stitch.
• Here's something I learned after doing it the hard way - If you're using a circle cutting ruler (you know, the ones that have all the sizes of half circles cut into it?), use a small rotary cutter to cut your fabric through the ruler with, something like a 28mm or an 18mm. A standard 45mm is too wide and can damage your ruler or knick your blade.

That's it for now...Keep an eye to the Newsletter for more great tips!

Hide yo' fabric, hide yo' patterns cuz I'm back bloggin' errything in here!

...Sorry, I relapsed and had an "If Antoine Dodson were a Quilter" moment.

Apologies. So, it's been awhile, I know. Things in my life are FINALLY starting to get back to ops norm. The carpets are torn up and the beautiful wood floor is in. It looks like a completely different house! Also, Lauren is moved in and just about settled.

...which, in related news, I've corrupted her and she's going to start sewing!! I'm starting a quilting apocalypse; it's like the zombie apocalypse we keep hearing about, only instead of turning people into zombies, I'm turning them into quilters! Bahahaahah-oh. Sorry. Got carried away. But yes, she bought her first bit of fabric and I'm going to teach her something super quick and easy to do to get her interested. I don't think quilting will be the thing for her, but I think crafty sewing will...like potholders, makeup bags etc. That kind of stuff. Yay for her!!! :D

Anyway. So since everything has been in a state of flux at home, I haven't been working on anything requiring my machine. This whole month I have sewn once. ONCE! Talk about torture!! I'm happy to have one of my best friends here, but the renovation and moving process had forced me to shove my machine into a lonely and crowded corner in the side room, and not being able to sew has, to be completely honest, sucked voraciously. I'm super behind on projects and they keep piling on...what I need is a retreat! Hm...

-----------------

In the mean time, I've been working on little hand sewing ventures and just cruising the internet longing to be sewing instead. *insert melodramatic sigh here* Okay, maybe I'm speaking a liiiiittle (only a little...) hyperbolically. I've been buried under yo-yos! Mom had a neat idea for the shop to use as a decoration (not as a sample or project) and volunteered me to make the "we'll start with 70 and see how it looks" yo-yos, since among us I'm the one that doesn't mind doing the repetitious handwork.

That being said, I'm turning my focus to yo-yo makers. I have changed my feeling on them. I've decided that I'm taking the Alton Brown approach to this sewing gadget: Brown (from Good Eats on the Food Network) talks about how unitask gadgets in the kitchen are really next to useless unless it's for a food that you make several times a week, and encourages people to seek out multitasking items instead. Yo-yo makers are unitaskers. Realistically,  they ONLY make yo-yos, and only the one size it's designed to make. If you do tons of projects using yo-yos in some form or another, and you make them all the same size and you need to be consistent at that size, then they're great! But how many of us really do that? Let's be honest with ourselves. Aside from the handful of yo-yos we may use to embellish a piece or the extremely rare occasion we think it might be cool to do a quilt made entirely of yo-yos, they just aren't a major player in most people's work. So. That thing just sits there for however many months (or years) until we make something with yo-yos and them remember what a pain in the rear it is and quit.

I admit that if I only have a couple yo-yos to do, then yes, I will use a yo-yo maker because I do have a couple. It goes relatively quickly and it's really really fool-proof. But I have to say, I prefer doing the whole process by hand. I find that I go slower using the yo-yo makers, because of having to move the needle all the way up and down through the holes in the plastic, meaning I can't load my needle with 10-15+ stitches at once. Seriously, the time I take tracing my circle/heart/oval/flower out is more than made up for with the speed I can do that single gathering stitch without using that damned plastic disk. Not to mention, I can do whatever size or shape I want using my own template, which can also be used as an applique temple in other projects, without sacrificing consistency.

That's just my humble opinion. If you're all for yo-yo makers, then all the power to you! They are a neat tool...I just used a popcorn tin lid instead!

I'm just about out of computer time here at the moment,  but I have more to say about things I've learned since I haven't been sewing much...tips and hints and a very begrudging tip of my hat to Fons and Porter.

In Memory of a Dear Friend

Today I'm taking a break from quilting to dedicate this entry to the memory of a friend. A year ago today, my friend Mark commit suicide. I didn't find out until the morning of April 1, and I thought it was an April Fools joke (albeit a joke in extremely poor taste, but every year someone thinks it's funny to make people think they died). I'm sad to say that it was all too real. The last week has been emotionally difficult for all of his friends; his birthday was a few days ago, and now it's the one year mark of his death.

So today I have decided that I refuse to be sad. It's only quarter after 9 and it's proving more difficult than I thought it would be. On Facebook, since his birthday, I keep seeing all of these just awfully sad posts about him. I don't want to be sad anymore. He wouldn't have wanted any of us to feel that way for any length of time. So I'm doing my best not to.

Instead of diving back into mourning the absence of him from our lives, I thinkit's better to celebrate him instead. What all of his friends knew, and what many of the students at WOU knew, is that Mark was a phenomenal artist. I mean, really...this guy was immensely talented. His work was simply amazing. his work is still posted all over his Myspace and Facebook and because of that, I'm posting a few of them here.

He is no longer with us, but his art lives on.

Yes. His work is phenomenal. Second from last is my absolute favorite.

Anyway. I just wish he fully understood how many lives he touched and how many people he affected before deciding live wasn't worth living. He left a tremendous void in the lives of his family and friends - I know I will never meet another person like him in my life...he truly was a unique and rare person in so many ways. I will never forget the moment we had sitting on Chadwick's couch in the middle of his party, talking about the meaning of life and the essence of people; his words continue to resonate with me, and when people talk about the "little things" that make the biggest impact, that was one of those moments for me. I feel blessed to have known him. Rest in Peace, Mark.

Please, if you are struggling, it is completely okay to reach out and ask for help; the people that love you (there are more than you know) will help pick you up and dust you off. If you think a friend is having a hard time, make sure they know without a shadow of a doubt that you are there for them regardless.  Even if they show no signs of pain, just ask if everything is all right. Listen to them, love them and comfort them; they may not want to talk, but even the simple gesture of asking them what's wrong and letting them know you're there makes a world of difference. There is no weakness in asking for help, and no one will judge you for it.

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temorary problem: If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please, please, please reach out and get help. 

First some bragging then some blogging!

Okay. First the bragging. My friend Isabelle (one of my besties, in fact) has just started quilting. I helped her through her first one, but I made her do her second one on her own :D I knew she had the skills, it was just a matter of getting the supplies and doing it!

This is her second quilt. She did a fabulous job!!! She texted me the picture right after she finished. She was so excited, and I was excited for her!

My God. I've created a quilting monster! It's alive, it's aliiiiiiiiiive, IT'S ALIII- *cough* Congratulations to Isabelle on her newfound quilting addiction :D

Now onto the blogging. So apparently I've become the free motion, embellishment girl at the shop. I'm totally okay with that! I love the freedom that free motion gives me to let projects just evolve...and really, the embellishment is the icing on the cake!

One of my favorite embellishment items is Angelina Fiber. This stuff is COOL. It is a synthetic fiber that bonds only to itself, so it lends itself to ann kinds of neat techniques. All you need is some plain paper, some Angelina, and an iron set to your silk/wool setting.

Angelina comes in packs like so. The fibers themselves can either be straight (like above) or crimped. I prefer the crimped style, because I like the texture it has.

So what am I getting at? Last week I walk into work and there's a big ol/bag of Angelina waiting for me and at the bottom of the bag, a pattern for an Angelina covered fabric bowl. Yes, yes...I flipped out. It was cool! So I grabbed some Timtex and a few fat quarters and got to work. Do I have any photos of that process? Nope! I didn't think that far. Honestly, this was a free motion project that just kind of fell together. I didn't know how it was going to go until it hapened, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

So there's the bowl. It's a lot pinker than what the picture shows. iPhone camera + fluorescent lights...you know the drill. Anyway. Those little bags are snack packs of Angelina fibers. The cool thing about Angelina is that you can mix colors! I mixed the two above with a purple shot gold. I fused them together to make the center of the flower. Once you fuse your Angelina together, you sew the fused piece whever you want it to be on your fabric. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

So here are some more pictures that show the detail of the Angelina and the quilting:

I used a regular Gutermann cotton thread, and a cotton Sulky Blendables variegated thread in the stippling. I like the angelina to still have loose fibers, so I just really lightly stitched it down. Does that make the bowl functional? Nope. But it sure turned out neat!

When I brought it into the shop, I was informed that "Oh, good! You can teach a class then." lol. Okay then! So if you're interested in maing an arty little bowl and learning to use Angelina, keep your eyes open at the shop for details!

Today when we went to E.E. Schenk's, I scored some Decolourant. What is that? Basically, it's a fabric dye that removed the base color of the fabric when it is applied, leaving only the color of the dye. This means you cna make your own custom pieces of fabric...you can dye prints on black fabric witout compromising the effect of color on the black fabric! If that doesn't do the trick, think of it like a hair dye that both bleaches and dyes your hair at the same time. Cool, huh? I'll be posting about that soon, once I figure out the technique...and I promise I'll take better pictures of the process!

Well, as usual I'm blogging into the late hours of the night, and after losing an hour of sleep (oh the pitfalls of "springing forward"...yuck.) I'm absolutely bushwhacked.

Have a good night everyone, and happy quilting!

Check this out!

Okay, as an artist I want to help out my artist friends whenever I can, especially when it's a local girl too!

This is my friend Vanessa's blog. She's primarily a makeup and fashion artist and her work is absolutely incredible. She's just getting started with it, so there isn't much there, but there will be. Like I said, she does fabulous work.

CLICK HERE: You Can Always Cover it with Makeup