A Quick Peek!

Yesterday I showed you my first freezer paper stenciled piece, and told you today I would be back to show you what I had done with it.  Well I didnt get to finish the piece, but thought I would show you where I am so far with it.

It is going to be a pillow, and the white parts will have appliques and some quilted words. Over the last few days the idea for these pillows have slowly developing in my head.

This wont be the last, especially since doing the freezer paper stencil was so much fun!  The worst part was waiting for the paint to dry.

My friend, Amy, who does some fabulous stenciling and printing on fabric, gave me some great tips for the stenciling.  Check out Amy's blog, During Quiet Time, to see the work she does.  Also check out her Etsy shop where you can buy her wonderful creations.

Give me a few days and I will be back to show you the finished piece :)

Hope you are all having a fantastic week!

Creative Project #14 ~ Live ~ Love ~ Laugh

Happy Valentines Day!!!!!

I am halfway through my Creative Challenge for February and having a BALL! 

The project I am revealing today has actually taken a few days to complete, just because I always have a million different projects going on all in one day.

Making beads, sewing, quilting, sketching ideas, entertaining my furry children, creating jewelry, cooking, dog agility.....I could go on and on.....I get bored working on the same thing all day long.

I have a busy life, but LOVE every moment of it.  Through all the busyness we all need to do more of this everyday is........

This placemat has been sketched out for months and sitting next to my sewing machine.  I finally decided to make it on Friday.  After I got it made, the common quote *live ~ love ~ laugh* popped into my head and I set out to make the other two placemats.

*Love* was second.

*Live* was third.

Yes, I did it completely backwards from the saying!

I love how they are the same but different.  I love the  funky-scrappy style they have.

It is a simple quote, but one of my favorites.

So let's all set out this week to LIVE MORE, LOVE MORE & LAUGH MORE!

Have a fantastic week!

Creative Project #6 for February....you'll never believe what i found!!!

Today the task of emptying out the upstairs attic continued.  I found some wonderful treasures I had forgotten about.   A few (more) quilts I had started that had been packed away, my grandmother's sewing machine and some fabric that I had silk screened myself when I was about 13!!

I have been so fortunate to have had some awesome teachers along my artistic journey.  From high school right through college.  One of them was my high school art teacher, Bill Mangan.  For summer school Mr Mangan would offer a silk screening class and I signed up for it several summers in a row.

Today I found the first silk screening project that I did in that class.  A set of place mats and napkin (that need to be finished). *Sturrup* is my maiden name.

I need to get these finished for my mom.  The printing on the napkins isn't the greatest but not bad for a first try!

Then I came across this musical fabric I had printed which I had TOTALLY forgotten about.

There is some slight yellowing on a small portion, but other than that it is perfect.

I had an order for a small bag made with a musical theme so I decided to use a piece of this for it.

I was involved in music when I was younger and have played the piano, the flute, the recorder (what kid doesn't play the recorder?  I think it is a pre-requisite to get out of 3rd grade!) and the guitar.

I think the person who it is for will appreciate it.

My pictures are not the greatest today.  When I decided to go outside and take the pictures it started to rain!

So there is my creation for the 6th day of February!  I am thoroughly enjoying this challenge to do something creative everyday for the month of February.  It is doing what I had hoped, and keeping that creative adrenaline rush going.

I hope everyone has an awesome week!

A New Design Obsession......

Whenever I have a show ahead of me and orders coming out of my ears, my imagination is running wild with new ideas.  In my last post I showed you the pillow that I did for a Flickr swap I was in called {Pillow Talk}.  

"home sweet home"

I have had a collection of vintage fabrics and laces for quite some time now and could never figure out what to do with them.  After that pillow for the swap I am on a roll!

I incorporated the lace into this one.  I also have another one that is waiting to be quilted, in blues and greens which I will be keeping for myself!  I am calling this one "this old house".

I even did piping and a zipper on this one!!! SO PROUD of myself, under the instruction of my Mom who is a master sewer, although she wont admit it!  The below picture shows the piping and the zipper together....quite an accomplishment for me!  I always tell people I cant sew straight lines!

It probably is a strange color selection, but I pulled the vintage fabrics first for the house and then added the solids to compliment.   One of these house must have an owl in the yard at some point also!

I also have a wall hanging started with this same concept, and I have jewelry pieces in the works with a house theme.   It is a real sweat shop in this house right now and I love it!

Have a great weekend!

While I Wait for the Kiln

The worst part about flame working is waiting for the beads to be annealed in the kiln!!!

So while I wait on those to make some new jewelry pieces I thought I'd show you some things I have made for swaps.

This wall hanging was done for an Embroidery Quilt Swap on the Quilting Bloggers website.

I hadn't done embroidery in years, so this took me a while, but once I got the embroidery done and started working on the borders, quilting and embellishing....I could not stop adding things.

I sure hope my partner likes it.  I would have shown this to you last week, but I forgot that this was a secret swap.  Plus my partner doesn't have a blog or a flickr account so I doubt she will see it.  I had no idea what direction to go in since I couldn't snoop around her blog or look at her favorites on flickr.

I also had to finish some African Flower blocks for a Raverly Swap I am in.  Each month I make 5 of these and send them off to the people who's month it is.  When my month comes around I will receive about 50 of these (I showed you my first one last week) to make something with.  I won't be able to decide what I will make until I have all my flowers!

I also had to show you my new garden friend!  This mama frog has decided to hang out by my orchids.

I wanted to re-pot some of the orchids yesterday, but did not want to risk this jumping on me.  I had already disturbed her but thankfully she sat right there....through the photo shoot and all!

Quilt Blogger's Festival

So many neat things go on in the blogging world!!

Recently Amy at Amy's Creative Side Blog hosted a Bloggers Quilt Festival.

At this blog you can see hundreds of quilts and their stories.  Loads of inspiration, so go check it out!

I looked through my quilts to find the one with the most interesting story and picked this one......

This quilt was in a special exhibit at the Sisters Oregon Outdoor Quilt show a few years back.  I sent several quilts, but have sold all but this one.  At this point I think this one is a keeper.

I sent my quilts by FedEx from Abaco, Bahamas for the show, and U.S. Customs held them up because they weren't sure what material I had used as batting.  So the quilts got there the day of the exhibit!!!!

Then when the quilts were delivered at the Stitchin' Post quilt shop  FedEx handed them a massive bill for duty, even thought the quilts were returning to the Bahamas!  In the end everything was cleared up, but boy the stress at the time!

The year before I sent one quilt for display and everything went smoothly, but five quilts from a foreign country raised some eye brows!

Go check out all the quilters that have posted stories!!  There are over 550!!

What a Great Week!

I love it when my week ends with receiving swap goodies in the mail!

I received my Mini Coin Swap from Terrie......

I was going to crop Trooper's nose out, but I thought it was cute!  He is head of quality control around here....the quilt passed :)  LOVE this little quilt!  Tiny "coins" of pretty printed fabrics make up the stacks of coins and the quilting on the border with varigated thread is incredible.

Below is the coin quilt mini that I sent to Terrie,  She received it so I can blog about it now.

"Scattered Paint Chips"

Then I got my first African Flower crochet block, from the African Flower Swap on Raverly......

....and with it was sent some recipe cards, a stitch marker and gorgeous purple ribbon.  I didn't think it was my month to receive the crochet blocks yet, so I was very surprised!

Can you tell how addicted to these swaps I have become?

I also sent off some quilts this week, and can only show you sneak peeks until my partners receive them.

This one above is for the Anything Goes Mini Swap on flickr.

And the one below is for the Black and White + One Color, Not Square Mini

I was also very excited this week when I was featured on Delphi Glass' facebook page because of this necklace.....

I submitted this necklace for a competition they are having called Ring of Fire, and they featured it on the page!! I was over the moon!  Please go and vote for me on their site :)  Just click on the "Ring of Fire" tab at the top right of their home page screen and it will take you to the voting page......I'd really appreciate it!

Have a great weekend!  

50th Blog Post Giveaway

Hard to believe I have had 50 blog posts.  When I started it was pretty painful sometimes to come up with something to say, so it would go weeks between posts.  Now I am more comfortable with it and have met a whole community of new friends thru blogging.

I know, you're thinking...blah, blah, blah....get on with the giveaway :)....but before I do I want to tell you about another blog giveaway.

My friend Heather, at alamodefabric, is having a giveaway as well.  So go check out her blog also.  She is giving away a set of fabric hexagons and a gift certificate to the Sew Deerly Loved etsy store.

Go check out that etsy store as well.  Lots of cool fabrics, Japanese fabrics, MunkiMunki fabrics.

All of these giveaways were inspired by the sewmamasew blog!  You will find lots of other giveaways on that blog also.  And yes I am a day late chiming in but I was waiting for my 50th post!

So here is my giveaway.......

A quilted journal cover for a composition book.  I named this "island birds"

Also thought I'd throw this in as well......

It is a copper and sterling silver pendant that I made......."let your heart soar"

So to enter the giveaway you have to post a comment here, under this post, not on facebook, and I will announce the winner tomorrow.  

I will use a computerized random generator to choose the winner......so it is all totally random!

Good luck and thanks for reading and following my blog :)

Some New T'ings

I have been fiddling around with some new stuff these past few days.  Needed a break for my imagination.

First I had to do some potholders for the Potholder Pass in Flickr, and I had this idea in my head to do the free form letters on them.  This was the outcome, and now I wish I had a set for me!

"Live Love Laugh"

One of my, many, favorite sayings!

I have also been itching to try some new things at the torch.  So I took some time this morning to try out a frog:

I thought it was okay for my first attempt.  Here is his back:

And I had tried a hollow bead a few weeks ago, couldn't get it to work, but I am not one to let that discourage me, so I tried again:

It is not the perfect bead shape....BUT it is HOLLOW!!  I know some flame working pros are probably thinking "I can't believe she is posting these ugly beads", but since I either figure things out in my head or read a book, I am pretty proud of myself.

Also attempted a heart....this needs work:

Not sure what design that is on the front.....just a blob of color!

Thought I'd try a white on white color combo also, which should look cool with some bezeled sea glass pieces:

So, in a nutshell, that is what I did today.  Now they all need to sit in the kiln and be annealed......tomorrow maybe :)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there!!!

My mom told me not to buy her anything for mother's day, but she knows I don't listen all that well, or she should know that!!  I got her a gift certificate to one of the local plant stores, and then I made her these......

So I listened halfway.........guess I gave gotten better since my teenage years!

She loves to cook, so I thought these potholders would be perfect.  She is also more of a traditional quilter (okay she's VERY traditional) and she would never make these curvy pieced potholders for herself.  They are made from Bahama Hand Prints fabrics.

As well as trying to finish orders I have been trying to build up some jewelry stock and get some components together for several jewelry swaps I am involved in.  One of them is Bead Soup Party (the button is over to the right of this page).  In this party I send a focal, a special clasp and an assortment of coordinating beads to another jewelry artist, I get the same in return and we both make something from that mix, adding our own special touches.

Here are some of the pieces I am considering for some of my swaps.......

I will of course add some of my flame worked beads to that mix as well, and maybe a copper & silver, riveted pendant.....i don't know....too many ideas in my head!

The sea glass to the right of the picture, which I have not done anything with yet, I am trying to decide what to do with it.  When i was going thru my sea glass these ended up on the table together and I just loved the combo.  Here is a closer look......

Love these together, but cannot decide how to combine them.

Anyone have any ideas?

One of my other swaps for the summer is a Pincushion Swap and my pincushion was used for the swap tab!! I was honored and so excited!

You can sign up for this swap until the end of May, just click on the link on the right of my blog.  Or just follow the swap and see all the cool pincushions that are created!  It starts in June and runs thru the summer.  As you can see my swap addiction is worse than ever....I need help!

Have a great Mother's Day!

My Weekend of Gardening and Quilting

Spent this weekend in the garden.  I love the weather we have right now....warm but not too hot with a nice breeze.  I was also very excited that my bottle brush tree finally bloomed.

I think this is my favorite tree.  It is so pretty when it is blooming.

Also cleaned out the turtle ponds.  Whenever we do this the dogs are very curious about the turtles.  Trixi got nipped in the nose by one this time, so she's not so curious anymore!

But Salty here has no fear!

I let some of the turtles have a run in the grass.  Whoever came up with the idea that these creatures are slow....was very wrong!  This one below is my large female.  She is about five times bigger than the little one in the above picture.  I couldn't hold her in one hand and take a picture with the other!......well I could if I wanted to get nipped myself, but after Trixi yelped and jumped back about four feet, I figured it hurts!

I also finished up my Urban Home Goods Swap this weekend and will be mailing it out tomorrow.

I made a journal cover and a set of coasters.  Hope my partner likes them!

Just a quick post since I just came from the studio trying to finish up some jewelry orders.  I have usually been asleep for an hour by now, so that is why there are a lot of pictures and not much writing in this post!

Good night for now.  Will be back in a few days with some new creations :)

A Peek and A Ta-Daaaa!

I am still finishing off swaps goodies this week.  I am not sure how I got involved in so many at one time.  Actually I say that and today I have signed up for MORE!!!  Slight addiction (maybe).  I just love making goodies for people and receiving their goodies :)

Here is a sneak peek of one of my placemats for the Placemat Quilt Swap.

I can only show a peek because I know that calamitykim follows my blog!  She and I agreed to do a pair for each other so our husbands could have one to use as well!  She does some pretty cool work, so go check out her blog.

Also, back in January there was a benefit concert, raffle and auction here in Abaco to raise money for Royal Potcake Rescue to do a spay and neuter clinic.  I offered to donate a quilt to the raffle.  At the time I couldn't sew because of some stitches I had, but the winner was very patient and the organizer of the event is in Abaco now and (I think) the quilt has been delivered to her.  So now I feel okay posting it on my blog.  Since the fundraiser was for the potcakes this is the original idea I had:

Since my drawings are not to scale they don't turn out exactly alike, but close.

I stitched "potcake" on the side of one of the dogs, and then along the bottom I stitched "the most colorful dog", which they are in SO MANY ways!

Here is what became of the drawing.......

And as always, when I am doing my little photo shoots, my own potcake helpers must be there to supervise and check things out.  PLUS they think the pool deck was built just for them, so I am not allowed out there alone, and that is where I take most of my pictures.

That is Karma giving it a close inspection and thinking "that dog has crooked ears just like me!"

Trooper is being distracted because Trixi is trying to chew his leg off!....never a dull moment around here.....that's why I love them so much :)

It helps to read the instructions!

I have been very inspired over the last few months with all the curvy pieced quilts, and for a while I have had the book by Jean Wells, "Intuitive Color and Design" which teaches how to do this curvy piecing.

BUT....being the artist that I am, I looked at the pages, the lovely pictures, tried to do it my way, and it failed.  

Then I got my swap quilt from mamacjt last week, and was totally inspired.

So here are my first successful attempts, after I read the instructions!

Then I had to try a piece with fabric other than scraps.......

Not sure what I will do with it, but I am pretty pleased with myself :)

Along with that the last few days have been filled with finishing off swap projects that have to be shipped out this week to meet the deadline.

Here are snippets of two of them.

Sneak peek at the coin mini quilt for Terrie.

And here is the Anything Goes Mini quilt for mamacjt......I sure hope she is as happy with this as I was with my goodies from her!

I couldn't have done all this the past few days without help from my kitty "Sunshine"

OH! and i almost forgot.....I also finished two blocks for an online quilt bee I am in called "Bee Liberated".  It is based on the book "Collaborative Quilting".  Each month one person picks a block out of this book, the rest of the group make one or two of the specified block and send them to the person who's month it is.  Then instantly you have enough blocks for a quilt top made by an online group.

Pretty neat hey?

These are my May blocks:

My month is June so I am trying to decide which block I am going to pick....tough decision because I love everything in that book!

Back into my sewing room for a few more hours to finish up three more swap projects for this month, then the next month it all starts over again for more swaps!