What Color Palette are You?

I think I am just starting to figure this out. There are times when I have realized it but I forget. I am not sure why I forget but I do. I think it is because there is too much to choose from. I see all these cool colors in the quilt shop and think I have to have them. Then the fabric sits on my shelf and collects dust. I have just recently sent my granny 2 boxes of fabric. It is fabric I bought when I first started quilting and I know I will never use it. She loves it, so life works out for everyone!
First and foremost my favorite color is purple. That doesn't mean I like everything in purple it just means that is what I am drawn to. Then it is blue, brown, cream, black and army green. Most of my clothes are these colors. Every now and then I try something new like pink, orange or red. Those colors usually hang in my closet and never get worn. My first quilt teacher at the shop in fla. was the first to point this out to me. Everytime I came in to take a class my fabric matched my shirt.
My first picture is a bargello heart. That is my one and only purple quilt. I went ahead and got that one out of the way. I love making the bargello heart. It is such a fun quilt. The second picture is a quilt I started about 7 years ago and that shirt is the one I had on in class. That is one of my favorite shirts and I have that same shirt in blue and made a log cabin that matches it perfectly. She pointed that one out in class too.
I feel like I am rambling and not getting my point across even though I understand it in my head. I have started being very selective about what I buy and staying within my palette. So when I bought my bathing suit this last summer I knew I had to get fabric to match it because I loved the colors. So I feel really good about that purchase because I know they are colors I really like. So I take my bikini top to the AQS show in Nashville because I know Batiks Galore will be there. I found every color in my bikini and nobody thought I was weird! The quilt I am going to make is an interpretation of the design on the bikini.
Song of the day: "Smoke Rings in the Dark" by Gary Allan

Butterflies

I was working on a new butterfly piece today. So, I wanted to show you the 2 pieces that started my butterfly series. The 2 pieces measure around 12 x 12. I made them specifically for the Quilting Arts calendar contest. I was very excited to hear that the top piece "Aerial Ballet" got accepted to be on the calendar for 2007. Now the new piece I am doing will be much larger with alot more butterflies. I am showing you the butterflies but that is all I can show for now.
I took a break tonight from the butterflies and worked on my grapes and leaves. They are trapunto so the machine applique is taking care of that. I am almost done, I have one more cluster of grapes to stitch down and then cut the batting away. I figure if I try and work on a few things each day I might actually get something finished. If you haven't seen them check out the I Love My Music post.
Song of the day: "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John

More machine needle felting

I just got back from my Cook Without a Book class. It was great. Now I am all carbed out. Breads and pizzas. She started by giving us cinnamon rolls and rice crispy treats with white chocolate. The rice crispy treats also had a lemon cream on top. All that must have been what made me sleepy. This class was definitely not a good class to be sleepy in. I need to take it about 3 more times just to understand it all. The recipes were: rosemary focaccia, basic white bread, whole wheat pizza dough, whole wheat pizza with smoked chicken,pesto,and goat cheese, homemade pesto, and cinnamon rolls. That pizza was fantastic.
Now on to felting. This is the machine that I felt on. It has no fancy knobs or adjustments. It doesn't need thread and there is no bobbin. Depending on the machine it can have anywhere from 5-7 barbed needles. That is what helps it push your roving into the felt or whatever you have as a backing. I am experimenting with different things on the back. I have not broken a needle until I did a demo for the guild. I was talking and moving my piece underneath the machine not paying attention. The reason why I tell you this is because the needles are expensive. A pack of 5 is about 15$.
Here is one piece I have done, "Purple Poppy".(I am having a hard time photographing them because they put off a shine). It was done with silk roving. I get most of my silk from Treenway Silks. There colorways are gorgeous. There is also something else you can do with the silk. It is called silk fusion. You are making a silk paper. When you spread the fibers out and add textile medium and let it dry it makes a silk paper. It is a little more involved but you get the point. Treenway describes it better on their website. I will experiment with that when summer gets here.
Song of the day: "SOS" by Rihanna
If you do any kind of cardio workout this is a great song.

Her Majesty Margo

I received 2 great things in the mail today. The first was my Quilting Arts magazine with a Frieda Anderson quilt on the cover. There is a great article by her about machine quilting. She is coming to teach at my guild in march and we are very excited. The second was a gift from a new friend that I met this past year. I was able to spend 3 days with her and learn machine needle felting. Her name is Her Majesty Margo and her work is just beautiful. The colors and textures are so enticing you just have to touch everything she makes. The gift was a bag of wool, silk and curls called Confections. She also has a new book, "Needle-Felting Magic". If this is something you have thought about doing you need to look at her website. You will be hooked!
Song of the day: "Moondance" by Van Morrison

Components

I have been cutting all day. I decided that I liked the little Hawaiian wall hanging I posted earlier and want to do a bigger version. I love all the bright colors and still have alot to cut. I am just not sure of the size. I guess the size might actually depend on how many more days I want hand cramps! Everything will be machine appliqued. It is hand dyed fabric from Ricky Tims. I usually buy a few pieces everytime I go to the Paducah show.
Song of the day: "House of the Rising Sun" By The Animals (1964)

Birthday Party

We celebrated my son's b-day tonight. We invited his close friends to a place called Glow Galaxy. It is all these blow up creations that you jump on and run around in under black light so everybody glows. I love playing on that stuff so I know the kids had a great time. After playing they ate pizza, had cup cakes, then went home all buzzed on sugar. Good times!
Song of the day: "Ruby" by Kaiser Chiefs

Thinking of Summer

Since it has been so cold the last 2 days (for tenn.) I have been thinking of warmer weather. When it is nice and warm in the summer I am out in the garage dyeing fabric. I am like a kid. What can I dye, how much, and what colors to mix. I've tried to be strategic when I dye but I have much more fun when I play. I am still trying to find my niche on how I want my fabric to look. Crinkle, stripes, blends, or rainbows? I dye all of this fabric then I hardly use it. I end up using everyone else's that I buy. Oh well!
My kids have really gotten into it. My daughter goes crazy with t-shirts. Then she ends up dyeing for all of her friends. We use her orthodontic rubber bands to bind the shirts. They work great. My son will come out and dye a couple then I have to do the rest of his. This summer I am going to have a tie dye party for his friends. I will let them all come over and dye their own shirts.
I really like to dye the silk charmeuse. It takes the dye so well. I did about 45 1/2 yard pieces this last summer, then over 100yds. of cotton before going to Nancy Crow.
It is funny the way my neighbors walk by and look at me. I look like I have a meth lab in my garage. Then there is fabric everywhere outside. I have even pinned it to the grass to dry. Only a few have asked what I was doing. They don't realize there is a creative genius in their midst.
Song of the day: "Mr. Pinstripe Suit" By Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Extra, Extra read all about it

If a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound? Don't know. If a man falls through your ceiling does it make a sound? Hell ya! This is an extra post because I can't believe what happened at my house today. We have had so many problems with this house and it is only 5 years old. These past 2 weeks we have had all our duct work pulled out of our attic and redone. It has been working great except the top duct keeps falling off the actual heat unit. So the guy came today to fix it again because it is getting down to like 15 degrees tonight. Everything was great until about 10 minutes before he was done. My daughter just got home from school and we were sitting downstairs by the fire talking. All of a sudden we heard a loud noise and we look up to see a leg busting through my ceiling. I could not make a sound. I did not know whether to cry, laugh, or yell. I am thinking is he going to stop or fall on through. I think it shocked him also because he did not make a sound. Then we had a pink snowfall of insulation come pouring out. It was like a movie, is this really happening? About a minute later I went upstairs to see if he was ok. I think he was in shock. He had scraped his leg pretty good. He kept rubbing it. Now that I knew he was ok I am sitting there thinking, great one more thing to have fixed. We can't seem to get ahead. We are having a new mattress delivered tomorrow and I am very nervous about the possibilities. Say a prayer!

Isn't Christmas Over?

I was in charge of our christmas guild party this year. We had a great time. People in costume were running around. The costumes were made by Paula. There were 2 gingerbread men greeting people at the door with a candy cane. Vanessa and I were elves. I am like the 6 foot boy elf. Some of our ladies did a dance routine. Instead of the Rockettes they were the Quiltettes. There was an ornament exchange, door prizes , and of course good FOOD. We decided as a committee that we would challenge everyone to make a christmas quilt for next year and have a huge show and tell. I have picked my pattern and finally received all of my fabric in the mail. It is hard to find good red batik but I think I did pretty well. It will actually be my third christmas quilt. I already had 2 started in hopes of finishing them for 2007. My goal now is to finish all 3 plus everything else I am working on.
Thank you everyone for your comments and emails. They are greatly appreciated.
Song of the day: "Home" by Marc Broussard

Proud Aunt

This is the newest member to our family. She is so precious and I love babies. So of course I had to make a quilt for her. I have plenty of patterns but when I saw this one I knew it was the right one. I didn't buy the book for the pattern as much as I bought it for the alphabet that came with it. It is funny that the sample in the book was my niece's name. The book is "Winsome Baby" by Nancy Halvorsen.
Song of the day: "Tell Me 'Bout It" by Joss Stone

Cook Without a Book

This summer we replaced all of our kitchen appliances with Viking ones. It was a need to and want to basis. So with this I received a free 12 week series of classes called Cook Without a Book. Tonight was week 3 (broccoli with hollandaise, pasta with red pepper coulis, salad greens with balsamic vinaigrette, chicken marsala) They are interactive demos and then we get served the food. The main chef is Brandi and her assistants were Renee and Dale. I have taken about 5 hands on classes with friends and had a blast. Life is good with FOOD!
Song of the day: "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven

Watch Out for Teenagers

I took a class last week at The Quilting Squares Quilt Shop. I met some friends there and we made this fun bag. We quilted our fabric before class and finished it that day. It was great especially since I don't do bags! It was really easy and even with the quilting you could finish it in a day. I am looking forward to making more.
My daughter notices new bags in the house and has put her name on this one, so I guess I have to give this one up. That is ok with me because I will make the bigger version for me. I used Michael Miller fabric.
Song of the day. "Heavenly Day" by Patty Griffin

I Love My Music

I can't get through my day without listening to music. In my car, while I'm quilting, I have it playing on the tv while I am doing things around the house and it is blasting when I am in the shower. Music is just a huge part of my day. That is why I love my ipod. 598 of my favorite songs, 1930's - 2008. My ipod sits right next to my sewing machine in my jammin BOSE speaker. Sometimes I don't realize how loud I have it until my 18 and 11yr old come in and tell me to turn it down. Shouldn't that be the other way around? I am going to post a song a day off my ipod. See if you know it, if not go look it up and see if it is something you might like.
"Sad Old Red" by Simply Red

Dinner and a Wallhanging

Dinner was sooooo good tonight. Baked salmon, sauteed spinach, fettuccini alfredo, and a salad with peppercorn ranch dressing. I almost like my salmon baked in the oven better than on the grill. Now I am full and it is time to go back to quilting. Speaking of that here is a wallhanging I did as a sample piece for a guild presentation. It was to demonstrate how to put on the heat set crystals. QUILT BLING!!! There is definitely a time and a place for crystals. I will be sending this to my Granny who lives in FLA. She and my Grandad used to grow the prettiest hybiscus. I know she will appreciate it and that is why she is getting it.

Happy Birthday to ME

I figured my birthday would be as good a day as any to start my blog. Nothing overly exciting happened today but our plans didn't go as expected tonight. We were going to have pizza then off to the hockey game. We had no heat upstairs so when my husband went to check the furnace in our attic the duct work (we just had repaired) had blown off the top of our unit. So he had to stay home until the guy came to fix it. He missed the pizza and got to the game right before it started. The dozen roses he sent me arrived at the wrong time. It doesn't really matter what day it is, I have just learned to go with the flow. We had a great time at the game and made it home safe. Glad to be 41.