Stash busting, WIPs, Sad Goodbye, No Hello Kitty

******UPDATED POST WITH PICTURES!!!!!!!!*************

Hope you all had a Happy St. Pat's. I have had a fill of corned beef and cabbage, and of my in-laws. ha ha. We had a lovely dinner, actually, cooked by my husband, the chef of the manor. Yum.

My m-i-l is going through cancer treatments, bleck, and it was good to have her over after a biopsy surgery she had on Friday. She is going to be fine, but it is still a big ol' pile o' crud she has to deal with.





anyway, I have not posted in a bit because I have been busy, and I have been crabby. I am better now, don't be afraid.


On the up side, I had a fun-filled week with my nephew, aka, the Hurricane.
We pal'd around all week, doing cool kid things, like feeding ducks,
bowling, watching trains at the depo, going to baseball games, lacrosse games, and the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. He is so dang smart, it was fun having him get his noodle filled up with science stuff. He had a squillion questions, and luckily I had all the answers cuz I can read the little boards really fast. Whew! He even quilted and sewed with me. He was like a caffeinated squirrel, but I missed him the second he left.





Ok, so here's a downer from the down side of my week:

My Hello Kitty sewing machine is a bust! I wanted this one, like Mimi, so I found one on ebay, bid on it, won it, and the sender was excruciatingly slow in even corresponding with me. A month later, I was told it was on its way, and then it arrived! Excitement and anticipation - - - dashed on the rocks when I opened the brown paper and and it was this one! the wrong one! she had a picture of the right one on ebay, yet sent the other one. I am not a happy camper, going through the whole dispute thing with paypal to get her to give me a refund. yuck. (don't get me wrong, the machine I got is also cute but it is CHERRY-less. Hello?? Kitty! I needs me some cherries.







I was also little Miss Crabby Pants the last couple of days because of THAT issue, plus customer service dolts, (small and irritating) issues with my family, my back "went out", yada yada. . . SOOOOO imagine my SHEER AND UTTER DELIGHT when I got to work today and found all 3 of the quilt tops I sent to the fabulous and uber-talented Laura Heine just a couple of weeks ago had come back all quiltilicious and perfect!! I am so flippin' excited I could jump and flip (watch the back!). I will get some snaps of the quilting tomorrow and fill in the blanks with photos.




Quilt one is a turtle quilt, cuz of the border fabric I stuck on my scrappy little Irish Chain. The turtles she quilted are outrageous, and Laura says to watch her newsletter because she is designing a turtle quilt because she learned how to do turtles just for my little ol' quilt.
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Quilt two is a ladybug quilt from a Laura Nownes, Diana McClun pattern, Ladybug Parade, which Laura quilted antennae, spirally loopy patterns in the wings, flowers and vines all over. I am so happy.

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and the third, Circles one is a Freddy Moran class I took, Freddy dot com. I asked for just a simple quilting here, and it is still stunning, with yellow swirlies. (kind of like Lisa's funky chicken heads?)
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Aren't they all spectacularly quilted?? big sigh. All is right with the world!







AND, wouldya like to see the dang-cute little carrots I made? they still need some "hair" (green frond-tops, whatever you call 'em)






How 'bout 2 blocks towards the shop hop quilt? woo hoo!





And this sophisticated, yet rascally little table-topper for my brother-in-law, who really loves this fabric:







I have been reading alot of blogs dedicated to the concept of "stash busting" and I am all for that, considering that I have spilled out of the studio and into the spare bathroom bathtub as a place to store my fabric! One of the most fun sites I found on the subject is this one. I spent like a week on her website, blog, and then clicking on links she has, so make sure you get a cup of tea, and settle in when you go over there. You may be there a spell.


I have decided to add 2 great ways to reduce that stash and be happy.


1. invite a newbie quilter over and let her "shop" from fabrics you are no longer crazy about, and help her make a quilt. My friend Erin came over on Sunday (she is the one I helped with the auction quiltlet), and we found the perfect pattern and fabric for a baby quilt she wants to make as a gift. I am helping her with the construction. In exchange, she is going to hand stitch my binding on my quilts - she is great at this! what a win-win!


2. clothing! I was a pattern sewer before I was a quilter, and clothing takes a lot of fabric. I went to Wal-Mart today and found choice patterns for under $3 a piece, and I am going to make summery tops and dresses from some of my big chunks of fabric.
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March of the Tools!!

Our final topic of the post, is my addition to the March of the Tools. This oh-so-humble ruler is da bomb! I have all kinds of rulers, like over 20. But this one is my new favorite. It has the clearest, thinnest markings evah. It is frosted, like donuts, only not, and this makes it easy to see on light and dark fabrics, as shown oh so dramatically in this picture. You must try this one, even if you have 22 rulers already.


What is your favorite tool?
do tell!
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I feel much better and back to my quiltilicious self. I will try to get pictures of the quilts up tomorrow. I do so LOVE them. I was kind of afraid to send them out, because I usually do my own quilting, but I had a backlog, and I had to learn to let go. Success! g'nite, Kristin