2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.

1. I am afraid of deep water.
Maybe I got in too deep over my head when I was a little girl swimming, but really the fear is more about not being able to see what is out there in the deep deep water, or underground caves.

2. Sometimes I am afraid to fail.
I really don’t have a lot of fears. Oh sometimes I get frighten by something going bump in the night.

And sometimes I still get that - “I didn’t study for the test” - night mare . But over all I am not AFRAID.

I do find that I will throw stuff in my way when I don’t know how to start a project, or haven’t figured out how to work out the problem yet, or said yes to something I really should have said NO to.

But eventually I just jump in. I like the jumping in part.

Sometimes in the middle of the project I want to bail.

But I learned a long time ago to try to finish what you start, if for no other reason than to learn from the mistakes and feel good about yourself for finishing what you began.

This quilt was my first attempt at making the quilt underneath it. I was AFRAID of doing the border the way I wanted to. The first attempt just IS NOT as wonderful. I finished the composition and then started over.



Whispering Pines went on to win a “Judges Choice” award in Houston and now lives in Oklahoma somewhere. 

It is a MUCH better composition and color choice and over all better piece because I redid it and faced my fear. I faced my fear and moved on.

I do think that many people are afraid of “Using or wearing” color. To me using or wearing black is a cop out and I feel almost the same about black in quilts.

Color is just too yummy to ignore.

3.I just can not think of something else that I am afraid of.
Want to share what you are afraid of?

It feels a little cathartic to share. Let’s all start the NEW YEAR facing our fears!!! I find that when I face the fear it usually isn’t as bad as I thought.

Happy Quilting.

This is COOL

Think about the colors you use in your art, life, home and clothes. My wish for you in the new year is to try some new COLORS.

Happy Quilting

Happy Holidays

From my family to yours - I hope you have a very happy holiday season.



Gift Ideas: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. ~Oren Arnold

The List

I like lists and recently I found this list on line and thought it was a great way to start a trip. things to ask each other while traveling, we will be going to visit one of our sons soon, so I am sharing it here with you in case you have a long trip in the near future.

Enjoy.

30 Things:

To spice things up a little I will be posting something random about myself each blog (or close to it for a month) according to the following list of questions I have conjured up. 

The idea is to record different parts of my personality for my posterity, and I guess you get to know me better by default.  I think this'll be super fun and I invite you to play along! I would LOVE to read what you have to say about yourself in regards to these questions, and get to know you better, too.  

This could potentially be very hilarious.
I'm also thinking this list would make a fun date night? 

THE LIST:

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.
2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.
3. Describe your relationship with your parents.
4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.
5. What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?
6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?
7. What is your dream job, and why?
8. What are 5 passions you have?
9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.
10. Describe your most embarrassing moment.
11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
14. Describe 5 strengths you have.
15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?
17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?
19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.
24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What is your love language?
29. What do you think people misunderstand most about you?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.
So here we go.
A few random facts about myself -

1. I like coffee ice cream A LOT
2. I don’t care for chocolate
3. I sleep a lot, I find I need at least 8 hours in a 24 hour cycle
4. I make up words all the time
5. I am innately messy but very clean
6. I love watching movies in bed
7. I don’t read the daily newspaper
8. I listen to NPR in the mornings
9. I love Science Friday and Car Talk
10. I collect tatted hankies
11. I like hand stitching
12. I LOVE COLOR
13. I like working out
14. I am a younger sister
15. I am way too sensitive and get my feelings hurt over stupid stuff
16. I collect pin cushions
17. I love my dog George very much (well you already knew that)
18. I went to fashion design school
19. I am a loner
20. Laura Wasilowski and I are “kind of” partners. We share booth space at quilts shows.

We have a new DVD with Quilting Arts. You can download it NOW or pre-order the physical copy here.

Tell me a few random things about you.

I hope you are ready for the big day tomorrow!
Happy HOLIDAY

The Laura and Frieda CSoF DVD

Now you can have +Laura and I all to yourself. Get our DVD and play it all day long to keep you company in the studio. You will never be lonely again, or without an idea!

We walk you through the process of making improvisational fused art quilts. This is fun stuff.
We are informative, silly and always full of ourselves, I mean information.

The digital download is now live in the store! The DVD will be available on 1/10/13, but it’s available for pre-order now!

Here are the links to the product:

*Digital download: available now! $14.95


Chicago School of Fusing faculty - CSoF

Happy Quilting.

Leaf–table runner

I did a post last month about making this table runner.

Mary sent me these pictures just this week. I thought I would share.

My local guild, The Rippers, had a "Christmas Gift Challenge" where we were given a bag with one piece of fabric and an information slip with a member's name and preferences.  We were to add fabrics to what they gave us and make a gift for them for our Christmas Party tomorrow.  The fabric in the bag that I got is what I used for the background and backing on this table runner.  If I were to make one without the restriction that the challenge placed on me, I would have made it either from hand dyes or batiks plus I would have made the leaves "fatter".   Thanks again for the pattern!  I enjoyed making the table runner and it was a perfect fit for the fabric that I was given to work with. 

Hugs,
Mary




Nice job Mary, and good combination of fabrics. Oh and by the way - nicely quilted

Happy Quilting today.

Ta Da

And the winner in my blog hop give away is….


Needled Mom
Please send me your snail mail address and I will send out your fabulous prize!!

On a side note Connie has been faithfully following the method of making the trees in PEACE,  and made some charming small Christmas Tree art.

Her original intent was to make some mug rugs, but as this developed she decided to keep it as small art.

Wonderful small art, thanks for sharing Connie.

And now..

To finish up our Peace wall hanging.
We will put all the trees in a circle and add the letters.

Lay out your red background fabric.

You should have the circle marked for reference to place your trees.

Place the trees around the edge of the circle, let the trees stick out beyond the marked circle just a little.


Tack fuse in place.

Transfer the Peace letters to the back of a 10” square piece of fused green fabric. (refer to my pattern)

Cut out all the Peace letters using a pair of sharp KAI scissors.

Place all the Peace letters in a circle under the trees.

Place the big P slightly off center and tucked up under every fourth tree, and then place the small letters in-between.


Place a clean white cloth over the whole unit and steam set all the fused pieces in place.
Layer your red background square with batting and backing fabric, I like Fairfield 60/40 for my batting.

Use 505 spray basting adhesive to hold the layers together for machine quilting.
This is a wall hanging and the backing fabric will only be seen when you take it down and store it. So use some old fabric you bought and you can’t for the life of you remember WHY you bought it.

Now machine quilt this to your liking.

First thing I did when I quilted this was to do a zigzag through all of the Peace letters. I then did a quick squiggle up the middle of each tree trunk.

Next I did a tighter stippling in the central part of the wreath.

And lastly I free motion quilted a bigger curly queue design in the outside area of the wreath.

Once it is all quilted, square the quilt up. Mine measures 16” square but yours could be different.

Add a sleeve and fused binding. You can refer to my tutorials at the top of the page for these.

You can have this hanging on your wall for Christmas Day or until Valentine’s day.

Happy Holidays.

I am participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party Give Away.

Visit the 175 quilting blogs participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party. You can register on each blog for their giveaway.

If you have been following along you know that at the end of this week there will be a drawing from my blog for a give away that includes my pattern “Holiday Moments”,( PEACE is one of the patterns in Holiday Moments) the Winter Special fabric kit and a spool of my favorite Red Madeira thread.

This is my thank you for being loyal blog followers all year long.

In order to qualify to be in the drawing for the free give away you MUST -1) Leave one comment, one only, telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?
One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.
I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right of this page that says "join this site"

3) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

I will draw the winning name on Monday.
Have a safe weekend. Watch out for late shoppers.

Peace Peace Peace Peace

I am participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party Give Away.

Visit the 175 quilting blogs participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party. You can register on each blog for their giveaway.

If you have been following along you know that at the end of this week there will be a drawing from my blog for a give away that includes my pattern “Holiday Moments”,( PEACE is one of the patterns in Holiday Moments) the Winter Special fabric kit and a spool of my favorite Red Madeira thread.

This is my thank you for being loyal blog followers all year long.


In order to qualify to be in the drawing for the free give away you MUST -
1) Leave one comment, one only, telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?

One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.
I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right of this page that says "join this site"

3) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

Let’s look at what you need to do next in making PEACE.

We have marked our circle on the red background fabric.
We have cut out our trees with a pinking decorative blade.
Now we need to make the rest of the trees.

Fuse an 8” square fabric for your trunks. I used a purply blue for mine.
Remove the paper from the fused fabric.

• Place the fused fabric fusing side up on the back side of your rotary mat and using a wavy decorative blade in your 45m rotary cutter, cut from corner to corner on the diagonal to make trunks for your trees. I make my trunks about a 1/2” wide at the bottom to narrower at the top.
• Place all of your triangle trees back onto a piece of release paper and tack fuse them in place.
• Place a trunk down the center of each tree and trim it to about 1 inch beyond the bottom of the tree.
• Using a hot dry iron press the trunks in place.
• Fuse a darker 8” square of green fabric .
• Using the wavy blade cut on the diagonal narrow strips

• Cut apart the dark green strips into leaf shapes and place three on each tree. Press in place.
• Fuse a 5” square of red or fuchsia fabric and cut it into small squares.
• From the small squares cut out small circles using very sharp KAI scissors.  Place three on each tree and press in place.

We will put it all together on Friday – See you then. Ho Ho Ho

PEACE - Man

Making patterns is a lot of fun.

You can do what ever you want.

I like that. I have never really liked it when people tell me I have to do things a certain way.
I have always liked to experiment and find my own way.

PEACE is that kind of pattern. By experimenting I came up with this design.
Peace is an easy and fun pattern to make.

If you have been following along you know that at the end of the week there will be a drawing for a give away that includes my pattern “Holiday Moments”,( PEACE is one of the patterns in Holiday Moments) the Winter Special fabric kit and a spool of Red Madeira thread.
This is my thank you for being loyal blog followers.

In order to qualify to be in the drawing for the free give away you must -

1) Leave one comment only telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?

One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.
I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right of this page that says "join this site"
 
3) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

I thought I would share with you a few of the step outs for making the PEACE pattern.

First, of course, it is so easy when you buy my fabric kit – Winter Special - Holiday Bundle 1/2 yard of Winter Red and 1/2 yard of Grass Green fabrics for $20

I have used the Winter Red fabric for the background to PEACE.

The first thing you want to do is cut the 1/2 yard of red fabric into an 18” square.

Then fold the square into quarters and using the pattern piece, mark out a circle in the middle of the folded square.



This will be your guild for laying out your design.

• Use the 1/2 yard of grass green fabric to make the trees. 
• Fuse a 10” strip of GG for the trees. I only use WonderUnder #805 to fuse all my projects.
• Once the fabric is fused remove the release paper. Release paper is the paper that comes on the fusible web.
• Cut out three strips that are 3” wide by 18”
• Mark on one side of the fabric every 1 1/2” with an extra fine sharpie marker.
• On the other side of the strip, starting 3/4 of an inch in from the edge mark every 1 1/2”.
• Using a pinking bade in your 45m rotary cutter cut across the lines from one side to the other.
• Trim across the bottom of each triangle that you have just created using the pinking blade.
• You will need your 16 triangle trees for the wreath.

This should get you excited. Watch for more in my next post.

Happy Quilting today!

Christmas Give Away

I am participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party Give Away.

Visit the more hundreds of quilting blogs participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party. You can register on each blog for their giveaway.

I will be giving away my latest pattern -

• “Holiday Moments”.

• Along with it I will also send your way - the Winter Special -“1/2 yard of Winter Red hand dyed fabric and 1/2 yard of Grass Green hand dyed fabric”

• AND a spool of my favorite Madeira Rayon Thread in RED.

This is my way of saying thank you for a great year of blogging and for an even better year in 2013.


What do you have to do?


1) Leave one comment only telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?


2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right that says "join this site"

One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I  did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.

I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

Comments close on December 17, ( I’ll be headed to Florida for Christmas soon after that) I will draw one lucky winners name from the group.

I will ship out your prize on December 18th, you might even have time to make one of the Wall hangings and get it on the wall by the 25th for that special day or to give as a gift!!


Thanks for taking a walk in the woods with me all year long...

I hope you will tell your friends about the hop and all you new readers I hope you will take a moment to go to the top of this post and click the “Join this site” button.

Happy Quilting

Craftsy Patterns

I have recently added my e-patterns to the Craftsy site.

I just uploaded my pattern and directions for the Christmas Tree Skirt.

You can also order the fabric for the skirt on my website. It takes 5 1/2 yards for the front and binding. 

Jamie ordered the fabric just last week and she sent me this picture of her progress THIS week. I'll bet she has it under the tree by Monday!



Jamie says, “My kitty, Winks find the colors of the tree skirt irresistible!” 

 I think you will too. Here it is under my tree. 

Aren't those colors just eye popping!!

Happy Quilting today.

Running with Scissors

Have you ever RUN with Scissors? I don’t think so, even as a child I knew that was a dumb idea.

I have however pointed my scissors at people. Especially my sons when they came in my working space and were touching my stuff. You know my scissors and cutting tools. It was the only thing they were really interested in in my studio space, never sewing anything.

I do have a lot of scissors. I keep multiple pairs in my draw right where I work, as well as many pairs at my sewing machine.

That way when, not if, but when I can’t find the pair I was just working with 2 seconds ago, I can open my draw and get out another pair so I can continue to work and not have to stop and spend 15 minutes looking for the tools I was working with.

Here are just some of the scissors that I use.

I love my old dressers shears by Gingher. I got my first pair when I was in Fashion Design School along with the smaller Gingher silver embroidery size.

My favorite pair of scissors for cutting sharp small details are the little Ginghers with the decorative handles. Laura gave them to me many moons ago for Christmas. They have a really sharp tip and are very sharp for cutting tight small spaces.

My current favorite pair of small scissors and the ones I reach for first are these KAI 5” scissors.

I discovered these at a quilt show several years ago when the KAI scissors guy, Jim, was next to us in our booth. I like them very much. They cut smooth and clean and I always get a crisp cut.
I also have many pairs of the smaller size pictured in the upper right, for snipping.

Laura likes them because they have extra large holes for her fat thumbs.

If you haven’t tried them yet you might give them a snip, I sell them on my website on the notions page.

I just cleaned up my sewing area and put all my scissors away so I can start the process of making a big mess, I mean working again tomorrow

Happy Quilting.

Do you have a lot of these?

Who doesn’t have old blue jeans?

Living with four boys/men I always had a stack of old jeans. I used them to repair the favorite jean of the day that just had to be saved and worn until they were no longer repairable. My sons friends would also bring their favorite jeans over to be loving sewn up and fixed. I was a sucker for a smiling boys face.

Now that I only live with one man I don’t use all these for repairs. Oh I still do repairs, but I think I have enough to last a life time of repair.

I have been thinking about using them to make other things. Here are some ideas I found on Pinerest that I thought I would share.

If you are not already browsing on Pinerest it is something you might check into. Here is a link to my BlueJeans board.  BUT be careful it is very addictive. I have to give myself a time limit when I go there, otherwise I could spend hours looking at images.

I don’t know when I will get around to making all the things I have saved pictures for, but I hope to some day.

How about you? Do you have files of things you want to do someday?

Bobbin holder

I am recycling.

My apples from Costco came in these molded clear plastic covers. I just couldn't seem to throw them away.



After much thought, and them just hanging around for awhile, I realized they would make great bobbin holders. 

I have the top and the bottom, so I can have two of these if I want.



I like them because they sort my bobbins by color and I can easily see what colors I have.

I never liked the things that clip on top of the spool of thread. Before this my bobbins were just all jumbled up in one bowl. For right now this is my newest and neatest option.

What do you think?

How do you store your bobbins?

TED

Do you know about this site?
  
TED.

Judy Coates Perez first tuned me into it. It is a fabulous place to visit.

Recently my sister-in-law sent me this link. I think it is so marvelous I want to share it with you too.

Eric Whitacre a Virtual Choir.