Starting Early With Some August Finishes

I finished the August wool applique banner. It's on it's little stand on the sofa table. This was Saturday's project, along with picking up the next BOM packet for Vintage Rouge, and selecting my backing and binding.

Moving right along I also knocked out the wool felt mat that I had picked up a pattern for while I was at the Hershey show. In fact, I even --for the first time ever, totally without guidance--hand dyed the wool felt I used for the moons. It was pretty stark and bright on it's own (you can see the before and afters on my Facebook page), so I found some watercolor fabric dye in my workroom that I've had for probably 10 years or so, and it came with a bunch of sponges, and I went to town. It'll do.  That was Sunday's project.

Saturday's mail brought the  next installment in monthly banners:

Look at those great fall colors. These next three banners are going to be so much fun. September will be pumpkins, October will have a Halloween theme, and November will be a cornucopia for Thanksgiving. I was going to save some of these for entertainment on upcoming travels, but I don't think I can wait.

We'll be going to St. Michaels this weekend, so I'm going to need some hand-stitching for the car ride. Somehow I don't think I'll have a problem finding something to work on. :)

A Blast From the Past

I've been MIA again....not spending a lot of time sewing anything of substance, but that will change this weekend. Vintage Rouge BOM followed by Mimi Dietrich book signing Saturday should have me in the mood to come home and get some real work done instead of piddling along on the Halloween embroidery when I'm a car passenger.

In the meantime, at Monday's Guild meeting one of the members left a bunch of old quilt mags on the table out in the lobby. Being a relatively recent quilter, I was curious as to what was going on 10+ years ago, so I picked up a few to take home to read.

First up, I fell in love with this quilt. I couldn't get the greatest photo off a glossy magazine page, but you can click on it to enlarge to truly appreciate the color of this quilt. This was made in 2000. Reminds me a lot of Fat Cat Patterns' Fiesta BOM I started but have not finished (okay, okay, I did one block....but it's all boxed up and ready to go when I've got some free time)

I was totally a'giggle when I came across this ad for a Fons and Porter book in a magazine from 1994. Love the haircuts, ladies!

And fair is fair....here's a pretty formal looking Alex Anderson from 2000. This is most definitely a woman who has improved with age.

And if you've been to any large quilt show, you've surely had a chance to sit down and talk to John Flynn. Here he is in 1997. Give this one a click to enlarge.

While they didn't find new hairdressers, those are most certainly some stylin' specs on Marianne Fons in 2000.

And this was a real treat...this is a mini quilt made by Caryl. Bryer Fallert that was displayed at the 1994 International Quilt Festival in Houston. If I recall, it's 14" square. All I can say is Wowsers!

I've also had to do a little organization in the studio, which is another excuse for not sewing. The little devil dog has invaded the studio, having destroyed most of the cool crafty things I stored under the workbench in my workroom. One day it was my Microns and Sharpies from the basket on the sewing table shelf. Another day he pulled out more than one container (one was Vera Bradley) of note paper and shredded that all over the house, chewing the containers into non-recognition. The last straw was when he took my plastic flag dispenser from under the table. Poor Paco was walking around with little PostIt flags I use to mark patterns in the quilt mags stuck to his paws. It took me two days to find them all throughout the house.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I replaced my old wastebasket with one that closed (Tucker likes to role play as a garbage collector...fabric scraps, freezer paper....he takes it all, and I can't toss needles or pins out or he will eat them).

And all my pretty baskets of pens and papers and staplers and flags have now been stashed in two decorative boxes with magnetic closures. Pain in the ass for me, no more flags for Tucker.

I'll be back this weekend to share my August wool applique project. It just needs a hanging sleeve and then I'm done. And I think we need another giveaway. Stay tuned!