Friday, October 31, 2008

Almost Black Cat and Friend




The black and pink (not very Halloweenish) cat and his companion the elephant are the latest of my creations. This photo doesn't do justice to the elephant's nose. It has a very nice curve at the end. I have more variations in the works for this basic pattern which I hope to share soon.

Friday, October 17, 2008

My Matryoshka

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I've been very busy sewing. This is a good thing. Two scrap quilts have been cut out. The center of one is completely sewn. It just needs borders. I walked into one of my favorite fabric stores and found the border fabric in just about 2 minutes. I'm still working on the four patch squares for the other one. As well as sewing quilt tops, I've been making fun small things. I'm involved in several swaps at Swap-bot. These swaps can be helpful for stimulating creativity. Anyway there is a Matryoshka doll swap which lead me to create my own. Yes, they do nest. Some more details need to be added, like some decorative embroidery. Because I'm so pleased with the way these turned out, I'm sure they will multiply in my sewing room, hopefully faster than the dust bunnies.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Dust Bunnies and Scrap Quilts

I'm not vacuuming. I've been cutting and sewing scrap quilts. So far I've cut out two quilts and it hasn't even made a dent in the scrap pile. The scraps multiply like dust bunnies. I should know. There are plenty of them in my house. You know it's time to vacuum when the dust bunnies get as large as the smallest animal in the house. Wouldn't want them to take over the animals or anything like that. But back to quilting. I love scrap quilts, especially brightly colored ones. My family loves them too. They use them while reading, napping, watching t.v. and a variety of other activities. Now back to sewing.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Monkey, monkey, monkey

I've spent the last week making monkeys and other fun stuffed animals. The monkeys were designed for a swap. I also went to the bay area for a few days. Got to shop in Los Gatos. Located there are three of my favorite cookware stores: Williams-Sonoma, Sur la table and Domus. Also checked out a fabric/bead store called Natural Expressions. They had a great selection of fabric and beads. How good does it get? For a light snack we got cookies from the bakery, Icing on the Cake. Before I left I managed to go to Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore. I love Japanese craft books. I was lucky enough to get the current issue of Cotton Time. They have some very fun projects in that magazine.