Family Matter

Okey, I finally went to Hobby Lobby to get pellets for this chicken. (lol)
So tonight I made the special stain with an instant coffee and a little bit of water according to Vicki Bilek, I brushed the three balls and that cute chicken. My daughter wanted to join me, so I mostly let her work on staining them. She really had a blast doing it!! (yup, she is lefty~)
Don't you think those balls look like huge meatballs???!!!

This is about 2 hours after we stained them. The coffee color doesn't seem to show on the chicken, though. I might have to put second coat on after they get completely dry. I'm so glad that I went to Vicki's demonstration to see how to age primitive stuff the other day. Watching somebody's technique like this is very helpful for the beginner like me. I will make more primitive stuff by using this simple staining technique. Ooops, I forgot to tell you that I was supposed to put some appliques on all of the balls and the chicken too!! I realized that after staining was done, so I will have to add the applique patches on them later...
That's why I told you, I'm a beginner... (lol)

Here is another on going project. This is from Capricorn Quilts BOM by Bea. I just finished this Aprl pattern last night. Maybe within a couple of month I will decide the quilt design with these BOM stitchery. It will be so adorable!

I wish there would be more than 24 hours a day except for nap time...

By the way I got this goooodies from my boss today!! He thought today was "Administrative Assistant" Day (it was actually last Wednesday) and gave me these for showing his appreciation. In my position I sometimes take care of not only my boss but also other associates and thier families from our home country. So I guess he really feels thankful what I've been doing for them almost 24/7.
Wooo, yummy~!!

Fit to Frame, not to My Schedule...

I have been working on this little quilt lately called "Fit to Frame" by Lori Smith. This is BOM and each BOM has 4 different pattens in it. At first I was hoping to make all of them within a month. Well, This may not be the case for this BOM. I chose this applique quilt as the first one. I don't even remember when I started making it. It's been maybe over 2 weeks now?! I am still in the middle of flower appliques. The left side has three more flowers and a couple of buds on it. There are more project going along with this, but I can't even set this aside to move to another quilt.

I also noticed that since this is BOM kit, I thought it has complete fabrics to fit all appliques and the other 3 patterns, but I am having a hard time to compromise color choice for particular pieces such as leaves. Their greenish fabrics have more color in them and if I use them for leaves, they don't look like leaves to me. I wanted to stick with the fabrics in the kit only, but I had to pull my own fabrics to make some pieces look more real and better look.
I have a couple more BOM kit that I should start by now, but this is a good lesson for me.
Review all fabrics in the kit and imagine how the quilt would look like only if I should use those fabrics.

Although this BOM has 4 patterns per month, I think I would make one at each month IF I feel like it, otherwise the rest will be going to my stock drewer to wait for some other time...

Slowly but surely...

It's been so busy and I have been taking care of a lot of stuff lately not only physically handling things but mentally/emotionally tackling them. That makes me more tired and frustrated. So I have not quite done quilting for that reason... Not really. I've finally finished quilting all blocks of old Thimbleberry's BOM (I posted a few days ago) I still have to quilt borders, but I just took a break from that one.

Then I just finished this little quilt from Bits and Pieces book. The size of this quilt is about 20x18 inches and I almost forgot about putting buttons on each light block. I chose really simple diagonal quilt lines and I think it turned out okey.





I don't want to make any excuse for not having made any CWD/L blocks lately, but I just did not feel like doing that for a while. As I visited other quilters' blog in the last few days and saw their wonderful blocks and passionate comment on that project, my desire for it has come back to me! So I grabbed the fabrics tonight and made this block. This block is called "A Little Bloth" (p.173)on CWLLQ book. So far I've finished 15 pieces of blocks for this project.
VERY SLOW.... oh well.

Chicken and Ball

Last Saturday I went to a local quilt shop to see the demonstration for making fabric look distressed by Vicki Bilek of Tickled Primitive . She is also from local town in Ohio and I was able to talk with her for a while before the demonstration and she even gave me a little nice tip for this process prior to her demo.There were about 7 people who came to the class and some were quilters and others were crafters. The demo was only 30 minutes long but Vicki showed us the process of aging the primitive figurines that she made (you might see them on her website) and it looked so simple. She basically uses instant coffee and a paint brush to dye the finished stuff.

She brought some finished samples with many patterns that I could not ignore to buy (lol). After the demonstration she stayed in the classroom to answer questions from us and later on I looked through all patterns to choose from. Then I chose this cute chicken with balls and the pumpkin patterns.

Here is what I made so far. When I read the instructions for this chicken, I realized that I did not have pellets to add weight on it, so I will have to go to craft store to get it soon! I will make two more balls and start dyeing with coffee. I can't wait to finish this little cuties!!

Sweet Land of Liberty

More BOM package has arrived today!!
I have seen the Sweet Land of Liberty BOM working group on the blogland a few months ago and I kind of decided that I would get this BOM as my B-day gift.
TaDa~~~! Yup, the package came in today and I was so excited about opening it. Look at those fabrics!! mouth watering collection, aren't they??
I hope I can start working on this (too) soon.

So far my BOMs & current project are:

1. Fit to Frame (by Lori Smith)
2. Home Sweet Home (by Blackbird Designs)
3. Civil War Diary/Love Letter Quilt
4. Patchwork Party 2008 Summer Edition
5. Sweet Land of Liberty

I can't believe that I have started all of them this spring!!!!!! I hope I can survive this overwhelming quilt wave!! (lol)

On Going Quilt

I've been working on this sampler quilt over a year now. This is from "Big Book of Quilt Blocks" by Lynette Jensen. I started this BOM by myself and one of my quilt friends joined me later. It was fun to make each block and I learned alot about easy piecing technique from it.

Well I have 4 more blocks and border to quilt. Hopefully I will finish this quilt within a month. Since I made this quilt, I have not made anything out of her book. Her fabric choice and design are beautiful, but I would rather make more folk art quilt like not in such strict form (corner to corner of pieces dont' have to match...) to show more charm in the quilt. This is just my opinion so please don't get me wrong...

I will resume working on CWD/LQ project this week. Many quilt projects are going on at the same time!!

Sewing Case

I finished the house sewing case. The house piece is about 6 inches long and it was just simple to put them all together, just a little bit of time consuming. I used wool pieces for the flap of the pincushion as well as a spool applique.

I referred this design from Japanese quilt book by Yoko Saito. I like her taste of fabric choice and quilt technique. I have been into more American quilters lately, but I realize that some Japanese professional quilters as well as designers are so talented and have very unique taste of design and originarity. Only thing I am not into for now is "taupe" colors, maybe someday...

Happy B-day to ME!! :)

GONE SHOPPING FOR MY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEKEND!!!

(If you see a 40+year-old gal with a loooooong shopping lists
at several quilt shops, it will be ME!! hehe)

More Houses?

I don't mean to ignore my UFOs, but I am working on this cute house(s) lately. See another house is being built next to the finished one? The both houses will be transformed to something else! Stay tuned!!

Goodies & On Going Project

I got mail yesterday and a wonderful goodies came in!!
On Caryn's blog the other day, she was offering a few extra "Lincoln's photo" block for CWDQ project by asking comment on her blog, so I did. Then she drew my name!! Lucky me!

She sent me not only that block, but also other her handmade embroidary kitchen towel, a nice FQ, and a cute scissors charm! Thank you a million, Caryn!!!

This afternoon I was cruising other quilters' blog and visited Pamina at Quilts on the Way. She showed her progress of Home Sweet Home house blocks. She finished the fifth one and they were all so beautiful! Well, this HSH project is one of my on going project too. I just have not worked on that for a while since I made the third one. So, I think I show my version of HSH blocks here. Each block is almost 20 inches square and of course the appliques are easy to make because of the size. As I received Pamina's inspiration, I will get back on the track of this project soon! Thanks, Pamina!!

Confusing matter

Since I joined CW quilt block ring, the system has been changed drastically (to me, at least) and I am not able to reenter my website in the ring and of course my website is not listed any more. I've tried to fix this problem through that webring and the leader of the ring, however, nothing seems to be working.
It is just confusing to me. I can't explain what's wrong in words, but I've given up on coming back to the ring any more.
I belong to other webring and the leader has changed to another webring for us to transfer, so we don't have to deal with the same Webring any more. Well, something to think about...

So, the ring member, please remember although my website is not listed, I am continuing working on CWQB project with all of you until I finish it.
Where is my goal line, by the way???

Nice weekend

Finally we've got a gorgeous sunshine today! Temperature was going up to lower 70's and it was very nice being outside. Hopefully such nice weather will continue for a while, especially tomorrow is my daughter's first soccer game of this spring season. Just keep my fingers crossed!!

Here are some quilt/craft subject.












I have all of finished Bea's BOM stitchery last week. There was some typo in one of these BOM, so I will redo it this week for up to date. These stitchery are just relaxing and fun to work on.

My another BOM has arrived!
This is called "Fit to Frame" by Lori Smith. There are four small quilts to make every month (if I want to) and they look easy to make. Only thing I need is my effort and a little bit of extra time.(lol) So I chose the applique one (aka Flowers for My Love). Look at those fabric collection that the shop sent me. Very nice taste, don't you think?
I will post this progress photos soon! Stay tuned!!!

*update*
Due to the possible copyright violation, the photo of BOM has been removed.
I will add another photo without pattern later.