One more for 2014

Three things to be happy about:
(1) closing things out
(2) sunshine in winter
(3) many many colors

Hi everybody!   I started not to do a post for today but then I thought - hey, this is the last day of  the year!

Haven't been up to much, but here are all the letters I've made so far from the Word Play book I'm using!

Chunky chunky chunky!  I want to get the basics down before I get fancy with these, but boy are they chunky!  My least fav to make so far are the angled letters - capital R, N, X and Z.

I can see lots more practice in my future!

Get out that leader-ender project!

This is definitely a project for leader-enders, all those little pieces you have to sew onto another little piece, one at a time!  I'm working in a few stringy log-cabin blocks in between little bits.

Is there an assembly line way to do these, without getting confused??

This B looks so ... wrong!

I didn't choose the best fabric for this one, that design makes it iffy to see what the letter actually is.

The one challenge I'm having with following the book's instructions is that - for me - I'd like to have seen more specific suggestions about the length to cut the pieces, since I'm learning these flat out.  As I get more practice I'll be able to do my own thing, but as a learner I think you need more hand-holding.

So that's what I've been up to ... I awoke in the wee hours this morning and sewed a bit on my spinning star blocks for this project.

Used my last bobbin, so I thought I may as well do a whole bunch ... nothing like winding bobbins with one eye closed, I tell ya!

That's it for now, today my friend Charlene I out will venture out to the Honey Baked Ham store in search of ham bones!

I hope they have some left, I want one to cook with my black-eyed peas for tomorrow - gotta have those black-eyed peas on New Year's day!  Sew forth and sew on til later...

Playing with words

Three things to be happy about:
(1) trying new things
(2) choices
(3) italian sausages

This post should really have been called "out with the old!" because I'm just now bringing out a book I've had for well over a year!  Maybe I'll save that title for when I drag out my UFO's, eh?

For a long time I've admired the free-pieced, liberated letter quilts made by several people including Lynn at The Patchery Menagerie, and Julie at Quiltdivajulie to name a few - they look like such fun!

These are by no means the only liberated letter quilts being done, they are just two that I mentioned.

Anyway, I bought Tonya Ricucci's Word Play Quilts at the Quilters Unlimited show in Virginia last year and tucked it onto my book shelf til just the right time, which happens to be - now!

I carried the book, along with the 1", 1-1/2", 2" and 3" strips called for, to the bee on Saturday and started playing with liberated letters, and you know what?  It's actually fun!

Hey, as an added bonus I can use my pre-cut strips for these letters!

Thanks to Bonnie Hunter's scrap user's system, I smugly gladly pulled from my 1-1/2" strip bin, and I also cut some 2-1/2" strips down into the 1" and 1-1/2" sizes called for!

The book starts you out with easy capital letters; this practice gave me a chance to see what to do differently when I go to create the "real" letters!

I can already see some chunkiness I don't like and that might not work but hey, this is my first practice shot!  Mixing different colored fabrics within the same letter can work but needs to be thought about; in some letters light colors might not work as well on a light background ... and so on.

Right now I just have a "hit cloud" - later they will be a bonified "hit!"

Stay tuned for marvelous creations using these liberated letters - even I can't wait to see what I come up with!

Have a great Tuesday everybody - sew forth and sew on til later...

omg, a fire in the 'hood!

Yesterday the Sunday afternoon quiet in our neighborhood was interrupted by the sound of fire engines responding to a call - just across the street and 4 houses down from my house!

My heart was in my throat as I saw firemen in full gear running down the street past my house, fire axes in their hands.

When you live in a row house as we do, anytime the fire department responds to a call on the street, EVERYBODY pays attention!

Neighbors watching, asking each other questions no one could answer yet...

The owners of the affected house were out of town for the Christmas holiday; unfortunately for them the firemen had to chop down their door, and also break a window in a second floor bedroom to gain entry to the house.

Soon as the door was opened, their poor dog made a run for it, he was so frightened!

At this point the firemen weren't sure where the fire was, so they were also on the roof with others in the alley in back of the house.  They also entered the house next door, no one was home there either.

This was just what I saw on the front of the house, who knows what they had to do at the back!

It turns out the fire started in the basement bathroom, faulty wiring I think; the owners had arranged for someone to feed and walk their dog while they were gone.

Nobody knew how to reach the owners, and by this time the dog sitter had already come and gone for the day.

More than eight fire engines responded to this call, as well as two EMS units and the battalion chief.  Because of their quick response, the actual fire was all contained in the basement with smoke damage in other parts of the house.

Those poor people, having to return from Christmas vacation to this!  But thank God their house is still standing!

Blog at ya later, sew forth and sew on til then...