Moving Cards

Well I am a bit miss in posting this week. Last week I had to run up to Oregon to finally lay my MIL to rest so to speak. This was the final transition of her death and was just waiting for my FIL to be able to proceed. I know this was very hard for him. They had been married for 62 year and were married at 18. That's a long time together.

Any hoo between finishing my second quilt and going to Oregon I haven't had much scrappy time. Frankly this whole quilting thing is taking over my life and I am not sure I like it. Granted I won't be going gung ho, I like things that are easy and that means my quilts need to be as simple as possible.

In the midst of all this my mother has sold her home and is now trying to find a new place to live so I have been helping her house hunt. Here in California by the time you go to an open house its sold, it's really very crazy. But she has to move one way or the other and I decided to come up with a few cards she can send to her friends to let them know her new address. I was going to do a bunch of just one design but somehow I couldn't resist making different ones.

I don't have a stamp that says I've Moved so I had to resort to some alpha stamps, not all that fond of them but hey they do the job.

So here are the first two.

I colored this one with copics

 

And this one was painted with watercolor crayons. 

I did it!

Yea, I am so happy I completed one of the two superhero quilts that I am making for my grandsons. I took my time and just worked on it here and there and finally I completed one. There were at least two full days quilting this guy. I will say there are many, many flaws but if you don't look too closely it looks pretty perfect and the bottom line is it will do the job.

 

I originally decided to just bind it with the red color but at the last minute knew this would look a little bit better if I binded it with something else and decided to use the leftover Avenger's fabric.

 

I then quilted each border with a different design. The blue was just straight stitching, the yellow I did free range (i.e. just me moving the needle around) and then the red I used an arrow template that was a bit more of a challenge but I think it kind of adds to the feel of the quilt

 

This was a basic nine patch quilt and I just stitched in the ditch (on top of the seams) and did some guess work or rather visualization on the larger squares since there was no seam other than to the adjoining squares.

 

Here it is in it's entirety. I used a sheet for the backing so there is nothing fancy going on for the backside but on my next quilt I think I will definitely do a pattern fabric, which I already have planned to make. Something for my son this time, but first I need to finish the other superhero quilt which just needs to be quilted and binded.

 

I also have in the line up a quilt for my mother and ahem two Halloween quilts. For all you scrappers out there those stinking scrapbook companies like Basic Grey, Doodlebug and Bella Blvd all make fabric. If you think it's hard to resist scrapbooking papers well let me just tell you quilt fabric is just as evil er tempting. I saw some absolutely cute Bella Blvd Halloween fabric and I couldn't resist. So shamefully I bought it and of course plan to make my dd something.

Clean and Simple

So here I am again using up more Project Life cards. To be honest I don't set out thinking I am going to use them it's just that I can't find any pp in my stash that I like for the page. I was actually thinking of purging most of pp and just start using my PL cards.

Ironically I bought these PL cards way back when online and when I got them I just didn't care for them, they were a disappointing purchase so for me to actually use them and not just one card but three I feel kind of good about that.

I keep looking at this page feeling like I need to add more, but then when I do it's too much or unbalanced and I know that will just lead to me trying to add more and more so I have decided to go minimalist on it. I think it works.

Getting Ready For Christmas

Yes you read that right, I am getting ready for Christmas and given that it's nearly 7 months away I am ahead of the game. Or at least I hope to stay that way.

I decided to keep those previously made zipper bags as Christmas gifts, my son's party stored closed so I bought some toys for the grandkids at deep discounts and I finished two rag quilts. I made these bigger than the one I made for my little granddaughter and I have just one more to make.

I have to say I am kind of sick of looking a Christmas colors. I think I have had an overdose working on these two quilts but I love how soft they are. It's that Minky fabric, but I call it kitty soft..because it's like petting a kitty.

I didn't use a kit this time but found a bunch of colors that seemed to go together, a few of them were Christmas themed so it helped pull it altogether.

And ignore my husband's work boots in the photo, I didn't realize they were there until I went to post.

Here is the backside of one of them so you can see how they are flat on the back but ruffled on the front.

Sending Birthday Wishes

Doing a little experimenting with some distress inks for that watercolor effect. I found an old Hero Arts stamp that had different sized circles on it. I then inked it using Tim Holtz distress ink and stamped it onto a clear block, misted with water and then pressed my paper on top of the block. I did this with three different colors and not satisfied with the yellow I gave it a final stamp directly on the card with the ink that was still remaining on the stamp.

Added a bit of washi tape on the edge of the base card, popped up my water color card and then finished it off with some sequins, enamel dots, a die cut sentiment from Simon Says stamp and a tag that I also stamped and die cut from more Simon Says products.

Birthday Memories

Been busy this weekend sewing, getting closer to finishing my superhero quilts but trying to pace myself so I don't over do it. Which according to my husband I do a lot. Push myself so trying to retain that energy that wants me to sew into all hours of the night so I can be done.

That means I need to take more breaks and venture back into my crafty room for a different kind of fun.

Made this layout for my dh, mixing both old and new supplies. I bought the Magic stamp set from Mama Elephant to use for my Disney PL/Pages but really can be used on anything. The old is that background pp from Crate Paper along with some thickers. Also used more PL cards, the silhouette to cut the Memories title, wood veneer, ink splatters and enamel dots.