Felt Thingy and Something Much Nicer

One of my favorite design blogs is How About Orange.  Jessica has a great variety of content and a wonderful eye for form and color.  About a million years ago I pinned this cute project she blogged about intending to make it.  Then several months ago, I finally got around to doing it.

Right from the start though, I was a bit doomed.  In the first place, instead of using lovely soothing high quality felt, I just decided I'd use what I had which is that weird polyestery-feeling cheapo craft felt.  Don't get me wrong, it's useful for tons of things, but not when you're going for a lush wooly feeling.

My next error was deciding that instead of using one color (like she did) to make the pattern stand out, I'd use ALL THE COLORS.  Very bright neony ones too.  Then, instead of just trying a few squares to see if I liked the way it went together, I cut up about seventy five little squares of felt. Just jumped in with both feet; cliched, I know.  When I finally started assembling the squares I realized that my cuts weren't perfect.  They were ok, but in order for the whole thing to assemble nicely, the cuts need to be exactly right and the materials high quality.  I assembled some of it, but it was rumpled, felt icky, and looked like skittle vomit (sorry).

Alas; I was so frustrated by my lack of success that I shoved it, and all the extra pieces, back into my felt/embroidery bin, there to remain ignored and forgotten until the studio cleanup last night.  Then, in the interest of crossing things off my list, I decided I would either throw it away (thanks Leah for encouraging us to have the strength to do this when necessary) or "finish" it.  I looked at it for a while and was strongly leaning towards tossing it in the "tiny fabric scraps to use for stuffing things bin" when I flipped it over and realized the errors weren't so obvious from the back and the pattern was more soothing since there were fewer corners.  Of course due to the imperfect cuts, it didn't really hold together terribly well and there were all these floppy corners so I just "quilted" over the whole thing in a grid.

So here is the finished front:  terrible, no?  It looks like something I might have made in the third grade (with my apologies to the third graders out there).  Definitely a far cry from this.

But here's the back.  Not so bad I think.  I'm going to use it as a mug rug next to my hand sewing chair.  I think it will actually look cute sitting on my happy pink side table.

Finally, some redeeming beautiful art;  I was lucky enough to be the winner of Nina Lise Moen's generous giveaway.  She sent me two of her beautiful art quilts- they're each about 8 x 10 ish and perfectly designed to hang as a diptych.  I find them to be very soothing, and I love looking closely at them to see all the wonderful different fibers and surface design techniques she incorporated.  Just feast your eyes!

Thanks again Nina Lise!

Yellowstone

We're back from our trip and settling in at home again.  My family is coming to visit us this weekend so I'm scurrying around getting things prepared just now.  We had a lovely time in Yellowstone, perfect weather, no internet/phone, and the most dynamic geology I've seen anywhere.  Rather than subject you to a boring travelogue, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.

And just a couple videos;  the mudpots were my very favorite thing!

Hope you are all enjoying back-to-school season.

Plans for the New Year!

I'm not a big fan of new years resolutions, but I do like to make goals for the new year and think a little bit about what I've accomplished in the previous year.

Back in June I wrote a post on my in-progress but unfinished projects.  I've tried really hard not to start any new big projects and have made good projects on these.  I thought it would be good to update and start a new list for 2012.

1. Purple Medallion Quilt:.-Update completely finished!  Final blog post to come soon.
2. Hawaiian Applique Quilt: Update-Completely finished!  I think I'm going to donate this one to the women and children's shelter in Ruidoso.
3. Dog Portraits: Update- no progress here.
4. Nativity Mosaic Quilt: Update- no progress here.  I've decided that regardless of other projects, I'm going to start working on this one in July so it will be finished by next Christmas.
5. Visions of God Group Church Quilt: Update-Completely finished!
6. Large S Quilt: Update-Completely finished!
7. Small Caryl Fallert Blocks: Update-Completely finished!
8. Grandmother's Flower Garden Project: Update- I used a few of these blocks for Christmas mug rugs but then pieced 10 more.  I think I'll just keep them around as happy blocks to use as needed.
9. Miniature Whole Cloth Quilt: Update-Completely finished!


So, only two main projects left as UFOs at the end of 2011.  They'll go at the top of my list for 2012.  My overall goal in 2012 is to focus on my larger quilt projects as much as possible.  I love to do small, finish-it-quickly projects too, they give such a sense of accomplishment, but they do delay progress on my more involved stuff.

UFOs/Projects already started going into 2012 are:

1. Dog Portraits
2. Nativity Mosaic Quilt
3. Super-secret Embroidery Project
4. Crocheted Sweater
5. Silk-screened Prints
6. Studio!

Large/Currently Planned New Projects to tackle in 2012

1. Diaper bag for Becky
2. Swap quilt for blog name swap over at Samelia's Mum.
3. Still Life Art Quilt
4. Granny Square Sampler
5. Amy Butler's Weekender Bag
6. Baby Quilt

I'm sure there are more, but these seem like enough to start with!  Kudos for anybody still reading after all this wordiness!  I appreciate the space to work out my thoughts and plans.  I hope you all are looking forward to creative exploration in 2012!

Christmas Giveaways

Today I just want to give a fabulous thanks to the ladies who sponsored the giveaways I won before the holidays.  As part of the big giveaway weeks over at the Quilting Gallery and Sew Mama Sew, I entered many many generous giveaways, and was lucky enough to win four.

Thanks so much to Andrea over at Stitch Parade from whom I won this adorable clutch.  I love the gold accents in the fabric that pick up the frame.  It's fabulous and now residing in my giant purse from whence I can retrieve it for any time when I don't want to drag the whole bag around.

Thanks also to Sally over at Sally's Quilting Corner who gave away a yard cut of this cute green fabric.  It's perfect for my stash,  I don't have very many lights, and this green and white print is perfect.

I was also lucky enough to win this little plaid pouch from Kathy over at Running With Rocket.  I really love the black plaid; I'm always too chicken to use plaid since getting it lined up can be a challenge.  This is super for carrying around hand projects and I was very excited to win it.

Finally,  Diane over at Random Thoughts do or "di"  sent this fabulous frame bag, a bunch of great patterns, and a really generous pile of large scraps because I won her giveaway by guessing her favorite Christmas song/artist. The bag is really large!  When I saw it on the giveaway link, I thought it was like a coin purse, but it's really much bigger, maybe 10 x 10 or so.  I have the perfect set of stuff to put in it; I've been looking for a pouch that size for some time.  I love that orange polka dot fabric on the inside and it even has a pocket!

So many many thanks to these wonderful ladies.  I was so excited to win some giveaways, and next year I will definitely join in and sponsor one.  The whole event was very fun!  All four of these ladies have lovely blogs, you should definitely peek in and check them out!

Ornaments for the Boys

I hope as many of you as possible are still enjoying relaxing holiday time with your families.  Or, if your family is anything like mine, that you are enjoying fabulous-but-not-relaxing holiday time.  I thought I'd just drop in a put up a quick post about some ornaments I made this year as Christmas presents since they've now been given to their recipients.

This is Mike and I's third Christmas together and every year I've made him an ornament.  They're usually non-traditional things since he doesn't much go in for normal crafty Christmas decorations.  This year I was casting around for an idea and settled on the Sons of Anarchy.  For those of you who don't know, Sons of Anarchy is a TV drama about a criminal motorcycle gang.  It's actually a pretty good drama, but I don't really watch it.  Mike watches is all the time though, and I thought the juxtaposition of the crazy Sons of Anarchy logo with the jollity of a Christmas ornament was actually entertaining.  The back says Merry Christmas from SAMCRO (sons of anarchy  motorcycle club redwood original).

 I also made up this cute Texas Rangers ornament for my brother-in-law.  I didn't have much for his stocking except a chocolate bar dressed as a penguin, but he's a big Ranger's fan so I thought this would be cute and sort of manly.  Sadly, I was having a disagreement with my sewing machine the day I made these, so the execution isn't perfect, but I think they're cute anyway.

Happy second day of Christmas!  Any turtle doves around?

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to stop in and say Merry Christmas to all of you who stop by my small corner of the internet.  I'm so grateful and blessed to be able to spend this holiday with my wonderful family, and I hope you are all able to celebrate in whatever way brings you joy.

I can't believe it's already been seven months since I started blogging, it seems like yesterday when I wrote my first post.  It's been wonderful to start to make bloggy friends; you guys are such a great source of inspiration and creativity!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
All the best-
Shannon, Mike, and the Mutts

The Christmas Tree Skirt

I hope you aren't tired of old-Christmas-craft-projects-with-stories yet.  If you are, not to worry, regular quilting and WIPs return on Wednesday!

But today I wanted to share my Christmas tree skirt with you.  Back when I was very young, long before any of us were quilters, my Mom and her friend Susan made a whole bunch of these patchwork Christmas tree skirts.  They're tied, and they each kept one and gave several to the church to sell in the annual bazaar.

Fast forward twenty years, I was ready to have a Christmas tree of my very own for the first time and needed a skirt.  When I asked my mom about the pattern, she found not only the pattern but stacks and stacks of leftover pre-cut squares from all those years ago!  It was so exciting to get to make my Christmas tree skirt with the same fabrics as my mom's. Since I just had the leftovers, I didn't have quite enough of each fabric to make the complete pattern (thus the couple randomly out of place) but I love it all the same!

Here it is under our tree this year

And here's a terrible picture of it under our fabulous traditional NM Christmas tree two years ago.

This is my Mom's version, complete with my little dog Bullett napping on top (he thinks it's like a giant dog bed).

My mom also gave one to my grandmother- here it is at her house with my dad in his typical Christmas Hawaiian shirt a couple of years ago.

So now you've had lots of pictures of my favorite Christmas tree skirts.  I've seen some pretty cute ones around the web though (this one in particular is adorable).  What type of tree skirt do you guys use?

They don't look like ornament scavenging monsters

And yet.  Here are my fabulous-not-so-innocent pups pretending they're angelic canines and haven't been living on a steady diet of precious Christmas tree ornaments all week.  I mean, how can you stay mad at those faces.

Favorite Christmas Ornaments

I got out our Christmas decorations earlier this week and Mike set up the Christmas tree.  This is the first time ever (ever!) I've used an artificial Christmas tree, and I find it pretty upsetting in a first-world-problem-way-bigger-issues-to-worry about kind of way.  It's a lovely tree that was given to us by my uncle, but ever since I was a little girl we have always gone up into the mountains and cut a New Mexico Piñon Pine for our Christmas tree.  In the past few years, we've done that and brought it back, but five hundred miles with a tree on the car is less than ideal for anyone so we thought we'd skip it this year.  We did go hunt for a tree for my parents, so that tradition was preserved at least, and I was very happy.  It snowed on us while we were traipsing around up in the mountains, so it felt very Christmassy, but as the snow was unexpected we were all quite cold.

Anyway,  that's kind of off-topic from the crafty goodness I wanted to share today, and that's ornaments!  I could ramble nostalgically about almost every single ornament I have (and most of my mom's) but then you would get very bored (just ask Mike).  Suffice it to say that most of our ornaments are handmade "projects" or purchased from artists or commemorate an event and all of them fill me with happy yummy memories.  Here are a small selection of favorites, shown either because I really love them, or because I haven't seen to many like them around the internet.

My mom made these two fun styrofoam and glitter ornaments about 30 years ago.  She was ready to throw them out but I love them so snatched them away!

As with many of my ornaments, the second one has been a little dog-eaten.  And speaking of dogs, here are two dog-angel ornaments I made for my pups a few years back.  Alas, my Angel dog is no longer with us.  In the bottom picture on the left you can also see a fun crocheted glass-ball-coozy.  My mom and I made several of those some Christmases ago.  I  think that's the only one I have left.

The last couple of years I've made Mike (who is not interested in Christmas decorations at all) an ornament reflecting his interests.  In 2009, I made him this double-sided one after he got all excited and yelled, "They have wi-fi!" after seeing the amphitheater/ranger talk symbol at a state park.  

Last year I made him this felt one in honor of his favorite iPhone app, Evernote

Here are a couple crafty ones from when I was a kid.  The angel is entirely made out of different types of pasta.  The next one the simplest version of the infinitely variable styrofoam-ball-crafted-ornament, but I love the sparkly sequins.   The third one is a corn-husk doll ornament that we made back in the late 1980s at a Little House on the Prairie themed Girl Scout Day Camp (I also remember making sunbonnets).  I've always loved her although she's a bit worse for wear.

These two balls were made last year for Mike and me by a good friend of my dad.  In addition to glitter in the stripes, they're also coated in seed beads which give them a really fun texture, and was something I'd never thought of!

I made this one a few years ago out of an old piece of x-ray film and a silver paint pen.  It was for the top of my tree back before I crocheted the angel, but I still love to hang it even though it's now been displaced from the premier spot.

When we were growing up, my Mom used to give my sister and I an ornament every year.  Sometimes it was from an artist with our name/date and sometimes it was a unique ornament from someplace we visited.  One Christmas we went to Mexico, and my mom picked out these little matchbox nativity ornaments.  Sadly, the dog ate mine a couple of years later.  By chance, my sister mentioned this to her mother-in-law Mary Alyce who happened to have a similar matchbox nativity ornament.  I was so stunned when Mary Alyce just sent it to me out of the blue, and now every Christmas I have happy thoughts about her while decorating the tree.  You can also see a cute cross-stitch goose that my mom made.

Here are a few more from when I was a kid.  We made the little pearl-on-wire angels when I was younger, and in the background you can see several of the "yearly" clay ornaments.  At the bottom is an old New Mexico ornament which is one of my current favorites.

Finally, one store-bought ornament to close with. I just have to show you Darth Vader's TIE fighter in case there are any other Star Wars geeks out there.  It plugs into the light string so you can see the little illuminated Darth Vader in there.  This was actually my brother-in-law's but he gave it to me and I love it!

Sorry for the super-long post!  I edited out as many ornaments as I could, but I couldn't resist showing some of them.  I hope you are all enjoying advent and your own holiday preparations!  Any favorite ornament memories or stories out there you'd like to share?

Ozarks

Mike and I took our (now annual) fall trip to Arkansas this weekend, so not much quilting or crafting going on around here.  It was a fabulous weekend for riding, and I love it up there in the Ozarks.  The mountains are very small compared to the ones I grew up in, but they are mountains all the same.  It was so nice to be outside in such nice cool-ish weather after the miserable summer we've all had here in the dust bowl.

We didn't stay in Eureka Springs this year but we did stop there on Saturday so I made my regular stop at the quilt store there.  It's run by this nice man who moved to Eureka from Hawaii a while back and one half is Hawaiian gifts store, complete with dancing hula girl and sea shells and the other half is Hawaiian quilt store.  He has lots of Hawaiian applique patterns (never again for me after this) and lots of tropical fabric and pretty batiks. I resisted buying any fabric this year but did get several small skeins of perle cotton in a nice fall palette.  I'll show them once I decide what to do with them.  I also refrained from buying any pottery in the great galleries this year since last year the goblet I got for my mom broke in the motorcycle on the way home even though it was well-wrapped.    I hope you guys had a nice weekend!  I'll see you back here on Wednesday with more project-y goodness.

Mike drives,  I take pictures!

And finally, to give you a Monday morning giggle; a terrible picture of me and Mike after three days of helmet hair.  I should have put on a ball cap.