fabric and charms and spider cat.......

First of all, it is Furry Friends Friday! The brainchild of Laurie at Blue Waters...http://buttonslace.blogspot.com She decided to have a show off your pet day on Fridays..This is the second one and I thought I would post, because I think I have the most unusual and precious pets in the world...Today I will feature my new kitten, Joe Bobbin...aka jack rabbit, spider cat and crouching tiger....He hops, he romps and he climbs...just like spiderman with opposing limbs...it is the weirdest thing to see a cat climb that way...The other night I was sleeping and I heard a noise so I turned on the light. There was spider cat at the very top of the quilt hanging above my bed...he was walking along the wall and ceiling edge...strange, I thought I was dreaming but since then I have seen him do it again. He also goes on secret raids in my sewing room...Remember the little fabric tree ornaments? GONE! I had to make new ones, bottlecap pincushions? GONE.....The best thing about him? He loves me as much as I love him and is my little lap kitten....Next time I will write about Thomas who is sitting next to me getting aggravated...He came first after all....



I also got charms back....Oh I love these little beauties and I cant wait to make another necklace....so far I have an all pink one and a black and white one...This next one is going to have all different colors....I wore my pink one to the food and gift fair and five people asked me where they could buy one just like it...Pretty cool stuff and here is a picture of my pretty cool charms.......




Last of all, I have been collecting cowgirl/cowboy fabric for my cowgirl glam trailer redo....the bottom fabric is for the couch, the pin up fabric is going to become pinch pleated draperies with a lining...then I found this panel of old fashioned cowboy hankies...I am going to cut them out and line them, then build a quilt for the bed around them.....probably with forties reproduction fabrics in primary colors....Oh, I have all kinds of ideas!!!! Well, I have to go upstairs and put binding on a quilt......Go see Laurie and tell us all about your pet!!!!

Enchanted Swap and a baby boy haircut....

Today I worked on finishing my little projects for the Enchanted Ornament swap....It is all done and in the mail...Cant say to who, cause it's a secret....The swap called for one ornament but I sent three.....They were so fun to make and then I couldn't pick just one...Here is a pic of my latest one...It is a wood block , painted brown, papers modpodged on and then beeswaxed so it looks old...I used German scrap roses on top of the papers...What is more enchanted than a fairy in a rose garden?


I also included some wired Christmas ribbon, Christmas chocolates and some scented wax cubes to use in a candle burner.....I had a plain brown bag and dressed it up with paper and a tag....I love to wrap it up all cutie patootie....



Yesterday I got my Enchanted package from Valerie, the hostess herself...I gave her a challenge requesting the color pink...at least I thought it was...until I saw this bird spinner.....


and it is two birds in one, cause the other "Noel" sign is blue......



She also sent me some yummy hot cocoa and a sugarholics favorite healthy snack, snowman peeps....Can you see the ladybug in the picture? he is chocolate and according to Val, good luck so so far I have spared his little ladybug life and not succumbed to temptation.



Valerie has a swap blog and I have participated in several with her. They are always fun and I have met new people....http://yarnigrasswapperspot.blogspot.com
Thanks so much Val for the all the goodies! My beautiful pink bird spinner is already in it's new home on my front door!
I have been trying to get a quilt done too and I have been babysitting my little nephew Jace. He turned a year old in August....It has been good for me..I miss the kids so much that he helps ease some of the loss...He is so darn cute and he makes me laugh. He does a lot of sign language (we got him the baby sign language videos.)His little hands are always going...He doesn't say too much though...just with his fingers..Today I wanted to take a shower and I was worried he would get into something so I put him in the bathroom with me with some toys on the floor...I get in the shower and all of a sudden, the door rips open and there he is, screaming his head off...I take the handheld shower off the holder so he doesn't get wet and accidentally spray him down...he screams louder..I get shampoo in my eyes, cant see and spray him again...the screams at this point are piercing, somebody is killing me screams... The shower is over...all two minutes, soap still in my hair of it...I get out wrap him in a towel and love him....he calms right down...So my sister gets home and I tell her and she says "he doesn't like when you take a shower cause he wants you to take a bath so he can throw toys in the tub..." Well, gee , ok....I thought I had traumatized him for life seeing me naked in the tub then hosing him down........A bath it will be little Jace...I promise.......I gave him a haircut yesterday too....he has a ton of white blonde hair...It was everywhere...He is such a handsome little guy....Here he is in all his short hair glory.....

ornaments, hair and a fiber art challenge.....

On one of my Yahoo groups, Fiber Art Traders we had a five day, blind quilt challenge.....I am pretty pleased with how mine turned out and it was so fun seeing what everyone did! The first day was surface embellish a 9x7 piece of fabric for the top. I made fabric paper, a fabric base with tissue paper put on with diluted mod podge, threw on some dynaflow ink and added some acrylic paint....



Day two was quilt it to batting...



Day three was cut it in at least seven pieces and then sew it back together..



day four was embellish it...I couched on ribbon, more paint on fabric and added words and a few beads...




Day five was to turn it into some kind of a vessel or vase....mine was screaming to be a gift box or a funky little purse......here it is with the top open...



and a couple photos showing it closed with button and ribbon closures....





I also made ornaments for the Woodland Ornament swap....Don cut up a big branch into circles and I drew, painted, wood burned, ribboned and glued to make these mushroom.



then these little trees made out of selvadges from fabric...I saw them somewhere online and thought they were cute...



Last of all, today we went to a Christmas food and gift fair...I have gone before to the ones in Portland and Seattle so thought this would be fun. I took my camera in case there were any new crafty ideas I could sneak a picture of. Surprisingly, there was very little Christmasy things...Mostly gift things and vendors...We were walking down the aisle and a girl stopped me and said she wanted to do my hair. My feet were tired so I sat down and she took out a flat iron and started curling my hair with it...and it looked so shiny and pretty...took just a few minutes and I was hook lined and sinkered...As you all know, (or maybe you dont) I compalin about my hair all the time, frizzy curl...yuk...I have a straightener but it doesnt make my hair look like this one did and I could use it and make it work!



and it is so cute......tattoos all over it, almost like a piece of art....



and here is the real art.... my hair looks good...Even I am happy, so the gift show was a success, crafts or no....

Before and afters.....

Here it is, the upstairs room, I have mentioned it a zillion times, and now, the big reveal....Here is the before....ratty carpet, just kind of blah. This actually shows it after we cleared out all the stuff that was stored up here. There was only a little pathway to my sewing room.








We took out the nasty carpet and the old fifties tiles beneath the carpet. Underneath there were really nice planks but there were a lot of gaps. We cleaned them up and then pulled them up and moved them close together. Went to Lowes and bought a few more planks to fill in...




then I put primer on them and painted the planks and the stairs in the jungle green color. The orange paint was free...leftovers from my sister. Bf ran electricity and put in three outlets. I painted the door mural and made all the pillows and the curtains. We got the bedspreads on clearance for 20.00 a piece and the beds are heavy duty army cots...This room with everything, was under a 100.00 total and the cheap in me just loves it!!! The mural was inspired by an art quilt in a Quilting Arts magazine. The quilt was made by Tom Russell...I saw it and thought it would be perfect on the door...The kids toy bins fit under the beds and I am going to have them make pictures to frame for the walls....So what do you think?

The pillow queen....

I just came down from my sewing room and I am pooped. Tonight I finished the room upstairs and it looks great. My last project up there is done, woohoo! This evening I made four pillow shams and four throw pillows. The mural on the door is finished and sealed and the door is hung. I have two kitty's who are happily trying out the new beds upstairs. I feel a pretty big sense of accomplishment..This was our first project together as a couple and I think we make a great team...He does all the electrical and man labor and I sew and paint. I will post pictures, before and after, tomorrow...
Yesterday I made a journal page for the nature journal swap and I also made a bird card. The weather has been so beautiful that I took the pictures outside. It sure doesnt feel like November here and I am grateful for the blue sky and sunshine!



I have to show off the knitted scarf that I won from Robin in her blog giveaway too...It is really cute with my denim jacket...I know sooner or later the weather is going to get cold and I will enjoy wearing this litte beauty. They are little Christmas stockings...too cute!


I also wanted to share two blog giveaways with you all....The first one is Jeans...
http://quiltingranny.blogspot.com
She is giving away a bunch of stuff but the best thing is a Moda pack of Christmas fabrics..I am hoping I win that one! She has a giveaway every month and this is her November one....



Then there is a giveaway at http://prairieflowerfarm.blogspot.com for this beautiful frame with a saying...Go enter even though I still hope to win!

lots of projects....

I have my hands in so many things right now, you would think I am crazy..I am getting a few things finished though so maybe the end is in sight....Right after the room upstairs is finished, the interior of the trailer and everything in between. The upstairs is about complete and the main thing I have been doing is painting a mural on the door for the kids....I finished it tonight and it was a big undertaking! All I really have to do for the room is make pillows to tie it all together. It is bright and colorful, I will say that...My dad said he needed sunglasses..
I also am working on a quilt for a lady's 90th birthday..She wants a lap robe and she is pretty tiny so I am making a baby size yellow brick road and instead of using batting, I am going to put aqua colored minkee on the back...I have never done it before, but I think it will be nice and warm and snuggly for her..I am all about the snuggles

Today we went to Sandy Utah and I went to a couple of quilt stores...I had all kinds of fun and got all kinds of ideas...Didn't buy too much though, afraid to start anything else at the moment! On the way back, I saw a Home Fabric store and we decided to stop..We have been looking at fabric to recover the sofa and the dinette benches in the little trailer...With the cost of home dec fabric, we were thinking about 200.00. I was shocked and so happy when we went in this store! They had all the same beautiful fabrics but the top price was 9.00 a yard. I about fell over...I found the most incredible sale area and I got 7 yards of 54" home dec fabric for 21.00....holy crap! I even got fancy cording to use like welting around the edges for 1.00 a yard...They also have free classes that I would love to take. I will go back to that store for sure. It makes it worth it too sew....
I also wanted to let you know that Thomas has accepted little Joe Bobbin now...He tried to be aloof, but he finally gave in...They are so cute...