Blue tumblers... or are they thimbles??

Ah hand sewing! I was putting away the blue scrap bin then thought... hmmm what if I used these really small scraps for tumblers of different sizes? Will they go together?

some of them are 1" Some 1.5" and some 2.5"

Close enough!

It snowballed. Like eating potato chips I couldn't make just one.

I'm totally obsessed now.

sew them into strips then decide how to place the strips...

Will I add a strip now and then?
Will I put a little and medium next to each other?

Separate them with bigger ones?

Now that they crossed over from an idea to a project to an obsession....
They need a carrying case!

This little make-up case will do for now.
Til the project out grows it.

I printed the thimbles onto card stock and cut them out to make templates... here
http://www.quiltviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/thimbles1.pdf

little ziplocks for each size, little snips of fabric rough-cut ready to baste, with thread or glue

I don't know what got me going but it's very fun. Could be the colors, the mindless aspect of same shape with the choices of color placement and design still there to make it interesting. It's small but it's teaching me as I go, and it's really quick to make too.
Whatever the reason, I am enjoying the process so much.
Update: MORE is BETTER!

This picture skews to blue but I have added in bits of ruby red, purple and green. And this weel little perfectly placed little scrap of what looks like a spirograph drawing. Remember those?

All pieces someone else would have thrown away.
I'm obsessed with color!

sofa, TV and a dress

I have had a lot of fun lately using my blue scraps.
The RSC2016 party going on is celebrating the color blue. Following my mantra of "USE IT!" this year, I tried some patterns from a book I bought called The paper pieced home.

My review?
While I love the designs, so many of them clever retro items...
While I love paper piecing...
I do not enjoy the format of these patterns.

So you print them out from a cd. The author has not added seam allowances or broken the pattern into sections. You have to cut VERY CAREFULLY on the little blue line to create sections.

I wish I had taken each section to the copier and printed again because having no seam allowances to sew through made the whole process very unstable. Grrrrrr. Rip, rip, rip.

That being said, I might have to do 12 sofas in rainbow colors this year. AFTER I print out the sections again this time with seam allowances all around. That might make the section joining easier. It just makes me cross to pay for a pattern and it doesn't do what you expect.

The little paper doll dress is cute but again, rejoining 9 sections on a little block is annoying when they squiggle around. Still, it's cute, which is why I bought the book.

We had an enormous cabinet tv in the 60's. One where you had to adjust the antennae. You had to get up from a sofa to turn knobs to change it to one of the 6 available channels! The squiggly line showed up when the programs went off the air at the end of the night and they played the National Anthem.

I only wish I had a blue tv now! I love the little circle fabric used in just the right spot to make crazy knobs.

On the TV we had when I was growing up, the knobs fell off, so we often had to turn the channels with a pair of pliers. I was the "remote control" because I was the youngest. I could be called in from another room to change the channel. If the picture was hazy, I could be called into service to hold the antennae in an awkward position.
Can you relate?

Can you relate?

we are near the end the first month of the new year. Can you believe it?

My mantra for this year is USE IT. Use my supplies, use my ideas, use my time in a great way, use my skills, use my eyes to see and ears to hear. Read my books, play my instruments, use communication skills to reach out to others. Enjoy my magazines, write my stories, watch BBC shows that I love. Try techniques and patterns I've owned for a long time. Put into motion some ideas.

It is so overwhelming I sit down and watch TV.

(I would be mindlessly playing games on the IPAD if my eye condition were better)
You never know what you have til you lose it. I whined about my spine issues til my eye condition showed up.

In life, there are always obligations, maintenance, daily chores to do.  I'm not even discussing those today.

Since retirement, I am lucky to have time to explore my creative side. Even fun stuff can be overwhelming! Can you relate?

Some of what I want to do:
1. Read the books checked out from the library before they're due. Fiction, non fiction, quilting, knitting, beading, creativity exercises.

some are mine, some are library!

 2. Do the creativity exercises
3. Write a story every day, or at least once a week
4. Set last year's BOM's into quilt tops
5. at least organize my UFO's  if I can't seem to finish any. Know where they are.

This is a young UFO, just needs binding sewn down!

6. update my finished quilt list which means find the quilts not yet listed, which brings me to...
7. organize the pile of finished quilts so I can find them and are ready to show in the next lecture

not all of the 200+ quilts to organize

 8. Pull out a stash book and use it somehow, at least one a month

9. Let go of some supplies I will never use, such as clay, because of the smells while cooking
10. Paint and draw more often...Check!

11. keep in contact with friends
12. look through my stacks of magazines, and for pete's sake, recycle them!!!

13. wash the new fabric
14. re wash the old batiks three times so I can finally use them
15. use my cool fabrics in something. No Really. USE THEM

waiting to find a home in the stash!

16. watch more  bbc shows
17. play my ukelele again, this time with a shoulder strap
18. listen to more books on disc
19. use up that knitting yarn  KNIT SOMETHING EASY
20. start a link party here at Not Afraid of Color
21. Read fun blogs, do BOM from them, and write this one!

Just a few of the fun things I would like to do. That's not even counting lose 50 lbs, clean out the basement, find a different house, love my husband and poodle, and drink more water.

you might also like on-keeping-lists.

I'm Officially Over It....Cole's editorial

I am officially OVER IT y’all.

I mean, look at this!

Even the squirrels haven’t shoveled their nest. In fact where are they? Not that I can chase a critter in this pile-up. 

I can’t find a decent smelling place to do business. I had to do business in the street like, like, some kind of uncivilized dog. 

Oh.My.Dog.  I feel trapped! Get me outta here!

This is a dead end! Where is the cypress I like to visit to leave my pee-mail? 

Daddy, keep shoveling.