I'll hold it! Another Cole caper

"oh my dog... you people just don't understand what it's like to do business in the deep snow!"
"I'll just hold it!"
We shoveled the path, sidewalks and porch before going to bed and woke to this...

front door

the snow made quite an impression!

didn't we just shovel that porch?

So far we got about a foot and a half and it is supposed to snow for another 20 hours or so.
DH went out before coffee (!) to shovel a pee path, a poodle sized slalom course. and Cole wouldn't go. Nope

Must have quite a tank.

Drew came in and had coffee and some breakfast and is back shoveling toward the street this time, not a tree. Hope Cole decides it's okay to make yellow snow soon.

" 

"Daddy! Shovel toward the street! There must be one smelly spot left!"

Update: Cole finally peed. After a good 11 hours of holding it all night and morning. 

(NOTE: These pics were taken early Sat morning. It continued to blow and snow til around midnight. Cole fell so many times he became afraid of going out. He weighs 65 lbs and has never used a pee pad. He refused to even pee and the dog who poops three times a day, hasn't pooped in 36 hours. I am happy to report, DH finally came back in with him saying peer pressure worked! His girlfriend an Aussie Josie a neighbor, also nearly 14, was out. He 'went' to impress her!! Hallelujah )

"IT's not even funny any more y'all. I mean these old hips could break if I slip on ice!" Here I am at the apex of  Keep-going- and Go-back-into-the-house. I decided to go in but worry for Daddy who is still shoveling. 

Momma was out taking pictures. Don't they know enough to come in out of the cold?"

blue diamonds

Scraps from scraps... when I made the RSC2016 blue blocks last week, (Read all about it here) I had strata left over.
Perfectly good strip sets that I couldn't throw away.

with a bit of resewing I was able to get the diamonds in the top photo.
This appeals to me on several levels.
1. I love to see scraps turn into something else
2. I like diamond shapes (and real diamonds hon are you listening?)
3. It's very exciting to see what shows up in improv. I have already done this before with other colors

I remembered how to get around the bias problem from the first blocks.

lay the strata facing, mirror image, and pressing to see if the strata are lining up perfectly.
Draw a diagonal line the way the book says to cut.


Sew 1/4" on either side.....

trim on the drawn line

open up, just to make sure you sewed it right.

GENTLY press the seam to one side and done.

These aren't pressed yet so they look offset in the pic. For the most part they are perfect matches.

That's beside the point that I didn't like how the strata blended and may not use the four blocks in my finished quilt.
This method was so much faster and easier that it makes up for perfect joins to me.

Note: I wrote this last week and scheduled it to drop into place on Saturday for the link party. 
I live in the greater Washington DC area of Maryland and we are watching a storm approach that will likely cause massive power outages. If so I will be off line for up to a week. Wish us good luck.  
Linking to AD HOC at sewslowly.

on using painted (not dyed) fabric

What do I make with painted scraps of muslin? 
Start with stamping.
I really like this one. Fly free! Live your life!

Here are five I stamped...

Some of the other painted pieces will be stenciled but it's too cold. I need to work outside because of my chemical sensitivities. Or under a chemist's hood. In my dream studio, there is a hood exhaust. 

What will I make with these?? stay tuned!

More painted (not dyed) Mandalas and a Mystery solved!

Remember my first painted  muslin scraps? (in case you forgot... click here to read about it)
I thought gremlins or mice had made away with my artwork? heh, heh, (embarrassed face) well my DH solved the case!
The paper holding the good ones, had curled up tightly, fallen out of (my) sight and wrapped itself in  a  "Cloak of Invisibility"

Yep, that's right.
DH found it right after I painted some replacements! Yipee! More to play with! This little spiral...

became this...

this bland one from the first try was used  to soak up excess paint from the second go.
I really like how it looks like a shadow of a bird and leaves.

Or it does to me. I'll be cool when stamped, stenciled or gilded.And quilted.

Here they are all together....

I paired the ones folded the same way together so you could see.

these two were folded like a flag, then dipped in diluted paint.

Came out differently, huh?
The one on the right was in the paper that rolled up and hid.
Those all came out more blended.
The next two were twirled into spirals then paint poured on....

I didn't like this one at first. Oh the paint didn't absorb... I folded it tightly into squares and dipped.

Well, now I am loving it. To me, it looks like a sunset picture of Lake Placid with a tree on the left in the foreground. Reflections, mountains on the lake.

Well, that's how I see it, and how I will quilt it and then how I will view it when it's finished and on the wall. That's how I approach abstract. I see something recognizable in a piece and then I can enjoy making it.

True to myself, I am neither abstract nor realistic but somewhere in between. Never really fitting.

Or I might "USE" this little embroidered Poodle and write some words of wisdom from Cole.

Tomorrow I will show you what I did with these next!

poodle preparations

Shhhh.
The poodle is sleeping...your call is important to me, leave a message and a treat at the beep...
I am preparing for Snow-Pocalypse coming at the end of the week.
Gathering my strength with lots of naps and treats. (Oh, and I guess this picture is proof that I DO fit in this family room bed after all). See, I'm wasting away to nothing when I need ALL my strength for the snowstorm to come.
First an eye opener...

Who could forget SNOW!

 A poodle with naturally curly velcro hair who has to cope with snowballs imbedding themselves in their foot pads, their leg hair, and mustache has special snow needs.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more fun than a romp in the snow. I love to dig, to chase a stick, and love the cold in general. After a while though the snow forms ice balls in my hair, and when I come back in the house, momma makes me lay on a towel to thaw.

The We-don't-know-weather predictors are saying it could be a heavy/light/deep/melting/ snowstorm.
What's a poodle to do? Gather more kibble, make sure there are enough treats, gather my toys, fluff up the beds, wash the coats, and above all keep the people calm.

linking to Thankful Thursday Pets

reindeer Party

Reindeer blocks in January?
The free BOM at quiltdoodledesigns is too cute to ignore. Plus it gives me a reason to dig through the brown scraps.

They will be set in a row eventually.

Right now they are just blocks. The other rows have winter fun stuff like mittens, and snowmen. Each month Cindy gives us the free pattern, then they go on her craftsy site for sale.
The background fabric was given me by someone who felt it was not worth keeping. I just love it! There is about a half yard in pieces left for later blocks.





Look at the next guy... looks nervous to me...

Faces take on expressions with a tiny change in button placement.
Speaking of buttons, when I went in search of eyes and noses I found a mess. I mean, what do these things do when I turn off the light, Party?

This is the mess after I removed half of it...

I went to the junk drawer (I'm not just a hoarder of quilting supplies, I also keep weird stuff in a drawer in the kitchen)  (ya never know....)
I found a pile of paper covered wire twist ties.
I  strung them on the twist ties in groupings. Now I can reach in, and pull out an orderly group.

 The loose ones go in a zip loc bag.

One of the best inventions.

strings of blue

The rainbow scrap challenge has begun for 2016 and the color of the month is blues. I could not settle on a block... still considering several... but since my motto this year is "use it!" I looked through my scrap bin of blue strips...

My quilting grandmother would have called them strings. She used to piece strings together to make patterns for years before I was born. I used to hang out watching her sew by hand. On old newspapers or phone book pages to stabilize the strings.
Now there is this book...

 I've owned it for many years but never made any of the patterns.
"use it!"
The pattern "energized" seemed to be a good one for the rainbow scraps

It was made with yardage, that matched, with two colorways. I plan to make it with scrap strings in 12 colors. Her lovely example is from a subtle line of fabric so it blends. My scraps go from solids to wild patterns.
I had some work to do to make it work.
I started by reorganizing the strips from width to length as you need the crosscut 42".
Then I sorted the long cuts into light/medium/darkest strips of any width

I chose about 5 or 6 strips to shade from light to dark, sewed the long strips together into strata, then cut 8.5" squares across. Hint, keep one of the sewn lines the same each time so each square is exactly the same.

The pattern says to put these into two piles and cut them on the diagonal in opposite directions...

If you're new to quilting, there are angles marked on your rulers. I placed the 45* angle along the bottom and cut corner to corner. The pattern tells you which segments to sew together to make this

Take care when sewing these delicate bias edges.
There is likely an easier way and I'll find it. I know I've done it differently in the past... (where's that tiny secretary in my brain? On break again? She needs to look thru the memory filing cabinet!)

The pattern calls for much smaller squares, which means you can cut lots more squares from each strata, and have more to work from. I didn't think about that when I chose to work larger.



It will be very scrappy, but might look okay when I have more colors in play as the months progress.
Here's one layout...

The squares will finish at 7.5", and I wanted to make about two sets from each color and have at least a throw sized quilt by the end of the year. That gives me 8 blocks each month. Time will tell if it's a failed experiment or a good one... Go back up and check out an alternate setting. What do you think?