It's time!

Craft fair set up is in 11 hours... Wish me luck!

Pushing through...

Craft fair preparations continue! You'd think I was going to be in some big show for Pete's sake. I don't know if anyone even comes to this one! Clare's know your audience blog post about "blue hairs" comes to mind...that was a funny post, Clare! So yeah, I'm mainly doing this to have fun with my BFF, and if cash lands in my pocket as a result, great!

Earlier this summer Jack (my then 10 year old) helped me design this skateboard block. We had it all sketched out as a quilt. I got all of the fabric ready (that he chose from my stash) and then company came, and it sat. Sound familiar? So the test block sat, too. Today it became a pillow!

Then I moved on to dog bow ties. I made several versions last week and decided on a size and method that I liked best for Duke. I didn't want it flimsy, and I did want it to be a fairly good size. I researched several ways of putting it on the dog and came up with my own. It's been on his collar for a week without any movement. So today I made more! Hoping people will be as big of a sucker as I am for having my dog look festive! ;-)

I'm having so much fun that I actually got up at 4:30 this morning to start sewing. I've just woken up from a power nap and I'm headed back to the sewing room. Also known as the kitchen. Where you can find Duke snuggled up on one of his dog beds (he has three) under the table and some good police/crime type shows on my TV tonight. Earlier today I sewed to Christmas music and it was wonderful! I'm not one to sew in silence.

Anyone out there using Paypal to sell stuff? Do you like it?

Thought I'd include a Draw Something picture to entice you to play! My username is KrisCoulombe. It's a fun diversion in the day. And not as mentally draining as a crossword puzzle. :-D. randomness....linking up to Cindy at Really Random Thursday!

And Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts.
Kris

The heat is on...

I found out last night that the craft show I am doing with my BFF, Sheila, is this weekend and not next weekend! I am sewing like a mad woman. Here are a few finishes from today. I know that I should "keep it simple" when designing things to make more of them but I just can't! So I'll complicate it all and be happier. It's a small craft fair but I look at it as a great motivation to get things done and finish up all of my half started things! Some of it is already selling to friends on Facebook. In fact, I've already made back the cost of the table at the show. :-)

The kitchen is a wreck...


Kris

Today's post

Is showing below Saturday's post...I don't know why! :-o. See two posts below for more.

Fabric Baskets

It's been a low key, relaxing holiday with my family. Mitch is home from college and it's been so nice to have him around. He and I did some late night Homeland watching ~ I think I've got him hooked!

I took a little sewing and IG/blog break but now I'm back sewing for the upcoming craft fair. Thanks to a great tutorial from Film in the Fridge, I made a set of fabric baskets today. I love them!

I made Mitch a belated birthday cake and thought I'd share the recipe. It is So simple, everyone must try this!

One box mix of angel food cake mix. One reg sized can of crushed pineapple. That's it! Don't add the egg or oil. Don't drain the can. I baked it in my bunt pan. Then I mixed up a quick thin icing to drizzle over it. I even got "all fancy" and made an "M" on the plate. :-D. The icing has butter, powdered sugar, milk and a little cream cheese. I added "tardis blue" sprinkles on top.

Duke is still in his bow tie. It's held up well, and he has received many compliments on it. Time to make a red and green one, I'd say!

Kris

Making gifts

Happy Fabric Tuesday! I have been busy making potential Christmas gifts lately. I say potential because no one is as critical of my work as I am. Sometimes I make something and think to myself, "it's ok but next time it will be perfect," and because I see a flaw, I think I should keep it (or give it to my Mom - someone I know could care less about perfection and will love it no matter what!)

This pouch did come out as I'd hoped...hurray! As with anything, the more times I make a zipper, lined pouch, the better they are getting. The zipper is fairly darn close to both ends of the top without having the dreaded folded-in corners. I'm sure most non sew'ers have no idea what that is. I used the scrappy make up pouch tutorial from Noodlehead.

Then there's this pouch with my lovely fabric from deb!. Still practicing my circular, organic quilting. I didn't draw any line first, just went for it. Do I dare try this on a my Dizzy Diamonds quilt? I have it all basted and ready to quilt!

My second braided rug is coming along! Remember the first braided rug I made last summer?. I'm at it again, making this one a bit more colorful. It's the perfect project for evening TV time watching. Did you see Dancing With the Stars last night? I really hope Melissa or Shawn win.

And now for some "favorites" I've come across lately. I realize Flickr has a folder for this, but I like to take a screen shot of things I want to try and have it in my photo stream. It seems quicker to access. You will see the URL across the top of these photos, giving credit to the artist who designed them. Love this quilt by Katie.

And these scrappy squares by Rachel.

And isn't this great?

I'm off to make more zipper pouches with my $.25 zippers from Fabric Depot!

Kris

Stockings again

I had a craft night with my BFF, Sheila, and finished Jack's stocking "front"! I took no short cuts with the patchwork. I literally cut and sewed it block by block. I wasn't in a hurry so that was ok. We watched The Color Purple and crafted for 3 hours.

We are also talking about doing a craft fair together on December 6. It would be fun to do with a friend, don't you think ? She is making jewelry. Some of her beads are made from paper like the beads in the picture below.

I'd better get to it if I want to have things ready. I'll also be working on dog bow ties like the ones I've been posting on IG. Duke loves them! I'm sure there will be a post on that this week. I have such a patient, sweet dog-son!

I'm linking up to Sew Modern Monday...the button is in my sidebar.

Kris

Christmas Stockings Started

I'm working on Christmas. There's Christmas music playing in the house and Hallmark Christmas shows on TV. It's 48 degrees and cloudy outside. The ocean has that gray-blue color that looks so "Ralph Lauren -y" with the big white sailboats docked. Duke is snuggled up on the couch under blankets. I love this time of year.

Ornaments out of left over value dance blocks became more important than finishing the quilt? Don't ask. I can't focus sometimes. Then I HAVE to get stockings made because I've been meaning to since last November. I plan to make each one to suit the tastes of the person in our family. There will be elements of dogs, music, baseball, skateboarding, TX, CA, pink anything, doctor who, university, all seen in our family stockings. I'm even making one for each of my parents who are visiting this year. Mom likes the leopard prints and pink...but absolutely no blue. I started with dogs and pink.... Guess who?

Now that I'm completely caught up with Homeland I'm having withdrawals having to wait a week in between episodes. Did anyone catch the Homeland SNL skit this week? Hilarious!

Kris

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced - see the button in my sidebar. There are lots of link ups today!

Dance with Values

I'd decided a few weeks ago I was going to make this quilt.. I have been going full steam ahead since Friday and have all the blocks sewn!

I started off using the line Urban Cowgirl, then added in some bold colors a la me! Meaning, subtle colors are just not my cup of tea. Had ya' noticed? Examples:

So yeah, I like pink and dark pink, and turqoise, and bits of purple and lime green - none of which are in this quilt. But I really do need to break out of my color comfort zone. So I gave it a shot.

I took this photo yesterday to see how the values were looking. I decided more whites and more darks were needed and replaced and added to this layout last night. I could have played it really safe and done all white or cream for those places where light is called for (center of every other row) and (hour glass blocks) but I prefer more color. I read on another blog that sometimes when the eye has to work a little to see the values change, it can be more appealing. So, I'm going with that here. :-)

As usual, Duke was a big help.

Taking a picture is always a great help. I just noticed I have a green center block in this row where light centers should be. Gotta fix that! My blocks will be trimmed to 4 inches while Rachel's are trimmed to 5, because my Urban Cowboy charm squares were 5 inches. This was easy enough to adjust on the hour glass block but when I came to the square on point block the math did not tabulate in my brain (as usual) so I winged it! I went with 3 inch center squares and 3.25 inch corner squares ( which you cut in half ). My rule of thumb...when in doubt, guess!

Now to trim up those blocks and sew them all together!

Thank you for your kind words about Kyle both here and in private emails I received. My husband came up with a neat stencil to spray paint or carve into the grip tape on skateboards, for our locals to pay tribute. It's awesome. We live 7 doors down from our skate shop. It was raining when I told Jack about the stencil. He put his board in a big plastic bag and ran out the door to the shop to have his grip tape done.

I'm off to check out Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday. Hope to see you there!

Kris

Runner Up

I didn't win Deb's recent fabric give away but it turns out I scored big time as her designated runner-up.

Can you believe she sent me all of this AMH fabric? I think it was so generous of her. I was completely floored by her kindness. I started looking through it and found myself stacking it one way, then moving it around to give all of the fabric a chance to shine. Isn't it fun to play with fabric stacks?

deb's blog is one of my favorites. She is really talented and has a great assistant, Mr. White Socks. He's been known to turn on ceiling fans when she lays her fabrics out on the dining room table though. Thanks again Deb for making my day.

Deb's package arrived the same day that I learned of the death of a dear friend of our family. Kyle was an instructor for our skate camps and an employee at our skate shop. He was more than an employee, he was our friend. Kyle would take my youngest, Jack, to out of town skateparks and then swimming at Kyle's house. Kids loved Kyle and so did adults. He was a kind, thoughtful, fun loving guy. He had recently taken up scuba diving and passed away while out on a dive. Our local skate community is mourning the loss of someone who was truly a friend to all.

Fabric = therapy. Sewing allows me to escape in my thoughts while occupying my mind and body. It allows me to feel joy when what I really feel is complete sadness over the loss of a friend. I've been sewing a lot this weekend, and looking through pictures.