Mr. Rex

I hope everyone has had a peaceful and wonderful holiday. My favorite gift arrived on Christmas Eve when Cori came home for a week! I couldn't have asked for anything better. 

Most of you know we do things a little different here, we've had another successful Christmas and things are calming down. Since South Florida has decided not to participate in winter this year Cori and I have been starting each day with a bike ride, just riding and talking with the occasional stop for her to grab coconuts to take back to all of her dog friends (again with the coconuts for dogs). 

I'm so happy that I can finally show the quilt I made for her, I feel like it needs one of those labels that say "this took forever".  I was so excited about it I turned me into a five year old who wanted everyone up at 5 A.M. so we could open presents. 

Cori has always loved dinosaurs, all through her years of education when she would feel stressed I would get a call or text that said "I should have been a paleontologist", when she received her doctorate I gave her a small silver triceratops for the "road not taken" and when a T-Rex head popped on in my pinterest for ideas she immediately messaged "for me please". 

I took the picture and cropped and recropped him down to 42 pieces of computer paper which I put together like a puzzle, then used the sliding glass door (which he was too big for) for a light box to make the individual pieces.

I used Lara's idea from her book Crafted Applique, New Possibilities to treat the pieces so I knew it would last and not fray. 

Then I spent days quilting him, he's mostly pebbled which just about made me lose my mind, make a circle, make another circle, make hundreds of circles, LOL. It turned out awesome and the pebbling was perfect for skin texture. I finished with swirls in the outer blue section. He finished at 50" X 70". 

Cori loves him, I love him and I'm so glad I followed though with this labor of love. It always feels so good to be able to give the perfect gift, I'm still smiling about it.

Later Gators,

Dana

Stalled

All I need to do today is put simple borders on a commission quilt, not lofty goals, but I'm so stalled. I'm sure it's the holidays and so much going on.

Plus this little girl hasn't been feeling well

Her Vet called last night and changed her medication and had me thinking I'd be taking her for a quick run to the Vet's.

So imagine my surprise when The Bug came to me and said "Maya's being mean to me". 

Since Brady usually only fibs about food, (what treat? I didn't get a treat) I went to check it out and found that every time he tried to go out the doggie door, she would pounce on him, when I opened the door she took off and this is what I found when I went after her. 

I think she's feeling better :) She even started throwing coconuts at me, which is a game but they hurt if they hit you. That may sound odd to you, but Key's dogs think that coconuts and palm fronds that magically appear in the yard are the best toys. I have a couple of coconuts put aside for my granddogs for Christmas since they moved out of the land of magic coconuts. 

Our weather is beautiful, a cold front came through and it's in the 70's, so playing with the terrible twins sounds very enticing, but I really need to finish this quilt.

When Cori moved and I knew I would be with her for awhile, I ordered a bed and mattress for her spare room, then decided it needed a quilt (of course). I made this quilt in three days, but I had a lot of incentive and nervous energy, which David called losing my mind. 

I made the rug too, but I had that, I didn't instantly just whip that up :)

So what do you do when you're stalled? Push through it? Walk away? Go play with coconuts? Write a blog post? Please don't say you clean the house.

Later Gators,

Dana 

Let's Book It Nov. 2016 The Final Episode

This morning Barbara called Sharon her Quilting Godmother which made me think of Sharon as one of the cute fairy Godmothers from Sleeping Beauty :)

Works for me since her idea of Let's Book It has led me to cleaning out a lot of magazines, a few books and some bookmarks, her magic wand helped me make all of these and a few others

So much fabulous color and ideas that would still be gathering dust and taking up space.

For my last "Let's Book It" project I picked a beautiful classic looking quilt from McCall's Quilting May/June 2012, it's the second quilt I've made from this issue, the scattered triangles in the bottom row was the first. 

This one is called Aunt Millie's Legacy by Gerri Robinson, this comes full circle for me since the first quilt I made for Let's Book It was by Gerri Robinson and along the way I discovered that I love her quilts and can even understand her directions. 

I left off the borders since I didn't have any fabric that would match and it seemed fitting for the final show and our fearless leader who "loves" borders so much, LOL.

Looking at the pictures I found a mistake or as I like to put it, I made it my own.

Weirdly, I had the tan fabric which I usually don't work with, but it's dog colored so that explains it, but no blue. I dyed the blue to get a nice baby blue. 

I'm a little sad to see this all end, but it's time. I'd like to think I'll continue to use up what I have, at the very least I'll grab a magazine or book for the inspiration. 

Thank you Sharon, (cue the applause) your genius idea has led me to so many happy quilts and I've enjoyed watching everyone else discover what's on their shelves. 

Later Gators,

Dana

Forgot About This One

I've been going through my quilt pictures to see what I haven't shared and this one jumped out with a loud "well you completely forgot about me!". 

Back in July Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict had a Christmas quilt-a-long. I loved the quilt and joined in, then missed the link up, I'm so easily distracted. I assume that everyone knows Sarah, but if you don't you really need to follow her. Her blog is filled with so much inspiration, beautiful quilts and lots of tutorials. 

Sarah's quilt was gorgeous in the reds and greens, but it was July so I changed the colors, shrunk the blocks for a baby size quilt and added a few blocks. I love how it turned out and now that Christmas is right around the corner I'm probably going to make it again in those reds and greens. 

If you want to make one of your own, follow the links to the original directions. 

Later Gators,

Dana

Scrap Quilt

Well, I've picked myself up, looked around and realized that there are still families out there that need help for their children especially with Christmas right around the corner and abused, neglected and homeless animals still needing homes, so this is not the time to let the fear, anger and frustration rocking our world influence how I live my life. I don't care which side you were on, we're all in this together. 

That said, let's talk quilts :). "Let's Book It" is coming to an end with the last link up at the end of this month, if you've been meaning to join in now's the time and all you need to do is grab a magazine, book or pattern and start it, you don't need to have a finish to join in. Wouldn't it be nice if this wonderful link up ended with a bang?

This is one of my favorite quilts, of course any quilt with stars, secondary patterns and lots of color lands on my favorite quilts list. Plus all of the colors were scraps, bonus!

Right after I made this one I was asked if I would make it again larger for a throw with black instead of white. Funny, I buy white by the bolt but I didn't even have any black fabric, but when I changed the colors in my EQ I was stunned at how pretty it looked.

I love white because of how the colors pop, but I think the black still did the trick :)

The original quilt was 45 inches square, the black one is 61" X 63", I'm not sure why there's a 2 inch difference but I suspect it's in the quilting.

To increase the size I played with extra rows, but I ended up just making the blocks larger (15") which kept the look really bold and of course with big blocks, it came together really fast.

Working with black was a learning experience, I really liked the depth it added, but it was harder to work with, I had trouble seeing the edges when sewing two blacks together (could be my aging eyes). I think you'll be seeing black pop up in more of my quilts. 

I recently read "when one door closes, just turn the handle and open the door, that's how doors work", LOL. With Let's Book It ending I'm hoping to find the time to open the door on my blog and show you more of my quilts. 

Later Gators,

Dana

Quilt Show

When Debbie (Stitchin' Therapy) heard where Cori was moving she mentioned that they had a quilt show there and as luck would have it the show was just about the time I would be up there, I stayed extra so I could go :) When I got back and told Debbie I had gone she asked me how overwhelmed I had felt, overwhelmed doesn't even come close, I was awestruck seeing these amazing quilts in person. Here's some of the pictures I took, all blurs, crooked pictures and weird cropping are the fault of the photographer who doesn't usually use her phone as a camera. 

The cats in this one were all thread painting. 

I saw this one in person and still can't understand how it's a quilt.

This one because of the FMQ.

This quilt was huge and the cats were all applique. 

This one literally made me gasp.

I was looking at this one closely when one of the white glove ladies came up and asked if I wanted a closer look, she showed me how it's all tiny curved log cabins. I told her I loved this one, it was so cute and she told me it was her quilt and I had made her day!

So nice to see this one is person, I've seen it many times online and considered making it, but it's a lot of paper piecing. 

I also played on two longarms, which really makes me want one, but David refuses to add a room to the house so I can fit it in. I bought some fabric, but not much, the vendors section was so crowded and I much preferred to get back to the quilts.

So that's it, I've finally joined the ranks of Quilt Show Sharers, LOL. Can't wait for the next one.

Later Gators,

Dana

Let's Book It Oct. 2016

It took me awhile to get the dust cleared out of here, I missed last month's "Let's Book It" even though I started early knowing life was about to get very busy. Since I've been gone Cori moved and I went with her for a few weeks to help her get settled and to help myself feel good about her going, an out of state funeral, Hurricane Matthew knocking on our door, my first ever quilt show :), two commission quilts and a house that I left a man and two dogs in charge of, talk about dust! Remember cobwebs in Oct. are decorations not dust. 

But I'm back and don't want to miss this again, I do love this "clean it out, do what you want" link up. 

In August I showed a quilt from a kit and couldn't praise that pattern enough, so clear and easy. I bought two kits and this is the second one. 

This one came from Connecting Threads also, but it wasn't their pattern (sound the doom music).

http://www.connectingthreads.com/kits/Sew_Radiant_Quilt_Kit__D8797.html

This one is a perfect example of why I don't buy patterns, it was hard to follow, it had more than one layout so you were directed to refer to page whatever, the pattern had different fabrics then the ones in the kit, not a problem if the pictures of the original fabrics weren't so tiny you couldn't tell them apart. That white outer part had no length measurement, just cut a strip, sew it on and whack off the excess, LOL. 

Maybe it was me, state of mind, need stronger reading glasses or maybe the pattern was really awful, either way I found it hard to like this quilt although the fabrics were lovely. I'm going back to looking at a quilt picture and figuring it out on my own. 

Remember, "Let's Book It" is all about using what you planned on making anyway, how easy is that? 

May all your patterns be readable.

Later Gators,

Dana

Let's Book It August 2016

I know we all say "wow, that month flew by" but seriously was August only about two weeks long? 

It is almost the end of the month and that means it's time for Let's Book It, Sharon's genius idea for cleaning out all of those patterns, books, magazines and bookmarks we want to make, just haven't gotten around to yet.

I don't buy kits, that said, I made this month's quilt from a kit, I know right? I've liked this quilt since I saw it and when Connecting Threads had it on sale I jumped, the fabric alone was worth it. 

 Please excuse the picture, our part of the Sunshine State hasn't seen the sun in at least a week so I took this inside. 

Kudo's to Connecting Threads for having such a great pattern, it was easy to understand and it was all very visual, even the cutting had diagrams of the fabric and cuts, nice big pictures of the fabric so I wasn't muttering to myself "which blue are they talking about, what are you saying?" None of the usual cut 50 of the orange then 42 of the other orange, blah, blah, blah. I don't like patterns because they don't make sense to me, this one did. 

The quilt went together perfectly and I really love it. 

Because of the fabric and color the little stars look like snowflakes to me. 

September could be shorter than August, I'm traveling again, this time to help Cori move into her new home and city. When I get back I'll probably be heading down to Key West for family stuff. 

If the terrible twins come on here complaining about Mom leaving them again, pay them no mind David will be holding down the fort and he's been known to break the rules about no scraps after dinner, plus they both have a brand new coconut, I gave them the coconuts as their prize from Pet's on Quilts (didn't know you could win coconuts did you?)  Remember they will fib for sympathy and treats :)

Think about joining in to this wonderful link up at Vroomans Quilts, I know you have a bucket list with the pattern already in your sewing room. Nothing to buy, you have it and want to make it. so do it. 

Later Gators,

Dana 

Pets on Quilts 2016

Hi, Maya here

Mom left us home alone while she travels with our human sister to find her a place to live, something to do with moooving, I think they're visiting cows. Dad's here but we may as well be alone since he is NOT the giver of treats. 

This is my brother Brady Bug, most people just call him Bug, they call me princess because I am. 

We just found out that Pet's on Quilts is going on and mom says we win every year and she has to go to the store to get our prizes. Stuffed toys and delicious treats are the prizes so we couldn't let this opportunity get away from us. Plus mom says it's the greatest show in the world. 

Here's Brady doing his best Zoolander

I told him he looked silly and took the quilt to show him how it's done.

Here I am ignoring the paparozzi. 

And since mom says this is an impossible shot to get we took it to make her proud. 

We picked this quilt because mom said it was scrappy and we LOVE scraps, although she must be confused since it didn't taste good and we didn't find it in the trash which is where we find most scraps.  Did you know our mom calls us the terrible twins? That's because she loves us so much. 

We are entering as Dogs on Quilts, princess and bug.  There are plenty of other pets, quilts and animals to see and enjoy, Pet's on Quilts really is the best show since it's filled with love. 

And mom, could you hurry home and bring our prizes with you?

Maya Grace and Brady Bug.