Summercrafter

I have had an itch to quilt lately and with all the "book" fabric I have, I thought I would start with Dr. Seuss.  And just so you know, I hate taking pictures of this project in process, simply because I am too anxious to finish it, so here is the finished product with close up of details, enjoy! The Plan The purpose     The finished product (I know, I need Photoshop to edit pictures) The Details: Quilted twirls around the sides. Quilted Spiral on the corners. Shadow quilting of the Dr. Seuss hat in the center. This hat came from a panel that has about 8 different Dr. Seuss motifs. More of these to come soon, I am sure.

 Sanibel, Florida 

Ten,   Eleven,  Twelve reasons why I should buy more Fabric: 1. To build my current  stash   2. Here today, gone tomorrow. Fabric is like those cute sandals you  wanted last summer but didn't buy...  3. Support fellow crafters and designers of fabric 4. It's fat free, great for the crafty diet 5. It's another way to stimulate the economy 6. Preparedness is key (have everything you need for when you finally get around to doing a project) 7. To reward myself, I deserve it! 8. It's something I can post on my blog 9. Shopping and organizing are both stress busters 10. I have coupons!   11. Preserve and participate in the historical past time of Quilting 12. Provides low-cost entertainment

Believe it or not, and this is not Ripley's, I have injured my back and other blog pertinent appendages due to extended poor posture while engaging in continuous crafting for/and/or posting on the blog!! Remember the bone song ? Yes, well something like that, one thing led to the other and now I need to get these parts straightened and repaired! So part of the problem is the chair. I am too short to reach the back, ouch. The Craft Corner area is 2 inches too high, the cabinet maker told me to make it 28 inches, I said "no thanks, I don't want to change the drawer design." Easy solution, I raise the chair --but then my feet can't reach the floor, yikes! The bottom line is I am ergonomically challenged! Resolution? I need to find a new chair that goes up highter and/or get a back cushion and a foot rest. So if there is a lack of new posts in the upcoming days or weeks, you'll know why.  It's become very uncomfortab...

In 2009, Mary Engelbreit had her first Home Companion Workshop (Home Companion was her interior design magazine, not in publication at the present time) It was held in St. Louis because her Studio is there and a tour of her studio  was part of the experience, definitely the part I liked best! It also included 4 craft classes, 2 seminars, a Q & A panel during lunch and a book signing! I never realized how exhausting crafting from 9 to 5 could be!  I hope this will motivate some of you to come with me this year for her Second MEHC workshop to be held on June 9 & 10th, 2012. The crafts are not about her or her art or anything like that, as you will see below, in case you non-fans wanted to know. These are the two crafts we made in the class with Kathy Curotto. Award ribbons: I made for my kids since I was away from them for a few days, (which I recommend) so they would know I was thinking of them, and loved them and all that "sugary" stuff. And this ...

First of all, let me just say that even after seeing and handling the box almost everyday, moving it here and there around my Craft Corner area, I overestimated how much I could actually put inside it. Secondly, in case you did not know,  Sanibel is the Sea Shelling Capital of the world, not Cape Hatteras, so there goes the "shelled" paper idea. Since the box has a really nice "linen" type base through which you insert pins to hold the photos, ephemera etc.., I left the background as is. It serves as a nice contrast with the grey frame and other "cool colored" pics I added. As art would have it, omission is sometimes necessary. Some of the pictures never made it on there, partly because I didn't want to cut them, I rather overlap. The BIG picture. The inaugural item for the shadow box was a doodle I worked on while I planned the vacation. Then I fiddled with the layout of the photos and figured out how to integrate a map of the area....