Fifth Time's the Charm

Remember those four pincushion jars I made earlier this month?  My intention was to make them for our quilt guild to sell and make some money.  But I liked them.  A lot.  And decided I needed to keep them.  So I thought I would give it another go; this time determined not to form a close attachment.

This one I'm giving away.  It's a little larger than the others, and holds a little of everything - beaded trim, fabric, and ribbon.  Since this will be going to a new home, I made sure to glue the lacy purple trim that's peeking out from the yellow pleats.  I had something similar on one I kept, but I just tucked it in.  I didn't want someone to buy this, get it home, and have that piece pop out and look dumb.

Here's the other side, where you can see more of the jar contents.  When I fill the jars up, I try to keep them looking good on all sides.  The pincushion top on this one is flannel with hearts and peace signs.

Here is is, wondering what's going on with those pins on the tray.

And here it is, feeling more at home, at least temporarily.

My Olympic Event

On the slopestyle course of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, you could see a giant, modern matryoshka doll in the background as snowboarders and skiers flew past.  AP photographer Sergei Grits captured it in a photograph that became one of Yahoo's "photos of the day" on February 4, 2014.  

Inspired, I remembered that my favorite embroidery book, Doodle Stitching, had matryoshka motifs, so embroidery became my Olympic event.

Matryoshka figures have no set number of dolls.  The three smaller ones are from Doodle Stitching...

... but I drew the fourth and largest one based on Grits' photograph.  Note the goggles.

Although I found two sets of matryoshka dolls at two different antique venues this month, I didn't buy them because of their color and personality.  But when I saw this set, I knew they were coming home with me, even though they didn't nest.  They looked happy, not dour.

The first Russian doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who did the painting.  They were inspired by a carved doll from Japan, so this Oriental set that I bought in 2012 isn't that far fetched an idea.

Making new friends at the Olympics.  Forget about bean counting which country got the most medals.

I didn't finish my mini-quilt before Sunday's closing ceremony.  I was a day late; I guess I'm no Olympian.

Potholder Plans

I'm going to make some potholders for our quilt guild to sell.  Hopefully someone will want to buy them and we'll make a little money to buy batting for our charity quilts.  Here are my potholder plans.

 
These are the ingredients.  First I had to decide on potholders or mitts or both.  I decided no mitts, which means I have enough of that silver insulated stuff to make five sets of potholders.

 

I want the potholders to have a little something special to entice people to buy, something that you wouldn't find in a store.  These kitchen motifs from Cups and Saucers ought to do it.  It's been awhile since I've done paper piecing, and I'm looking forward to trying some of these.  

I chose three designs...

This is what I'm using for the stacked bowls.

This will be a teapot.

For the third set of paper-pieced potholders, I'm using her "jam jar" pattern.  But I'm calling them canisters because I'm going to embroider "FLOUR" on one and "SUGAR" on the other. 

This set of potholders will feature a big hunk of this chicken fabric, because it's too cute to cut up into small pieces.

And this last set will have log cabin blocks, with this oven in the center.  I bought one yard of this fabric and there's only three ovens on it.  That means there's a huge variety of motifs with lots of opportunities for other fun projects in the future.

I don't have a huge amount of fabric, but I still feel like it's too much.  I periodically try to whittle it down, but I have to say that when I went looking through everything today to come up with these combinations, it sure was nice to have lots to choose from.  So I guess I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing, fabric-buying wise.

I Got a New Towel

I bought a new towel the other day.  Nice and simple and modern looking.

It has the same colors as the logo for The Modern Quilt Guild.  

What's I like about it is the color of the second stripe from the top, and the binding.  They're a deep minty green, rather than the turquoise that often gets paired with orange.

I had a couple of toys that went with it, and now I think I should make a quilt using those colors, with lots of white. 

I was going to use this fabric on a lampshade, but I might use it in the quilt instead.  Coincidence - the fabric is "Happi" by Dena for Fabric Traditions.  I didn't pay any attention to that when I bought it.  But today the name Dena rang a bell.

And sure enough, it's the same Dena that wrote this book I bought last December.  I love the book, and now I like the fabric even more.

The towel colors also go with my set of three (so far) Libbey frosted carousel glasses from the 1950s.   

Not Just Another Pretty Face

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
                                                             ------  Charles Darwin

Vintage Valentine-ish

I found myself buying a few heart-shaped items in the last year or so, along with one (just one!) vintage Valentine.  Time to take a look.

There were lots of Valentines from the 1950s at the antique stores, but I liked this one for two reasons.  It looks like it's from the 1920s, and it's mostly pink (instead of red). 

There's only one thing I don't like about it, and that's the message on the inside.  Valentines ought to be nice, right?  This one has a backhanded "compliment":

Though your eyes do not shine like stars

Though your hair does not curl

When it comes to choosing Valentines

You are the only girl

Some heart-shaped beads.

Looks like a pig walked through here and spilled the beads.  Better that than tipping over the vase.

I love this cookie cutter.  Most of the ones in the antique store were red and were hollow.  This one leaves a beautiful embossed top on the cookie.  I was having fond thoughts of how old it must be.  When I got home and was cleaning it up, I found this embossing on the back:  ©Hallmark Cards, Inc.  75¢  Oh well.  I still like it. 

I found this plastic box this past weekend.  It's about 3/4" tall.  It's so smooth and shiny.  This is the shade of pink that was popular in the 1950s, so maybe that's when it was made.

Somebody's in a Valentine-ish mood, and all dressed up, to boot.