Wordless Wednesday

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Eye Candy

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No Flake Monday

We spent last week with Lizard's mom, and this resulted in me not finishing a flake pattern for today. Sadly, I haven't composed anything for my blog this week, so there may be just a bunch of old archived snowflake photos each day... Nothing like snow in May, right? :)

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Too Cute to Not Try

I tried my hand at craft fairing again last December, and although it was not a great experience, I did dip my crochet hook back into the amigurumi pot for the first time in what feels like forever.

I kept seeing these cute little hedgehogs that were just irresistable. I came up with a pattern, and I made a handful. I sold one. Many people said they were adorable. But they did not sell.

That's only part of the story, though. My first hedgehog was a big fail. It stares hopelessly at me every time I get on my computer because I placed it at the base of my monitor. I don't know what else to do with it. It's pretty useless. But I can't bring myself to cut it up to reclaim the glow beads. :)

My thread chickens, however, DID turn out adorable. I didn't sell a single one. But man, are they ever cute!!!

Every time I've ever made amigurumi, I've always had to try a thread version. The hedgehog was the first one that just didn't work.

Maybe I'll try again one day. This time with smaller beads...

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No Flake Monday

I had a very special snowflake motif project completion I planned to share today; I thought for sure I'd finish it over the weekend.

The snowflake pattern and join-as-you-go motif pattern are both done, the snowflake photography is done, and the snowflake actually got donated to typhoon survivors in Guam, but my matching motif project is still on the hook.

I'm hoping I will be able to share the completed project next week.

Until then, please enjoy photos of some of my favorite motif projects over the years.

Click on the photos to be taken to the patterns.

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Eye Candy

Yellow Sky by Shirley Gisi, Best Interpretation of Theme

There's a festival this weekend in Castle Rock, but I sure miss the Denver National Quilt Festival. These photos are from 10 years ago.

Purple Salsa with a Twist of Lime by Barb Gardner, Colorado Quilting Council on Parade

I bought Ringo, my longarm, at the Castle Rock event in 2019 after Lizard was diagnosed with Parkinson's. We both thought it might be a great form of art therapy for him. I'm still hoping to be able to teach him to use the machine again one day. I'd love for us to be able to create masterpieces like these!

I haven't touched Ringo in about two years. Quilts like these inspire me and motivate me to get back to quilting.

Squared Illusion 6 by Gloria Hansen, SAQA Color Wheel of Emotions

Fire in the Sky by Alice Kay Arnett, Judges Choice

I Dream of Wild Horses by Kristine Vierra, Honorable Mention

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Piecemeal

I've been known to collect fabric. I could probably open my own quilt shop now. I'm not sure if that's a confession or an attempt at humor. Or maybe both. Whatever the case, I sometimes go off on wild goose chases to find fabric I missed out on.

Sometimes I go on to make wonderful quilts from these gorgeous collections.

Other fabric collections are slumbering in sealed airtight bins where they receive no daylight so the vibrance and freshness might not ever fade. One is still stacked waiting its turn on my to-do pile. It was supposed to be a Mother's Day or Christmas quilt back in 2022...

I jumped into the Me and My Sister collections late in the game several years ago. I learned from their website there were earlier collections I had to have. But they were LONG out of print!

A persistent search perhaps six or seven years ago yielded four or five of the earlier charm square packs (I never did get my hands on "Giggles"). I still add to my Me and My Sister collection to this day. I've made a few baby quilts from a few of the "extra" yardage and precuts I found on sale over the years, but the main stash of two charm square packs each remains mostly intact. (I had to rob a few squares to finish one neice baby quilt.)

No matter how large my stash, there's always a new fabric line to capture my attention, my wallet and my motivation. When you don't have time to quilt, it's fun to find new fabric that makes you want to quilt, right??? So beautiful, you can't wait to sit down to the sewing machine. The instant your receive it. That's always my plan... The Limelight Baliscapes fat quarter bundle I bought last year was going to find its way under my needle within minutes the day it arrived. It was going to make the most beautiful quilted jacket on the planet. It (and some gorgeous floral green batik yardage I picked up on sale about the same time) is still waiting and hasn't even been removed from the package, except for the photo for this blog post.

The Guicy Giuce Art Deco collections are my latest addiction. I never saw the first edition, and the second edition was sold out in one of my favorite shops when the bright, fruity colors first grabbed my eyes. I searched high and low for the second edition and bought it online on the spot to make sure I would never have to buy it piece by piece. The first edition was a bit harder.

I found a fat quarter bundle of the first edition that wasn't missing any of the collection and ordered immediately. I looked up reviews on the new-to-me shop to make sure it was reputable, but I never thought to look from whence I was buying. I got a text from my bank alerting me to my foreign purchase. I received a confirmation email from the shop, and another when the bundle was shipped the next day, so I didn't worry. That was back in January. Here it was, late April, and still no first edition in my mail.

Turns out I purchased my original Art Deco bundle from Australia, and I paid for standard shipping. Had I had my head together back in January, I wouldn't have hesitated for a minute to opt into a more expensive but more reliable shipping method. Unfortunately, I had my hands, heart and head full of all kinds of trauma and stress for about eight weeks straight back then, and logic just wasn't to be found anywhere in my equation then.

I've since looked up a few times how long it takes to ship a package from down under to up over (Colorado). I get estimates everwhere from three weeks to eight months. I imagine my fat quarters bundled up and sitting in the dark depths of a huge ship somewhere in the Pacific Ocean still trying to make its way to America. It is possible that little bundle will still show up in my mailbox or on my doorstep one day. Maybe. Just maybe. I haven't totally lost hope. Yet. If it does, it now will be a superb bonus. Because I grumbled internally for four months. I wasn't satisfied. I had to have that first edition. I had to order again. I just had to. I had no choice. :)

I recently searched again and found even fewer results, now that the (estimated) 2022 collection is nearly six months older. I ended up buying 10 of the 16 initial colorway fat quarters from one shop, 3 from another shop, the most difficult to find color from a third shop, and two larger remnants from a fourth shop. This time, I did try to make sure I was purchasing either from inside my own country or paying for reliable shipping from Canada (and Alaska!).

Last week, I received an email from one of the shops stating the most difficult to find fabric was sold out, and my money for that fat quarter was being refunded. Off I went on another hunt to find one more fat quarter... that is, AFTER making sure all the other orders, which had already shippied, included all the fabrics I ordered. I didn't want to come up short again. I feel like time is running out on the first edition!

Only two shops I could find had my missing fabric. One was the original shop in Australia. I'm sure it would have been a safe purchase this time if I paid the higher quality postage. The other shop offered only half yards or yardage. Dragonfruit is not a color I would buy a lot of in most circumstances. Red, orange and yellow just aren't really my thing. But I want the full Deco Glo I collection. I added in half a yard of another couple of colors from the second collection I do like, thinking they might be good for binding or as part of a creative quilt backing when I do finally sit back down to my sewing machine. (And holy moly, I'll have to order from Whimsodoodle again!!! Then sent me a free dark blue batik fat quarter, which is going to go great in my Moda Blockheads quilt!)

Now I'm fully Giuced. At least until Deco Frost is released... (Ha!!! I preordered a fat quarter bundle!!! I won't have to piecemeal!!!)

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