Sunday, December 14, 2014

Do you want to build a snowman?

Last weekend I went to see Frozen with my sister. Our movie theater does Merchant Movies and since one of the merchants with free tickets is the quilt shop (right across the street from the theater) of course we had to go there to get tickets. I was planning on getting a fat quarter of Christmas fabric for my guild's party, and since they don't like to take credit cards with less than a ten dollar purchase it only made sense to buy more than just a fat quarter. As I was wondering around I saw the store sample of a wall hanging using the panel from Deb Strain's "Be Jolly." I couldn't find the kit, but did find the pannel and fabric that I liked. I'm afraid there really isn't a pattern for this one. I used 1/4 yard of the blue cut into 3.5" strips, and 1/2 yard of the red cut into 2.5" strips with enough left over for the binding. The sample in the shop had red as the wide strip closest to the snowman and then dark blue for the 2.5" strips and binding. I tried that, but it didn't look quite right so I flip flopped them. I'm really excited to see red binding framing the blue snowflakes on the top and bottom. 


 I had hoped to finish this today, but Rite (my sewing machine) is misbehaving. I bought a spool of thread from Connecting Threads a few months ago. I've been using it for piecing with great success and decided to try using it for quilting. I don't know if it's the machine or thread but I've been struggling with it breaking a lot. I've only got a tiny little section left in the corner so hopefully if I let Rita rest tonight she'll be up for finishing this tomorrow. I know it sounds crazy but this has happened to me several times that I have a problem with her and when I come back the next day I set everything up the same way and she works perfectly. (Before someone asks I did rethread the top and bobbin, dusted, oiled, and checked tension and pressure.) Despite having lots of threads to bury the stippling is looking great on the front and even on the back it's smooth. I can't wait to finish this one and get it up on the wall.


I've also been busy this weekend trying my hand at painting. I tend to think of myself as creative, but not artistic. For our anniversary this year my husband bought me a canvas print of Imposter. We decided to buy some blank canvases and make some paintings to go with the penguins and bunny-dressed-as-penguin. After searching pinterest for ideas I settled on Snowman Gazes at Night Sky and Moon and Winter Wonderland for inspiration. (I'm not sure where the line between inspiration and shameless copying lies, but I will say that Terri has an amazing tutorial for creating a similar painting if you follow the Winter Wonderland link.)

3 comments:

  1. It turned out fabulous!!!! You could sell these:)
    Cheers,
    Terri

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  2. I loved the painting, it is stunning. I would say I am creative but definitely not artistic.

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  3. Hope you get your quilting finished. Machines can be finicky sometimes. I like your painting!

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