Still On The Same Track This Week

 

I’m enjoying documenting some of the things I am deacquisitioning. This is a group of 6 pieces of Blue Fish clothing from the late 1990’s.

All are NEW WITH TAG. They are very RARE, desirable and collectible.

This is a 5 piece NWT group of FLAX by Engelhart – cheerful and flattering.

Of course each items is selling individually.

This Christine Foley sweater is perfect for an elementary of nursery school teacher, or anyone who likes letters or colors.

There are a lot more. You can see them all here:

]http://www.ebay.com/sch/bluefishquilter/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

As I continue toward my goal of getting rid of 5000 things this year, I am happy to part with things that someone else will treasure.

Having some of them documented on my blog makes it easier to let them go!

My One Track Mind…………..

I haven’t posted to my blog a lot recently because my mind has been on another track!
Seems I accomplish more when I head straight down one track at a time!


The current track I am on is selling some of my Blue Fish and other special clothing on eBay.
This is one outfit that will sell this Sunday evening between 7 and 9 pm PST
They are New Without Tags and are very rare pieces. They will sell individually so stay on line to get both pieces as I posted them 10 minutes apart.

This thermal hooded pullover will also sell in that same time frame. The painting was done by Brian of Blue Fish fame who is now painting for another company.

This Blue fish top and pant will also sell. It is new without tags since when it was made they weren’t doing paper tags on the clothing.
Of course each piece I sell counts toward my goal of purging 5000 things this year!

This is one of my last Blue Fish collector tee shirts and it will also be selling during this time period.

These 3 coordinating pieces will each be selling individually.
There are more but you’ll have to go to my eBay page if you want to see them!

Another reason I have decided to post these is so I have a memory of what I have parted with.
It was so much fun to post the graduation/confirmation cards and I’ll always have them now.
I may be parting with these clothes, but I can still enjoy them – even though I can’t wear them!
In fact, most of them were never worn as I have too much in my closet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOOD LUCK BIDDING or looking!

The Olden Days!

One of the things that was tossed out in my 2013 purge was my confirmation and graduation cards.
Before I emptied the wastebasket my friend Kris E mentioned scanning them.
My first reaction was no way.
On second thought I agreed it was a great idea.

I have opened this card flat so you can see all the signatures.
These were all the teachers at the state grade school I attended through 8th grade.

Some of my graduation cards………

More birthday cards……..

Some of my confirmation cards……..

And a birthday card that was with the other cards……

and the inside of the card. I found that one interesting as I am currently selling some Vogue patterns from my extensive mint collection on eBay.
You could buy a Hallmark greeting card for between 5 and 15 cents in the mid 50’s.
Some of the other companies in business at that time were Gibson,  Norcross, Forget Me Not, Pollyanna, Sunshine, Rust Craft, Art Guild,  Heywood and American Greeting.
I got more Hallmark cards than any others. To the best of my knowledge Hallmark and American Greeting are the only ones still in business.

My Studio Looks Emptier Today

Yesterday I had a visitor.
She will be a new teacher in a middle school teaching what we used to call Home Economics.
She had asked if anyone had any fabric to share with her so she had fabrics available for some of the 750 students she will teach this year.

Here’s Tara packing up (and counting) all the Malden Mills Polar Fleece I gave her.
Over 50 pieces from as small as 10 inches up to about 2 yards.
Why did I have so much of this? Well I bought it to make scarves and hats for charity several years ago but my intentions were bigger than my accomplishments. I did make quite a few, but the major amount was still here.
Can you believe she will be teaching this many students (of course boys and girls) in 6 week sessions that will include sewing, cooking,, and something else?

When I saw how full her trunk was I thought she’d never get it closed…..but leave it a woman…we know how to pack a car and get everything in.

and this is the back seat!
She took patterns, decorator fabrics, quilting cottons and knit fabrics off my hands.
She took almost 500 things off my hands and I added them to my list of things I’ve purged in 2013!
I’m looking forward to following her teaching career and see what her students make.
In addition to doing their own sewing they will be involved in charity projects. What a great addition to the curriculum.

Holing Up In My Studio With Friends

While looking through things on the shelves in my studio who did I find in hiding?

Yes, Barbie and Ken…………They are at the sewing machine but they’re not helping me with my work.

I’m purging and listing on eBay and sending out sold eBay things.

They just sit there making eyes at each other.

I think they may need some new clothes….Barbie’s dress is just a gauge sample I knit on my knitting machine.

I knit Ken’s sweater by hand at least 45 years ago.

But the thing that worries me the most is red headed Barbie is hiding away somewhere with brunette Ken and GI Joe!

About 50 years ago I sewed Barbie clothes and sold them. I must have made at least 800 garments – mostly of my own designs.

I have NONE of them left as I gave the last ones away. I also gave my original Barbie to a little girl who didn’t have one.

20 or so years ago I did make some gorgeous Barbie clothes for my granddaughters dolls. Maybe they have some Barbie can borrow!

While I Was Sleeping

This is what the group of patterns, kits, magazines and books I have up for sale on eBay looked like when I finished for the day yesterday.

While I was sleeping many items sold so I will be pulling them and getting ready to mail them.

Sunday is usually the biggest day of the week for eBay sales. This week I listed things with FREE SHIPPING and at rock bottom prices so many have sold with Buy It Now almost as soon as I listed them.

For those of you who asked how to find my current auctions they are at:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/queenoffabric/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

If YOU find anything you are interested in you could BIN or put in a bid at the starting price and hope no on overbids you before the auction closes!

There are still a lot of things left. Most close within the week if they don’t sell with BIN.

There are some that have 20-something days to go.

Of course everything I sell counts toward by goal of purging 5000 things this year. If you thought my goal was 2013 I’ve upped it since I reached that number in a few months.

Tomorrow I have someone who is starting to teach Consumer Education this year coming over to pick up fabrics and patterns I am donating for her to use in her classes. Of course each thing she walks away with counts toward my goal!

I know some of you are wondering what the prize is for my reaching my goal? It’s not monetary – it’s a house with less clutter.

400,000 Views Of My Blog And Counting

Early this week the counter on my blog said I had 400,000 views since I started blogging!

I had no idea where I was heading or how long I would continue blogging when I started, but I find it’s been a great way for me to document my quilting and my life.

I appreciate the fact that so many of you have taken the time to visit and read what I post and/or enjoy the photos and the COLOR!

 

This is one of the first posts I did in September, 2008.

Monday, September 15, 2008

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

This quilt started out as a strip pieced quilt shading from roses through blues.
It then was cut into a curve shape and sewn together to create a new design.
It DIDN'T work. It was so bad I don't even have a photo of the original.
I had put a lot of time in it and I knew it was salvageable.
Step 1: I cut it into diagonal squares.
Step 2: I added one inch black strips between each square.
Step 3: I added a plain black border and some leftover piecing from the original strata to the left of the quilt.
It needed more.
Step 4: I went to my fabric collection and found a large tropical print. I cut pieces from it and laid them on the quilt in a pleasing arrangement. I appliqued them to the quilt.
It still needed something.
I spied the leftover pieces that resulted when I cut the original strata into the curve shape.
Step 5: I laid them on the quilt and VOILA - that was it!

Why Have I Been Missing From This Blog?

There are many reasons:

I have been purging and selling some things on eBay.

I had company for a week.

I lost a dear friend in Florida.

I decided to sell some of my vintage fashion patterns, books and magazines on eBay.

Since eBay allowed me to sell as many things as I could this week I’ve been very busy listing (and sending out the sold items).

My friend Shelley arrived about a week ago.

Shelley had moved to Michigan and came back to our area to see many friends and relatives. My instructions to her were to use my house as a motel and come and go as she pleased. That worked well for both of us and it also gave us plenty of time to catch up. She also is a fabulous cook and cooked more meals than I did while she was here. The perfect houseguest.

 

Our dear friend Ralph Antes passed away last Sunday. He and his wife Jean were the first people we met when we moved back to Wisconsin almost 48 years ago. We now live within 6 miles of each other in Florida. When we built our house in Wisconsin Ralph and Jerry spent their summer literally building the entire house. When we needed extra help Ralph always found volunteers among our friends.  I took this picture at one of our Kentucky Derby parties in Florida 2 or 3 years ago.

Jean and Ralph had a real knack for making everyone feel welcome. You could not find two finer people anywhere.

RIP dear friend, I will miss you.

Y’all Know How Fascinated I Am With Palindromic Numbers!

Well, today my age in days is a Palindrom………….I’m not giving it away…………

Yes, I also do keep track of my age in days!

I often send friends cards wishing them ????? days old!

One of my friends wanted to know how I did that so she could too.

Then on second thought she said if she did that she might not have any friends left!

Which one of these ages would you prefer to be if today was your actual birthdate?

You are 50 years old.
You are 600 months old.
You are 2,609 weeks old.
You are 18,263 days old.
You are 438,328 hours old.
You are 26,299,681 minutes old.
You are 1,577,980,871 seconds old.

Where Have I Been?

In addition to purging a lot of things from my house, I’ve been working on getting Jared’s room finished.

I had the two big cabinets on each end of the couch taken out.

I had this dresser (which matches the wall unit) moved into place.

I was able to find the perfect mirror and the perfect lamp on line.

At the other end of the couch I am using a sewing machine for an end table. If Jared can’t sleep he can always get up and sew!

I found this lamp locally and I’m happy with it.

I’ve made the selection of the quilt I’ll hang on this wall. It is layered and ready to quilt.

I believe the only other project will be framing a piece of art Nicholas made for me. The frame is on the wall, so all I have to do is take it down, insert the art, matt and backing and put it back up on the wall.

Do You Know What This Is?

If you do please tell me since I don’t know what it is going to be!

Last night I spent a LOT of time trying to get my serger threaded and working. I finally got it after two sessions that were each over an hour. It was a very frustrating task, but I am so glad I persevered.

I decided I’d just play and sew some of these embroidered silk dupioni scraps together.

It did come unthreaded a few times while I was sewing and I was able to rethread it with no problem.

It is currently unthreaded so I stopped for tonight.

I felt I deserved some fun sewing as I am making such good progress on my purging.

I started in March with the idea of getting rid of 2013 things in 2013. I have made such great progress lately and only have to get rid of 46 more things.

Long May She Wave!

I made these flags with polymer clay.

Using the same palette I also created these hearts.

Yeah, Yeah, USA!

RIP - Jeffrey Gutcheon - Talented Genius

This was a class exercise I did in a class I took from Jeffrey at our Land Of Lincoln Quilt Symposium.

While others are telling stories about Jeffrey I have to share a few of mine!

His books were my first real solid information about quilting when I became a quilter in the 70’s.

Later I got to know him and considered him a friend, a mentor, an mentee and a brat!

Now how can I call anyone with his talents a brat?

Some said he had an abrasive personality – it was only his way of trying to make one realize what he was sharing and never forget it.

He had a strong dislike for coordinated fabric groups, especially when they were done by famous quilters. He also had no use for cutsey calicos, the most readily available fabrics at the time.

Knowing that, my bratiness also came out and I brought the fabrics I thought would get a reaction from him to the workshop.

The workshop started out by his telling us to get out our tracing paper. We all said “Tracing Paper? That was not on the supply list”.

He said his secretary or “our people” must have forgot to type it on the list.

I was in charge of speaker hospitality for the Symposium and had to go down and take care of some business during the class. When I got to “our office” I asked if they had a copy of the supply list he sent. Of course the list was right there and tracing paper was NOT listed.

When I got back to class and told him this he said HE must have forgot to add it …quietly so I was the only one who heard him say it!

We had enough tracing paper to draw out blocks by sharing among the class.

After I drew my 60 degree diamond design I took out my fabrics and said “Now what do you think of these Jeff?”

Expecting a negative reaction from him,  he suggested where I could use each one in the design.

Earlier he had given other class members hard times about their fabric selections, but I guess he knew me well enough to not do that to me.

I had great respect for him and his talents and he respected me.

I could go on and on with other stories about him, but I can’t conclude this “story” about him without saying he was a multi-talented man: an architect, a musician, an author and a quilter.

So rest in peace dear Jeffrey, we miss you.

The Longer I Quilt, The Harder It Gets

This is the first “original design” quilt I made way back when. At least I thought it was original. I found the design in a McCall’s quilting publication, one of the few quilt booklets available in the 1970’s.

I changed it by substituting the natural muslin for the cutsey yellow print in the one in the book and I doubled the size of all the pieces.

I used Barbara Johannah’s half square triangle method (now a quilting standard) with 1/2 inch seams to make the triangles. I hand quilted it since NO ONE was machine quilting way back when!

I made the quilt top in an afternoon and quilted it in a few days.

I ended up with enough half square triangles for a second quilt as I didn’t read the directions thoroughly!

Of course I now know that changing out a few things on a design does NOT make it original!

Fast forward to this morning………..

The seeds for this design were planted several weeks ago. While they grew I had to do some weeding, add some fertilizer. some rain, some lightning and thunder and some sunshine.

I am struggling with Phase 2 on my current composition. I thought I’d add a soft light black and white shibori to the outer edges.

It took away the vibrancy I’d created in Phase 1.

So this morning I am trying a mottled yellow hand dyed fabric.

I think the vibrancy is back, but I don’t want to overwhelm what I created in Phase 1.

You can see both choices in this photo.

It is going to take me some time to made a decision and I will probably try out other fabrics in these positions.

Shibori Composition–First Phase Sewn

Looks simple doesn’t it?

It was anything but………..

I have over 35 pictures of different things I tried along the way. There were also many things I tried that didn’t get photographed.

Cutting the pieces and making them fit together was also a challenge.

There were a lot of inset corners.

This is where I started. I won’t show all the steps along the way.

I will be adding more to this. I had to get first phase sewn before I could make a decision on if and what and where to add to it.

Stay tuned!

Shibori–One Thing Leads To Another

If you have been following my blog posts you have seen some of these fabrics before.

Any time I create a composition and it does not work for me it gives me clues to something else.

This is what it looked like when I finished working on it last night. It’s getting there but it still needs a lot of work.

I have made a lot of changes to it today but my camera battery died again. Guess I need a new battery that lasts a little longer.

More Shibori Design Try Outs

While working on the design ideas yesterday I got the idea to try out this start of a composition.

The proportions are not right and it needs more work or it may be a false start.

This is the start of another design possibility. It would be so much easier if I could come up with some type of formula to use my shibori and other patterned hand dyed fabrics.

That’s not really possible as I am dyeing such a variety of colors, designs and sizes. At some time that may happen, but right now I am just trying to come up with compositions which make the best use of the fabrics I’ve dyed. I know not everyone works with shibori fabrics this way, but it is my working style at the present time.

Shibori Fabric Design Experiments

 

When working with these fabrics everything is a new experience. Each fabric is different.

This is the beginning of one trial with some of the fabrics.

I have used fabrics from quite a few different years dyeing activities that I am trying out.

I can see possibilities with these. When I photograph arrangements and look at them on the computer much becomes apparent that wasn’t obvious when I look at the design on the wall.

This is a little better than the last view. I don’t think I’ll be actually creating a quilt with it though.

Working this way gives me other ideas and tomorrow is another day, another composition with some of these fabrics and some others.

What Were You Doing One Year Ago Today?

One of the things that makes keeping a blog worthwhile is I can look at previous years and see what I was doing. Of course there are some days I don’t post but I can look at the days before or after.

When I look at what I was doing a year ago today, I realize I am now enjoying what I did a year ago!

I am sure a year from now I will be enjoying what I am doing today.

 

My Studio: Accessories Finish The Room

As I have spent time in my newly reorganized studio my thoughts turn to using some of my quilts and other items as accessories and decorative items.

Since my studio has a lot of windows and the long design wall it does not leave a lot of wall space to hang things. I have to think of other ways to hang quilts to make the room complete.

One solution I have come up with is to use a tension rod to hang a piece of felt to cover a bookcase.

I have pinned two quilts to the felt. This also makes it easy to change the quilts I display any time I want.

A French wood printing block and this quilt hang on the far right of the office area of the studio. Visible from the workspace in the office is the side of this bookcase. I had four 8 x 10 glossies printed of some of my quilts. I framed them with very simple black frames and they made the side of this bookcase so much more attractive.

Making my space beautiful and colorful inspires me when I am creating.

Often we have to think out of the box not only when creating art, but also when decorating a home or studio.

I hope this will give someone else some ideas.

A Significant Birthday

One of us had a significant birthday yesterday.

When I saw these shirts on my friend Rita’s Facebook page I had to find them. I was not successful and Rita steered me in the correct direction.

Like Rita and her sisters we hope to get an annual photo of us in the shirts.

If you can’t read the inscription it says “When my Sister And I get old We shall wear Purple

We will wear these until we get old and then wear them longer!

My brother Bill and SIL Mary hosted a wonderful dinner for the siblings.

And thanks BIL Clay for taking the picture.

The Gazebo Is Ready To Enjoy

When we winterize the gazebo the cushions are taken out. Many things that don’t belong in it are placed inside for the winter.

It takes some time to get it ready to use.

The ice cream table and chairs are a perfect place for breakfast or lunch.

It is so nice to have a screened in area to enjoy the outdoors without being joined by the bugs.

When I was decorating/furnishing the gazebo I used a LOT of candles. I thought I would need them for light in the evening since I didn’t think I had electric or lighting here.

Was I wrong….there are more outlets than some rooms in the house and an overhead fan with lights that can be bright or dimmed!

Some of the candles were disposed of this year, but there are still enough for atmosphere.

I took advantage of the two short solid walls to add decorative accessories.

This is the other short wall with the mirrored plaques.

Ahh, summer time and the living is easy! I am enjoying my outdoor living space. It is pleasant and calming.

Peonies

Our peonies are late this year. Usually by this time they would have been done blooming.

My favorites are the darker colors.

I picked a bouquet so I could enjoy them in the house.

They grow on the side of the house we rarely see so having them inside is the best way to enjoy them.