LAST TWO WEEKS

Hard to believe March is over and it's been awhile since I posted but I have been so busy, whew, and not with any of my "garage stash",  but had a wonderful time and will try to catch up with all the exciting news. 

Spent a week babysitting the gallery during the Art Week in Great Falls.  Over $5 million dollars worth of art sold to support the C.M. Russell Museum.  I love auctions and art auctions are so much fun.  If you ever have an opportunity to attend a high end art auction, I strongly recommend it, and of course, collecting art is something everyone should do regardless of the level you can begin to collect. 

While setting up the gallery I found my favorite piece.

 

Willie was excited that he got to be on "display".

 

Had a new grandson right in the middle of art week and with both sets of grandparents showing during the week, I had to wait until right after the show to head to Nebraska to see him.  Good thing for me the weather cooperated for that trip.

 

 

On March 22, 2014 the world welcomed Blake Michael to our family and Mama and baby are doing wonderful.

 

While in Nebraska had to take advantage of visiting a "real junk" pile Carhenge, a place where someone has taken a lot of time and effort to take the junk cars out of the junk yard and transform them into art pieces.

 

 

and of course I had my little "art admirer" with me, Blake's big sister, Emma

 

 

funny faces for Granny's camera is so much fun.

 

After a wonderful visit with the kids, we headed home and I was able to visit my favorite store "Hobby Lobby".  For those of you that have one of those stores in your town you are very lucky, we do not have any in Montana, so anytime I get the opportunity to visit an actual store, I must take advantage.  I didn't bring home a lot from the store, but did pick up a few things for very specific projects.

 

 

Yes, some new drawer pulls and I can't wait to share the projects I have in mind for these things, but first with spring in the air, I have made a promise to the hubby that I will clean out and organize my "garage stash".  So I will now unpack and put away all my treasures so I can begin the new month fresh.

 

 

ONE AND ONLY "REBEL" CHILD

Found a cute little applique in my stash a few weeks ago and have been wondering what I would do with it, well today I came up with a plan.  A "tomboy" outfit for a 3 year old little girl with an attitude and a few big brothers !!!!!

Camouflage and skater shorts with a very special "girlie" applique.

 

Don't know if this outfit will help her keep up with her big brothers, but she'll certainly look cute trying......

SPRING IS COMING !!!!!!!

Weather has cleared and I can feel the beginning of spring in the air, that so excites me.  I have been very busy with my t-shirt quilt and am on the final leg of finishing it, however, I will be putting my stitching on hold for a few weeks as some outings have been planned. 

 

I have cut and stitched about 30 two sided t-shirts and made two quilt tops, using as much of each t-shirt as possible.  I have purchased the batting and yarn to hand tie the quilt.  I have decided that this quilt needs to be hand tied due to its size and the fact that it has two quilt tops. 

 

 

I still have a few months to finish this project, but for the next few weeks it is going to lay on my dining room table waiting for me to get to work. 

 

Art Week is almost here, so I will be babysitting an art gallery and spending many days enjoying all the artists and their art work that comes to town each March, then it's off to Nebraska as it's also almost time for baby grandson.

 

 

LESSONS I'VE LEARNED

There are seamstresses and then there are quilters, I'm a seamstress.  Youtube videos make things seem easier than in fact they are.  If you want to build a house, don't start with the TajMahal.  With all that said my work on my t-shirt quilt has been on-going for the last few days.  I have cut up all the t-shirts

 

Finished sewing all the pieces of one side of the quilt together

 

 

Ironed the t-shirt pieces to the second side

 

 

so now it's ready for some fabric strips and to be sewn all together before I make the decision as to how I will finish it off.  Will I hire it out to a long-arm quilter, will I machine quilt it myself or will I hand tie it.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.......

 

But before I can make any decisions I had to clean up my mess and take a break

 

 

to remind myself that I really appreciate quilters and all the work that goes into those beautiful pieces and will forever look at all quilts and quilters with a whole new appreciation !!!!

EMMA'S CRAFT TABLE

I love working on things for my grandchildren, whether I'm sewing, crafting or re-doing furniture for them I can channel my inner child and be a little whimsical.  It was so much fun to dig out some children's furniture from my "garage stash".

I wasn't certain what I would do with them, but after sitting for a few days and a trip to Joann's for some fabric I had all the inspiration I needed.  I decided Emma needed a little crafting table of her own, I can also see a lot of "tea parties" and picnics happening.  Once I got to cleaning the table I realized the top was a hard counter top surface, so redoing it wasn't really an option, the stools were originally chairs, but missing a lot of pieces, so with this green color in mind I went on the search for the perfect fabric to re-fashion the chairs into stools.  I wanted something durable and easy to clean.  I headed straight for the oil cloth section at Joann's but there was nothing that suited me.  As I was wandering around the store looking at different options, I spotted the perfect fabric.  It is baby PUL fabric, used mostly for diaper covers.  What could be more perfect and the color was going to work perfectly with that green top.

 

I was now inspired to mix some paint to match the colors on the fabric.  I decided on the blue and after mixing a few colors I came up with a color that appears I went to the paint store with my fabric and had them match it. 

 

 

I cleaned, glued,  painted, added a coat of poly, padded and covered some stools and I have taken this dreary little table and chair set from "DRAB"

 

 

To "FAB"

 

 

and ready for many hours of fun !!!!!