Finish-itis

Yesterday I felt compelled to get some projects finished as today is my small quilt group meeting and I wanted to have something to show. I had decided that I was going to leave the winter quilt simple and just finish it as it was, no border and a facing instead of binding.

At the last minute I decided to add a few beads, stars in the sky. I overdid the beads at first but then eleminated some back to this scattering. The batik fabrics are a bit richer than they show in this picture.

I also decided to get "my" tote bag done.
I had originally put these fabrics together as a gift, but then I realized they really were MY colors so I'm keeping it.
On Friday we made a quick trip to Seattle to visit Kim and she took me to So Much Yarn. And there was, and it was lovely, and yes I bought.
The green will be Knitty's "Mr. Greenjeans Sweater" and the purple is going to be a beret for Kim. I really like the "Gemma Beret" pattern from Rowan yarns, but the instructions are in "British" which is different from American knitting instructions, so I'm going to see if I can figure out how to translate it.

Latest Tote Bag

Still making tote bags and here's the latest one. For some reason it doesn't quite do it for me, I picked out the side fabric with the shells specially for the recipient who really likes thinks related to the ocean, and I think the center fabrics compliment the main fabric, but the total picture doesn't strike me as my others have done. However I think it will be well received and if anyone has any insight about it I'd love to hear.

Kim made a quick trip home yesterday to pick up her new cell phone (her old one was stolen and we ordered the new one through DH's work where we get a deal) also the license plates for her car had arrived. Since it was here I snapped some pictures of her tote bag, it's my favorite so far, and yes it is full of stuff.

The fabric that I used on the sides is the same one I used as the background for my blog header. I only bought 1/2 yard and will be so sad when it's gone.
The back side is a different design, I made a slight error when I was measuring and cutting my strip set so I had to come up with a different plan. I really like the asymmetry of it.

Like most of the country we are experiencing low temperatures, for us it means 20's and 30's. However we have clear skies and SUNSHINE which is so refreshing, lifts the spirits right up.

Another Tote Bag

Tried to get a quick picture before Kim and her new tote bag went back to Seattle, my camera had dead batteries so Dave grabbed his camera and snapped a few shots. So I can blame the quality of this on him, also when I did some Photoshop correction I noticed that he had his camera set on really low resolution, so there you go. Unfortunately you can't really see the lovely batik's I used, and the other side is a different design only because I made a measuring error when I was cutting the fabric strips, a happy mistake as it turned out, I did like the new design once I figured it out.

I want to make 2 more bags, they go very quickly once I pick out my fabrics.

Tote Bag Done

I finished the tote bag for my sister-in-law, now it's up to Dave to get it boxed and in the mail, I've done my part.

Lovely batik fabric, I went for simple piecing and not much quilting, just down the light colored lines. I think she will like it.

And I did a few rows of knitting on the sock last night, it's a basket weave pattern. I love the yarn.

Now on to serious photo preparing of the What Knot's challenge. When I was taking the quilt pictures I noticed that my camera (on a tripod) seemed to be a bit tilted, but I couldn't figure out why, and I was in a hurry as everyone else was eating desert while I was taking pictures.

While taking this morning's pictures I had a duh! moment, it was tilted because of the way I had the legs of the tripod. Yes, they were all the same length, but they were not at the same angle, so that made the camera tilted. However, I did figure out how to straighten the pictures out in photoshop, so you won't have to tilt your head to view them. I sent an e-mail to the group asking everyone to write "artist statements" for me to include, so far only 1 response.

Another Tote Bag

I completed another tote bag, in fact this one has already gone on to it's new owner. I gave it as a birthday present to a friend celebrating 50 years.

The quilting on the nine patch is an all-over loopy sorta fake feather design.
On the other side I followed the flower petals some and then improvised. For wonderful machine quilting ideas, have you seen Patsy Thompson's Designs? I've been watching her blog for a while, but only recently discovered that she's got a wonderful treasury of free designs. I downloaded them all and will refer to them regularly.

Getting together with a group of women friends is always so special, lots of good laughs and catching up. In the "Bellingham is a small town" view, I've know most of these women because we have kids in the same schools, and we've gone from Kindergarten to college with some.

One woman who's daughter is a high school cheerleader shared with another mother that her son was identified as the person who "Mooned" a van full of cheerleaders heading down the highway to a football game. Although the mother of the "mooner" was a bit shocked this was good for a lot of giggles. I guess "mooning" is alive and well, another daughter lost driving privileges for awhile because she was so shocked when she was "mooned" that she used her cell phone while driving and word got back to the mom. And yes, most of these woman have participated in"mooning" at some point in their youth.

Tote Bag

I wanted to practice some machine quilting but I have a hard time just quilting on something with no purpose, so I decided to piece together some scraps, quilt it and then sew it into a tote bag.

I braved our blustery day outside to get some natural light pictures of it, and artistically pose it on some rocks.
The quilting went well, really boosted my confidence and it's a great little tote. I want to make more.

Dave bought a new car and he's very excited. It's a Nissan Rogue, a new model that Nissan just came out with, like their Murano only smaller. So here's the new car picture.

As I was walking around it to take another view, I noticed what was in the background, yes some of the other vehicles that reside here.
Starting on the far right is the Mouse Truck (beater for hauling wood), in the tent is Matt's Subaru, then there is Dave's Subaru which will be sold soon. It looks like there are canoes on top of it, but that's just the trailer of canoes that belong to the Boy Scouts sitting behind the car. Next is the Subaru Parts Car (doesn't run) which will go when Dave's Subaru is sold, and finally there is Big Red the dump truck. What you don't see are my car and the Suburban. Geesh!

And finally, here's a little fall color, my Smoke Tree. Most of my flowers are fading fast.