Okay, I’m putting it out there … my very first card. I see things I like and things I don’t like now that it’s done.

My first card 051110

Over the weekend I found these great fabric leaves at a yard sale and instantly thought they would look good on a card or a scrapbooking page.

That was where I started choosing a color scheme and a subject for my card. I thought a thank you card, which turned into a thanksgiving / thank you card.

Likes:
- I love the look and feel of macrame ribbon
- I love the leaves
- I like the phrase
- I like the color and the texture of the paper.

Dislikes:
- I dislike how large i made the lettering on the phrase. Didn’t leave much room for other embellishments, but I initially wanted my lettering to be 1/2 inch on a white oval embellishment but my cricut wasn’t cooperating and it just wasn’t successfully cutting out 1/2 anything so I upped it to 3/4 inch.
- It just seems ‘too’ simple. Again the lettering is just too big I think.

I think I’ll take this same idea for a card but try again, and try stamping the phrase in the oval like I originally thought. Will post results

My first card 051110

My first card 051110

My first card 051110

I was able to find just the right setting on my camera tonight to take photos of my embellished mini lanyards and add them to my store.
Use them as cell phone charms, zipper pulls or just hang them on your keychain.
I have them posted in my store just for viewing at the moment until I finalize a few things in the checkout process.

The fun part is trying to come up with names for each design. I usually go with the rorschach test direction. The first phrase I think of when looking at it, that is what name I go with

Pinkish Royale - Clear beads used in this piece with silver metal bead accents with lilac medium weight wire. Pastel Purple stringed lanyard. Length: 4.75 inches

Woodstock - Wooden beads on gold medium weight wire on black stringed lanyard. Length: 5.25 inches

Measurements are from tip of string down to the wire beaded at the bottom.

Just an example of a tumbling block pattern. I didn't make this one.

I believe it was around 2002 or so when I was inspired to make a quilt. Like I needed another project….but I thought it would be fun and an interesting challenge. So I began to look for patterns and decided on what I affectionately call my ‘Qbert’ quilt. The design is like a Qbert board (I hope you have heard of Qbert unless I’m dating myself The actual name for the design is ‘tumbling blocks’. I love patchwork designs so that is when I went to town and really started grabbing any mix and match fabrics I could find. Wal-mart’s dollar fabrics was where I started, sales at local fabric shops, yard sales (where I was lucky to have gotten the batting when that time came).

Picture 1: Here is what I have right now.

Starting from the upper left in picture 1, you’ll see just diamonds cut out roughly.  They are cut about a 1/2 inch around my pattern which you’ll see going counterclockwise where I currently have some maroon fabric paperclipped to it. Then moving around the same way, you’ll see just a pile of diamonds that I have already sewed the angles on and ironed down.  These are aleady matched to two other diamonds that will make a whole block. Continuing around, you’ll see that a v shaped pile. Those have 2 ironed diamonds already together and ironed and the third laying on top. I found that I have to iron every step of the way to ensure that they fit together nicely and are easier to sew that way. Lastly you’ll see two piles with completed blocks.  The other pile that look like triangles are 3 color matched rough cut diamonds that count out to be the last amount of blocks I need to make! Which makes me glad there is ‘completion’ in sight!

Here are the numbers that I figured out:

- Block width: 6.25 in

- Block Height: 7.25 in

- I decided on a Queen sized blanket so that comes out to 60 x 80 blocks. 10 per row, 11 rows.

- Which total 110 blocks.

As of January of this year I had made 77 blocks. So I only have 33 more to go!

Here are more pictures of the process. Wish me luck that I’ll actually get it done this year!

Close Up of completed blocks and yet to be completed blocks.

Here is the pattern I've been using. You can imagine my horror as I thought I lost it at one point! You can see I'm using cream thread.

This is an example of one block and how I'm putting it together. To make the dimensioned look, you put the lightest block on top, darker on left, middle color on right.

This is how I'm tacking the angles down on each diamond.

You see I almost have to iron down each step of the way to ensure that they meet clean like this.

From front to back: step one pile. Step two pile. and completed pile!

You can see where the navy meets the middle color, the I believe it's a variation of the chain stitch along the edge.

Late last night, I found some older versions of my site and I had made some flash galleries with photos of my artwork. They were ‘luckily’ the perfect size for my website design so I started posting them all.

Here is one of my favorite pieces I’ve done. I drew it in photoshop with a mouse! It was before I had gotten my Wacom tablet.

Okay…for anyone out there (i hear crickets…anyone?) who has been checking back every now and then on my site has realized, I’ve been posting coming soon signs since January. Well, now I believe I have a direction that I’m comfortable with at least for now. What’s great about wordpress is  I can have all my content and change the design at anytime without reprogramming!  Anyway, this is my first post so I want to use it by saying that my goal for my website is to be a place to ‘collect’ anything that I create to share with anyone interested in browsing.  I’m working on my online store where I’ll be offering the tangible items I make for purchasing. I’ll also be making a photo gallery of my creations.  Thanks for visiting!