Finished Quilt

Another thing I've done while here is get the binding on the baby quilt - So now it's completely finished and ready to be gifted...

More Chameleons

I've made a lot of chameleons on this trip - I love the chameleons themselves, which come from Sherwin Williams paint ads - and it's great fun to embellish them...

Sepia ATCs

Another group of ATCs which I made while here - being on holiday is great for your creative time - especially when you aren't at your own house, where there are never-ending lists of things to be done (like clear out cupboards, weed gardens, etc...)

The Queen's Ink

Just in case anyone thinks I am only supporting the large chain stores while in the US, I thought I'd reassure you that the small independent shops are also getting my business - this selection of goodies was from a local shop called The Queen's Ink. It seems to specialise in stamping, but also has a selection of items for mixed media creations...

Abstract Blue, Purple & Green Bookpage Cards

Fairly self-explanatory, given the title. 

Although, as usual, the purple has not photographed well.

Cross stitch update

After quite a bit of not-much-cross-stitching, I finally got around to finishing the border on the Iris piece

AND the border on the Hope Sheep.  Now to start the project I actually brought to work on while in the US!

Bright birds

Another set of birds made for a swap - this time, a theme of "bright birds" as you may have gathered from the title.

With this card, I had the idea to outline the bird before putting it on the card (i.e. on top of a piece of scrap paper), so the outline is much thinner - I think it works better, but the other cards were already made, so they are what they are...

Some more ATCs...

This is a set of three I made for a surprise swap (i.e. - any theme and no one posts pictures of the cards in the forum thread, so you have no idea what people are making or what you will receive)

Yep, I used a chameleon - there are still more chameleons to come!

Some ATCs

These are ATCs made to go in my gallery for trading on A4A - no specific theme, just had fun putting bits and pieces together. It's nice to have the time to just sit and make things!

Alterations

Did a little sewing today, but only a few alterations - this Indian shirt which my mom gave to Sarah, but which was too long for Sarah to use lost about 10 inches from the bottom hem - no other changes. 

You can see just how long it was on her before - it looked nice, but she didn't think she'd ever wear it long, whereas at a shorter length, she might wear it sometimes.

And this top, which I bought the other day for myself, looks lovely except for some odd reason, it had elasticated sleeves, which in addition to looking odd, were very uncomfortable.

 However, I knew it would only be a matter of minutes to chop them off and hem them into proper sleeves.

And indeed, it took me nearly more time to find and wind the right colour thread for the bobbin!

(photo a bit washed out - colour is more true in the other photo)

Quilt Shop/Embroidery Shop!

Today was a hot, muggy, overcast day, with a threat of rain, so it was the perfect day to do a few of our shopping errands.  There's a quilt shop (Seminole Sampler) in Catonsville, which is about 15 miles from my mother's house, so I naturally wanted to visit it  - I've been before, but not in years. I'm not sure I went on my last visit to the US, as we hit a couple of other quilt shops in that trip. Sadly, the one that was really close to mom's house has closed - or rather, it still does custom quilting and longarming, but doesn't have a retail premises.

This isn't a huge shop, especially by American standards, but it has a nice selection - however, I didn't even really look at fabric much.

I didn't need (if that's the word!) much fabric, as I've had so much from my mom's destashing efforts (and some sent to me in the post as a gift - which I'll show later) but I thought I might pick up a charm pack (they didn't have any) and a 60 degree ruler, which I've been thinking about buying. They did have the ruler, so now I can have a go at making this butterfly quilt I saw on Jane's blog.  I also had a look at the sale fabric, of course, and found this novelty Jetsons print for about $5/yard. There was about 2 yds left on the bolt, so I went ahead and bought it - some of it I will use as a border for a Project Linus quilt; some I will add to stash as I have fond memories of the Jetsons!  I think this is probably the least I've ever bought in a quilt shop - especially one in the US...

Conveniently next door to the quilt shop was a cross-stitch and embroidery shop (The Stitching Post), so of course I had to take a trip to that as well. (There was also a knitting shop a door further along, but I skipped that one as I don't knit...)  And yes, a few patterns came home with me.

I was debating whether or not to get this one, when my mom admired it and said she'd really like it, but didn't think she'd ever get around to stitchng it (even though she used to do some embroidery years ago).  Hey presto - Christmas present. Or birthday (March) if I don't get to it before Christmas. 

A Hallowe'en design which we all liked - this one was a kit, so I could, in theory even start on it while here. I haven't been cross-stitching much while here, actually, probably because I usually do it while watching telly, and I haven't really watched any while here. So I'm reading and playing games with the family instead. And blogging lots!

And three little designs just because.  A bluebird sampler, 

a wintery sampler

and a birdcage sampler. All small and quickly stitchable...

Can't decide if I wished I lived 20 minutes away from a quilt shop with a cross-stitch shop next door, or whether I'm glad I don't!  Of course, I don't have any trouble finding and buying patterns in the UK, anyway - in fact, I just had an email that the latest section of my pink bird piece (you can see a photo of what it will look like finished, here) has been shipped to me (at home) along with the next sheep virtue ("faith")... I best get stitching!

Some ATCs

I've showed a lot of the cards I've worked on as part of a Round Robin and the backgrounds I've been making as part of those, but I've also been making full cards as well, for general trading, so here are a few of those.  A couple of "Karma Chameleon" cards - these were the first two - I've done more since then, and will show them later - I think I'm up to about 8 of these - the chameleons are from magazine ads for Sherwin Williams paints (I think) and come in a variety of colours. My mother has a huge stack of home decorating type magazines which she is giving away, but letting me mine for images first...

Big shadow on this photo - sorry. A couple of Eastern type cards with sayings and some found objects.

And these three use some cardboard shapes with beaded dangles, which I found at JoAnn's. Or maybe Michael's!

Maverick Stars

This month's block lotto features scrappy Maverick Stars on a red background. Although I had lots of fabric from my mom's stash, I didn't have any red, so I picked up a bit at Hobby Lobby to make these stars. I will probably make some more while I am here, as they are easy and fun and I can just about manage them on my mother's sewing machine...