What's it Going to Be?

CLARIFICATION: Which Thursday is the contest ending??? Well let's make it Wednesday, October 7th at midnight.

Seven days and counting. Remember in my last blog I said that I had to design my booth and usually that would involve building or painting something. Well, it seems not only are we going to build something but we will also have to paint it. Can you guess what we are going to build?

These are your clues.

(the boards behind the bike are part of the clues)

We are going to take these various items and make them into something for my booth.

Can you guess what it is going to be?

Guess right and you have a chance to win one of these.

If there is more than one person guessing the right answer, (which I am sure there will be - it's pretty obvious) a drawing will take place.

The contest ends Wednesday, October 7th at midnight.

I will reveal what we have made after we place the item in our booth.

I will be updating my blog during market - so stayed tuned.

We have been too busy to empty the trash.

It doesn't smell so who cares?



Sandy K. stitching on some pillows.
My floss box is the one on the right - hers is on the left and center.
Gee I wonder why she prefers to bring her own floss.
(Really who has time for such silliness???)



Lois - just about done with one binding and then on to the next.

Seven more days to go and we have only have

3 items in the DONE pile. :-(

The pressure is on.

We will see some of you soon - way too soon.

From my heart,

Sandy

Spring Has Arrived

Spring has arrived! No not the season but my spring fabric.

Last Thursday I went to lunch and when I came back these boxes were sitting by my desk. Straight from the mill in Korea. - no time to ship to Moda and then on to me.

This is what was inside the boxes. The name of this line is Frolic.

For you shop owners that follow my blog, you will be able to see this at the Moda booth at International Quilt Market - If you are interested book your appointment now. If you are one of those blog followers that does not own a shop, you will have to wait until January to see this fabric in your favorite quilt shop(s). If you like it tell your quilt shop owner and maybe she will buy it. ;-)

About a week before the fabric arrived, I received scanned images of the fabric so I could computer generate my quilts. I consumed both of these boxes of fudge while generating. (Yes I really did spend $15.00 on fudge.) I generated 6 quilts using this fabric. Now we have to sew all six quilts, have them quilted and bound by the time we leave for market on October 6th. Yikes! That gives use only 13 days to get all this done! How do I do it?

I call in the troops.




Lois - Look at those stacks of connector squares (432 of them)
that she has to plow through before she can even begin to assemble the blocks.

Sandy K. helping Lois out with her connector squares while I cut a quilt for her to sew.

Sandy K. threading her bobbin - again.

Why can't somebody come up with bigger bobbins?

Lori working on her assignment. Notice, by now it is dark outside. How do I get my seamstresses to work a couple of nights during crunch season???

Feed them pizza.

Everybody went home last night about 10:00 and they are all back sewing today. I am very grateful for my dedicated seamstresses.

Not only do we have to finish all of the quilts, I also have to create my booth, (which usually involves building or painting something) write a newsletter, design and print brochures, make salesman sample packs, pack the trailer, pack a suitcase, pretty up a bit (get my toes and nails done, haircut and color) - all this in just 13 days. Pray for me. :)


From my heart,

Sandy

Antiquing with the Astro Van

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. My two sisters, their husbands and my mother can down for a sleep over at the cabin. We missed having Dad but he is getting along fine and will be released today. He will then receive home health care at home.

Bruce and I had planned on attending the Antique Show in Clear Lake Iowa this weekend as we often do. Unfortunately we were confused (seems to be happening more often these days) about the day. The show was on Sunday - not Monday as we had thought. I was so disappointed because that is a really good show. So instead we loaded up the Astro van and headed towards the Iowa Great Lakes. There are several antique shops over that way where I found some great treasures.

No this is not one of my treasures, but if you are looking for a great antiquing vehicle this is what you need. You can get a large sized hutch in one of these numbers. It is also great for Christmas tree shopping, and flower shopping come spring.

It embarrasses the kids to death - but I don't care.


This little red over yellow painted stool was my favorite find. It was kind of pricy but if it is the perfect color (red), and it can simply be taken from the van and set it place, I am willing to pay more. - No sanding, scraping, painting or waxing.
Also found the wonderful little shooting game.

I love the sides of the little stool.

It looks great sitting below my framed games that I found on a previous antiquing trip.

After we bought the cabin I started collecting pitchers - old or new. I found the ribbed turquoise pitcher and the clear one with the red and yellow stripes this weekend. The poppy red one I found in an antique store here in town and the big yellow one is a new pitcher - but who cares the color and shape are great. I gathered the bittersweet this weekend but unfortunately someone had beat me to it so there was very little left to gather.

I love love this little number. The color and graphics are awesome. I am going to frame it and hang it in my kitchen at the cabin.

Many of you are too young (those of you who guessed I was married in the 90's) to know what these little poppy red dishes were used for. They are called refrigerator dishes. This is what ladies used before Tupperware. Okay some of you are also too young to know what Tupperware is. So this is what the ladies would use before GladWare.

Can you tell I am attracted to anything red?

On the way home we spotted and bought this little number. Lucky for us the old Astro has a hitch so we were able to pull the boat on home. (Hey kids - another reason to own an Astro van.) It is named Jules63. (after the previous owner) We plan on renaming it.

Any suggestion for a name???

After a great day of antiquing we headed home with all of our treasures. I made a pitcher of lemonade in my new pitcher and we sat by the lake and watched the waves roll in.

Life is good.

Our Favorite Lemonade

Country Time Lemonade Powder Mix
5 lemons
2 liter of 7-Up

Mix 2 quarts of Lemonade according to directions - substituting 7-Up for water.
Squeeze the juice from 3 of the lemons. Add juice and pulp to lemonade.
Slice the fourth lemon and float slices in lemonade.
Slice the last lemon and put a lemon slice on each glass.

Enjoy!

From my heart,

Sandy

FIY Chair

I have had emails regarding the yellow plaid chair in my last blog - is it new, used, where did you get it? But before I get to my chair I would like to update you on my Dad. For those of you who follow my sister's blog http://www.withthyneedleandthread.blogspot.com/, you know that my dad fell from a ladder and broke his femur. He has had surgery and was scheduled to be moved to a swing bed in his home hospital today. However, yesterday he developed a very large blood clot in his leg that required a procedure to put in a "strainer" (sorry I can't remember the medical term) to prevent it from moving to his lungs. Now it is looking like he will not be going to the swing bed until Monday. Then it will be about 3 months of rehab.

Now back to my chair. My vintage vinyl chair was purchased at a thrift store. I actually remembered to take "before" pictures - kind of. As you can see I drew some lines on the seat before I remembered to take a picture.

The price was right, but I felt that the yellow was a bit bright for our cabin.

I tried various ways to tone it down.

There was a small stain on the chair that I thought possibly was a coffee stain so I tried toning it down by wiping it with a strong mixture of instant coffee. Works for fabric…but not vinyl.

I tried wood stain...did not work.

I tried colored wax…did not work.

Then it occurred to me...how about if I tone it down by drawing my “wavy plaid” with markers.

I have a lot of markers. (Someday when I have grandkids they will love to come to Grandma's studio to play with her markers.) The markers might even get me in the “A” Grandma position. :)

I chose these colors and started out by drawing in the large brown grid. I then added in the green, gold and orange last of all I added in the beige. After I was all done, I realized I should of taken pictures along the way. - Falls in the “too dumb to blog” category. Once I get a design idea in my head I am thinking about nothing but getting to the end result.

I let it set overnight and then I sprayed it with a clear flat spray paint.



Viola!

Now go create.

From my heart,

Sandy

I'm to Stupid to Blog!

I am too stupid to blog! I am a person who very often leaves her purse behind. Now I have to remember to take a camera every place I go so I have blog pictures. Sometimes I do remember the camera but then I forget to take pictures. Sometimes I take pictures but they are blurry. Sometimes I take pictures and somehow delete them when I save them. It is just too much for my little pea brain to remember. I feel like saying I QUIT! But I am not a quitter - not just yet anyway. Instead I will bore you with a post with very few pictures.

In May we bought what is known as the "Oak Lake Cabin". It really is not what I would call a cabin - it is more like a little house on a lake 5 miles from Algona.

As we where walking down the hill to look at the cabin, I thought the fabric on the window looked very familiar. Sure enough the curtains were made out of my very first line of fabric. It was right there and then that I decided us owning this cabin was meant to be. The next day we bought it.

The cabin needed some redoing to become "ours". I took the curtains down. (It has been 15 years - I have moved on.)


Here is were I am too stupid to blog comes into effect.
Did I take any before pictures - NO
Did I take any pictures of us painting - NO
Did I take any after pictures - 2 of them.

So with my limited drawing skills, I will illustrate. (Remember in the previous blog I confessed that I really cannot draw without a lot of erasing and redrawing.) I do not have time to erase and redraw so bear with me.

Son Anthony came home for a weekend to help us paint. He likes to paint. He sometimes paints to pick up extra money.

Anthony's girlfriend Deb came along. She was a dear and painted the two teeny tiny closets, among other things. Bless her heart.



Deb's dog Coco also came along. Coco wanted to paint but couldn't.




Dear husband Bruce also helped. He really does not like to paint.



I painted the porch floor and screen door. I wish I had taken before pictures there was hardly any paint left on the floor.

We painted the dining room Benjamin Moore Jalapeno Green

This past weekend both of the kids and their boyfriend/girlfriend came home for a weekend at the lake to do nothing but relax.

Anthony and Deb relaxing on the patio. (Now you know what they really look like.)



Daughter Abby and her boyfriend Zach fishing. Zach caught a lot of fish plus the light pole.



Abby - just chillin'




Cousin Cory came for a visit. He caught the first fish - did I get a picture? NO



Anthony telling Cory a fish story - it doesn't look like Cory is buying it.



View from the patio and our bedroom window. Wonderful to wake up to.

We all had a great time at our little cabin and I can't wait to get together again.

I made this snack for the weekend. It's a fun snack to serve at the lake.

Hook Line and Sinker

6 Tablespoons butter melted
Add:
2 Tablespoon parsley flakes
1 1/2 tsp. dry tarragon
1 tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. celery salt

Add:
2 C. gold fish crackers
2 C. pretzel stix
1 C. Cheerios
1 C dry roasted peanuts

Mix until coated.

Bake in shallow pan @ 325° for 45 minutes
stirring every 15 minutes.

Serve in a clear glass bowl.

Have a good week and remember to take some time to do nothing but relax.

From my heart,

Sandy

P.S. On Saturday we all went to Jackson Minnesota to my parents farm for their annual threshing bee. I took my camera - but kind of forgot to take pictures. Give me a break it was 100 degrees in the shade - my brain was cooked. (Old people are not even supposed to be outside when it is that hot.) Go to my sisters blog http://www.withthyneedleandthread.blogspot.com/to read all about it as told by her grandson Beckham. It was a fun filled day - other than the heat.

The Process of Fabric Designing

Okay, all of you have probably given up on me ever updating my blog. Well I have been very busy. First off I have been to France and back. (A very spur of the moment trip) I filled in for someone who cancelled out on a retreat hosted by Kaari from French General. I had a wonderful time. I am now in love with the French countryside. I would highly recommend attending one of Kaari’s retreats. www.frenchgeneral.com More about my trip later. As soon as I arrived home from France it was right to the drawing board to do my Christmas 2010 line of fabric.

I have had many people ask me what the process of designing fabric is. Well it varies from person to person.

I start by eating a whole bunch of this. (It gets the creative juices flowing.)

After a couple bags of chocolate I have an idea of the direction that I will be going.
I usually start with the name.



Christmas 2010 will be called Adoring.

I then mix the colors. I visualize the colors in my head. Unfortunately the colors I have visualized usually cannot be found on the paint chart at the paint store.

So I mix and mix - in plastic cups, until I get just the color that is in my head.

I then take a painted out sample of each of those colors to the paint store to get quarts of paint mixed. Everyone at the paint store runs when they see me coming - except Johnna - she is a quilter - she understands. Sometimes I just call ahead to see if Johnna is working - if she is not working, I don’t get paint mixed that day.

Next step is drawing out all of the prints - just with pencil on drawing paper. I really cannot draw. I have to draw everything very tiny and then enlarge it on the computer. I admire people like Deb Strain and Kathy Schmitz who can in an instant draw something really fabulous. But anyone can draw - you just keep drawing and erasing and moving the lines until it is right.

I can only draw with a mechanical pencil - no number 2’s for me. Since I have to erase so much the tiny little erasers on these pencils only last a millisecond.





Therefore I use these wonderful erasers. Just keep clicking and it keeps feeding eraser.

When it comes to me and erasers - size does matter



Once every thing is drawn out I slip on my paint smock. One of my seamstresses made this for me. You can no longer see how great it once was. (The pockets are log cabin blocks.)

Now on to the painting. This is the fun, relaxing part. Nothing is more relaxing for me than painting. At this time my mind can wonder onto designing the quilts that I will make using this fabric or maybe how I will design my market booth to showcase this fabric.

A sneak peek at the part of the panel.



People always ask me how I can possibly do Christmas in the summer time. Not a problem - by the time I had everything painted out I was singing We Three Kings.

After everything is painted out I paste all of the prints onto a presentation board.

I then send the portfolio off to Cheryl at Moda.

No matter what, I always seem to be racing to get the box ready in time for the UPS man. (Our UPS man is Al- his wife is a quilter.)
We (by now I am at the office and my office manager Sandy K. is helping) put the portfolio in the box - Al is right around the corner.
We start taping the box shut -
@*##! the tape gun always picks the most untimely time to run out of tape.



We hear Al rumbling into the parking lot.
We reload the tape gun and get the box taped shut just as Al is walking in the door.



@*##! we forgot to put in the paint swatches!



Al waits - we rip the box open - Al waits - we insert the swatches - Al waits - we attempt to tape the box shut but @*##! the tape gun gets tangled up - Al waits - we untangle the tape gun - Al waits - Finally the box is ready for
Al.


Al puts the box in the UPS truck and it is finally on it way to Dallas.

Sandy K. and I close early, go to the coffee shop, order a large iced tea and a very large scotcharoo.

Whew - another line done!

Now on to the next line - Fall.

From my heart,
Sandy

P.S. I apologize if We Three Kings is singing in your head all day long.