A Girl and her DeWalt Drill

No crafts for me this past weekend.  I spent over eight hours installing new Elfa shelving from The Container Store.  If only it would stay this way....

The 'before' photo from the closet incident three weeks ago....

Faux Amazonite from Polymer Clay

Amazonite is a green variety of micro-line feldspar, and it's a nice semi-precious stone for jewelry.  I recently saw a necklace I wanted to copy, but when I found some Peruvian amazonite beads, they were a little out of my price range.  So I came up with faux amazonite using polymer clay.  Here is a picture of my first batch of beads.
You can see that my beads are a little darker, and a little more turquoise in color.  They were lighter before I baked them, but I like the deeper color.  I also experimented with some rust colored inclusions, which I like.

Below are some photos of real Amazonite

New Outfit for Daughter

This weekend, I worked on a new outfit for my daughter.  These are my first successful projects since I switched back to garments after a decade of quilting.  I used my new serger and several techniques I've never tried before like a double needle for hem finishes, and a rolled edge on the knit skirt.  I had to try several samples before I found a way to keep the rolled egdge from curing up.  The solution was to cut thin strips of fusible stabalizer and fuse them to the edge, then I serged the rolled edge.  This is also the first time I've used my embroidery machine to embellish a garment.  The skirt is not quite finished.  I have to add shorts to make it a skort and finish off the waistband.

Class Quilt -

Quilt: Beach Glass - November 2010

I purchased this kit from my neighborhood quilt store, Cotton and Chocolate.  The pattern is by a local artist and I love the colors.  I made this as a gift for my mother-in-law.   It was intended to be used at a beach house in Delaware, but she sold the house and retired to Vermont before the quilt was completed.  I hope the quilt keeps her warm and reminds her of sunny beaches during the long Vermont winters. 

Pattern:   "Beach Glass" by Penni Albarran                

Quilting:  Machine quilted by Andrea Gillingham

Binding:  Patti Adams

60" x 75"

Simi Valley, CA - November 2010

Quilt: Turtle Travels March 2008

I purchased this pattern before my daughter was born, but didn't actually finish the quilt until March 2008.  It was fun, but I must have made over twenty visits to the quilt store.  Each turtle body has multiple shades in the shell. 

Pattern:    "Turtle Travels" by Janet Miller

Quilting:  Machine quilted by Cindy Matthews

Simi Valley, CA - March 2008

Quilt: Mariner's Compass

Pattern: "Mariner's Compass" by Cindy Matthews

                   

Quilting:  Machine quilted in the ditch with clear filament.  A simple pattern was machine quilted in the border.

This is my second quilt project and at the time I still didn't know what I was doing.  Mistakes abound.  I drafted this overly ambitious pattern, thinking that it would be a large quilt with 12 blocks total.  I spent more time working on the color selection than sewing.  This was my practice quilt using the color technique in Jinny Beyer's great book Color Confidence for Quilters.   After finishing one block (at over 8 hours), I decided maybe a pillow would be nice instead of a quilt.  Ten years later, the quilt was finished as a four block 50" x 50" wall hanging.  Overall a great learning experience.  Finished in Simi Valley, CA  in 2009.