Friday, August 25, 2006

A Little Play Time

Long time no blog! Long time no quilty things to blog about!! I did get a bit of time this morning to finish playing with some blocks. The top photo is my first attempt at Tonya's wonky houses. So much fun! I want to add a little embellishment when time permits. I have to credit Pink Chalk Studio for the idea of using skeleton fabric in the door and window. I saw a house on her blog with that fabric and just loved it. Then, lo and behold, there it was at JoAnn's. Yay. I set tilted frames around the outside of the block to make it even wonkier. Ever since I learned how to make tilted frames from a Fons and Porter magazine a few years ago, I have just loved making them and often put them on kids' quilts for a little quirkiness. I thought I would comment on how I put words on quilts. I do eventually want to try Tonya's pieced letters though. For a really quick way to add words or phrases to a quilt, I find a chunky font on the computer that I like. This particular font for BOO came from Print Shop. Then I type the words or letters I want and print them off in mirror image. From there I can just trace them onto Heat 'n' Bond lite, iron to wrong side of fabric, cut them out and permanently iron them onto the quilt or block. They will be oriented correctly. Usually I machine-stitch around them but since I used hand-dyed fabric for the letters, I don't need to sew down the edges. If it were going to be a bed quilt, I would stitch around the edges. I so love Tonya's freeform method of making houses. The second photo is of sample blocks of Storm At Sea. I have decided to make this quilt for older DS instead of Snail's Trail. I will paper-piece it. The one on the left is not PPed and the diamonds were tricky. So I found a PP pattern on the web and will use that. Good thing I opted out of the No Buy August Challenge! 'Cause now I am itching to get out and buy fabric for the Storm At Sea!! Yesterday our guild's Sewing Bee continued the theme of stash reduction and we started on quilts called Directional Rail Fence. All I got done was fussy-cutting my rectangles! But I was glad to make a start as I have had the fabric for years! Will post pix when I actually get some blocks sewn together. Have a question. This morning when I tried to leave comments on several blogs, it kept asking for my User ID and Password. Sure didn't want to put that info out there LOL! Anybody know if that is a new requirement on Blogger? Posted by Picasa

16 comments:

Patti said...

Hi Vera,

I've not had that problem, but then I'm always "signed in" to Blogger. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. Do you tell Blogger to remember me so you are always signed in? By any chance are you signed out at the moment? That's the only thing I can think of that might be happening.

I'm having problems leaving comments also, but for me it's a very slow loading of the comment and then a page with an error message on it. Once I got a message saying Blogger was having problems and an engineer was notified. Several times I had to copy my comment, save it in Word, and then try posting later. Eventually I've gotten all of them to stick, but what a hassle!

We've missed you - so glad to hear from you. Your little house with the dancing skeletons is so very cute! All these postings of Halloween fabric make me want to get mine out to play with!

Patti said...

OK, when commenting on your blog I got error messages twice and it never posted. So I left and came back and here it is - posted! I wonder what's going on with them.

quiltpixie said...

I too have been "fighting" blogger at times... I think their new "beta" version is being used (Why Judy L of the stash ring lost her site) and its causing some problems maybe...

Leah Spencer said...

I agree with QuiltPixie - I think blogger is asking us to sign in for either regular blogger or beta blogger - the two just can't connect. So yeah, I've been resigning in a lot. :P

Mary Johnson said...

I get asked for my user ID when I'm working on someone else computer - my husband's laptop, my Mom's, etc. I always just sign in and haven't had any problems.

I also love twisted blocks and have used that setting for several donation quilts. I'm even toying with doing the Judy's 1 hour quilt but instead of the pieced sashing doing the twisted setting.

Paula, the quilter said...

I noticed that bloglines is weird. But maybe that is blogger? I hope everyone is backing up their blogs! I do.

ForestJane said...

I like the fabrics you're using in that storm block... :)

And Love those dancing skeletons!

Unknown said...

Hi Vera,
Yes Vera is my oncologist,when I started seeing her it was the day she after the Courtney bust came and that evening she had to call over three hundred patients and tell them that their treatment had be compromised beyond repair or that they had lost a loved one. She is my hereo too, she has saved my life I have stage four ovarian cancer and I am here today because of her. She is a very courageou person. I am so sorry you lost you Dad because of that horrible man, words can't describe how I feel about him...All I know for sure is that when he meets the Lord he will have to answer to him....Hugs Tina

Quilts And Pieces said...

Such a cute house and I have always loved storm at sea! I can't wait to see more. I"m playing (I hope) with Tonya's letters this weekend - keep watch!

Tonya Ricucci said...

Wheee, excellent house. Love those skeletons too. Thanks for explaining how you got the wonderful BOO right there. I'm so excited about being in the states for Halloween (and Halloween fabric).

Anonymous said...

The Boo House is adorable. Are you making a Halloween quilt? I love Storm at Sea. It's what I made for my older son when he turned 21. Probably needs replacing by now!

Eileen said...

Hi Vera,
The only blog that tried to get me to sign in was Judy L's new one. Then it told me my password wasn't valid, but my comment showed up anyway. Go figure.
That Halloween quilt is cute, are you going to make more blocks or will it be a little wallhanging all by itself.
That Storm at Sea can be daunting-I've looked at it and I'm going to go with Judy Martin's Shakespeare in the Park. That one speaks to me.
Have fun with the paper piecing, it'll go so fast.

Juliann in WA said...

love that wonky little house! and the idea of a rail fence, might have to put that one to work this weekend to get some stash quilting done before the month is over

Passionate Quilter said...

cute house! and your way of putting letters on a quilt is one of my favorite ways too!

Finn said...

What a great halloweenie house!! Love the BOO..and thanks for your directions. I had never thought of using font from the computer..great idea! Glad you found some play time..*VBS*

Fiona said...

Spooky house! The halloween fabric is perfect.