Consumed by bittes and other fun stuff...

 Alice in Wonderland bitty blocks, only this time I went a little bigger- 3.5" x 5.5", to accommodate her height, so I wouldn't be cutting out even tinier pieces of fabric. 

 

 It was hard enough as it was!  First I had to trace each piece of  her onto the paper side of Soft-Fuse by Shades,  this is the BEST fusible out there, IMO.  The paper always peels off easily and it never mangles the piece of fabric.  It's a delight to use. 

Then I ironed the fusibles onto fabric and then I spent several evenings while watching TV, cutting all the pieces out.  There are 18 pieces in each Alice.  Times 12 Alices.  Oy.  Phew.

 Several hours at the ironing board to get this- because so many pieces are overlaying the other pieces, I couldn't do this my normal way which is from the bottom layer up, no- this is a big jumble of layers and it's going to be a nightmare to stitch them all down using matching thread.

First I sewed all the pink colored pieces down, using newsprint paper (plain, no ink, from the craft shop art dept) as my stabilizer- no backstitching, I pulled all the thread to the back and tied them off using knots that were at least quadruple knots, because the thread was slippery.  That took an entire evening.  Then I did the flesh colored bits- another entire evening tying knots and pulling off new newspaper.  Then the blue, another evening.  Finally the white, the 4th evening.  

By the time I got to the hair and beak, I was pretty sick of Alice and her croquet mallet friend!  LOL

I had asked my fellow swappers what color hair they preferred, most of them wanted a dirty blonde as opposed to a brunette, so only Kandra and I get the cool dark-haired Alices.  :)

 I managed to get my 2nd set of Alice bitty blocks done a lot faster- psychedelic mushrooms!  I had some great Red Rooster fabric called "Oodles of Doodles" that was perfect for these.  All those different large mushrooms came from ONE piece of fabric!  The small ones came from one piece of coordinating fabric in the same line. 

 I love how they turned out!  I auditioned everything I had for the background, that dark blue won because it was so dramatic and eye-catching.  And using the checkerboard for the photo worked well, too, as it really set them off.  I gotta say, this is one my better photographs- the blocks look even better in the photo than they seem to in person!  Ha! 

 I made a little grass shack block just for fun- I whipped this up really fast, which is odd for me, I usually dither and waste a lot of time making decisions, but this one just came to me.  It's a normal size- 12.5" with the white border.  My husband used to scuba dive a lot, so there's a dive float in it.

 And here's a fun little spoofy bitty- can you figure out what it is?

If you guessed "a ham radio", you are correct!  My dad is a ham radio operator, he drove my poor mother insane on their travels by spending every evening trying to raise someone to talk to, by repeating over and over "C.Q, C.Q", like- 100's of times a night.  She couldn't block him out or get away, so after a few trips like that, she said "NO MORE!" and refused to go anymore.  So he got a smaller trailer and went alone!  They do like their apart time, but now that she's 91, that's coming to an end.  Every time he goes away, he's 88, she has some kind of an issue, health-wise, and it worries me sick, so I'm trying to get him to stay the heck home.  It's just not safe for her to be alone at night and even during the day, sometimes.  

Anyhoo, I'm about caught up on my projects but we just started a new pincushion swap so I'll be busy designing and making one of those pretty soon.  I have an idea, we'll see if I can pull it off.

Have a great weekend, everybody!  Do something FUN.  It's cold here this morning, we have a fire in the woodstove, it was 38º when I got up at 7.  My best friend is in Maui right now, I think I hate her guts!

Timmmmmberrrrrrrrr! And some bitties, of course!

 We've been having some timber taken off our property and as kind of a favor, they agreed to take an old, messy sycamore down that was too big for my husband to handle alone.  If it fell the wrong way, it could damage our fence so we left it in their capable hands.  Ahem. 

 Click on this 3rd photo for a close-up.  LOL  Poor wood pile!  It could have been worse, but I know they were embarrassed because I picked THIS tree to photograph the removal of, instead of any other tree that I'm sure fell right where they wanted it to.  :)

 The bitty block theme was black/white/and a bit of a bright.  I picked orange.  The only orange in these blocks is the 3D tea bag tag.  Orange Pekoe, anyone?  :)  These blocks measure 3.5" square.  I paper pieced these from this pattern I found on the internet, by Piece By Number,  and reduced it to a tiny 2.25" or so. 

 The other theme was birdhouses.  I made a little leaning birdhouse, bright fun colors.  This one is raw-edged applique which I find much faster for me to do than paper-piecing!  I waste less fabric, too.   I also just found out that using a size 60 needle in the machine leaves cleaner edges on the fabric that is being appliqued!  Tiny needle, tiny holes, no raggedy bits!

 And for the bitty bee swap that I'm in, that has bees for the theme this month, this is the 2nd block I made- a skep on a platform.  I had to use this cute lime green bee fabric that I've been hoarding forever. 

That's it from here, Jim is outside cutting up the remains of that sycamore and getting his wood pile back to order.  I'm going upstairs to sew!  Everybody have a great day, spring is just the BEST time of year, pollen be darned! 

More swap results, another new mug rug, a bitty or 2 and who knows what else...

 I decided to make one more mug rug to see if my partner in the swap liked this one better than any of the others.  Some red/aqua, linen, thread painting/sketching...... kind of simple, not too fussy and I had to photograph it under the only red/yellow tulip that bloomed.  :)  I think I'll be sending this one away, along with the "wake up world" clock.

 And I received my mug rug!  Made by Nannette/nanotchka, it's the most beautiful butterfly/flower mug rug!  Made with the most amazing hand-dyed fabrics and so much talent, I purely love this mug rug and she had to know it, too, because I commented on all her photos as she was making it!  I got so excited to see her name on the envelope that it came in, along with all the neat loot, too!  (Shell buttons, pieces of the dyed fabrics, a nice note and some Chenille It {which she used on her quilt that is on the cover of the new issue of Quiltmania! Yes, Nann is quite famous now!})

 Check out all the details!  LOVE THIS!  It's going up on the wall, no way could I ever actually use it! My photos aren't doing it justice for some reason, it's very vibrant!

 I joined my first bee- it's for bitty blocks, we have a limited number of members and each member has a month where they determine what their theme is and we all make that person 2 blocks.  The first month is Marilyn's and she requested "bees" and things that go with bees.  So I found a wonderful source for new patterns  and she had one for a paper-pieced hive, and I shrunk it down to a 3" block and made it yesterday.  It wasn't as hard to do as I thought it would be, but I'm glad I only had to do one of them.  :)  If I had to make this 11 more times, I'd freak!  lol

 A few embroidered details....

At the Bitty Block Committee, we're going to do a side-swap with the theme of Alice in Wonderland.  One of my blocks will be Alice playing flamingo croquet.  Hopefully I can make this work!  In side swaps, we occasionally relax the rules so we can make taller blocks, this one will be 3.5" x 5.5".  Hopefully I can make it work!  My other block is going to be wild, crazy mushrooms.  I had to go to the library to get the book because I had never read it.  I'm glad I didn't read it as a child, it's very odd.  The Wizard of Oz movie freaked me out, I'm not sure Alice wouldn't have, too.

My FLiQS partner got my Wheel of Fortune quilt and now I can tell you, it went to the UK, to my friend, Jo- aka sewjo2009!  I loved making it for her, she's a real sweetheart of a lady. 

My lilacs are blooming like crazy, there are so many butterflies on it, I'll go get some photos to share.  The aroma is fabulous!

Enjoy your day!  It's a sunny one here!

Spring Mug Rug time! And NP's evil twin sister makes an appearance!

It's time for Spring Mug Rugs!  Here, the early bird is hoping to catch a little worm.  Eeeek! 

The artwork is from a rubber stamp from rubberhedgehog.  This company makes great rubber stamps!

I changed the hat to a beanie.

 Spring really IS here, though and it's early, too, just like that bird.  Our redbuds are just lovely, there's a hill that runs all along the back of our house and keeps going, and the redbuds are plentiful there.  This is taken from my balcony- looking down into the redbuds, thru the tulip tree, is even more beautiful than viewing them from below.

A red and aqua mug rug with a clock that wants to wake you up to the fact that 

Spring is almost HERE!  Yay!

And the good Nosey Parker modeled for a mug rug, sniffing on some tulips!

 Her evil twin is a tad cranky that Daddy is messing with her during her nap.  She looks mean, doesn't she?  Good thing she's a lightweight, small cat!

 The ears are a clear warning! "Don't touch me with that thumb again, Mister!" 

He did.  LOL

I hope you're having a pretty spring, too!  We sat out in the sun for an hour yesterday, it felt great, but the mud-daubers are just awful right now.  I'm so glad they aren't aggressive.

Disaster waiting to happen- with your iron!

 I don't usually give any cleaning advice, like I don't give cooking advice, since I don't feel qualified, LOL, but I had to pass this along- beware of what is lurking in your iron!

I was pressing something when this mark appeared out of nowhere, on the muslin that I have lying on the towel that is my current ironing board cover.  Feeble, I know, but it works.  

What the heck is that mark?  That is what it looked like after I touched it.  It's like soot, but it's not soot.  It's LINT!  Soft, fluffy lint and the only place it could have come from is ..... that iron!

 See all that, in between the sole and body?  Horrors!  It must come out!  

Obviously, I never look in there. 

 It's not real noticeable, unless you're looking down the crack.

 Here's what I used- paintbrush was a dud, the chenille stem worked great and the canned air finished it off nicely. 

I got more marks on the muslin while doing this, too, which made me mad because I was being really careful.  That stuff is sneaky, it spreads like crazy (don't sneeze!) and makes stains that are darn near impossible to get out.  A Tide pen is handy if you do have a disaster, though.

 

I strongly encourage all you quilters to check your iron because if it's happening in mine, it will happen in anyone's.  Good luck, be careful!  Oh, P.S.- this stuff accumulates inside your sewing machine, too and can and will fall out at THE most inopportune moments, while you are sewing on something white!  Another good reason to keep your machine maintained and cleaned and oiled.  :)

Nosey Parker- Killing Me With Her Cuteness...

 No words, just 3 photos of Her Adorableness, Nosey Parker.

That is all.  As you were.  :)

Finished the Doll Quilt for the Fab Little Quilt Swap! And Nosey Parker and 2 bitties...

Finished!  Finally, I don't know how many hours/days/weeks I spent making this doll quilt, but I have a lovely partner and I think she'll appreciate it. 

 I really like angled shots better than straight on, I don't know why, I like everything else all tidy and square!

 The back is insane, but it was the only fabric that I had that really seemed to compliment the front.

 I made the label using a bitty block and writing the particulars around the edges.  Her name is covered so as not to ruin the surprise.

This month, the bitty themes are pirates and landscapes.  I'm only doing pirates, arrrrrr!

One group will get this block (they can opt for Scurvy Dogs if "bastards" offends them or they have kids.)

 And the other group gets a pirate who is a little miffed at that crappy parrot!  lol I had trouble drawing this out so I had my husband put on a baggy shirt and pose for me.  No, he doesn't have a hook or an earring or long hair!  

And I haven't shown you any shots of Nosey Parker lately- she's still just as cute and funny as ever and if she's the least bit cold, she seeks out a nice warm lap and pins you down until you think you'll never be able to walk again, your legs are so numb. 

We just love this girl!

That's it from here unless you want to see photos of our cleaned out closets and the linen "black hole" that has yet to be tackled.  We are decluttering and loving it!