To all of the people I know in real life and cyber life... Halloween is a great time for many people. I love the decorations and yummy food of fall and Halloween. This year I thought I would do something super special. At the end of this week, so like Saturday the 22 of September I will be drawing a random number to giveaway a Halloween themed mug rug.
A mug rug? You ask. Yes, a mug rug is a quilty term for a mouse pad that is used to hold cookies (aka a treat) and a beverage. This giveaway is open to the entire world. I will ship it.
So, all you have to do is leave me a comment here and make sure I have your email. And I will use a random number generator to select the winner on Saturday, September 22nd.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Squeal! I won.
Thank you very much Lisa from In The Boondocks for the lovely thread.
I can't wait to play with them.
Monday, September 2, 2013
New plan; new goals
Blogging and posting have seriously changed my way of thinking. Before I kinda thought of a blog as just a journal. Which in some ways it is. Now this "Grand Ambition" has changed. Before I would only write randomly about quitly stuff. My plan is to take each & every quilt I make and give it a post. Some quilts like Sir Duke might end up with multiple posts because he's a beast of a project. But those will probably be few & far between. The point of these posts is to chart my progress as a quilter and to make remarks about what I have learned.
A few years ago, it has really been that long, I took the process pledge. It includes prompts like: - Do you have any new sketches to show?
- Is this design inspired by a past quilt or someone else's quilt you saw (link, please)?
- Does the color palette come from somewhere specific?
- Are you trying to evoke a specific feeling?
- Is this quilt intended for a specific person? How did that inform your choices?
- Are you following a pattern, emulating a block you saw somewhere, using a liberated process, or totally winging it?
- What are you hating about this quilt at this stage? What do you love?
- Did you push yourself to try something new?
- In working on the quilt, are you getting ideas about what you might want to try next? What? Did you sketch it?
Well, I have never posted my follow through of this pledge.
So this is a new go. Wish me luck on the follow through.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Thread, thread, THREAD!
There was a post recently and not so recent that showed really great close up photos of thread from many of the makers out there. It was highly enlightening. This post caused me to go through all of my thread and sell my non-compatible treads. All of my rayon & polyester threads are for sale here: http://denver.craigslist.org/art/4037494130.html
This is the post that got me thinking: favorite tools aurifil thread
Which then led me to this post: your sewing thread under microscope
My response to those posts was... ahh, that makes total sense now. These 2 posts, I am sure there are more out there on the subject, confirmed what my hands were telling me. I am super picky about the fabric I use. I should have been better about the threads as well. My deepest apologies to the folks who have polyester thread for quilting and other parts. I was unaware. Now to have the funds to add the awesome Aurifil threads to my stash.
This is the post that got me thinking: favorite tools aurifil thread
Which then led me to this post: your sewing thread under microscope
My response to those posts was... ahh, that makes total sense now. These 2 posts, I am sure there are more out there on the subject, confirmed what my hands were telling me. I am super picky about the fabric I use. I should have been better about the threads as well. My deepest apologies to the folks who have polyester thread for quilting and other parts. I was unaware. Now to have the funds to add the awesome Aurifil threads to my stash.
What's in a Name?
I grew up with TS Elliot's Naming of Cats...
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover--
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
So they mean something to me. All of our pets, 5 in total, have chosen their names much like the poem above.
Now my sewing machines are getting names. First my Janome 1600P is named Beast from the X-men. It is a brilliant workhorse. My older Janome HeartTruth needs one, Gambit is coming to mind. As the machine has many tricks but runs a bit less powerful than Beast. Might try to stick with the Comic theme. Then there is the Treadle gift to me by my dad; it will need a name. And if I ever get the machine from the gal I used to work with there's another name. Eek, now I am in a slight panic about the names.
I have even fretted over the name of this blog and the title to which the header is. Titan Pink was the name of a video game character that I made & fell madly in love. She was awesome. Then the title herein "Grand Ambition." Truly seems fitting. As I still feel it is quite some work to make and keep up this blog. One could say that I haven't hit my stride yet. Though I think I am doing better.
I also fidget over the names of the quilts I make. Making sure that name gets on the quilt has been a process. It's not like in art I can just say the name is xxxxx and it was done xxxx. Now I have to create a label so that the person receiving the quilt knows this forever. S@#$, s@#$, s@#$!
All of that being said, I do love quilting and its infinite ways of creativity.
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover--
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
So they mean something to me. All of our pets, 5 in total, have chosen their names much like the poem above.
Now my sewing machines are getting names. First my Janome 1600P is named Beast from the X-men. It is a brilliant workhorse. My older Janome HeartTruth needs one, Gambit is coming to mind. As the machine has many tricks but runs a bit less powerful than Beast. Might try to stick with the Comic theme. Then there is the Treadle gift to me by my dad; it will need a name. And if I ever get the machine from the gal I used to work with there's another name. Eek, now I am in a slight panic about the names.
I have even fretted over the name of this blog and the title to which the header is. Titan Pink was the name of a video game character that I made & fell madly in love. She was awesome. Then the title herein "Grand Ambition." Truly seems fitting. As I still feel it is quite some work to make and keep up this blog. One could say that I haven't hit my stride yet. Though I think I am doing better.
I also fidget over the names of the quilts I make. Making sure that name gets on the quilt has been a process. It's not like in art I can just say the name is xxxxx and it was done xxxx. Now I have to create a label so that the person receiving the quilt knows this forever. S@#$, s@#$, s@#$!
All of that being said, I do love quilting and its infinite ways of creativity.
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