Sending my chick to Kindergarten

It's been a few days since I updated. We've been busy around the hen house. My blue chicken inspiration started kindergarten this week. I fully expected to be a puddle of tears and serious emotion, but I wasn't.  Even better was that my son wasn't either. He was, in a word (his), "pumped!"

With a nod to the ubiquitous mini-chalk board "first day of school" plaque, my Iron Man crazed kiddo was relatively cooperative for this picture.  Anyway, the first week will wrap up tomorrow but I wanted to get this out there before I forgot.

 

In non-kindergarten news, I finished up the Constellation block. It turned out quite nicely. I did make a note to myself that using semi-narrowly spaced polka dotted fabric is just really being a jerk to the eyes. I call it the Roy Lichtenstein block. lol!

 

Finally, this past weekend I was out of town visiting my husband's family. My sister-in-law is due with her second little one in October. She's having a little boy and I thought it would be a nice gift to sew a small tummy-time quilt for my soon-to-be nephew. She and her brothers (including my husband) lost their father to amyloidosis in 2007.  She was especially close to her dad of course. I can't imagine what it's like to welcome your most cherished ones into the world without one or both of your parents in your life.

After my father-in-law died, my mother-in-law went through the task of deciding what to do with some of his personal belongings. She gifted several button down shirts to my husband, but the didn't fit him. I couldn't bear to part with them. So I did what all good sewists do: I made something out of them. It seemed most fitting that they go into a quilt. Something that my sister-in-law can wrap her lovely baby in and know that in some way her father is close to her new son.

 

That's it for now. I'm working on a couple of non-quilt projects including the Lickety Split bag by Made-by-Rae and writing a lesson plan for teaching my very first beginner sewing class!

Playing with blocks

I started quilting about a year ago. I'd tried my hand at it several years back but it just didn't stick. Sometimes you have to start and quit and start again before something takes hold. I'm happy to say that quilting took hold this time around.

My first quilts were a few versions of the Charm Squares Baby Quilt from Oh, Fransson! They were quick and satisfying to piece and quilt. Plus they were small enough to allow me to quilt with my home sewing machine.

Pre-cuts and straight lines are fun. They're quick to pull together and they give you a sense of accomplishment. On the other hand, once they become quick to pull together, I sort of wanted to move on to something  a little more intricate.

I picked up a little quilt block template book at a local church bazaar for $.25, Templates for 171 Four-Patch Quilt Blocks. I thought, "That should keep me busy!"  I didn't even have to open the booklet and immediately started to duplicate the Constellation block on the front cover (thank you, half-square triangles!)  Most of my creativity hits me in bursts and I rummaged through a bag of scraps where I knew I'd dumped a bunch of 5" squares I cut out of some cheap fat quarters awhile back and just got to playing around. The block is sewn in four patches (the lower right patch is four HSTs sewn together.) 

 

You can see that I had a little trouble matching up the seams and points and I'll probably pick out the stitches and sew it again. I love the way it will look, though. This is a test run before I cut and piece the same block from a less traditional fabric.

Speaking of non-traditional, I'm hoping to attend my first meeting of the Austin Modern Quilt Guild in September. Not one to want to come empty hand, I found some fabric in my scrap bag to finish two versions of the guild's block of the month, the Texas Puzzle. I'm quite pleased with them!

Creative Space Finished!

When I get focused on a project, I tend to power until the wee hours of the morning trying to get everything finished. If I don't, I find myself with half finished projects all over the place. Like the time I painted my first apartment. I pooped out about half way through with the excuse that I was just going to take a little break. That break lasted six months! Ha!

Finishing my craft space was no exception.  My husband and I got to work after the kids were asleep. Thank heavens for a guy who understands the importance of hobby space. We share the room where both of our various hobby tools live. I might have inspired him to spruce up his space. Another project for another day.

With out further delay, I present the new and improved craft space. Tada!

Creative Space In Progress

The Sewing Loft and Ellison Lane are currently hosting the Studio Spotlight Series. Several sewing and quilting bloggers have contributed pictures of where they do their best creating. I've been really inspired by these various spaces. Some are wide open and spacious, housing long arm quilt machines or a plethora of sewing machines. Others are hidden away in cupboards - little tucked away spaces.

I often think of how important it is for women to have a space of their own. Whether that space is for respite or for creation, a little space made just for you is a cherished thing.

That brings me to my space...

 

Oy! It is not pretty. It's a downright mess. Now to be fair, this is right in the middle of my reorg project.  I have three machines stowed in here. My newest, an Husqvarna Viking Opal 650 (which I am in.love with) sits on the main table. My first sewing machine, a hand-me-down Singer 6212C from my grandmother, up high waiting for me to take it in to be tuned up so I can start teaching my son on it. Close at hand is my refurbed Bernette by Bernina Funlock serger.  Also, there's a cat in there too. That's Kinky the cow-cat. He or Max (my all black big guy) are usually close by when I'm sewing.

I spent some time going through all my fabric and putting the larger cuts on plastic "bolts."  There is a company that sells pre-cut corrugated plastic pieces in various sizes that you can buy and use to organize your fabric stash. It's a novel idea, but an expensive endeavor. Being the cheap DIY kind of gal that I am, I found a local plastic supplier who cut the pieces to spec, all for about $.50 a piece (vs. $1.99!)

The result is really lovely. Looking at all that fabric neatly stashed away just makes me downright giddy. It has only served to encourage my get-this-mess-under-control mission.

See how pretty??? (Oh... and Kinky once again.)

  

The rest of the mess is still on hold. We spent the better part of today at IKEA getting a larger work table, storage cabinet, and new desk lamp. I'm so excited to enjoy my new space. I find that I'm so much calmer, happier, and more creative when my space is organized. I can't wait!

Welcome to The Blue Chicken Blog!

Hello! This is the Blue Chicken Blog. If you think that's a pretty strange name for a blog, you might be right. I give all credit to my imaginative son Ben for this blog's name. When he was little, about 2-ish, close to 3, we had a run-in with a zoo peacock (they're just regular ol' peacocks who live at the zoo).  We sat for a snack of Goldfish crackers and Ben dropped his under the picnic table.  Peacocks are sneaky creatures, especially those who live at the zoo, and this one made a beeline for the abandoned goodies.

Ben was outraged. "Hey you blue chicken! Those are my crackers. Stop eating them!" Needless to say, said "blue chicken" didn't stop eating them, but that story always gives me a laugh, and from such a story this blog was born.

Welcome to The Blue Chicken Blog. I intend for this to mostly be about quilting and other sewing endeavors, but I promise to drop-in posts about knitting or crocheting, cooking and reading and sometimes gardening. Being that I'm passionate about so many things and the fact that I live in a red state, I might even sneak in a political post or two once in awhile, but I promise to be polite about it.

I hope you'll stick with me as I get this journal of my creativity and craftiness off the ground!