I made a Monster...

 Introducing the Monster Book of Monsters for the POD 13...

He's tricky to match up the fur, so in some places he has a cowlick.... You know monsters don't brush or comb, and if you notice they don't brush their teeth either. I love his fierce eyes. He's going to be guarding the sewing room for a while. That'll keep the mice away.

Have a wonderful week.

 

Hugs,

New bloomers

You know that old phrase "Bloom where you are planted"?  Well, finally after about 20 years this orchid from Hawaii did.
In the old days you could bring home plants (that were okayed by the government) from Hawaii. On our first trip there I bought 2 orchids. One died... here's the other one -

 One picture this way, and

one that way... same plant, 3 blooms. And April is the purple month, so it's quite timely.  I'm very happy to finally see what it looks like.  No Ashleigh, this isn't like the one I gave you. Yours will blossom with little blue flowers.

At least there is something going on in the sewing room.

Hugs,

Purple butterflies

You know I'm making these paper pieced butterflies as a part of the Rainbow Scrap challenge. Use the button on the right to go see what everyone else is making in purple on Saturday. (You may have to choose "Home" once you get to her blog.)

I even used scraps of white on white this time. Lots of little pieces hanging around. I like the two toned ones best.

See you at soscrappy on Saturday.

Hugs.

 

Purple for April

Our esteemed leader, Angela of soscrappy has announced the new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (see the button on the right) is purple... So I did my homework to figure out what colors to use.  Here are my results from the Crayola box of 64.

I hope you can read the names of the colors... my hand is really shaky, so the names were written by my hubby.  You notice the colors of the wrappers on the crayons reflect which family of colors each crayon belongs to. I just noticed that last night. I noticed it mostly because two of the colors I think of as purples have red labels. Red Violet, well Dah, I guess that could be considered a red... but it's so purple in my mind. Then Lavender... well that is just a purple color, but it too has a red wrapper. (Somebody at the factory messed up?)

I love the one called Purple Mountains Majesty. I colored it on both top wings in the picture below.

 (The patterns above are the ones I'm using for my butterflies. It's a 2005 MH Designs pattern. I don't remember where I got it - sorry.)

 On the crayon wrapper this one above is Violet (Purple). I guess that is the definitive purple... very pretty.

Purple has more colors than the other crayon families.

I've pulled some scraps, but haven't started the sewing yet.  Maybe this afternoon.

So now we are all on the same page, purple wise.... anything goes!

Hugs,

 

Harry Potter bookcase block #12

I'm running late this week, but just finished block #12. Because of the similarity of my butter beer to the background, I added the glass around the outside and bottom to match the handle. I like the look.

I did enjoy making this block, but want to make the other versions, too. One has a quill and a book with Harry's scar on it. That looked like fun.

Well, I gotta  get this up on the Flickr group.

I hope you are having a Sew Wonderful week.

Hugs,

 

Favorite Tip, Tutorial and Easy Cooking

At the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge today, Sarah wants us to share our Tips, Tutorials and Tasty Things... Here goes


Tip~
From my paper piecing tips on the side bar

- trim dark seam allowances shorter than light colors so you won't have shadows in your work.
Even if you trim the seam allowances with your rotary cutter - go back to trim the darker color to a smaller size if it's under the lighter color. You will avoid a shadow in your work.


Tutorial~
I haven't any tutorials that aren't about paper piecing, but I have come across an unusual and "new to me" method of paper piecing that allows you to make the pattern without sewing through the paper.  You get the benefits of paper piecing without the trouble of removing the paper. I haven't tried it yet, but there are some little butterflies who will try it soon and report back. Here's the link:
Paper Piecing without paper removal
It's also listed on my Paper Piecing Tips in the right column.

Easy Meal~
I like to sew while I'm cooking (mostly because I've been fooling around until cooking time and want to get in some sewing). During the winter this works out really well to make baked potatoes, baked sweet potato and meat loaf. Pop it in the oven and go work on your Sweet 16. At 350F you have an hour to sew. (Squash can be substituted for sweet potato.) LOL
  

Happy Quilting,

Hugs,

Last of the Yellow (March) Butterflies

So I didn't piece much this week, but I did make 6+ butterflies.

 

This is the one I started last night, and made a mistook. You know I can't count. I put on the 4 and 5 before I put on the #3. Oh well, we can fix that.

 

Later

Fixed it.

 

 

 

Hope you are having a great weekend. I'm going to link up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge . Check out other yellow blocks shown there.

 

Hugs,