Gnome Homes Top Finished!

Hello all! Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I went through a non-crafty period, but I'm back in the saddle now! I finally finished the gnome home top for my wonderful MIL for Xmas. I fell in love with these gnome homes last year and decided to make my own copy of some of the blocks I saw on the Bee Imaginative Blog, like these and these.


Click any photo to see the detail!


Here are a few closeups for ya. Ooops, I cut off the tree top! Oh well, still like it.


This poor gnome can't even live in his own main floor - it's a jungle down there.


Here's what my stash looks like now in my Ikea Bergsbo cabinet. The five piles on the very top are the only remnants of the quilt store fabric I used to buy before I discovered designer fabric! I have been slowly getting rid of it, and slowly increasing my stash of Amy Butler, Heather Ross, Tina Givens, etc. etc. After the great scrap bucket giveaway from two posts ago, I am down to the three buckets you see here.


How many designers can you identify from this closeup? Click to see bigger.


Here's why I haven't been posting much, too busy enjoying the gorgeous Texas "fall" weather with Mr. Babyquilts and kiddos at McKinney Falls State Park. Gigi says I'm 2 and too tired to walk anymore!

Cheers everyone, hope to post again soon.
Wendy

A Little Bit of Everything Crafty

Hello everyone! Since I finished the ginormous squares and frames quilt I've been kind of between quilts. I've been sewing some on my red and aqua gnome homes, just to have something to do. Here are my two latest.

My daughter is newly in love with owls, so she begged for an owl softie. She wanted it to be bigger than the ninja bat I made her last year, so here it is! I used the same tutorial from Juicy Bits that I used to make the owl ornaments last Christmas. I just cut out each piece in Photoshop and blew it up to 250%, then printed it out on its own paper. This pattern is so cute no matter what you do with it! Thank you Juicy Bits!

I've also been slowly adding to my stash of designer fabric, now that i'm a designer fabric snob in the most unflattering and haughty way. Here are the stacks of pink, red, green, blue, purple and neutral/white/multi in my Bergsbo fabric cabinet from IKEA.

And here are the stacks of yellow, orange, brown, black and grey, plus a stack of flannel backings. The solids are not good ones, just stuff I picked up a million years ago. My stash is super lacking in good kona/bella/butler solids, as in, I have none. Oh, except for that dark blue on top, that's Bella.

See anything you like?

A Little Bit of This...

I haven't blogged much lately because I've been trying to quilt my ginormous wonky square quilt! It's slow going since there are 81 blocks, but steady. I'm outlining the two squares, plus one detail in the center square, like the pear, above and the bird, below.


I have managed to make my squares for Cancer is Sew Done, i'll be sending those off tomorrow. As I expected, they were a nightmare for a hand sewer, as I had to cut off all my knots and re-knot them after cutting out the circles, and now I can't zig zag them raw-edge to the backgrounds, so I'm asking the moderators to do that.


I got paid for the Japanese wonky square commission quilt I finished lately, so I made a trip to Austin's coolest, hippest fabric store, Stitch Lab and picked up these beauties. I "needed" them so I can make some more of the red and aqua gnome homes. Stitch Lab is the coolest because they have Japanese Kei dots (pink and blue below) which are like the Amy Butler full moon dots, but smaller, and because they have Echino in person! I've never seen them in person before, only online. I didn't buy any though, they are too expensive and the repeat is too large for me. I am a scrapper, I'd have to have a project in mind to buy a huge piece.


Oh! And they had this weird fabric, Edgie Veggies by Michael Miller. It's totally not my usual style, but I just couldn't walk out without some! I really like the eggplant and the kale (?) he's talking to. Two questions: why are there apples on a veggie print? And what the heck is in the pear's mouth? ;)

Bye!

Last Homes for Now

Okay, these are the last copies of the Bee Imaginative blocks for now! The one on the left below was made by Ashley from Film in the Fridge and the one on the right was made by me! Looks pretty good, but her photography is way better.

The tiny colony on the left below was made by Rita from Red Pepper Quilts, and the one on the right was made by me. Hmmm...I chopped off a few roof points, didn't I? And I really need to get some of that American Jane Peas and Carrots that Rita used in the window. All in all, not too shabby!


Oh, and I thought you might like to see what they look like all together on the design wall! Here they are.


That's all for now, I'm going to quilt on the giant quilt for my bed for a while. Have a good one!

More Flattery - Gnome Homes

More copies of the blocks from Bee Imaginative. Today's blocks are by one of my favorite bloggers in the whole blogosphere, Elizabeth at Oh Fransson. Love them! They are bigger houses than the others.

And here are my attempts at copying them with no directions! I actually think they turned out great! The colors are right.

Here's another Bee Imaginative block from my other favorite blogger in the world, Alissa from Handmade by Alissa. She reports that the gnome is bringing mushrooms back to the deer and bird.

And here's my copy below. I like how it looks like the gnome put a flower on top for a chimney!

More gnome homes tomorrow!

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Ever since I saw the red and aqua gnome houses coming out of the Bee Imaginative bee, I've been dying to make some! I just decided, since this is my year of trying things that scare me, that I would just go ahead and try to make them with no patterns or measurements. I'm not imaginative enough to think up my own designs right off the bat, so I just copied the ones the bee members were producing as best I could.

Here's the first one I made. The one on the left below was made by John at QuiltDad and the one on the right was made by me. Hmmm...it appears that not all whites read as white! Oh well, let's try another block.


The block on the left this time is by Jacquie of Tallgrassprairie Studio and the block on the right is by me. Not bad! But my overhang leaves a little to be desired. This block also taught me that to make a red and aqua quilt you have to use the exact right fabrics. They have to be bright saturated reds and super bright aquas. If you vary from those, it just doesn't have the right look. See how hers is very crisp and mine is little less crisp?

I'll post a few more tomorrow, tune in then!