Lucy Boston

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

plastic damage & the bluebird of happiness

A visit to the Good Wives Company,
 just a 40 minute jaunt up the road.
It was a good jaunt...
I did just a little retail therapy...that's my small bag on the right.  Some people did "plastic damage".  There were three more bags not pictured to protect the not-so-innocent...
Plastic damage is not hard to do in this shop!
Anyway,
I found this little project:


I had to make one right away...my own little Bluebird of Happiness...
But I can't leave well enough alone, can I?
I had to go out later and pick these up:  you are seeing this correctly...a whole 12 pack of shakers!!!

Now I will have to make my own FLOCK of Happiness, won't I? 
I don't know why I do this to myself. 
It's not like I needed a new project, let alone 13 new projects. 
But the fabric called for is just scraps. 
And I have scraps. 
And they will make nice gifts, won't they?
The Pattern is "Little Bird Pinkeeps" by Renee Plains. 
The pattern includes this little make-do on a salt shaker, and a chatelaine.  The little wing flips up to reveal a wool scrap to keep your needles.  Just so cute.
Yep, a whole flock!!!  What was I thinking? Spring???  Well, you can never have enough pincushions around, anyway.
I also picked up this kit; I loved the woven stripe and the bold reds in this one.  I don't usually do kits, 'cause for me that's part of the excitement of a project, choosing the fabrics.  Anyway, I started on it right away.  It's adorable, isn't it? 
It is by Blackbird Designs, 
in the book:  "Small Favorites for all Seasons".  I chose to do the "catch"  and flag in wool, not needle-turn as the pattern did.  O.K., I have problems following directions.  Needle-turn, wool, what's the difference?  Not much in my mind.  Still putting fabric on fabric.  And I had this great camp blanket that had this great stripe of blue with just a little stripe of red along side of it that was just calling out to be a "small catch" belly!!!
More on that later.  I also worked on my ongoing retreat project.  I started this a year ago at the guild retreat.  I cut, re-arranged, sewed, cut, and re-arranged fabric all weekend.  At the end of the retreat, everyone held up their accomplishments for the weekend. 
Everyone else was holding up these gi-normous finished tops and completely finished humungo quilts completely quilted.  I held up this: 
Yep, over a 48 hour plus weekend, I had completed this ONE BLOCK.
It is from the book "Certifiably Crazy" by Buggy Barn.
SOOO, back to this past weekend.  I worked and worked on this ongoing project.  I now can say I have this much done:
Twelve whole blocks!!!  and the pineapple tops for another twelve blocks.  The last twelve pineapple bottoms need little green corners.  What an accomplishment.  Wooo Hooo!
What I didn't realize when I started this quilt was that each block is 7 by 20.  I was making it to have a "small quilt" to hang in the front entryway.  Emphasis on the word SMALL!!  I'm not sure I would have done it if I knew that each flippin' pineapple was at least twice life-size!   I guess that's me again, not paying attention to the instructions.
And, I would've/could've probably had them all done, but I had to make a Bluebird!
You know how it is.

1 comment:

  1. Deb, I like your road trip for "goodies". Looks like a smart AND productive trip.

    Your salt and pepper shaker purchase is funny.... it reminds me of a past project where I made a pair of primitive wool cat faces that slid over salt and pepper shakers. I placed them in my kitchen window sill for Halloween ... the pattern was called "Window Watchers" (from long ago).

    Your bird looks nice....did it take you very long to make? Love your blog.

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