Wordless Wednesday - End of the Afternoon Nap

Cute new Product!

I have lots of scraps, since I am a fabric artist and crafter. I had some flannel left over from making my oldest granddaughter's T-Shirt quilt, so I decided to make a small one--quilt, that is--for some of my younger grandchildren!  This one is a doll quilt done rag style.    I have decided to add these to my shop for other little ones to enjoy.  Will have them in several colors soon!

The thing I like about it, is that it can also be a cuddle blankie.   Two of my grandchildren liked to take the edge of the blankie and softly rub their noses with them for comfort!  This little blanket is soft and would work well for children who need their comfort blankie when away from home. It is much easier to tote than a full sized child's blanket.    

That's what's new!

Spring Cleaning!

I've known that I had a bit of Spring fever, even though here in the Pacific Northwest the winter hasn't been very severe--mild actually.  All the storms have been missing us and going more to the North.  Anyway, I still find myself longing for the freshness of Spring.  I guess I further proved it to myself this weekend, with a furious bout of Spring cleaning!  Seems like many friends have been giving me fabrics and notions and they had been building up in bags in my "studio"-- the end of my bedroom.  It was getting me down, because not everything had it's place and I had to walk around 'stuff' in bags on the floor.

A friend said to me last week, "I love getting new clothes at Goodwill (thrift store) but I never seem to clean out my closets and get rid of the old clothes."  That gave me an idea.  I had plenty of  old clothes in drawers that I never wear.  So I went thru the drawers and was able to fill up two large bags of clothing that are headed to the thrift store.  This left me with four empty drawers in my large dressers.  I started going thru my stuff and organizing.  Here's the finished product--a clean studio space.



Dresser top storage all arranged!

The dressers had been stacked with books and fabrics thrown in disarray!  NOW, I can see what I need and get to it!



Fabric Storage!

This side of the dresser I couldn't even open, because of the boxes stacked in front of it!  I got rid of what was in the dresser that I never use and now it holds my larger fabric yardage and a box of unfinished projects that I can easily pull out and finish!




Drawer full of felt and ribbon

Now I can SEE my ribbons and readily get to my felt supply!  They were in a box with all kinds of fabrics stacked on top of them.



Desk top handy items!

On the end of the desktop, I have my Ott light, my pin bowl, my scissor caddy, thread storage and a little wire basket for fabric scraps.  Oh, and my coaster for my tea cup!  It was stacked with unfinished projects, which can get confusing when you are working on something.  It was causing a lack of focus on my current project.  This is much better!

And then there is my bulletin board!  (I recently did this post about it.)  I obviously didn't get to it yet!  Oh well, there'll be another day.

You got Spring Fever yet?

Long Ago's Project Finished!

I have projects that are unfinished, I know you do too.  But I just had to tell you about this one project that I just FINISHED!  Such accomplishment I feel! 

I had a stack of fabric (and some trim), that I bought, actually when I lived in another state!  It was intended for my daughter.  She wanted a table runner for her newly painted living/dinning room.  No problem! So I bought some fabric.  But . . . . you know how it goes, life happens!  Well, I finished her table runner today!  Yay!

It's reversible, one side for everyday, and one side for special occasions.  And you know what?  When I got the stack down from the shelf, a receipt fell to the floor.  You know what date it had on it?  03-15-2002!  How do you like that?  I hope she likes it after all this time. 

And, I don't know what I was thinking, back in 2002, but I bought a ton of fabric, nearly three yards of each of these purples!  Anyone else need a table runner?  It might be done by 2020!  hee hee!  :-)

Start of Organization

The organization of my "studio" space, which I have mentioned before is just the end of my bedroom, starts with this bulletin board.  It is hung over my bedside table.   It's the first thing that I see when I awake or get ready for bed.  It's easy to pin up ideas of the day.  I keep my reading books on the table along with a tablet for writing and of course, my eyeglasses, and a few quilt magazines.  But the basis of my organization starts with this bulletin board.  I have a list of my current orders, and hang my shopping  list there.  At other times, I pin hand drawn ideas to pursue later--so I won't forget my ideas; and most of the time, I hang pictures from magazines that inspire me.   I haven't learned, nor tried, to use pinerest yet, so my bulletin board will have to do!  

Oh . . . and the decoration at the top of the board?  I made it years ago and just like the look of it.

Oh, oh . . .and I linked up with Erika's  Friday 'Embrace Inspiration Workshop' over at Artful Rising blog.

Where does your inspiration and organization start?

WW Little Sister's Birthday

Me and my sister, DeLynn

Valentine's Day Treat

Today, Valentines Day,  I  have tried a valentine's treat recipe that I found on KittysKozyKitchen blog.  I wanted to show you how they turned out!

Mine aren't presented a beautifully as Kitty's but they sure do taste good!  Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Sunday Afternoon Avatar

Many of my customers and blog friends may have wondered about the avatar that I use for my Pruitt Creations Etsy shop.  We (Etsyians) are usually told to make our avatar representative of  what we sell.  We are encouraged to do this to increase our brand presence. Although I believe this is good advice, I have taken a different path.

My avatar is representative of who I am.  I am my brand.  My crafts and creations are all inspired by my own favorites--things that I like.  Maybe that is not a good selling tactic, but it is true to who I am.   It's not so unusual; people in my circles know when they see quilter, Alex Anderson's picture, what she does and the quality of her work. She is her own brand.

I love the outdoors, and, at my age and stage of life, I cannot get outside enough to be pleased.  So my avatar helps inspire me.  It's from a picture taken on a Sunday afternoon when hubby and I went for a drive up the canyon to Mt Hood.  We stopped creek side and spent some time.  Hubby snapped this picture  while I was sitting on a log looking up at the winter bare treetops. He cropped it into a panoramic view, which I really like. It is also now a part of my shop banner, if you look closely.

I have cropped it further and use it for my avatar.

Maybe I will change it someday, but I like it. 

A blog friend of mine once said: "I'd know that chin anywhere!" 

P.S.  Here's a sample of how this day has inspired me:

Winter Twig throw pillow

How do you keep yourself inspired?

Cooperation?

Sandwich Practice

One new technique that I am trying is machine quilting.  I have only used my old Singer machine to quilt small projects, up to this point, i.e. table runners, small quilted wall hangings, a baby quilt.  But never a large quilt.  One reason is because the feed dogs do not lower on my machine.  I have to cover them with a home-made plastic plate to do any quilting with free motion design.  So I have mostly stuck to 'in the ditch' or straight line quilting, if I have done the quilting myself and not sent it out to a quilt studio.

I was recently at my friend's house, who has a good free motion quilting machine, and I did some practicing. After I practiced free motion meandering, I was a little disappointed in my work, since it is not easy to do. I had heard that it takes practice, and that is right!  So I wouldn't show you that particular practice piece--it doesn't look very good! I decided to stick to straight line quilting, until I have more practice time finished.

Then, I decided to make a sandwich.  No, not the kind you eat!  A quilt sandwich.  This is a small square of the materials that you are using in your current quilt project, approximate 12 inches by 12 inches, including a piece of the top, a piece of the batting and a piece of the backing.  With this you can practice stitches with free motion, even different threads and thread combinations, and sizes of stitch lengths. 

Since I wanted a look of water, I tried parallel wavy lines . . . .

and . . . overlapping wavy lines.  I tried some different colors of thread, but it doesn't show very well in these photos.

My current quilt project has a scalloped edging, so I cut the sandwich with a scalloped edge and tried two different stitching patterns along the scallops.  I had originally thought that I wanted wavy lines there too, but hubby suggested straight lines going out from the center.  I didn't like his thought very much, until I tried it.

My thought:

His thought:

I think his idea makes the scallop's look like seashells . . . and I like it better! It doesn't look so good here, since there is no edging to define it.  Anyway, I think that this sandwich practice has helped me decide how I want to quilt my large project.  The only thing left to decide is how I am going to quilt the patchwork portion that I haven't shown here.    Decisions, decisions! Oh . . and I decided on a name for the quilt . . .
Stay tuned for the progress on the "Antique Bubble" doily quilt. 

Goal Progress?

I've been inspired by a blog friend, Edi of MemoriesforLifeSB to revisit my goals for 2012 to see how I am doing in the first month.  Edi's goals were all VERY specific and mine were more of a general nature. (Here's her post about her progress.) Anyway, I had to go back and read my goals, then evaluate. 



In my supply shop, I had determined to purchase more vintage fabric, if they were available.  It seems that I have not been shopping as much as I would have liked to find these at estate sales. NO shopping, you say?  Well, I think that the weather has had a little to do with that.  It hard to tramp in and out of houses where sales are with the weather dreary, cold and wet!  But I will do better! Spring is coming! :)



Madison



As to my Creations shop, I have been weeding out those items that have not been favorites, (and have been in my shop for a long time.)  Thus pruning my shop items, getting ready to add some new items to an existing line.  I have given some items away as gifts and plan to let my granddaughter, Madison, sell some of them at a school garage sale.  She is raising money for her 8th grade school trip to Washington DC. She is excited about this trip and is working very hard toward this project! (My other granddaughter, Courtney, now a senior, went on this trip in her 8th grade year.) This should clear out more items.  Then, the plan was to expand the coaster and cozy line with new types of fabrics.  I have not done this in the month of January, but once I have cleared out the old, new items will be in order!



Mostly I have been working on my own personal creativity goals.  I will save this discussion for tomorrows post.  See you then!

How have you been doing with your goals?

Swollen River Photos

Our day looking at the swollen Willamette River.  The falls are almost not there, since the water level is so high!  Grandma and grandsons enjoyed the day!