Siinging again

And speaking of concerts, tonight it's Brad Paisley, Chris Young and Lee Brice. Can't think of a sexier line up. (Unless Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, George Strait, and Toby Keith were to tour together.)

And they aren't just eye-candy. They have all got some serious vocal/musical talents. But sometimes you just have to step back and enjoy the view ... :)

Sigh ...

-Biird-

Song Biird

One of the things that we do every year is buy what's called the Country Mega Ticket. It's all of the country concerts at the local amphitheater. This year it was 8. The last concert was Luke Bryan, Eli Young Band, and Kacey Musgraves. EXCELLENT concert.

We chat with the folks who bought the pairs of seats on either side of us. This concert the spousal unit and the husband of the couple to the left were having a little more fun than usual.

-Biird-

Giifts from a traveling friend

A coworker at J.O.B. #1 went on vacation with his wife and brought me back some Japanese napkins. I'm going to take the hem stitching out and use them in a wall hanging. I'm debating what to do for a design. I was thinking the word "quilt" or "quilter" in Japanese. Or possibly some other iconic Japanese image, if I can come up with one that speaks to me. :)

Very pretty fabrics:

gold:

navy:

and burgundy:

I can't think of a better memento of someone else's trip to a foreign country. :)

-Biird-

Piieced tops

I was re-organizing and shifting things around in the den and found a bunch of project boxes with either kitted things in them or blocks that only needed putting together.

One of my favorites wasn't part of the kitted/blocks-done bunch. It's Science Fair by Jaybird Quilts. Fun to do and I love the way it came out with all the paisleys.

Three red and black quilts were done as part of the "you need to make something so the dog doesn't tear up the backseat of the (new) car" sessions.

hounds tooth (adapted some online tutorials for this one):

wonky square-in-square-in-square (I love designing on graph paper):

and something a little different (my own design):

I dug through the pile of extra jelly roll strips and created a version of something I saw in a book somewhere:

I've been really enjoying all the modern quilting books out there. Found the instructions for this purple zigzag quilt in one of them (but don't remember which book):

Some large yellow and blue churn dash blocks from scraps came together to make this one:

Random scraps and fat quarters played together nice in this one:

I call this one Squeemish. Snail trail blocks made in opposite directions and in this layout make me think of bugs:

Couple of bright batik tops:

This one makes me think of dangling ribbons:

And certainly by no means the least of the bunch (even though it is last), is what I'm calling Fly By Night. All flying geese made with Halloween fabrics. Definitely a fun one to watch come together.

Plenty more kitted things waiting to be done, whole bunch of tops waiting to be sandwiched and quilted - some in California and some in Maine - and lots and lots of patterns and fabrics to make more of everything.

-Biird-

Liittle things

Making a lot of little things lately. Guess I need the full on satisfaction of a job totally completed. Not just a pieced top that's waiting to be quilted.

I mad e a few wallets. The prototype used fabrics chosen by the kid's girlfriend so she ended up with it.

One was made out of a scrap of the center strip used in a 4th of July table cloth.

And a couple others out of batik scraps.

Another thing that I made was a portable pressing pad. I used the top of a broken tv tray, batting, staple gun, Steam-A-Seam, a few fat quarters, and a bright pink cotton strap. I really like how it came out. And because it's got the tv tray top in it, it's solid.

Full finishes are fun. :)

-Biird-

By request - Biirdly consignments

In addition to the stuff done with/for Julie, I've sold a couple of other baby quilts. The first was to a coworker as a baby gift for a cousin.

front:

label:

The second was a direct result of wearing/bringing the purse I made into J.O.B. #2 on aqn off day to pick up a couple of things. The woman saw it and we started chatting. Turns out she had a baby shower to go to a few days later. Fortunately I'd been playing with turning a full sized quilt pattern into a baby sized quilt. I ended up with 4 (FOUR!!) tops from the blocks I ended up with. Talk about things so not going in the right direction. :) When I quilted it, I did a stitch in the ditch around the outside of the colored shapes but not between the colors. The back looked really cute with that quilting. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of anything after the pieced top. But I have 3 more to work with! :)

-Biird-

Purse and accessoriies

I found a really cute pattern and used it to make myself a purse. The pattern is Leyvie Bag by Whistlepig Creek Productions.

LOVE it! Thinking about making a couple more in different fabrics so I've got more choices. Only thing I changed was the strap - the only wide enough cotton strapping I had didn't match so I covered it in my favorite fabric from the purse.

I also made a zippered wallet/pouch out of the same fabrics (okay - 3 of them with different fabric combinations). I used Atkinson Designs' Cash and Carry pattern - Pocket Zip view

pattern:

finished products:

These are two of my favorite designers/pattern companies. Everything is really cute!

I also made a wallet of my own design. One of the women I work with at J.O.B #2 wants me to make one for her. :)

Couple of glasses cases finished off the accessories. I winged it on these as well. :)

And it all fits nicely in the purse.

I get lots of compliments. Especially when people find out that I made it. :)

-Biird-