Nuts About....Blog Hop!!

Greetings everyone!
 It's my day to post about what I'm "Nuts About!" First things first. I really appreciate Marian for inviting me to participate. She is a great hostess!! Make sure you pop in on her blog, as there are great give-aways each day that she talks about!!

Here is the schedule of bloggers who are involved in this wonderful February hop.

February 4, 2016
Words & Stitches
Moose Stash
Vroomans Quilts
Quilt In Pieces

February 5, 2016
Just Let Me Quilt
DesertSky
Lulu & Celeste
Marjorie's Busy Corner
Tea Time Creations

February 8, 2016
Batts In The Attic
Life In The Scrapatch
Quilting Affection
Ravelly's  -You are here!!
In The Boon Docks

February 9, 2016
Quilting Queen Online
Elizabeth Coughlin
Bumbleberry Cottage
All Things Sewn

February 10, 2016
MeadowBrook
Sew Many Yarns
From This To That
Seams To Be Sew

Make sure you stop by each blogger to see what they have come up with.

Here's what I came up with because I'm a bit off kilter and have been known to go a little nuts.....

My attempt at sketching a design.

Fabrics chosen and I sewed peanut type lines. Notice the wildly nutty eyes....yeah, that's my expression most of the time.....heheheheheheh

I went with a cross-word type puzzle to name a lot of the things I'm nuts about. 

1. I love studying the bible. Jesus is my Counselor, my refuge.
2. My mom is my best friend, of course, followed by my wonderful Cowboy who is always there to support me, even going so far as to advise me on quilting designs. Surprisingly, he's right 95% of the time.....hummmmmm
3. I love baking and cooking meals for family and neighbors. My favorite foods are shrimp and candy....not eaten together, BTW!!! I can eat a bag of Skittles on the way home from the market but let's keep that bit of knowledge between you and me.
4. I had to add fabric and sewing. That's in my blood. Our local quilt shop just announced that it's going out of business so I'm chomping at the bit to shop there one more time to aid them reducing so much inventory.
5. I love movies such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Guarding Tess, The Sound of Music, The Thomas Crown Affair, just to name a few. I've seen these movies so many times while in my sewing studio that I don't even have to look up to know what's going on.
6. I am nuts about jigsaw puzzles to the point that when I start one, I am fixated on it until it's completed to the exclusion of anything else. That includes no sewing. I barely stop to eat. I know that sounds a bit "nuts" but that's just the way I roll.
7. And finally, I'm nuts about my Wacky girlfriends who are like sisters to me. We are always coming up with 'wacky' things to get into and are supportive when one of us going off the deep end on a fabric spree. We are so close that we once went on a sewing cruise but wound up not doing much sewing but enjoyed the sites and locals a lot. That's all I'll say because we all know, "What happens on a cruise, stays on the cruise!"  

Here's a close up of the tiny meandering I did around the peanut area.

This quilt measures 31 /12" by 21 1/2".

Now to the give aways....... 

from the wonderful folks at the Fat Quarter Shop   

&

Free pattern from Any Pattern.com

To enter click on the link below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, Monday

First........

Don't forget to get counted for my "big give-away" by commenting HERE!

It's Design Wall Monday, again and I've been cleaning for the give-away but I did get in some design work for a mug rug that I'll be giving away one of these days.

I love making silhouettes.

Can you tell it's a dog??

Next, I did a silhouette of "The Duke" John Wayne.

On this particular one, I worked from the bottom up.

Remember, I'm using my favorite fabric adhesive, Steam-a-Seam, which

 I should have bought stock in.....LOL

It's easy cutting the tiny pieces because I using small scissors.

The dark handle scissors at the bottom 4th from the left, is my favorite but I'll use any of the smaller one at any given time.

I also use straight pins and tweezers to aid in placement.

I know this will be hard to believe but working on projects like this is therapeutic to me. I can't think of anything but what I'm working on and when I get my favorite radio station going, well it doesn't get any better than that. Plus, it's just plane fun!!

So far "The Duke" measures about 9 by 11 inches. I don't know if I'll add a border. This is one of those times I'll need to think about it.

All fabrics came from my stash. I haven't shopped for fabric is months. I can't believe that myself but it's true.

Make sure to pop over to Judy's to see what everyone else is doing.

Back From Retreat - DWM

My "whacky" girlfriends and I had a blast over the weekend on retreat.  Needless to say we laughed and ate our way through the days and evenings while actually getting some sewing in.
Here's a look at what we accomplished.

Kathy was really driven. She made two Jelly Roll quilts within a 4 hour period the cutest fabrics. She inspired us to try the technique.

It's a Boy - Jelly Roll quilt.

It's a Girl - Jelly Rolls quilt.

Annie (no blog) showed off her skills with a Jelly Roll quilt of her own plus, she showed us what she's been working on for a while.

 

The Christmas tree is from a challenge from two years ago.

This layout is from Annie's request from a row quilt challenge the "whackies" did.

 

 

Molly, our hostess, worked on braided strips made from her scraps. It was amazing to see the rows develop.

Note the wonderful scrappiness, all from Molly's stash which seems to grow rather than shrink.

Kathleen worked on a quilt top from her stash and a hand embroidery BOM that is going to make a stunning finish.

This quilt top was from a panel - WOW!

 

These hand embroidery blocks are from a winter scene BOM.

 

And finally, here's what I was up to and was happy to get that far.

BTW make sure you pop over to Judy's to see what everyone else is up to on this Design Wall Monday.

 

One new mug rug. Look for it to be given away as I post the "A" is for Aardvark blocks.

I finally sewed my red teapots together. The girls suggested that I sew strips between each teapot so I took their advice and added the cornerstones, as well.

I'm sure you all remember this one. I thought to never get those shoes sewn down but it happened. Again, the girls suggested the black fabric separation. All I need to do is find a suitable final fabric for a 2 to 3 inch border.

And can you believe it, this baby is finally put together. I've been working on it off and on for two years. I need to find a border for it.

 I might change out that green fabric above the buffalo. I probably will because it is bothering me just looking at it. What are your thoughts??

 

 

Quilt Jack-o-lantern Project

I used the backside of the background fabric, an orange batik that I've been hoarding for years for the face, a solid  darker orange for accent shading, a gray mottled fabric for the hat (BTW, I collect gray fabrics of all shades. They are really great as accents most of the time.), Moda black for shading, a very small piece of white-ish sliver fabric for the buckle and a dark green for the grass.
Of course, I used my favorite adhesive - Steam-a-seam! Maybe in the next couple of days I'll get everything stitched down and machine quilted. BTW, this little block is about 9 1/2 inches square.

Happy New Year and New BOM

Happy New Year Everyone!

Wow, it's 2012!  I can't believe it. Way back in grade school, 1960s,  I never thought that I'd be living in the 21 century with all these new and marvelous gadgets to play with..... iPhone; iPad; iPod; HD television; Bose radio systems; cars/SUVs with video capability and GPS; e-Cards; Kindle which is a great way to read just about anything (novels, in my case) and saves our "trees;" refrigerators that house TVs; computered recipes, shelves that slide, constrict, and have several temperature controls to store meats, milk, veggies and whatever else you can think of  easily; the ever changing computer and then there are the wonderful embroidery/sewing machines. Alot of these gadgets do several things that make our lives more livable.
But I'm babbling. So allow me to get to the point. I've been working on a new BOM. This one involves loads of hand embroidery fun.  I've named it "Leafing Through The Year" Don't worry, When Nature Calls BOM  will be posted in a day or so.

Link here or at my Sidebar!
This is also Design Wall Monday. Judy has a list of great quilters with some wonderful projects going on. Pop over and check them out.

What's Your Name?

Dawn over at "As Sweet As Cinnamon" has a great little thing going on just for fun. Explain why you named your blog what you did. If you'd like to participate, pop over to Dawn's and sign up.
Ravelly1 comes from desperation on my part. A couple of my Wacky girlfriends were already blogging and hassled me into it...... LOL
At the time I was sewing in my living room and even though I cleaned each time I sewed, there seemed to always be ravels everywhere. So I knew that "ravels" had to be involved in the name somehow. The number one came from my birth date. I was born on the first day of a certain month. So "Ravelly1 was born.  My mom and friends think this name is still appropriate and I don't like change so I'm stuck with it and loving it.

I Must Be A Four Year Old

My girlfriend sent the following little quiz to me the other day and just for fun I'm sharing it with you.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
Stop and think about it now ...... it's so easy ......

Answer:  Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door.

This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2.  How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Answer: If you said, "Open the refrigerator put in the elephant and close the door,"   that's the WRONG answer.
The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe put in the elephant and close the door.

This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3.  The Lion King is hosting animal conference.  All the animals attend ........ except one.  Which animal does not attend?


Answer:   The elephant.
The elephant is in the refrigerator.

You just put him in there.  This tests your memory.

Alrighty then, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4.  There is a river you must cross, but it is used by crocodiles.  You do not have a boat.
How do you manage it?

Answer:  You jump into the river and swim across, of course!

Have you not been listening?

All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting.

This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to a consulting firm, around 90% of the adults tested go all the questions WRONG, but many pre-schoolers got several correct answers.
The consulting firm said that this is conclusively proof of the theory that most adults do not have the smarts of a 4 year old.
I guess I'm still in 4 year old mode because I actually got a few of the answers....... Oh dear!

Gone Fishin'

I really want to thank everyone who left great comments on this project, Sawing Logs.
I did go ahead and make 16 more log blocks because I had another idea in mind by that time.

I decided to add a 6 1/2" cream toned border because I knew I wanted to add a fishing reel but really had no clue of what to do after that. So I slept on that idea......dreams of piers, catfish, turtles, snakes......this turned into a nightmare.........time to wake up!!!!!  By morning I figures I needed the fishing line.

I wanted the line to unravel around the border....this is the way I remember my brother and I going fishing, getting the lines tangled, laughing as we tried, unsuccessfully to untangle them, cutting the lines only to restring them.

By the time I got to the bottom corner of the border, I knew I needed a hook and just happened to think of hooking the "Gone Fishin' " on said hook.  If you remember this all started from the center block that was sitting in my UFO box.  Don't be afraid to experiment with different methods or techniques.  You'd be surprised what could happen.

 The final measurement is 58" by 58" and I'm so happy with the outcome.

Froggie Went A Courtin'

Create a MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

This little guy is a small part of a new project I'm working on......sorry I can't show you more.  Anyway as I was experimenting with colors for him, it got me to thinking about when my brother and I were little.....now before you start thinking all kinds of weird stuff, like my experiences with insects and snakes......this is a good story.........LOL.

Mom was always exposing us to neat science, math, reading and music stuff.  One of our favorite 78 albums (no, I'm not talking about the year 1978) was of Burl Ives.  If you are too young to remember him, click on the above video to listen to one of the childrens' songs I grew up with and if you know exactly who I'm talking about, you'll really appreciate the memories the song will trigger!

Who remembers Burl??? I'd really like to hear from you.

Enjoy!