It’s Time

It’s definitely been past time for me to pay some attention to my neglected Etsy shop, Daisy Fair.  So I made up a new iPad sleeve.  This one is definitely sweet and feminine.  It’s designed to fit either an iPad 2 or an iPad 3, with or without a Smart Cover.

I love that the vintage button has just a bit of bling.  Here it is with the flap open:

From the back:

And with a peek at the lining fabric:

I love this one.  Just so pretty.  The fabrics are metallic so it’s got some sassy fancy attitude.

Given the empty shelves in my shop, I think I better make up a few more this coming week.

Meanwhile, to anyone who is interested, you can also buy the pattern to make this on my Etsy shop as well.

A Little Fabric, A Little Love

And little blocks (3" finished) are the result.

I’m a little worried about the Ohio Star in the middle of the top row.  It seems out of proportion to the rest of the blocks.  It may need to become a pincushion!

Here’s a few close ups – just because.

That last one was using up the last little smidgens of fabric I had left of some of those early Smithsonian fabrics.  What is it – fifteen years later or so?  Still love them.

Anyway, while Miniatures in Minutes was all about making full quilt tops with a single foundation, the Fold and Sew method obviously works well with individual blocks as well (as Anita Grossman Solomon originated so brilliantly).  Still, sometimes even I’m amazed at the blocks that can be made on a single foundation!

I’ll have a few more blocks coming up on this one.  But so far?  I just love them.

What’s Up?

I’ve been seeing button magnets popping up on blogs.  Let’s see: fun, easy, immediate gratification.  Well, that’s got my name all over it!

Now, see, that is just cuteness to the max.  Here they are in smaller groupings:

The bee, the bird, and the snail are just too cute!

Impossible to resist a ghastlie charmer!

And that last grouping is just so pretty and elegant.  Lace and script.  Ah.  Love them.

Come Monday I’ll show some of the quilting I’ve been up to.  Keywords?  Civil War.  Sampler.  3" blocks.  Fold and Sew. 

Fun stuff.

For those celebrating Father’s Day tomorrow, I hope you have a good time of it.  I always look at it as an opportunity to extra-appreciate my husband (because he is a wonder) and to remember with love and gratitude my father and father-in-law.  Loved, yes.  Missed, you bet.

Of Books and Blocks

First, I need to thank Vanesa of NewNestDesigns for Modern Minimal by Alissa Haight Carlton.  I was a lucky winner from her blog in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day.  Vanesa even held off mailing the book so she could get me an autographed copy!  Thank you, Vanesa!

I love the bold simplicity of these quilts. Like this:

And I love the rich colors in this one big wonky block.  (Actually it kind of reminds me of the “special effects” from an old 60’s TV show, “Time Machine.”  Or something like that name.  Anybody else out there remember that one?)

(The Kindle Sleeve in my Giveaway is happily at home now with Louisa.)

I mentioned quite a long time ago that one of my quilt groups was doing a block a month sampler.  Each month one of us brings a block for the group to do.  This was the first one:

I decided to do up my blocks in French General because 1) I love the fabrics and 2) I had a bunch already lying around.  So, here are more of our blocks coming up:

The bear paw is one of my all time favorite block designs.  Isn’t it gorgeous in those fabrics?  Love, love, love.

Meanwhile, June is my month.  My first idea was to do up a T-Block.  Like this one. 

I looked at it and said to myself, “Self, you could make up those flying geese units using your GO! dies.  How clever is that?”

Apparently not clever enough.  I was having a moment (just a moment now and then, that’s what I tell myself) of mental incompetence – because our blocks are supposed to finish at twelve inches.  And the flying geese units I cut with the GO! were designed to make up 3" by 6" finished geese.  Yes . . . .

Using that math, my block would finish up to be 18" square, not 12.  Ooops.  And I was so impressed with myself for cutting the patches so that the script fabric would all run in the same direction!

Bloody but unbowed, I regrouped.  Took the fabric I had and played around with it so I’d have a block that used the patches I had cut out and kept the writing all going in the same direction. 

Voila!

Not what I had in mind but still a very cool block.

Meanwhile, a lot of our attention in town these days, of course, is still focused on the High Park Fire.  It is now over 43,000 acres at 5% containment. It’s been confirmed, sadly, that one woman died in her cabin.  In one area alone there have been over 100 structures either damaged or destroyed.  Our friends have their house up in that part of the canyon.  It’s still impossible to say whether their house survived or not since not all homes within the fire’s perimeter have been destroyed, but their house is up Rist Canyon where there has been heavy damage.  It’s still too early for people to get in to check things out.  Meanwhile, there are a  lot of homes still threatened.  This is one ugly beast of a fire.

My husband, who works 55 miles south of here, says that Denver is sitting in the middle of a huge cloud of smoke.  He can smell it in the building where he works.

Tragic

Well, I was going to show off some quilt blocks I finished because I have finally gotten some more sewing done, but I just can’t get there tonight.  Can’t get past this:

This is the fire burning just west of town, the High Park fire. 

My husband and I drove east from our house to get a better perspective.  Took the photo above.  And this as well.

This is what we saw when we drove to the end of our street: a dark sky full of smoke.

We’re not in any danger where we are, but west of town is a true disaster.  Right now, the fire is at 20,000+ acres with zero containment.  Most of the day we heard about the fire moving northwest.  But just a little bit ago another set of evacuations was ordered saying the fire was also moving rapidly south. 

Homes have been lost.  Too early, of course, to say how many.  A couple of our dear friends may have lost their house up the canyon.  No sign of rain in sight.  Still windy.  The sheriff has said that this is the fire they were always afraid we might have. 

A few weeks ago a fire west of town blazed through one of the prime hiking trails up the canyon, one that has really been iconic. That was a real loss to our community.  But this is so much worse.  We’re lucky to not be personally effected but we are still just so sad. 

We turned off our air conditioner a bit ago because we were pulling smoke into the house.  As I sit here typing, I can smell it still.