Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Wynken, Blynken & Nod have set sail .....

 "Wynken, Blynken , & Nod one night.....

Sailed off in a wooden shoe"........

......and there's the Big (or is it the Little ?) Dipper for them to follow and guide them through the night.......

....... (sigh) one baby quilt ready and waiting for it's little owner to make his grand entrance  (coming soon in Florida to my niece and her hubby).

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Brain Fog Due to Heat and Humidity Causes Quilting Boo Boo.....

OK,  it has already been established that I can't think straight when it's 96 degrees and a bazillion % humidity outside !!!!  So, with that being my excuse,  let me tell you about my little Boo Boo.    Pictured up there on the left is the baby quilt I designed for my niece and her hubby's soon to be born little boy.  Now this picture is just the quilt top.

 ......and here was my original plan for machine quilting .  I planned to "appli-quilt" the boat, stars, clouds, and moon (i.e. straight stitch /applique all the shapes down through the top, batting and backing so the shapes would be appliqued and quilted at the same time).  Then I planned to fill in the background with vertical line quilting.

.......soooooooo,  I "appli- quilted all of the shapes and was getting ready to do the vertical line quilting .....

......when I noticed things were looking a little puckery ............ then it dawned on me that if I stitched vertical lines,  as I would get close to one of the appliques .......

....those puckers would all smoosh up against the applique ..........RATS !!!!!    Then it dawned on me that I should have done the vertical line quilting FIRST .....then the appli- quilting on the shapes LAST !!!!!   DUH !!!!  (told ya I just cannot think straight when it's so blasted hot and HUMID !).    So, today the heat and humidity have ceased (temporarily I'm sure)  ...... and my thinking cap was firing on a few more cylinders , so this is the solution to my boo boo that I came up with .......

.......machine stitching/quilting  different size stars to fill in the background spaces ....... kind of the same idea as tying a quilt  or tacking a quilt.    What do you think ??
 
Well, better get back to machine star stitching ....... lots more open space to fill in !!!
 
P.S.    I'm linking up with
 
 
 
Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Lazy Summer Afternoon Doodling, etc..........

It has been REALLY REALLY hot and humid this past week here in Jim Thorpe, Pa  .......I am NOT a fan of humidity .... AT ALL !!!  It makes me tired and cranky and not wanting to do much of anything  ......(don't know what my excuse is the rest of the year) Anyhow,  doodling doesn't require a whole lot of energy and it's fun !  

 I found today's doodling inspiration in the dollar bins near the check out at Michaels' .    This is a little notebook .  I didn't need another little notebook, but I just LOVE that drawing on the front !!!  My immediate reaction was "I wanna try and draw that !"  

  I would love to give credit to the artist, but I couldn't find a name anywhere on the notebook.  

 .....and  look how cute the back of the notebook is !!!!   Wouldn't that make great fabric !!!!!!

......... and here's the original reason for my stop at Michael's the other day ..... to pick up the latest "Mollie Makes" magazine  (LOVE !!!!) ........ so, there you go ,  TWO  lazy summer afternoon , low energy, too hot to do anything else activities ........ doodling and browsing the latest Mollie Makes !

(hope the weather cools off and my motivation kicks in ...... still have that baby quilt to finish !!!)

Be back soon !
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Monday, July 15, 2013

Ping Pong Basting and Appli - Quilting

Down in our basement, next to the drums, lives a not - used - very - often ping pong table.  Tired of crawling around on the floor, yelling at people with big feet to pick an alternate route , and shooing kitties away when trying to baste a quilt, I had the brilliant (and you would think obvious) idea to baste my quilts on the ping pong table.  It worked BEAUTIFULLY !!! What a pleasant , although short - lived  experience .......because ......

....... "help" arrived .......

 Anyway,  after the basting,  I decided to "appli-quilt" all the applique pieces .  Being short on time and just all around lazy, I figured it would save me time instead of blanket stitching around each shape and THEN quilting .   Since I used fusible web to anchor all the applique shapes in place, I'm hoping the fusible glue stuff will act like Fray Check .   Besides,  I really like the way this looks on the front AND .........

......on the back.  

Besides the quilted applique shapes,  I think I'll just do some vertical top to bottom rows of quilting (around the appliques) to fill in.  In my perfect dream world where I'm a proficient free motion meanderer, I would do free motion quilting ...... but since I'm not , straight rows will have to do .    

Tick Tock ....... baby on the way ...... got to get back to work !

Be back soon ! (hopefully with more progress)
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Hey man ........peace, love and Bloglovin !

So "Moonbeams in a Jar"  has joined the movement ...... the Bloglovin' movement.
 
  Groovy man........

  The first thing I thought of when I saw / read the word "Bloglovin"  was 1966 and "The Lovin Spoonful" (these guys in this picture) ~~~  and all things hippie !!!
 
 
Anyhow, now that I've just dated myself (....I was just a tot when that song was popular ) ........back to Bloglovin' ......this nifty system notifies you when your favorite blogs have a new post to read ( I get my notices as email).   That way, instead of going through every one of your favorite blogs everyday to find out if there's anything new,  you will be notified by Bloglovin' which ones have a new post ....... THUS saving us procrastinators a little more time !  So, if you would like to receive notice of new posts from "Moonbeams in  Jar",  go to my sidebar and click on the button that says "follow this blog on Bloglovin"  (up there at the top on the right).
 
Peace man .......
 
Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Friday, July 5, 2013

Wynken, Blynken and Nod ..... talked me into it !


OK..... so the delusional side of my brain took over and got talked into STARTING this baby quilt 5 days ago ...... and it was for a baby shower YESTERDAY (on the 4th of July) .....  the practical side of my brain kept saying "don't do it !  you don't have time !!!" . ...... BUT, "Wynken, Blynken and Nod"  talked me into it  ( I designed this quilt based on that poem).  
So,  this is as far as I got ........the appliques are all fused on (but not stitched down) ;  the moon has his eyes and mouth stitched on,  and Wynken, Blynken and Nod's boat has the "wind whisps" stitched beneath the boat ......... so,  NOT quite done in time !!!    
New plan :   finish this baby quilt BEFORE the baby is born ....... ETA  9/8/13 .
Will keep you posted on how that goes .....

P.S.    In my defense, I did manage to finish the "Cowboy Lullabye"  wall hanging !!!   (the much smaller of the two projects ....... and in my sewing frenzy I completely forgot to take a picture of it ..... darn.  Well, you can see the drawing /design in the previous post ....... just imagine it in fabric instead of a crayon scribble.)

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)