A Strange Job Interview

So, I have to do a sort of audition for Grumbacher to become certified as an instructor of acrylics.. they asked me to submit a couple paintings - all realistic, which is something I don't really do often.  One of the options for a type of painting I could submit was a Still-Life.  I chose to paint some things I love -

 

On another note: the husband and I found THE PERFECT HOUSE!!  It has everything we wanted, needed, and it's 3 blocks away from a great school (for when the little ones arrive), and the grocery store is within 1 block - we can walk there, easily.  The best part, it was a foreclosure, but it's in pristine condition, and it's WELL within our price range.  We're putting in a bid first thing on Tuesday. 

 

Thanks for reading :)

Cassie

Nook HD Cover {Tutorial Coming NEXT THURSDAY!}

This week I finished this - a great quilted Nook HD cover. I stole my hexie stripe block from my Craftsy BOM 2012 to make it, so now I have to make another - oh darn!

I have some exciting news: next week for Tutorial Thursdays, I'm going to teach you how to make this cover for any electronic device you might have. :D I'm in the process of writing the tutorial now.

Grab my Tutorial Thursdays Button here:

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Thanks for reading!
Cassie

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for finish it up Friday!

Tutorial Thursdays

Today has been crazy!  My husband and I are working on financing for our first home - needless to say, I have not really thought about doing tutorial thursdays, until just now.  I would still like to open up the link-up, though!

Up next week: Tutorial for a Nook HD (or any other e-reader) cover.  Stay tuned! 

Now, share what you've been working on!

Thanks for reading,
Cassie

Nearly... there.....

So, I've been really busy again this week - not necessarily quilting though (unfortunately).  I did get a few more blocks done for my Craftsy (2012) BOM series.  I'm definitely liking my choices of fabric more and more as I continue.





No matter what I tried, I could not get the white background fabric to show as white. Probably because I took it on my blue cutting mat (as I do with so many other things), and that is shining through the Kona Snow... oh well. Still not bad for my first Dresden ever.





I'm still not completely satisfied with the points on this one.



Lastly, my in progress circle of geese block. I should finish this one in the next hour, and hopefully the remainder of the blocks today or tomorrow (there are only 4 left!)

Lastly, be sure and come back tomorrow for Tutorial Thursdays!  It's a link party where I'm sharing a tutorial, and asking you to do the same. :)

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First HEX experience

I'm so excited that I finally decided to do my hexie blocks.  The first one is finished and it came out very pretty, I think. I decided to make my own hexie templates from the one that was in the class materials on the Craftsy class.



I was afraid the regular printer paper was going to be too flimsy, but it worked out okay.  I'm glad I cut the template out of a cardboard piece I snagged from a FQ, now I'll have it to make more paper pieces later.



I stitched them all together last night while my husband and I watched a movie.  Not many pictures occurred during this time.  :)



I can't say how much I love those little flat flower pins.



I machine appliqued my hexie stripe on with a zig-zag pattern.  Warm with one cool hex.  So, that block is finished - now I'm going to hope for my local quilting shop to carry more kona snow fabric so I can finish the rest of the series.. I wish the fabric fairy would bring me some solids!!

Studio Update! 

So, for a while, my studio has been a wreck.  Between all the home repairs and updates my husband and I are doing to our 103 year old house, my studio has become kind of a storage room.  Today, I got a bit of drive to clean up my fabric stash, and finally put it in its place - the awesome built in shelving unit in my studio. I was so excited because there is room in there to grow!

I wish that I had taken a before picture - my painting supplies were all over both the shelves, and it was generally a huge wreck.  I think as a general rule, there is never enough storage space, no matter where you live.  Don't you agree?



So, I'm calling both of these things my finishes for the week, baby steps, you know!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday
And Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday this week at Sewing By Moonlight.

Thanks for reading, lovelies.
Cassie

Tutorial Thursdays!

Grab a badge for your blog here:

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So, this week I've been kind of lazy.  My husband and I started watching Breaking Bad (from the beginning), and that has distracted me - so I've only been working on the Craftsy BOM from 2012.  I blogged about it yesterday, in fact!

I have to say that Craftsy's BOM class - for the sake of Tutorial Thursdays, we'll call it a tutorial "series" - has been very good so far.  I have not really learned a new technique, but it has been good practice, and I've been forced to kind of think about color matching as I go along, rather than just having all the fabric for the entire project laid out at the start (I went with the stash rather than purchasing a new bundle..)


That being said, I'm NOT going to actually post the tutorial, since I can't.  You have to register on Craftsy to actually take any of their classes (it's free to register).  However, I will post my finished broken spider web block :)



I just hate that my final point was off by like 1/8 of an inch.... I might unpick some of the stitches and try to fudge it a little.  I haven't decided yet - have any of you had any success with doing that?  Yes, it is a string block, so none of the seams are supposed to match other than around the center star. 

Hopefully next week I'll have a better tutorial for y'all.  Until then, share what you've been working on from a tutorial (or your own tutorial)! 

Thanks for reading! 
Cassie

Block Progress

My A.D.D. self has started another project.  Last week (I think), I blogged about wanting to start the Craftsy BOM series from 2012.  I just loved Amy Gibson's choice of blocks, so I told myself, "you can make one block a day, and that's that."  - Plus I just so happened to have a few yards of Kona Snow, the fabric she chose as her background fabric, so I took that as a sign.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you my progress so far.  I've got 7 blocks completely done, and one 3/4 done - my husband wanted to call it early last night so we could go for a run this morning... out of respect for the light sleeper, I turned off the sewing machine.

Here's what I've made so far on this project:

January Blocks

The Asterisk Block

Slashed Pound Sign

February Blocks

The Balkan Puzzle - this one has been one of my faves so far :)

Chunky Chevron

March Blocks

String Block

The IN-PROGRESS Broken Spider Web

April Blocks

These are hexie blocks which I haven't done because, frankly, my printer is out of ink!

May Blocks

Modern Frame Log Cabin - I really enjoyed the improv blocks.. I'm thinking about making an entire quilt of either a May block or something from March... but that's in the future.

5-sided Wonky Log Cabin

Well, that's about all for now! Finishing up the Broken Spider Web block today, and going to go pick up ink for the printer so I can do my hexie blocks.

Linking up with WIP Wednesdays @ Freshly Pieced