Friday, September 23, 2016

Summer Fun

It's funny that almost the minute I come back from hiatus, every other thing that pops up in my face is about two very famous people getting a divorce (and forgive me for not naming them, but I'm not inclined to join in the hen party/crow fest.) These were the same two people who got together in properly scandalous fashion back when I started PBW, so it's a little ironic that I've outlasted them. Or may not. The day I retire they'll probably get married again or have a secret baby or something. Well, at least they're not Kardashians.

What have I done that I can talk about . . . I finished quilting the lap quilt I made for my Mom's birthday:



I machine pieced it but hand-quilted it, and battled my aversion to the color yellow in the process. Yellow pretty much won me over, but it was a necessary surrender. Since Mom is spending the winter in Oregon I wanted this to invoke summer and sunshine. The pattern is Atkinson Design's Yellow Brick Road, which uses blocks made by cutting up fat quarters into strips and piecing them in different ways. Very easy to do, with nice results.

I also rehabbed a Victorian-era photo album into an art journal, which was a first for me. Here's how the album looked with its worn and torn velvet covers, and dirty celluloid flowers, before rehab:



This was a delicate challenge, because I had to carefully remove the celluloid before I cleaned the cover. I also made a new binding for it and handstitched it together. Here's how it looked after being cleaned, repaired, and bound with my journal pages:



I loved being able to show on the front some of the original blue velvet used for the covers, which the dirty flowers actually protected for a hundred years or so. Here's a peek inside:



I made all the pages with recycled papers, old calendars and some pages left over from another art journal. It turned out massive but so worth it. I have another old photo album in red velvet that I'm going to rehab in the same way.

Finally my kid and I made our annual summer pilgrimage to the no-kill cat shelter to make a donation and spend some time with the kitties. They really love her:



Even the suspicious ones were cute:



And of course I fell in love (again):



My guy and I have made the difficult decision not to adopt any more cats, as they tend to be very long-lived with us, and we're not getting any younger. We also don't want to introduce an older cat into a household that at present has two very active, nosy dogs. That and we really are dog people. But that just means I can go and visit the shelter whenever I need a feline fix.

So did you all have any creative adventures over the summer? Share your stories in comments.

10 comments:

  1. Love the Victorian notebook! That you managed to salvage a bit of the original was inspired.

    Do you do reupholstery? I almost bought a gorgeous stuffed chair with Queen Anne style legs. The upholstery was shot but I loved the lines of the chair and the exposed wood. Greg reminded me that sewing was not my strong suit. I had to pass on it. :( I still think about that chair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've always wanted to take a class in reupholstery, Maria, but never got around to it. It's one of those arts that I don't think you can learn from a book. Also, I'd probably become a furniture hoarder. :)

      Delete
  2. The quilt is gorgeous! Well done.

    Our creative adventures, aside from mama the author, and mama the jeweler, was handsewing a star wars button up shirt for the wee guy. We built some other costume props ( id badges, a time travelling gun, and hand dyed a shirt for the small guy for his costumes. It was sort of fun when we all got in on the cosplay madness.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw. I love seeing kids dressed in things like that. At the Megacon I went to they had a baby dressed like Mal from Serenity, right down to the boots. I almost cried, he was so cute.

      Delete
  3. I love your mom's quilt! It's gorgeous!

    I adore kittens, too, but when I went to the shelter, I adopted one of their oldest cats. I asked for a blind cat, since my last cats were blind and I'd heard that blind animals were rarely adopted. Well, they gave me an elderly Persian who can see perfectly well, but nobody wanted him because he has gooey eyes, a normal Persian problem. Close enough, and he's an absolute sweetheart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a lovely thing to do, Deb. When we rescued Skye from her sad situation they told us she was a purebred Sheltie, and then she turned out to be one of these pricey designer Poshie mixes. People pay up to four thousand dollars for dogs like her, which left me bemused. :)

      Delete
  4. Please, tell me that's not 'the kid' holding that cat in her lap! Holy cow, they grow up so fast!!

    Love, love the quilt! It came out beautiful, even if you don't like yellow. ;) Then again, it doesn't rank quite up there with pink... ;)

    And speaking of cats...I really, really want another cat. Husband does NOT want a cat, he is not a fan of cats. But I can't bring myself to go to the shelter though I give monthly. I would want to bring them all home and it would break my heart to walk out, so I can't :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is my youngest -- all grown up now. I still see a four-year-old chasing lizards when I look at her. :)

      I actually made a little pink quilt for Skye this year, back in April, from a bag of scraps I bought for three bucks at the county quilt show:

      http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh289/LynnViehl/2016%20pbw/IMG_0776_zps0hchlffx.jpg

      See? I'm growing up. Ha.


      Delete
  5. I love it! And Skye looks so happy sitting there. She's a beautiful doggie. :)

    Don't grow up too much though ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you can leave an animal shelter empty-handed, you are one tough cookie. They're all so precious, the temptation to fill the car with them & go is unbelievable.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.