Arts and Crafts...

Sam--that's a gorgeous piece. Your niece must have been so pleased. Thanks for posting it.

I have a top I pieced that I love but I haven't had time to quilt it. Did you find someone to quilt yours through a quilt shop? I hand quilted the first one I did. I loved that process but now I have a full-time job plus this pesky writing thing.

After that first quilt I did a small one that I didn't even quilt--it was a baby gift for my nephew. It's working fine without quilting. I also made two tops (a twin and a queen) that are unquilted. Follow through much?

Thanks for putting this up.

Writer Ellen

Sam, the quilt is beautiful! You have such a talent.

 Kay

Sam-

Sorry to disappoint but I didn't actually make the paper. I used scrapbook and computer paper. It was more of a planning and assembling type of project. But they turned out really great.

BTW I love quilts. My great grandmother used to quilt. They were beautiful. I don't sew but I'm great at cutting and pinning.

Shannon  

You do lovely work, Sam. I, too, enjoy quilting and the piece work is the best part. Kind of like putting a puzzle together - which is another favorite activity of mine. I must confess, though, my major other creative outlet is scrapbooking. I think of it as multitasking - organizing photos, reflecting on fun times and therapy.

-Tasha

I never head of the mysteries but I am sure I would propbably enjoy them.

i enjoy scrapbooking and gourmet cooking and baking.  i took a knitting class last year and really enjoyed that.  I would love to get really creative with different colors of yarn and always have good intentions of doing that while i watch tv...but, if i watch tv it is usually because i am too tired to read and if i am too tired to read, i am too tired to knit.

i used to do counted cross-stitch but i kind of made so much stuff that it was almost overkill.  counted cross stitch EVERYWHERE...on towels, oven mitts, book marks, eyeglass cases, framed on the wall, coasters...i gave a lot away as gifts.

Sam, the quilt is gorgeous, lucky niece!

I'm not that crafty of a person but I married an artist. He is always telling me about some project he has planned and I keep telling him I am a visual person. For some reason, I just can't picture a painting before it is done. Weird since I seem to have no problem pictureing a scene when I read about it in a book.

I know that Robin Owens paints and Mercedes Lackey makes jewelry. Must be something that makes so many authors creative in other ways.

my mom quilts.  i wish i had the patience.  maybe someday...  i do enjoy going to the fabric shop with her and picking out different fabrics to put together in a quilt.

i have never tried punch needle.  i actually bought a book on it with some really great projects...but, i'm ashamed to say i never actually tried it.  maybe i will dig that out...

 i think my favorite thing with knitting, quilting, scrapping, even ccs is the colors.  i love putting different color combos together and seeing the end result.

Sam,  I loved the quilt picture and am actually jealous that you figured out how to get the picture posted, LOL.  I've been trying to post pictures of my bichons for a couple of days cause Holly Jacobs wanted to see them. I shrunk them down to 160 x 160 pixels, and they were less than 75 kb but still they showed up as a red x. 

 ANYway.. My mom always quilted and I did some quilt tops growing up with her... and had a resurgence into the craft about a year ago and started several pieces (I did all hand sewing on the tops with my mom..but took some wonderful online classes to teach me all the new methods using machines and rotary cutters, etc.. THEN I started blogging my books on eharlequin and quilting fell to the wayside.

I, like you, really love playing with color and textures.  As for scrapbooking, I've done some of that too (so many crafts, so little time)  What I liked about scrapbooking was that you could use quilt patterns to design your pages.  I got a book that was showing some of that and it really makes pretty pages and that way I can play with neat blocks and not have to make a whole quilt, LOL.

Sam,

 I just spent almost two days trying to get pictures of my bichons posted in my blogs. (the posts are called My precious puppies and My Senior Bichon: MacGyver).  I was never able to get the direct upload (using the IMAGE box in our blog post screens) to work.  What I finally did was to follow Katherine T's great directions about using the tree key:

My Book Review ---- How I make my book covers

and get a free photobucket account.  I did find out that this means you have to leave the photos in the photobucket cause this way you are only linking to them there.

 For example, here is a picture of the my class quilt hanging from my first online quilt class at Quilt University.  Before this, I did all my quilt piecing by hand.  This class showed me how to use rotary cutters and machine piece.  I love their classes.  ALAS, I started hand quilting this piece in another online class, but have never finished it.

Wow that's gorgeous. I love the colors!

Sam, thanx it's my favorite pic from her portraits.

I've been tempted to learn how to make candles and soap. It's on my list of stuff I'd like to learn to do someday.

I've a friend who makes ceramics. I can't paint worth a darn. My one attempt looked horrible.

I'll have to look into taking pics of some of my past projects. For some reason I always forget to do that before handing them off. I have very few of my Xstitch stuff, or embroidery for that matter, in the house. I'm always making things for someone else.

Sam - Your quilt is beautiful.......you can make me one anytime you want......LOL

I like to 'dabble" in crafts.....somethings turn out good, others ok and some have the look "only a mother could love"........

In November I did a sewing project.......(I had not sewn in 20 years)   I made 8 table runners that were 7 mittens sew together......each mitten was almost the size of a place mat.....I did hand sewing on each mitten.....shapes I had cut out using my cookie cutters as patterns....(stars, trees, stockings, gingerbread men, snowmen,  bells, candy canes.)  I made it so each side was decorated.     I was very happy with how they turned out.....gave them to family and friends for presents.

In the past I have done some painting of birdhouses and such......I don't have a very steady hand so I don't do a lot of detail work.....just use bright bold colors.

I also like to put puzzles together....then decopouge them....then I hunt for frames to fit (at garage sales and thrift stores) then paint the frames to match.....I have a bunch that I use to decorate my enclosed front porch....change them every few months.  I have 3 in the house as well ....1 in the laundry room is a quilt hanging on a fence.....I thought that was the appropriate place for that one.     1 in the living room I mounted behind a window I had bought at a garage sale....so it give the impression of looking out the window at a porch scene and the flower garden beyond.

I also hand sew christmas ornaments.....this year just a few for my self with the left overs from the runner project....but last year I did 45 of them in 2 weeks for my grandsons pre school class room.

I have made myself 2 tables out of old shutters.....put a light in the bottom and use picture frames for the top so that the light comes through the glass....I made 2 wall shelves out of small shutters.

This year I made myself a christmas cards display -er out of a old bat wing door (like saloon doors)......just added some paint, a few old cards glued on and a chain to hang it from....

My sister helped me make a head board for out guest room out of garden lattice.  She used the circular saw.....I am afraid of that one....but will use the jig saw. 

I love to try and be creative.....just get such a good feeling when I get a project done. 

I hope that this thread keeps up....that others share their project ideas.....

I just bought some scrap fabric and pillow cases in flower prints.  Now need to figure out a design or pattern to use them to make a "spring" table runner....

I had better end this as it has gotten long.Thanks everyone for sharing.    Lisa

THanks everyone. I was really excited at how the piece came out.. now if I can ever stop reading long enough to FINISH quilting it, LOL.

And YES, Theresa, I agree with you on the taking pieces and putting them together to form a quilt is like a plot.  At least I think it must be   I haven't actually done any creative writing in years.

I really love this thread, (ha ha!  A pun!) Sam.  Thanks for starting it.