The underground goat is spotted!

Sue has let loose her little goat for grooming...

This is to good to pass up

Most of you already know that I have my own brick and mortar quilt shop and also on etsy..see side bar for the link.

But, Lord help me, I love fabric! I purposely cut multiple yards, of my "stash", into strips of varying sizes. Why, you ask? Because then I could justify buying more fabric because my "stash" was dwindling, lol! I know, it's a brilliant move. You may take my idea and run with it. I don't imagine it's a new thought..but, it was for me!~

Anyhoo, as I am a big procrastinator, stop laughing, I started the Fabshophop.com game yesterday. I have to visit @ least 140 shops to qualify for the prize...a go cutter...what? Cruising thru the shops is fun, addictive and can cost a bunch of money...yep. One of my favorite online shops The Tropical Quilter and found out today that they are retiring! That's the bad news. The good news is all the fabric is 50% off. OMG....so, if you living and breathing and have a few extra bucks...well, you know. Just a public service announcement for ya'll!

The 4th Bloggers Quilt Festival

                                                                                     
The fourth bloggers quilt festival is going on now, over at Amy's place. What a ton of inspiration is awaiting those who are fortunate to find it! Pop over and see them, it will help you buy more fabric, lol!

                                                                                      

My entry is actually 2 baby quilts that I made last year. My daughter was having a baby girl in November and my dear daughter in law was having another baby girl in January! I didn't want either of the new mommies to feel like the other girl was given a prettier quilt, or bigger or smaller quilt, so they both received the same thing!

                                                                                

I used mostly stash fabrics in pinks and browns using a pattern that was very simple. Dana had a sew a long on her blog, quite some time ago, and I had done a quilt then. I knew I would come back again, to this pattern. I just love it!

                                                                                    

What I learned while making these quilts: sometimes simply is the best. Since I had 2 quilts to make, I really didn't want a complicated pattern, something both mommies would like, so I went with it! I also learned that when you use fabrics from your stash that sometimes said stash replicates itself into @ least 10 more yards!

                                                                                

I used 100% cotton sheets for the backings, and little "ends" of rows, sewn together, to tie the fronts to the backs. I am very pleased with this effect. I have seen very similar backings all over blogland and wanted to try it out. I used my walking foot and quilted them myself, an acomplishment for me!

They both are 60"x70", I know, overkill. I love making bigger baby quilts.                                                                                         

Both babies love their blankies and so do the mommies! Have a great time visiting Amy and the Bloggers Quilt Festival, Elaine

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Goat....needs one more please!

So far we have 3 groups of like minded goat herding women. Each group has 4 members each, except group 3. We need one more lady...now, who is up for the furry goodness of goat herding?

I hope we can get 1 more lady by Sunday night. If you know of any potential herders out there, send em over! Thanks, baa baaaaa........Elaine

What our Sisterhood of the Traveling Goat is up to

Great job on your penny rug Fiona! I have enjoyed seeing your progress on your first rug.

Don't you just love the little lady bug? Thanks for sharing your progress Fiona. I can hardly wait to see what you do with your goat!

Here is Sue with her down under traveling goat. Udderly charming Sue, love it!

Thanks for sharing ladies. Very clever indeed! I hope you are enjoying the traveling show. Have a great day, Elaine

                                                                                          

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Goat roster

Please let me know if I have left anyone out or if you have changed your mind. I have 9 people signed up, and that includes myself. We would love to have an extra 3 join in, don't be bashful girls! Now all you ladies have to do is enlarge the goat that I have uploaded on my prior blog post, and cut him out of wool, felt or something else you would like. Place him/her in an envelope and get ready to mail it off. We are having the added fun of a few ladies from down under joining in. It only takes 6-10 days for the mail in Australia or New Zealand and the cost of a first class stamp is @ 98 cents US.

Without further ado, here are the lists:

Elaine  1-2-3-4
Debbie   2-3-4-1
DeeDee  3-4-1-2
Lizzie  4-1-2-3

Second List:
Fiona  1-2-3-4
Laura  2-3-4-1
Janet  3-4-1-2
Maria  4-1-2-3

Third List:

Sue 1-2-3-4
Jan  2-3-4-1
BeeBee  3-4-1-2

We need 1 more lady to make the third list....

I sent my goat to Debbie, she gets to make the first decision on what to do with it. Then she sends it off to DeeDee to put the first embellishments on it, then she sends it off to Lizzie who finishes the goat and sends it back to me!

Debbie sends her goat off to DeeDee who gets the first decision on what to do with her (Debbie's goat), then sends it off to Lizzie who embellishes it, then sends it off to me, so I can finish it off and send it back to Debbie.

~~**I have Maria's name down on the sidebar, but I think she may be doing her own goat a long in Oz. If you want to join us Maria, we would be thrilled to have you...right, you little goat herders?**~

I had thought at first that it would be fun to keep the results of the house calls a secret, but re-thinking it, I may be in huge error! Now I believe it would be more fun to blog on it's adventures. What do you ladies think? Blog or secret?  Debbie...hugs to ya girlfriend, Elaine

I am off to take a critical care class for my nursing, so I won't be back online until tomorrow night and Friday night. I have to travel 65 miles east to another town, one way on the freeway. Send email concerns to me and I WILL get back to you, if my internet holds up! Also, I wanted to let you little chicken loving friends know...my fat little black hen reappeared today to eat and fight the roosters off. Then she disappeared again. I may be a chock mawmaw in a few more weeks, eh? wahoo!!

                                                                                       

A little off track, but....

I love this lady!!!

I'm baaaaccckk!!

We had some rough weather this past weekend and a tower, carrying our internet feed, fried. So I have been without internet and/or email since Saturday.....yes, I have had withdrawals! I slept like a rock the past few nights but the hubs told me the winds were horrid day before yesterday. My attack roosters...the rabid bantams...are missing a fat little black hen. I don't know if the winds carried her off or what.

The windy drama aside, I am anxious to get going on the goat-capades. Sue, from Australia, has a traveling goat-a-long! Go check it out, very cute. My friend, Debbie, asked for some guidelines for doing the goat-a-long here, so I thought I would answer her questions.

Let's make it fun, no pressures, no expectations, just fun, ok? We will need at least 4 people to participate.                                                                  

Each person cuts out a goat from wool or felt, and puts their name and address on the back. That way, when the goat is finished, it knows where to go to reach home!

                                                                                    

Send your goat to the first person, and they get to do something fun with it. I sent mine to Debbie who gets to decide how to use it. By this I mean, choose a background of wool, felt, flannel, cotton, etc. Make a penny rug, tea cozy, wall hanging, etc. Or make it into a Christmas ornament. The first  person is the one to make the decision on how the goat is placed.

The second person adds embellishment, embroidery, buttons, beads, etc. Then off to the next in line.

The third person adds more embellishments and off to the fourth person.

When the last person in line gets the goat, finish it off and send it back to it's mama. You can blog on his adventures, like Sue has done on her blog. Check it out, very cool!

I'll put a blog roster up on my sidebar, of people who are participating, ok? So far, we have 2. Come on, what's it gonna hurt to get silly for a day/? Come and join in with us...

Lets all play!

Can I play too. This sounds like fun. Maybe we could each start one and then it could go to everyone and then return to its "mommy" for safe keeping. Just a thought.


thanks

beebee
 
What a brilliant idea! I sent my goat off to Debbie this morning, she is going to be "tied up" later in the week so we wanted to get moving on it. Why don't you send me your goat and I'll do some embellishment on it and pass it off to someone else. I think this could be lots of fun, eh? Perhaps we could get 3-5 people to do something fun before it comes home to "mommy". Ladies....any potential goat embellishers out there? Don't be shy now!

This was my goat rug I did several years ago. Now, I ask, do you REALLY think he looks like a rabbit? Fine, but do bunnies have an udder? Thought so! This is just an idea that I had for him. I'm sure ya'll can come up with something much more imaginative. Reach inside yourself and grab that Martha Stewart and drag her out to play...

And as far as I am concerned, I am happy to post overseas. It really doesn't take all that long you know. It actually gets there before mail to Canada does...go figure!

I'm thinking this is the month of the goat...

                                                                                  

Something a bit different

I'm still looking at my wall hanging and thinking on it. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Debbie made the cutest little silver tray mat, check it out! I have been having a blast playing around in my sewing room, arranging my things...ok, fine, trying to trudge thru my mess, is more like it! I put my sewing machine back in there, out of the living room and peeking at my little mat...real soon...., real soon.

Debbie, Fiona , Kim and I are encouraging each other to work on our projects. I think it's so interesting that we have all met and are interested in the same thing. Debbie said that she enjoys the primitiveness of them. I guess I always thought of them as being American Folk Art. I wonder, Fiona, what do you liken them to? Debbie is awaiting a new project and I hope she likes this one!

So here's the deal Debbie: I am going to suggest a goat, because I love goats. Now, you Debbie, yes you, get to do something with it. Then after getting extremely creative and artsy....you can pass on the  next step to whomever wants to join along.

It does look a bit like an inebriated Kangaroo, eh? Well, just pretend it's really a goat. So, what do you think? Maybe you want the goat to pull a cart, or stand in  a flower patch? Or maybe be in the middle of pumpkins?  After you decide on one element, then you get to pass the torch to someone else. Then they get to add their element to it. Kind of a round robin of sorts. Are you interested?  If you want to join in, send a comment. Oh, and feel free to copy the goat. Who's next?                                                                                       

French knots are so much fun!

I used Valdani overdyed threads, perle cotton #8, and stitched a few French knots on my stitchery. I didn't want to overdo it, so stopped with a small grouping. Then I went a little different, shall we say, on some "x's" and blanket stitches. When I removed the staples, some of the wool was kind of mooshed down, so I ran my fingernail over it to make it stand up.

                                                                                                                                                            

I think I am going to put it up on my wall for a few days and just look at it. There is more to do but now I just want to think on it and see how crazy I can get! Have you ladies been stitching? Fiona is doing so well on hers, here is a little peek, isn't she doing great?

                                                                               

Anyone else have a pic to share or at least one I can steal from your blog...not really, just checking to see if you're really reading it! I'm going to go hang up my piece and stare at it. Maybe some cheap red wine would help my perspective...later~~               

I nearly forgot to mention my deal of the month...yard sales are fun, but a yard sale 2,400 miles long?
So we only made 3 stops. The first one, I picked up a goat cart

                                                                               It has some slats replaced with new wood and the hubs had to do some repairs on it, but hey, I love it...it is now home in my livingroom, screaming for a teddy bear. $10.

                                                                                                          The next goody is a 12 block sunbonnet sue quilt. The lady said it was very dirty, from hanging in her living room for years, in a hanger in a corner. I also found out that the quilt was made here, in Van Zandt county Texas several years ago. I hung it on my clothesline for a pic and also snapped the back. Did you ever wonder what would happen, if you didn't quilt 4-6 inches apart?

                                        This is the cotton batting shifted. No holes or tears in this quilt. I want to take it apart, remove the cotton clots and re-do it. On my bucket list. $5.00, if I promised to give it a good home, yep, I will.

                                                                            A celery Singer Featherweight, from @1963-64. The belt was missing, but the nice man popped a wide rubber band on. OMG IT WORKED! The machine did too. We also discovered that the motor housing has a crack in it. But, the baby works. Hubs has self taught himself to FW CPR and has her cleaned, oiled and has discovered that he doesn't think she was ever used! Seriously, took her all apart and she is clean as a whistle. Runs like a 14 year old track star! I am not sure what to do with her yet. She is soooooo sweet.

That's it for my yard sale finds. Anyone else hit it luckier then most this past weekend?      

Fun on the Farm

Have you ever herded a chicken? My brilliant thought was to let my chickens do the "free range" thing, roam the pasture, be one with nature....while I got my Birkenstocks and long jean skirt out. And one of the little brave hens headed over to the neighbors pasture, where the bull lives with his polygamist family. Hubs, " go ahead, he's a Charolais, he won't hurt you....meek as a lamb"...righttttttt! So there I am, ripping my skin off on the brush, shimming under barbed wire fences, looking for the rabid bull and his babes...and there SHE was! Finally. She managed to find a hole amidst the brush and wire, hubs helped her through and then the rooster, Big Red, took advantage of her! And ya'll think I just sit around and eat bon-bons and drink tea all day? I wish.
                                                                                   

My progress

I am using Valdani perle cotton...don't you love the red?

Now I am just getting plain goofy with my stitches, and love it. I like to try different colors and textures. I also enjoy doing the plain stitches, like fill ins. See that little red moon on the right? Enlarge the pic and check out what I did on it using the red perle cotton. I see I still have room for some beads or maybe French knots...omg, I love doing those. I taught myself how to do them and enjoy the added dimension you get when you use them.

So how is your stitchery doing? I am looking for the appropriate hanging "item" to use to hang in my sewing room. How are you going to display yours?

                                                                        

How is your stitchery/penny rug/or? coming along?

Due to circumstances, beyond my control, I'll be back tomorrow. Back to it, cheers~~

                                                                                   

Starting to stitch

My new friend, Fiona, from Oz , has sent me a pic of the fabulous rose...very chic! I do love it girl, thank you so much for sharing.        

In the meantime,                                             

I grabbed some different fabrics, laces, ribbons, and ...nah, nothing really grabbed my attention.
                                                                   



              
                

Much better, threads and maybe buttons. I think I'll start the stitching. Then, think about buttons.

How is your design going? Are you going to use embroidery floss or perle cottons? No pic of my embroidery skills...yet. As soon as I find where the hubs hid the battery charger for the camera, well, you know. Later, moi

                                                                                                                                                                                               

Penny rug sew along, choosing the design

 I found a piece of felt to use for my rug. Since it's already been hacked into, I'll just cut a chunk off.

No measuring, just fold over and cut off the offending chunk!

I had a bag of scraps and dumped them out and started looking thru them, trying to find something that jumped out at me. My pennys are stapled and waiting for the rest of the rug to come together.

I tried some little pieces out, shaping a flower, nahhh...I don't think so.

This is kinda weird...I like it, but it needs some punch.

So far I like the colors and shapes. I'll grab the stapler and staple each piece to the background first. I can't wait to start the embellishing! How are your rugs coming along? Have you chosen traditional shapes or have you indulged into something fun and funky? I can't wait to see what you guys have come up with. I have some fun threads, buttons and beads and ribbons to add.

Come back tomorrow to see what's next...                                                                                                                                                                                         

penny rug sew along

I'm not sure how to re-post this , so if you go there, you can see how I cut my shapes out and used the stamp pad and butcher paper.

Tomorrow we are going to do the embroidery and attach the embellishments...wahoo!

How are your designs?

I had a question on "why are they called penny rugs", and found this from a post I did some time ago. I hope this answers your questions. The pen wipers are fun too.

There are several references, with pics, on my blog from previous posts, if you want to check them out, go to the search box and type in PENNY RUGS, have some tea and chocolate handy, I am rather chatty.

I am going to wait until tomorrow to post the next step, I had issues today and need to clean up that mess. Let's just say it may take more then 1 roll of paper towels, good quality furniture polish and my paper scissors.

Pop in tomorrow with your felt, butcher paper, stapler and scissors. Now would be a good time to check out your button box for some fun buttons, odd pieces of ribbon and jewelry, those little weird things you just couldn't throw away....Debbie, you keep crossing my mind, lol! Hmm, weird.

I received this in an email and smile every time I see it...thought I better share with ya'll, Elaine                                                                                

First things first

                                    

Is everyone ready to make a penny rug? Good. The first thing you want to do is determine what you want and how big you want it, so now grab your sketching paper and start doodling. This is something you want to be able to finish in a short period of time, so don't get too involved with the design...save that for wool! Working with felt wool is an old American folk art, not perfect, not real detailed.....but recognizable and fun!

I made this penny rug a few years ago and think my sister in law has it. She loves these things.

I am not a sketcher nor a planner, I just plunder along, hoping it turns out ok.

Pop out to your kitchen and find a platter, plate or serving bowl.  This little rug is the same dimensions of this cute little Corelle platter I used to own.

I traced around the platter, face down, on butcher paper, and cut it out on the lines. Lay the pattern aside and go on a cookie cutter hunt. (You quilt, therefore you eat and you probably have some stuck away somewhere. I found so many that I cannot freely admit how many I have, the HOARDER connection, lol.)

I actually had the cat and the moon cutters. The pumpkins and stems are just scrappy little pieces I free cut. If you don't have those, don't get too worried. You can get lots of free shapes  on the web, in kids coloring books...lots of places. Leaves, acorns, crows, squash, corn, etc.

If you're using the cookie cutters, just set them on the pattern you cut earlier, to see how it looks together. If  you're using something else, then trace them on butcher paper, cut them out and place on the pattern.

When you're happy with how everything fits together, take a digital pic, for yourself. Don't be afraid to change it up or scrap it and start over.

Play around with this tonight and do go online to etsy or ebay and check out penny rugs. Since you are a budding artist and wouldn't dream of copying any of the work displayed, do check it out to see how others do their penny rugs, mug mats and/or candle mats. And if you truly want inspiration, you have GOT to see what this lady can do! A wool Goddess, that Sue Spargo!

I want you to also check out your cupboards and bathroom for circles. I used a shot glass for the pink pennys!

Get your butcher paper ready and if you have a very inexpensive stamp pad, any color will do, along with a stapler....now, if you have any questions, please, please ask! Do you want to get to it tomorrow or wait a few days? Let me know your consensus...

Penny rug sew along

Now I am in the mood to create a table rug for the fall. Want to join along? Good. Now, if you don't have any wool or it's just to difficult to cut into those fat quarters, never fear, we are going to use regular old craft felt! You can pick some up at Joannes, Wallyworld, Hancocks, etc. You may have some lurking in your sewing room or your neighbor has some you could take off her hands.
                                                                               
If you have to go to the store to buy some felt, make sure you get a square of orange, black, brown, green, yellow....colors associated with fall. If you want something very simple, just go for the colors you want to concentrate on.

You will also need some embroidery floss, black if you have it, a stapler, fabric scissors, paper scissors, embroidery needle, a sketch paper and pencil, and freezer paper.

Now, if blogger were behaving tonight I would have added a pic. But since we are not living in the real world, just take my word for the supplies needed. Great, now tune in tomorrow for more...go get your supplies ready~~~no, don't wash it!
                                                                            
                                                                                             

Winner!

The random number was picked, so the winner is:

Tara said...


THe circles are lovely--great colors! I've got working with wool on my list of things to do! Will it ever get shorter? Thanks for the chance to win!



September 23, 2010 3:59 PM

You so rock Tara! I want to thank everyone for hanging on and for the wonderful comments. I have read each one and loved them all. Have a wonderful Sunday evening/Monday morning~~Elaine