Paint Yourself Silly

For the entire four years I was at UNL, I wanted to go to Paint Yourself Silly. I finally went on one of the last weekends before my younger sister graduated (five years after I did). She, my mom, and I spent an evening in Lincoln's Haymarket painting and chatting. It was as much fun as I had dreamed it would be. Mom picked a flower vase, my sister choose a mug, and the moment I saw this Sun & Moon candle holder, I knew it was meant to be.

What I learned is that I am an extremely slow painter. By the time they were both finished and the workers kicked us out of the store because it was closing time, I was about 40% done with the first coat. Luckily, my husband ran the Lincoln Marathon a couple weeks later so I was able to finish my project then. The shop then glazed and fired it for me, and my sister picked it up the day before she graduated.

It was a fun time and I'm happy with the way it came out, but I need to learn how to paint quicker. They recommend applying at least three coats of paint so that the colors stay bold after it is fired. I thought I applied three coats everywhere, but you can see that the paint is pretty thin in some areas. I think one more coat would have done the trick.


Supplies Needed:

• Money (They supply everything else at Paint Yourself Silly)
• Ceramic Pottery
• Up to 6 Colors of Paint
• Paint Tray
  
• Paintbrushes
• Water
• Clear Glaze
• Kiln Fire
  

My First Quilt - Part 2 (Strip Piecing)

The pattern I chose for the quilt is quite possibly the simplest and most basic block pattern available.  In the world of quilting, common block patterns have names, and this one is "Rail Fence".  I also used the common technique called strip piecing.  In strip piecing, you sew long strips of different colored material together, then cut the strips to the proper size, turn them, and then sew the small pieces back together into larger blocks.  In this picture, you can see an example of the strip before it is cut.

Next, I cut the strip into 6.5" pieces.  Here is the same strip, cut down to size.

Finally, I turned the pieces, then sewed them together into my first block.

When sewing the strips, you don't need to reinforce the ends so that the stitches don't come out.  First of all, when you cut the strips, only the first and last piece would have that reinforcement.  More importantly, though, once all of the pieces are sewn back together, the seams intersect enough that they reinforce themselves to the point there is no danger of them coming apart.  Of course, if a lot of time passes  between sewing the strips and putting the blocks together, or you handle them a lot, they may start to unravel a bit.  Since I was in a hurry to get this done by the baby shower, I finished them quickly enough that I didn't have a problem.

Finally, I decided to be a model quilter and iron frequently.  Once I had the long strips put together, I ironed them so that the seam allowances laid nice and flat.  I also ironed them away from the lightest colored fabric, so the dark purple didn't show through the light yellow.

I'm not including a supplies needed on this post because my next post regarding the quilt will be dedicated to the supplies for the whole project.

Way Back Machine: Bear Cross Stitch

When I was in grade school, I attended a program at my church called "Skylarks".  It was essentially the exact same as Girl Scouts, in that we worked on projects and earned badges.  My church was two blocks away from my elementary school, so once a week I would walk with two other little girls after school to our Skylarks meeting.  Our big project for the year was a stamped cross stitch picture.  When I finally finished it, my mom framed it and it hung in my room for the next 20 years.  My parents recently made me take possession of everything I still had in their house after moving out three times, so the bear has claimed a new spot on the wall above my sewing machine.

Supplies Needed (I don't actually remember):

• Cross Stitch Kit
• Open Frame