Team Mondo!!

If you don't watch Project Runway,  well............... um................ sigh.  I'll just say it outright, I don't know what's wrong with you.  Really, I mean it.  If you like to create in any way, then you would enjoy seeing what these clothing designers can do with fabric and a challenge.  Did you notice I said FABRIC ?   That's right, if you love fabric ( and I know you do) you may find yourself glued to the screen every week.  Anyway, I am currently watching Project Runway Allstars and I'm tickled pink that a previous favorite of mine, Mondo Guerra, is back.  I love love love Mondo's designs, what he can do with different patterns and colors is a quilter's dream.  And I adore Mondo himself.  I want to adopt him and give him a hug every day!!  If you are a Project Runway or Mondo fan, please let me know and we can enjoy the final runway shows together.  It's down to 3 designers now and of course My Mondo is one of them.  Pinch me!

        I never showed you what I did a few weekends ago when my pals and I got together and 'etched glass'.  My daughter came along too and that was especially fun for me.  I discovered that it is very hard to take photos of etched glass.  This first picture is a couple of serving dishes.  I put hearts on the side of one and flowers on the other.  We were using a Cricut cutter and making stencils out of contact paper.  That was the challenge, finding designs that the contact paper would tolerate.  Complex designs didn't work well.  The actual etching is easy peasy and very quick.

We had good success with letters so i put 'yum' on the side of the bottom dish.  The original idea was to begin working on xmas gifts, to alleviate the stress next fall.  Some of my friends knew who they wanted to give casserole dishes to and put their names on the sides of the dishes.  We have a few patterns for casserole carriers to make.  I had no idea who my gifts are for so no names for me.

I also grabbed a few of my inexpensive wine glasses to play with.  My daughter, Olivia, tackled the bee on the far right.  It was a challenge but worked out well.  There is also a dragonfly and a palm tree.  The glass on the left says 'wine' on the front and 'not' on the back.  That was Liv's idea, lol.

I could see having fun playing with sets of wine glasses for friends and family. 

 

I tried and tried but couldn't get a decent picture of the sugar container I etched for my son.  He likes sugar in his coffee and ALWAYS leaves the big 'ol grubby looking yellow plastic Domino's tub out on the counter.  So I got a glass container with a tight lid and then I etched  'Shug'r'  on it.  Olivia and I thought it was so funny but I don't think my girlfriends got it. 

You probably won't believe me and I don't blame you one bit, but I really think I'm serious this time about fixing my sewing space.  I can't even bring myself to say studio anymore.  I am all talk talk talk about it, right?  Well, I finally have myself convinced to move the whole shebang into my daughter's room (cuz she don't live there no more!).  You won't believe how I am enticing myself to really get this done.  There is a GIGANTIC carrot dangling in front of my nose.  First,  I must clean out and organize the guest room (because that's the room where I open the door, shove stuff in, and shut the door),  clear out my daughter's old room, and sort through, root through, clean out, and organize the sewing 'stuff'.  My final plan is to have the sewing room in Olivia's room, have a real guest room, and have the craft stuff organized in the laundry room which is now the sewing room.  I started with the guest room when I got back from retreat and I am also sketching and measuring in my future space.  I know you want to know about the carrot and I'll get there but first I want you to know that I am seriously working on this.  I am going to 'use what I have' as much as possible.  I want to empty Olivia's room which is 13 by 13 and a half feet.  Then it needs to be painted.  I am not sure yet of the wall color but I am thinging about painting the hardwood floor in a checkerboard pattern.  Maybe even a red and white checkerboard.  Am I crazy?  The hardwood needs to be refinished and i just don't feel like doing that.  After the painting, I think I am going to replace the big closet doors with sliding doors so I can put the design wall on them.  I think I'll bring our L-shaped Ikea computer table in there as a work surface to put with my sewing table.  My hope is to have 2 sewing machines set up all the time.  Carrot?  Did I say carrot?  Well, beginning next month, I will be working exorbitant amounts of overtime for a while and I believe I may end up feeling a little sorry for my self.  Remember I'm a nurse?  And I work at Johns Hopkins?  Well, the end of April we will be moving into our new hospital building.  It's very exciting, the new building is huge and beautiful.  We have honestly been waiting 20 years for this.  So anyway, the whole move is going to be a lot of work, I'm going to make a lot of extra $$,  and I might need a reward.  Like maybe a Handiquilter, hee hee.  I got to play with one at a quilt shop on the way to retreat in Pawpaw, and it was awesome.  I struggle so much with quilting the larger quilts and I really like to be able to say that I did it myself.  So I am thinking about this.  But first, I must clean up my mess.  And work that overtime of course.

So I'd like to ask you all a favor.  Could you please leave a comment and give your opinion?  This is what I want to know:

- what do you think about the checkerboard floor?  red & white? black & white? teal and white? yellow & white?

  - what do you think about a Handiquilter? anybody have one? have a friend who has one?  tried one?

  - do you ever get panicky and feel guilty or 'fiscally foolish' when you think about a big purchase?  I do and it's always possible that I'll change my mind.  Until then,  I think I'll clean house.

Toodles!