Blue Nickel Studios

admin March 12th, 2009

Okay, well I don’t really treat my thread like children, I actually am not as picky as I probably should be when it comes to thread…these are featured here, just cause I liked Anna Maria’s idea, and like a crow, I am drawn to brightly colored (and shiny) objects.  I especially like them contrasted again the brown-green of a Pacific Northwest late winter.    This is basically a continuation of my past photo tour of the backyard.

                     Two different arbors, Last week before the March snow….that’s when and where they were taken…Some of them may look really similar, but I just liked them so they are here!   Tomorrow its a GIVEAWAY and Special Guest!  Come back real soon, y’all!

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admin November 8th, 2008

.......I had this thought when I was driving home the other night.  Fall is here bigtime, in fact, it is going into phase two already—the rainy part.  We had a wonderful indian summer here in the NW, as I rather expected after the coolish summer we had for the most part.  But now the hush of winter approaches, and as I drove home, it seemed to me that the world was snuggling in for a cozy nightcap, shedding all the extras and froufra for a nice long winter’s nap…and I got excited because to me that means most of the yard work is at a minimum, and I can get to the sewing stuff!    I haven’t been sewing as much as I would like, and that makes me kinda blue…I have not been feeling well lately, and I think it is either because I spent too much time trolling the internet looking for Quilt Market news, or the stress of another retail 4th quarter is hitting me, or my current 98 mile a day commute, or the two (now) trips to the ER for some sort of allergic reaction I have been getting…I finally am getting to an allergist soon, now I am just pretty afraid to eat anything…(great diet plan, not!) but ENOUGH whining already Scott!

Today I have some random shots for you from some things I have been working on…or collecting….or whatever….so here you go:

 the part of me that was at Quilt Market.

      a great flag that Linda made for me for last Christmas or the Christmas before….

          pages from the journal I started in 1001 Journal project  someone else is adding to this now, and I am excited to see what others add to my little book…..HOPEFULLY I will really get it back…sometimes these things get lost….

  a great turkey from Dover  and another batch of turkeys from Pokey at Quilting Arts:      I am thinking I have to do something with these…I love them…Real turkeys, I guess, can be quite the nuisance, but I hear about them a lot, they don’t seem to be here in the NW, but someday…I do have the neighbors peacocks infiltrating our yard sometimes….beautiful but annoying creatures….mainly the peacocks and sometimes the neighbors ….  )

   a snippet from my wife’s and my friend Elaine over the mountains in WA state.  I just noticed she calls me Mr. Mabel in her links…cause she found my wife’s blog before mine!

  a cool black and white photo found in a standard clip art set and the Blue Nickel version below:

and finally one of the round robins that I signed myself up for is ready to go to its next round.  This quilt will belong to Denis in Canada when it is finished…this is from my all guy quilt round robin project that we have been doing for over a year now…

     My part was the last border around the circles…it was applique, and well, I take forever on that sort of thing…so I was way behind on this round…I have another one to work on today…I am almost done with it..no applique, so much faster for me!....

so that is it for now…still feeling “restless” and not sure about a lot of things ….as Linda calls it I feel rather “scribbly” inside…...Hope all is well with you out there and that your “nestling in” time is just grand!  And don’t forget leaving comments always cheers one up….it’s nice to share….

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admin September 6th, 2008

So I did it!  Our Etsy store is up on the right hand side.  So if you wanna go shoppin’ there you go.  It’s kinda like sending you to the Mall, ‘cause once you click there you can go Etsy hoppin’.....just make sure you come home at a decent hour ok?  Linda just got home, and reminded me of the other print she bought on Etsy.  It was from a shop called Art and Ghosts.  

 Here is what she picked up there:    

Aren’t you priviledged?  Two posts from me… with great pictures too.

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admin June 17th, 2008

           This the collection of cool stuff my family picked up for me for Father’s Day.  The skull t-shirt is designed out of music-related images, pretty cool stuff for such a “stuffy” old man like me!!   Next pictured are “martini” animals…..I have no idea how they really work, but they will likely get used in art quilts, and that is why I got them…...Next….remember I like musicals, and I have to say that Hairspray is a great one.  I am a little young to have really ever heard too much about the original movie/play.    But I really like this one.  John Travolta plays a very convincing Mrs. Turnblad.   And the last picture shows the beads that each kid and LInda picked out.   They are very cool beads, not sure what I will use them for but they are so cool.

Last picture for the night, the ducks were released out the poultry yard for the day.   Here they are relaxing  in the shade. 

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admin March 28th, 2008

   These little guys get forgotten on top of my cabinet of lights/neutrals, but they are great little buddies that hang out in my studio. I think three of them are Jeff Goldblum from his Jurassic days, but the Wolfman is my favorite.   Somewhere else in the studio jungle Tarzan from the Disney movie is hanging out, but I don’t know where I last spotted him.  These are some photos of the main area of my creativity. Needs cleaning still, but I thought I would post these fresh pictures.

  light cabinet open    main stash area    

    this shows both the stash area and the sewing area 

    This highlights the sewing area.

 So inspite of this plethora of fabric and supply, I acquired this assortment of fabric    from my friend Jovita at Peawink and Periwinkle when I helped her take down her shop at the Quilters Anonymous quilt show a couple weeks ago.  Jovita is dear woman, who is always happy to see you and tells it like it is, and I really like her genuine-ness.  She lives in Belgium now for the most part, but she has an American showroom here locally…I think I may tootle over there this weekend if I get a chance to see what she has in there.  She normally has great woven ribbons and duponi silks as well as some great actual European fabrics not found too often on this side of the water.

• art stuff , color , quilting , shiloah cottage
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admin February 7th, 2008

Yesterday I made a very rambling post…I will try to be more coherent here…..good luck with that !

it is early morning, I have GOT to get a little workout in and I start a new job today that pays a little over half my old wage, and I want to show you what my loving family gave me for my birthday on Punxatawyn Phil’s big day….The little ground bday hog!.....and introduce you to a new blog besides Michael5000’s…..

see too late, I already started the rambling bits…..should have never read stream of consciousness in college  

anyway, here is the photo of my family’s gifts to me this 44th bday…..A quarter of Philip Jacobs newest fabric from the house of Westminster from Linda (along with 25 $$$ for my upcoming tattoo)....and some great dingle ball trim and GIANT rickrack from the kids in great colors…..

 Then you must read Feed Dog’s blog when you get a chance.  He is a very clever man, and I love his creative ideas….I am probably, eventually, possibly, going to incorporate some of his ideas into my work…..maybe….

Now I really got to go work those leg lifts …..haven’t worked out for two or three weeks due to the cold weather…cannot get lazy….I already feel fat greedily trying to take back ground it has lost over the last couple of months…..

ciao!

• art stuff , color
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admin February 7th, 2008

Funny, I am grieving today over the last 20 plus years I spent at my previous employer.  I was struggling with things there for the last 5-9 years so much, you would think I would be happy to be “retired” and moving on to a new place.   .....this would probably go under the heading of “like you care” that my new quilting e-friend Michael refers to in his blog State of the Craft  .....I am in the process of being 3 on the ring of Male Quilt Bloggers he has started…hope I will be on that soon….

Anyway, on to posting some pictures here that I posted on my two yahoo groups QuiltGuy and Pickle Road Studio  a couple days ago.

Here is my quick “decor” thingie in the stairwell window which was woefully nude until this display      

then this is my “country living” photo of my display of sink stoppers in the guest bathroom that Max calls “weird”     I think this shot is so good….I am planning on making cards for sale with this photo…so look for some nice hand and computer crafted cards for sale here in the next month or so…or for sale on our Etsy site  .....

And then a whole week and a half ago we had snow…. and this is the arbor on the edge of the woods at the end of the day…it looked much more marvelous early in the morning, but I didn’t bring my camera out in the AM 

• art stuff , color , country , shiloah cottage
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admin January 22nd, 2008

This is the 6th post this month, so the next time I post, I will have my top posting month woohoo…like that means something to anyone.  I can’t get you people reading this to comment, so how do I even know that anyone is listening…

   these are also on my ATC page…Valentine ATC’s for a class I am teaching.  I still can’t get my 21st birthday picture loaded…that may be my 7th post this month if I can figure out how to get that picture loaded

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admin September 26th, 2007

  It has been a long week, Linda has been taking the “Dutch Touch” doll class in Issaquah, and I have had the kids all week ….Linda is incredible….how she does this homeschool and home managing thing is awesome….I wish “someone” would be paying her for it…she would deserve it….she is SO  organized….

        Speaking of organized….or rather non-organized…..This is my sewing table….for some reason I took pictures of it and put it here…the picture on the left is the “clean” side….the picture onthe right is the “messy” side….Sigh….I moved to a much bigger space and I still manage to make a rat’s nest out of it….Linda doesn’t even look over here as it scares her too much to even think about it…..

I think it is time to clean….eh??

Here is the Katmandu quilt in process…..

    sketch of the quilt concept….   first stages testing the background concept

    second stage of testing the background…and the winner…        

      one of the stars …I think this made it in….I don’t know ….some stars I played with got scrapped to the back side of the quilt…

 laid out before the top and bottom borders…

   finished top before quilting and binding

       This is Linda’s bag that she made for the Katmandu line…this pattern is available for sale at www.missmabelstudio.com

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admin June 18th, 2007

Max and Mimi have been taking an art class this year at school.  They did these very large self-portraits that Linda and I love.  In fact, I had to have them work together on one of Noel, so that we could hang all three of them in the hall.  We plan to have them framed here soon, but for now they are tacked up there.  I took a picture of them with the Max and Mimi so that you could see the scale.  Aren’t they great? Max is actually posing like Noel’s portrait, but Max’s self-portrait is actually the one in the orange hat….just for clarification.  Also that is Oreo, our pet rat, on Mimi’s shoulder.  Sweetest pet I think I have ever had the pleasure of knowing (that is besides our dearly departed chickens).

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