Blue Nickel Studios

admin December 24th, 2011

Over at Generation Q today the staff is sharing some of our favorite ornaments made by our kids.  (okay I thought it was supposed to be ornaments, but it was just something made by our kids)   So while I was taking pix of those,  I found a lot of ornaments that are handmade by various peeps in the family, so I thought I would share the rest of them here…

From the cross stitching years…..

I guess you could treat this post as a Wordless Wednesday post as it is mostly pictures.  But knowing my, you knew it couldn’t be entirely Wordless, and well, of course, it is Saturday….  Almost Silent Saturday??....wait, no the anagram for that would NOT be good, would it??

Merry Christmas peeps!!

• Home
• Comments(2)

admin December 6th, 2011

Just one of the many joys of the season…..and let’s just say that these didn’t last all that long on top of the ol’ girl.

• Home
• Comments(0)

admin November 28th, 2011

Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays  is a new book coming out in Print next summer, but is an e-book now.  And a Blue Nickel project is on pages 99-101…and seen in two other places in the book! yeah!!  You can purchase the e-book now, but I am not really into e-books, so I will have to wait until it comes out next year.   So excited to see it.  The book was organized and put together by John Adams, and he invited a whole lot of his friends to come play earlier this year…like January, I think?  Anyway, you can look through it at the above link, and there are a lot of cool projects in there.   I think we are having a full-fledged Blog Book Tour next year when it comes out in print, so stay tuned.

My favorite shot of my quilt in the book is this one.

Also, Lark is giving away a PDF version of Terri Harlan’s Holiday Shopping List Holder pattern from the book here.  It’s a fun little way to keep all your holiday to-do stuff together.

Different subject, but still holiday related…over at Generation Q for the next 4 Fridays I will have a special holiday block for Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa.   As if I didn’t have enough to do already, right? Oh, and David Butler’s “pre-quilt shop launch” fabric is finally here, and I have a big project for another magazine that they want “right away” !

So, yeah, I am off to the studio now!!

• Home
• Comments(4)

admin November 27th, 2011

Okay, so this is an Incredible giveaway that one of You and I and my local Library can really cash in on!!

Happy Haul-idays is this Uber-cool (yes, I love all things Uber, okay?)

Here’s what’s going down….

I write up a  list of my wishlist from Chronicle Books and post about it.  Then YOU comment here about which books you like or the holidays or whatever…then my post gets thrown in the hat with other peeps who post about it…and then sometime in the magical month of December, Chronicle draws a name (presumably, mine, right?) and then if I win, I draw one of YOUR names, and that person wins!  AND to top it all off, the charity I choose ALSO wins!  Win. Win. Win.  Don’t you love it?

But wait there’s more…..

Yup…You want to know how many books we all win?  Well, get this….enough books to take out a $500 gift card…

Not 5 dollars worth…

FIVE.    FREAKIN’.     HUNDRED $$

Are you excited for us to WIN? I am sure hoping we do!

And I am thrilled that My library here in Sultan, Washington will win the same books as well.  When you live out in the country, the library doesn’t always get the newest books, and with the recent economy woes, there are even less funds to support the library.  We have  a great system in our county, but still it is nice to get freshness in!!

Here is my list of titles:

Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets $18.95

Textile Design $35.00

The Pattern Sourcebook $35.00

The Rest is Up to You $24.95

How to be an Illustrator $24.95

Plants and Their Application to Ornament $35.00

Rex Ray $35.00

Pattern Making $40.00

Little Bits Quilting Bee $24.95

Creative, Inc. $16.95

French General: Treasured Notions $24.95

Embroidered Effects $24.95

French General:  Home Sewn $24.95

Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing $24.95

Sublime Stitching $19.95

Amy Butler’s In Stitches $24.95

Subversive Cross Stitch $14.95

Denyse Schmidt Quilts $24.95

The Moustache Grower’s Guide  $9.95

Beard $14.95

Adds up to $500.25 … I think Chronicle will let you and I pay the 25 cents, don’t you?

So even if you don’t want these yourself, you can give them away to friends or even your own library.  So get going and sing up here for a chance to win if I win!!  Here’s hoping!!

• Home
• Comments(31)

admin November 15th, 2011

hey welcome to Blue Nickel Studios for the Quilting Gallery Christmas Quilt Along....

My block is called Christmas Candy….I was  inspired by those really pretty old-fashioned Christmas candies that look great in a bowl, but very few people ever eat?  Here is the PDF for you to make your own version.  Would love it if you do make something with this block to add it to my Blue Nickel Flickr page here.

Here are a  couple of pictures to go with the Mini-interview at Quilting Gallery.

Playing with fabric before making the block….most are from Kate Spain’s Flurry.

I mentioned my favorite quote from a print by Mary Engelbreit.   Here is a picture of the sheet from Home Companion and another picture that declares “One person’s mess is merely another person’s filing system”  I make myself feel better with that second one, but it doesn’t really fool my wife who gave it to me to begin with.

Here are a few close-ups from my favorite quilt that I mentioned at Quilting Gallery:

Hope you like the block…please be sure to drop a picture in here if you make something with it….and remember solids/prints, whatever….it all works!!

• Home
• Comments(3)

admin December 25th, 2010

With our oldest child’s given name being the French word for Christmas, our next child being born a week before Christmas, and finding out we were due with our third child just before Christmas, the holiday as just gotten more special to us as time goes on.   And that’s as if it wasn’t special for Greater reasons than that to begin with.  I am up a little early this morning, so I wanted to post this Christmas greeting before the rest of the house gets up and the festivities commence…...

We have a ton of fancy and shiny ornaments, and they are all beautiful, but this Nativity from my grandma’s house has got to be among my favorites.   For years it always sat on her big TV surrounded by angel hair every Christmas. Now it sits on a hutch of ours over a Christmas village below….

A very wonderful Christmas to you and yours today!!

May God bless you richly and deeply and maybe even abundantly!

Peace,

Scott

• Home
• Comments(2)

admin December 23rd, 2010

Merry Christmas Eve Eve !!

May you have a blessed Christmas weekend…..drive safe out there !!

• Christmas , Home
• Comments(0)

admin December 18th, 2010

Wow! what a week!  I don’t often talk too much here about my day job…..(on twitter is where you can find me whining about that)....(and no, that’s not all I talk about on Twitter)....I manage a store for a local chain that isn’t quilt oriented, and at Christmastime, we are Very busy!   And it makes for very long weeks for me.   I am pretty spent by this hour and date…..the other night, I think I fell asleep at the sewing machine.

I feel like maybe I am posting with just some “fluff” shots lately, but tonight, I really wanted to show you these funky little “trees” I made from Styrofoam cones and selvedges that I simply can’t seem to throw out.

 
I’d give you a “tutorial” but I think you get the idea…

It’s pretty simple…. just wind the selvedge around the tree….pin as needed…

that’s it for tonight peeps….I have a big project in the studio that I need to go wrap up!  plus a bunch of gift wrapping to do as well!

• Home
• Comments(1)

admin December 17th, 2010

  I know that a tinsel tree is NOT what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown, but I sure do love them….

Last year’s red one that I picked up at a gas station of all places looks great this year with vintage blue balls on it.

And this year’s prize find, the Pink one I have been searching for for years….(“for for”?)   also bearing vintage ornament fruit…..

Just a little Christmas cheer in these very busy days…...Hope you are taking time to rest and reflect….take some time on my behalf too…I will catch up on that in January (yeah, right!)   

One more week people….

• Home
• Comments(1)

admin December 15th, 2010

This past Sunday, we skipped church to brave what we thought would be massive throngs of peeps at IKEA, but I was surprised at how “normal”  it felt there.  Busy, but normal busy.  Not as ”Christmasy” as Linda thought it would be, but we love IKEA anyway…and now Seattle IKEA carries fabric, so it really is fun to shop there!!  I actually only picked up two pieces shown here behind some Glogg we are going to try for Christmas Eve.    And some Nygarda root beer that I picked up for the kids.

This Grey and white fabric was on display in red and white which I totally loved….but they were out of it!! I was so bummed, but I bought the grey any way as I have been having a thing for grey lately anyway….I also bought this, but didn’t get a very good picture of it…..you can see  a sliver of it next to the Nygarda…..

    The little wax guys are not from IKEA they are from my father-in-law’s family treasures  

and in our study room we had need for new chairs for the kids….so I bought a 3 pack of Snille…( I just love IKEA names don’t you??)

 Pictured here is Mimi’s.   Max picked Black,  and Noel picked Red.

When I got it put together (SUPER EASY!)  Mimi said, “Oh! all pink and shiney!”  That’s my girl!  Office Bling all the way…

It’s Nine days to Christmas (I think; I lose track of time this time of year) now….are you ready?

• Home
• Comments(6)