Blue Nickel Studios

admin July 18th, 2010

So it’s July….must mean it’s time for Christmas in July planning, huh?   Well a couple months ago, I received in the mail this magazine from Vienna….I wondered, hmmm…why am I getting this, I didn’t subscribe, and I don’t read German (it is German spoken in Austria, isn’t it? or is it actually Austrian?? the last 100 years over there things have become so jumbled, and I just don’t know…I am sure they are close though)   I had no idea this quilt made it in their magazine…but was delighted to see it there…although I have no real way of proofing their interpretation of my directions….or what they said about me.  (hoping it was marvelicious!)

But it is pretty funny more me to think that I have gone “international” so to speak  I had that one quilt way back when in a display in France, and now this one in Austria….I feel so continental!  

You can get your own directions for this quilt on my download page and click on the picture of the quilt….

Oh, dang, that reminds me I have three more online quilt patterns for you to download….I have still got to get those up for you…hang in there, I will get to it eventually…

#########################

Here is one of my new prop girls getting made up…she’s still missing an eyelash in this picture…..they are actually all done now just waiting for their photo shoot….and the upcoming contest!!

################################

And here is just a little bit of summer for you, Enjoy!! 

• Home
• Comments(3)

admin April 17th, 2010

Okay so the Easter decorations are still out, and there are apple blossoms on the trees up front, but I am working on this:

Okay so does anyone else find this selvedge snippet funny??  I think I must frame this somewhere it makes me laugh so much….but that is  probably only funny to textile geeks like me (and you if you think its funny too, I don’t require that you do, just so you know)        (oh, and the Robot Cake sketch…that’s for a certain fabric/quilt designer)  subtle, huh?  This said designer also blogged about the video that has totally captivated me all week….will take a lot to top this...

  This Christmas quilt is going to be for a magazine this fall, so I can’t show much more than this on it, but I am thoroughly enjoying these Michael Miller Christmas prints…while I was in the studio today, I thought about this postcard I have from way back in college in the early 80’s….       

 Its sentiment and statement still crack me up and resonate deep inside my spirit….  

And truth be told, I am not just working on the above Christmas quilt, but I also working on this pink/grey/yellow number for Robert Kaufman Fabrics for Quilt Market coming up….you can see bits of it here mixed with the Christmas strips….

and waiting in the wings is this project for Free Spirit…..

okay, so today I am just so swamped I can’t think straight….and yeah, I didn’t throw the links in for the fabric companies…you’re smart, you can go Bing it or Google it or something like that…

I am still getting over the fact that the postcard mentioned above is almost 30 years old….but I am sure in that cases, that I couldn’t have been older than 3 when I picked it up in college…....  sigh 

Gotta get back to the studio…I am think Deck the Halls music will be in order tonite….

maybe next post, I will get the Easter pictures posted that are sitting on my desktop….maybe…

Keep Happy Peeps, Keep Sewing!!

Scott (that’s me!)

• Home
• Comments(5)

admin January 27th, 2010

What’s that? It already did begin? Don’t I have 2 more weeks?......

This is the typical feeling I have this time of year.  I hope to sit back, enjoy, reflect on the past, look to the future….and the year barrels on down the turnpike in front of me, pulling me by the selvage along with it.  I still haven’t mailed out the prizes from my 200th post giveaway and the little one I had right after it….

I just finished up my 9th quilt  for Free Spirit… and Micheal Miller  just asked me to work on a quilt for this new collection.  So it’s not like I need another project or something is it??  But I do have a quilt that I have drawn up but haven’t started sewing yet due for a magazine submission with this line.  If you follow me on Twitter, which if you want REALLY current info on me that’s the place to be…I also dropped an elusive statement about an email I sent today that I may regret later, but now am pretty excited about….but nothing I can say anything for sure about….so let’s just leave it there as a teaser, ok?? 

There that is the “calm” January/February I always hope for…not very, is it?   But it does keep me off the streets, so that is good I suppose. 

Just in case you were wondering where you can get access to all my WONDERFUL-ICIOUS patterns….I added a “downloads” page here on the site, and now when I get new patterns online for you for FREE…(everyone loves Free don’t they??)  you can come straight here and follow the links.  Let me know if you have any trouble with them.  I am by no means an expert on downloads/links/HTML/thewholenineyards, etc. 

And just so this post isn’t completely boring here are the pictures you were waiting for…  

This quilt was in Quick Quilts….yes, I am late telling everybody..sorry…I kept meaning to get it in here, and well December is just like that around here…you may still be able to get this issue if you try.         looks like my quilt was out in the barn to me….it came back okay though!    

It was a very fun quilt to design, and pretty easy to sew…just takes concentration to keep the chains organized…I really just love all the dots!!

Okay and these, well, I just thought they were the cutest design Kleenex has had yet…I bought all four boxes just for the design…       

Too cute!!  Okay…hopefully I didn’t lose all my “man” points for the cute factor here…Maybe I should use the word “clever” instead….too clever!! 

Okay so that is it for today. I actually have more to share, but it will have to wait until tomorrow or the weekend.  I have another quilt out in a magazine that is either in the newstands or coming soon…

and if you were a winner last month…I am still working on getting those out…sorry it has taken me so long..I think I do better with one or two winners at a time…giving away 10 prizes in a week overwhelms me…the good news for you winners, is that I did some cleaning last weekend, and stuff more fabric in there…so your patience will pay off!!

thanks so much for stopping by, I really love it when you visit…drop a comment, so I know you were here…Love to hear how your new year is going!

Oh, and next Tuesday is my birthday….are you bringing cake??

• Home
• Comments(11)

admin December 20th, 2009

(that’s “I Love a Cool Giveaway”) get it?? 

Okay so here it is the BIG 200th post!!  I think it took me awhile to get here…longer than 2 years I know…Is there a standard for this sort of thing? I dunno about that, but I do know that in Blogland, the 200th post signifies a big party and giveaway!! 

First the “party”...I thought I would just share some quick pix of our home at Christmas time…this year without an indoor cat…which to us is a very good thing.     There are a lot of pictures, so I am posting them in a smaller format…if you want a closer look you can just click on the photo for a better look…  

    Hope you enjoyed the tour!!

Here’s a quick gift wrapping or giving idea that is sorta “green”  I have had some projects where I took the quilting out past where it needed to be, and I had some scraps that were just too big for me to throw away…  And I had some extra craft bags that I over bought for gifts for my staff at work….so a little clipping here, a little glue there and…..   five little gift bags….(which, actually I am passing on to you in the prize packs listed below)...   

And here are the prizes…. I have started (again) to clean up the studio, and I have been saving up a bunch of stuff to giveaway..

Prize #1   

Prize #2  

Prize #3  

Prize #4 

Prize #5 

Prize #6 

Prize #7 

And here it is just in time for Christmas…well the New Year really….. I will leave the drawing open until Midnight December 24th Pacific Standard time, and then sometime on Christmas day I will choose the winners.  But I want to do something a little different for this giveaway…a little word association please…so here is your task…you have to answer the following questions to be eligible to win:   

1.) when you think of the word “bungalow” what comes to mind? words, colors, textures, images, thoughts, things along those lines. 

2.)same concept  for the word “cottage”..what comes to your mind with that word?

and 3.) would you rather spend a holiday weekend at the bungalow or the cottage? 

These questions  aren’t too tough, I hope.  I am gonna tweet this post too, cause I want to hear what everyone has to say.  Winners will be handpicked by me, and I will be looking for the most descriptive responses to my questions…(I don’t sound too much like a high school teacher do I?)   So let the comments and answers begin…and before I sign off, I want to thank you so much for stopping by the Blue Nickel…sometimes I don’t get in here too often myself, but I always enjoy my time in Blogland with you all..I will be more active  again once my day job winds down in the next few weeks.  As my friend Jona mentioned recently, having a job, no matter how stressful, is a very good thing these days…a very good thing indeed.  

^
———Aha!!  And you thought you were leaving!!  One last photo to share progress on the Sis Boom So St. Croix project for Free Spirit… here part of it is on the design wall…     Now, now I am signing off, and YOU can start leaving comments and telling all your bloggin’ buds about the Big Giveaway!!  I will likely be adding little bits to the prize packs this week so there will be surprizes too!

• Home
• Comments(79)

admin August 26th, 2009

 Okay so today I just have these to post….these were quilt covered journals that I had the goal of making and getting out for Christmas 08 to various friends and associates that I met in 08…that I wanted to give gifts to….they are finally done….trouble now is…I have made a few more friends this year….that I think would like these too…wonder when those will get done…Let’s see if they even ever get started….

That’s it for today people…been a long day of errands and waiting around…did get some work done  on a great big secret project (I hope)...don’t even know when that will be revealed..

So long for now peeps….what are you going to make for gifts this fall and winter??

• Home
• Comments(5)

admin August 11th, 2009

More Cleanup from the desktop of the Blue Nickel….

Today Christmas pictures to get you in the mood for the upcoming season…I know it’s August, but speaking as a retailer….dudettes and dudes …it’s coming up strong…if you go into a Hallmark store, you will see what I mean. In my backroom at work there is a box of new Hallmark ornaments….and I haven’t put them out yet….but I will be soon.  One of the sad truths of retail…

Speaking of retail and the first set of Christmas pictures below, please visit my friend Jona at Fabritopia.  She has this wonderful Christmas Snowflower line for sale online, and you simply must get some from her, because she is a delight of a shopkeeper and one of my favorite new peeps that I met in person at Quilt Market this spring.  And because Christmas really is a-comin’!     

Here are some messy piles of Christmas Snowflower in the studio…I really love the little red and white overall print, and it is very usable for non-Christmas projects too!

Below are some of the design wall ideas I had before I finalized the overall quilt down to this.....

And now for some more Christmas visions…

And here follows a Round Robin done with all guys on Quilt Guy Yahoo group…took a long time…but it finally came back  this spring…the four center stars are mine..each round after it was done by other guys in the group…thanks guys!   Now I need to get it quilted before this Christmas!  Linda says I need to turn the circles into ornaments by adding those little hangy top thingies….technical  I know…but I don’t know what they are called…sounds like a Balderdash question, huh?

Love this rickrack detailing on the last border!

Oh, and it started raining here in a very dry Western Washington State…possibly a little late for some of the plants around here, but good for most of them!  And good for me, as I always feel like I dry up when everything else dries up too….So the I am feelin’ the rainy love!

Finally finished up the border and the back on the orange wedding quilt at the bottom of this post and will be taking it to my friend Becky’s to be quilted….so one more project done…woo hoo! I have a couple more little projects to do before I start one of my biggest ones yet…but more about that later..

Oh, and part of my morning this early August morning, I spent trolling other blogs, and these two peeps are two that caught my eye THIS morning (there are PLENTY of them that catch my eye most days…I just happened to enjoy these both THIS am)....Sandy Henderson and Lizzy House....Sandi shows a peek at her new line and it includes some delightful strawberries!!  And Lizzy just got back from Switzerland, so I know her blog will have quite a few exciting posts coming up…I ended up reading some of Lizzy’s posts from January 2008, and it was fun to read about her life BEFORE she had two lines of fabric out.  

Anyway..hope you enjoyed this little Pre-holiday entry…considering that I still have last year’s newsletters to family and friends sitting next to me to send out for Christmas ‘08, I dunno….I sometimes wonder what has happened to my life,  and exactly where the train left the tracks….but it’s been a fun ride pretty much most of the way..(well, except for the  car accident I was in last week, but that is a completely different story)......

.......

I had to write something at the end to bring you back didn’t I?  If I remember, I will write about the accident more later….

Happy in the August Rain,

S.

• Home
• Comments(0)

admin April 22nd, 2009

Hey all you elves out there!

Here is the Snowflower project ….top done, needs to be quilted and bound….It is called Peppermint Stars, and the pattern will be available online at Free Spirit, eventually…probably not until late May, I am thinking…but it will be there…I like how the centers of these stars look like that peppermint candy that is wrapped up in clear cellophane, you know the stuff?  I think you can get it most of the year, but it is really pushed at Christmas time…    

This upper right block is my favorite I think.  I like the little print and the stripes together.   I also really like the red and white border fabric…oh and the blue fabric in the center block.  At first I was wondering how this would all look together, as some of the whites in this are a clear white-white, and some are an ecru of sorts….but I think when you put them all together, it doesn’t seem to be an issue….

Now to get this quilted and onto the next one for Market, plus a lot of little things that I want to do before then as well.

Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night!

Scotty Claus….

• Home
• Comments(6)

admin April 19th, 2009

Well I think this stuff came here in March….Life has been so hectic lately, I can’t remember…But here it is, my 4th project for Free Spirit Fabrics:  Christmas Snowflower by Dena Designs....

Here is the fabric:

Here are the first stage of playing around with my original concept on the design wall:

   Both look a little too radioactive in my humble opinion.  While I was playing around with this, Max, my middle child came in and started playing with them, and he gave me this idea which I totally love!

And here is the final choice for the first star with its background field:

  Needs some trimming, but that is essentially it…only 8 more to go…(for scale each triangle unit is about 5 inches across the base)

More to come later in the week, and Next week Project number 5 for Free Spirit..Until then..keep sewing, keep happy!

• Home
• Comments(4)

admin January 6th, 2009

   Today would technically be the twelfth day of Christmas….so even though the holidays were a complete blur of snow and shoveling and driving and sliding, I thought I would at least drop a little line in here.  I have been feeling COMPLETELY worn out from the holidays and two weeks of snow…we are just beginning to see some green lawn.  Northwesterners dream of white Christmases, as ours are usually pretty green with a good dose of grey, but I think after these last two weeks…..we are gotten our fill of that for now….bring on the rain! 
I have just a few pictures to share from our holidays…mostly of “stuff” and not the true meaning of the holidays at all…but still pretty and cheerful for a dull winter day…

     A delightfully Blue Christmas!!

   Lego Nativity pretty neat, huh?

   What the cat did to St. Nicholas is unspeakable!        My Grandma’s reindeer delight me everytime!!

And one our favorite non-traditional Christmas characters….Jack…        Happy New Year to one and all…

Catch ya next time at the Blue Nickel!

• Home
• Comments(3)

admin October 19th, 2008

I teach a class today from Sara’s New Book...I am always somewhat nervous when I teach these classes….I am going to give a little review sheet to my students today at the end, so I get a better feel for what they like and don’t like about my teaching style.  I am pretty laid back, and I am not exactly sure what I am TEACHING them.  But I have a full class, and I have the same class at a different place in two weeks.  Hopefully these forms I hand out will help ME learn something too.

With the old camera,  This is supposed to be Cranberry Lake….do you see a lake?  We didn’t either! Our Mimi was TOTALLY disappointed, our “long” hike took us to this so-called lake.

New Camera…photos around the studio and house…and yes we have a couple little Christmas trees year round..one is a REAL feather tree that Linda made from a kit back in the 90’s   she made most of these ornaments too…dust? what dust?

  I had this red lantern since I was about 10 or 12.  My Aunt Marilyn gave it to me…I have no idea why, but I always liked it.

               Time to save was my mom’s piggy bank in the late 1930’s, early 40’s….I love it SO MUCH!!

  Linda made these for me as gifts, cute, huh?  The shelf was from my Grandma’s house. I love those early mid 20th century shelves!

  My best bear Ted…He is 41 years old.  What a trouper…3rd set of eyes I think (My little brother trashed him for awhile) Oh, and Ted has had a nose job (or two).... 

Mimi made this little tweet    

Linda made this, I helped a little      She is going to be in the Secrets of the Gypsy Doll challenge down at Houston next week….Look for her…she is about 2 feet tall!

  Last of the Rugosas

  I was awarded this awhile back…figured I should put it here for, but I was supposed to link to a bunch of other sites and pass the blessing on…ya know what I just don’t have the time for that.  I have added some links to the right and I have often linked in the bodies of my posts….I think that will suffice.   I got this awhile back, and I THINK it came from Sandi, so thank you Sandi, and I appreciate the thought.  It does make me feel like someone out there is here with me…   

And one last picture for today….there were way more words than I thought there would be….But this picture Linda is posting on her site soon….this picture with my our new camera has got me spellbound.  This is Linda’s newest purchase and current favorite toy…..     I think I am in love!  Are you?

Me, with not many words…yeah right!

• Home
• Comments(1)