Blue Nickel Studios

Fabric Sweep!

admin January 18th, 2013

Or Eye Candy! as I might call this post…

I have been SOOOO overwhelmed with the two dayjobs over the last few months, and I haven’t been able to show you some of the fun lines that I have received from some of those wonderful manufacturers out there…

So here’s what I have already played with:

Cloud 9’s Happy Drawing, Too! by Ed Emberley.

Pattern coming soon in downloadable PDF form here at Blue Nickel Studios for a very reasonable price.

Birch Fabric’s Camp Modern/Camp Sur.

I made a quilt for Fall Market with this fabric and that quilt is going to be redone in another line for a magazine this year, so I can’t show the quilt, but it is fun and easy….

also I started a project with Thomas Knaur’s Flock last year and I think that I am going to add some of this line to it. I really don’t like doing one-liner quilts anyway, and this palette goes very well with Flock in my opinion, so there you have it. That pattern should also be available here in awhile as well.
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And here’s what is coming up to play with!!

Here are two really “guy-style” prints

Free Spirit’s Seven Wonders by Parson Grey.

Cloud 9’s MicroMod by Rob Bancroft.

I have this grand idea for these two mixed with some solids and other equally ‘rugged’ prints that may eventually spawn a second book (when I ever get this first freakin’ book done!)
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This sweet line is going to be a project done in connection with GenerationQ soon too.

Clothworks’ Little Village by Kinkame

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And this one? oh…just love this so much…..I have something planned with a nice solid orange….and maybe a little grey…..Hoping to get it in a magazine too, but the fabric may already be too “old” for a mag, so you may be seeing it here as a pattern as well.

Kaufman’s Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander.

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Big plans? oh yeah, as always? So much fabric, so little time…..

What are you loving here the most? Leave a comment and I will send a random winner some scraps* from their favorite line listed above. I will draw a name next Monday on Martin Luther King Day. That seems an appropriate day to win something, huh?

*Some scrap bags will be larger than others based on what I have left and what I can bear to part with…..

Stitch-in’……..

admin March 24th, 2012

so a couple of weeks ago, Betz White writes me and asks if I would like to play with her line of fabric Stitch with Robert Kaufman. All I had to do was actually play with it and talk on my blog a little bit about it. When I opened the box, this is what I saw.

TONS of beautiful rich colors…..and a very nice mix of lights, mediums, and darks. I find that when I am shopping for fabric….there are NEVER enough darks, and seldom enough lights to buy. Medium values fabric abound, but not so for the ends of the value spectrum. And to top it all off, a wonderful hand to the fabric (that is “shop-talk” for the feeling of the fabric….as if that could be quantified!) Maybe it feels so nice because it is GOTS certified organic, or maybe not. But it sure felt nice, not so full of those finishing “coatings” that I hear they put on fabric. I say I “hear” because I don’t know EXACTLY what they do to fabric before putting it on the market, but that’s what I hear.

Anyway, onto playtime.

I apparently am on a log cabin kick because I did more with Stitch…although mostly this style of Log Cabin.

Now I have these two blocks almost finished, but I really need to move on to Quilt Market quilts, so this will be it on this project for awhile.

Of course, I had some strips left, so I found this red scrap and used it to do a more traditional log cabin…..until the last two logs when I cut from two prints that I hadn’t used yet and decided this needed to be a bit more asymmetrical.

Betz has set up a new Flickr group to contribute any Stitch creations in here, so go check out more wonders there!

Happy Valentines Day 2012!

admin February 12th, 2012

Yup…I’ve been busy….so busy, that this poor little blog has been neglected for some time…..a couple “filler” Watch It Wednesdays and that’s it…truth is things have been very busy around here…some good, some not so good, and some of the time I haven’t been as focused as I would like to be (like the night I stayed up until almost 3 AM watching back episodes of Glee, second season, which I totally didn’t watch, but am alarmingly hooked on again….sigh)

What exactly have I been up to? Well a whole BUNCH of stuff which I hope to share bits and pieces of at least in the next couple of weeks if I can get myself to focus. Which I hope I can or I wouldn’t be saying it all public and all right now.

First things first. The magazine that I am blessed to be part (Generation Q) of is ramping up for our first print issue, and I tell you there are a ton of things that need to get done! And in the midst of all that, we are trying to keep that blog packed with good content as well. The below pix are of what I made for my swap partner over at the Valentine Swappy thing we did at GenQ. I just made this up as I went along, and it is in my fairly rustic way; the Folk part of my Blue Nickel tag line “Urban Folk—Modern Design, Timeless Style” (did I tell you that I named my “style” that? what do you think?)

Not the best shot of the inside, but I love this Loulouthi voile in here….

Stuffed with a few little goodies….

And shipped a few days late, but shipped none the less (sorry Elisa….but it is coming!!)

My swap partner, Elisa, made me this (along with a bunch of other little treats most of which were consumed right away and scattered to places in the studio before I thought to take a decent picture)
In the next few days, I hope to bring you some sneak peaks at a couple other projects, including a Curious Nature project for another magazine, and a Sis Boom project that may be published somewhere (word’s still out on that one) as well as some pics of the stuff my two youngest created in the snow….think Calvin and Hobbes on this one….

So thanks for not Completely forgetting about me…I’m back for as much as I can…I always have tons to share, just not enough time sometimes…..like you don’t know what that’s like huh?

Don’t forget, it’s Valentine’s Day in a day and a half…or less depending where you are….so get busy…

Watch It Wednesday!

admin December 7th, 2011

My daughter showed me this video last Christmas. She was all a gaga over the romance part of it, and I think she liked the cartoon aspect. I like Reliant K and I found the humor bits amusing. Simple, light, and silly….here is today’s Watch It Wednesday…..

Santa does get kinda cranky with some major angry eyebrows…...... and although there is no actual “video” with this next…check out Reliant K’s ROCKING 12 Days of Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

admin November 24th, 2011

As part of the O Thank Cuteness! Week at Generation Q this week, I have a post over there today as well sharing some of what I am thankful for. I have been blessed with a lot. The only things I really lack are more time and money, but don’t we all?

Here at the Blue Nickel today, I just wanted to share a few more things of thanks…and just a brief moment of sadness, but I will try to make that as brief as possible.

The sadness is that today is my brother’s birthday, he would be 39 today….but he took his own life back in January ‘97 right after Christmas and New Year’s. He had turned 24 that Thanksgiving. I know that everything is supposed to be all nicey—happy in blogland, but the truth is that there is pain in life, and sometimes we just need to deal with it. So today is just a tiny bit of me dealing with it. My brother Ty was a pain in the side often to me….

....but he was also awfully cute when he was little. I think though that he just couldn’t find himself as he grew up. And it makes me very sad, because I meet people now who would be his age, even have good friends who are the age he would be, and I think to myself, I wish he had given life more of a chance. We could be the friends I always wanted to be….. Here are some pictures of him when he was in high school.

He grew to be a young man mostly while I was away at college. He always seem to be bit awkward socially, so I never quite could figure out where he was coming from. I do miss him. But life does have to go on, doesn’t it?

So that being said, my post over at Generation Q pretty much covers my thankfulness for my wonderful wife Linda, and the three kids God has blessed us with. I just wanted to throw in a few more pics of the kids here, and I also wanted to say Thanks to all of YOU! my readers and friends. I have made so many wonderful friends in the quilty world! The quilt top that is pictured above was a Round Robin quilt that I did with friends back in the late 90’s early 00’s. I did the center (the turkeys are a Country Threads pattern I think), and my friends, Lisa, Sharon, and Nikki all did a round on it. I haven’t seen these ladies in years (well in September, Nikki showed up in a class I was teaching and that was great fun!) I just recently re-found this top….I need to get it quilted, huh?

I hope that your Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it) is wonderful (I was reminded this morning that we are in the Minority celebrating Thanksgiving in the overall worldview picture) and even if you don’t celebrate it, may you be thankful for all you have been blessed with.

Watch It Wednesday!

admin November 23rd, 2011

I barely have words for this video. The lyrics are odd I think, but the music is so soothing and rather mesmerizing, but the video is what wows me every. single. time.

So Happy Thanksgiving Eve to you in the States that are mostly United, and a wonderful evening, afternoon, or morning to those in other parts of our spinning planet….check out my Oh Thank Cuteness! piece at Generation Q tomorrow if you get a chance…I think it may be our Friday post too because we expect peeps will be so busy tomorrow and Friday, they’d have a chance to catch it that way.

Watch It Wednesday (Thursday Edition) Steampunk Surprise!!

admin November 17th, 2011

Yesterday was Wednesday, but if you stopped by, you saw that Wednesday’s usually scheduled program was pre-empted by my time with the peeps at Fat Quarter Shop…..

So today you get a special version….not just a cool video with a very unique feel, but a whole lotta pics afterwards of the Steamcon Linda and I went to a few weeks ago.

The video is from Abney Park, a NW Band that is deeply entrenched in the Steampunk alternate universe. The video is a superb vision of Steampunkery….and thankfully not plastered with gears and goggles…..(a running topic of conversation in the community)

And here are a BUNCH of pix from our weekend in October.

This is how to wear a Utilikilt and use up old neckties at SteamCon.

And it is all about the hats, isn’t it truly?

And for this guy, it’s all about the contacts….aren’t his eyes incredible…We talked to him, and he said they can get pretty uncomfortable after awhile… but the effect is so cool, yes?

Pretty Amazing Creativity at that convention huh? And I actually have a lot more to share…so you may be getting Steampunk Two in December!!

Celebrate Christmas with the Quilting Gallery

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!!

Watch It Wednesday!

admin November 9th, 2011

Today’s Watch It Wednesday brings the mix of a 50’s Sha Na Na look with Mary Poppins and Singing in the Rain.....all in one video. What a combination, huh? That’s partly why I liked it so much! The guys from Panic at the Disco! have another hit with me in this video “Ready To Go” .....Check it out!

Watch It Wednesday

admin October 19th, 2011

Okay..so this is not REALLY a music video even though it looks like one…..but it is actually a commercial…I found it looking for music for the Quilt Uberfest my friends and I did earlier this month (remember you can always go back to the Uberfest series and play along …the wonders of the internet).......and I still can’t stop laughing over this video that I found…the ending is absolutely priceless…Makes the whole video worth it, so please stick it out to the end…

If only more marketing departments were this clever….. Vat19.com rocks and just for a disclaimer…I don’t work for them…but I wish I did….clever people work there!!