Author Archives: Becky Goldsmith

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About Becky Goldsmith

I am a quilt designer/teacher/author, a wife/mother/grandmother, and certified yoga instructor who is searching for balance, strength, and happiness in all things.

Sprucing up your Christmas tree…

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I have a 7′ tall pretend Christmas tree. It is almost as old as my youngest son, Jeff, who is now 22 (or 23, I just can’t keep up!). It was one of the first pencil trees and it’s skinnier than any that are on the market these days.


Our house is not that big and I don’t want a bigger tree, but truly this tree has seen better days. Two years ago I decided that it needed a bath so I took the hose to it figuring that if it fell apart, it was a sign from above to move on. It didn’t fall apart.

Last year I decided that it needed more than another bath – it needed updating. I bought 2 cans of lime green spray paint thinking that I would change the color of the tree to lime green. I was amazed at how the paint seemed to soak into the tree. Instead of being lime green, it has lime green highlights. That just wasn’t enough of an update.


I got a can or two of spray glue and some coarse green glitter. I sprayed the tree in sections with the glue and sprinkled it liberally with glitter.


It’s way cute and a cheap upgrade! This year, when the tree came out of the box (after having spent another year in the attic) I hit it again with spray glue and glitter because I like things sparkly.
If you do this here are some tips:
  1. It makes a mess so I did this outside, over a plastic drop cloth. 
  2. Be careful where/how you shake the glitter off the drop cloth. I think I’m going to have glitter in the sand around the rocks in my patio for a very long time.
  3. Carry the tree inside carefully. Some glitter is going to drop off the tree as it is jostled.
  4. Concentrate the glitter on the outer parts of the tree, but don’t forget the undersides of the branches. My tree comes apart in sections which makes it easier to do the undersides of the branches (turning the whole tree upside-down would be hard).
  5. A word of caution – my tree is not pre-strung with lights. I don’t know if getting glue and glitter on the lights would be a fire hazard but I don’t know that I would do it.

Once you start playing with the glitter it’s hard to stop. Wreaths, candles, all kinds of things could look better with glitter! 


Becky

Quilter’s Chocolate tins

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Many of you have seen our Quilter’s Chocolates in the cute tins. After consuming a lot of them. I do love milk chocolate. I started thinking about ways to use the chocolate tins. 

The other day I was in a hurry to get out the door to quilt guild. I always take applique to stitch. It helps me not talk during the meeting or volunteer for more than I have time for. I had pinned some applique pieces down the night before. I grabbed my bag with the block in it and was about to grab my sewing bag when the chocolate tin caught my eye. I put my needle, ThimbleIt, toothpick and some Frostings bobbins with the thread wound on them in the bag and off I went. It all fit nicely in my purse. I now also have a tin by my chair with bobbins I am using.

The other use I found was to put the snippets of thread and material in the tin. I am always looking for somewhere to put them. I hate all those snippets all over everywhere. 
Let me know if you find other uses for them. I will let everyone on the blog know.
Always trying but not succeeding in keeping my studio tidier.
Linda

My 2008 Christmas ornament…

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I’ve made Christmas ornaments to give to family and friends for many, many years. The list of folks who receive ornaments have changed over the years – especially as children and nieces have gotten older and moved into their own spaces. Sometimes people move off the list when they downsize and no longer have room for more ornaments. I completely understand this as I, myself, am having trouble fitting them all in :-).


This year I made 19 little sparkly houses. I thought I’d share a little bit of the process with you. 

First I designed a pattern. I made a template of the main pattern. It was easy to cut strips the length and width of the house and then use the template to mark my cutting lines. I cut rectangles for the bases and roofs.

I made the houses from poster board – a light-weight, white cardboard readily available in the US. After I cut the shapes out, I folded them where I needed to using a bone folder (which is a really good tool). I glued the ends of the house together using Tacky Glue – a strong, fast-drying glue available in craft stores. 

I mixed up a solution of thin glue (Elmers and/or Tacky glue mixed with water) and brushed it on the houses where I wanted glitter to stick. I used blue, green, and white glitter to make houses in those colors.



After the glue/glitter dried, I glued and glittered the doors in a contrasting color. I cut tissue paper and stuck it to the inside of the windows. 

Next I glued each house to a base and glued its roof on. Luckily I remembered to punch holes in the roofs and strung a loop of wire (to hang them from) before I glued the roofs on!

I made pipe cleaner wreaths and glued them over the doors. I glued on rick-rack greenery and I added sparkly, fluffy snow to the roofs and bases and then… there they were! A cluster of festive houses ready to go off and spread Christmas cheer!

Every year one of the hardest parts of “ornament making” for me is deciding what to make. I enjoyed making these houses so well that I think I’m going to make a variety of different houses for the next several years. Imagine a village of little sparkly cardboard houses!

Answering some questions…

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We’ve had some questions about the free block/project contest. (I really need to come up with a good name for this. Any ideas?) Anyway – here are answers to some questions you may be having:


We are picturing the projects as finished pieces, not unfinished blocks. Keep in mind, though, thatyour “project” doesn’t necessarily need to be a quilt. It certainly can be a quilt! But if you wanted to embellish an apron, or tea towel, or pillow, or garment, or whatever else you can think of – that could work too. Imagine your project in a book, inspiring another quilter to use the pattern the way you did!

We welcome entries from outside of the US. The deadline remains the same – there will be time to get your project to us for photography.

You may use any applique method you prefer.

If you have other questions, let us know and we’ll do our best to answer them quickly.

Happy stitching!

Becky and Linda

Anna asked a good question – Yes, you will get your project back if it is chosen for publication. We might need to hold onto it for several weeks – that is up to C&T. They need the actual projects in hand to check color. 

We have a treat for you!

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As I promised last week, we have something special for you today! We are doing something we’ve never done before… we are releasing a block pattern from our next Block of the Month to you — before it is published! This Block of the Month is so new that it doesn’t even have a name yet!  

It is our hope that you will make a project using this block and send us a photo of your project by March 1, 2009. Our plan is to include as many of these project photos as possible in the Block of the Month publication (tentative release date Spring 2010). There are some rules that you need to follow and they are listed in the PDF. 


Click here to go to our home page. The link to the PDF is in the information about this free block. We hope you have fun working with this block and that you come up with some very cute projects.

Happy stitching from us both!

Alzheimer’s Quilt Donation

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Good Morning!!!!. Well it was morning when I started this blog. I had some problems so now it is the afternoon. My husband Paul has had the crud this week. So we have been hibernating. You know if you take medicine it takes 14 days to get over and if you don’t it takes 2 weeks.

I have been clearing my desk and working on projects in my studio. One of the projects is a small quilt for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. The quilts are no larger than 9″ x 12″. here is the one I am sending. It is a block from a class I used to teach. It made a pretty little quilt to donate. 
While working in the Alzheimer’s booth at Quilt Festival I noticed the greatest way to make a sleeve for these small quilts. I thought I would share it with you here. You can two squares 2 12″ x 2 1/2″. Then press them into a triangle. Next, before you put your binding on the quilt place the raw edges along the sew line. Sew the two squares to each of the top corners along seam line.sides, That’s all there is to it.
Place a small dowel rod in the pockets and you are ready to hang your quilt. I put a pencil in mine. Saved a trip to the hardware store.
Till next time keep quilting. Linda