Yellow & Orange Laces

Last week I received a note from one of the ladies on the HGTV Board ( HGTV Quilting Forum) asking me if I had any yellow laces. Now... yellow has never been one of my favorite colors so I could answer her honestly with a "no" but. that I would dye up some for her. While dying the laces yellow, I decided to try and throw in another color that I have never liked - Orange. Ok... so after working with these two colors for a couple hours I'm finding ...hmmmm - they actually can be sorta pretty. By the time I finished dying a huge batch of lace I was saying - "I think I like yellow and orange." Guess I'm seeing them in a whole new light and will slowly incorporate them into various projects now. Libby (SCLady), thanks for pushing me into a new direction.

Didn't take me long to try out a few pieces of yellow lace. I am currently in a CQ RR (Round Robin) with a group of ladies from a CQ Site on Yahoo. One of the first blocks I received to work on happened to be .... Yellow in color. Immediately I had to try out a couple of my new pretties. This block belongs to Phyllis - sure hope she likes what I've created. A couple days ago I received a comment about my dyed laces from Denise of Needlework.craftgossip If you haven't checked out this site it is a must - be prepared to grab a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable as you will spend hours going through all the great projects, articles and wonderful pictures!

The next morning I woke up to an email box full of wonderful notes from perfect strangers on how pretty they thought my laces were. I was so excited and so thrilled to see that Denise had written a little article on her site about me and my passion. Nicki-Lees-hand-dyed-lace . Thank you Denise!

Summer Time Laces

How many of you remember that song "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay"? That song has been playing over and over in my head for the past week. I think it's because it reminds me of what I was doing last week on vacation - sitting on the dock next to Great East Lake in Acton, Maine. For two beautiful sunny days I set up all my dyes and laces on the dock and just painted lace. I loved mixing colors, letting the colors bleed into each other and at times, wiping up the spilt dyes with a piece of lace just to see how they would come out. I think I must have dyed over 500 new pieces - maybe instead of selling them I should just make one huge piece work of art? LOL!

Hmmm - now that could be a plan. I have been seriously thinking of making an all black CQ square - say maybe 24x24 in all textures of fabrics - silks,. satins, brocades, velvets and just adding laces - all in blues, turquoise, aquas. I bet is would look stunning - guess I won't know until I try uh?

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my latest pretties with you - they are all for sale and more can be seen in my Flicker album Summer Laces If you are interested please contact me at mailto:bnickilee@aol.com/

Beautiful Geisha Dotee Doll

Oh my goshness! Every once in a while someone comes along and surprises you with something incredible! I just received the most beautiful Dotee Doll from my dear friend Karen (KMouse) from the HGTV board. Over the past year, Karen and I have become very close and have realized that we are so much alike in so many ways - sharing lots of the same life stories. During this time we've discussed everything from husbands, children and just life in general. Now I know she knows (like everyone else does) that my favorite color is blue. Little did I know that somewhere along the road of our friendship she remembered my favorite movie and book is "Memoirs of a Geisha". Karen just made me the most precious gift - a gorgeous Geisha Dotee Doll all dressed in blue and beads. I just love her and have her hanging on my CQ wall next to a beautiful CQ heart she made me months ago. Thank you Karen - she will be treasured forever...just like our friendship.

Naked CQ Blocks Ready To Play

I'm actually suppose to be busy packing for our upcoming vacation to Maine but find myself playing with all my CQ goodies. Figured I'm going to need something to keep me busy if it rains and we are stuck in the cabin........ oh poor me - to be stuck inside with all my CQ treasure and nothing to do! I figure I might as well get my "sewing suitcase" packed first. Last week I made 11 CQ blocks for various swaps and have decided to take these four with me to work on. Lets, see... beads - check, buttons-check, laces -check, threads - check ... that should take care of at least one suitcase! I'm still trying to decide whether or not to bring up my sewing machine..... figure if I don't, then it won't tempt me to go off in another direction - without it I can focus on doing nothing but CQ. Hopefully by the time I get back (9 days) I will have these naked blocks done and ready to start on the next 4.

Buster Babe at Work

Over the past couple of days I have received quite a few orders for my dyed laces so I took to the deck and have been dying lace like a mad women.... Yikes! Close to 400 pieces! I decided to give my new CQ friend, Buster Babe, a workout and have to tell you he was worth every bit the $4.99 I paid for him. So much so I think I will be heading back to Ikea to pick up a couple more CQ toys. I just love the little guy! After the dying was done I thought hmmmmmm.... what else could I use him for... let's see how he likes hanging out with the Dotee Dolls!

The deadline for mailing out my Dotee Dolls fora couple of swaps I'm in is fast approaching. I just mailed out 4 of them yesterday and will hopefully be mailing out at least 6 by the middle of next week. Funny how you get attached to something so cute. All but one will be flying off to new homes. My very first Dotee is called Ms. Garden Angel and I have decided she will stay with me - it's always so hard to give up the first one of anything. Today I saw first hand how something so little and so cute could light up some ones day. My mother-in-law is in the hospital recuperating from hip surgery so I thought I would make her a special Dotee to brighten her day - it worked!

Meet Buster Babe

Every now and then you run across something so dang cute and funny that you just have to have it. I have been looking for the perfect item to hang my CQ dyed laces and ribbons on to dry .... meet my new friend, Buster Babe. He's all legs and only cost $4.99 but I'm sure he will soon be worth his weight in gold! While in Ikea yesterday I just happened to look up and see this silly looking thing hanging from the ceiling...you would have thought I found diamonds as I got so excited! It was the perfect CQ must have! I can't wait to try him out and dress him up in purty laces... so girlie of me.

CQ Playtime

You know how when your addiction to touching and feeling pretty fabrics kicks in and you just zone out into that "CQ mode"? Well thanks to the fact that my computer went down yesterday, I have been on a CQ roll! Within the past 24 hours I have made quite a dent in my CQ obligations for various swaps. Thing is... my dining room is paying for it.

What a mess I've made - my ex was here today (one of my best friends... let's just say we are better friends that being married LOL!) building a shed for Rob and said to me "I thought we built you a studio so you could sew in it? Why are you in here making a mess?" Told him I needed more space so he suggested I ask Rob if I could have the shed for a little Quilt House....LOL! Gotta love your ex sometimes!

Anyway... I started my CQ binge by making a CQ heart for my friend Talia. I am so proud of her... she has lost a lot of weight over the past year and is now looking like a hot momma. I owed her a CQ heart so thought I would make it to depict her new "sexy self" If there is one person who would just love this particular heart it's Talia... she's on vacation right now so I imagine when she gets back on Friday and finds it in her mailbox I'll be hearing OMG! OMG! She's too funny. I loved the print so much I decided to make a 12x14 block to CQ for my bathroom - yep... you guessed it... it's blue.


Next I made a pretty girlie block for my Friend Kathy (Shawkl) - it's part of the CQ One Block swap that I am hosting on the HGTV website. Wish I could post it but it's suppose to be a surprise so "no go" until August 31st - the date we will all open our surprises together.

I did make a couple of 20x20 blocks for CQ RR I am in with the Yahoo CQ Group. The first one is for the MUM Group and of course is , what else?, Blue - can't help it! The second one is for the Daisies Group. Before the CQ bug got to me I was addicted to Cross stitching. I have a lot of projects that have been sitting in bags just waiting to be framed... this particular one of the garden trellis is one that I made about 12- years ago. Rather than have it sit in a bag for another 12 years, I decided to incorporate it into my #2 RR block. I love it and can't wait to see what the girl do with it. Funny how life is... when I was stitching this trellis up I dreamed of the day I would have one just like it - to my surprise my wonderful husband bought me one for my birthday and it is now set up just waiting for the morning glories to bloom all over it.

These two CQ blocks are considered "Naked" as I have only embellished a couple small areas on each... the rest of the magic comes when the other ladies start playing with it. All I need to do now is put together a little journal to go on the trip with each oone of them and they will start traveling around the USA sometime this week . One of them will even be visiting Australia and Canada. I am so excited and can't wait to play with the blocks that I will be receiving to embellish - especially love the fact that I will be able to see and learn new CQ techniques from ladies all over the world.

My Favorite Kind of Evening

Life sure has its way of passing us by all too fast so when you have the chance to just sit back, relax and take in a beautiful night you've got to grab it. My husband Rob and I were thinking about going to the movies tonight but instead decided we wanted to take advantage of a beautiful night. We packed a picnic and headed down to the harbor to sit out on our boat (Altair) to eat dinner. As soon as I brought out the food we had company. I know better than to get on Altair without goodies for our visitors. About a dozen or so beautiful ducks and geese came over to greet us - of course they were quacking for something to eat. Some crackers would do - leave the pepperoni and cheese for me..please. We sat out for about 2 hours just enjoying the sea breeze and the salt air. The Harbor was very quiet for a Saturday ... we are thinking that with the gas prices the way they are it's just too costly to be filling up a boat - good thing we have a sailboat. The clouds started coming in as we are in for some thunder later this evening but not before we were treated to a beautiful sunset.... so happy I'm one of those people who never leave home without my camera - you just never know what beauty you might capture.

Under the Sea Fabric Postcards

One of my most favorite things to do is to sit down with a big pile of beads, buttons, lace, yarns and different threads and go to town. I recently joined a great group of ladies on Yahoo called Art4Mail. This is my first PC (Postcard) swap with these ladies so I'm pretty excited. My group consisted of 4 other ladies all who will be sending each other a PC. We were to make the PCs depicting an underwater theme. My favorite! I love the ocean, seashells, fish and the the color blue so this was right up my alley. I even made an extra one for a special friend - her birthday is soon so thought I would surprise her - Happy Birthday Lin!

Bring on the Inner Peace

Every year my husband Rob and I can't wait to start planning our vacation. For the past 14 years we have spent a week up on Great East Lake in Maine. We load up our kayaks, fishing gear, all the food we think we could possibly eat in one week and of course, my sewing machine and all the crazy quilting supplies I can squeeze into my sewing suitcase. We just got confirmation that the cabin we have been renting every year is ours the second week of August. Just the thought of being somewhere so beautiful and peaceful makes my heart fill with an inner peace. For those of you who have never kayaked, you have to find a way to experience it. It brings a feeling like no other... a calmness and a quietness away from the every day crazy world. We have been known to spend 8-10 hours kayaking from one end of the lake to the other, stopping for a quick bite to eat or swim and of course, plenty of fishing. When I found out today that our plans for this years trip was all set, I had to go check out some pictures that I took last year on the lake to remind myself what I have to look forward to in August. Not that I want to wish the summer away but just dreaming of being out on that water again will certainly bring a smile to my face for the next couple of months.

Dotee Dolls - Girls Just Want To Have Fun

I'm currently in a couple different Dotee Doll Swaps. I have to admit at first I really wasn't interested in making these little dolls but the more I saw of them the cuter they became and I decided I'd try my hand at making one. Well like anything I get involved with, it's hard to make just one. One became two, two became three and now I have another 4 all cut out and ready to embellish. I think the thing I like the most about creating them is that as I'm sewing on the face, or the hair or even the body, they start to take on their own personality. One of my new friends who I've met on the HGTV board has been tatting the prettiest little fans, angels and hearts and since I knew she also crocheted, I asked her if she could possible make me a couple little hats. In no time Margie sent me about 6 of the cutest little hats to dress up my girls. Thanks Margie!

My little Studio

I once read that to be creative it helped if you had a place to work in that inspired you, a place that was surrounded with the things and colors you love. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to have a little studio built in my home. It didn't take me long to figure out exactly what I wanted in it and how I was going to fix up my little space. Before the walls were even up I had the whole room mapped out in my head. My main goal for my studio was to always have the feeling that I was walking into summer. Being a New Englander for the past 38 years, I was determined to have a place in the middle of our long cold winters to go and dream of being someplace warm.

First thing, I painted the walls a beautiful color of blue - a toss up between the sky on a beautiful sunny day or the ocean waters as they are in Maui. I'm lucky enough to have a son who decided to make his home in Maui - I miss him terribly but to be honest with you, it's a great place to have to go to visit. Ever time I go over I buy a beautiful sarong which depicts so many beautiful colors. I decided instead of having the sarongs tucked away in a drawer somewhere I would hang them so I could remember my days spent walking the beaches. Now that the walls were painted it was time to bring in my desk and a cabinet that I rescued from my husband's parents - stripped it and painted it to match the walls - white with blue trim. Next was to bring in all my vintage china that I have been collecting over the years... I know most people would scream at the thought but I collect them only to smash them up! Yikes! Yep... I break them up into little pieces to create mosaic frames, mirrors, birdhouses etc. Okay, now on to my ever growing fabric stash. My wonderful husband (Rob) installed a couple of stand up cabinets to hold some of my pretties and then I turned a couple of CD stands into shelves for my FQ's (fat quarters). I love walking into my room (especially when it is clean) and seeing all the colors.... what a way to brighten the day. When I need extra room to sew I set up an table and cut away. Can't say there's much room left for anyone else to come in and play but then... this is my hiding place and big enough for me.

Next, Rob installed a couple of kitchen cabinets and topped them off with a piece of butcher block and then hung a few shelves for more goodies - this I call my CQ corner - where I have some of my pretties for my main passion these past couple of years, crazy quilting. I sometimes wonder why and how I got so involved in this type of quilting. Could it be because of the name "Crazy" ??

My Summer Purse

Don't you just love it when you learn something new and it gets you all excited? Today my friend Elaine (Quiltingnewbie) came over and patiently sat with me playing the role of teacher. A while back she made the cutest little purse and I've been bugging her ever since I saw it to show me how........ I knew the basics but it was the lining and corner edges that threw me off. I pulled out a bunch of pretty batiks, cut them into 5" squares and off I went. We made a pretty good team and had a nice little assembly line going............. hmmmm maybe I can get her to come back and we'll make 3 or 4 more - one for each season.

A few of my Favorite Things

How many times have you created something you love, turned around and gave it away and then said to yourself " Dang! I wish I had kept that for myself? Over the years I have made everything from mosaic picture frames and mirrors, quilts, CQ purses, Cross stitch designs etc and always ended up giving them away as gifts... happily of course but if you are like me, there are just some things that your create that you can't give up. I thought I would share a few of my favorite things that I've been selfish enough to keep for myself. One of my very favorite Crazy Quilt hearts was just made a couple months ago. I call her my "Little Purple Girl" Surprised that she's not blue?? Well I thought I would test the waters with a new color and I'm glad I did as I just love her.


Another one of my favorites it one that I call "Shy little Girl" I'm not quite sure where the inspiration came from for me to make this CQ Heart... maybe I was feeling a little shy that day ? I doubt it - no one has ever accused me of being shy.



I made these little 3x3 CQ pictures as part of an experiment. I had bought a variety of new fabrics and wanted to see what they would look like layered. I was going for a nautical theme so embellished them with various pearls, glass fish, seashells and pretty threads.

I have to admit, out of all the items I have ever made, this quilt is my absolute favorite. It is made up of about 17 different Asian Fabrics and represents the love that my husband and I have for the ocean. My husband Rob has a beautiful sailboat that when sailing brings such a wonderful peace within. I wanted this quilt to represent every aspect of the ocean from the sandy beaches, to the light turquoise waters. The whites are the caps of the waves coming into shore and the dark blues is what it is... the deep blue ocean. I made this quilt, which is called a French Braid for him for his birthday last year. Not the best machine quilter, I sent it to a very good friend of mine Thearica and not only did she do the most incredible, beautiful, awesome quilting ever , she asked me to write a love note to Rob about our life together and she stitched it all around the border that surrounds the braids. There are no words that will ever express the gratitude I have for her for bringing my quilt to life. Thank you "Q" from the bottom of my heart.

More Hand Dyed Laces

I'm so excited! Last week , after much encouraging from my "pushy - LOL!) friend KMouse, I finally got the nerve to post some pictures of my dyed laces to a couple Yahoo CQ sites I belong to. To my surprise I received a nice note from Hazel in the UK and the end result was I had my first International order! How exciting! Then to top it off I got a few more orders the same day which made me rethink a few things... if I want to get my creations noticed... I have to put them out there. So... here I go. I just finished dying up some more laces and have to tell you every time I do a new batch I say "oh yea... these are the prettiest yet" I think it's the combination of the lace designs and the love of color.... it's like sitting down with some watercolors and painting in a coloring book... if you don't like one color just move on to the next and if you don't like that color, heck, just mix the dyes and create a new one.

Hand Dyed Laces

One of the things I love is color. If you were to ask anyone of my friends to describe me as a color my guess is they would say "blue" . I love any color of blue - aqua, teal, marine, turquoise, sky blue, royal blue, navy blue, cobalt blue, cornflower blue, robins egg blue, navy blue ... any shade of blue!





Over the past couple of years I have been collecting pretty laces and dying them for use in crazy quilting, to applique on purses, bluejeans, you name it - even went so far as to make little tattoos out of them. I've tried my best to incorporate other colors to my pallet but for some reason I always find a way to get right back into the blue family. In fact, I recently started making crazy quilts hearts for a project I have had swimming around in my head for over a year now... you guessed it - out of 36 hearts that I made, I would guess to say at least half are some shade of blue.

Now I'm not going to say that I don't love other colors... I've even been known to stray a bit... there are other colors I love too - the combination of pinks & greens, peach, purples but again.... ask my friends what color I'm not fond of and they will tell you "orange" Maybe someday.....