Wordless Wednesday

Works in progress...

Do you remember these blocks I started over the summer? I made 100 of them, total, and have finally started to sew them together.

This is 1/4 of the finished quilt. I'm crazy--the finished quilt will be something like 100" square. See? Crazy. (Speaking of crazy, let's not point out the heaps of blocks and unfinished tops littering the top of the bookcase on the right side of the photo, shall we? Thanks.)

Of course, I got this far and then put it aside so I could work on Xmas gifts! That said, I work much better with a deadline.

Other blocks (partly pictured above) that I also started over the summer using some charm packs of Wiscasset and Clermont Farms along with Bella Cream Solid, finally made it back to the design wall.

And even got borders...

It's now basted and set aside with a couple of other tops for this weekend--Thanksgiving is over and I'm giving thanks to have my dining room table back! It's my favorite place to quilt and sew on bindings!

Baby quilt blocks in progress...

Slowly working my way through my "to-do" stack as I have time this week, including sweet little pink and gray star blocks for a baby quilt. I even went so far as to cut into some of my Flea Market Fancy--they're reprinting some of the line, which will be available early next year (so I hear), so why be stingy, right?

I love stars. What are you loving this week?

Snippets

Summer is marching on at a rather alarming, if sweaty, rate. I mean, it's August already? How did that happen?

In the few moments it has been cool enough to sew in my un-air-conditioned sewing room, I've gotten a few bits and pieces done.


I finished and sent out my July blocks for The Beehive to Belinda just in time. Linen, French newsprint center strips, red, blue, and pops of kelly green in string blocks. I think Belinda is a color-combining genius--these blocks were extremely quick and fun, and I just love the colors.

I've also been noodling around with blocks for both hives of the 3x6 bee that I'm in this quarter, as well as for the first round of the modern sister-bee, 4x5. Trimming...



And sewing up some test blocks in my own colors, aqua, orange, white and gray. Like this Mosaic block, most recently from the Summer Sampler Series going around blogland, care of Faith, Lee and Katie.



It's been too humid to be comfortable working with the iron at all, or sewing much past noon on my days off, but I've gotten a few bits and pieces done. Heck, it's too humid for blocks to stick to my design wall for very long. Hopefully I'll have more to share soon. I don't know about anyone else without AC, but I'm looking forward to some cooler evenings to help me get some sewing done!

Working, working...

Just no finishes to share! I've been alternating between two projects the past few weeks, and while there's plenty of progress, there's not an awful lot to show, finish-wise. But I couldn't just keep leaving y'all hanging indefinitely, so I thought I'd share a few shots of my works in progress...



First are these giant windmill blocks--each one finishes at 16.5" square. They're a combination of Moda Bella Solid in Cream and charm packs of two Minick & Simpson collections, Wiscasset and Clermont Farms. I spent one evening drawing sewing lines on the back of my cream squares, matched them with the print squares, and have been using them as leaders/enders while I've worked on other sewing lately. The result has been that suddenly I had everything sewn and ready to go when I was ready to put the blocks together...


I know there's more than one of you looking at these and going, "Ok, the librarian has officially gone mad. What's with the paisley?" Well, since I don't always sew for myself or the madman (or bees...or swaps...), sometimes I need to take the recipients' tastes in mind. In this case, said recipients tend to be a bit more traditional in their decor. But that's about all I can say about them at the moment, on the off chance that one of them remembers I have a blog... :D

I do have a bit of a confession to make here, though. As much as I really love modern fabrics (and you know I do), I have a deep-seated passion. For paisley. There, I said it! Ok, let me explain a bit. When I was little, my grandparents' house was somewhere I spent a LOT of time. And my grandmother's decorating aesthetic tended toward Jacobean embroidery, flame-stitched and damask upholstery, and yes, some old-school paisley here and there. So in this case, working with more traditional fabrics is no hardship--I love Minick & Simpson (you've seen me singing their praises here before). And sometimes it's nice to switch things up, right?

Especially when I've also been sewing tons of these:


See, more paisley-inspired prints. And modern! You've seen these blocks before, too. 83 completed blocks in that stack, just 17 left to go. But I'll probably hold off on putting the top together until it's slightly less hot and humid...like September. No AC here, so it requires a bit of strategy. Summer is for block sewing, fall and winter are for tops, basting and quilting.

What about you? Do you save certain aspects of your hobbies for certain times of year?

Production!

I've been making a concerted effort to take at least an hour every night to come into the sewing room/office and make things. First, it's productive! Second, it's relaxing--it's been a rough week, but each night, as soon as I sat down and started to play with fabric, I could feel the tension headache begin to loosen. And that's a VERY good thing!

Earlier this week, I finished my swap pieces for my Urban Home Goods swap partner. A trio of placemats, AB Love hexies on Robert Kaufman Essex Linen.


Some straight line quilting, backed in Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow Flower Fields in Sunglow, and bound in a Moda Crossweave (pale aqua with a cream crossweave) that I picked up at my LQS last fall. They've gone out to my partner, and I hope they get there soon, and safely!!

I was lucky enough to have the fabulously talented Alecia Sharp as my sending partner this round--I've been following her work for nearly a year, and I was so in love with what she was making this round, I seriously didn't even dare hope they were for me.

Let's just say, I made a lot of noise when I opened my package Thursday night.



Do you see that bag? Love hexies and linen? Yeah, great minds think alike! Too funny! And how sexy are those potholders? My photo is a little wonky, but the left one says "too HOT to handle" and the one on the right says "hot damn". SO fun--even the madman is totally enamored of them. So, so cute and I am such a lucky girl! Also want to give a couple of shout-outs to Tiffany, for being an awesome swap mama (this particular flickr swap got so big, they divided us into multiple swap pools), and to Heather and Kerri for creating and running this group--awesome job, ladies!!


I've also been making a few other bits and pieces along the way...


Like a cute little mug rug for a friend.
Love the fabric on the back--I got just this little bit in a scrap pack from Jenny, who was begging her blog readers to take some of her scraps off her hands--of course, how could I turn down a plea like that?



Just enough for a little 8"x6" mug rug--perfect! (Please don't look to hard at my binding. You know I'd do the same for you!)

Lastly, I've been steadily working my way through those Just One Star blocks for Moda's Quilts of Valor initiative--100 quilts in 100 days to servicemen/women and veterans. Looking for more info? I blogged about it over here. It's a great way to do some good without having the daunting task of making an entire quilt--the block instructions are really clear (the pattern is Minick & Simpson's, and they're awesome enough that they put a tutorial on their blog, in addition to the pattern--you can find that here.) and the blocks come together super quick. I sat one night and cut enough background and star fabrics for 13 blocks. I have just 3 blocks left to complete today--not bad for a week's work, eh?

One thing you may not know about me is that I taught myself to quilt just after graduating college. I won't tell you how many years ago that was, but it was more than 10 and less than 20. Fair? But that many moons ago, this whole modern quilting movement hadn't come into existence yet. So I still have a couple of bins worth of more traditional fabrics. Since the quilt pattern is on the more traditional side (thought it would be really cool done in modern red, white and blue fabrics), I chose to use this opportunity to dig back into that part of my stash.




Each block is left untrimmed so that the project volunteers at Moda can trim them down before the quilts are put together. As I said, the blocks are coming together very quickly--there are lots of opportunities for chain piecing, and each one is done in about 20 minutes. I'm just hoping they won't dock me points for the occasional clipped point. Heh.

Off to finish the last few blocks and get them sent out. Tomorrow, it's on to the Sunday Stash report!

Sneak Peaks...

Working hard on my main swap project for the Urban Home Goods swap over on Flickr.

Wanna see?


Essex Linen blend in Natural, some Amy Butler Love hexies, lots of straight line quilting...



One down, two to go...

No sewing...

But lots of cutting.

I've been a little braindead lately. Well, moreso than usual. I'm suffering hugely from cabin fever this last week. Our front steps are an icy mess. And after an inch of rain and a brief thaw, so is our driveway. It took me four running starts on Saturday night to wind up kitty-corner halfway up the incline of our driveway. I slipped and slid my way to the garage door and called my husband, who was on his way home, to warn him. Poor guy spent a half hour in the drizzle and the dark when he got home trying to at least get both cars in the driveway. What an ugly mess. Add to that the thaw means that we have water coming in through one window in our living room and seeping in one ceiling corner in my sewing room (ugh!), and you can begin to see where my head is at, yes?

So there hasn't been any sewing for about a week. I've mostly been sorting scraps, ironing and cutting some of them, and making pretty little stacks...




I've long admired the Strips and Bricks pattern by Malka Dubrawsky, and the versions made up by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts, shown here and here. When Malka revamped her pattern and made it available for pdf purchase a few months ago, I leaped on it, having missed it in its originally published magazine in 2009. I've finally started sifting through my "low volume" fabrics, and have started putting together the soothing, gorgeous palette used in the original, as well as Rita's two incarnations. Sewing is a ways off yet, as there's a lot of cutting yet to do, but I can handle that.

Just don't ask me about our weather. Deal?

Sunday Stash, 1/30/11

Stash in action!



To say I feel a bit better about my productivity this weekend would be an understatement. I listened to music, and cooked, and most importantly, I sewed. This will be one quarter of My Quilt. I've gone whole hog with this quilt, cutting into my Heather Ross stash for the star centers, and even going so far as to cut into my Flea Market Fancy scraps for some of the star points. Crazy, I know! But I figure that if it's going to be the first quilt that I make for myself, it should be special, right?

It is also going to be HUGE. Each block is finishing at 12.5" square--what's on the design wall now measures just over 36"x48", and that's just a quarter. Finished, this puppy should be a fairly enormous 72"x96", a very generous twin size. PLENTY big for cuddling under. And considering that we're still buried under 4 feet of snow, with over a foot predicted to fall in the next storm slated for Tuesday/Wednesday this week, I think a big quilt is a very good idea.

I've done some shopping this past week, for a couple of reasons. When we were assigned our partners over in the Urban Home Goods swap on flickr, I had an immediate lightbulb moment. And then there's the Single Girl Support Group bunch on flickr--we have mentors helping us through making this slightly intimidating but very cool pattern by the very talented Denyse Schmidt. So while I decided to make the rings of said quilt with fabric from my stash, I didn't have the 5.5 yards required for background. So... I went over to Kerri's Etsy shop, and found everything I needed for both the quilt AND my idea for the UHG project. Those items aren't here yet, though, so I'm not counting them as adds to my stash this week, but I promise pictures in next week's post...

And then...there was the other purchase. See, I can justify (excuse?) the yumminess on its way from Kerri--even if a few extra odds and ends did happen to jump into my cart... But the other? Well, I'm blaming Ashley over at Film in the Fridge. She happened to mention the closing of a certain online retailer in a post this past week, and having caught me in a weak, snowbound moment, I caved. And boy, did I have fun!! So there will be more photos of guilty pleasure incoming.

In the meantime, I will look anywhere but directly at you and whistle innocently while I post my stash report for this week...

Used this Week: 0 (not counting the blocks on the design wall until they become a bona fide quilt top)
Used year to Date: 3.5 yards
Added this Week: 0
Added Year to Date: .75 yards
Net Used for 2011: 2.75 yards

Sick and tired

You remember that week I had off? Well, I woke up on the first day of said week with a cold. Not like the sniffles, or a little frog in my throat. I mean a full on upper and lower respiratory monster, complete with with a cough that I'm still working on kicking two weeks later and a fever.

Yup. I spent that week's vacation looking like this:



Curled in the fetal position, adorned with cats. Special thanks to little Beans (L) and Domino for posing so nicely.

My MRI had to be rescheduled because I couldn't lay flat for an hour without hacking. Same went for the couples massage my husband and I had planned. Going out to eat was sort of senseless, since A) we'd have to sit in the plague section and B) I couldn't taste a thing.

The upshot is that everything fell by the wayside, including my grand quilting plans. Oh wait, did I mention we've had 4 feet of snow in the last month? That's right, one horking storm a week, a foot at a time. Reallllly sick of that, too.

Here's what I've accomplished in the last 2 weeks...



Pretty. Pitiful, but pretty. Hoping for a little more pretty and a little less pitiful this weekend!

And, while I'm not counting it until it's in the house, I've fallen off the wagon with the fabric diet. So while tomorrow's Sunday Stash won't look like much, next week's? Wooo doggies, that's going to make for some pretty pictures!

Have a great week, and stay healthy!

How I spent the last weekend before Christmas...

Finally finished my Grandmother's Christmas present. Because really, what do you get for the 87 year old woman who has everything? This matches the colors in her living room quite well. I hope she likes it--I find giving handmade gifts rather nerve-wracking!!



This weekend, my sewing machine has taken a bit of an excursion. Out of the sewing room/office and out to...


The dining room table! Complete with Christmas wrapping paper detritus, centerpiece left over from Thanksgiving, platters set out for hosting Christmas Eve, as well as extra chairs for said holiday hostessing event. Nine people for cocktails and hors d'ouevres? No sweat!

What was I saying?

Right!

What you see here is my new vantage point. It means that not only do I have all the table space I could ask for as I quilt miles...




And miles...


Of my husband's Christmas present (doing organic shattered line quilting), but I also have the TV across the room to keep me company. The finished quilt will be about 50" x 60", a decent sized throw for the Madman's Man Cave--plenty big to cuddle under when he's watching movies on the wide-screen, seated in his recliner. He helped me baste it, so it's not a huge surprise, but it will be done on time (barring any and all catastrophes), and that's what counts. He's out tomorrow night with the guys to see Tron *yawn*, so I'll spend tomorrow evening watching something, anything else, while hand-tacking the binding.

Keeping it real...

Sort of.

Down to making and sewing bindings on three projects. And a little hand stitching. Then some washing, drying, pressing and packing. After my major sleep-in yesterday? I was wide awake at 6:20 this morning. Yup, on a Sunday. So once I got my caffeine levels up, it was time to make some tracks...

Last night, the madman and I basted the baby quilt. I used a new-to-me brand of basting spray. NEVER AGAIN. Everything stuck to everything, and still is. It was like some really bad slapstick. I'll be going back to June Tailor's on my next project. Sullivan's, to me, is like working with superglue in spray form. Gack. (Sorry, Sullivan's. : / )

So this morning, I plopped down to do something I haven't done in many years.

Free-motion quilting.



I went for a meander with some loops in there. By the end my stitches were more even in size, though the design leaves a bit to be desired.



I won't talk about the toenail-catchers, or the tension issues than meant that even though there was no puckering on the back (yay!), there were some serious pulls in my loop stitches.

Why?

Because I'm not fixing them. I'm going to bind it, wash and dry it, and mail it.

Ok, before y'all fall over and die in shock and horror, let me explain.

My corners and points don't always match.

My lines and edges are not always straight.

My borders have ripples.

My quilts may have puckers.

I hate ripping out stitches. And if I were being paid for a quilt, you'd be damn sure I'd pick bunches of this apart and start over.

Right now, I have a deadline--this needs to be in the mail on Tuesday, because it needs to get from CT to AZ by Saturday. My cousin's wife-to-be is going to deliver in about a month, and Saturday is the shower. As my husband says, I obviously work better under pressure, because I have a really bad habit of leaving things to the last minute.

My handmade things very often look handmade. And I'm ok with that. I try not to send out things that look like a first grader did them, but I'd like to think that the quilt I am sending out, uneven stitches and all, will keep this little baby just as warm as something bought in a store, one of thousands just like it. I learned from the process, and the next one will be better, though that one will have mistakes, too.

I think some crafters have unrealistic expectations of themselves, ripping and resewing, scrapping and starting over. I don't have the time, the interest or the disposition for it.

I can point you elsewhere if you're looking for perfection, because this isn't the place you'll find it.

But if you're ok with me being human and keeping it real, I'm really happy to have you here.

Trying to get my butt in gear

Overslept this morning. Sure, I have the day off, but 10am? I haven't slept well all week--work has been incredibly stressful. I don't deal well with having loose ends, and there have been many this week! So I guess I was making up for lost sleep. Still, it's been a struggle to get ANYTHING done so far, beyond coffee and breakfast.

Finally, I did manage to pull my thumb out and finish the last of the blocks for my cousin's daughter's quilt. It needs to be in the mail this week, so here's to hoping I don't oversleep tomorrow, too...



Originally, it was going to be 3 x 3 blocks, but the blocks are 12" finished, and that was going to be huuuuge for an infant. So I'm pretty sold on the layout of the blocks, just thinking about sashing now. I'm thinking more pink will be too pink, so maybe white, with thin pink borders on the sides? Need to at least get that done and the basting done tonight. Then quilting tomorrow, binding Monday night, and if I'm very good, in the mail Tuesday morning.

Now to get back to it!

Remember, Monday starts our new October giveaway, this time with THREE prizes. You do NOT want to miss this!

A busy Sunday

First: The critical



I don't normally drink my coffee that dark, but we've been putting off a shopping trip, and I ran out of half n half. Soymilk was not really the best substitute, but it's what we had. Oh well. Caffeine was crucial to doing anything productive on a chilly, overcast Sunday. (Hence the quality, or lack thereof, of today's pics.)

Next on the docket, turning these sweet, yummy little scraps I've collected:


Into a little gift for a friend in need.


Then, tackling this pile of strips:



And turning them into more of these:


Sweet, scrappy squares for a baby quilt for my cousin and his new wife--and the little girl they're expecting next month.

Hey, don't forget--tomorrow starts my first giveaway of the month! It's a delicious one, and I can't wait to share it with you! I'll be posting a different giveaway each Monday, and posting the winner every Friday for the whole month, so keep checking back!

Here and there... Hexies!

I have, of course, been bitten by the hexagon bug that's spreading through Flickr at an alarming rate. On my lunch breaks, I've taken to turning these:

(2 inch hexagons, from paperpieces.com)

And these:

(4.5" - 5" charms from old charm packs and my stash...)

Into these!

(about 80 or so completed so far, only about 270 to go--oy!)

Weekend stitching...

Don't you hate it when you have grand plans for your weekend off, and then you feel icky for part or all of that time?? Bleh! I had intended to piece the entire top for my co-worker's baby quilt (shower is less than 3 weeks away now) yesterday, baste it last night, and then start quilting it today. No go. I got the cutting and layout done yesterday in between breaks to go and lie down with a monstrous migraine. By the time I quit last night, I had a bit pieced, but that was it. Ugh!

This morning I woke up to heat and humidity (July weather in the first few days of May is not really my idea of a good time--we don't have the fans out of storage, let alone the AC!). The headache is still there, but less, so I finished piecing the top...

The nursery colors are brown and pink. I'm a dork, and a librarian, so this one is titled "398.2". Why? Because that's the Dewey decimal # for fairy tales, of course! (See, I told you I was a dork!)

It's a riff off of the bookshelves quilts I've seen on flickr, and specifically inspired by Cherri House's recent Moda Bakeshop tutorial. I used a few leftover jelly roll strips I had lying around from other projects, but the rest of it was out of my stash. I'm planning on adding a thin border of the Kona Espresso solid all the way around, and binding it in the same color. The backing I've picked out is from Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop line, a multi-pink stripe with a chocolate colored flower print. However, as the Madman is due home in a couple of hours (and he is my basting helper/slave), I'd better get moving on the border if this is going to at least be basted today. Here's to praying for a few cool evenings over the next week or two to do the quilting! Nothing more uncomfortable, in my opinion, than hot weather and a lap-full of warm quilt. : P

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend!

ps--If you're keeping track (I am), once this is finished, this will be finish #4 for Jacquie's Spring to Finish Challenge, 2010. It's never to late to start!

Back from the quilt show!

My husband (bless him) and I just got back from spending a rainy Sunday afternoon at the bi-annual quilt show put on by the CT Piecemaker's Guild. I have to say, firstly, that the man really does listen. He asked about fabrics, techniques, remembered local vendors that I had visited in their brick-and-mortar stores. And he looked good doing it--there was more than one woman at the show who looked at him with a mix of surprise and approval, and a little jealousy. He was certainly in the minority this afternoon!

I didn't take very many pictures, I'm sorry to say. There were several that I loved for their layouts, their colors, or their workmanship--mind, most of what I personally liked didn't win anything. That's the thing about art--it's so subjective. What I did notice? A LOT of batik, a number of art-quilts, a surprising number of scrap and string quilts, and nearly everything was super-traditional. I have been challenged by several people to enter the next show, two years from now. Being that my style really tends to be more modern, I'm not sure what the reaction would be. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, of course. AND two years is quite a long time. With a little luck, I'll actually have another finish, period, between now and then!

Now, on to the pics I DID take...


The madman and I both liked this one--we both dig Asian-inspired work. The small patchwork is all 1" finished squares of a multitude of Asian-themed fabrics. The red borders are printed in small black kanji. I can't imagine the tedium of piecing so many tiny blocks--I admire the work tremendously, though.

Speaking of amazing:


This was titled "Pieces of My Past", and the quilter had worked for over 2 years on it. All paper-pieced hexes, by hand, and also hand quilted. 3,185 hexes in all. She said she used fabrics from her mother's hankies, her father's boxers, and her grandmother's aprons. I found it awe-inspiring, and it makes my own stack of hexes (just shy of 50, 2 nights of watching movies with the madman) pale in comparison...


My own little stack of 2" hexagons. I'm happy to have a handwork project going--makes me happier to sit and watch movies, because I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Another quilt I admired was this one:


This is about 1/4 of a Dear Jane reproduction. It was mostly hand-done, and took the quilter a year and a half of work, finishing just before the show. The squares were so tiny, no more than 5" finished. My fingers hurt just looking at it!


I also was impressed with this one--the colors here are muddy, but in life, even in the sub-par lighting (the one I took with a flash washed it out terribly), this glowed with amber and gold. In the note, the quilter mentioned that it took her two years to find all of the colors to grade this properly.

Finally, a cute little Christmas quilt


It was done in kaleidoscope quarters, just 4 little fussy-cut squares from the outer border fabric. The effect was quite lovely.


Now, to continue the glut of pictures, on to the spoils! There were vendors all around the perimeter of the show-room, plus two smaller conference rooms full of vendor stalls. I saw three that I was familiar with, chatting with the woman who had sold me my Janome last summer and talking about the move of her store's location in the coming weeks--the new shop will be right across the street from my favorite Indian restaurant, and right down the road from our favorite sushi place. I foresee a number of date-nights taking place over that-a-way! Sorry, Mr. Madman! I also saw a shop that I thought had gone out, but in fact had moved closer to me, so in celebration, I bought two charm-packs of Cotton Blossoms, which I am amassing a small stash of.



A third vendor, which is normally nearly an hour's drive each way, had a delicious spread! Tons of jelly-rolls, FQ packs and patterns. I picked up a FQ pack of some gorgeous Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey:


I love the vintage-sheet look of some of the larger-scale prints, and can see this worked into a great spring quilt.

And finally, I couldn't pass this up:



A FQ pack of Amy Butler's Love. I initially wasn't all that interested in the line, but after working with it for Kat's month of the Beehive, I fell in love with the large-scale paisleys and retro-feel prints. For now, this will be pet and patted and eventually, it will become something. I do hope to someday finish something I've already got started... Honest!

Coming up is my 4-day weekend sew-a-thon, so I'm hoping to post a bunch of pictures of new things, like Kat and Tanya's finished blocks for the Beehive, another block of the Jelly Roll quilt-along, and more hexes!!