Just a couple more days

Tomorrow is the day. They're supposed to be at the house in the afternoon. We've got everything ready for them to come in and replace a bit of tackstrip and lay the carpet. It should go really fast. This weekend, we emptied the bedroom, cleaned the slab, painted the closets and all the trim and doors.

After Rob had painted the closets, he started the trim inside them and asked me to step inside one and asked me how I liked it and I grunted something unintelligible and accomodating and went outside and then came in and kind of screeched "I hate it. It's lavender and yellow." And, it truly was. The gray paint that we were trying to use up by putting it in the closets looked totally lavender against the red bedroom walls and the beige trim. And, it made the trim color look yellow instead of beige. And, when he asked why I was so upset, I had to explain that it was because I knew I was asking him to repaint them and I felt bad about that. But, they had to be repainted.

So, when we went to dinner that night, we stopped and got a gallon of beige trim paint and yesterday, he painted the closets again.

He's such a good man.

Yesterday, while he was painting, I was taking apart and putting back together the dining room curtains. They were just cheap Target tab top curtains that we found in goodwill for $3 a panel. But, they were the perfect color and a great cotton fabric. They may have been square when they were made, but after I washed them the first time, they weren't anymore and they hung very weird, but so long as they stayed open, you couldn't tell. If you tried to close them, there was twice as much fabric as needed on the narrow windown and half as much as needed on the wide window. So, I took them apart, ironed them back to where the warp and welt were square, recut them and this time, I made them all fit the window they needed to. Then, I put them all back together. And, this was important to me. But, I think it was important to Rob because he got to finish all his work without me asking every 15 minutes what I could do next.

After he got finished, I fed him a roast chicken, because you gotta feed a man like that good. And, after that was done, I started on this block and worked on it the rest of the day. Still out of his way.


I guess there never really was any question whether I was going to make that jubilee quilt, huh? On friday, I printed the first 4 of 6 sets of patterns. The camera took some of the contrast out of this. There's really a blue in the points and the background is blue green. The alternating points are purple and the center is pink and red. Next block has lots more colors in it. Paper piecing wastes so much fabric, but I'm not going to worry about it. This is going to be a FABULOUS quilt.

But, this morning, I took the living room curtains apart because they had more issues than the dining room and for some reason, getting that right is important to me. It's like the finishing touch on the house to get it all back together on Wednesday.

Oh, one last thing. Guess who I got an email from? The LQS owner. She wants me to get my materials list together so they can sell "kits" for the class with all the required supplies. I guess I'm closer to being on the calendar than I thought.

Everybody have a great Monday. Don't know if there will be time to blog tomorrow. We have a 55 gallon aquarium to move and the last of the furniture out of the rooms. I think we're down to about 15 pieces of furniture in the house, including 4 dining room chairs. The rest is all in the garage. With all my clothes. It made it interesting to get dressed this morning.

Lane

Color and contrast, part 2

As I researched for the previous post, I decided that I wanted to run some of my quilts through the process to see if I had selected my values well and if my quilts reflected all three values, dark, medium and light.

Here's my triple irish chain. I made this quilt about three years ago and it is based on a pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine. Here's the black and white. You can clearly see the white, then a grey and a darker grey and a black. That's exactly what I was going for.

And, here it is in color. At the time, I was working with the three greens as what I considered to be the perfect three greens for quilting. Throw in a great yellow and it was complete.


This was the first kit I ever bought. In fact, it might be the only kit I ever bought, although I've been gifted a couple. Now, when I think of this quilt, I don't think of good contrast. I think that all the blocks just kind of merge into one another and the quilt, made of batiks and hand dyes reads as a batik or hand dye. The kit is Hip to be Square and I got it from Keepsake Quilting in about 2007. It was supposed to be pieced blocks alternating with solid blocks, but we didn't care for the solid blocks and made the whole thing of pieced blocks. (Yes, Rob is a part of my quilting and helps me to think through a lot of things.)

Now that I've seen it in black and white, I can see the contrast more in the actual quilt.

Here's my Storm in my Garden quilt, named because it is mostly green and brown. Look at it without color and you can clearly see the pattern, with all the accompanying circles and ribbons.

Put the color back in and the pattern kind of sinks back into the mishmash of colors used. This was a well planned quilt, meant to reflect the colors in my garden, including the spring blooms. Unfortunately, it didn't end up as well as I had hoped.

The last quilt is my Card Trick, Deal Me In 2. This is one of a pair of quilts. While I was selecting fabrics for it, my mentor sent me a box from her stash. I secretly cut from her stash and sent it back and then started making the two quilts, one from her stash and one from mine. Both were made to start in the center with the medium fabrics and move to the outside and darker fabrics. Both have the mock prarie point border and they are quilted just alike.

See how one of those center fabrics blends in with the background? That doesn't happen when you get to the color photo.

Here is the actual quilt. When I showed her my quilt, it was in a pile of quilts I had taken to show her. She just ooh'ed and aah'ed over it, and I flipped to the next quilt, which had the label corner turned up and she could see that the quilt was made for her. Brought a tear to her eye. That's a happy memory. It hung at her office for several months.

Okay, so that's a review of what I've learned about color and contrast. Thanks to my Mentor and to all the authors of books that I've read on the subject. Thanks to Rob for keeping a watchful eye and helping keep me away from all dark quilts. And, thanks to value because it keeps doing all the work, even though color gets all the credit.

Take care and have a great Thursday. Lane

Color and contrast, part 1

Lately, I've seen quilters using beautiful sherbet colors in quilts. I love the sherbet colors and wanted to figure out a way I could use them in a quilt. I knew the solution, but I thought I'd share my process. Unfortunately, now that I've done all this work, I've satisfied my desire to make a quilt out of the sherbet colors. But, that's no matter. I enjoyed the process and will probably use the four blocks I made in a simple teaching quilt.



So, here are the fabrics I picked for a sherbet quilt. A yellow, a green, an orange (my favorite flavor) and a pink. Lovely colors when put together.

But, quilts are all about contrast. We've all heard it before. I know Bonnie Hunter says it and so do a lot of other professional quilters. Color gets all the credit, but value does all the work. So, what happens if we take my stack of fabrics and take all the color out of it? They look all the same color.

A block made out of these fabrics looks nice. The pink and orange are a bit darker than the green and yellow. It's a nice block, but not sure I want to see a whole quilt made from these fabrics.

And, if we take the color out of the block, there is very little contrast and the stars disappear into the backgrounds.

Next, I took those same colors, but I selected them all as darks. Now, these are the values that make my heart sing. Rich colors have a vibration that I can feel in my gut. And, yes. I know how wierd that sounds, but I have a feeling that every quilter gets a tingle in their gut about some fabric choice.

If we take the color out of the fabrics, we see that these selected fabrics have more contrast. The red and green are darker than the orange and the gold. But, the yellow really contrasts with the green, orange and red more in color than in b&w.

Make a block out of them and the block is beautiful. The center star is kind of lost in its background, still, but you can clearly see the stars.

Take out the color and the stars really show up, but again, I'm not sure I want to make a quilt out of these fabrics. The quilt would feel heavy and warm. That might feel good to me in January, but right now, it's a hundred degrees outside and this block just makes me feel weighted down.

So, I pulled a couple of medium fabrics out of my stash. They look great together, right?

But, take out the color and they look too much the same.

But, if I make a block where I use the lights, mediums and darks, look at the block I get. Now, this is not my favorite block on its own, but imagine a whole quilt made from these fabrics and how the stars would POP!

And, look at that block without the color. It just jumps out at you. Contrast and movement. That's what I want my quilts to have and a quilt made from these blocks would have that.

Here's another made with a combination of darks, medium and lights. This one doesn't have the same pop as the last to me. I think that's because I want the stars to stand out and the background to recede and in this block, the stars recede and the background stands out. Not the effect I was looking for, but a nice look nonetheless.

And, look at it without the color. Those stars look distant, set far away in a dark sky. That's a nice effect. I like to look for rational words to describe a block and this one speaks to me about a dark and starry night.

I really enjoyed this part of the experiment, but it got me thinking; how have I done on the quilts I've made? So, I started photographing quilts and taking out the color and you'll have to see the part 2 post to see what I found out.

Lane

Intimate time

Therapy brings out all kinds of things. Some are easy. Some are funny. Some are hard. But, you learn about yourself. For me, most of therapy happens outside the therapists office; when I'm thinking about something that came up. Something I couldn't understand by myself, but after talking about it and sleeping on it, the answer usually comes to me. Might not be an answer I like, but it's usually clear, even when it takes hearing the same thing over and over for a year to finally sink in.

Everyone needs intimate time. Time with a partner. Time with a child. Time with a close friend. Time spent focused on just one other person.

For a long time, I've been of the opinion that just being together was enough and so I've spent intimate time quilting; focused on something other than the person I'm with. Not out of any meanness, but partly because I can't stay awake when I sit still, and partly because having a kid around meant that time to quilt became much more precious so I tried to squeeze in every second I could.

I remember my paternal grandparents. They were always so busy. Something to do all the time. Even when they sat at the end of the day and watched TV. It was quiet. He in his recliner and she sewing or crocheting in the other chair. Quiet. Peaceful.

I don't remember seeing my parents spend intimate time either. They were both busy as well and by the time my Mom got supper cooked and dishes washed and swept the kitchen floor (yes, there was a time when people swept the kitchen floor every day), got all of us bathed and dressed for bed, there wasn't much time for intimacy because they were both focused on us kids so much. I never really got to see them "together" and just focused on one another.

Now, our little girl is growing up and wanting to spend more and more time focused on her stuff. And, her behavior is getting better, and she's learning to study and read better, and she just doesn't need us as much. And, that leaves us more time for intimacy. But, after she came to live with us, I had to really multi-task to get everything done and I've gotten so good at occupying my time that now I have to re-learn how to have intimate time. Time spent focused on one other person. Time spent separate from my quilting time. Down time when the stresses of work and raising a child and homework aren't all we focus on. Call it date night. Which is going to mean giving up some quilting time. And, that's hard, too.

And, it's going to be hard to find intimate time in a house that focuses on television. Trying to find time that isn't about doing anything in particular. Maybe TV can be on in the background, but intimate time isn't just sitting and watching TV together, either.

So, this is life's next little curve ball. Remembering how to be intimate. I daresay that I will like this one better than some of the other curve balls we've been thrown lately. Having kids is hard work. It's a wonder anybody does it.

Here's a picture of the hand pieced Drunkard's Path quilt. Last night, I cut out another one to have ready for hand work.

But, the next one is going to take longer. I'm going to be doing something else with my evenings for a while. Like getting to know my partner again. And, you know? I'm looking forward to it. To remembering how to have intimate time. Just focused on one other person.

Take care and have a great Tuesday. Quilt as you go. Lane

This is not a toy.

No kidding. That's the first sentence of the owner's manual. This is not a toy.

And, having cleaned it, oiled it and set the tension, it really isn't. It' makes a great stitch. And, it can be run on AC or DC current. So, if I wanted to, I really could sew in the car. I'd have to solve an issue with the foot. It has a funny foot on it that would not give a good quarter inch seam, but other than that, if I had enough rechargeable batteries, I could do it.

But, alas, even after working on it and giving it a good oiling, it's a pretty loud little machine. So, I'm trying to come up with a baffle that I can put inside to absorb some of the sound. Like a thick potholder or something. You know me, always trying to solve some sewing problem. But, it's a really loud little bugger and I don't think my co-travelers would like not being able to hear the radio while I chain pieced 50 nine-patch units or something like that.

I'm having another problem, too. I know I'm not the only collector of vintage sewing machines. I need bobbins for those machines. I only have one right now. Well, actually, I have a lot of them, but they don't work in the bobbin winder. Some are too long and some are too short and I need them to be just a wee bit over one and one-eighth inch. Or, if any of you have heard of other solutions to the problem of how to wind these long bobbins without using the machine's bobbin winder, that would be welcome information, too. Well, unless your solution is to wind them by hand or something equally labor intensive. I don't think I'm willing to do that. At least I'm not that desparate yet.

And, tomorrow, we're off for a full day of quilt show and antique shopping. Rob said that if we shopped all day, we wouldn't be able to hit all the antique shops in the small town where the quilt show is. So, we're going to focus on the quilts there and take the back roads home so we can shop in some of our favorite small towns where the prices on antiques are lower. Maybe I'll even stumble up on some bobbins. Who knows.

Take care and have a great Friday. See ya round the web. Lane

A weekend of big finishes...

This was a weekend of finishes for me. I had to move everything around in the sewing room so Rob could hang me a new shelf and while that was all out of the way, I vacuumed up the ton and a half of thread snips and picked up all the loose pins. And, I got on a tear to finish at least one of those baskets full of UFO's and clear off the sofa.

I got the last border on this quilt. I posted a picture of this quilt a couple weeks back and it was in rows, but the rows weren't together and the borders weren't assembled or attached. I finished all of that on the treadle machine. Treadling is fun. Not going to be my preferred method, probably. At least not while I can afford electricity. But, it was a fun alternative and I'm learning to make the wheel turn in the direction I want without having to touch it with my hands. That's the real tricky part. Quilters use their hands to sew because seam allowances have to be so exact and I couldn't hold the fabric with both hands and turn the wheel at the same time. With a little practice, I learned to use my feet on the treadle and if it's not turning in the right direction, I can stop and reverse before the thread gets a chance to break...although I did rethread that needle a whole bunch of times before I got the hang of it.



And, I finished these two afghans for Project Linus. The purple and green one just needed the yarn ends tucked into the work and the blue and brown one needed a couple more rows and then the ends tucked in from every time I changed colors. That took a while. These are adult size afghans. When I was more regularly involved in Linus, they had the greatest need for blankets for teen boys, so I've always made sure to make something big enough and in grown up colors, even if the purple and green is probably more of a girl afghan. But, I was starting with their donated yarn, so kinda had to go with those colors. These are my second and third afghans to ever make.



And, because I got so much finished, I decided I deserved something new to take on my business trip this week, so I took a set of Moda Lakeside Resort 5 inch precut squares and used my drunkard's path templates to cut all 42 fabrics down and started hand sewing them back together. I'm hoping to end up with a cute little drunkard's path quilt in these great colors. And, I needed a new fingerwork project. That paper pieced hexagon quilt that I started two years ago has lost it's excitement. Something new was required.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I'll be headed off to Cleveland tomorrow, leaving the poor bairns to fend for themselves. Aww, don't you feel sorry for them? Me, I'll be at a conference, staying in a hotel, roomservice, maidservice. It don't get much better than that. Add a little sewing in the evenings and I think I can stay awake during a conference.

And, I have a trip to a quilt store planned. And, you all know how much I love to go to an out of town quilt store.

Lane

More fancy quilting

Well, I pulled the quilt off the design wall and stacked it so I could get to the book case and went back to my fancy quilting. There were a couple questions about the Magic Genie Bobbin Washers from my list of quilting secrets yesterday.

The bobbin washers are teflon washers that are very thin. I didn't have to do anything to the bobbin case except one final tension adjustment after I started to use the washer. I drop one into the bobbin case before dropping the bobbin in. They keep the holes in the bobbin from getting stuck to anything in the case and take up that last tiny bit of space in the case so the bobbin can't wobble as I sew. They're also smooth and the plastic bobbins I use can slide along them. I know the combination of the washer and the larger bobbin ended my problem of little wads of thread on the back of the quilt. And, they seem to last a long time. I'm still on my first one and it's not scratched or torn or anything.

Anyway, yesterday I did the echo shells that are on the left side of the picture and the double pebble on the right. That finished off the first of the 4 squares. Just three more to go and I have plenty of ideas for other textural quilting to fill the space. What I've been doing is watching Leah do it and then giving it a try myself. Might take a couple of seconds to get the hang of it, but then I just fly along. I can do about 3 square inches of quilting in 30 minutes.



Take care and have a great day. Lane

Rainy weekend and quilting secrets

Saturday, there were flash floods. Of course, we didn't know that because we decided to take a drive because we couldn't work in the yard or clean the carpets. But, when we got home, we had our own little downpour, complete with booming thunder and a lightening show. Rained like that for almost an hour and then it was over as quick as it started. By Sunday, the weather was cool and dry and we cleaned carpets and worked in the yard, both. This is a picture of some wildflowers we drove past.


And, in my spare time, I decided to work on putting this little BOM together. This is from Block Central and was their last year's quilt. During the year, she had us build sections for the sashing and borders, but there was still a lot of work just to get me to this point. I have the rows together, but haven't joined them. There are three pieced borders and 2 solid borders that go on the outside of this. All the pieces are made, but are not put together into their rows yet. This pattern was for a queen sized quilt, but I don't need another of those right now, and made it half size. It should come out about 45 inches square. Each block is 6 inches finished and the sashing finishes at 1 1/2 inches wide.


After the pictures of the fancy quilting last week, Christine asked what tools I use. I'm using a 20 year old Bernina 930. This gear driven machine is powerful, heavy and quiet, so I can sit for hours and quilt and listen to TV without turning it up and waking up the house. I have a custom machine table with a fold up extension arm and I put another sewing machine table folded up at my left elbow to carry some of the weight of my projects. I've been free-motion quilting on marked tops for 4 years and got into free-hand free-motion in 2009.

The first thing I learned that helped me be a better machine quilter was to make sure the tools were set up right. I regularly got birds nests on the backs of my work when quilting, even though tension was great when sewing on this machine. Turned out I was using the wrong bobbins for my bobbin case. They were the right bobbins for the bobbin case that was installed in the 930 one year before mine was made, but not for my machine. I think the bobbin had just enough room to tilt and jam and that caused the top thread to wad on the back of the quilt. Changing to the right bobbin helped that part, but I still couldn't get my tension just right and I ended up with either bobbin pop-up or top thread pop-down, or both. Thought I was destined to use the same color thread in the top and bobbin forever, but then I bought a quilting kit that included the Magic Genie Bobbin Washers and that problem was solved. Now, I get perfect tension so long as I use the same weight thread in the top and bobbin, and rarely have to adjust my tension.

In that quilting kit, I also got the Supreme Slider. The 930 is metal and the bed is finished like a car, so seems it would be very smooth, but it had a drag to it, even when I used car wax on it to make it smoother. But, the Supreme Slider gave me just what I needed. My machine doesn't allow me to drop the feed dogs, so I keep a piece of post it paper with a hole punched through under the slider mat to keep the dogs from eating through the rubber mat. The slider is teflon and slick as a whistle and my quilts just glide on it. Now I can lay both hands on the quilt and use them like a hoop instead of using my right hand to grip the edge of the quilt and pull it along.

The last thing in the kit was the Machingers gloves. I'd used F&P gloves before, but the XL size was still tight, and they were sweaty and the seams gave out. They were okay, but I have to say that the Machingers are like not wearing gloves at all. They're only sticky on the ends of the fingers and they're thin enough that my hands don't sweat. I was worried about how long they'd hold up because they are kind of expensive, but they've done great so far and I've used them pretty heavily for about 6 months and they're still in terrific shape.



All these things are available in a package from Day Style Designs. Leah is also the quilter in the links I posted last week for the free hand motifs I've been using in the quilt. Leah is terrific. She shows a video of how she creates the motif and I can copy that. She's creating 365 motifs and while not all of them would work on this quilt because it needs rounds and curves, many will and I plan to imitate as many as I can. As far as machine speed? I cannot run my machine as fast as Leah and that explains why I can't get a good circle and my curves aren't always smooth. But, I'm practicing and this morning, noticed that I was able to go faster than I could last week. But, it's still slow progress.

Progress is progress, tho.

Take care and have a great Monday. Lane

A finish!

I decided to name this quilt "Storm in my Garden". I mean, with all that green and brown, what else could it be. And, right now, it reminds me of the promise of my garden. Right now, all green and brown, but later, bursting with color.


This is how I ended up handling the large square w/in a square w/in a square blocks and the diamonds. It all reinforces the circles and the ribbons that run through the quilt. Now, if I had this quilt to do over again, the right triangles that go around the diamonds would have all been mediums. And, the second round of the sq w/in a sq w/in a sq would have been light and the small squares would be light. I think that would have made a much prettier quilt as it would have continued the ribbons and circles.


And, this little bit of freehand free-motion wonder that I found in a book and thought, I can't do that. But, I marked it on the vertical, horizontal and both diagonals and these little jewels were a piece o cake.

Here's a shot of the back. See the big flowers in the bottom of the shot? Each one of those is centered on one of the firework thingies in the border. They are not freehand. Had to cut these out and pounce them on.

And, we finally got a good snap of the puppy. This took two of us though. I guess she doesn't like the flash and whenever we aim the camera at her, she turns her face. (Pay no attention to the ugly sheet on the sofa. It was laundry day for the quilt that's usually there.)

Take care and have a great day. The sun was shining and things are starting to pop out of the ground. Tomorrow it's off to Minneapolis. 16* at night. Criminey. I do hope to get up there and visit some of the great quilt shops one day, but for this trip? The only time I plan to be outside is on the airport shuttle. Lane

Submit to my will

I've talked often about blocking my quilts and making them submit to the shape I have in mind. And, I never tire of sharing information. Many of my quilts are wallhangings and now I've made two quilted table toppers. I want these quilts to be square and all the edges be straight. Often, there's a shape in a quilt that doesn't want to come out perfectly square and wouldn't if I left them alone. The binding on the round quilt was not stretched and caused the edge to fold up like a bowl. But, by blocking, I can make the quilt come out exactly like I want. I can even make a single block that isn't exactly square come out square.

Here's a picture of the two most recent finishes being blocked. They'd been washed and then were pinned to the floor on top of towels. This morning, when they were dry, they were pretty stiff and perfectly shaped. I even pinned down all the points on the medallion to make sure they were straight and fanned out. Now that they've dried how I want them to, they'll lay like that until/unless they get wet again or wadded/folded up.



Now, I wonder how many pins it would take to get Sydney to bend to my will?????

Well, it's back to work for me today and Sydney gets to enjoy her last day out of school. I'm currently composing an email to the school about the trouble on the last day and hope that I can straighten that out with a minimum of having to deal with authority figures. But, at the same time, I want her to have to face her own music. There's only so much we can do and for the rest, we rely on our village to help out.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Jan 4. I think the next thing I'll be posting is the quilted pillow shams I'm working on for Sydney's bed. They're coming along fine, although a little slow. Nothing like working without a pattern. Take care. Lane

One stitch after the other, on and on...

I'm almost half way around Apple Pi, whipping the binding down. And, my mind is moving on to my next project. But, there's no need to start thinking about that now. There's no time to work on it, so why torture myself thinking about it. Speaking of torture, we're going to have to replace the carpet in our house...soon. Rob surprised me by walking through the flooring section yesterday, looking at prices. Now, me, I can make a decision, place an order and get the furniture out of the house for the installation without ever looking back. Rob, on the other hand will suffer long and hard to make sure he doesn't regret whatever we do. I think I've just about talked him into pulling up the old carpet and painting the floor and spreading area rugs around. The prices yesterday helped, that's for sure. It's so hot down here and I really think that having the concrete slab exposed would keep the house so much cooler in the summer. It would be colder in winter, but we only have one cold month a year anyway. It would be much cheaper to keep it warm for a month than to keep it cool for 6 months. We have two neighbors that did it and it really worked for both of them. But, they painted their floors flat and dark. I'd want something with some shine and a nice neutral. I teased that we'd paint it light green and paint a big red oriental carpet in the center. That did not go over very well.

Sydney finished her book yesterday while I ironed and embroidered. And, she finished the book report with a minimum of whining. It's a "brown bag book report" so not only did she have to write a short summary of the book, but she had to decorate a brown lunch bag and put 10 things inside that reminded her of the book. They decorated the bag on Friday while I took a night off from her schoolwork and we scurried around pulling things from around the house over the weekend to go inside. I think she's pretty proud and she certainly did "A" level work. Poor thing. She never gets to rest from Rob and my perfectionist tendencies.

And, yes, I did pull threads for that little bit of embroidery I wanted to do. And, I'm glad I didn't take it on a two day trip. It was more bulk in the luggage than what I originally planned to take as finger work and I was finished in an hour and a half. I'd have been so disappointed on the second night with nothing to do. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. I'd probably start something new!

While I'm in Cleveland, I've arranged for time away from the group and to borrow one of the cars to go quilt shop hopping. I've always wanted to do that, but there's never been time. This time, I took inspiration from Erin (My Patchwork Life) and decided I'm doing it. So, I've found the shops I want to visit and looked up the addresses and phone numbers. Two are near the hotel and one is nearer the airport. I have to take two co-workers to the hotel when we get there, but then I get the car. The stores closest to the hotel close at 5, so I'll hit them first and the third place is open til 8 so plenty of time. Then, I plan some Italian at my favorite Cleveland "hole in the wall." Back to the hotel early and plenty of time to play.

Y'all take care and have a great Monday. We'll see ya round blogland. Lane

Another Baby quilt

Okay, that day I didn't post is lost. No way to make it up, no matter how early I start. We spent 5 hours yesterday finishing up the science project and between that and a little cooking, and a little cleaning, and a little quilting, I was pooped! Too pooped to log in and make another entry.

But, I was going to show this baby quilt. This one was made for Rob's nephew, David. It's handquilted as well. This was the first time I pieced a back. I've found out it's much easier to do this when machine quilting because I can piece the back as I do the ditchwork on the front. I get straighter lines that way, but this one worked out pretty good. If I remember right, I spent a lot of time trying to get it just square before I started quilting.

I spent as much time quilting yesterday as I could. On the apple themed quilt, I got all four corners and the next to last border finished. Took me hours to pull all those tiny pieces of parchment that I used to mark, but it looks really good. I started drawing the pattern for the final border. It's a branch covered with apples, apple blossoms and leaves. Each branch begins as half of a V in the corner and extends to the middle of the border where it will meet the tip of another branch that finishes the side. It's going to be busy, but totally in theme. I had a hard time walking away mid-drawing last night and kept just sitting down to draw one more leaf...and then one more.

Y'all take care and have a great Monday. It's going to be a busy day for me, I'm sure. Lane

The quilts that didn't ribbon

These are some of the beautiful quilts that didn't ribbon at the quilt show. Just because a quilt didn't ribbon doesn't mean it wasn't a beauty.

I didn't understand the name on this one and didn't get to the write-up to see how she got the name, but I'm sure it meant something.

Soft Yellow Only by Barbara Jarman, quilted by Chris McCaskill

I loved the next quilt very much. It just spoke to me. I want very much to make a winding ways quilt and I just finished Jennifer Chiaverinni's book by the same name. The darker fabric is a musical instrument fabric, mostly stringed instruments and since Rob is learning to play the guitar, I'd love to get my hands on a couple of yards of it. The quilt is a beauty and all her circles were perfect.

Winding Ways by Marilyn Posluszny

This was a kit quilt and everyone just oohed and aahed. We loved it. Now that I know it was a kit, I may try to find it to make for the family.

Traveling Route 66 by Mary Jane Thorp

Of course, I also love this drunkard's path quilt. She did a great job on her circles and there was plenty of variety to keep the viewer interested, even though our photo is kind of murky.

Blue Moon by Duchess Roberts

Okay, so that's all our favorite quilts. There were to star quilts that I didn't get the name or makers name on, so I'm not showing. Hope you've enjoyed this little look at a small guild show. This guild put on the first show that our family attended. And, that year, a man made the best of show quilt, which was a Dear Jane. One of this year's big winners was also a Dear Jane, so all of you that are out there working on that pattern, keep going. They keep winning.

Y'all have a great Wednesday. We'll see ya' round the net. Lane

Back to quilting

Okay, I've pulled myself back from piecing all those BOM's and leader/ender projects and gotten back to quilting the apple themed quilt. And, yes, I am having fun again. I just needed to step away from it for a few days to get back in the mood. I pinned an apple basket motif to the quilt last night and started the quilting while Sydney read aloud to me and this morning I got to work on it for a little while longer. Then, I stole a little extra time before I left for work and worked on it until my bobbin ran dry. I decided that was as good a cue to stop as I was likely to get, so I stepped away and came on in. But, I have to admit, if I get a half a chance, I'll be out of here early and I'll sit back down at that machine for another round. I love the peace of knowing that needle is just going up and down. No surprises. No emergencies. Just me and my machine, doing what we do best.

Tomorrow is the Chisholm Trail quilt show in Round Rock, TX. I can't wait! I've settled on an amount of cash I'm going to take, and it's my goal not to buy any new fabric (haaa haaa haaa...yes, I'm laughing with you cuz we all know better than that!) Okay, I'm back from busting my own gut. Maybe I should just say I don't plan to buy any new fabric and we'll see how it goes from there. What I'd like to find are the bobbin washers. I'd like to think they'll help me regulate my tension a lttle better than I've been able to on either of my machines. I always either have to choose between bobbin pop-up or top thread pop-down. Not a problem when the top and bottom threads match, but so often I want to quilt with different threads on the top and bottom and for now, I'm settling for picking a side for the pop and coloring them with a fabric marker. Think a quilt judge will notice??

Next weekend, I'm taking Saturday and sewing with my mentor on our Indian Orange Peel quilts. Check out this link. This guy from manquilters made the quilt in green and called it Indian Lime Peel. Mine won't be nearly this bright, but isn't that just a fantastic quilt??? Mine is in oranges and grays. This looks tough, but it's just such an easy pattern. It's by Karen K Stone if anyone wants to give it a try. Just don't finish before I do...;-)

Okay, I don't really plug TV shows, but if you're not watching GLEE, then you're really missing out on some really talented young people. The plot is very high school, but the singing is FANTASTIC!!! Rob says the reruns are available on hulu and it would be well worth your time to catch up on the first 4 or 5 episodes. We can blog about how wonderful it is and drum up some more viewers. Hey, I'm shameless. The more people watching, the longer it will stay on the air!

Y'all take care. With my Blogtoberfest commitment, I'll be blogging over the weekend. Maybe I'll post some pics from the show. This time, I'm going to write down the names of the quilts and quilters as I photograph so I can give full credit on the blog. See ya' round the net. Lane

true addiction

Okay, I must be a true addict because even when I don't plan to quilt, I still quilt in one way or another. I didn't plan on doing any sewing last night, but I did. Okay, I didn't actually put fabric into the machine and sew last night, but I did some pinning so that I could do some sewing this morning. How's that?

I found out a couple of weeks ago that Sydney missed the part of language arts classes where they taught her to sound out words. She has a huge vocabulary and uses words appropriately. But, she couldn't take the letters on a page and turn them into a word. I found that out when her teacher this year had us track not only how long she read each day, but how many pages she covered. I found that she could read almost a hundred pages in a half hour. Uh-oh, something's wrong there. She's not a speed reader. Turns out she couldn't answer questions about what she'd read. So, I tried reading the same book as her. I'd read it and then she'd read it and she had to summarize what she'd read to pick out what was important. Couldn't do that either. So, now she reads aloud to me while I sew, or knit, or cook. I'm teaching her to sound out the words and the big reward was the other night when we finished the first book, which she said she'd read in 4th grade, and said it was a really good book this time. And, I have to agree. Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech was a good book. It's about twin orphans that get adopted by a really nice couple, so it was particularly applicable to our family...except the couple in the book were much nicer than Rob and I. We started our next book last night and it's set in Africa and has lots of names of people and things that are native to the region. And, with little prompting, she was able to sound out those words, too. So, now, I have my own little book on tape that I can listen to while I work. I just have to get through the complaining about having to read every night. :-(

All I worked on was putting together the strip sets for my 25 patch blocks for my irish chain. I really enjoy the leader/ender idea. It's like making two quilts at the same time, only one of them goes really slowly. I guess I could have tried doing it while I was paper piecing that Indian Orange Peel, but that seemed to get in the way more than it accomplished. Speaking of the Orange Peel, my mentor and I are getting together in a couple of weeks to work on the layout, so I'll be able to get moving on that one again. I really need to finish this apple theme quilt before then because I know I'm not going to want to stop assembling all those curved seams long enough to finish it later. And, I can't afford to stop, because that usually leads to a UFO and I don't want to be rushed to finish it so that I can enter it in shows in late winter. Plus, if it sits too long, I'll get out or practice quilting apples and leaves and blossoms. There's lots to say about quilting the same shape over and over and over. You get really good at it and I don't want to have to start the learning curve over again.

Okay, that's enough of me rattling on. Hope you guys are all having a great week. Take care and we'll see ya' round the net. Lane

Shhhh! Don't tell my secret.

I quilted until I actually got burned out. I know, you didn't think that would ever happen. I didn't think it would ever happen. I've always thought I could easily just give up work, and food, and sleep and just quilt. Quilt from morning to night (I'd have to stop at night because without a job, there wouldn't be lights). Quilt, quilt, quilt.

But, I took two days off last week and I had the weekend, and I quilted Thursday from the time Sydney left for school until bedtime. I quilted all day Friday again, but after dinner, I decided I needed to spend some family time, so went to the living room with my seam ripper and pulled out a few mistakes. Got up Saturday, and quilted another 3 hours. Then, we went on our road trip. When we got back, I had to spend a couple of hours cleaning up the sewing room so I'd have some moving around space. I had made a real mess drawing motifs and copying them and tracing. There were pieces of freezer and parchment paper everywhere, and stuff I'd traced from and stuff I'd traced onto. When I was done, I just couldn't put that quilt into the machine again, so I decided to do some piecing. I pulled out the featherweight and made a couple of blocks I was behind on the Block Central BOM for this year and there were a half dozen HST blocks and 25- 9 patches that are going to finish at an inch and a half...yes, that's 9 half inch squares in an inch and a half block. Boy, that was fun...or something near fun (there is heavy sarcasm here. I don't usually do miniatures). And, last night, I made a house block for the Forever Green BOM. And I just couldn't work on any more blocks with tiny pieces, so I decided to pull out my leader/ender triple irish chain that got so far off track earlier this year. There was a good bit of seam ripping for that, and some cutting new pieces to substitute for what I previously considered to be light squares, but I'm back in business on that one and it can go back to being a leader/ender again.

I'm taking a couple days off from quilting now, and hope to get back to that apple themed quilt later this week. It's turning out terrific with just some filler and the borders left to go. I drew a basket of apples and flowers and leaves that I'm quilting into the large triangles. The one I did the other day took two hours to quilt and another hour to pull out all the parchment paper. I know what I'm quilting into the narrow inner border, but only have a vague plan for the wider outer border. But, if my brain keeps working like it has so far, I'll have a full fledged plan by the time I need it.

My machines have definitely had a workout. I'd like to oil them tonight and let them sit for a couple of days. And, let me sit for a couple of days to recover from my little quilting vacation. Ain't it always the way? You need to rest up after "resting up". See ya'. Lane

Calgon...oh CALgon

CAL-GON!!!! TAKE ME AWAY!

Jeez, there is just too much going on, and I can't keep up with it. Work has ratcheted up to the point where I don't know whether I'm coming or going. And, I have a new co-worker who is the most pushy, passive-aggressive pain in the butt that I've ever worked with. She's also the first person I've ever worked with that I just don't mind being rude to at all. Normally, if I was rude to someone, I wouldn't rest until I'd apologized and tried to make it all better. But with her, I kinda don't mind if she hates me. Maybe it'll keep her off my back for a little while. Not that I've been really rude to her...yet.

Thank goodness Sydney is in a "good" phase. Since school started, we've had a couple of rounds of showing her that the more effort she puts into something, the less time she has to spend on it. Although, she is pushing me about dressing up for her school photos this year. Don't know why she's developed this thing about wearing T-shirts, but I really want her in something nicer than that for her school pic.

And, my quilting is going well. I finally have all the stitches out that I wanted to remove and am now started putting them back in, in the right colors. If my family will let me, I'm going to lock myself in the sewing room tonight and quilt until my hands get numb... I really need that relaxation right now. You know what I mean. That mind numbing sound of the needle going up and down, thinking of nothing more complex than staying on the lines. Ahhh. Sounds better than chocolate to me right now. But, maybe chocolate will get me through for the day.

Take care and have a great Wednesday! Lane

Sometimes, you have to start over

So, I've managed to rip out all the quilting I put in. Everything except the ditchwork. I realized I had to go back and revisit the plan and when I did, it was not coming out the way I wanted.





It all started with the very center of the quilt, which is red. I used a gold thread to quilt on that and there was a lot of contrast and the quilting really showed up. Then, the next round was a pale green fabric and I used the gold thread on that, too, but the quilting disappeared because there was no contrast. And, further out, there was brown fabric and I used the gold thread there, so I was back to the contrast. My solution was to pull out the quilting on the green fabric and try using a brown thread. That gave me the contrast on all the fabrics and made the quilting really show up. And, it made every mistake show up as well...not just show up, but stand up and do a can-can dance. But, I persevered and finished the 24 inch square center and moved out into the gold sashing, where I used brown thread to keep the contrast going. And, I was not liking it. And, I was not sure what to do about it.





And, then, dear Rob came in and was brave enough to tell me what he thought about it. Now, it's one thing to think I'm making a mistake. I can second guess myself, and say that I'm just being too picky. But it's quite another to have someone else confirm what I'm thinking.





So, out came the seam ripper and I spent all day Saturday pulling out all that intricate quilting that I'd put in. I filled a trash can with thread (and covered the floor with it, too). I had put in 32 2"x4" leaves including veins and I pulled them all. I even redrafted the pattern and made all new parchment paper templates so I could include some echo quilting. After a trip to JoAnn's for red thread to match the center and gold thread to match the sashing, I'm started again. I got all the center re-quilted yesterday and started pulling the quilting out of the sashing last night. I was hoping I could leave the brown thread in the sashing, just because it was a very intricate pattern of flowers and leaves and I was not happy about the time it is taking to rip it out, but after I saw how wonderful the center looks with matching thread, it had to go, too.

I don't know if I've posted a picture of this quilt on this blogsite. I made it in the first class I ever took, which was early this year. Now, I've been quilting for 10 years, but I had never taken a formal class. So, I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave it a try. I like the quilt so much, I decided to enter it in a couple of shows next spring. But that means quilting it. My mentor had some ideas, but I just wasn't getting the same feeling that she did from it, so it sat around for several months until I got the courage to try something of my own. You can't see it, but the lighter fabric in the corner circles is apple blossoms and leaves. I'm recreating those as the theme for the quilting motif. Now that I have the theme and the right supplies and have changed to a machine that will allow me to use a different color thread on the front and back, I think I'm finally on a roll.

Y'all take care and have a great Monday. I'll see ya round blogland! Lane

Quilting and wanting...not a happy combination.

I've been quilting like a madman. I finally got that quilt I made in class earlier this year into the machine and have started the quilting. Seems like I'm taking out as much as I'm putting in, but it is coming out really great! Took a lot of Saturday and half of Sunday to get the ditchwork done, but once that was over, I started flying through leaves and flowers. Well, not flying exactly. The needle is not going to the beat of an 80's disco song. More like a lullaby. I was surprised at how out of practice I am. It takes me about an hour to get warmed up to a good slow speed, but this is the quilt I want to compete next year, so I'd rather take it slow and steady and do my best work. I'm drawing all the motifs myself and then transferring them to parchment with a needle and quilting on the dotted lines. I couldn't decide whether to use the gold thread I bought or the brown thread, so I'm doing parts in brown and parts in gold, depending on what it takes to show up on the fabric piece. My seam ripper is getting a heck of a workout as I change my mind about what looks best (and yes, sometimes I pull out the gold thread, put in the brown, pull that out and go back to the gold again). I accidentally quilted a leaf over a leaf and found out I'm going to want to do some echo stitching. Funny how that turned out. At this rate, I should be finished in, oh, somewhere between two weeks and the middle of February.

Saturday, to celebrate the holiday, we went antiquing and I found a hundred year old Singer treadle that's a STEAL in a shop in a small town near here. It is a beauty with all the original gold decaling (and it is covered with it) I tried to buy it, but Rob and Sydney both mutinied and basically dragged me out of the chair I was sitting on and told me I didn't have a place for it. I know I don't have a place for it, but that doesn't mean I don't WANT it...real bad. Did I tell you it's a beauty and a STEAL? I told both of them that if they didn't leave me alone I was going to find a place for it...on their side of the bed, but they were unyielding, even when I pretended to be upset and sulk. For an hour, everything they said to me, I replied with "you don't have room for it". Didn't matter what they said, from food to scenery. you don't have room for it.

Sunday, Rob relented after I showed him exactly where I would have put it and offered to take me back, but the store isn't open on Sunday (small towns, humph). Maybe I can talk him into taking me back this Saturday. I've got my fingers crossed. Yall cross yours too. It won't fit in the car or I wouldn't need him. Rats!

I know I don't have room for it. But, I want it. And, what am I going to sew on after the downfall of society when there's no electricity anymore? Answer me that! See how I went from want it to need it??

Y'all take care and have a great evening. We're all fighting allergies...ragweed, mold, dust, oh my! Lane

Ho, Ho, Ho...

Merry Christmas in September. It's finally finished. I put the last miter in last night and we took a couple of photos. Today, it's gone to my mentor for her to look at. It still needs anything that would be 3 dimensional, like buttons and bells and ornaments, but other than that, I'm done.

I challenged myself to include as many fabrics as I could, so each of the colored fabrics in the 2 inch squares or the half square triangles could only be used in one square and one triangle. It couldn't be repeated anywhere else in the quilt. The lighter halves of the hsq's do repeat tho. My mentor and I together didn't have enough neutrals to avoid repeating there. And, within the larger blocks, no fabric is repeated across blocks except the greens used in the trees. I repeated them so I'd have consistency in the trees. And, there isn't one cmas themed fabric in the whole thing.

This was a very fun quilt to piece and I learned so much about machine applique! I used freezer paper on the back, stitched it down with a narrow, monofilament blind hem stitch and when the backing fabric and paper were cut and peeled away, I went over the edges with a machine blanket stitch in a 40/3 black cotton thread. I did have to fusible web all the stars. I wasn't satisfied with my ability to get the edges to fold over the paper, so I gave up and fused them and blanket stitched.

After that, I started getting set up to quilt a quilt I made in a class earlier this year. I have had it pin basted for a while, but had too much else going on to start the quilting. Now I need the pins so I can quilt this one, so I'm going to get started this weekend. I have everything set up, and cleared off. The machine is threaded and there's a new needle. The ironing board has been lowered and it's at my left elbow. Now, can I keep from getting distracted long enough to get it rolled up and in the machine? Heck, no! When I spread it out this morning, I figured out what has always bothered me about the top. It's three badly placed pieces of focus fabric that always catch my eye and need to be replaced with something else, something darker. So, I'm going to applique new pieces over them tonight before I start the quilting and cut them out. Then, it will be perfect??????

Now, what else could distract me?

Y'all take care and have a wonderful holiday weekend. We have nothing planned so I hope to get lots of quilting time in, around our normal stuff, and some resting up and preparing for next week. See ya' round the net! Lane