We want pictures, not a belly itcher!

So I promised pictures last time. I've been working on Istanbul semi-diligently. One of these days, I'll learn to really look at patterns before committing. I love the big blocks of appliqué flowers, but failed to grasp that there were really 24 pieces to each flower block, times three flower blocks equals lots of pieces to trace, cut and appliqué. So much appliqué that I was worried I would run out of thread (you laugh, but I am serious... I only purchased one spool of coordinating thread per color. Totally against my better judgement.) Once I got through that, the piecing of the top went quickly, helped by the fact that I absolutely adore the fabric. I am so glad that I plan to keep this one because I don't think I could part with it. Am now at a screeching halt as I failed to notice that the pattern called for a thin border of the cream. See, this is irritating because this is the second time I have run out of this particular fabric and I have not been able to find it in my local stores, which means waiting for another fabric delivery. The problem is that I started the pattern by making use of a large number of Moda snow layer cake squares I had left over. They weren't big enough for the appliqué blocks, so I had to order more yardage. That's where I failed to notice that I needed even more for the border. Oh well, FQS will be happy to see me again, I am sure.











It was a tough week in my little quilting world. I had the top done on a gift that just didn't look quite right. I hemmed and hawed and then ripped the borders off and fixed it. Now I heart it again. (no pics yet, the recipient may stumble across this blog and then the cat is out of the bag) The search for backing was time consuming, but the fabric's in the mail...

Speaking of backing
What happened to all the cute flannel? A girl can't catch a break. I compromised on backing for Istanbul and The Gift. I couldn't find flannel I liked for either, so settled for cute cotton that was extra wide. I am also on the hunt for cute flannel to back two baby quilts. I have the most delicious set of fabrics for a darling basket weave pattern that am curious to try. Normally backing would not stop me from getting started, but this particular pattern is quilt as you go, which means that I need to baste all three layers before I can start. Doh! Backing...




In other news, I bought a craft magazine with holiday projects (unseasonably early for me, I know!). The Wee One and I have some felt projects to make together, but these little trees spoke to me. I made one in traditional Christmas colors and one in funky retro colors. They are fun and pretty quick to make.







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Adios

No, I am not saying goodbye to quilting. Adios, the literal translation being "to God" is the philosophy that I have adopted with regard to parting with my quilts. Somber topic, but wait, there's more. I had a dream last night about my dad and a bunch of UFOs (unfinished objects). To understand how these tie together, I should esplain you Lucy.

A few years ago, I decided to make my dad a quilt for his bed. He was living far away at the time and I thought he needed a reminder that we love him. He seemed pleased enough with it and I was happy that he had a physical reminder of us. Fast forward a few years. I have never seen that quilt again. I've thought about asking, but am afraid of the answer. If he doesn't have it anymore, my feelings will be terribly hurt. By not asking, I am making myself practice Adios, or letting go.

In my early quilting years, I gave my quilts to anyone who wanted one. People I barely knew scored hours of my painstaking labor. This was before I had The Wee One, before I knew the difference between cheap and nice fabric, and the joy of sewing on a really nice machine. In other words, it was just a little hobby. I wasn't even taking photos of my quilts at that point. As my hobby grew more consuming (of time, money, etc), I started to get a little pickier about the recipients of my quilts. The projects became personal, each taking on a life of its own during the process. I realized that the recipients could hardly be expected to ever be fully aware of the time, effort, money and love that gets poured into each quilt. If I was going to give a quilt, I had to give it freely, without any expectation of true appreciation. I have to let it go with God.

So back to my dream. It was very vivid. I was walking thought my dad's house (not his current one, but somehow I knew where I was) and I came across a chair piled high with what looked like blankets. As I started digging through the pile, I realized I was looking for the quilt I made him. But every blanket in the pile was actually an unfinished quilt and I never found his quilt before I woke up.

I'm not a dream interpreter and tend toward the most literal interpretation when I attempt. I currently have a number of projects going on in various states of completion depending on fabric orders. This could explain the pile of UFOs. I didn't realize I was feeling anxious about this, but some of them are gifts, so that could be the case I suppose. The part about my dad suggests that I am not as zen with my Adios as I would smugly lead you to believe. I guess it is a work in progress.

Thanks for indulging my mental meandering. I have been sewing and loving my current projects. Will have pictures next time.


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Continuing the trend

What Trend?

That would be both the sewing and blogging trend. As usual, I find that doing too much of one precludes doing too much of the other. I don't know why I've got the sewing bug of late, but am taking advantage of the energy.

SuperNate

Am very happy to report that SuperNate was delivered and received with excitement. The label has my favorite Shel Silverstein poem on it. It seemed made for SuperNate.






I <3 Kate Spain Well at least her fabric lines. And I am serious, this is love! OCQ gave me a jelly roll of Fandango for Christmas. I knew at once that this would be a quilt for me in a way that my living room quilt never was. The fabric is delicious. I almost think I could be sustained for a while just by that fabric. You think I am a raving lunatic (probably right, but thats a topic for another day), but seriously, this fabric is so awesomely fantastic that I didn't even mind the cutting and ironing. And you know how I loathe ironing. And the pattern I chose has loads of ironing. Bt each pressing session gave me more time to fall in love with the fabric. Not a bad one in the bunch. But I do have my favorites. Yummy.



Am also totally and completely obsessed with her new line, Terrain. My layer cake arrived just as I reached a stopping point with my Fandango quilt, heretofore referred to as Istanbul (not Constantinople). I drooled over it for a week before I cut into it for another new project. I am counting on the siren like call of the fabrics to ensure these two projects don't end up in my UFO pile...

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What? Blogging? But August starts with an "A"!

But it's OK, because I meant to post this in July, only my clumsy typing on my iPad caused me to delete a half written post. I had a temper tantrum and refused to blog for awhile. Or went on vacation. Whatever.

Dino-Mite
Sew, speaking of said vacation, I promised the Wee One that I would finish his dino quilt before we left on vacation. I spent a lovely birthday day with OCQ sewing most of the day. I got most of the quilting done on the dinos. It was kind of plain jane (in the ditch quilting on the big squares and then just echo quilting around the applique) and I felt badly, like my baby wasn't getting my best, even though I used glow in the dark thread to add to the cool factor (totally worked, BTW. Wee One thinks it is "awesome". And it really does glow). I had two spools of the glow thread (are you really surprised?), so I decided to add some loops to the small border. As I was getting loopy, I started added in words like "cretaceous" and "stomp" and eventually added in all of my label information. It took some concentration to link my letters correctly, but it turned out super cute. That was so fun that I added dino foot prints to the big border, also in glow thread. Got it bound and washed the day before we left on vacation.







Is that a body in your batting or are you just happy to see me?
Sew I mentioned a birthday of sewing with OCQ. Our day also included a trip to the fabric store with a coupon and sale. The nice 90" wide cotton batting was on sale for a RIDICULOUS price, so we of course bought 20 yards of it to split. Wanna know what 10 yards of batting looks like all rolled up? Looks like you are hiding bodies.




Moving on
Well, the birthday sewday was busy! While I was sewing, OCQ gave an awesome present and cut my fabric for my latest project, SuperNate. My cousin's 2 1/2 year old son was recently diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a fairly rare childhood cancer. The prognosis is good, but he needs chemo to complete the treatment. They are far away, so we can't do much but pray and send food. Thought a quilt would be a little bit like sending a hug. With the awesome cutting assistance combined with some hubby travel time, I got that sucker pieced, layered and quilted within a week. Finishing the binding, hopefully this week.

C'est finit

It's true... I work better under pressure! With the deadline of the home visit looming, I managed to get the binding on How Do I Love Thee just in time to sew it on in the car. I washed it at my mom's on Father's Day morning and gave it to my darling little nephew that afternoon. It is so darned cute that I am seriously considering only making bright baby quilts from now on.













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Oh the irony

Those who enjoyed the threadaholic post will appreciate the irony of what I have to say next. I have a new name for "How do I love thee". It is "The Finisher". I finished 5 spools of thread on that baby quilt. In its defense, none of the 5 were brand new spools, but in various stages of use. I powered through the finishing of two spools, calling upon my wealth of extra thread, but was forced to admit defeat when I ran out of the clear thread I was using on the top. The bummer was that I was literally 3" away from being done with that part of the quilting and it was Sunday night. No fabric stores open. So I poured a glass of wine and took a bath.

Terrible photo, but you can at least see the piecing madness.

Sew Sue Me

I know... How is it that I always seem to post in January, June or July? Some sort of odd cosmic quilting thing. Anyway, here's an update (are you sitting down?): haven't actually finished anything since January. Shocking, I know. As I was poised on the edge of greatness, I am a little surprised myself.

Dark and Stormy
Hard to believe that this one isn't done yet. I did mean to quilt this at a meet up in January, but got hung up on backing fabric. I wanted flannel, the the extra wide stuff so I wouldn't have to piece it. Couldn't find any I liked, so I used it as an excuse to work on other stuff. As of today, it is finally basted and is in the quilting queue for tomorrow's quilting meet up. I mean it this time. Really. *UPDATE* (Is it possible to actually update something that hasn't been posted yet?) D&S is quilted! Queued up for kamikaze sewing on my upcoming road trip. Should be delivered by the end of June. It really is prettier up close though.


















Dino-mite
This one actually took me a lot longer to piece than I thought. Those darn little dinos would not let themselves be appliquéd. I tried raw edge and immediately ripped it out. Same for the blanket edge stitch. Ended up with good old fashioned satin stitch. Which took quite a long time. Got all the blocks pieced and decided it was still wanting something. I proceeded to add 8 inches of border (the Wee One picked out the second border from another quilt I was working on because, "Mama, it looks like the sky."). Ah, that looked better. Went to piece the backing. Sadly, I had measured backing for a borderless quilt. So, 8 inches. On each side. Um, yeah. So when I went to purchase more backing fabric (a crazy conglomeration of cartoon dinos picked out by the Wee One), of course we could not find any more. Unfortunately for me, I took the Wee One with me to get more fabric. Enter the Quilting Moral Dilemma: Aesthetics vs. Recipient Desire. Since I could not get the original fabric, I wanted a coordinating fabric. The Wee One, however, caught sight of some Licensed Character theme flannel and immediately started campaigning for an entirely new backing. Having three yards of the crazy dinos at home, there was no way I was scrapping that for an entirely new backing. Not to mention the new favorite fabric felt like it was made of cardboard paper mâché. Eeeewwwww. There was no way I was sewing that to a quilt. Hysterical melt down in the quilt shop, but I stood my ground and we left with a coordinating flannel. That too has been basted and is ready for quilting. Still thinking about how to quilt it though.

No borders


How do I love thee? Let me count the squares. And triangles.
I think I mentioned at some point that my baby sister was having a baby of her own. We found out she was having a boy after I had picked the perfect pattern and fabric for a little girl. And had ordered both. So, baby boy. Pink jelly roll, not so helpful. Maybe I can still use the pattern though with some more boyish fabric. Except that the pattern is pure craziness! It is alternating strips of pieced 2" squares with solid strips appliquéd with teeny triangles. I thought there must be a Super Secret piecing method. Um, no. I am piecing 273 2.5" squares. How much do I love you Everett? 273 tiny squares. And another 60 some odd teeny triangles. That, my friends, is love. But it is sooooooo cute.

Lofty goals and grand promises

What's a new year without some unrealistic goal setting and crazy declarative statements?

This year I will:

1. Only buy the thread I need (and I will work on using a widely acceptable definition of the term "Need")
2. Finish and deliver my baby quilts in a timely manner ("Timely" being defined as within the first six months of the child's birth)
3. Blog more often than quarterly.
4. Read the directions to a pattern all the way through before cutting any fabric.
5. Organize my stash.
6.

Oh crap. Isn't this embarrassing (and typical...)? I apparently started this in January. Maybe #6 should be "I will only blog during months starting with "j". Must make up for lost time I suppose. I have been sewing though. Does that count for anything?

We're on a roll now!

That's right kids, it's not yet the end of January and I have finished not one, but two projects! That's half of what I completed in an entire YEAR last year. So what if neither of them are quilts and both items are for me? Don't rain on my parade.

Farmer's Market/Beach Bag
So very much love my new bag! It was reasonably easy to make, big enough to be useful, small enough to finish before I got bored or frustrated. I think I could actually fit a small child in it and, thanks to the nylon webbing sewn in to the handles, I think it may actually stand up to the weight. The only odd thing are the pockets inside. I was so intent on following the directions (sewing anything with three dimensional shape requires intense concentration on my part... the importance of spatial awareness rearing it's multidimensional head again) for the pockets that I failed to double check their usefulness. There are three pockets along one side, two at 5" wide on each end and one huge one in the middle at 12". Oh yeah, and they are 11" deep! Since it is supposed to be a Farmer's Market bag, the only (silly) thought that came to mind was a specialized cucumber pocket. Seriously, I don't know what else will fit in there. Asparagus? Carrots, but only a few? But I do really love the bag. Also happy to (smugly) report that I finished two random spools of thread on the piecing of this bag.

Front of Bag


Back


Inside (look close for the cucumber pocket!)


Dark and Stormy
Horrible thought the other day and I was purchasing batting for this project. Because I used batiks, I had to prewash all of my fabric. That means I also need to prewash (and therefore IRON) all of the backing fabric as well. PPPPPPPPPPBBBBBBBBBBTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHH.

Luc's Dinos
Luc has been watching me make quilts for other people for a while now. A few months ago, he asked me to make him a dinosaur quilt. Even though he has several beautiful and well loved quilts already, how could I say no? Keepsake Quilting had a darling set of precut dino shapes in a variety of fabrics. I ordered those and let Luc pick out some fun dino flannel for the backing. OCQ found some cute Michael Miller retro dino fabric for the front. I got the dinos and checked them out for applique ease only to discover, to my utmost horror, THEY HAVE NO STICKY STUFF ON THE BACK! Seriously? Who does that? Thank goodness Quilt Moxie and I went in on an entire bolt of fusible stuff a few years ago. (Yes QM, I STILL have my share of that) Once I get the dinos appliqued, it will go fast. I hope I finish it before dinos are out of fashion.

2011: The Year in Preview

Sew I am looking forward to a fun project filled year. A least that is how it is starting out. I have loads of ambition and hope Reality does not take too hard of a swipe at me, especially once the weather warms up and I get to use my new paddle board... But the weather has been perfect lately for my favorite indoor hobby. I am pleased to report that I have even finished my first project for the new year! I was the lucky recipient of an iPad this Christmas and wanted a fun cover for it. I found a nice looking one on line made of grey felted wool. It was a little pricey, but made of nice wool and looked very chic. But I wanted another color and the option to add a monogram or something personalized. They did not offer that and when I looked closer at the cover, I though to myself, "Self, I think we can make one of those!" So Me, Myself, and Quilt Moxie (brought along or technical, moral and coupon support) toddled on to the fabric store. Do you know how expensive 100% wool is (btw thanks Quilt Moxie!)? Sheesh. But totally worth it to personalize it. I had a vague idea of what I wanted it to look like, took a few loosey goosey measurements and off I went. I think it came out pretty well. I freehanded my initials on the front, hand sewed a flower on the back and used one of my fancy stitches to decorate the border.




What else... What else?
Lots of fun planned for 2011. I have my farmers market bag pieced and need some fusible interfacing. I accidentally bought sew in interfacing since I had the Wee One with me at the fabric store. So that project is on temporary hold, but I am pleased with the progress. Also finished piecing the top for Dark and Stormy. Am saving the quilting for a meet up in early February. The binding will be shoulder aching, but the recipient is worth it. I have a few baby quilts planned and am so excited that one is for my baby sister! I haven't picked a pattern yet, but am going to try to get it one by the time the baby is born. That's May. We'll see. So far, that's all I have planned. I received a lovely jelly roll of Fandango, but so far am jealously guarding that one for me. No plans yet.

Those who can, do. Those who don't, blog?!?

Sew, don't think it has escaped my wandering attention that I haven't posted since July. I hope my three faithful readers do not think that I have not been sewing since July. Ho no my little pumpkin muffins, I have occasionally and sporadically been productive, in my own way. It's just that when I have the time and motivation to sew, I don't have the time or motivation to do other things, like blog about sewing. You see my quandary, yes? I suppose I can provide an update on my previously mentioned projects.

Life Goes On (oh bla di)
Finished my living room quilt and absolutely love it. It is HUGE and warm and looks great hanging on the beautiful quilt rack my DH made for me in the wood shop. Slightly irritated that one of the beige fabrics greyed out in the wash, but I suppose that is one of the hazards of not pre washing your fabrics. It's really too bad that I hate ironing fabric so much, but I am in the process of getting over it (just the greyed fabric. I do not plan to ever get over my hatred of ironing).


Pumpkin Madness
Thusly called because it involved pumpkins in the pattern and madness on my part. I have had a cute pattern for a fall table runner for at least 5 years now, along with some fabulous swirly pumpkin perfect fabric. I decided that 2010 was the Year of the Pumpkin Table Runner. Decided that several days before Thanksgiving, I did. Whatever, table runners are small, right? So what if my in laws were due for a visit and that meant I had to get my sewing stuff put away? I managed to get the thing quilted the day the in laws showed up. That left me a few days to hand sew the binding down. Which of course I left to Thanksgiving day. Thankfully my DH does most of the turkey day cooking, so I was free to finish the table decor.





I think that is all that I managed to complete in 2010. Add in the two baby quilts I made and delivered and that brings the grand total of completed projects to 4. Looks unimpressive written down, but sheesh people, I do other stuff too, like blog! Oh wait...