Indigo Threads

Barbecued Soup

2012-01-22T17:59:00.000-08:00

What a crazy title, huh? Well, you'll find out what it's all about if you just keep reading.

As most of you know, the Northwest was hit with one doozie of a storm. It has been quite a week. This post is going to have lots of pictures, none of which involve quilts. The next post will have quilt-y pix, I promise!

Last post, I left you with some snow pictures. Well, it got better, then it got worse. On Monday, I had no problem getting out to Physical Therapy. The roads were wet but clear. I also took the opportunity to go to the store and stock up, as the weather prediction was for more storm coming our way. I'm sure glad I did.

Here is what my "snow gauge" looked like on Wed. We got at least a foot of snow, but it kept melting and then snowing some more, so we never had the whole amount at one time. It was exciting and pretty. I love snow when I don't have to go out in it.

Wednesday night the snow stopped, but then about midnight the freezing rain started. It kept up for 12 hours. All night long we heard what sounded like rifle shots, but were actually tree branches snapping off. They made a mighty crashing on their way down. Our son, who's living with us now, has a dog that is a bit high-strung, to say the least. She totally freaked out about the noises and barked like a maniac all night long, every time she heard one of these "rifle shots". No one got much sleep.

This is the Japanese Maple out my front window on Thursday morning. Totally iced over and beautiful. I love the lone, stubborn leaf hanging in there! This poor tree bent over so much that the branches were touching the ground. We were afraid we were going to lose it.

This is the Japanese Maple by our back deck. Also totally iced over and beautiful.

By the end of that day, we were afraid we were going to lose this one too. Look at the small fir tree in the foreground. Totally bent over under the weight of the snow and ice.

So, because of all the ice and the falling branches, we woke up to no power and no cable on Thursday morning. That meant no heat, no lights, no phone, and very limited water usage as the septic pump is electric too. We did have hot water though. We managed to do alright. Lots of clothes and all the quilts came in quite handy, as well. LOL And if I got too cold, I got up and did my exercises or swept the floor, so something to be moving and get warm. We had flashlights and one old transistor radio that still works. Our wonderful next-door neighbor ran an extension cord from his generator so that we could keep our refrigerator running. That was such a life-saver. We would have lost a lot of food in the fridge and the freezer without that. Our high temp (outside) on Thursday was 33 degrees, with about 53 degrees inside the house.

We managed lunch on Thursday with no problem, but dinner was another story. We had some discussions of what to do. Most of the meat was frozen, and we knew it would never thaw out without a microwave. We finally decided to uncover the barbecue and use it to heat up the leftover homemade chicken soup. Thus, barbecued soup! I used my Mom's old cast aluminum pot. It's probably older than I am. I love that pot! The BBQ didn't hurt it at all. It didn't even get black on the bottom.

DH and The Kid chillaxed in the snow with their beers while they tended the barbecue. That was the best soup ever! It helped a lot to have some warm food.

Thursday evening we hung a flashlight from the light fixture over the kitchen table and played Yahtzee and cards. It was getting pretty chilly, but we had a good time. The poor kitties were really getting cold, so they cuddled up in quilts too. You'd think, with those fur coats, that they would be fine, but no. They had to have quilts.

In the evening, it started warming up outside. The temps started slowly climbing and the ice was melting. About 1 am Friday morning we started getting high winds. We were worried about what that would do to all the trees.

By Friday morning when we got up, the house was down to 48 degrees inside. It warmed up some when everyone finally got up and got together in one room. But it was sure getting cold. I was starting to worry on Friday, because the radio news was saying it could be early next week before everyone got their power back! So, we were ready to dig in. We were sure missing our computers and phones. The cell phones had no signal, so they were pretty useless. And I was missing being able to sew. I couldn't even do hand work because it was so dark and gloomy.

Finally, about 4 pm on Friday afternoon, the power came on! Yay! The heat ran for 5 hours solid that evening! And I really, really enjoyed my hot shower. It was so nice to be warm again.

Saturday I really needed to go to the store, so I braved the trip. It was really pretty easy, as most of the snow was melting into slush. The store was operating on generators, but there were plenty of supplies. And the store was packed!

What was amazing was all the damage from the ice and the winds. This picture is of the birch trees right outside the grocery store.

This picture and the next show the street just over from us. On Friday AM so many trees were down that the street was impassable.

This picture and the next show our backyard today.

The Kid and his dog in the yard.

The two Japanese Maples survived just fine, but we lost the plum tree. The weight of the ice just pulled the whole thing over and uprooted it. I don't think it can be saved - too many roots were snapped off.

Here's the pile of the biggest branches that DH and The Kid picked up today. That's a six foot fence! There is a LOT more work to be done in the yard, but we're very grateful that we survived as well as we did. We had no damage to us, the house or the cars.

We're all a little surprised at how tired this whole adventure made us. We all slept about 12 hours both Thursday and Friday nights, and we're still tired.

But the next time the weather report says a big storm is coming, I think we'll be quicker to stock up on batteries for the flashlights and the radio, and get some food that doesn't need to be thawed or cooked! And maybe a snow shovel.

Snow Day!

2012-01-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

We had our first significant snow this winter in the last 24 hours. We've gotten about 2 inches so far, with more on the way.

Here's a photo of the backyard this afternoon, with lots of snow coming down. It did this off and on all day, so I called it a "snow day". Fortunately, no one had to go anywhere today. We're far enough out in the boonies that we don't get plowed. They plow the highway which is about 2 miles from here. It warmed up enough today that some melted, but now we're below freezing again, so there's ice under all the snow. I have to go to P.T. tomorrow, but not until early afternoon, so hopefully it will warm up enough to have the ice on the road melt before I get out there.

So, due to a "snow day", I couldn't possible do anything other than sew. *grin* Here's what I was working on:

My Crumbs quilt. I got this put together the other day, and then decided it wasn't long enough. So I was making more blocks to add one more row. You can see that Shade was supervising me. I decided that this final row was a "design opportunity" and made some blocks just for this. I took some of my Parts Department blocks and leftovers and rejects and used them as the starting point for the blocks. I added a rejected "S", a wonky star, a little heart and so on. I also added some fabrics that are favorites or significant to me. That was fun and it didn't take too long. I managed to get that row finished and sewn together before dinner, but still have to sew it to the top. Then it's time for borders. I think I know what I'll be doing. I can't wait to get this done - I'm so excited about it!

My guild is doing a Crumb block workshop this coming Friday. I and another lady did a demo on crumb blocks at the quilt show, and everyone wants to have an intensive lesson on doing these. Since we have a lot of scraps left from the quilt show (we were selling scraps next to the crumb demo), we'll make those into blocks for charity quilts. It should be fun. So I want to get my top mostly done. I only had 3 rows done at the quilt show. The other lady does bigger pieces and a more controlled color scheme for her crumbs, and I want to show the other end of the spectrum. In other words, my usual crazy-ness!

Actually, this crumb quilt is going to be my entry (only one?) in the Scrap Attack Quilt-Along that Rachel Hauser is hosting over on her blog Stitched in Color. She's challenging quilters to use up some of their scraps. Since that's my favorite kind of quilt, of course I've got to do it. If you interested too, go here. Fortunately, she's not requiring that the quilts be quilted and bound - whew! And I already have enough crumb blocks sewn for another 2 (at least!) quilts. The one above is all for me, so the others may be charity quilts. I haven't decided yet.

I haven't made any more progress on the D9P I Spy quilt. I'm still debating what I want to do for the border. I'm tempted to just sew plain borders on to get it done, but that sounds pretty boring to me. So, I'm still considering possibilities. I don't have too long to debate with myself. The quilt needs to be done in a month, which is when DGD's birthday happens. Do you have a favorite border technique that you use? I'm sure open to suggestions if you have some!

Getting There

2012-01-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone for the well-wishes! I'm making a good recovery. No more sling, as of Wednesday. I can shower and dress by myself again, which is so nice, although I still have to adapt for the left arm as I have some trouble getting it up very high or putting it behind my back. I'm back to most of my usual activities, which is good and bad. I had to actually cook the other night, and wash dishes too. I really didn't miss that! *grin* And Monday I "get" to start doing Physical Therapy. But, on the plus side, I finally got some sewing done!

I started with a few string blocks, while I had the sling on. Now I have graduated to more precise sewing. When I did my clean-up of the quilt studio, I finally found the I Spy blocks for DGD's quilt. Yay! So, I got those up on the design wall the other day, and now they're all sewn together.

This pattern is actually a Disappearing Nine Patch. All the I Spy blocks are going every which way. I think one could go insane trying to figure out how to keep all the images right-side up when you're doing this pattern, so I just didn't even try. Besides, I think this makes it more interesting. There's no right or wrong side up to it, so when you're using the quilt, it all works. That's my theory anyway.

Now I'm auditioning something for the outer border. I think I've decided on a solid green fabric, which is not what's in the photo. It was tough. I auditioned at least 10 or 15 fabrics. I hadn't planned on an inner border, but it seemed to be needed. The center is so busy it needs a "stop" before the purple border.

The other project I'm beginning is a "Pet Robin", which my guild is doing for our Block of the Month this year. This idea is from Nancy Chong. It's where you do the concept of a Round Robin, but you do your own quilt, not passing it around from person to person. We each wrote a suggestion for the next step, put them all in a bag and drew one out. Our first step will be to add applique. Each month we'll do the same thing for the next step. I haven't even got a first block done yet. I had a hard time deciding whether or not to do this. Now I'm still trying to decide what to do! I think I'll be different, and make mine wonky. It sounds like more fun to me. And it probably won't be very big. I may start with a block that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 to 10 inches.

Well, off to do more! Happy quilting!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2012! I am not sad to see 2011 leave, as it wasn't my best year.

I get to start the new year wearing a sling. I had surgery on Tuesday last - the 27th - on my formerly broken arm (my fall in Fall 2009) to take out the hardware that was put in to repair the break. Fortunately, it's my off hand (left arm). So I can do a few things for myself - like type one-handed!

The surgery went well. I was home 6 hours after I left the house. The drugs I got controlled the pain well and I was taking Tylenol in 2 days. I slept in the recliner for the first few days (with one or the other of the kitties sleeping on my chest keeping me warm), but spent all of last night in my own bed! Yay!

I'm doing fine and probably using my arm more than I should. This is easy compared to having a broken arm! The only issues I'm having are that my shoulders are getting pretty cramped in spite of the exercises I'm doing, and the tape over the bandages is starting to itch quite a bit. That doesn't come off until Wed. when I go to the post-op appointment. So, no real complaints, just some whining. The best part is no housework or cooking!! (I really like that part) DH is a champ at taking care of everything. Sorry, he's taken! *smug grin*

Unfortunately, not much sewing will be happening for a few more days. In good news, I did find the missing blocks for my DGD's quilt! It was like an archaeological dig in the quilt studio! But it's 95% clean - just a few bags of projects to find places for - and ready and waiting for me! I'm anxious to get going on it.

I'd like to thank all my bloggy friends for your friendship, your sweet comments and your wonderful blogs. Even when I can't sew or blog, you keep me feeling like I'm part of your lives, you make me laugh and I love seeing what you're working on. I wish each and every one of you a wondeful 2012, filled with what you love the most!

Random Christmas-y Stuff

2011-12-18T23:10:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy around here - after all, it is the season, right? I've been trying to get this posted for a week now.

Here's my oldest Christmas quilt. I made this back in 1980-something. I don't remember where I found the pattern, but piecing those letters was a challenge for me at that time. It's very graphic with those bright colors, and I don't know that I would pick those fabrics again! But it's OK. I still enjoy it.

Here is my big mistake - intricate quilting on a busy fabric. Can you see the "Merry Christmas" that I quilted? Pretty hard to see, isn't it? Can you see the holly leaf on the left border? I think those show up fairly well, but I sure learned my lesson about quilting the busy fabric. Sharon over at Grass Roots Quilting blog talked about this a while back, which reminded me of this wallhanging.

Last week we went to see the Zoo Lights at the zoo in Tacoma. This shot is overlooking part of the zoo. We'd never been before, and it was a lot of fun! There are millions of LED lights all over everything in the zoo. There were only a couple of animals to be seen. We saw a sleeping tiger and we were ogled by a shark at the aquarium. I think he was looking for a hand-out.

Here is my favorite display - the purple tree! Isn't it awesome?

We'd never been to the zoo before, so I have no idea how it normally looks, but I sure enjoyed the zoo lights! One of these days, we'll have to go back when the weather is good and in the daylight.

I've been working off-and-on at tying the corduroy quilt. Not making much progress so far - I just don't have enough time to spare right now.

I've pretty much finished cleaning the quilt studio but have had no time to go in there to play. I have a few Christmas presents to get sewn this week, so I do need to get in there. I've mostly finished shopping, I have some wrapping to do and all my baking, but I am hopeful that I can get in the studio! Besides, I need to go play with fabric for my sanity!

Happy Quilting!

A Lazy Sunday

2011-12-04T15:44:00.001-08:00

Here are the Trip Around the World blocks that I started for Block Lotto. This was the block for November. They look pretty good, don't they? Well, what you can't see is that they're the wrong size. I was aiming for 12 1/2 inches (raw edge) and what I got ranged from 12 3/4 to 13 inches. I was using my little Brother travel machine, and apparently I've not been getting a true 1/4 inch seam allowance on it. Rats. I tried and tried and still couldn't get it right. *sigh*

So, I tried something else. I got out my ruler and the painter's tape and marked where the fabric should be for a true 1/4 inch seam allowance. I cleaned out the lint (like that would help?) and then decided that I should replace the needle while I was at it. It had been a while. So, got the new needle in and took a couple of stitches slowly and carefully to make sure I had actually put the needle in the right place. Guess what? I think I didn't get it right. After those two stitches, the machine made a kind-of-funny noise and there was just a stub of metal where the needle should be! Ack!

So, since neither DH nor I could get the plate off the machine to find the needle, AND I have a service contract that means I pay NOTHING for service (I LOOOVE that!), I decided that the machine needs to go to the shop and have a needle-ectomy. At that point, I also decided that it wasn't the right day for me to be sewing. I quietly turned out the light in the quilt studio and shut the door behind me.

A few days later, I went back into the quilt studio, hauled out my trusty Bernina, and made 8 blocks (the correct size!) for the Block Lotto. Whew! I found my "sewing mojo" again! Now I just have to get these in a couple of envelopes to send off to the Block Lotto winners. And I'm sad that I didn't win this month. :(

Now, I'm free to start work on my Christmas sewing. Well, AFTER I clean up the quilt studio. The piles of fabrics and projects is getting too deep to be able to actually accomplish anything in there. The stacks keep sliding over and off onto the floor. And there is only about 8 inches square of surface on the cutting table that is free of "stuff". Ugh. I don't really want to clean up, but it is time. Maybe I'll be able to find the blocks for DGD's quilt that I've "lost" in there. If I'm not back in 2 days, send in the Search and Rescue team. I may be buried alive!

My First Quilt

2011-11-28T16:31:00.001-08:00

Bonnie Hunter, over on Quiltville, had photos and the story of her first quilt, and is asking for us to post photos of our first quilt and its story too. If you visit her here, you can see lots of first quilts.

It took a bit of digging in the blanket chest, but I finally found this beauty! (If you double click the picture, it will biggify so you can really enjoy it!)

This is the first quilt I ever worked on. This was back in 1969 or 1970, I believe. My sister and I had a lot of scraps leftover from all the clothes we had sewn, and one summer we decided it was time to make a quilt from those scraps. I really don't remember how we did it, but we must have used some kind of a template, because those squares are all the same size. We put in everything we had. A lot of cotton fabrics (including kettlecloth, anybody else remember that stuff?), corduroy, wool and even some velvet from a prom dress that my sister made. Somewhere in the midst of the making of this quilt, I got married and left home, so my sister actually finished this quilt. There's a couple of rows that are offset from the next one. I think she decided that the quilt needed to be bigger and added those rows later. There are ties on only two rows that don't go through to the back and that left side just kind of disappears at the edge. The backing fabric is bright red (still!) and seems to be a decorator weight. The quilt is funky, but fun!

You know, I remember most of these fabrics, but many of them I can't remember what the original outfit was!

Here's a closeup shot. You can see wool, corduroy, kettlecloth and plain cotton fabrics. Look at that chocolate brown with the turquoise flowers! It looks just like the fabrics that are coming out now. LOL I remember my youngest commenting that those were cool fabrics, but then he was horrified to learn that we actually WORE them! In PUBLIC!

So, fast forward about 10 years. Here is the first quilt that I actually made. This was made in 1981. I decided that I was going to make a 9-patch pillow, like I had seen in some country magazine. Well, when I got out my sewing scraps, there were so many that I wanted to use because of the memories associated with them, that the pillow grew into this quilt! I had to go buy more fabric to have enough to finish the quilt to a good size.

I remember the kids helping me pick out which fabrics to include and my DH helping me to lay out the squares on the floor. I backed it with plain white fabric (a sheet?) and I tied it with white acrylic yarn. Then, Christmas Eve around midnight, my Mom helped me to put on the binding. Oh that binding! It is atrocious! It was that packaged bias binding, in white, there is no batting in the binding, and my corners are all rounded. The quilt was given to my youngest for a Christmas present that year, and this picture is from today. It's held up pretty well! It's faded, except for the poly-cotton squares, and thin in spots, but he still loves it.

Here's a closeup of some of the fabrics. These are fabrics that I used for clothing, curtains, robes, a cowboy shirt that I slaved over for my DH and even a shower curtain that I made from a sheet. And that bright red solid poly-cotton? My oldest picked that out for me to make into pyjamas for him! I still remember the lady at the store who was cutting the fabric commenting that the kid would never sleep in those because they were so bright they'd keep him awake. hee hee!

After I made this quilt, I realized how much fun I had had making it, but knew that I didn't know enough to do a better job. So, right after that Christmas, I took my first quilting class in Adult Education. And I haven't stopped since then! It's good to see how far I've come.

Your turn! Let's see your first quilt! I dare ya to show it!

Corduroy & A Birthday

2011-11-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

The Corduroy Quilt
approximately 53 inches by 70 inches

Welcome to a special edition of Indigo Threads! Just in case you didn't know, today is a perfect date: 11-11-11. A once in a lifetime event. Those of you who are regular readers will know that I love these fun dates.

Well, today is much more than "just" a perfect date. It's also National Corduroy Appreciation Day. LeeAnn over at Nifty Quilts invited anyone who wanted to to participate in a corduroy quilt-along. So, if you've come here from Nifty Quilts, welcome!

Initially, I thought the Quilt Along sounded like fun, but I had no corduroy. I'm not purchasing much fabric lately, as I already have a large stash. But it didn't include corduroy. So, I decided not to do the quilt-along.

Then, unexpectedly, corduroy entered my life! A lady at quilt guild was giving away a bunch of fabrics, and there were 2 2-yard pieces of corduroy! Another lady noticed my interest in the corduroy and offered me her corduroy scraps too. So, it seemed the Universe wanted me to play with corduroy! Who am I to argue with the Universe??

I ended up with 2 yards of wide wale burgundy, two yards of wide wale tan, a pretty good-sized chunk of purple, some pieces of black, a small piece of yellow and a little larger piece of bright green. Amazingly, it worked together pretty well, except for this piece of bright grass green. (you can't tell from this picture exactly what color it is/was) First, I washed all the corduroy together. The black cord scraps kind of dulled down the bright yellow and dulled the green some. But not enough. So, I hauled out the dye and had some fun! I decided on the blue overdye that the arrow is pointing to. It didn't really come out great, but it was much better. Sadly, that was the only fabric dyeing I managed this summer. *sigh* These colors are not easy to photograph and get true colors. Some of the color differences you're seeing are just the nap going different directions.

the challenge is fitting these all together!

I decided early on that I wanted to do something in the Gee's Bend style. Those ladies made a lot of corduroy quilts, and I knew cord didn't lend itself to fussy. (just fuzzy!) So, no rotary cutter or rulers, just me and my scissors. I tried to just work intuitively. It was fun! When I could, I ripped the big piece of cord. What a mess that made! I used a walking foot to sew this together, and used 1/2 inch seams. I don't think this will come apart anytime soon!

I paid no attention to the nap of the corduroy, I just cut and sewed whatever fit together, and patched in other bits when something was a little short. You know: "if it's too large, cut it off and if it's too small, add on to it"! I used even the smallest pieces. I completely used up the yellow and the blue-green. I have only a small handful of scraps left of the black, the purple and the burgundy! Oh, and I have the entire 2 yard piece of the tan left - maybe another corduroy quilt in the future?? And, my scissors are now incredibly dull!

In true Gee's Bend style, this top is kind of lumpy. It will never lie flat! And I'm OK with that. It's heavy and cuddly and soft and will be warm!

I had fun, and did this in pretty much record time, at least for me. It's not tied or quilted yet, but the back is pieced and ready. I'm using flannel on the back, for even more coziness. I'm going to making a little test swatch to decide if I want to tie or machine quilt this. I've had 2 people offer to help me tie it!

The other reason today is a special date? It's my birthday today! So, this quilt is my present to myself! Yay!

I'm not planning anything special today, maybe just some more time in the Quilt Studio. That sounds like fun to me! And maybe we'll go out to dinner tonight. I just have to decide if I want Mexican or Chinese. Hmmmm . . . . They both sound good!

Thanks, LeeAnn, for the fun Corduroy Quilt-Along! I got a yummy quilt out of it, and had so much fun making it. I can't wait to go visit all the other Corduroy Enthusiasts to see their corduroy quilts! Be sure to go visit Nifty Quilts for the Corduroy Quilt show!

Now, I think I have to take the sticky roller to the carpet in the Quilt Studio before I take the vacuum to it! Yikes! Fuzz Attack!

Playing With Blocks

2011-11-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here is what was on my design wall on Monday. I've started making some 16 Patches in plaids and black. I started making these for a Demo I did at the Quilt Show on Quick & Easy 4-Patches. After the show, I started sewing them together. This is all that I had cut. Now it's time to iron and cut some more before I can work on these more.

However, these are down off the design wall now, to make room for the corduroy quilt I'm making for National Corduroy Appreciation Day. That is November 11th. Also know as 11-11-11, "The Date That Most Closely Resembles Corduroy". LeeAnn over at Nifty Quilts is having a corduroy quilt-along. There's still time to join up! The big reveal will be on 11-11-11, so stay tuned.

Dunkel was being very coy with DH the other morning, peeking over the back of the couch while he basked in the morning sunlight.

I hope everyone is taking the opportunity to check out the wonderful quilts featured at the Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy of Amy's Creative Side. I don't know which I enjoy more, the quilts or the stories that accompany them. If you haven't checked this out yet, don't be coy! Click on the button for the BQF on my sidebar, and enjoy!

It's that time again . . .

2011-10-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

Blogger's Quilt Festival! Yay! And a big Thank You to Amy for putting together and hosting this fun on-line event again.

Welcome to Indigo Threads, if this is your first visit here. I hope you'll enjoy my entry into the BQF, and that you'll visit again!

Amish Center Diamond
28 inches square

My entry into the BQF is in the "an oldie but a goodie" category. I made this waaay back when, in 1988 according to the label I actually made and put on. (That's a miracle in itself!) That's 23 years ago! Wow, I can't believe it's been that long.

I had been quilting about 8 years by then, and Roberta Horton's book about Amish quilts, "An Amish Adventure", published in 1983, had gotten me excited about Amish quilts and their use of color. I made two quilts in the Amish style, a smaller, simpler wallhanging for my Mom and a doll quilt, before I decided to do this one.

When I started this quilt, it was before rotary cutters and the nifty plastic rulers that we have now. This was all measured with a yardstick and marked with a pencil, then cut out with scissors. Practically the Dark Ages! But somehow, it all fit together.

Good cottons in solids were hard to find then, so the purple and the black are both poly-cotton, I think. I used a polyester batt, which was all I could find then. Now, the black is suffering from some migration of the batting through the top. It's not super visible, fortunately.

It took me 2 years to hand-quilt this quilt. When I was working on the black borders with black thread, it was so hard to see what I was doing that I could only quilt on this sitting in bright sunlight. Nighttime was too difficult to see to quilt - again, long before Ott lights came along. I quilted this without a hoop or a thimble, as I never got the hang of using either. I felt like I had better control of my stitching without the hoop. And whatever finger I put the thimble on just seemd to end up sticking up in the air, well away from the quilt top! LOL

This quilt is starting to show it's age now. I had it hung on a wall for a long time, and thanks to the bright California sun, it has faded some. But it's still one of my favorites. This was the best and most extensive hand-quilting I ever did. Now, I quilt either on my Bernina or "by check" (longarmer). I love the feel of the quilting - it's so soft and cuddly. I suppose this quilt is my "heirloom" quilt, just based on the work and love I invested in it.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. It's so fun to see everyone's quilts and read their stories!

Some random stuff . . .

2011-10-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

Autumn in Western Washington

I saw this tree the other day and couldn't resist snapping a picture. Most of the trees haven't done much yet, but a few are in full swing. Love it!

Back during the 1st week of the month, one day I got a surprise squishy in the mail. Sweet Belinda over at Brown Dirt Cottage sent me these cute Halloween fabrics to use in the Halloween quilt I'm making. Thanks, Belinda, I love them all. Especially those skulls!

This month I was lucky enough to win the Block of the Month drawing at my local quilt guild meeting. I didn't know it at the time, but these are Antique Tile blocks. Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville had this pattern in her Addicted to Scraps column for Quiltmaker magazine in the Sept./Oct. issue. My DS has decided he likes these, so this will be one for him. I also received one extra block kit to sew up, so I think I'll let him pick which fabrics he wants for one more block, and then we'll swap out that blue block in the 3rd row. Add some borders to bring it up to a good size and voila! Another quilt top. Pretty cool!

I've managed to get in the quilt studio a number of times this week. No photos yet, but I'm making progress. Hopefully I'll have some photos for the next post.

Giggle for the day:

Ta Da!

2011-10-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

Doodle Bugs
26 inches square

Doodle Bugs is finished! Yay! It was actually done weeks ago, but I couldn't get a decent picture. Finally, when the sun came out, I could get it.

Edited to add: You can read all about how the Doodle Bugs came to be here.

I did a scrappy binding. Mostly because I didn't have enough of any one fabric for the whole thing. Besides, I think it's more fun, and this quilt told me it wanted to be fun.

You can see the great quilting that Shari did better on the back than on the busy front. And this is why I sent it to her, instead of doing it myself. Something this wonderful is way beyond my skills at this point.

Of course, the Quilt Inspector had to come and do the Softness Test.

And the Warmth Test.

The other evening, right before sundown, the rain let up some and the sun came out. When I went into the Quilt Studio, I saw a rainbow. So I ran downstairs, grabbing the camera, and out the front to see that it had become a double rainbow on the right hand end. It's faint . . . can you see it? We haven't seen a rainbow for a while now, and I love them.

I'm starting to feel a little better, but still am not quite up to snuff. I've just started on the second antibiotic. I hope this will do the trick. Right now, I have a good day about every other day. So, I'm starting to be able to get into the Quilt Studio occasionally, and I'll hopefully have something more to show in a few days!

Question: how do you feel about the new "Lightbox" feature that Blogger has started? Do you like it? I turned it off on my blog, because I don't care for it. If you prefer it, let me know. I don't think the photos enlarge well enough with the Lighbox and I like being able to see the details on the quilts.

Fall seems to be off to a good start here. It's most definitely cooler, it's been raining, and some of the trees and bushes are starting to turn color. But what really tells me that it's Autumn is that we're having lots of noisy flocks of geese flying in to land on our pond and then noisily leaving again. They don't stay long . . . they act like they're in a hurry to get South! And it's sure getting dark a lot sooner now, and I've had to put a warmer quilt on the bed. I love Autumn! Happy Fall, y'all!

Did you miss me?

2011-09-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

Long time, no see! I can't believe it's been 5 weeks since I posted last. I've missed blogging, but I have been keeping up with everyone's blogs.

I've been struggling with some health issues the last few months. I'll skip the gory details. So, I haven't been up to blogging, and hardly any sewing has occured, which meant there was nothing to blog about either. I hope I'm on the mend now, and hopefully can post a little more regularly. *fingers crossed*

This placemat was a birthday gift I made for my friend K in California. She sent me all these 30's repro selvages, so I thought she might like them back. *wink* I had fun making this one.

The back.

And a stretchy bead bracelet that I made for her. She loves lime green and purple, can you tell?

I showed you this charity quilt in-process a while ago. (These were Block Lotto blocks back in January of this year.) The top's all done now and passed on to someone else in the guild to do the quilting. I thought this came out pretty cute, and I hope some child enjoys it.

I've been making slow progress on my Halloween blocks. I'm not pushing on this . . . just doing one here and there. No deadline on this one. Somehow, I keep finding/buying more Halloween fabric that HAS to be in here! Do you do that too? You know, keep shopping for fabric for a specific quilt even though you have more than enough fabric for it?

I thought I would show you some of the flowers around my yard.

I've been busy with being on the Quilt Show Committee. The show is in two weeks, so we're coming down to the wire now. My quilts are all done, except for sewing on some labels. That's a relief. That should leave me enough time to do the committee work, hopefully.

My quilt studio is a total disaster. I can't seem to get in there to sew, but I've done really well at making a mess in there. I was ready to put the D9P/I Spy blocks that I'm making for my DGD up on the design wall, but now I can't find them! So, I really have to get in there and get things picked up and put away. Ugh.

I'll have pictures of one of the finished Sneak Peeks from last post next time I'm here. It's all done, I just haven't done photos yet.

Have a great week!

Sneak Peeks!

2011-08-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

I have gotten 2 more quilts back from Shari the Quilter. Dunkel couldn't wait and had to test one out right away. He looks pretty comfy, doesn't he?

Sneak Peek #1

This one has been waiting for the quilting for quite a while. I'm glad it's finally done.

I'm getting the binding ready to go right now.

Sneak Peek #2

Still debating binding options for this one.

I'm anxious to get these two done!

Thing 1

2011-08-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

"String Thing 1" is back from Shari the Quilter, bound and Finished! Well, almost. I still have to add a label.

I took it outdoors for the photo shoot, as we had some sunshine.

Here's a shot of the border where you can see the fun quilting that Shari did.

The back.

This one is called Thing 1, as it is the first one finished from The Great Spring String Fling of 2009. (Try saying that one 3 times fast!) You can read all about this one here. I have more string quilts in progress that you can see here and here.

Some detail shots.

I'm very happy with this quilt. It's really a memory quilt, as I have old and new scraps from other quilts that I've made, including some charity quilts, pillowcases I made for my kids, grandkids and friends, strings from my friends (especially the ones at the retreat), and other fun things. They all bring back good memories!

A Blast From the Past

2011-08-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

23 inches square

Here's an oldie from 1989. I was looking for something in the linen closet the other day, and ran into this. I'd forgotten I even had it! I made this for my Mom, and it was made for a specific spot in her apartment, as I remember. When Mom passed away 9 years ago, I got this back. I stuck it in the linen closet and forgot about it. I think the pattern is Old Maid's Puzzle and it was 4 blocks, but I made the 4 patches that come together in the center into one large patch. When I look at this, I think of "Miami Vice" and remember all the soccer games where I sat and did the hand quilting. I'm not terrible impressed with it now - I think the contrast is too low. But it's nice and summery and I'm enjoying it hanging in the hallway.

Here's a better shot of the hand quilting. I used a peach thread, which barely shows.

I'm making Very Slow Progress on the Disappearing 9-Patch/I Spy quilt. One more session of trimming the rest of the blocks and I'll be ready to get them up on the design wall. Then the fun begins!

I thought this carousel horse from the local county fair was pretty cool! It's a Sea Horse! I love that metallic turquiose and the fin-thing on the back of the saddle.

I hope y'all are having a great summer!

Challenging. . .

2011-07-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

I got my challenge quilt "done" in time. It's not completely done, as I have some more stones to sew on. But I don't seem to be real motivated to do that, so I figured I should just show it anyway. The binding is on and so is the label, so I think that's pretty good!

"Stones Rock!"
20 inches by 28.5 inches

I just ran out of time to get all the stones on . . . probably because I stalled so long on this one. I went to the bead store and bought real stones - they're just polished and drilled so they were easy to attach. Interestingly, all the stones ended up being some form of jasper. They just really appealed to me. Oh, I forgot to take any detail shots of the cool stones. Ooops.

This shot is for Kate of Katekwiltz blog, who asked me how I handled the ruffled edges of the rock wall section. My friend V., who helped me A LOT with this the last day, suggested that I do a basting stitch and then gather that section before sewing the border to it. It worked pretty well. There's still puffiness there, but no tucks. I won't be quilting in that area, and I think it looks OK. I would have liked the border to go right up to the "rocks" but it didn't work out that way.

I'm not 100% happy with this quilt, but I met the deadline and the requirements, so I can live with it. It really was a challenge this year. I think maybe I need to take a year off of doing the guild challenge, and just work on my own stuff for awhile. Some days that's all the challenge I can handle!

Here are my Block Lotto blocks for July. It was a fun block to do, and very easy. If you're interested in the pattern, just go visit the Block Lotto link in my sidebar. I'd love to win this month!

Here are some other Block Lotto blocks from a previous month (don't remember which one right now). I thought these were fun and easy, so I used these for a demonstration I did at the local county fair. This only needs some more white fabric between the rows and a simple border (black & white?) and it is ready to pass on to someone for quilting. It was fun doing the demo at the fair - seems like lots of people want to come see the quilts, and almost everyone has some quilting "family" story they want to share. That was lots of fun!

Building A Wall

2011-07-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

We're finally getting some nice weather, and some flowers are starting to bloom. This is the first white foxglove that I've had here; mostly they're purple. We have an abundance of foxgloves this year - they're everywhere in the yard. I love them, and I love that they just happen - I don't have to do a thing! Yes, I'm a lazy gardener nowadays.

I'm finally getting started on my challenge quilt. I've been thinking about it (and stalling) for quite a while now. The challenge this year is to do 'an element of nature', using textures and fibers, etc. There are no requirements for size or color for this challenge, which is challenging in itself. I've had 3 different ideas and couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do. My initial thought was Trees or Leaves, but I though maybe too many people were going to do that. I also thought of Grass, but I've waited too long to do that one - no time for all the embroidery that I planned on doing. So, I've finally decided on Rocks.

First off, I printed some photos of rocks on fabric. I had some great rock photos from our trips to Nevada and the ocean, both of which are great places to find rocks. Then I made a trip to the bead store to buy some polished and drilled rocks. I'm not sure where I'm going with all of this yet.

When I visited a new local quilt store I saw this Texture Magic and had an idea that this could work too. I had to play with it first. I used some ugly scraps that I found. You quilt through your fabrics and the Texture Magic. Then you steam it with the iron and it shrinks up 30%. It reminds me of Shrinky Dinks!

Then, using my photo of a rock wall, I started building a fabric rock wall. I was surprised to see how many fabrics I had that would work for this, and my friend M~ let me use some of her Stonehedge fabrics. My technique: I just looked at one of the rocks in the wall, and tried to copy it by cutting with my scissors. I had a hard time getting them to be rock-y enough, but not too round or square. I used a charcoal fabric for the background. Black seemed to be too stark.

More rocks!

Then I decided that putting batting between the background fabric and the Texture Magic would be better. It would fill the "rocks" nicely. Then I stitched around all the rocks. I did one continuous line of stitching. It was a giant puzzle. I had to do quite of bit of backtracking to make it continuous. It took me two sessions of stitching to finish this! But, finally it was done. Time for the next step!

Making the magic happen. In other words, steaming the fabric with the iron.

Here it is - all crinkled/poofed up nicely. I think it looks pretty much like a rock wall, all things considered.

Now for the rest of the quilt. That will be the real challenge, because I only have a vague idea of what I want to do. And the project is due Friday at noon. You know what I'll be doing this week! *grin*

Purple foxglove

M.I.A.

2011-06-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've been Missing In Action this month. I've had such a busy month!

My quilt studio looks like a disaster happened in there. There's stacks of fabrics everywhere, and there's stacks of plastic bins (with more fabric in them) stacked in the way too. My design wall fell down. I had a piece of flannel pinned to the wall over the closet and when I was looking for a book, I pulled the pins out. Rats. The problem was that, when I moved in 4 years ago, I just unpacked the books and shoved them on the shelves in the closet with no organization. I was going to get back to it one of these days and never did. So I took the opportunity and organized my large quilt book collection. Much better! Now the design wall is hanging from a curtain rod and can be pulled back out of the way to get into the closet. However, I just need to find a stronger curtain rod, because this one is cheap and is bowing badly.

But in spite of the fact that I've accomplished very little this month, I do have a few finishes and other things to show you.

Back in September, I started playing around with a Halloween version of the Scrappy Trip pattern by Quiltville. I cut my strips at 3 inches, instead of 2.5 inches, just to show off the fabrics better and have the quilt go faster. So these blocks will finish at 15 inches.

I was making myself a kit of something to sew for after I have surgery on my former broken arm, but that surgery hasn't happened yet. I ~~wanted~~ needed something to sew one day, and finally hauled this out. So far I have 5 blocks made (I did one after I took this picture). It's taken me 3 weeks to get this far, as I've had so little time in the quilt studio. I have to make 20 blocks total, so I don't know if it will be done for this year!

I finished my applique from the class with Gwen. But then I wondered: does this need some leaves on it? What do you think?

I finished my wool basket project. Now I just need to decide what I'm going to do with it. Initially I was going to frame it, but I can't find a needlework frame of the right size. So, the way I see it, I have 2 options. 1. wrap it around a stretched canvas and staple

2. make this the center of a wallhanging.

I can't decide what I want to do right now, so this will be percolating for a bit.

I finished the June Block Lotto blocks and posted them just barely in time! Wow, the whole month has just flown by. I'm not quite sure where it went. But I almost missed this! I'm hoping to do better for July. I love the way these blocks turned out. I love the colors, and the block is easy, fun and has some interesting possiblities for setting.

Here are some of the potholders that I've made for my guild's quilt show this fall. The red one in the back is my first attempt at chenille. I think it came out pretty good. The black and white was a practice Disappearing 4-Patch and the cow fabric is on the back of those. And then 2 selvage potholders, with some selvages that my friend K in Calif sent me. I think they're so cute!

I have 2 more potholder in process, and will probably be making some more too. The ladies in the guild had never heard of using selvages before, and I think they thought I was a little nuts. Now they're giving me selvages! Yay!

Last September, I started this Disappearing 9-Patch I Spy project. It was supposed to be for a guild challenge, but I didn't get it finished in time. Now, I've finally got all my 9-patch blocks for my GD's quilt made and sliced up. They're ready to be trimmed to the same size and put up on the newly-functional design wall.

I'm still stalling on my guild's "Element of Nature" challenge and it's due mid-July. I know I'm not the only one that hasn't started yet. But I mostly know what I'm doing and am all ready to start. I just need a few days with no other commitments. I've had jury duty this week, so that has pretty much kept me either busy or too distracted to do anything. I'm hopeful for next week!

This is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that DH found in the front yard on the rhododenron. At least I think that's what it is, based on what I saw on Google images. If you know better, please let me know. Isn't it beautiful?

Gettin' Wooly Around Here

2011-06-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Here's my first blooming Rhododendron of the season. We've had the coldest spring on record, and things are slow to get going. Except, of course, for the pollen, which is about to kill me. It's pouring tonight, and still cold enough to need a sweatshirt, with the heat running. June??? Hard to tell! But by Saturday, we're actually supposed to be in the mid-70s for the 1st time!! Maybe DH can get his poor tomato plant in the ground soon, instead of on top of the china cabinet! (otherwise the cat will chew it. Dumb cat.) And I really don't mean to complain. At least we're not having floods, tornados, snow or any number of ugly weather events that other places are experiencing. Not to mention way-too-hot temps! Guess I'd better not complain, huh? Sorry 'bout that, chief.

Here's where the Wooly comes in. . . .

My sister sent me this table mat - just because! I love it! It's perfect for the table where we eat all the time.

Look at all the fun she had!

Now I just have to keep the cats off of it. Apparently, her cat Zoe was on it and it smells like her, which the boys find very interesting. Lots of sniffing going on, and some sitting/laying on. So far it's only on the coffee table. Maybe when the good smell wears off, I can actually put it on the table. *grin*

Here is some wool applique I've been working on. I've really been searching for the pattern, because I'm ready for the next step. I just could not find it! After searching through everything twice, I finally found it "hiding" on the cutting table. Egads, I hate when I do that. But now I can get this done! The pattern is from the book "Farmhouse Quilts: Baskets & Patches" by Liberty Homestead.

My friend K~ did the embroidery for me in exchange for some pottery. I used some hand-dyed wool (grape!) I bought in January, and the base fabric is a light blue linen that I was originally going to make into a top. I'd rather do quilting with it! It's really nice to work on. . . I love the way it feels. I can't decide if I'm going to frame this or make it into a little wallhanging. The pattern is for a pillow, but I don't want to make it a pillow. And it's not very big, so a pillow that small will get lost at my house. Soon it will be . . . something!

Here is the state of my applique from my class with Gwen Marston. I decided to go with fusible (Misty Fuse), and I'm doing a running stitch around the appliques. Very folk art-y and fun. I don't do much hand work, and haven't done it for quite awhile. So, this is something different, and I'm enjoying it.

Now I'm trying to decide which stitch to use on the outside edges of the flowers. Can you see the stitches? I'm tired of the blanket stitch, and think I'll go with more of the running stitch. But I think I'll increase the number of threads I'm using so the stitches will show up better. This is getting closer to done, and I'm starting to consider border options. I haven't quite decided what size I'm going for here. So, I'll be thinking of all the options for my projects while I finish up all this stitching.

And really, all of this handwork is "busy" work while I avoid working on my challenge quilt. Ahem. . . .cough, cough. Just a little stalling, eh??

Hello Again!

2011-05-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day to those celebrating it. It's good to remember and reflect on the sacrifices our men and women in uniform have made for our country. I come from a military family, so I understand what some of those sacrifices are.

Stars for the 4th - 1989

Here's an oldie that I don't think I've shown before.

I loved my class with Gwen, way back on May 13 & 14, and my visit with Grass Roots Sharon, who very generously had me as a guest in her home. It was Quilt Heaven! We ate, slept and talked quilts for 3 days! And Sharon has quilts all over her house - all of them finished! It was so much fun - thanks again, Sharon!

We had a blast with Gwen. There is nothing like a room full of quilters having a good time to really get you going. And a huge Thank You to Lee of Two Thimbles Quilt Shop of Bellingham, who got Gwen to come give the class. Lee did a bang-up job of making everything perfect for this class.

Here are a few of the inspiration samples Gwen brought for Friday's Liberated Log Cabin class:

This was her latest one - a "summer spread" (no batting).

Of course, I loved the plaid one!

Here is what I got accomplished in class that day. I can't wait to get back to this and do more on it.

Saturday's class was 19th Century Folk Art Applique. Now, if you know me, you know I'm not really "into" applique. I do a little, but it really doesn't excite me much. But I just couldn't pass up this class! I've always loved Gwen's approach to applique and I've always loved Folk Art.

This is Gwen's latest Folk Art applique piece. All of her pieces are about this size, about 18" by 24" or so. I can't remember what she called this - it's some tree that grows in the Midwest, that I had never heard of before. I love the quilting she added to the fruit. I guess this tree has very textured fruit on it and she wanted to capture that.

Gwen taught us how to fold and cut paper free-hand for our "templates". Lots of fun and very freeing. Here's what I've come up with so far.

At the time, I couldn't decide which way I liked it better, but I've decided to do a combination of both views. I may add something to the middle of the flowers, but that's it. It's not too "purty" at the moment, but the possiblility is exciting me.

I also got to meet "in person" with Nifty Quilts, who was also in Saturday's class. Check out the piece she made in the Folk Art class - it's super!

Next up for me is my guild's challenge. We're supposed to do "an element of nature" - an art quilt. I've got some ideas floating around in my head, and just have to get them transferred into fabric. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

More hand-me-downs and a Naughty Cat

2011-05-04T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here's more of the goodies I got from my sister. This top is all put together and ready to go. I think it's small enough that I can quilt it myself. She washed it before she gave it to me, so some of the fabrics shrank more than others. Which means, it's a little bumpy and I don't think it's gonna quilt out. But so what? Finished is better than perfect, right? *grin*

Oh, and that light spot on the quilt top near the bottom left? That's actually sunlight! Yay! It hasn't happened too much in this neck of the woods lately. We've had a very wet, late spring this year and all of us are more than ready for spring to show up.

Here's a closeup of the two blocks in the quilt. I love that stripe!

Here's an odd collection of patriotic blocks. This is just wallhanging size right now. I need to add more blocks to it, obviously. I made the Ohio Star in the upper left corner, and the three tiny blocks. I don't remember when, but I remember the blocks. Isn't that funny?

Sunday was a glorious spring day here, and my azalea just burst into bloom. I love the color of this one, and it's where I can see it when I'm sitting at the dining table. I actually got out and did some yard work. That felt good. I have more plants to get in the ground still. Soon. . . .

Here is the naughty cat. DH got in the cupboard where we keep the pipe cleaners and apparently didn't close the door securely. Dunkel just helped himself! He loves pipe cleaners. You can see the bag on the step below his tail. Somehow he got it out and across the room and up the stairs. Smart kitty.

And here's the rest of the pipe cleaners! I think Dunkel had a good time with them. (Please ignore the fir needles . . . they're everywhere all the time. A constant battle.)

I haven't done any sewing lately. My quilt studio is a total disaster, and I'm supposed to be cleaning it up, but I'm kind of in the mood to ignore it. No inspiration, somehow. I have made some pot holders (no photos yet), as my guild is making pot holders to sell at our quilt show this fall. They're fun and pretty easy to make.

However, I'm taking a 2 day workshop with Gwen Marston next week (Woo hoo!!!), and I need to get in there and get some stuff together to take with me. I'm having a terrible time deciding what fabrics I want to take with me. I've wanted to take a class from Gwen for about 25 years now, and I'm so excited to be able to do this. So, I guess that's some motivation, huh? 'Cuz I know when I get home from the workshop, I'm gonna be all inspired and will need a place to work. Time to get to it.

What do you do when you need to get inspired? Please share what works for you. I could use some inspiration!

I know I'm pretty late but . . . Happy Star Wars Day! 'May the 4th' be with you! (get it??)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. We're going to have dinner with the rest of the family tomorrow. Should be a grand time!

My sister came to visit last weekend. She was cleaning out her quilt stuff when I told her I'd like any bright plaids she might have. So she brought me 2 bags full of fabric - and they weren't all bright plaids! - plus another bag with unfinished projects. This was just one of the projects. There's 50 blocks here, and they just need putting together! Woo hoo! I'll be sharing the other projects with you a little later, as I don't have photos of them yet.

Shade is wondering why the Easter Bunny doesn't bring kitty treats?

Charmed, I'm Sure

2011-04-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

I finally got my issues resolved and can now post. I'm embarrassed to admit that I think it was more "operator headspace" than anything else. Another "Duh!" moment.

Anyway, I can finally share what I was working on last week. My two granddaughters were coming for their first sleepover here on Saturday, so I decided it was time to finish the quilt tops I started for them a couple of years ago. You can see that post here.

Strawberry Lemonade
40 in by 49 in

I used two different charm packs from Moda, using two matching charm packs per quilt top, and putting the squares together randomly. And then some yardage for the borders. I also made matching pillowcases. Very easy, and no stress. The quilts aren't very big, and the girls have grown since I sewed the tops! But they still fit, so far.

Dunkel always has to "help" with the photo shoot.

Much better, now he's all covered up in the quilt. He actually stayed there for about 3 hours.

A better closeup to see the quilting design in both the middle of the quilt and the border. I did all of this quilting with the walking foot.

Blue flannel on the back . . . nice and cuddly!

Spring Meadow
40 in by 48 in

I actually had 2 pieces of "leftover" pieces of batting in my stash that were pretty darn close to the right size, and didn't have to cut into big pieces of batting, or buy anything new. That made me happy.

I decided to just do the same design on this one too. Easy-peasy.

But I did free-motion on this border. It's not very good, but it's finished, and that's the best thing. I'm not real happy with how I did, but I'm not going to rip it out either. Maybe someday I'll get better at this.

This one has purple flannel on the back . . . more cuddles.

Both girls loved their quilts, and the sleepover was a great success.

What was fun (and funny) was that both girls wanted to do some sewing while they were here. The oldest one even brought her own sparkly purple fabric! We made a pillowcase for her small travel pillow on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning they both wanted to do more sewing, so we made pillows for their stuffed toys. More of the sparkly purple got used, and some pink fabric (of course!) for the youngest girl. I forgot to get any pictures, unfortunately. They were both pleased with their projects, which made me happy! I'm hoping next time to have them do some of the sewing themselves. I think they're old enough to (carefully) use the machine.

Being a grandma can sure be a lot of fun!

A Fresh New Font!

2011-04-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Something is up with Blogger this morning and I can't seem to use the new post editor or upload photos, so what I was going to post will have to wait until later.

However, there's a new look around here today. When Blogger added new fonts to their options (in the Template Designer), I HAD to test it out! I'm a confessed Font Junkie, and this was a no-brainer. I think I like it!

So, back to work for me, and I'll try to post the photos later.

Quilt Show Part Deux

2011-04-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting back to the rest of the quilt show photos. Real Life sometimes takes priority over blogging, for some strange reason. Had to get some things attended to, like doing taxes and taking care of some "house" problems. But, we're all squared away now, so back to the quilt show!

My apologies for the less-than-ideal photos. And don't forget, all the photos can be clicked on to "biggify" them, and some of them can be further enlarged by another click.

This post is the art quilts and the liberated quilts. First up, the art quilts:

Woven Wishes by Maurine Roy

Maurine was the featured quilter at the show, and all of her quilts were outstanding. These two are just my personal favorites.

August Heat by Maurine Roy

August Heat detail

Tipitapa by Tamara Nelson

This quilt depicts three homes made of scrap materials in a dump community outside of Managua, Nicaragua.

Palouse by Cindy Gilbrough

And now, my favorites of all, the more liberated quilts:

Balance . . . Unbalance by Donna DeShazo

Lavender Fields on Whidbey Island by Dorothy LeBoeuf

This quilt was started in a workshop on intuitive landscape quilting with Jean Wells.

Sunlight and Shadow by Cindy Gilbrough

Sunlight and Shadow detail

Cat by Dorothy LeBoeuf

This quilt was started in a workshop on piecing with solids taught by Gwen Marston.

Cat detail

City Lights by Cindy Gilbrough

This quilt is from a class with Gwen Marston. I love the addition of the wonky star . . . a nice touch of whimsy!

X's and O's by Dorothy LeBoeuf

This quilt was started in a workshop with Freddie Moran.

Now, back to Real Life again. Hopefully I'll something to show by the end of the week.

Quilt Show and More Chicken Quilts

2011-03-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended this year's Quilt Show by Quilter's Anonymous in Monroe, WA. They had the most wonderful chicken quilts at their show last year, and there were some more this year as well, although not as many. But still lots of beautiful, inspiring quilts. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Orange-a-licious by Judy Irish

8160 by Mary Ann Johnson 63" x 87"

I think this one qualifies as the ultimate scrap quilt! And yes, it contains 8160 pieces!

This is a detail shot showing the 1 inch triangles, all vintage fabrics from the 30's 40's and 50's.

Birdie by Linda Ostroff

Boomerang Back to You by Cathleen Katte

Done in the style of the Pacific Northwest Native Americans.

Chicken Buffet ala Lisa by Lisa Halter

I didn't get a shot of every chicken, but here's a few detail shots. I like this quilter's sense of humor!

Chicken Chow Mein

Chicken Divan

Chicken in a Basket

Hawaiian Chicken

Stewed Chicken

Chicken Gumbo

Fleur by Ada Wright, 9 years old

Folk Art Cats by Carolann Palmer

I love how her cornerstones are all different patterns, and that many of the cats' accessories go outside the boundary of the blocks. Very fun!

Hen House by Ruth Van Dyke

I love the hatching egg!

I have more photos that I'll be sharing over the next few days, so stay tuned!

A Big Blue B

2011-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

For Brenda's Big Birthday.

Shine On

2011-03-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

"Shine" is quilted, bound and DONE! This was my first quilt for the Liberated Amish Get Together hosted by Lazy-Gal Tonya. If you haven't yet seen this blog and the wonderful quilts that were made, be sure to go take a look.

The "rules" for the Get Together were to take an Amish quilt from this website as your inspiration and make it Liberated. And you had to include some Unruly Letters. This one was kind of my "warm-up" because this little crib quilt just called to me.

I can't belive it's taken me a year to get this done. I just couldn't decide how I wanted to quilt this. I finally took my inspiration from antique Amish quilts (should be a no-brainer, right?) and machine-quilted triple diagonal lines. Free-hand, of course. I was liberated enough to use my sewing machine, or it would be a realllllly loooong time before this got finished . . . hee hee!

I didn't measure anything, and I didn't stress about it. It only took me a few hours to get this done, once I got going.

I really like this quilt. I think it finally came together just right.

3-14 - Happy Pi Day!

2011-03-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here's how I'm celebrating Pi Day today - cherry Pi pie! I'm actually combining Pi Day and Presidents' Day here. I forgot to make my annual cherry pie for Washington's birthday, and when I remembered, I was just craving a cherry pie suddenly. Luckily, Pi Day was right around the corner and one quick trip to the grocery store for the cherry filling and I was ready! I was going to have a pot pie for dinner also, but I ate lunch out today (including pie!) and was so full that I just had some leftovers for dinner. It was "pizza pie", as it used to be called, so I guess that counts too! My "pi" didn't come out too curvy, but it won't be long before you won't be able to tell anyway!

Here's an Unruly block that I did. This was made for our departing guild president, who wanted blocks in "country" red, blue and beige for a patriotic quilt. My friend suggested I do the letters. I'm really happy with how this looks. It's a 12" finished block.

Here's a little present I received today from my friend M. No reason, just "because"! I think that was so sweet of her! In case you can't tell from the photo, it's a traveling ironing table made from a TV table. It's big enough for my full-size iron. If you like this, you can find a tutorial here. The only difference from this one and the tutorial is that my friend drilled holes in the table top before covering it.

We're starting to see signs of spring around here! Trees are starting to flower and show some buds, I saw a pussywillow, and there's lots of crocus and some daffodils blooming. And we are ready for some nicer (warmer) weather! Although I trying not to have my hopes up that winter is done with us.

Dunkel knows more rain will be happening! Probably not in the house, though, Dunkel. Although a cat can't be too careful!

All done - whew!

2011-03-08T21:38:00.000-08:00

I got Lorelei's name banner done in time! It really went pretty quickly, once I buckled down to actually doing it. And then I stalled on the quilting, which also went really fast once I did it. So, pretty painless this time. The letters keep getting easier and easier. I quilted this in hanging diamonds, which took me a few minutes to remember how to do. LOL

And Lorelei loved it! She was so funny. When she came over, she checked out the wrapped presents (of course!) and then announced that she thought the soft package was probably a quilt for her. *grin* She's 6.

The snow is all gone, and I'm starting to see some signs of spring around town. I saw some crocus blooming in town the other day, and today we had some sunshine and got up to 50*f. So, there's hope. Yay! I'm getting tired of winter, like most of the rest of the country.

The local quilt guild makes a quilt every year for the local community art gallery to auction off to raise funds. So I did my part this year. We were given the black fabric and asked to do something with the theme of music. I was given a fat quarter of the black fabric, so I did 2 blocks. This one is called Rising Star (courtesy of The Block Book by Judy Hopkins)

This is my 2nd block, called Domino Net (from the same book). The star block got some of the "music" fabric upside down, but I got it all going the same direction in this block.

Oh, and my big news! I entered a giveaway over at the Selvage Blog and won! I won a 6 months subscription to The Quilt Show!! Whoo hoo!! Thanks, Karen!

Snow and Visitors

2011-02-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Snow!

Oh my gosh, two posts in two days!

Here's a weather update. I got my wish. We did get snow. We received about 3 to 5 inches last night, and it's been snowing all afternoon today. I did an errand this morning, and was going to go out again this afternoon, but decided that it could wait. The temperature is falling and so is the snow. The roads in my housing development aren't plowed. The highway was good, but getting there was a bit dodgy. And I don't have snow tires or chains. If I don't need to go, I'm not going. We're supposed to be down in the teens tonight. Brrrr! I'm real happy staying home. I guess I can't really say it's a Snow Day since I actually went out. . . .how about 'Snow Afternoon'? Think that would work?? It doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? *grin*

We had some visitors today. They came about 4 different times. Apparently we have the tastiest foliage in the neighborhood. They can have all the ivy they want! We had 2 does and one baby come to visit.

Oh, and to give credit where it's due, DH did all the photography today, except for the photo at the top of the post.

The baby

And here's the wildlife that lives inside the house! Dunkel thought the deer were quite interesting.

OK, maybe the next post will have more quilt-y content!

Putzing Along

2011-02-23T15:56:00.000-08:00

I'm still here, just putzing along. I've been too busy to have much time in the quilt studio. Last week was full of social things, which were fun, and errands, which weren't as much fun. But I finally made it to the sewing machine and got a few things accomplished.

This is a mug rug that I made for my sister. I thought she might like it personalized with her initial. I had trouble getting the letter as small as I wanted, and finally settled on this one, which was actually the first one I did.

I started piecing together some batik strips for the back of the mug rug, but when I got them done, I decided that they were way too cute to just go on the back. Then I talked myself out of making a 2nd mug rug. So I sliced and diced, sewed on a little border and came up with this.

But I was thinking this was way too static a design. Cute enough but not really what I wanted.

It needed more "wonk". So I started piecing some little 4-patches together. No rotary cutter, just scissors. So, here's where I'm at now. I'm still not sure this is quite what I wanted, but I think I'm stopping now. It could be wonkier, but I'm done. What's funny is there's wonky where I wasn't trying for wonky. I've never needed to intentionally add a "humility block", it just comes naturally! *grin*

I'm on the quilt show committee this year, and our Fearless Leader has decided we all need to make potholders to sell. We had a workshop last Friday on potholders. I had pieced together the selvage one before then, and also had the flowered one together, but not quilted. Well, I forgot my new walking foot (oops), so when I quilted these, they got a little skewed. So I had to trim the flowered one down some, to make it square again. Then I was trying the binding method that one guild member was teaching, and I didn't have enough binding. So I trimmed that potholder down some more!  Then I applied the binding to the wrong side. That means the pretty stuff on the binding is on the wrong side of the potholder. Oh well, it will still work, it's just not "purty". Like DH says, we can set this one on fire and no one will care!

I've gotten the name banner for DGD#2 at the flimsy stage and need to get it ready to quilt it. I'm kind of stockpiling little projects that need to be quilted and will make a day or two of it and get them all quilted at once. And I'm still working up to making kitty names. I'm not *stalling* exactly, as I needed to get some other things done first, but it's starting to feel a bit like stalling now.

We've had maybe 2 or 3 inches of snow today. But it's all been snow flurries, with some great, huge snow flakes. It'll stick for a little bit, then melt away. Then an hour later, it will do it again. So, there's been no accumulation. It's just teasing us. I was hoping for an "official" snow day. But then, I could actually declare just about any day a "snow day". I know all you folks in the East are laughing at me - but I'll take snow over all the rain and gloom we've been having.  At least the sun shines once in a while!

It's snowing again! Time to go sew!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T00:40:00.000-08:00

A sweet heart for Heart Day!

We're all ready for Valentine's Day at Haus Indigo. We have everything we need: valentines and CHOCOLATE. Of the frosting variety. Topping cherry chip cupcakes. And with special Valentine's Day sprinkles too. We already taste-tested these, and they passed with flying colors. Yum.

Here's what I've been working on the last few days. More Unruly Letters. This is for GD #2, whose birthday is in a few days.

I hope you all have a love-ly Valentine's Day.

And I "heart" my readers!

Missed It By THAT Much!*

2011-02-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

(* a rather obscure reference to the old Get Smart TV show)

Well, I must have been asleep at the wheel. I totally missed my blogiversary the other day, Feb 5th. Doh! Something was nagging at me, and I ignored it. Now I know what it was. My excuse? I've just been busy. Lots of social things going on lately, which is good. And then I actually had to do some housework too - oh, the horror! Anywho, it's now been 3 years since I started this blog. I've really enjoyed blogging and being part of the blogging community. People that haven't tried it don't know what they're missing!

The quilt at the top of this post was made by a friend of mine, Shirley C., back in 1994 as an exchange gift for me. This was a pattern in the Fons and Porter magazine at that time, and I know it's an old quilt block pattern as well. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the block.

Shirley was so sneaky. We were in the same quilt bee, and I watched her do all the hand quilting on it, never guessing it would be a gift for me. I remember telling her, more than once, how much I liked the quilt!

Here's a better shot of the hand quilting. Unfortunately, she used a poly batting and it's starting to migrate through the navy fabric. And yes, she did piece that corner block in the navy!

I cropped the photo to show what the block actually looks like, as it's difficult to see in the overall shot. Hmmm, this might be kind of fun to try as a free-piecing idea!

I seem to have lost my motivation in the quilt studio. I have made NO progress on anything in the last week or more. I've been dinking around some with some applique and a touch of embroidery, but that's it. Nothing to show, except a cleaner house. Well, except in the quilt studio. That's still a mess. I wonder if that's part of my problem? Maybe if I got in there and cleaned up some - made some more room to work - I might be motivated again.

I've been having fun watching the progress that Beth and Sara are making with the Disappearing 4-Patch. Beth at Love Laugh Quilt blog made a wonderful tablerunner for Valentine's Day, then Sara at Sara's Scraps blog started making some D4P's and they got wonky on her. She went with the flow and got even wonkier and made a fantastic quilt top! Then Beth tried it and got a great one too. What fun! It makes me want to go try it now too. I have a charm pack waiting in the wings that may be perfect for this.

We've been having some cold, clear weather the last few days. I'm not enjoying the cold, but I am loving the sunshine! I got this shot of Mt. Rainier today when I was coming back from the post office. This is about 1 1/4 miles from my house, but we don't get a view of the mountain because of the trees between us and it. I was going to crop out the house (in the lower right-hand corner) in this photo, and then decided to leave it in so you can see just how BIG this mountain is! Mt. Rainier is 14,411 feet above sea level, which is pretty darn big. See that little cloud hovering over the top of the mountain? That's the start of a lenticular cloud, which is our forewarning that more clouds and rain are again heading our way - that's due Friday. (If you follow the link, at the bottom of the Wikipedia page is an awesome photo of Mount Rainier.) Maybe when the rain and gloom starts again, the quilt studio will be more inviting. I sure hope so!

Plaidness

2011-01-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

As you can see, there is plaidness happening in my quilt studio! I got a bunch of wonky 9-patches done to go along with the plaid kitties, and now I'm working on wonky stars. I'm kind of stalled at the moment, as I was finishing the name banner for my granddaughter. More on that in a moment. . . .

I'm really not sure quite where I'm going with this piece. I'm trying not to stress about it, but it's trying to creep in on me. I don't know why. . . .this is supposed to be fun. But this working improvisationally is actually kind of hard to do. Fun, but also hard.

If you remember from my previous post, I'll be adding the names of all my kitties to this quilt using Tonya's Unruly Letters. I considered using a different plaid for each cat's name, except for 2 things. One, the plaids are all woven and many are the loosely-woven homespuns, so they'll be difficult to work with for the little fiddly bits. And two, I think that the plaid will be too difficult to read. So, I looked for some fabric to go with this quilt.

What goes with every color of plaid?? I finally found a fabric that I think works. I've had it in my stash for years, waiting for the right project, and I love it. It's a small check in purple with tiny different-colored hearts on it, but the print is so small and subdued that it reads as a solid from a foot away. I think that it will work just fine. But, I have yet to make one of the names to test it. That's up next, I guess. I really need to figure that out so I can know what direction to go in next.

Here is the finished name banner for my GD, all bound labeled and already gifted. We gave it to her on Saturday (along with some "spy" walkie-talkies!). It seemed to be a hit. We were watching the girls while Mom and Dad went snow-shoeing. When the parents came back, this was the first thing she showed them. And then she asked her Dad if they could hang it in her special reading spot. I think that's a success!

I put 5 little tabs on the top edge of the back so that we could put a dowel in there to hang it with, and so it would be evenly supported. At 31" inches long, it needed the support. That took a little thought from me. I caught the tops of the 1 inch wide tabs in the binding and hand-stitched the bottom edge of them down. For my little quilts, I just hang them with straight pins, but I don't think my son and DIL would do that. I wanted to make it easy for them to hang this up. I need to remember how I did it so I can do it again, so I took some pix of it.

And now, I need to make one for little sister, who's birthday is next month. I have the border fabric picked out, and just need to find the fabrics for the letters. Oh, and find the time to do it.

I seem to be having an explosion of creativity lately, which is good. Except for the fact that I can't sew fast enough to keep up with myself. And my quilt studio LOOKS like there was an explosion in there! *grin*

On Monday, I took a class on how to use my new (in November) Brother sewing machine. I finally learned how to use the needle threader - Yay!! I also learned other useful stuff, but this was something I just couldn't for the life of me figure out from the directions in the manual. Now I get it. I'm a visual learner and I need to "see" how it's done.

I've got some links to share with you. I've been spending probably too much time looking at quilt blogs etc. lately, and have found some fun stuff. Maybe I'm late to the party and everybody already knows about all these, but for those who don't, here ya go:

First up, Tonya has started a new blog for all things "Unruly" - called, amazingly enough, Unruly Quilting. It's a place to share all your Unruly-ness. She's also requested "Bah Humbug!" blocks in Christmas-ish red and lime green. I'm just blown away by everyone's creativity on this blog! You should see the wonderful bugs and letters that everyone is making - it's just awesome.

Leeann at Quilt Whangarei has a great tutorial on how to do the Disappearing 4-Patch. I'd seen some quilts made with this block around the internets, and couldn't quite figure out how it was done, so this is great to know. Another fun, easy quilt technique! Check it out and give it a try.

The Bent Objects blog, by Terry Borders, is just so inventive and funny. He does some amazing things with wire. His creations are difficult to describe, so it's best to just go take a look. Terry also has a book out - "Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things", which is available at both Amazon and Borders.

More in a similar vein is Stupid Creatures. John makes stuffed toy monsters and clay "Beasties", some of which are pretty darn cute and some are funny. Check out the toys here and the clay Beasties here.

Over at BoingBoing website, they had a competition to take something that is usually computerized and remake it with natural media. Be sure to note the QR Code Quilt made from recycled clothes. (No, I don't know what QR Code is!) But all the entries were inventive and fun.

Do you like to take quizzes that purport to tell you about yourself? Well, here's a couple for you.

First is the free on-line quiz to find out what your Meyers-Briggs Personality Type is, in case you don't know. This is fun and gives you a description of your personality type. This is a good tool to help you understand yourself and how you act and react in the world. Enlightening!

Second, How About Orange blog has a link to a quiz to find out what your design type is. This one is a visual quiz - which picture appeals to you the most. Different and fun.

Well, enough folderol for now. Time to get busy!

Actual Sewing Has Occured!

2011-01-16T16:04:00.000-08:00

But first, some photos from our trip to the Olympic Peninsula last week.

This is Ruby Beach, which is right on the Pacific Ocean. A very Pacific Northwest-looking beach. Note the logs all over the beach. That's pretty common on the beaches up here. Those things are at least the size of telephone poles.

This is another shot of Ruby Beach. It's beautiful, but it was cold that day! It snowed the previous night, although there was none on the ground in this area. I'd never been to the beach in the winter before.

This is Kalaloch Beach, right by the lodge that we stayed in. A very flat beach, with lots of continuous waves. There are lots of rocks out there in the water, so I don't think it's ever much of a swimming beach.

What was really amazing to us was that there was NO cell phone service in this area! We were shocked . . . we never expected that. 30 minutes north or south of Kalaloch had service. I actually had to use a pay phone, for the first time in a lot of years, to get in touch with my sister whom we were meeting. And I think it's, I don't know what word fits here, sad maybe, that we've come to expect to be able to use a cell phone, no matter how remote we are. It wasn't that many years ago we didn't have cell phones and thought nothing of being out of touch. Times change, I guess. Or am I just showing my age? *grin*

We were about 30 minutes or so south of Forks, Washington which is the setting for the Twilight series of books and movies. If you go to Forks, you can get the "Twilight Tour".

I finally got a start on the Civil War blocks. I got my new Prussian Blue fabric (see previous post) washed and ready just in time to use it! And now I'm behind again. I don't know how long I can keep this up! But I'm really enjoying the history and the photos on Barbara Brackman's Civil War blog. If you haven't seen it yet, hop on over and check it out. There's also a Flickr page where you can see what everyone else's blocks look like.

Here is the project I started using Tonya's new book, as I mentioned in my previous post. I got all the letters done, following the instructions. (they were all good, Ton!) The A didn't come out quite as I had envisioned it, but I used it anyway. I ended up trimming down the S and the E. . . they were just too fat. (Oh, if only losing weight were that easy!) For a change, I picked out the border fabric first, then based the letter fabrics on that. DGD's room is painted green and her favorite color is blue, so that was a factor too. (DGD is 8, and I didn't want to get too wonky. They are not a "wonky" family.)

My first thought was not to use spacers between the letters, but then I decided things looked better (easier to read) with the spacers. For me, the hardest part is always putting the letters together. It seems so complicated at first. And I'm never sure how much to make them "dance" up and down. But I just started sewing two together here and two together there, and before you know it, it's not so bad. I did have to keep adding more background to the top of the letters. Too much is better than not enough!

Then I decided that the wall hanging needed a heart on it. This was my first attempt. But I didn't like it - too pointy at the top.

So, I gathered up my courage and trimmed, just like Tonya says. I figured, what the heck, I had nothing to lose!

Much better now. Not perfect, but that wasn't my aim anyway.

Now, where to put the little wonky heart? I think this corner is already too busy, don't you?

All finished. Well, first finish, I guess. I've found something for the back, and I have to go dig in the box of batting scraps for a piece the right size. I have one week to get it quilted and bound. This finished at 16 inches tall by 31 inches wide.

The other night when I couldn't sleep, I was pondering quilt designs, as I often do when I can't sleep. I remembered these little plaid kitties that I appliqued a few years ago. At the time, I thought they were cute, but had no idea of what I wanted to with them. Now I have an idea! I'm going to add the names of all my cats I've owned to these guys.

OK, this is Step One. I've sewn plaid fabric around all the cats. The blocks are now in the 11 to 12 inch range. I don't know if they'll stay this size or get cut down some. It'll come to me. I'm trusting the universe to tell me what the quilt wants.

I'm not sure how to do this quilt, but I thought I'd just start sewing and see what happens. I'll make parts and pieces and see how they all fit together. Sue at The Magpie's Nest has inspired me to attempt this. She's been doing a lot of this lately, and it's been fun to watch her process. I'm having some difficulty in not planning this out. . . . it's hard to let go of that. But if I wait for inspiration (without active particpation on my part), the kitties will continue to languish in a box. I do know I want to continue using the plaids, and I want this to be a useful size, because Lord knows I have wallhangings up the kazoo and very limited wall space. So, that's the parameters I'm starting with. It'll be fun to see where this goes.

And I just can't sew without my Studio Cat helping me. . . because he won't let me! Shade's very possesive of his responsibilities in the quilt studio and he won't let Dunkel in to participate, either. So, I guess that makes everything I do a collaborative effort. I do the sewing and Shade contributes cat hair and purrs. Hee hee!

1-11-11

2011-01-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we went to the Olympic National Forest with my sister and her sweetie. We had a lot of fun together. I'll tell more about that in my next post, along with some photos. Anyway, I got a chance to get an updated photo of her flower stitchery that I showed in my previous post. This photo isn't the best, because I only had one little lamp for lighting. So, the photos were either over- or under-exposed. But this is pretty close.

Here are the blocks I made for the Block Lotto this month. I think these would make a great charity quilt. The blocks use 2 1/2 inch strips. They're fun and easy to do. The block is called "Stacks".

I've started making a name block for my DGD#1 for her birthday this month. I'm actually following the instructions in Tonya's book for these. I thought I'd try them out! hee hee! Oh, and the order of the letters has no relation to how they are in the name, by the way. Hmm, it looks like that Y might be a little small. Or maybe I need to trim the other letters down some. I started with the S because that is the one that is the hardest to make small, so all the other letters can be made to co-exist nicely with it. I have another 4 letters to go, and I seem to be having some difficulty getting into the quilt studio lately. Sadly, there's too many other things needing my attention. *sigh*

Barbara Brackman has started a new blog about Civil War quilts/blocks and history, and is having a quilt-along. She's doing a block a week. I'm thinking of playing along, although the last thing I need is another committment. But I had to go out to the local quilt shop, The Wild Rose in Orting, today to pick up my Bernina from the "doctor". And they have LOTS of reproduction fabrics. Well, I have lots of shirtings and lots of indigos, of course, but no Prussian Blue. So I just had to get some, didn't I?? And that little brown print called to me too. Just in case I decide to do the quilt-along, you know? I'm already behind, so I'd better make up my mind pretty quickly, I think.

And this is what followed me home from our stop in Port Angeles this weekend. My sister had seen a quilt shop on their way through there to meet up with us, and wanted to go back to see it. It worked out really well, because the shop owner had the Seahawks game on the radio, and the guys could listen to the 4th quarter while my sister and I scoped out the shop. Over on the left of the photo there are 4 pieces of hand-dyed wool. (Rust, purple, another purple and green, from top to bottom.) I don't have a plan for these, exactly, but they were so yummy I couldn't resist. Same with the other fabrics too!

Last week we had about 2 or 3 inches of snow that stuck around all week. It was cold all week too, so the snow never melted, and the pond stayed frozen too. Then about 2 days after the snow fell, we had some more "weather". In the space of about half an hour, we got rain, then snow, then hail, then more snow. And it got even colder. A couple of days later when I went out to my car, I found this on the roof of the car. Ice crystals! In all my years of living in Michigan and other places that got snow, I don't think I've ever seen this before. These crystals were about 3 or 4 inches high! Just fascinating. I hated to clean off my car. LOL

Here's another shot that maybe you can see better. At the bottom of the photo, you can see the roof of my red car.

Tonight we're getting icy snow - it's actually hissing as it falls. Sound like tomorrow is a perfect day to stay home and get into the quilt studio, doesn't it?

Some Random Things

2010-12-30T16:56:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is over. The presents are all unwrapped, and now life is starting to get back to normal. The cookies aren't all eaten, but we're working on that. (oink!) Our holiday was a good one, with lots of family and food, and I hope yours was good too.

We got around 3 inches of snow the night before last. It melted off the streets long enough for me to make a quick run to the grocery store yesterday to stock up again, then we got a little more snow last night and the temps dropped to below freezing. The lake froze last night, and everything looks like it's pretty icy out there. Our high temp today was 32*F. In other words, winter is here! Not like so many places around the country that got blasted with the Christmas storm, but still fairly unusual for this area. So, it must be time to sew again! Yay! DH is back out in the pottery studio (with his space heater!), and when I'm done with this post, it's off to the quilt studio for me.

Since there has been so little sewing/quilting happening here, I thought I would share some of what my sister has been doing. She's been working on some wool applique. Above is her funky "Trees". She started this a year ago, and it's been traveling with her wherever she's gone all year as she adds to them. She told me she had a lot of fun doing these. I think they're great fun.

Here's a wool applique bunny she did. It will probably become a pillow at some point. I think this one is my favorite, because I love bunnies.

This might look like floating bubbles, but they are actually flowers. The last time I saw this, my sister was in the process of adding the stems. She tried one thing, didn't like it and took that off and is now working on the next attempt. I think these are fun! I don't know what her plan is for this piece. She doesn't use any patterns, by the way.

My multi-talented sister is also an assemblage artist. This is what she gave me for my birthday this year. The round disks are hand-made coasters, she thinks. I'll probably hang this in a vertical position, not horizontal like it is in the photo. This will look fabulous on the indigo wall in my bedroom!

If you're interested in seeing some more of her work, check out her website.

Here is the free-pieced house that is currently on it's way to Beth of Live Laugh Quilt blog. I made this for her "Friendly Neighborhood" project. She'll be drawing winners on the 1st of the year, and I sure hope this gets there in time! As you can see, I made an indigo house (appropriate, eh?) and it's surrounded by fir trees, just like in Real Life. I'm not sure you can tell I free-pieced this, as it came out pretty tame. But it was fun to make.

And in the window you can see Dunkel and Shade. They think they own the place, so I had to include them! hee hee!

We finally joined the 21st century the other day. T*rget had an LED TV on sale for a price that was crazy low. DH had been saving his pennies for a while, and it was finally the right time. Wow, can I just say Wow!? This looks fantastic. And the best part? We can hook up the laptop to the TV and watch Netflix streaming right on the TV! Love it! No more huddling over the desktop up in the office. We don't have Hi Def on Comcast yet, but it sure looks High Def compared to the old (and I do mean old) TV. So, happy day! We're still doing the happy dance!

We watched the movie "Julie and Julia" last night. I loved it! And Meryl Streep sure "was" Julia Child. She nailed it. I remember watching Julia when I was in high school. I thought she was a little odd then, and now I realize how brilliant and funny she was! And I loved the whole blog thing - wonder why?? Oh, and am I the only one that backs up the movie to see the quilts in the background? hee hee! During that whole hysterical scene with the lobsters, I kept trying to see that quilt in the background. DH is a good sport about backing up to see the quilt!

Well, here we are at the end of another year. The years seem to be zooming by so fast anymore. But it was a good year around here. Our blessings are many. And I want all my readers to know that I truly appreciate you stopping by to read my poor scribblings. I'm still amazed and grateful that you do. I hope the new year will be kind to all who're reading this, and that there will be blessings upon you and yours.

Happy New Year! See you on the other side!

Merry Christmas to All!

2010-12-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

"Christmas Grove"

I want to wish all my bloggy friends a very Happy Holiday for your winter holiday, whatever it may be. I hope you get just what you're wishing for! I want you to know how much I appreciate your visits and all your comments!

We will be celebrating the day with my father-in-law, our son and his beautiful family and his mother-in-law/our friend K. I'm so thankful to be able to spend the day with family, although I will miss my dear daughter and her hubby, who are in Nevada, and my sister who is home with her children.

There was been precious little sewing/quilting occuring here in Haus Indigo. I did get some presents sewn, but no pictures of them. alas. So you'll just have to imagine how wonderful they are! I hope to be back in the quilt studio very soon - I sure miss it!

The quilt above was made for me in a Christmas exchange among the members of my quilting bee way back in 1994. My friend Shirley C. made this for me, and I think it's one of my favorite Christmas quilts. I don't know if you can tell, but it has sequins on the trees to make it sparkle. A few years ago, I was showing my then-3-year-old granddaughter the quilt when she started pressing the sequins. She asked me, "How do you turn it on, Grandma?" That still makes me smile!

I hope you are smiling too. I'll be back after the presents are unwrapped and the cookies are eaten!

HO HO HO!

Whoo hoo!! "Word Play Quilts"!!!

2010-12-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

At long last, the Book Event I've been waiting for all year is here! Monday, December 6th, 2010 is the day that Word Play Quilts by Tonya Ricucci will be released by Martingale Publishing. I've been reading Tonya's blog since 2005 when she lived in Egypt. I found Tonya through Bonnie Hunter's blog. The two of them were my first introduction to bloggers and quilt blogs. It opened up a whole new world to me, and it was so exciting!

These two word blocks are ones I made for Tonya, when she asked bloggers for "happy 4-letter words", and she put them all together into her quilt "Cake", which is on the cover of her book. (Look at the lower right-hand corner and then the 4th row up from the botton, 2nd block from the right.)

This is the block I made when Tonya asked for words in different type styles for a Halloween quilt. It was one of my first serious attempts at making the letters. I was assigned "round" type style. I don't know how well I did at the roundness. I certainly stressed over this word. It came out way bigger than I thought it would. You can see Tonya's finished quilt here.

Tonya has been a huge inspiration to me. Long ago, when I first found Tonya's tutorials on making her UnRuly letters, I attempted making some letters. I made the entire alphabet but a poor choice of fabrics made them pretty much unuseable, due to the very low contrast between the letter and the background. But those letters and what Tonya was doing with them intrigued me.

Life got in the way for awhile . . . we moved from California to Washington, and my quilt studio was in boxes for most of the first year here. But when I got it up and running, I decided that I was going to play with the letters.

I joined Tonya's "House Home and Pantry Quilt Together" and you can see the blog here. This is the start of my Witch's Pantry, and sad to say, this is all the further I am at the moment.

Tonya asked all of her students for name blocks, so I made this one for her. I used indigo fabrics, of course! The "S" was an inspiration that came to me in a dream one night, and I was thrilled that it worked!

This year, Tonya had the "Liberated Amish Quilt Challenge" - see that blog here. "Shine" was my "warm-up" piece. This little quilt just asked to be made first.

This is my finished (flimsy stage) quilt top for the Lib Am Challenge. I learned so much about free-piecing from this quilt. I got the wonkiest when I put down the rotary cutter and picked up the scissors.

Here's a closeup of the word in the border. I used all scraps from the quilt top to make this.

This year my guild had a color challenge, using paint chips. I had written down the idea for this quilt about 5 years ago, and decided that it was the right time to make this quilt. I'd just finished the Lib Am quilt top and felt ready to tackle this project. I learned a lot on this one too, and the most important lesson was that the more you make the letters, the easier they become to do!

This is the start of my next "wordy" quilt. It's been on the back burner for most of this year, and I think I'll work on it again after the holidays.

Tonya and her wonky UnRuly way of making quilts (as well as Gwen Marston and the Gee's Bend quilts) has changed the way I make quilts now. I highly recommend that you give it a try too, if you haven't yet. It's a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever worry very much about being "a little off" again. Tonya's tutorials guide you step-by-step. If I can do it, so can anyone!

And, if you go to Tonya's blog http://www.lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/, you can click on the widget in her sidebar to buy her book from Amazon. If you do it that way, Tonya will earn a little bit of $$. I've already ordered my book there and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

In celebration of Tonya's book release today, the entire Liberated Quilters web ring, which was inspired in part by Tonya, is showing off their creations that Tonya and her UnRuly letters have inspired. The widget to get there is on my sidebar. Take a few minutes and look at all the wonderful quilts. Maybe you'll get inspired to try some letters too.

It's about time . . . .

2010-12-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

. . . I showed up around here! Wow, where did November go? It was such a busy month! Way too much going on, it seems. There hasn't been time for posting, unfortunately. I hardly even got close to the computer for much of the month. I missed all of you! I'm hoping I'll do better at posting more often this month.

I finally received all 48 of the Block Lotto wonky star blocks. Here they are all laying on the living room floor. This was the best I could do without getting into major furniture moving. I won't start working on these until after Christmas . . . or at least until my Christmas presents are all sewn!

Remember these? Here are the other 8 house blocks, finally finished. They've now been cut in half (top to bottom) and the left halves have gone to California, where they'll be exchanged with my quilting buddies in January. I'm so proud of myself that I actually got this done early! This is so unusual for me. I just wanted to be done with them, so they were there on time and I didn't lose them in the holiday ~~mess~~ hustle and bustle.

November saw me reach a major birthday - 60. Wow, I can't say I'm middle-aged anymore, can I? Yikes, that sounds so old. I know it's not really - 60 is the new 50, right?? So, in celebration of my impending decrepitude, DH treated me to a more portable machine than my trusty Bernina. I was having trouble hauling that hefty girl up and down the stairs and out to sewing/quilting events. So, she has a new little Brother. Except maybe it's really a sister, since it's PINK. I need to go find some purple glittery "bling" to stick on it to mitigate some of that pink, which is not my favorite color . . . I would have preferred purple. Oh well, I can live with it because I LOVE this little machine! And it's so light and easy to move. Now I just need to go to the free class the store offers to learn how to use that nifty needle threader. I'm starting to feel older just because I'm having so much trouble threading that needle! Darn tri-focals.

So, just what was I doing in November, besides getting older?? Let's see, we had a pottery show locally, had a birthday High Tea that was so much fun, went shopping (see paragraph above), went to the Puyallup Quilt, Craft and Sew show with a new friend (I behaved myself and didn't buy too much), went to Oregon for a "Pottery Party" that a friend does for us, visited with my sister the rest of that weekend, and then cleaned house like a mad woman and was hostess for Thanksgiving. Whew! Oh, and last week we got to deal with a big snow fall. At the end of all the snowfall, we ended up with 8 inches of the stuff! I did manage to get to the store to buy the turkey etc. for the holiday, right before we got most of the snow. (A week ago, our low was 8*F. The pond was frozen until about 2 days ago.) And our family managed to get here for the big day. We had lots of fun and food. It was grand!

Here's what our front yard looked like with all the snow:

Kind of puts you in the Holiday mood, doesn't it?

If you have a spare few minutes this month, here's some quilt photos to peruse when you can. These are from the East Bay Heritage Quilters quilt show from this spring. They're in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay area, with about 500 members. There are about 10 pages of photos, with some truly awesome quilts. And some fun liberated ones too!

So, now I'm ready to make my Christmas presents. I'm hoping to be done early with that too. But what I really want to do is sit and work on some of my quilt projects. And visit all of your blogs. Wish me luck!

I'm Seeing Stars

2010-11-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Here are the crumb blocks I showed you last month, all together in a little quilt top. It measured about 34 inches by 42 inches, and I got it handed off to someone else in the guild to quilt. This will be a quilt for an ill child, and I thought it looked nice and cheery. The binding is hanging next to the right side of the quilt. I thought the rainbow stripe added a nice finish. I had my usual math challenge figuring out the side and corner triangles. I even looked up the formulas in a book, and still had trouble! But when I finally got it figured out, it worked out perfectly!

I don't think anyone in the guild had ever seen crumb blocks before . . . they were pretty quiet when I showed the top, like they weren't sure what to think. I might have to do a little demo. That would be fun! *grin*

At my other guild meeting last week, we had Sharon T. as the speaker, and she talked about scrap quilts. She was a fun speaker, and very informative too. When she asked how many people in the guild had blogs, I think I was the only one to put up my hand. Now, was I the only blogger, or the only one crazy enough to admit to it??

You might have noticed that there's a new button on my sidebar. I periodically check out the block of the month at the Block Lotto blog, and last month they were doing the most wonderful scrappy, wonky stars. I was curious about the Lotto, and noticed that Belinda (Brown Dirt Cottage) had joined. So when I asked her about the Lotto, she urged me to join. So I did!

It was late in the month when I joined, so I hurried and made some blocks, which were 9 inches finished size. We were allowed to make 9 blocks, and I managed to get 8 blocks done before the deadline.

Here's my first batch of stars.

I got a little more adventuresome with the second batch. I think my favorite is the one on the bottom right, with the dots and the crazy center!

Well, the drawing for the Lotto is on the last day of the month, which was Halloween. So after all the trick-or-treaters were done, I went up to see who had won all the wonderful stars. I couldn't believe it, but Belinda and I both won!! We each will receive 48 star blocks. What a great Halloween treat! I've already started getting squishies in the mail, which is very exciting. And I'm already thinking of what I'm going to do with my treasures! Thank you, Belinda, for "twisting" my arm!!

Last week we had a few days of beautiful weather, so I had to get out and take some photos of the gorgeous fall colors. The first two photos were taken in the yard.

The Japanese maple in the front yard, with the sunlight coming through the leaves. This tree has made me learn to love red-orange! It's so glorious to see it out the front window in the morning with the sun on it.

This is the maple tree in the back yard. These leaves are about 3 or 4 times the size of my hand!

We had storms this past weekend and, sadly, now almost all of the leaves are on the ground. It's starting to be pretty cold - down in the 30's at night - and it's been raining for 5 days. We saw deer in the yard again yesterday, which means they've moved down from the mountains. I guess it can't be denied now . . . winter is definitely on the way.

This was taken in the state forest about 20 miles from my house, up in the mountains. We took off one day, just to go see the forest. After the storms this last weekend, there is snow up there now! Looks like we timed our little jaunt just right!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

2010-10-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Indigo Threads! I hope you enjoy looking around. A big Thank You to Amy for putting on this wonderful Quilt Festival again . . . it's so much fun to visit all the other bloggers and see all the beautiful quilts. I would hazard a guess that this is the world's best quilt show you can see without leaving home! So pull up your comfy chair, grab your beverage of choice and don't forget a few snackies! Enjoy the show. . . .

"Button, Button" 25 inches high by 29 inches wide

My entry in the Quilt Festival is called "Button, Button", for obvious reasons! This was my challenge quilt for my local guild this year.

We did a color challenge this year, and we drew paint chips to get our assigned colors. We had to draw one dark paint chip and one light one. My paint chips were eggplant and light lilac. This photo is closer to the true colors than the first one. These colors were not only difficult to find in fabric, they're tough to photograph and capture the right color.

This idea was one I had sketched out 4 or 5 years ago, and never seemed to get to. I wanted to practice Lazy Gal Tonya's free-pieced letters (see her book "Word Play Quilts" in my sidebar - due out in December!). So, I decided to combine the two ideas.

"Button Button" had some technical challenges to it, and I tried some new things that I thought were successful.

This quilt was the most letters I've done. It was challenging and fun. The letters get easier the more you do them, although I had a little trouble getting them right as I kept confusing where the dark and light fabrics went. *grin* I'm even pleased with the hardest letter - "W". And I had to figure out how to do the question mark. It took two tries to get one that was right, but I'm really happy with it.

I had some difficulty deciding on the border, but finally decided simple was best. I didn't want anything that would detract from the letters or the buttons. I kept the quilting simple for the same reason.

The technicalities of how to construct this were interesting. I put some light interfacing on the borders to help support the buttons, then I quilted. I ended up putting a false back over the first one that I had quilted through and attached the buttons to - I wanted to hide all those ugly knots. It worked great!

I added a lot of buttons from my collection, and hardly made a dent in it! I used mostly buttons that were special to me - from clothes I sewed for me and my children, buttons from my Mom and Grandmother, buttons to signify various places I've lived, and so on.

This quilt won 3rd place in the Guild's Challenge Reveal, and then won a blue ribbon and Best of Class in the county fair. That was such a good feeling. From now on, it will be hanging in my quilt studio for me to enjoy every day.

I hope you'll come back to visit again, but first go enjoy all the rest of the quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Lack of Focus

2010-10-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

No, not the picture. My brain!

I love these fall colors! I think it's a wonder that they are all on one bush.

Here is where I found them - in my Japanese Maple in the front yard. Of course, the sun went away right before I got out there, so it doesn't glow as much as in the sunshine, but still, I think it's beautiful. This bush just up and changed overnight about 2 days ago. Amazing.

I've actually managed to get myself into the quilt studio the last few days. I don't have any particular project that I'm focused on. Mainly I'm just putzing with a lot of different ones. These are my house exchange blocks that my friends in California are doing, and were nice enough to include me in the exchange. This is about 2/3 of what I need - we're supposed to make 12 blocks, enough to make a table runner. But it seems I always have to do something different, so I'm making 16 blocks to make a wallhanging.

Here are the other 8 blocks, all ready for me to do the stitching on them. We don't have to have these done until January, but I'm hoping to have them done before Thanksgiving, if not sooner. *fingers crossed*

Yesterday when I was trying to get some fabrics cut, Shade was "helping" by dancing right in the middle of it all. So, rather than cut something that shouldn't be cut, whether fabric or feline, I decided I'd better sit down and do some stitching. Shade likes to lay on the desk next to me when I'm sewing on the machine. So, when I sat down, he calmed down. Not having anything in particular to do, I decided to pull out the crumbs and work on some of that. I always leave some blocks started, so that there's a starting point when I want to sit and stitch for a few minutes. It eliminates the "brain strain" that could happen if I have to think about it too much! *grin* I got a few more blocks finished. So, I decided to see how many blocks I had. I had 57! The ones that I finished brought it to 60. They're all trimmed to 6 inches and will finish to 5 1/2 inches. So, I started playing on the design wall.

I had been thinking of adding sashing, but decided that was more work than I wanted to do for a charity quilt. Then I thought of putting them on point. I think I like this. I can't seem to be able to make up my mind about which fabric to use for the alternate squares, so I think I'll just use plain white. A nice clean look. So, now I'm back to cutting more fabric! But this one should be done quickly.

Guess what? I still have 40 crumb blocks left! Quilt seeds! To be played with and decided on another day. I need to sort my bin of crumb fabrics too. I've got too many itsy-bitsy pieces in there, and not enough of the larger pieces.

Last Friday I went to a Quilts of Valor sew-in. I got one quilt trimmed and ready for binding, but forgot my walking foot. so then I got a kit and started piecing. This will become a Disappearing 9-Patch. I've got all the strips sewn and now need to cut for the next step.

And lastly, I've spent two evenings picking out fabrics for pillowcases for Christmas presents for the family. I see more fabric cutting in my future! I hope Shade will cooperate!

Not Much Happening. . .

2010-10-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

. . . around Haus Indigo lately. I haven't done much sewing to speak of for a while. I've been working on my exchange blocks, and I'm about half done with them. I'll be showing them soon.

I did manage to finish this little quilt:

This is Boo! # 4 - and the last one. I think I still have some pumpkin fabric left, but I'm done making these. I made one for my DDGs, one for my DD, and I gave an unfinished one to Purple Pam a few years ago (in trade for some fabrics, I think). This one is for me. I didn't stress over the quilting on this one - I just wanted it done!

I think I quilted too unevenly. Now that I have this up in the hallway, it's obvious that it doesn't hang straight at all. Ooops!

Here is one of the visitors to our bird feeder lately. This is an Evening Grosbeak. We've had three of them here in the last few days. They like to sit in the feeder and hog all the sunflower seeds. As a matter of fact, the WhatBird website says these birds have been observed eating 96 sunflower seeds in five minutes. I believe this, because they are definitely greedy guts birds! I don't know if they're passing through on their way South, or if they'll be staying the winter. That may depend on how quickly I keep the feeder refilled!

I've been out in the yard trimming plants and cleaning up. We had a dry spell for a few days and I thought I'd better take advantage of it. Here is probably my last geranium bloom for this year. We've been close to freezing lately, and the geraniums will croak when it does freeze.

I trimmed the hydrangeas back severely, as they were too leggy and were just kind of laying on the ground. The one outside the kitchen window was over my head and blocking the view from inside the house. They are mere shadows of themselves now. I did save this one last blossom. It was just starting to open. I think it got confused by the weather. I also had one blossom pop out on my azalea. Crazy.

Now that we've had some close-to-freezing temps overnight for a few days and a little rain the last day or so, the trees and bushes are finally starting to show some color. We'd been just kind of fading into fall - leaves just turning brown and falling. I think a Fall like that is kind of sad. So I'm very happy to see the colors. It always puts me in a good mood. I love a colorful Fall. I'm going to try to get some photos in the next few days - when it stops raining, hopefully!

Speaking of colorful . . .

A week ago I taught a fabric-dyeing workshop for my guild. I didn't get a large turnout - only 5 people. But I'm more comfortable with fewer people anyway. It was kind of difficult, as we were outside and the wind kept getting stronger and stronger. The paint containers (paper cups) kept blowing over. (We couldn't find any rocks to put in the cups either.) I was so excited/nervous to do this workshop that I never got the camera out of my bag, so I have no photos to show you. But this piece (photo above) is the last piece of fabric we dyed. It's about a fat quarter in size, more or less, and was a white-on-white. I just took the last of the dyes and poured them onto the plastic-covered table and started smooshing the fabric on top. When we used all that up, then we smooshed the paint brushes into the fabric too. It was a ton of fun, and I think this piece came out the best! I liked this so much, I think I'll just do this at the beginning the next time I dye!

p.s. Yay! for the Texas Rangers! And Go Giants!

10-10-10

2010-10-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

Today is brought to you by

the number 10!

This date is so fun I couldn't pass it up. It just called for a blog post!

It's been so long since I last posted (again), I have too much to show and tell you!

Yesterday my quilt guild had a progressive lunch, which was a lot of fun. We went to 3 different houses and had 3 different quilt-related activities or demonstrations. We had about 12 to 15 people participate, and I think we all had a lot of fun. And too much yummy food!

At the first house, we had scones, fruit and coffee. Then we got to dye a silk scarf, with these fun dyes that were new to me. These dye silk instantly, are non-toxic dyes and need NO heat setting and are permanent while wet. It was so easy and fun. Even the people that were a little scared of it were quite successful!

At the second house, J gave a little demonstration of yo-yos and hexagons, as many new quilters had asked her about them. She was so generous - she had quite a few vintage 1930's Grandmother's Flower Garden units that she had received from a neighbor. The neighbor had them from her grandmother and didn't want them. Joanne had made many little projects with the yo-yos and was not going to use the rest. So, we got to take home the rest!

I fell in love with the graphic ones first, the ones at the top of this post. I couldn't pass up that stripe nor the dots! No one was taking the ones with the cheddar centers, so I took them too. I think I'll make some small table mats with them. I've already ironed them and started basting the edges under, which you might be able to see in the right-hand GFG above.

At the last house, we got to play with her long-arm! I wouldn't call my attempt successful at all. Oh well.

20 inches wide by 17 inches high

As I promised in my last post, here is the 'sister' quilt to Faultlines. It remains unnamed, because I can't think of a good name for it! (any suggestions??) It was made for the same color challenge. This is another log cabin, although this is the Courthouse Steps variation.

This one was harder than it looks! I have lots of left-over false starts. This was paper-pieced and I kept getting the fabrics in the wrong place. It was frustrating, and I sure wouldn't want to do a big quilt in this pattern! At least not paper-pieced.

In this photo, you can see the quilting design I came up for the border. Even after something like 10 years, I'm still happy with it!

I was bothered by the empty white corners, so I decided to put buttons there. I was inspired by a book on Crazy Quilts by Judith Baker Montano that my DD had. I had fun doing them all as differently as I could think up! I also added beads to the buttons.

Here's Shade, playing with his fleece mousie. He's been begging to play lately, which just amazes me, as he didn't care for a long time. He cracks me up - he's a goof-ball with his mousie!

Farewell, September

2010-09-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

I survived my oral surgery on Tuesday (tooth extraction), and all I can say is, Yay! for general anesthesia! I didn't feel so great afterwards, but actually better than when I had a raging infection in the tooth. So, I'm getting back to normal now. I'm just suffering with a miserable headache, but it's getting better.

Faultlines 18"w x 14.5"h

Since I haven't been in the quilt studio all week, I'm going to show one of my older quilts. It's a little quilt that I made as part of my guild's color challenge, I think from about 10 years ago. However, I'm not sure, as I didn't label the quilt. (Another reason it's good to label quilts - getting forgetful!) This was my first paint chip challenge. We drew two colors of paint chips. My two colors were very close - kind of teal and turquoise. But I really liked them. I liked them so much, I made two quilts for this challenge, and my DD made one too! (she wasn't even in the guild) I'll be showing you the second quilt from this challenge in a few days.

This color was tough to find in fabric. I did find a 4 color gradation packet, which was a life-saver. I carried those paint chips around with me to all the quilt shops and quilt shows I went to that year, and eventually found enough fabrics.

Faultlines was my first idea, and I had fun with this. It's all every-which-way, and it's tough to hang it on the wall straight! I'm not so sure this photo is straight either. Sometimes I hang it going in the other direction - it's kind of all-purpose that way. *grin*

I embellished this with beads; it was my first time using beads. I used teal beads on the black fabric and black beads on the turquiose fabric. I don't think you can see this in the photo, but the black is densely quilting in a meandering pattern.

And I decided that using a decorative stitch was fun. I was going for an "earthquake" idea, and I thought this looked like the read-out on the earthquake detector machine. We got used to seeing those on the news in California!

I really enjoyed everyone's answer to my question about quilting. It seems like we all agonize over how to quilt our quilts. It seems that some quilts will tell us what they want/need, and other quilts are not helpful!

Whenever I get stuck on how to quilt, I usually fall back on the old patterns from the antique quilts, like the Baptist Fan, the hanging diamond and also cross-hatching. You know, the patterns that ignore the peiced pattern and just go all over the quilt. I still like those, and I think they look good on most quilts. And I think they're more interesting than just meandering or stippling. I guess some of it depends on whether you're hand or machine quilting, too. I do all of my quilts by machine now, due to arthritis in my hands. And, I'm lazy and want the quilt finished faster! Do you have a favorite pattern you use?

I met my neighbor yesterday. We've lived here for 3 years now, and we've waved to each other, but not really met. She lives down at the other end of the street. She was set up in her driveway, pin basting a quilt on a frame! DH saw her when he went to get the mail, and made me come see her (even tho' I was not feeling well and was slopping around in my sweats, with goofy hair). She's around 80, from what she said, and was getting ready to handquilt the quilt she'd made for her grandson. It was a non-scrappy log cabin in black and white checkerboard with blues and greens - very modern looking. Then she took me in her house to show me the queen-size quilt she made for another grandson. She made this quilt, using black and white graphic prints instead of the indigos. I loved it! She's looking for a machine quilter to quilt this one for her, so I'll see what I can find out at quilt guild meeting tomorrow. I'm really glad I went down the street to meet her!

See you in October!

The Bad Blogger . . .

2010-09-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

. . . is hanging her head here. I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted! I've been lurking and reading all your blogs, but that's all I've managed to do.

I've been busy and also fighting a couple of nasty infections. I've got a sinus infection that won't let go and also an abscessed tooth that has to come out on Tuesday. Ugh . . . I'm really not looking forward to that! I'm hoping for general anethesia. I'm such a wimpy chicken at the dentist's. It seems that the third antibiotic might finally be working on the sinus infection. *fingers crossed*

Before all that started, I managed to get some sewing done. And I can show you all my "secret" sewing, as it's all been received now.

Fragments - 21 x 19 inches

Here is my little quilt that I made with the scraps from my Liberated Amish 9-Patch. I first showed the top back in June. I finally decided how to quilt it AND got it done. An upcoming guild meeting with nothing for Show & Tell got me moving on this.

Do you have trouble deciding how to quilt your project? I'm usually afraid that I'm going to screw it up and that paralyzes me. I thought about how this piece was kind of an afterthought, and totally free and wonky, and then decided I didn't have to do heirloom quilting here. So I liked the idea of wonky squares around the squares. It's not a lot of quilting, but enough for a small wallhanging.

And while I was working on the center, I thought some kind of squares in the border would work nicely. DH suggested that same idea! So, it was decided. I fiddled with a test sample for a little bit, and then did this border pretty quickly. I was afraid I might sew myself into a corner, but it worked out fine. I had to stop and think a few times though!

I couldn't find the rest of my fabrics that matched. I must have put them in a safe location! So I perused my Great Wall of Fabric, and found this batik. It is exactly the right colors, and I liked the contrast of the circles with the squares in the quilt. So, I got one thing finished this month!

Belinda of Brown Dirt Cottage

Julie of Quilter Behind the Barn Door blog

Marj of Eclectic Quilter blog

Here are my Pay It Forward gifts, all completed and now all delivered! I had fun picking out the fabrics to personalize these for each recipient. Please visit their blogs to see the goodies I put in the bags.

DH and I went to the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup the other day. We didn't stay too long, as we only visited the pots and potters at the Artists in Action section, and of course saw the quilts. There were some beautiful quilts there, but as I forgot to bring the camera, I can't show them to you! (That bad blogger again!) There were quite a few I recognized from some of the quilt shows I've been to this year. I never thought to enter any of mine! (I've been a bear of very little brain lately, it seems.) Maybe next year I can get it together enough to do that.

Now, I'm off to the quilt studio to work on my exchange blocks. I'm making an effort to get some stuff done and out of the way. I've got too many projects "in process".

Some Results

2010-09-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

I've actually been "laboring" in the quilt studio the last few days. However, I'm not exactly doing what I'm supposed to be doing! I think I've gotten all my "secret" sewing done, but of course, I can't show anything until the gifts are received. I'm supposed to be cutting for the block exchange, and quilting some small quilts. And I haven't even touched the Halloween fabrics or the I Spy that I showed in the last post.

But I've been OUT of the quilt studio as well. I was sewing at one friend's house on Friday, and then at another friend's house on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. Today, I'm at home in my own studio, and I got inspired this morning (more on that later).

33 inches by 47 inches

Here is the charity quilt I made this week. I got the botannical fabric (for free!) from my guild in July, and thought I should get this done before too much longer. The pattern was from the guild as well. The only fabric I had to buy was the pink, as I didn't have the right color in my stash. However, I'm not so sure that it was really the right tone, as it's kind of overwheming to me. Of course, pink is not my favorite color, so it could just be me.

Here is a closeup so that you can really see the fabrics. I don't know if you can see it, but the pink exactly matches the pink color in the flower. I should have gone with a lighter pink, or even a red instead.

I had fun with this pattern, but it was a little challenging. First off, I did something wrong while cutting and only got 12 strips out of the strata that I made, not 13, so the quilt is a little skinny, even for a wheelchair quilt. And you might have noticed that there are no seams to match in this one. Well, I had a little trouble getting started on that. You're supposed to start with a half-block, and that was another "oops" somehow. This was one I was sewing at Friend #1's house, and you know how it is when you're sewing with a group. Quite a bit of talking going on, and I couldn't concentrate enough to figure this out. So, when I got home I put it up on the design wall. Then I could make sense of it, and got it figured out and labeled so that the next day, at Friend #2's house, I could finish sewing the rows together without confusion.

Now I'm thinking I should piece together one more row to bring the quilt up to the right size. That would make it 36 inches wide. I think I have enough fabric to do that, and hopefully have enough left for the binding. Or, it may have a scrappy binding!

The next time I do this pattern will definitely be easier! It seems every quilt I do, I learn more. Do you find that you do too?

This morning as I was eating my breakfast, I was perusing this magazine that I got way back in the beginning of the year. I suddenly was inspired, and could hardly wait to get the kitchen cleaned up. I flew into the quilt studio and started pulling fabrics, etc. (I was also inspired by Lesley Riley's book.) Three hours later, I had this done:

Blanche - 5 inches by 8 inches

I'm not sure how I managed this, but it came out just like I had envisioned it!

I used a piece of fabric I dyed for the background (it was originally a white-on-white), a pre-aged piece of lace from my stash and a photo transfer of a photo from the late 1800's that I found on the internets. (I actually found it in the archives of the library of the town where I grew up.) I pulled out my reproduction prints to make the little patchwork. I even *hand-quilted* that little piece before I added it to the quiltlet.

That's not to say there wasn't a learning curve with this. If I had it to do over, I think I'd cut the background a little smaller (I may still trim the sides on this yet), and I definitely would have trimmed the seam allowances off the little patchwork piece. It's too uneven. And I think the two prints I used in the patchwork are too much the same size - not enough contrast. The pieces are so small (1 inch finished squares) that it's hard to find a fabric that is the right scale. But I still love it! I hope to make some more, maybe with family photos. That would be fun.

So, even though I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm still doing! I'm trying to resist making a little quilt like Kathleen Tracy showed on her blog.(scroll down - it's the last quilt on the post). I love a blue and white quilt, and I love doll quilts. And the title of her post isn't helping! hee hee! So, I'm trying to resist that siren call!

When I'm not sewing, I've been watching Netflix on the computer. I've been watching Season 1 of 'Dead Like Me', which I'm enjoying more and more. And I watched a Biography segment on the Kellogg brothers. (think "Corn Flakes"). Last night I watched "Royal Wedding" (with Fred Astaire). Loved it! A classic that I had never seen. I don't know what I'll watch tonight - there's so many choices! I LOVE Netflix!

I hope everyone is having a fun, creative weekend!

September Already?!

2010-09-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hey! What happened to August?? Where'd it go? I was just getting used to summer, and now it's leaving! I want more August, please.

Seriously, August seems to have just evaporated! I guess it was a busy month. Pottery camp went very well, and both boys seemed to have had a good time. Lots of pottery was made, lots of fish were caught (and released), and plenty of canoe time was had. No one got homesick and no one got hurt so I'd call that pretty successful. The only glitch was the last few days of Boy #2, when we had some major septic issues. But he was a trooper and never complained. At least I didn't hear him complaining over my complaining. We finally got things all sorted out and squared away, after 3 days and many $$$. Did you ever notice that plumbers are hard to find over the weekend? And how come the septic only has issues on the weekend? Sure made me miss city sewer systems! Oh well, I guess it's the price we pay to enjoy the country life.

After that, the rest of the month is kind of a blur. I really don't remember anything much. I was having some allergy issues, and just trying to get caught up after pottery camp and the septic issues (lots of laundry). And, to add insult, yesterday, Aug 31st, our high temperature was 58* F and it rained all day. A little foretaste of what's to come. I swear, some of the trees are starting to turn, the flowers are all on their last legs, and it's starting to feel a little "autumn-y". I'm not ready!

Not a lot of sewing has been occuring here, what with all the other stuff going on. Plus, I was kind of "sewn out" after the two challenge quilts. And, I've been working on some secret projects, so I can't show you much of what has been happening in the studio. So, the last two days, my brain has seemed to kick in (finally) and I had some ideas. So, I made up some sample blocks to test my ideas.

Here is my first block for an I Spy quilt for my DGD #2. I'm way over-due on making her one of these. Big Sister got hers when she was two, and DGD #2 is 5 now and starting kindergarten. So, I finally got started on it. It's a Disappearing 9-Patch, and this is the configuration I'm thinking of using. The white fabric and the purple dots fabric will be consistent throughout the quilt - the purple matches her bedroom. I've now cut way more I Spy blocks than I need for the quilt, so I'll have to thin the herd a bit as I sew. I learned on my first I Spy quilt to not have all the squares going in the same direction (Thanks, Katie!). It makes the quilt more interesting, and easier to put together, which is the big factor for me. Especially with this block!

I'm going to be participating in a block exchange with my friends from California, including Purple Pam and Roberta. We'll be using brights. Here's just a sample of what I've picked out. Think they're bright enough?? This one is gonna be fun! (And why won't this picture go in the center like the other ones??)

And lastly, this increasingly fall-like weather is making me think of Halloween. I love Halloween, and seeing a pile of cute Halloween fabrics over at Tonya's blog got my brain engaged. I love Bonnie's free patterns at Quiltville and Scrappy Trips is one of my favorites. I've made two of them already. So, I got to thinking. what if I used 3 inch cut strips instead of 2 1/2 inch? That would make a bigger block, which would make it even faster to make a quilt. And it would show off some of the bigger Halloween prints better too. So, I had to test it out.

Yep, it works! Of course, my brain wasn't totally with me on the first block. I cut everything at 3 1/2 inches instead of 3 inches. Rats! --- Do over! The 2nd time was much better. I used up some really crummy fabrics to test, so no biggie that it didn't work the first time. This makes a 15 inch finished block, so I only need 20 blocks instead of 35 or so. This would also work for the Scrappy Bargello, which is calling to me lately. Who knows. . . I might get so excited that I'll cut for both quilts! That would make a pretty good dent in my Halloween fabrics.

So, I guess I'm getting excited about sewing again. Now I just need to get in the studio and start cutting and sewing. Let the fabric fly!

A Blue Ribbon Day

2010-08-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

Well, what happened around here?? I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last. Really, I didn't fall off the earth or anything. It's just been busy around here, plus we've been battling a host of nasty computer viruses. (I really hate computer viruses. Don't get me started.) Wow, here it's the middle of August already - summer is just flying by.

We've been so busy with pottery-related activities. There's a once-a-month sale activity that's been happening, and a big Street Fair where DH spent two days sitting in the sun, demonstrating throwing pottery. He was a big hit, and made a lot of pottery that weekend.

Last weekend we had our big pottery sale of the summer at the local Art in the Garden. That was very successful, in spite of a lot of rain on Saturday. Everyone closed up shop early that day, and it was still the biggest sales day in their history. It was for us too! We had showers off and on most of the day, but by about 3 o'clock the rain settled in and didn't let up. It's a good thing pottery is water-proof! Sunday was still overcast, but not too cold or hot. The gardens were so beautiful. Here's just a sample, which was "part" of our booth. (You can see how overcast and threatening the sky was.)

If you look closely, maybe you can see our friendly dairy cows across the road from us. They were pretty curious about what we were doing!

This week DH is doing "pottery camp" for some children of friends. Right now we have the 9 year old here for 3 days, and then later in the week his 7 year old brother will be here. Today was spent practicing in the pottery studio, plus fishing and canoeing in the pond. Tomorrow starts the real deal!

I have hardly been back in the quilt studio after finishing my color challenge quilt. What with being so busy, plus now it's so danged hot, I just haven't made it there yet. The studio is on the southeast side of the house, and it heats up real early and then never cools off. So I have no desire to get in there. Maybe by the end of the week, when it's supposed to cool off.

It's also been too hot to be upstairs in the office, so I haven't been on the computer much since DH got it working right again.

Last week I was brave and did something I've not done in over 20 years. I entered some quilts in the county fair. We had such a poor showing last year (maybe 10 quilted items total), that we were soundly "encouraged" (think arm-twisting!) to enter more this year. So I put three quilts in. We were told that they wouldn't be judged this year, but then they were! Ack!! Not ready for that! Thank goodness I took the sticker roller to them to remove most of the cat hair!

So, I know you're dying to know which quilts I entered, aren't you?

First, I entered "Carrie's Quilt", made with the vintage 30's fabrics.

I entered "Touch of Black".

And, I took a deep breath and entered "Button Button". I only did this because I thought we wouldn't be judged. I thought it was too "different" to do well in a judged competition.

Well, guess what? The quilts were judged after all. *gulp*

And "Carrie's Quilt" got a blue ribbon! The judge said "good choice of design for the fabrics".

And "Touch of Black" got a blue ribbon! The judge said "Interesting idea, intriguing to study" and she liked the wavy quilting lines but didn't quite seem to "get" that the lines were supposed to be unevenly spaced.

And "Button Button" not only got a blue ribbon but a pink "Best in Class" as well!! The judge said "Clever idea, well presented - do enter again next year!" She like it! She really liked it! (with apologies to Sally Field)

I found out about the ribbons when we went to the fair with our granddaughters and our friend K~, the "other' grandma. Man, was I in shock! Pleased as punch too, of course. I still have a big grin on my face.

Congratulations to Sue over at "From The Magpie's Nest" blog, who also entered quilts in her county fair, and also did very well. Go see. I'll wait.

We liberated quilters did pretty well for ourselves, didn't we? *huge grin*

Remember the ceramic pendants I showed in this post? (scoll down a bit) Well, Lis over at Online Quilting blog bought two of them from me. She has completed one necklace and you can see the necklace here (you need to scroll down a bit, again). Wow, she did an awesome job. She made it look so good!

Do you like silly cat videos? This one involves 2 curious kitties and a treadmill. Watch that black & white cat's reaction when his sibling touches him

I hope it won't be so long before I post again. Maybe next time I'll have something new to show. Maybe not. But I hope we all have some fun being creative between now and then!