Festival of Scrappiness

It's finally time for the Festival of Scrappiness hosted by Rachel over at Stitched in Color.  On January 2nd this year, Rachel started the Scrap Attack and issued the challenge to all who were interested to make scrap quilts and projects.  Now it's time for everyone to show off their creations, and there's even prizes! 

Happy Scraps
63 x 82 inches

Here is my entry in the the festival.  "Happy Scraps" is all crumb blocks, which I learned about from Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.  I made the very first blocks about 5 or 6 years ago.  We were in the middle of selling the house and moving and I had to put all my sewing projects away to show the house.  I kept out a small bin of scraps and my machine while everything else went into storage for the duration.  When we actually sold the house and drove out of town, heading for the Pacific Northwest, this also came along in the car with me.  I've worked on these blocks off and on ever since, and yesterday this got put into a box and sent to my long-arm quilter for her to work her magic on it.  Yay!  


This actually ended up much bigger than I had originally envisioned.  You can see my "quilt holder" up above is struggling to hold it all up!  I was thinking just a lap quilt, but now it's big enough to snuggle into, or even to use on the bed.  I'm still a little unsure of how all this large-ness actually occurred.  
  

I got somewhat of a wild hair and decided to piece the back.  I started with this panel that I love and then decided to make it a log cabin block.  The world's largest log cabin block?  Probably not, but it sure felt like it!  I was trying to use up some fabrics that have been in the stash for too many years awhile.  Now that it's done, I'm not so sure I like it.  I'm hoping that the quilting will help.

Here are some random blocks, letting you see some of the fun fabrics I used.

I've made lots of other crumb blocks since I started, and even finished a few charity quilts with them.  But these are some of my favorite blocks, with fabrics that have meaning to me.  Lots of baby quilts, pillowcases and scraps of other quilts that I've made are in these.

I also used some random orphans and rejected bits.  That just adds to the fun!  Anything really does go in these crumb blocks.

Recently my quilt guild hosted a "crumb workshop" for the members.  Many of the members had never heard of crumb blocks and wanted to know how to make them.  They were fascinated by my quilt top.  It was a lot of fun.  We made enough blocks for about 9 charity lap quilts, and still have so many blocks in process that we'll be having another workshop to finish them.  Everyone that came had fun, and I think many of them are "hooked" now.

If you haven't tried crumb blocks yet, I suggest that you give it a try.  It's fun, and I call it therapy sewing.  There are no mistakes and it's stress free.  Plus, you get rid of some of the scraps and end up with something useful using something that might otherwise have been tossed out.

And now, please go visit the Festival of Scrappiness and see what all the other quilters have been up to.  There are some wonderful quilts to be seen!  And thanks for the kick in the pants to get this finished, Rachel!

A Finish and An Award

At long last, my Liberated Amish Challenge quilt is totally done!

You can read more about this challenge by scrolling waaaay down to the list of labels on the left-side of my blog and clicking on the tag "Liberated Amish Challenge".  There's a few posts - apparently I've been pretty wordy about this project!

"Snuggle"
53 inches by 65 inches

It took me some months to get around to getting the binding done.  I couldn't find any of the fabrics I used on the front, so ended up using the batik backing fabric I trimmed off the quilt.

Here is the back, with the pieced label I did.  I will be adding another label with more information on it.

A close up of the piecing, with the free-pieced Unruly letters from Lazy Gal Tonya.

Here's a photo of my free-pieced word on the front, all quilted.

And here's a shot of the quilting on one of the blocks.  This photo has the truest colors.

And a photo of the quilting that Shari did in the alternate blocks.  She knows I love Celtic knotwork.  I left this picture high contrast so the quilting would show up well.

I'm so happy that this quilt is finished and ready for use!  

The talented Kelly over at Pinkadot Quilts has nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award.  Thank you so much, Kelly!  I'm honored.  Go check out her blog.  She is making a small quilt every week for her personal journal quilt, and she's making some beauties!

The Liebster Blog Award rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Link back to their blog.

3. Copy and paste the Liebster award to your profile.

4. Pick 5 blogs that you feel deserve to be in the spotlight (they must have @200 followers or under).

5. Blog about it and leave a comment for your nominations to let them know that you have chosen their blog.

Here are my blog nominations for Liebster Awards:

1.  Joe Tulips at Joe Tulips Quilts blog.  She has made the BEST zombie quilt ever, she makes funny, fabulous cards (both paper and fabric), she geocaches, and she makes great quilts too!  She always has something fun to see on her blog.  Oh, and she's pretty obsessed with the Scrappy Trips pattern, and it's my fault.

2.  Michelle at Nostalgic Cafe.  Michelle is a funny lady - she'll make you smile.  Right now she's having some snake-y issues.  She also has some intriguing recipes on her blog.  Oh yeah, she makes bright, happy, fun quilts too!

3.  Kate at Kate Kwiltz blog.  Kate is another ADD quilter like I am, but you wouldn't know it.  She's in the process of making 5 baby quilts and 2 wedding quilts that are due this spring.  She's making great progress.  She makes great modern quilts with a real grounding in tradition.  

4.  Maureen at Pursuit of Quilts.  Maureen does more traditional quilts with great style.  Right now she has two posts up that are full of eye candy from two big quilt shows that she has visited.

5. Sharon at Grass Roots Quilting.  Sharon is making the Beyond The Cherry Tree quilt and is making great progress as well as other quilting projects.  She does long-arm quilting with the most wonderful feathers.  She is a funny, generous quilter.  I took the Gwen Marston class last year with her, and it was great fun.  I'm happy to call her "friend".

Go take a look at their blogs.  I think you'll enjoy them as much as I do.

One last thing:  Michelle at Nostalgic Cafe blogged today about the new Dark Shadows movie starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton.  I deeply loved D.S. when it was on TV.  I think my sister and I watched every episode!  I went to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) here and watched the trailer for this movie.  It looks like it will be hilarious and great fun.  I mean, how could you go wrong with Johnny Depp??  I can't wait until May 11th when the movie is released!

Happy quilting!

This and That

Last week was the biggest thing in this area for quilting and sewing - Sew Expo.  I went with my friend C. on the first day.  We didn't do any of the classes or see anything other than some of the vendors.  I really didn't "need" anything, and she was just looking for a baby quilt pattern.  So we just kind of wandered around seeing all the sights.

At the Just Imagination booth, filled with wonderful, luscious hand-dyed fabrics, there was a small quilt top on display that C. really liked.  It was made with only 2 fabrics, but because of the nature of the hand-dyed fabric, it had lots of variations and interest.  It was done in intense blues and rusts. We got to talking to Judy Robertson, who makes all those wonderful hand-dyed fabrics, and found out what pattern she had used to make the sample.

Then we wandered over to a booth selling quilt books and got the last copy of the book (40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts by Evelyn Sloppy) that the pattern for that quilt was in!  

I brought it home to make a sample block of the pattern.  I didn't get any of the hand-dyed fabrics ($26/yard!), so I used some batiks.  I just picked some with strong contrast.  And green and purple are always good together to me.  It was a very simple block to make, and there were great directions in the book.  It's all done with 2 1/2 inch strips.  By the way, I recommend this book!  Lots of great patterns in here, and they're all pretty simple and straightforward to make.

It looks like this will be the quilt my guild will be making for the raffle quilt to raise money for the local arts group/gallery.  I don't know what colors we'll be using, but I'll show you when I know!

I also found some things that I couldn't live without!  I got some zippers (2 for $1), a texture stamp, a stamp pad cleaner, foil, some metallic paints, a new seam ripper (wore out the other one making the Halloween Trips) and a cute pattern for a chicken or pig or bunny stuffy.  I think they'll make cute pincushions.  Maybe a little voodoo doll-ish to stick pins in them, but still cute.

Here is the final layout of the Halloween Trip blocks.  DH and The Kid did the final arrangement for me.  They wanted those bands of color to kind of match up.  I like it, so I left it.  I have 3 rows sewn together and the last two will get done tonight. And I even have an idea for the border now.  Just have to pull fabrics for it!  I'm relieved excited that this one is almost together.  I'm ready to do something else now.  Short-attention-span quilting!

Last, but not least, here are the fabrics I received from Nifty over at Nifty Quilts.  We did a little vintage fabric swap.  Go visit her blog and see all the great fabrics she's got to work with now!  These fill out my selection nicely.  I was short on the grey/pink combo, and I'm always in love with dots.  Dots on dots are even better!

Happy quilting!

My Modern Hearts

Here are my blocks for the Block Lotto this month.  We were supposed to do the block of our choice that's a heart or has a heart in it, using pink, cream, orange and grey.  Very Modern Quilting colors!  I've always disliked orange and pink, especially together, but these new citrus-y oranges are winning me over. And I think they look OK with the pink too, although pink still isn't my fave.  Hmmm, funny how your taste changes over the years, isn't it?  I'm really liking these blocks!

The top block is from one of my old Debbie Mumm books, and the second one is using some pink/heart fabric I've had for quite a while in the center.  It's not really as crooked as it looks here - I just can't seem to get a straight photo of it.  These are all I'm doing this month, and so my fingers are crossed that maybe I'll win in spite of not making enough to have more chances.  

Here is the latest photo of my Halloween trips - 15 blocks now!  I only need 5 more - one more column - and I have 2 in the works and another one to fix.  I had cut one of the strips at 3 1/2 inches instead of 3 and didn't notice until I started sewing it together.  So, a little time with my seam ripper will be in order this evening.

Now I'm down to picking fabrics carefully to get the color balance I want (hopefully!) and to include my favorite fabrics.  I've decided this needs more green, for a start, so I found and cut more today.  I've getting excited about this, and am already thinking of what to do for the border and the back.  I'm hoping I can finish this by the end of the week.

Back to the Quilt Studio while DH fixes Ginger Chicken and pot stickers for  dinner.  Yum!

P.S. When did Blogger change the look of the pop-up comment form??  Weird - it must have been overnight.  It just kinda blew my mind.  LOL!

Cool Stuff

I thought I would share some of the great things I saw while at my sister's house.  This is a fused glass face that was hanging on the back wall of an art gallery, out in the parking lot, that we visited in Portland.  I thought it was really fun. It's about 20 inches high.

This is another fused glass face at the same place.

And here is the back door to the art gallery.  I loved this mosaic around the door!  We were having a beautiful sunny day, and this just sparkled in the light.  There was also a similar mosaic around the front door, but I didn't get a photo of that, because I would have had to stand in the busy street.  

Wouldn't this make a great border on a quilt?

And here is one of my birthday presents - antique album blocks.  In my favorite color too!

An extra 2 brown ones..  (excuse the lack of ironing)

Look at these great fabrics.

These will be challenging to work with, as all of the edges are on the bias.

I love this one!

This is Zoe, my sister's cat.  She is so funny - she's always sitting up like this.  My sister calls it "prairie dog pose".  LOL  She's a little portly, so she balances pretty well this way.  She sat like this for about half an hour.  She seems to enjoy it!

I'm still sewing on my Halloween Trip blocks.  I've got another 4 done since the last post, but no pix yet.  Maybe next time.

Happy quilting!

Thursday Update

I've been so crazy busy the last few weeks that I haven't gotten around to posting.  I have so much to share with you!  I'm going to break it up into a few posts, I think.  My brain seems to be "out to lunch" lately.  LOL

I've been so busy that I haven't had much time in the Quilt Studio.  But I've managed some time this week.

I am up to 9 blocks now on my Halloween Trip, which makes me 1 under the halfway point.  However, I have two more blocks in-process since this picture was taken.

I have so many strips cut for this quilt!  I'm planning on 20 blocks for this, but may keep on sewing until all the strips are used, and then see what I can do.  Maybe another one or two small tops!  These are big blocks - 15 inches finished - so it wouldn't take many for a quilt sized for a DGD.

Of course, no photo shoot is complete with the quilt inspector! He seemed to approve.

Here's a birthday card I made for a friend a couple of weeks ago.  I made the painted paper and then found the butterfly sticker that worked with it.  That made it quick and easy, and my friend really liked it too.  Good all the way around!

Two weeks ago I went to visit my sister.  It had been 6 months since we'd seen each other, which is silly since we live only 3 hours apart.  It was really fun to spend the weekend together.  We went to an art gallery, a quilt/fabric store, stayed up too late and talked our heads off (as usual!).  But more on that later.

In the middle of all this, we finally got around to exchanging our birthday and Christmas presents.  This was one of the gifts from my sister.  It's either a little quilt or a tabletopper.  It's about 30 inches square.  Now I just need to decide what I'm going to do with it.  Applique something in the middle?  Or just quilt it and put it on the table?  It's in my colors (blues and olive green), which you can't really tell from the photo.  The weather is being dark and grey, and lousy for photo-taking, which is typical of Washington in the winter.  I tried to brighten the photo some, but it's not true colors.

That's it for today.  I'll be back in a few days with more photos to share.  Meanwhile, happy quilting!

What Passes for Normal

That's what we're back to around here now that most of the excitement has died down.  So, I managed to get some progress on the I Spy Disappearing Nine-Patch done!  That's good, as I need to have it done in 2 weeks.

Here it is at flimsy stage.  I ran into a little roadblock trying to decide what to do in the corners.  I tried a couple of things, like a free-pieced star that took me an hour!  That was too much!  So, I thought "simple is best" and just did 4-patches with more I Spy blocks.  Now, it's time to come up with something for the back.  I have a couple of ideas, so that's a good start.

I've been working on the crumb quilt and am ready to add the final borders.  Sorry, no photos yet.  Next time!

Here's the next project on my design wall.  It's "Spring" and the pattern is from Country Threads.  I'm embarrassed to tell you how many years this one has been lurking in the UFO pile.  

Here is where the hold-up was.  This wagon block really had me stumped.  I couldn't figure out how to do those wheels.  Just could not wrap my brain around it. All the applique on this quilt is done with fusible and then buttonhole stitched by hand.  Those spokes are so small!  I finally ended up doing the wheel in two parts - first the spokes and then the outer round part, and stitched it on the machine.  It took me 10 years to come up with that.  Doh!  Do you ever get that kind of brain fart?  Drives me crazy when something hangs me up like that.

Next up for this is piecing - my comfort zone!  All the applique is done. Whew!  Hopefully the rest won't take me that long!

Remember the Plum tree that I showed in the last post?  It had uprooted and fallen into the pond from the ice.  Well, we had a landscaper come in and he thought it could be saved.  So, now it's re-planted and staked to hold it.  Our fingers are crossed that this will "take".

There was a broken branch too.  This is the recommended fix.  DH wrapped it with clear duct tape, just like you would do for grafting a branch.  More fingers crossed!

I'm off to find a quilt back!  Happy quilting!

Barbecued Soup

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.