I Spy...

with my little eye...

a finished quilt!

I've shown this quilt here before.  I made this for my youngest granddaughter, who's 7, and it's a surprise.  Big sister got her quilt many years ago, so I'm running a little behind.  Hehe.  

I'm so glad to finally get this done. I started this 2 years ago as a challenge quilt for my guild.  Well, that didn't happen, needless to say, but now it's done.  Whew!  I'm not the fastest quilter out there, but I get it done eventually.  When I started this, GD's room was purple.  Now it's green - so I included the green inner border.  

OK, blogger has added my pictures in a crazy order, so I'm just going to "go with the flow" today.

Here's a detail shot showing some of the I Spy fabrics I used, and also showing the quilting that Shari, my LAer did.

She also quilted in Lorelei's name.  (I still need to dot the i)  I didn't know she was going to do this and it was fun to discover.  I'm going to let Lorelei find it on her own too.  ;)

I used the Disappearing 9-Patch pattern for this one.  I knew that the fabrics would get turned every which way, so I deliberately had them going every which way from the beginning.  That way there's no "up" to the quilt and it works from every angle.

Here's the border quilting and you can also see the binding I did.  I put it on the back and then turned it to the front and stitched it down with one of the fancy stitches on my machine.  Fast and pretty easy!  Perfect for a kid's quilt.

We had the driest August on record this year - no measurable rain for over a month.  Pretty unusual for the Northwest.   It's turned cooler in the last day or two and it finally rained last night! Yay!  My poor yard really is showing the stress of not enough water.  Some of the plants are already turning colors which makes it look like autumn is coming early this year.  It was so cozy to lay in bed last night and fall asleep to the sound of the rain falling.

Wishing you a creative week!

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!

Getting There

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!

A Blast From the Past

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!

September Already?!

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!