Farewell, September

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 . . .

. . . 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

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?!

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

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!

Oh Deer! Another Quilt Show

Here are some photos of the visitors to our yard one day this last week.  DH managed to get some good shots of them through the kitchen window.

We have quite a bit of deer coming through our yard.  They like the ivy, and they also use our yard to get to the park next door.   I really enjoy watching them.

OK, I'm really pretty behind here, but I wanted to show you some of the pictures of a quilt show I went to a week ago.  It was in Covington, WA and was a pretty big show.  Great quilts and lots of good vendors too!  Yes, I did a little damage.  Sorry, I forgot to get pictures.

As usual, my photography isn't great.  I swear, all the quilts really were hanging straight!

  

Baltimore Sampler by Jana Columbi

Beaded Squares by Rosie Kennedy
8 inches by 12 inches

It Started With a Square by Carol Cowan

Green Sampler by Loretta Edinger

Judy DeCelle's Cat Quilt by Anita Webb

cat quilt detail

Manzinita by Carol Cowan

Lolli Poppies by Sandra Fountain

Sunshine by Judy Von Bokern

Sunshine detail

Sweet Baby Girl by Rita Haselman

The Tea Cup Quilt by Cynthia Bergeron

Tea Cup quilt detail - the red work was done by embroidery machine

Their guild challenge this year was using any 3 or all 4 of the selected fabrics and then making a small quilt that reflects the seasons. 

Seasonal Dance by Joyce DeLurma

Seasons of the Northwest by Patti Schmidt

Seasons of the Northwest by Rosie Kennedy

Seasons of the Northwest detail

All of the ribbons were made by Rosie Kennedy

I thought the ribbons were beautiful, and a lot of work, especially considering how many ribbons there were!

Did you notice the announcement of Lazy Gal Tonya's book release over on my side bar?  I'm so excited about this!  And I'm also jazzed that two of the blocks I sent her are in the quilt that's on the cover!  They're "HOME" which is 4 rows down, and 2nd from the right and "MAKE" which is in the bottom right-hand corner.  All of these blocks were made by students and friends of Tonya.  She requested happy 4-letter words, made with her free-pieced method.  I love that lots of people made these blocks.

I've hardly been in the quilt studio since I finished my challenge quilt.  I knew that would happen.  It was just time for a break.  But we've got the county fair coming up in less than 2 weeks, and I have to turn in quilts this week.  I'm thinking I need to quilt and bind one of my little Lib Amish challenge quilts before they need to be turned in.  Hmmm. . . . I wonder if I really have time to do that?

A New Look

I thought it was time to spruce up the ol' blog.  I love to re-decorate and move furniture to new spots.  I guess this falls in the same catagory.  I hope you like the new look.  There'll be more changes soon, when I've got time to get to them.

Back soon with quilt-y content!

The Challenge Reveal

I made it! I finally got my challenge quilt finished, with about a day to spare. I worked on nothing but the quilt for almost a week.

Why do I do this to myself? I know I'm not alone in this either. I had a whole year to get this done - well, not really, due to the broken arm and the Spring thumb injury. But still, I stalled. I'd like to say next year will be better, but we'll see how that works out. (We've already gotten our "assignment" for next year . . . more on that another time . . . )

If you haven't noticed on my side bar, I've taken the Process Pledge. So, I'll discuss my process some here. Here is the quilt top with the borders I showed on my last post. Guess what? I didn't like this! I love these borders, but I thought it was too busy for this piece. It kind of took over from the letters, which I wanted to feature. Plus, it really wasn't going to work with buttons all over it. It was just too much. Fortunately, I had only sewn on one border.

So, what to do next? I pondered that for a day or so. I decided an inner border would work well to seperate the words from the border, and I was hoping the lime green batik would work. I think it adds a nice little zip!

Then, what do to for the outer border? I was running out of my fabrics. I only bought a 1/2 yard of the light batik that I used for the letters (I have no idea what I was thinking!) and one yard of the background, that I thought would be more than sufficient (it was just barely enough!).

Then I remember Melody of Fibermania's Process Pledge tutorial on her Fused Piecing. Voila! That would do the trick! Thank you, Melody! You saved my bacon. To piece in these tiny strips that finish @ 1/4 inch, I would lose 1/2 inch in the seam allowance. So, by fusing these strips, I saved time and fabric. Yippeee!

Here is the first border. This was just what I was thinking of. In fact, it was Just Right. So, I kept going.

Here are all the borders on. Now I just had to quilt it, and then sew on a bunch of buttons. (technical term: 'bunch')

So, for the back I used something from the stash that I had a lot of, and proceeded to quilt. I kept the quilting simple. Just some squiggling around the words, and straight lines in the border that echo the fused strips. I knew the buttons would secure the border enough that only minimal quilting was required.

Then, to help stabilize the quilt, I added some interfacing on the border areas on the back of the quilt. So many of the quilts I've seen with buttons on them get saggy. I was hoping the interfacing would help with that. And I think it worked pretty well.

After I sewed on the 'bunch' of buttons, I added a second back to hide all the ugly knots from the buttons and the interfacing. I quilted around the inner border to secure it in place, then basted the edges and sewed on the binding. The binding fabric matches the fabric that I'll be making my studio curtains from. It just worked out that the colors go together, so this quilt will hang in my quilt studio. It went really well . . . I was terrified that I would run into difficulties, but it was slick. So, big Happy Dance! It was done and I even had time leftover to make my pot luck dish and get a good night's sleep!

Ta Dah! Here it is at the Challenge Quilt Reveal party. I didn't end up with as many buttons on the quilt as I thought I would. The big button in the lower right hand corner is my tongue-in-cheek poke at myself. It says "Quilters don't do buttons". *grin*

Many of the buttons on here are special to me, like the buttons from the very first piece of clothing I made for myself after I got my very first sewing machine back in 1975, buttons from projects for my children, buttons to represent my Mom, where I grew up, etc. I did some stacked buttons, and some fancy ways to put the buttons on, all kinds of stuff.

Oh, and I ended up with a 3rd Place ribbon in the Pieced catagory. That was better than I was expecting!

I thought you might like to see the other Challenge quilts. We didn't have a very big turn-out this year; there are only 13 quilts. And I missed getting a photo of the pieced pillow that won Viewer's Choice - rats! The quilts range from tablerunners and wall-hangings to bed-sized quilts. (the envelopes were for the voting ballots) Here they are, in no particular order:

Now that the challenge quilt is done, I've taken some time to recouperate. I'm catching up on some stuff around the house, and cleaning up the studio. Next up is some things I've gotten behind on.

Have a creative day!