Design Wall and On the Needles

I am pretending to be Judy today and stating that nothing has changed on my design wall since my last post.  I have all the first three blocks for the Alphabet BOM completed and am ready to sew the sashing on.  This will be done before the next blocks come out on Feb 1. 





And just to show that I have started on to catch up on the old BOMs, here is a new fish.  I was kind of surprised that the face fabric makes her look like she is smiling.  Since I am getting to the end of this FatCatPatterns BOM, I am beginning to think of how I want to set them and even a little about the quilting. 







I wanted to show a close-up of the orange fabric.  It is embroidered batik and I think it adds a lot to the texture of the fins.  I am going to put fray-check on the cut-off areas of the embroidery because I think it will ravel with washing.  I used a similar fabric on a quilted jacket and it has worn well so I was pleased to find a use for at least a little part of this fabric, too.










This is how far I had gotten on my first toe-up socks when I decided that I had been so busy trying to learn the M1L and M1R increase that I didn’t pay attention to the pattern about how many stitches I needed on each needle.  I love this yarn but the socks are going to be too small.  So I took the advice of several knitters and unraveled them.  I will be restarting them later this week.







Meanwhile I had sent for a selection of new needles and wanted to try them so I decided to start a new pair of toe-up socks.  This time I paid close attention to not only the increase technique, which was much easier now, but how many stitches I had.







I also worked very hard to have the yarn coming out of each yarn ball with the same colors.  Look, so far the stripes match.  I don’t really care if they are perfectly matched but I would like them to be close.  The toes are finished so now it is on to the instep and then I get to learn a new heel.  The fun never stops here.

Speaking of fun, our granddaughter and her son moved from AL to NC this weekend.  The family here is struggling to begin the adjustment of having the 5 year old, who has been the center of attention his whole life, living 700 miles away.  But we are also hoping that this is a beginning to a wonderful new life for them.

And now it is time for me to get ready to hunker down for the snow and ice that is about to descend on us tomorrow.  I am doing laundry today as well as getting a little sewing room setup in the house so I don’t have to go outside for anything except to provide relief for the dogs.

Hope everyone has a great, and warm, week.  See ya later:  Gari

Progress On All Fronts

How’s this for a bright quilt?  I figure that any little kid would love a bright, colorful quilt like this.  And guess what!  That border fabric is some I “found” in my cleaning.  It has all the same colors as the sashing fabric but MUCH BRIGHTER. 
As for the cleaning, I found that I get distracted pretty easily.  I worked all day Wednesday and got the the cutting table completely cleaned off and everything on it either put in it’s place or thrown away.  The before and after can be seen here.
Thursday I found that I just had to get a new cutting mat so I was out of town all day.
Friday and Saturday I again was in the studio, cleaning. 


This is the top of the cedar chest that sits next to my chair where I do most of my hand work and also take breaks.  It was piled high with magazines, fabric, fabric scraps, and a bunch of other “junk.”  Now it has places for the handwork as well as open spaces for my coffee cup. 




And would you believe there is a couch under there?  Just before I took this picture there wasn’t even that seat showing but DH came in to visit and cleared it for himself. 




Now it is empty with a spot for magazines and even a quilt. 









One of the things I realized was that I felt the need to play with my fabrics.

So I pulled all my batiks from the very messy shelf and refolded it.  Look how easy it is to do when the cutting table is clean.









Look at these very neat piles of folded beauty.






And here they are again in their new home. 

My batiks are now living right next to my sewing machines where I can see them while I sew even when I am not sewing batiks.




But I did do some sewing this week.  I finally got the binding on Henrietta and





And it is finally on the wall.  Funny thing, DH hasn’t even noticed that it is on the wall.  But I know it and love seeing it up there.








Other projects I worked on were:

I drew and prepped the applique fusible for the Fish BOM.  Later this week I will choose the fabric. 









And I am getting ready to correct an embroidery mistake.  This is the back of a denim jacket where the tiger did not sew out correctly.  It was a difficult design that messed up dramatically.




This  is the practice sew out.  I am going to applique it onto the jacket back.






The cleaning is going to continue.  I seem to actually be doing this on an every other day basis so at that rate will have about 1 1/2 weeks to go.   Hopefully after that I will keep up with it…….LOL.

Linking up with Patchwork Times and What a Hoot.

Opps-Very Little Sewing/Quilting

The Plan:  Spend a lot of time in the studio sewing, quilting, and designing. 
What Happened:  Spent a lot of time on the computer, sitting on the deck-reading, and general procrastinating.

I finally did start quilting my Carol Doak table topper (seen here).  And on Sunday I went from the feathers and swirls to some ruler work on the star.










I have never been good with rulers but have decided that the only way to get even a little better is to work with them.









So that is what I am doing.  It seems really funny that the part of this quilting that is easy is “feathers” which less than a year ago I was afraid of trying.













Over the weekend I did get two BOM blocks fused. 

















Here is my April teapot: it is the 9th so we have only 3 more to go.  I guess it is time to begin planning the layout since I already have a place for it.  Right now it looks like layered fabric but when the stitching is done it will blend together.








Here is Rhonda’s.  Isn’t it neat how fabric makes such a difference?












And once again I had the opportunity to dive into my batik stash to come up with a unique fish.  And the funny thing is that I have already started thinking up a unique setting plan for them and we still have 8 more months to go.  Pooh!





So, what did I do with all my other extra time?





Well, I got all of these tools out.












Then I tipped our dining table over.  You see I have always wanted wheels on this table.  So a couple of weeks ago I bought 2 sets of wheels and waited for just the right day to begin this project.












Each of the wheels had to be pounded into the plastic plug that I put in the leg.  Fortunately all that pounding was no problem for the table as it is solid steel and HEAVY.







So, when it came time to  pick the table back up I realized that now, with the wheels on, I needed something to keep the table from just rolling away rather than tilting up.  So I put an electrical cord down by the wheels.  But right away I could see that the cord would just move, too.









So I added a yoga mat and then placed a magazine holder on top of that so it wouldn’t move.  And it worked.  Now I must say that it was not easy to get that VERY HEAVY table up off the floor but ‘the old girl still has it.’






Then after all that exercise I went for a walk in our woods with the puppies.  All of the trees and bushes have young leaves but you still can just barely see the house and studio.  Pretty cool, huh?




This week I hope to finish my table topper and start work on an Esther Aliu UFO.  I also have two mug rugs I would like to work on, one more BOM, and another UFO that needs the borders put on.  It’s not like I don’t have things to work on, I just was taking a little break, I guess.

I will be sharing on Patchwork Times and What a Hoot

Other Stuff

How much fun it is to, once again, be able to work on more than one thing at a time.  I finished my FatCatPatterns.com second fish.  I am also enjoying figuring out which square of the background fabric to use: the colors are so different from square to square. 
















I also completed the February teapot from Rhonda.  If you have seen my feathered star table topper, you will see that I am using some leftovers for this pot.  As I look at it I am thinking that I may applique it with two different threads: I have used only one on the others.  I guess we will just have to wait and see.







And part of the reason for waiting is The Return of the Dragon.  Monday afternoon I pulled him out and began machine appliqueing him down.  I had originally planned, and begun, hand appliqueing him but the batiks are so tight that my hands would give out after three spikes.  Now, it is not easy to machine applique a whole cloth piece, either, but I am more likely to get it done this way.





I am zigzagging with a bright variegated thread so the stitching will have different colors on the different spikes.  I think overall it is going to look really good.  But don’t hold your breath until it is done: it is really a come and go project.








Yesterday was also the “finish up the laundry” day.  So as I was putting a new load in the washer, Ms. Murphy decided to investigate the dryer.  At first all I could see was her tail but by the time I got my phone out of my pocket she had turned around.











Then it was time for her to come out: she refused.  And when I reached for her, she moved to the back.  So I started throwing wet clothes in around her.  It took 5 handfuls of wet clothes before she decided there wasn’t enough room in there for the clothes and her and jumped out.




See, I may live in the middle of nowhere, not have a job, and not get much done in any given day, but my life is just one adventure after another.

Finally

Something new on my design wall.  This is what we have made so far in the Carol Doak Mystery BOM: only one more block to go.  Right now she is having a contest to guess what her final layout will be.  I have moved these blocks around several times and this is the way I currently like them best so this will be my guess.









Now, you may be asking about Easy Street.  Well the blocks were are completed on January 31st and the center was sewn together on Feb. 1st. 

Because it has held center stage for so long, it has been put on a back burner for at least a week.



Part of the reason for this delay is that I still don’t know how I want to border it.  Look at all the little leftover parts I have.  I am trying to see if there is something I can do to use them in a border or maybe they will wind up on the back, who knows.







And, finally, I am back to working on other projects.
Here are my heart placemats on the frame and being quilted.








And here they are completed. 


















One more picture to show the quilting. I did micro stippling in the blue and purple sections so the ribbon is nice and puffy.









 I also have started my Wonderfully Fishy BOM for Feb.  It is such fun to go through my batik stash, looking for “just the right” fabrics for these really cute designs from fatcatpatterns.com. 







So here is part of this fish.  I would have had all the parts there but I cut two of them backwards so I will be re-doing them this afternoon.







And while I was working in the studio, DH was redoing his B Western collection layout in the living room.  This Roy Rogers grouping is now living over the fireplace.  This isn’t all of it but it is fun to see Roy, Dale, and Trigger smiling out at us.







His really big display is of Hopalong Cassidy.  This is the first time he has had so many of his Hoppy things in one place and it is really impressive. 









Of course the above is only one of his Hoppy displays.  Here are several different plates, cups, bowls, along with silverware.  At the bottom is a Hoppy Radio, which works (AM only).












In addition to all the action above, I “taught” a longarming class (of 2) on Saturday.  I was asked to share some tips on how to easily load a quilt on the frame and especially how to work with pantographs.  I tried to explain that I don’t know that much and am not that good but wound up doing what I could to share some of the things I have learned.  It turned out to be really fun as we shared experiences and what others have suggested to each of us.  We don’t have a long arm group in our area so this was the first time I have been able to talk this type of quilting with anyone.

Well, that’s about it for me.  Have a great week and come back again.    Gari

Things Are Progressing

My design wall this morning is almost all covered.
As you can see I have completed more Easy Street blocks: I have continued to do one block a day (except that I made two blocks yesterday).  I have 11 full blocks, 5 large triangles and 2 small triangles left to do.  There are only 10 more days in this month so unless I up my work schedule to two blocks a day, I will not have this center done by the end of the month.  We’ll see what happens.




Also on the wall is my completed Fishy block for January.  I love the background fabric but it is a little dark so I will have to be very careful to choose lighter fish fabrics so they don’t get lost.  I think this is going to be another really fun quilt top.



I also have completed 2 of the 4 mini blocks for Carol Doak’s mystery quilt.  I think she said this was the last of the blocks so next we will be getting the setting directions.  I really do enjoy paper piecing so I hate to see this coming to an end.  Maybe I’ll look into a New York Beauty type of quilt to do next.




I did finally start the quilting on my feathered star table topper.  I thought I had made it about 2-3 years ago but was told this week that we got together to learn how to make feathered stars 4 years ago.  So this qualifies as my oldest UFO, soon to be completed.




It’s not very big, about 40” square but is going to look wonderful on the dining room table.






These are the fancy tools I used to mark the squares for circle feathers.  Nothing but the best here. 




This is all the help I have around here.  They were refusing to get up so I couldn’t make the bed.  Of course, I was very disappointed.





And Ms. Murphy is still attempting to figure out how to use the Pilates machine.  Just this morning she was asking “how do I make this thing move?”