Ready, Set, Go

I am almost packed for my weeks visit with my mother.  We will be celebrating her 92nd birthday as well as doing some shopping and visiting.  She recently moved into a new house so I am excited to be seeing it and, if necessary, helping to unpack some of the boxes.








I also have packed three knitting projects: green socks (just started on the foot), brown sweater (working on the yoke), and dishcolths (bought new yarn).  I probably won’t get a lot done  but if we have some just sitting time I can keep my hands busy.









I also have completed the laundry, did the dishes, watered all the plants so that pretty much all DH has to do while I am gone is care for himself and the puppies, cats, and birds.  And this is why you see him resting

while I was getting it all together.  



And speaking of being busy, I started working on my replacement for the HSTs some of the owls were surrounded by in the designer’s layout.  First I cut strips of my tree fabric.  The strips are longer than the background fabric: you will see why soon.










I then backed the end sections of the top and bottom strips with fusible and cut out the dark parts, not an easy job, by the way.
















When I was done this was the frame I came up with.  I am so excited at how this came out.  As you can see there are only 6 owls that will need frames so with one down we are on our way, again.
















Because I have another quilt to put on the frame I decided to finish this little baby quilt.  It is not a very large quilt, based on how much fabric I had, so I decided to leave the tumblers uncut. 











Of course that meant that I had to bind all those angles.  I guess I really like a challenge cuz it was one.  And I used leftover 30s binding (I keep using that fabric but I can’t use it up  )













I even got the label on it.  This quilt is going to a student of my husband’s so I didn’t put my name on it, just the date.  The baby isn’t due until October so this one will have to wait a while to be loved.













On a completely unrelated note, here is Stubby, sleeping in his 4th floor loft. She can be found in any one of these shelves which keeps her up and away from the dogs when they are out on the deck.







So I will be up early tomorrow to pile everything in the car and hit the road.  It is about a 9 hour drive, longer if I stop at a quilt shop or antique mall, so I need to get an early start. 




Have a great week and be sure to check in at Patchwork Times.     Gari

Almost Dones

Here is what is on my Design ironing board this weekend.  The design wall is, again, full of past owls but I am not showing it because  they have been seen so many times before.  I think there is only 1 or 2 more and then we begin looking at layout settings.  Anyway, after a couple hours of drawing, cutting, picking out fabric, fusing, and cutting again, here he is.  He is not fused together yet but you get a pretty good idea of how he will look.  He is pretty big, about 18” tall.  I haven’t cut the background yet but will tomorrow and then it will be time to applique him down.













I did get the tumbler baby quilt quilted and now it is ready for squaring and binding.






















I quilted this with the same loops and stars as I did the Boots quilt.  The thread I used is a red/white/and blue variegated cotton.  I used Quilter’s Dream 70/30 and it has a flannel backing.













I have knit several more rows on my sweater and am within 2 rows, I think, of starting the garter stitch section which will be the band around the bottom.  At the rate I am going I should be done this week.  Then the next thing I will be doing is a warm soak and blocking.  I know it needs to do whatever shrinking it is going to do before I start wearing it.  Of course I really don’t need a sweater now that summer seems to have arrived: 95 today with 91% humidity.


As I am writing this I have printed out the pattern for a pair of “easy fingerless gloves.”  And I have two new sock patterns that I think I would like to try.  I am collecting fairly easy patterns so I can have some hand work to do when I go to visit my mother next month.  She has recently moved into a bungalow and will be celebrating her 92nd birthday:  seems like a good time for a visit.


I think I have decided to make a D9P quilt with my owl fabric.  It is so easy and yet makes a beautiful quilt.  If I make the 9 patches 6” the uncut blocks are large and show off the focus fabric beautifully.  So the fabric cutting should begin early in the week and maybe I will have something different on the Design Wall next week.


Have a great week and be sure to drop by Patchwork Times to see more quilting inspirations.     Gari

May 19th Design Wall

Sometime this past week I realized that I needed to make a baby quilt.  In fact I realized that I currently need to make three: DH wants one for a student he is exceptionally proud of and there are two pregnant women in our family.  So here is the start of baby quilt #1.  The white tumblers are part of the group I “found” when routing in my white fabric stash: I do not remember cutting them. 


















The bear fabric has been in my stash for ages and I cut up all I had.  This is as big as this quilt can get. 























I did start sewing these together but it was late Sunday afternoon so I didn’t get very far.













I do plan to do some fabric shopping later this week for backing for this little quilt and for the two others.










I have decided to start another new project, a table runner designed by Esther Aliu.  She designs wonderful applique quilts but they are way beyond my abilities so I was excited when she offered her yahoo group a table runner for Easter.  Of course it is way past Easter but I think I can do this one so I have kind of started.  I am going to work slowly on this but it should show up every once in a while.








This is a picture of our house.  Look closely, through our trees, and you can see it.  I am showing this because Saturday evening no where looked so good. 

Reason? 

Saturday afternoon DH and I went to Pensacola (120 miles) to check out a couple of antique malls, looking for small acrylic shelving (no luck).  We had a great afternoon and got home around 7pm.  However, upon getting out of the car I realized that I didn’t have my purse.  We decided that I had left it at a frozen yogurt shop way back in FL.  I called and they had found my purse so we jumped in the car and again headed toward the Gulf coast.   We finally got home, to stay, a little after midnight and even in the dark, our home never looked better.   Nothing like a little excitement to spice up life, huh?

Linking with Patchwork Times for great quilting inspiration.

Design Wall 10/3/11

This is my design wall for the first Monday in October 2011.  These blocks are from an internet swap a couple of years ago.  I have had them on the wall a few times with no certain idea of what to do with them.  This week I decided they will be a gift and began the design process in earnest. 

 

First I put the blocks out on the wall and, of course, move them around several times.  Then I decided on the sashing and borders.  Originally I planned to have the sashing, which is also the second border, be just that fabric.  However, when I put it on the wall it looked way too busy.  Using the cornerstones, made from the first border fabric, calmed down the already busy center.

I have the center rows sewn together, not an easy feat since several of the blocks were poorly made, and am ready to sew the first border. 

All this sewing will have to wait.  I have a new WW meeting to lead on Monday and two on Tuesday and since I have to travel a little over 100 each day I will probably only be up to feeding the animals when I get home.

 

Speaking of animals, we seem to have a new one here.

Meet our newest member (?).  We found her a little over a week ago, wandering the streets in downtown.  We have placed ads in the newspaper and on the radio and visited the two vets, attempting to find where she has come from.  The plan is that if no one has claimed her by Tuesday, she will become part of our family.  We have not named her yet, that would mean she was staying and we don’t know about that, yet.

 

Here she is with Abby.  We figure she is about 6 months old but we will know for sure when we take her to the vet for a check up and shots next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is finished.  And I got it done before the end of September.  I really like the scrappy binding and it almost finished that 30s fabric.

 

 

I did get the URR on the frame.  The backing is a batik fat back I bought at MQX in 2008.  It has been sitting around, waiting for a quilt to come around that fit it and finally it did.  I can’t show it yet since it is all rolled up on the pole, but will later. 

 

Now, if I could just come up with a plan for the quilting.

 

 

 

 

 

And now, one last picture.  This is for people who think we have no Fall color in the South.  This is a maple tree that is just beginning to turn.

This poor thing was cut down a few years ago and this is what has grown out of the stump.  It is about 15’ tall now but has about 7 small trunks.  I don’t know how this effects it’s growth but it makes a very pretty sight in our very green yard.

And now it is time to pour yourself another cup of coffee or tea and hop on over to Patchwork Times to see what other quilters are up to.

Its Progress, Here

It’s quilted.  I finished it this afternoon and am very pleased with how it has turned out.  Now all I have to do is make up the scrappy binding and this comfort quilt is good to go.

 

I used a panto and I know I took a picture of both it and the name but for some reason it didn’t make it so I will retake those pictures and share them later.

 

The quilting does not show on the back unless you look at it at an angle.  Usually I like that but this time I had no tension problems or breaks so I would have been happy to have the quilting show.  However, since this will go to a child it is probably best that it doesn’t show anything, quilting or dirt.

 

When I finished the quilting I started working on the Underground Railroad quilt: I squared up the blocks and began sewing the sashing between the blocks.  As I walked into the sewing room of the studio I suddenly really saw what that room looks like. 

You would have thought I would have noticed that mess before but I tend to just see what I am working on and not anything else.  Well, I took the picture so I would be so embarrassed that I would make time to find that table top, and the one you can’t see to the right.  There must be at least 4 projects scattered out in that space. 

However, when I turned to walk into the next room, the cutting a pressing room, this was what I saw:

Well, my goodness, there seems to be a pattern here.  So now, here is my dilemma, do I take some time to really clean this up or do I use that same time to get some sewing and/or quilting done.

Well, I guess I will take some time to ponder that question, so I’ll get back to you as to what my priorities are. 

Working on Finishes

This is the week I get everything, well almost everything, ready for finishing.

 

My tumbler quilt top is finished.  I put the backing together Sunday and here they are, resting on the HQ, ready for me to get the backing together and begin.  Of course that will also mean that I get to sit on the floor and go through all of my pantos to find a good one for this comfort quilt.

 

 

And on the Design Wall?  Well, here is my Underground Railroad quilt, on the DW again.  I have all the blocks finished and have drawn up several layouts in EQ. 

 

 

This is the plan I have chosen, I think.  I have the border fabrics hanging on the DW and I have cut the 1.5” black strips to put between the blocks.   If I get the tumbler quilt set up on the frame I will cut the borders and begin putting this together, too.

 

If you look at the lower right corner of the first picture you will see the rack where I hang the completed tops.  I counted 5 already on there.  That’s when I decided that I needed to focus on finishes.  If I can get these 7 done I then will have some time for the current BOMs and the swap blocks I also have waiting for settings.   Wow, I seem to be way behind in getting things done. 

Saturday we went to a model train show.  DH has talked about setting up a train set for several years but mostly he has been collecting ideas and parts.  At the show he collected this.

This is a toy Dunkin Donut truck sitting on a Dunkin Donut box (with only one donut left).  Someday it will sit on a road next to a great train layout.  Now it is just a reminder of the great donuts we had yesterday.

Now, grab yourself a cut of coffee and a donut and check out the wonderful quilting being shown at Patchwork Times.

Movement

This looks a lot like my last Design Wall post (2 weeks ago) but there has been progress.  The top two rows are all sewn (done after this picture was taken).  The rest is sewn into two piece blocks, ready to be completed.  I think this is going to make a really neat comfort quilt.

 

 

I got a little bit done on my Hearts Desire block.  These are the flowers for the block and some of the stems and leaves.  I still have several more leaves to make and a lot more other stuff.  And then I have to do the whole thing three more times.  I am really challenged by this quilt and have decided to slow down and only work on it a little at a time and spend more of my limited quilting time on other projects.

This past week I experienced the “end of an era.”  I did my last Weight Watcher meeting in Port St. Joe, FL.  I have been traveling there once a week for a year (365 miles round trip) and have loved it but finally both WW and I decided it was time for a change.  For the past 10 weeks I have been training the new leader and Thursday I left all the paperwork and products with her so now that wonderful group is her own. 

To celebrate the change on my way home I got something to eat and had my dinner at the beach.  I have been able to go to the beach every week for the past year: I will miss it.

 

And when I got home, this was what was waiting for me.  DH had gotten me flowers, the new cookies we like and a note that made me feel ever so good.

 

But I am  not done with Weight Watchers.  Tuesday I started leading two groups (9 am and 12 pm) and another on Saturday morning.  It is a brand new center so the groups are small ( 1 & 2 people) but we hope that they will increase with time.  It is exciting and I am only driving a little over 100 miles each day.  And I drive by two quilt shops and my sewing machine dealer.  Now how’s that for a great way to work?

 

And now for another  gratuitous cat picture.  I heard this funny noise and turn around to see this.  The container is where we keep the cat food.   Someone, it was me, left the top open.  There she was, tottering on a large plastic bowl, attempting to get into the container.  However, almost immediately after this picture was taken, down everything went.  What a mess.  But Ms. Murphy helped by trying to eat as much as she could before I could get it all up.  Wasn’t that nice of her?

Design Wall Progress

Isn’t it amazing?  I have something new on my design wall!  I cut these tumbler blocks and spaced them out so I can fill in between with either white or cream tumblers. 

Here is a picture of the blocks as I laid them out on the ironing board.  I was looking at how they go together as I have never made a tumbler quilt before.

This will be a comfort quilt and here I am, again, trying to use up the 30s fabric I got for this quilt and used again in this quilt.  And yet this fabric continues to seem to multiply as soon as I turn the light out in the studio.  For this reason I already have planned a doll sized quilt for the cradle using what’s left (I hope) of it.

Prior to the tumbler blocks going up on the wall, this was there: 

These are my Underground Railroad blocks.  Well, except for what you see as the first block in the third row.  There you can see the fabric for the last block which I hope to sew this week.

Here are the blocks with the fabric I have chosen, I think, for the sashing.  I’d like to do something different than just straight sashing so I’m glad I have some time to figure it out.

I am finally getting around to working on My Hearts Desire quilt blocks. 

So I got out the prepped pieces for the first of 4 blocks.  I laid them out and look how many empty places there are.  I was sure I had made all of the pieces for all 4 blocks but now I see that I had only gotten started.  So I will set aside time each day to prep those missing parts.  I am way behind with these: Esther has already started a new BOM quilt. I, however, really want to complete this quilt someday.

And now for some gratuitous cat pictures. 

Ms. Murphy found the cradle.  Doesn’t she look like a little princess?

And here she seems to be saying “are you still looking at me?”

Be sure to drop by Patchwork Times to see what other quilters are working on.