Design Wall and Progress

My design wall continues to be empty. This is my ironing board with parts to a Turkey Tracks block on it, one of the blocks for the Eleanor Burns BOM at my LQS and due Thursday. As anyone can see this has not been a productive week in the studio.

When it started to warm up (yippee!!) I spent a couple of afternoons sitting in the sun reading and that was wonderful. I really like my Nook and I love that I can “sample” books before I decide if I want to buy/read them. But I don’t think I am going to keep the subscription to the newspaper as it is not as much fun to read as a regular paper.

I did work on the quilting for the Not Quite Traditional quilt class. I have quilted all but the two bottom borders.

This first picture is one of the four bear's paw blocks. In this picture the sashing isn't quilted but that is also done now.

This is the back of the quilt. The bobbin thread is purple but it doesn't show much in this picture. I did use a poly batting so the quilting shows even when the thread doesn't.

I must say that this is the most different quilting I have done and I’m pretty sure I will be using these quilting ideas again. Right now, however, I have to watch the beginning of the class video again so I can remember what we did on the top border. Have you ever had the problem of not remembering what you quilted on top? This happened to me on my very first quilt so I now try keeping pictures of what I have already quilted so the bottom can match the top.

And I guess the most important thing that has happened this week is that we celebrated our 49^th wedding anniversary. It was yesterday but we began our celebration on Friday by going out to eat and to the movies: It’s Complicated. What a hoot and was even funnier that we were watching a movie about divorce and an affair while we were celebrating our LENGTHY togetherness.

Still behind

I don’t know about everyone else’s part of the country, but it is still COLD here. I know that for a lot of people, that means that it is a great time to get into the sewing room and get some sewing/quilting done. That is not the case here. My studio is separate from the main house and is not centrally heated or air conditioned. I have two really good space heaters that heat two of the three rooms and during the winter I go over first thing in the morning and turn them on. Usually by 9 or 10 the studio is warm enough for me to begin working in there. HOWEVER, for the last week we have had night time temps of 15 – 22 and daytime temps not over 39 and my two little space heaters have not been up to the task. I did try to do some quilting last week but I found that with the inside temp of 53 it was still too cold to stay in there for very long. For that reason my design wall has nothing on it this week. Drop by Judy’s blog and see what others are getting done.

This is what I did get accomplished in my short time in the studio.

The first picture is the first part of the quilting plan Cindy gave us. She calls it “nontraditional Baptist fans.” We were to draw it out on plexiglass placed on the quilt so we could see how it was going to look before the actual quilting was done.

The second picture shows my markings and quilting. On the yellow row is a wiggly cross hatching. I have only gotten a little way but I like what I have been doing so far. I am really enjoying Cindy’s quilting class and hope to get back to it Tuesday.

So what have I been doing with my time? Well, I have been working on creating a sewing space in the house. I decided that for days when it is too cold, or too hot in the summer, or when I want/need to stay in the house (you know like when I am doing laundry and such) but also want to sew, I needed a little nook for my creativity. So I have been moving furniture and while doing that I have been sorting, cleaning, and wondering why I have kept so much junk. I have also found that a lot of dust collects in places where I haven’t been. Right now I have a pretty big mess to contend with but this is what I have created so far.

I am pretty excited about this. And it gives me a reason to not part with my oldest sewing machine which I still enjoy using.

I also have been playing with this.

DH got this for me for Christmas but since they had sold out I didn’t get it until this week. I have wanted an e-reader since they came out but when he saw this from Barnes and Nobel he decided it was the one. I have ordered the Chicago Tribune to be sent daily (hasn’t started yet) because we used to read it every day when we lived in the Chicago area long, long ago. And I am busy browsing for books and reading samples. It is very easy to use and I love electronic gadgets.