Weather

February in my rural town is usually wet, wet, wet. One year I counted the number of days it rained in February - 22. But this year? Rain, wind, sleet, and unusual for us - snow.

This is me clearing my car this morning to head to work.

By the time I drove twenty minutes south the snow had turned to rain and the white magic on the trees and hillsides was non-existant.

But it was fun while it lasted!

Orphan Blocks

As if I don't have enough UFO's of my own! I picked up a Ziplock baggie full of orphan blocks at the Freebees table at guild last month. There were more than a half a dozen pinwheels... some of them very wonky... and a handful of 3" Four-patches in Christmas Gold and Green...

I also salvaged this remnant from Su's cutting clutter. I'm a true scrap-aholic and she gets a kick out of my grubbing in her bin.

I pulled out the best looking Pinwheels and put them together into a Nine-patch.

The Four-patches don't really do anything for me, I might recycle those back to the Freebees table next month. But I'm considering using Su's piano key border with the Pinwheel Nine-patch, hmmm...

Stay tuned.

Applique'

Our Quilt Guild, Ladies of the Lake will be hosting a visting Guild next month. As a favor to the visiting members we were asked to create little felt Needle Keepers that will be given as gifts.

Those that were interested signed out a pre-assembled kit that contained all the pieces-parts precut, ready to stitch. How easy is that? There were strands of color coordinated embroidery floss, little buttons to consider using as embellishments, an inside piece of wool cut to fit and an outside piece of felted wool. I decided to stitch the flower centers, the buttons in my kit seemed a bit too big.
The inside piece is sewn on three sides, as well as stitched down the middle to tack the cord that ties the spool of thread in place. This creates a little pocket on one side. You can just see a skein of floss peaking out. The Keeper closes with velcro dots.

Fun! And it didn't take weeks and weeks to complete. Now that's my kind of project. =)

Another Composite Image

DH's been busy with his computer graphics. This image is a composite of several elements. All the scenery was created by him using 3-D modeling software. The sisters are a photographic image and the quilt is mine.


He's entitled it Shared Secrets in the Early Morning.

More Pictures

In between the rain showers we've been having over the last few days I finally got out and took full- sized pictures of the Snail's Trail top and backing. They're both too big to fit on the tool shed backdrop that I usually use so we had to put it on the side of the house!

That was an endeavor in itself. Up and down the three-step step stool, holding the weight up over my head while DH tapped the tiny nails in, losing the nails in the grass, having the step stool sink into the dirt because the ground is so saturated, finding some wood siding to place under the legs of the step stool so it wouldn't sink into the ground, moving the siding pieces and the stool for each pair of nails tapped in, up and down the steps.

Take the photo, take the whole thing down, go through all the above steps again with the backing which is even *bigger*. I didn't have the heart to tell my husband that the backing was dragging on the ground, he was already on the top step of the stool on tip-toe, stretched to his full height, tap nails in his teeth, hammer in hand.

I thanked him several times for his willingness to go out into the wet and help me with this. How many husbands care that much about the quality of the photos their quilting wives have to put on their blog??

But I wanted to show you the backing and this close-up because this is what started it all in the first place.

This quilt is going to be for my brother and SIL who live in Washington and boat on the Sound. I was visiting them last June for a family reunion. One afternoon the women went fabric shopping and I wandered over to the flat fold - clearance tables. There were yards and yards of this blue fabric and it just spoke to me. The colors are amazing. And not only does it look like it's been bargello pieced but in the dark blue area there are these impressionistic shapes that look like either whale flukes or sea birds, depending on how you look at it. This fabric set the color scheme for the quilt.

Now how many quilts are *begun* with the purchase of the backing? =)

It's a Flimsey!

At long last this project is a top! I had the blocks together for over a week but had trouble finding the right fabric for the inner border. I went back to the store where I’d bought some of the fabrics with swatch in hand, looking for more of one of the aqua-jade blenders. But of course they were sold out.

Our little Northern California town only /has/ two fabric stores - and Wal-Mart doesn’t count. I went stash diving twice hoping to find something suitable. Nada… My fabric collect is over twenty years old and most of my blues are not as clear as these.

I asked Su for her favorite fabric sites and browsed on-line. Zip, zilch. Sooo frustrating! Sooo close to being done – yet unable to get there! I decided to put it aside until I could drive south to the next town and shop, and who knew when that would be?

Two nights later I was cleaning my sewing room, too discouraged to work on anything else. I didn’t /want/ to change gears, it’s best to stay on the trail when it’s HOT! Snail’s Trail that is. =) While sorting through the ‘Pending projects’ pile I found a four yard chunk of clear aqua that was just right; I couldn’t believe it! I’d put it aside as possible backing for one of the pending projects in the pile. Well TOO bad! You snooze, you lose.

This is probably one of the *largest* quilts I've ever made, 7 ft x 9 ft. And I'm planning on quilting this?? I mean, I do have I nice, new Janome 6500, but...

It's been raining all weekend, so in order to photograph this quilt I had to set up my three-step stepstool on the hearth, my head was banging the ceiling and I still had trouble getting it all in the view finder. But this'll give you a good idea.

Sashed

All last week I had the pedal to the metal piecing those 48 Snail Trail blocks into rows and the rows into a top. I sewed for hours three nights out of five. I was exhausted. The top is six feet by eight before borders!

So I took a break and played with these little eight inch Sawtooth Star blocks that I adopted from the Freebees table Saturday. Round one of borders got on last night.


It was so satisfying to work in a different color scheme *and* have something near completion to show for a couple hours worth of sewing.

*phew*

Orphan Blocks

I found a Ziplock bag *full* of orphan blocks on the Freebee table at Guild yesterday. I didn't even stop to browse through them at the time, there was such a 'feeding frenzy' going on I didn't want to miss anything.

What I found were 18 eight inch Sawtooth Star blocks, 12 four inch pinwheel blocks and a handful of four patches and hst's. They were all mix and match as far as I could tell and the piece work was pretty nice. I took them home.
After much trial and error, this is the layout I decided on.

Most of the blocks are made with a dark star on a light background. Then there are a few light stars on dark backgrounds and a few I chose not to use because the contrast is almost non-existant so you couldn't see the star. I also didn't want to piece any additional blocks; this is intended to be a 'quick quilt' after all.

Then I went to EQ and recreated the block's colors (for the most part) and made border size and color choices. What a joy EQ is for this task! Instead of having to haul a bunch of fabrics out of the stash to audition I can just click and see. Here's the layout I think I'll use.

Off to the sewing room. More later... :D

Friendship Block

This is a Pine Tree block for one of my mini-group friends. You wouldn't think a little 12" block would take such a long time to piece, but I can't *tell* you how many false starts I experienced. After ripping and resewing as many times as I did, I felt like I'd pieced the block three times over!

Funny how some days sewing are like that... I probably would've been better off to leave it and go do something else. :D

The 2006 Tally

I pretty much have a photo of all the quilts and patchwork related projects I've done over the years. They're all in photo albums with hand lettered captions listing the name of the quilt, the size and the date. But in an effort to track my creations a little more, I created a database in Excel. There I list more detailed information, such as the name of the quilt, the colors, size, hand or machine quilted, photo taken, recipient, inspiration source, etc. I eventually added information for "Begun" and "Completed", because a simple "Date" wasn't enough. Maybe some quilters don't *want* to know how long their projects sit before they're completed... =) But it's also fun when an entry reads, "Begun: June 2005. Completed December 2005".

So I checked in on my database recently. I was looking to see if I'd photographed a quilt I'd finished recently. And to my surprise there weren't any entries since 2005. I had some catching up to do! I was racking my brain trying to remember what I'd created in 2006 when I remembered it was all on my Blog! I logged in, worked my way back through my posts, and Voila!

I made three flannel receiving blankets for charity
Two Friendship blocks for the guild
A machine quilted nine-patch baby quilt for charity
A Pin Blossom pincushion
A miniature Sawtooth Star ornament
Four strip pieced tree ornaments
and...

What else??

Looking back over previous years I noticed I usually managed to complete at least a lap quilt or two. What happened in 2006??

Well I worked full-time in a very difficult job. I often came home so mentally exhausted all I did was zone on computer games in the evening. Maybe all I could manage were small, relatively quick projects. -- Then I remembered, I pieced a Log Cabin top and a Majestic Mountains in Batiks with my mini-group, no photo taken... and another scrap-happy top from a pattern Bonnie has on her site called "Almost Bowtie". AND... 48 Snail Trail blocks. Well NO WONDER! I needed all those small, break out projects to keep my sanity!

I'm not so worried that I didn't create a long list of full-sized quilts. The long-term projects that I pick up and put down don't show in the database... so time is being spent on hand applique', embroidery, a penny rug, etc. It's just interesting to me to have it all in one place and see what I've been working on.

If you're interested in seeing a blank Quilt History database, or want to try tracking your quilt projects, feel free to use my template. Once you click on the link it will ask if you want to save or open. You'll need to save it to your local computer in order to use it. And you'll need Excel 2002 sp3.
Cheers!

45, 46, 47, 48...

I've been trying to carve out some uninterrupted sewing time for weeks... but that seems to be an elusive butterfly lately. I seem to only manage to piece a block here, or sew a seam or two more on my leader-ender strippy there... So you can imagine my joy when I got to sew four blocks in one afternoon! The *last* four blocks of this King-sized Snails Trail quilt you've been hearing about since June! I don't think I've ever made a quilt with 48 blocks in it. The last King quilt I made was a Trip Around the World, using Blanche Young's strip method. And let me tell you, that wasn't nearly so painful!
So of course I had to put it all out on the floor and play around with the layout of the blocks. Some of the Snail Trails sort of dropped out, some of the blues weren't 'blue' enough... I futzed with it. I told DH, "I want to like it more than I do." Then I decided to take a picture and see what I could see.

That helped a lot! It's so big I had to bring in the three-step stool to get enough height to fit it all in the picture. But from up there, all the Snails Trails showed just fine. So it's /distance/ that makes this work??
Anywayz... we're going to Santa Rosa all day to help DS1 move into his first solo duplex, no more roommates! So I won't get back to this until... who knows when. I want to get it together, I want to strike while the iron's hot. I want to sew while the sewing is good! *sigh*
Life is good. No matter what people say. =)

Pattern Given

Fiona said she wanted to try these little Woven Heart Baskets and that got me to thinking others might want to as well. Click here for page one and two. The instructions are intended as a craft project for a young person. So I found I could cut my basket pieces and handle from a 7" x 8" square rather than the 8.5" x 8.5" they recommend. But that's just me and my forever frugal ways. =)
Enjoy!

Have a Heart...

While I was recovering from that *noxious* stomach flu that's going around, I sat in my easy chair and thumbed a stack of new-to-me Fons and Porter magazines. I found this cute little Woven Heart Basket pattern. I just had to try it! And for once, when the instructions said, "Quick and Easy", it really was! The instructions suggested using fabric glue stick to attach the handle. But I thought it was a perfect occasion to practice the embroidery feature on my relatively new machine. So I tacked the handle with a small heart. Perfect!

Well one just wasn't enough, so I made a few more. And hey! Valentine's Day is still a few weeks away. I've never been so ready. =)

Homespuns

Patti was talking about receiving a fun collection of Homespun fabrics in the mail. I loved the photo of them all lined up on her shelf. I've never done a whole lot with plaids. I used them once in a 1910 reproduction quilt to good effect, but I don't seem to know how to use them in everyday patchwork.

So I've started collecting. That seems like a good place to start anyway. Or maybe it's just an *excuse* =) But I found these at the Goodwill store last weekend. Men's shirts all... yards of Homespun here. And all for $20.00. I was pretty pleased.

It was so fun the way the selection of shirts suggested a color scheme. I just couldn't believe how it came together! Blues and Beiges are easy to find. But that *cheddar* What a delight! Must be my new favorite color. =) I don't have a block pattern in mind yet. Any suggestions? I'm figuring this will be a wallhanging, six inch blocks work well for that.

HST's to the max

I think I told you I seem to think I need to post only WIP and new quilts. But I have a plethoria of quilts I can share with you. Let me dig into the archive and post a few that remind me of finn's quilts.

I call this little quilt Memory Triangles. It's the only hand pieced quilt I ever have (or ever will) make. I was laid up with back pain and laid on the couch day after day. If I hadn't had this little quilt to cut and patch pieces for I think I would've lost my mind! I pulled pieces from my scrap bag, circa 1989, clipped them to a magnetic board normally used for holding counted cross stitch patterns and traced the cardboard template, all while lying flat on my back. Then I hand cut the triangles. As I recall, I laid the pieces out on the back of the corduroy couch near my head like a design wall, picked the pieces up as I pieced and replaced them in their sequence once they were sewn. It worked quite well. The irony of all this is that I machine pieced the blocks together and added the borders by machine, sewed standing up with my sewing machine on the kitchen counter as I recall. Necessity is the mother of invention...

I entered it in the Sonoma County fair and was pleased to receive second place. The rosette ribbon is from the local quilt guild "For Best Use of Color and Design." That was *very* nice to receive. I gave this quilt to my best girlfriend at the time, who was having a late life third baby. They moved from California to Nebraska a few years later but I know she cherishes this quilt. That is to say... it lives in a drawer safe from children's hand!

So later that year I decided to use the same quilt pattern for a Memory Quilt for me. I had a great time sorting through my scraps and stash fabrics and collecting into boxes marked: Light, Medium and Dark. Not being a quilter that likes light fabrics, it was a challenge to find enough variety. I asked my quilty and seamstress friends for donations; which made the tapestry of memories even richer.

I saved and sorted, grouped and regrouped for a long time... longer than I'm willing to admit. But I found out many things about myself as a quilter. I love the memories associated with the prints. I love the way the different fabric styles and motifs tell me their age, era or previous origin and I love the memory prompting power a small triangle of fabric can have. One time when I was talking to Su about this she said, "You know all your fabrics by name." =) I loved it! Yes, that's it...

This quilt also contains hand-cut triangles. The HSTs are not speed pieced, because I wanted to maximize the number of combinations and increase the random-ness and at that point in my piecing methods I didn't want to overcut the triangles for HST piecing to square-up. It felt like a waste of fabric. (!) I've never been afraid of the bias edges involved in sewing a HST either. Maybe all this practice is the reason!

I worked on this quilt off and on for *years* - ten, to be exact. In that time I mused on a name for this quilt. Originally I wanted to call it "No Dogs in This Quilt", because I carefully hand picked every piece that went into every block and I didn't want any "dog" fabrics, uglies, blah prints that didn't say anything and didn't inspire the heart. But over time I learned that many fabrics that looked like *dogs* became transformed once I cut them, pieced them with a light or dark and put them into a block.

This is one of my all-time favorite quilts and it's on my bed during the summer months. I was so pleased once it was finished. A large chunk of my life had gone into making that quilt. I often think of the quote from "Anonymous Was a Woman"

"I sat over that quilt while the babies were a-growin' and I sat over that quilt when times with Jeb were good and times were bad. It took me 20 years to finish that quilt. I shudder when I think of all it knows about me."

The label on the back reads:

Triangle Memory Quilt

This quilt is pieced using 5,184 hand cut half-square triangles. It represents 20 years of sewing and patchwork memories. Some of the fabrics include pieces from my honeymoon dress, Nathan and Hollin's play clothes, Frank's first suit, as well as pieces from quilt friend's projects. It was begun in 1989 and completed in March of 1999. Machine pieced, machine quilted.

A few months after the quilt was finished and I'd toted it all over everywhere showing it to my friends and family, I received an offer from one of my long time friends to buy it. "The colors are so special, the pattern is so cheerful. I'd love to have it on my bed. I can give you as much as $250. for it. Please let me know what you think." (!)

I can tell you... it's not for sale. Not at any price.

Pin Blossom

I hope everyone had a warm, family filled, blessed Christmas day. I love the festivities. I also enjoy getting back to *normal*. Eating PBJ for lunch with cold milk and going into town to run errands. That's what I'll be doing after this blog post. =)

Since I'm on Christmas break from work, I decided to 'give myself permission' for a little off the beaten track project. One of those quick I-just-want-to-play projects... and so I did.

The pattern calls it a pin cushion, but I might just hang it in the window of the sewing room. Filled with sawdust, not poly-fil. Thanks Su for supplying the sawdust and company while I *stuffed* this puppy!
Cheers!

Strippy Update

Here are pics of my Strippy Leader/Ender quilt. I've been running these under the needle while piecing the blue-green Snail's Trail blocks. This is about a third of the total strips waiting to have the little red triangle added to the end.

I got the strips all pieced and it felt like I was pressing for days!


I'd just jumped in with the construction of this quilt without a lot of thought. Then realized I'd better stop and do some planning. So I drafted what I think I want it to look like in EQ.

Love that cheddar, red, sage green combo! It's a little bit like Bonnie's Strippy Leader/Ender but hopefully different enough to make it my own. Thanks for the inspiration Bonnie!

Doll Quilt?

'Member these colors... as a change from my blue-green Snail's Trail blocks? Su said, "Might keep dolly awake!" I think so. But Su's tastes keep rubbing off on me and I'm not complaining! We each entered a "Radio Flyer" quilt in our guild show, her's in red, orange and tan, mine in navy, blue and tan. Guess who got the better ribbon?? Yup! My friend Su.

Notice I just did a *small* quilt in these break out colors for me. *giggling* baby steps... So now I'm trying to decide if I need to sew the rest of the rows on, or stop now, border and quilt!

Luv ya Su!

More Mini-atures...

And while I'm talking about mini's and how fun they are, I just had to share this pic.

Entitled the World's Smallest Half-Square Triangles. =)

*Chuckling* Don't cha just love it! Sooo cute!!

Another Ornament

The women in my mini-group like to *tease* me about my minis. They don't understand why I'd want to spend all that time on something so small. And you can't sleep under it, so why bother? =) Last year when several of us went to quilt retreat I was often tweaked for the way I dug in their trash bags for 'useable' scraps. "Leslie...!"

During the retreat Su won the daily doorprize of Triangle Papers and spend part of the afternoon making little, tiny half square triangles. She said she didn't know they were going to finish at that size , or she 'never would've bothered.' Leslie, do you want them? Of course!

So partly to show there really was a use for 1/2" half-square triangle, and partly because I wanted to show 'it could be done', I made a Sawtooth Star block. It was so cute! I showed it around the group when it was finished and they just shook their heads - there goes Leslie again... The block was pinned to my design wall for many months until last week I took it into my care again. I bordered and backed it and now it's hanging on the tree in the living room.

Mini Trio

I like making mini's because I get to try out color schemes and pattern ideas without making a full-sized quilt. Sometimes the block piecing doesn't go any faster than a full-sized block, but if the block (or the quilt) doesn't turn out, I can throw it away without guilt!

These mini's are all pieced in the traditional way. I made most of my mini's before paper-piecing became popular, so I just use half-square triangle methods and away I go! This trio is hanging at my quilt guild's annual October show. It was fun to see them all together like that. When they're not at a show, they live in a drawer at my house. Too many quilts, not enough display space!

And no Virginia, these are not potholders and placemats. =)

Love These FPCs

I wanted to make a special gift for a friend who's going through his first Christmas season without his wife of 27 years. But sometimes you have to know a person really well before you 'bequeath' a quilt on them, don't want to overwhelm him... Still, I had that - I want to make something special for this person - feeling in me. So I made a fabric postcard.

He talks about the night sky. When he got back from Hawaii in November he commented on the way the Milkyway looked so completely different down there. He's told me about sitting in his hot tub on a winter night with the starry canopy for company. So I wrote this lyric on the back:

Catch a falling star and put in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away

He *loved* it. It's sitting on his computer monitor where he can see it daily.

Be well Steve.

What is the Opposite of Blue-Green?

I got re-energized at mini-group. My quilty friends all have very different tastes and piecing preferences, which makes it fun. Evette likes the "East Meets West" themes, Asian fabrics and motifs. Mavis likes anything Sunbonnet Sue. Judy likes machine pieced traditional, Kim takes on a Mystery quilt project maybe once or twice a year. And I like to see it all. I came home wanting to *sew*. Well... wanting to start something new. Remember my blue-green Snail's Trail? I've been piecing those blocks since June, trying to stay focused. I have 4o- FIVE out of 48 needed. But I need a break!

So I decided to make a quick doll quilt. Nothing flashy, just easy and satisfying. But what color scheme should I use? Hmmm... I have a bizillion blue and green 2" squares already cut. Noooo!
I asked DH for a color scheme idea and he suggested yellow-orange and red. (!) I pulled colors (with his help) and this is what we came up with.


I'm calling it "Firestorm". =) What a stretch for me.

Christmas Tea

I've talked about my mini-group before, the "Sew What's". We try to meet once a month for fun, food, fellowship and quilt talk. This week we got together for a Christmas Tea. The hostess does a beautiful job of preparing the right foods to set the mood. We all sat and ate finger sandwiches and Christmas cookies and drank tea. It was'lovely'. But seriously, it was so good to see everyone! We hadn't met since September. The show and tell of quilt projects finished and under construction was so inspiring. I came home all charged up!

The hostess has a fabulous collection of ladies hats, so we were encouraged to wear a hat, or chose one from her collection. I wore this bright green and yellow "British Invasion" cap I recently received at a Christmas gift exchange. We had a blast!


Merry Christmas!

Baltimore Album Quilt

For some reason I only think to post new projects and quilts. But I love reading about the quilts others have done in the past and many of you haven't seen my stash of quilts. So with that in mind I offer these pictures of my hand-applique'd, hand quilted Baltimore Album quilt. I posted a picture of this back in June when it was finished, so this is the first year I can put it out in the living room for Christmas.

I finally finished it after fourteen years of fits and starts. At the time I was a die-hard traditionalist so I wanted a cotton batt. Well it was so hard to needle I could only get two stitches on my rocker needle at a time and it was *not* a pleasant quilting experience. The top was complete in 1995, cotton batts have improved a lot I'm told, but I don't think I'll ever attempt to quilt another quilt with a cotton batt!
These are friendship blocks created for me by members of the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild, of which I was a member at the time. When my name was drawn I was allowed up to twenty blocks, with the understanding that I'd 'pay back the block bank for as many blocks as I asked for. So I chose twelve instead.
I have loved wreaths and floral spray designs for more years than I can count, so an "X's and O's" selection of blocks seemed like a good idea. I collected a few traditional patterns: Rose of Sharon and Laurel Wreath, found a few current day patterns and drafted a few of my own. I chose the colors and fabric, provided the pattern in a kit and my friends applique'd the blocks.

Then I chose the layout, pieced the top and quilted it. When I finished it, I attempted to contact the 12 women that had helped me create this beauty... I wanted to thank them for their part in the creation of this quilt and to share a picture; for it really is one of my favorites and I'll never make another like it. But so much time had passed I was only able to get in touch with about a third of the twelve. Some had dropped out of the guild, others had moved away and no one knew how to reach them.
Last year I entered it in three local fairs. At the community Redwood Empire Fair in my town, it received Best of Show and was displayed in the winner's circle in the Home Arts building. At the county fair it was up against some National ribbon winning quilters and it placed Second. And at the end of the summer I entered it in a local quilt guild's annual Show and it placed Third. =) So all this confirms what I've thought all along... I make quilts for the pleasure of the process, the beauty of the finished product and the enjoyment of myself, family and friends. Quilt judging is subjective at best.
Merry Christmas!

Been too long

Hi! I'm still here. I just sort of dropped off the Blogland map for awhile. Life got in the way...

Here's a picture of some quick strip ornaments I made last week. I have so much blue, it was easy to pull strip scraps and zip these up.

I try to make pieced ornaments each year for gifts, and if I think ahead, keep one for me. Here's a picture of last year's ornaments. These were actually created in EQ5, printed on fabric, bordered and then quilted. That was a fun experiment.

I guess I like cool blue looking ornaments. =)

And 2004

What a great idea for using mini's. I have a few mini blocks that never made it into a project. Guess I could make them into ornaments, hmmm...