Grand Illusion mystery is underway!

 I was counting on the excitement of the mystery to give me some momentum getting my sewing area put back together. So the first step of this mystery was to get my work surfaces cleared. That pretty much took up Friday, but I ended the day with my fabrics out and ready to play!

Those are my colors. Looking at the picture they look pretty close to Bonnie's choices, but they really aren't. I'm using green, yellow, orangy red, teal, plum and neutrals. 

I wasn't sure how I wanted to substitute my colors. The straightforward way would have been to use the orange for the pink and the plum for the black and leave the rest the same.  However, I didn't go that route. I decided to use the green in place of the turquoise attempting to match the value of the color rather than the actual color.  Next I used the yardage Bonnie gave to decide on the prominence of the color. So, we'll just have to wait and see....it is a mystery after all and I'm going for it!

There's Harley...he doesn't seem to get the concept that if I clean off the ironing surface I didn't do it for him!

And not to forget about Molly, who thinks if I get up from my work chair she's supposed to keep it warm!



Today I started the cutting. Boy oh boy!  Cutting so many different fabrics is time consuming!  I hate wasting fabric with each cut to straighten the edge... now since I've been introduced to string piecing I always cut an inch or more off when I straighten the edges.  Lots of goodies for the string bins!

The other thing I've learned about cutting that gives me a more accurate cut is to use the straightened edge as the guide for multiple cuts. 

When cutting 2.5 inch strips (in this case I'm cutting 2 strips) start with making the first cut 5 inches, then using the same straightened edge make a 2.5 inch cut. This will maintain the straight edge to measure from and means you don't have to restraighten the edge after every 3 or 4 cuts.

The other time saver I use for cutting from 2.5 inch strips is the 45° half square triangle ruler from  creative grids.  After pairing my strips right sides together and stacking 2 pairs, it makes pretty quick work of cutting the half square triangles. Much easier for me than flipping that easy angle ruler back and forth.  Don't get me wrong, the easy angle ruler works great, but when I have 2.5 inch strips to work with I like the creative grids ruler. I was able to get 12 pairs from a half width of fabric strip. I like to cut my strips in half to match up with fat quarter strips and to make add variety to the pairs. 

There's my 288 half square triangle pairs. Took about 50 mins to cut these. Haven't started sewing or cut the squares but I think there is hope I might start tomorrow before it gets dark out!

It's mystery time again!

I feel like a kid on Christmas. It's 12:18am and I've checked Bonnie's blog for the third time tonight to see if she may have posted the first clue early.  No not yet.

I didn't do the mystery last year and the two previous mysteries are UFO's. Just the same, I'm excited about doing this mystery.  My motivation and enthusiasm seems to be making a comeback. I'm going to take all the advantage of that that I can!

Guess I'll go tuck myself in bed to have dreams of flying geese, easy angles and lots of scraps.

Quick and Simple Baby Quilt

 

 

I've finished something, hooray! This is a very easy quilt to make. (Thank goodness!)  There hasn't been much finishing of anything around here for quite sometime.  Maybe I'm turning a new leaf?  This pattern is called Warm Wishes and it is a free quilt pattern found here http://www.quiltmaker.com/patterns/details.html?idx=5215   It took me 3 Saturdays at the library to make it, one for cutting it out (45 min?), one for sewing (6 hours) and one for layering and quilting (6hours).  I spent another 4 hours putting the binding on, I did that at home while watching TV.  Times are just estimates but pretty close I think.

I quilted this on my Juki using the walking foot.  I have this wavy ruler for my mid-arm that I used to mark the lines for quilting.  I like how it is simple grid quilting but gives a little movement to the squareness of the blocks. I made this quilt for a co-worker who is home on maternity leave.  I didn't get it done in time for her shower but it's ready now for when she returns to work, should be pretty soon now! 

Carolina Christmas Mystery

I've joined the bandwagon and am doing Bonnie's mystery. My colors very much like hers.
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I'm going to try and keep up or not look ahead anyway. She's already posted the second step and I'm only half way thru the first...so far I haven't peeked...that doesn't mean I don't want to! Instead I'm going to use the excitement I feel...it's kind of like that feeling you got as a kid before Christmas...and use it as motivation to sew.

This is the nifty ruler I got from Fabric Depot in Portland during Quilt Expo there. It's making quick work of cutting the triangles! Although I love the EZangle method of making half square triangles, I don't like all the flipping of the ruler during the cutting. Voila! This ruler is one step! The drawback is that it is only designed for 2.5 inch strips. I think I'll find enough uses for it just the same to make it worth it to me.

Now I'm going to get off the computer and go get busy. Have to do a bit of housework and then I'm going to SEW! I plan on finishing step one today so I can look at step two.

I'M A WINNER!

I can't believe it! I was notified by Quiltmaker that I was one of the winners of the big bundle. Wow! I can't wait to see it! I never win anything...so maybe my luck is changing and I should go buy a lottery ticket!

Guess I've been on line too much...but who cares? WHOO HOO! Besides it's been fun following all the designers and blogs.

"Clutter kills our mojo, in every room, not just the sewing room!"

That's a quote from Stacey on Stashbusters that I read this morning. Is that ever true or what?!!

It seems like I've been in that space for quite some time now. Especially since I disrupted my quilting room to move the quilting machine and frame upstairs and redo the family room. It has disrupted the whole house and I can't seem to get anywhere.

First the bedroom upstairs that was emptied...well the closet is still full and needs to be edited so it can hold quilting related items and batting. Of course, all the rest of the stuff from the bedroom that I kept has been squished into other spaces... along with the stuff I'm waiting to move into the new quilt room.

Unbeknownst to me, my dear kitty, Heidi, was trying to tell me she had cystitis and was peeing all over this bedroom. I just wasn't paying attention...

I got one of those black lights to see where the pee was, and it seemed to be everywhere! I've treated it several times now and the black light still says it isn't clean! So I ordered another product online...anti icky poo...going to use a garden sprayer and spray it on and cross my fingers, turn around three times with my eyes closed and whisper the magic word....what is the magic word???

In the meantime the clutter around my house is killing me! I haven't known where to start....so started trying to get the carpet cleaned....but it's just been stalled. I've changed my tactic and decided to get on with working on the sewing room downstairs. I'm working on moving everything out so I can take up the carpet, put down laminate floors and paint. I'm running into problems of where to put the stuff! It's overwhelming how much there is!

There is very little sewing going on here right now. I had big ideas of some things I wanted to make for Christmas gifts but reevaluated and decided that I wanted to spend all the energies I could muster on getting this house put back together. The pressure of trying to do both I know would just immobilize me.

Goal was to put down the laminate floor over Thanksgiving weekend. That means I have to have the room emptied and painted first. I'm getting there, but not close enough that I think that is going to happen.

Today I hired and electrician that will come on Thursday and add 2 new circuits downstairs and 1 upstairs and move a switch and a light fixture. Then I will be able to run a space heater while using the iron and not blow a circuit downstairs. That will be a good thing!

I feel like I'm not getting anything done tho...so much stuff to deal with and decisions to make that I just...well, just don't. Spend alot of time on line, watching TV, shopping, sleeping....all avoidance. So Stacey you really have called me out on this one. And I pledge to keep sludging thru it with my vision of an organized home that will make it easy for me to be creative again. I'm shooting for the first of the year for having these two rooms put back into functional spaces.

Sue's going away quilt

Retreat weekend is long past and although I didn't get done what I wanted that weekend the quilt has been finished and gifted. Whew! It was a hard one...I had quilters block and just could not decide how to quilt it! Here's the quilt and it's recipient...

This quilt was a group quilt project for Sue as a going away present from our quilting group. She has retired from work and is moving to Idaho. We will sure miss her! I gave each person a piece of fabric to use to make a 12.5 inch block. Five of us and VERY different results! I am amazed how it all came together in the end. That is the lesson here ... you can make very different blocks work together by using a consistent alternate block.

Madaline sewed the alternate blocks and Debbie made the borders and then I quilted and finished it.

I did some new things on this quilt...(quilting is like cooking for me, it's always a new receipe.) I changed colors of thread which I've never done in a quilt before. I started with quilting loops in the red chains with red varigated thread, then I changed to a neutral varigated and quilted the light areas with straight lines using a ruler, another first, and stitched in the ditch around the blocks, another first. Then I changed to a varigated green and quilted the green areas with straight lines like the light areas and a freehand design over all of the quilt blocks based on thier design. For example on the applique block by Sue 2 I outlined around the applique and quilted waves and hearts in the frame. I did alot of rolling the quilt back and forth and was worried that it would get distorted but it seemend to do oka, even tho at times it seemed like there was excess fabric on the top.

This is a picture of our little quilting group that meets at the library and the makers of this quilt.

From left to right: Madaline, Ruth, Sue 2, Sue 1, Debbi 1(me) and Debbie 2. We are dwindling in numbers and always open to new participants!

Finished and Delivered

This is one and maybe the only finish I have had in my absence. It was a quilt for my boss's retirement. It's signed by the staff of the PACU. She was very touched and cried. I wasn't able to attend the party when it was presented to her, but I keep hearing raves...so I'm happy.

I tried some new things on this quilt and I'm still working on my freemotion quilting so I am critical of it. I'm always over critical of what I do. Also I was running short of time and didn't hand stitch the binding...I fused it and machine stitched it in the ditch from the front. Also fused the hanging sleeve rather than handstitch it. Those shortcuts make me feel like I cheated and I hope they will be ok in the long run as I have not done that before. But I had this roll of steam a seam 2 and rather than stay up all night and hope I finished the hand sewing, I fused!

It really is pretty nice afterall, so I'm going to try and remember that rather than where the oops are. And I feel better now after confessing (those Catholic roots go deep! lol)

This is a picture that a co-worker drew of the hospital entrance. I traced it onto fabric then highlighted it with outline stitching and colored it with crayons. I did the same with the lettering. I made the font on my computer and traced it then outlined stitched and colored. I am happy with the picture and I think it really makes the quilt. I had some little oops in the quilting of the center...got myself cornered, but....

I quilted it with an overall leaf and swirl design with varigated Rainbow thread. It went pretty quick and isn't a big feature. Wish I had taken a picture of the backing fabric. It was a big hit. It was a large scale print with Japanese ladies on it. Our boss is Japanese...of course.

Catching Up

Whew! It's been along time since I posted! I'm not sure why I got out of it...I think it was that I was reading so many other blogs and online groups that when I was done I was out of time or exhausted and just couldn't blog. I've been working on curbing my computer time so I'm going to try the blog thing again. I like it as a way of keeping track of my quilting.

I'm joining the Halloween quilt retreat hosted by Susan and will attempt to post my progress here.

The other issue is that I haven't really been sewing much. I've been working on rearranging my quilting spaces. I started it during the summer and would have thought I would have it all done by now, but I've run into some issues that have slowed me down. First one was that my helper, my nephew Travis, broke his arm pitching. Now he's off to college. Hard to move stuff myself...The second issue is that I discovered that the cat was peeing in the room I was moving my quilting frame to...guess she was trying to tell me that she had cystitus again...So the move into that space is stalled. I've gotten the smell out, but when I use the black light I still see lots of areas that glow. I'm going to treat it again today, this time I'm going to use a carpet shampooer with pet shampoo and X/O added. I've used Nature's Miracle on it 2 or 3 times now without success...any ideas?

This is what my sewing room looks like this morning. This is the view to the right entering the room.

And this is the view looking to the left.

It's rather overwhelming to me when I walk in there. Alot of stuff has already been relocated to the garage. I'm going to try and get the rest of the stuff packed up today after I get back from my doctor appointment and errands. Most of the cabinets are emptied and I will have to figure how to get them moved so I can paint the walls. I figure I can at least move them into the center of the room when I get the stuff out. I'm aiming for putting down the new floor over the Thanksgiving weekend when Travis is home from college to help me. We'll see....

Finnally picking myself up from the bottom of the moutain

Boy did I fall big! It started on my vacation to St. Louis...of course I had to visit some of the quilt shops in the area....and that of course lead to fabric buying. Ok, not so bad, it was vacation and all, but the buying didn't stop when I got home...had to find some more of a fabric I bought while away so that meant online shoping....found some bargains so....

So I was feeling that I had done enough fabric shopping...then came retreat in October. I was certain that I wouldn't be tempted, but when there is a fabric store sitting half way across the room from me my willpower breaks down, and I went to town slowly over the weekend....don't ask me why, I really don't know...

I would have thought I had enough, but I wanted MORE! Went to a discount fabric place on the way home and stocked up on some more fabric for ideas I got at retreat. And later in the week to the local quilt shop and more online orders for panels and other ideas!

I'm not sure what got hold of me...I just kept going, back to my old ways, if I wanted it I bought it. That's why I'm in the mess I'm in. Well, 210 yards later....I comitted to the stashbusters group no buy starting Nov. 1. I'm on my climb back up the mountain!.....no fabric purchases or books since Nov. 1! I can do it!

The worst part is that I haven't completed anything that can count for using stash. I've been working on projects and have a top or two ready for quilting, but not done. So I've also joined the UFO Challenge for 2008.

I've been quilting fairly regularly with my quilting group that meets twice a month but not too much in between so looks like I will fall short of my goal of working and hour a day on quilting. I need to catch on my calculations, but I'm certain I'll be short of 365 hours. Think I'll keep that as a goal for next year and see if I can do better.

Confession over! I'm taking control back! Guess I'd better let the kids in....

Old Tobacco Roads

I love Bonnie's quilts and have had fun doing the past mysteries from my scraps and stash. I wasn't thinking that I would do OTR right now because I thought I should finish some projects rather than starting something new...well didn't last too long. Found the extra 2 patches from the OC and started putting them together. Now I have 113 4 patches done for the OTR...guess I'm doing it! Since I sneaked and looked at the solution I will work on this as time permits and maybe as a leader-ender project.

OC - top finished!

This past weekend I finished putting the borders on my OC. I used a straight setting instead of the diagonal set of the pattern. I'm very happy with it...wasn't sure about it as I was making it but it came to life when the blocks were put together. Now just to find something for the backing and get it quilted.

I also sewed the binding on a fall table runner that I finished quilting. The table runner was one of those things I found in my "needs to be quilted" bin while looking for the quilt tops I had made for Beth and Jim. I started quilting this on my DSM with stitch in the ditch and then I decided I wanted some free motion on it and pinned it to the quilting frame and used the HQ16. I tried to quilt a flower resembling a sunflower in the setting triangles. Fairly successful, but I'm no artist. Guess that's why I find using the HQ so intimidating. But now it's done! A finish! And that's great!

August progress

I only finished one project in August, the baby quilt for Desiree. It was PIG so it was mostly from stash but I purchased a backing for it. So far so good...except on Labor Day Weekend I ventured into JoAnn's to get some notions. I was thinking about OTR the new mystery Bonnie Hunter has posted. I love her quilts and the previous mystery quilts have been great. I got this notion that I needed some rust colored fabric tho if I wanted to do it. I didn't think the fabric was on sale, just the fat quarters, but I was wrong...fabric was $1.00 off per yard. That makes it better than their other sales, so I couldn't help myself...here's what followed me home! It could have been worse, I did put some back :)

Looks like OTR to me! I really should have shopped my stash first, but I know I don't really have alot in rusts and browns and the golds always seem to get used.

For the month of August I sewed 30.5 hours (just .5 hours short of my goal, but didn't make up for previous months losses), purchased 8.25 yards of fabric, and used 5 yds. I updated the sidebars to reflect the above.

3-D Pinwheels and Prairie Points

The baby quilt is finished and gifted! I think it turned out pretty cute! It was the first time I have ever tried prairie points so I learned something new. I also had never made anything that was 3-D so quilting it became a bit of a dilema. I ended up quilting in on my DSM in wavy crosshatching. I think it gives it movement like wind blowing.


Here's a close up of the quilting. I used Warm and Bright polyester batting in this quilt. It has a nice bit of puffiness, but not too much.

This is the sweet Desiree whom I worked with. She was a traveling nurse and spent a 6 month assignment with our unit. She was lots of fun to work with. It was exciting when she found out she was pregnant and she was so cute about it. Getting pregnant was a big surprise...ie. not planned. One night she just wasn't feeling right and was having some abdominal pains and was light headed. A trip to the clinic solved the mystery... It was fun teasing her about the grape, plum, tennis ball that is growing inside her! (she was devoring everything she could on the subject and the text book she was using refered to the size of the fetus in those terms) She's gone back to the East coast to be near her family now, and who can blame her? This was taken on my last day working with her last Tuesday. She'll be missed. Isn't she cute with that little tummy starting to pop out? Happy baby times Desiree!

She said the quilt will probably be the only handmade thing her baby will have as nobody does any crafting in her family. I'm glad I made if for her. It was fun...and I had it in my PIGS anyway. I only had to purchase the backing. The top was mostly cut out and someone else's UFO I purchased at retreat one year. It was a puzzle to figure what the original owner designer inteded to do with it. There was a pattern with the fabric but the fabric that was cut out was not as directed per the pattern. I think she was going to do something with alternating plain blocks but I cut them up to use as the background for the pinwheels and found some white I had and used if for sashing. I would never have picked out these fabrics...I do like it tho.

About prairie points....I've never done them before and I learned a few things in doing them that I will pass along. I searched the web and followed the directions I found at http://www.mccallsquilting.com/artheblk/prapoints/ and at http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpatternsprojects/ss/prairie_points.htm

Well I sorta followed the directions...I didn't read carefully the part about stop quilting an inch or so away from the edge of the quilt. So I spent a really long time, I mean a really, really long time unsewing the quilting and tieing it off and burring the threads in the batting. It was made doubly difficult by the fact that I had squared up the quilt top and cut all the thread ends off. So I was left with these little tail ends to knot and bury. To top it off, the thread I used for quilting, Superior Rainbows, kept untwisting and I had a heck of a time threading a needle with it! I struggled with it for about 3/4 of the quilt then I was working on it at our library quilting session and Madalyn gave me this GREAT tip (thanks Madalyn!)...use a needle threader. First I tried using the needle threader to thread the needle but that didn't work. What did work was threading the needle threader thru the batting and up thru the top of the quilt and grabbing the thread ends and presto! pulling them thru. Worked like a dream...would have cut the time I spent on that task by a jillion times! Next time....

Anyways, learn from my mistakes...Only quilt to within one inch of the edge of the quilt. Then you fold the backing back and pin it out of the way

Then turn the quilt over and sew the prairie points with a quarter inch seam along the edge of the quilt. Adjust the length by moving the points in and out of each other. Using the fudge factor there is quite a bit of leway. I don't think my points are perfectly spaced but it's not noticible to the naked eye and I'm sure the baby isn't going to get out the measuring tape and figure it out. These prairie points were made from 4 1/2 inch squares. The were folded on the diagonal and pressed and folded again on the diagonal and then pressed again. One side then has a folded edge and the other side opens so you can slip one inside of the other.

And here it is all finished!

I've been busy

Don't have any finished quilting to show you yet so thought I would post a few pictures I took off my front deck recently. The first one I'm standing on my very tiptoes to get in the little peak a boo of the sound. From my height I don't normally see it. The Olympic Mountains are in the background and the land mass beyond the sound is Vashon Island. My roof top has a great view and when I think of remodeling this place I dream of adding another story and having a quilting studio with a view. Unless I win the lottery it will never happen, but it's nice to have dreams....


Here's the only flowers I have growing this year...boxes and hanging baskets on the deck. They are doing pretty good even though they got a late start. Thanks to Lowe's for starting the petunia hanger for me!
I've been busy working on the baby quilt and working overtime and watching the Olympics. I can say that I'm on track to meet my goal of 31 hours of quilting this month, maybe exceed it! I will hopefully get the final stitches in the baby quilt tonight and post pictures soon. We are having a potluck lunch on Tuesday at work and that is the last day I'll work with Desiree before she leaves so it has to be done by then! I only have one more side to do the handstitching on so it is possible.

The overtime makes for a nice paycheck...and who can't use that? But it sure zaps me...takes away the time I use for recovery from my 12 hour shifts...and then the way the schedule worked out I didn't have more than one day off at a time...not good for me! I hate to admit it but I'm feeling my age...I guess that is why I'm seeing more and more that I have to simplify things in my life and home so that there is less energy devoted to just managing and I can use it for fun! But boy is that a big job in and of itself!

What my bed says about me

What Your Bed Says About You

Outward appearances are a concern of yours, but not your primary concern. You try to take care of yourself and your home, but it's not an obsession. You try to be an organized person, but you often fall behind. Certain parts of your life tend to fall into chaos. You are not very high maintenance in general, but you are high maintenance about a few things. In relationships, you tend to kick back and let the other person be in charge. You tend to be a down to earth, practical person. You think in terms of what is actual. You are a traveler. You are comfortable anywhere, and you rarely feel homesick.

What Does Your Bed Say About You?

I always find these quizes fun to take. I think this one pegs me pretty close. How about you?

Here's the quiz: http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourbedsayaboutyou/quiz

My current distractions from OC

My OC is waiting patiently for it's outer borders meanwhile....

This is a little quilt I put together for a co-worker who is having her first baby. Need to get it finished before the end of the month as she is moving back to the east coast to have the baby.

It was someone else's UFO that I bought off a fundraiser table at retreat a few years back. It was mostly cut out but that was all. I think the original owner had a different idea for it as it wasn't cut out per the directions of the pattern with it. Kind of a puzzel of sorts. Looks like she was going to use alternating plain squares between the 3D pinwheels. I decided to add the white sashing instead.

The other decision I'm debating on is how to quilt it. Should I quilt down the pinwheel flaps? At least get them tacked down at the points or leave them loose? Any ideas?

I'm trying to find a backing in my stash but so far haven't had much luck. Might have to go shopping!

This is the other distraction...trying to get my entertainment center finished. Travis is helping. The first coat of stain didn't go so well and we had lots of sanding to do. The second coat is so-so, so I guess I'm going to do a third. Didn't quite get up the energy to do it today...it makes such a mess! And it is such a mess!

I plan to buy a large flat screen TV when this gets done...should think that would be motivation enough, but sadly it is not. The project has been sitting since last August when I had the fireplace removed and the entertainment center built in. It was unfinished and to save some $ I thought I would take on the finishing...maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

The fireplace isn't missed and needed to come out because the chimney blew off during a windstorm the previous winter. Even though I considered a gas fireplace replacement I came to the conclusion it wasn't worth the expense. This house needs a fireplace downstairs and that is where I will consider adding a gas fireplace.

Don't think I'll be back to the OC anytime too soon. I've a couple of other pressing quilts that need to get finished pronto.

Oh, and the other distraction...the Olympics. Boy do I get hooked in! Sure wish I had that big screen. I didn't plan too well and started watching before I got to sewing and just didn't make the transition to the sewing room. Tomorrow I'm on call so I'm not sure what I might get done, or how much I might have to work, but I'd love to get the little quilt ready for quilting.