Sand and Sunshine

Christmas Quilt-a-Long Year 3 Evening

2012-02-11T16:34:00.000-05:00

Fabric for Christmas Mystery Quilt

Okay I didn't go back to bed like I was supposed to. Hopefully my leg wont punish me over the lack of rest. Instead I combed through my fabric and look what I combination I came up with? Now last year my Christmas Quilt-a-long Quilt was the opposite of Christmasy, but this year, I'm changing that up - full circle.

The ornament print is clearly my background fabric, the white my light, the blue my medium and the red, the one I missed completely when reading through the list the first time, the dark. So now I really am going to go rest. Take care and I'll be looking forward to seeing you again next month.

Christmas Quilt-a-Long Year Three January

2012-02-11T15:14:00.001-05:00

Good Afternoon everyone. I hope everyone has been enjoying Hazel's hosting for the first month of the Third Annual Christmas-Quilt-a-long, I'm sure she's been wonderful so far. I'm only just now checking in and only to grab my Kindle charging wire and head back to bed. Last Thursday I trotted all over town and really out did myself. So while my leg is feeling better today I know any extra little effort will have me in bed for another couple of days, so I figured it was best just to relax and take it easy today. I hope our hostess wont mind to much that I'm sidelined.

Have you had any luck selecting your fabric yet? I haven't even looked. I'll have to go through what I have an see what works well together. The brown and teal swirl fabric is calling me for the dark fabric, but I will likely be using that a border in the Lone Star Quilt, so I know it's hands off that one. I'm looking forward to digging through and seeing what there is. You can bet I'll be all caught up with all of my fabrics cut by this time next month when we meet up with Joanna of Needle, Thread, Happiness

Foto Finish: Doors aka Quilter's Eyes

2012-02-11T14:59:00.001-05:00

Entry Doors to Gaylord Palms Resort

Oh I adore Barbara of Cat Patches, for her theme today. It's doors. Digging through my pictures I found these. These are the entry doors to the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. Aren't they amazing? This was the third and final hotel DH and I visited while on our honeymoon and we really loved our stay there in 2003. We enjoyed our dinner at Villa de Flora that we ate there more than once and when these pictures were taken I was happily dragging my sister, a friend, and DD off to enjoy some of their food which is wonderfully seasonal and varies by day and the fruits (and veggies) of the season. It was during that visit that my sister and I discovered our love for Sangria but that is a story for another day. Besides trust me when I say the door and the Sangria is only the beginning of the wonder of this beautiful resort. After all it is built with a 4.5 acre glass atrium in it's center. Surely that means we can say it's always Florida weather somewhere in Florida.

Detail within door

It is so charming to see these pictures again, because while I like to reminisce I had completely forgotten about the beautiful Mariner's Compass set into the wood flooring within the center of the door. Can you see it now? Just think, I've grown Quilter's Eyes!

Pre-Kickoff Christmas Quilt-a-long Year 3

2012-02-10T12:27:00.003-05:00

It's that time of year again. It's time to kick off the third annual Christmas Quilt-a-long. This year we will be making a Mystery quilt and instead of leaving all of the hosting to Sue, some of the veterans of last year's Christmas Quilt-a-long will each host their own month. Now just in case you were wondering, I'm Miss October! Miss February is Hazel of Hazel's Quilts, so she will be kicking off the quilt-a-long nice and early tomorrow morning. She will have plenty of great treats laid out to enjoy as well as a Mr. Linky for anyone looking to sign up.

As for the Mystery Quilt, it is 6 installments with a finished size of 42" x 60" after the first 6 installments, we'll be turned loose for quilting with the final reveal of the quilts in December. Boy December, I can hardly wrap my brain around it being February already. Hazel will have the first installment which includes fabric requirements as well as the cutting directions. I'll look forward to seeing you there after I wake up.

Versatile Blogger Award

2012-02-07T19:03:00.001-05:00

It's been a long time since anyone gave me an award. I think perhaps we get into circles or loops of them and around and around they go and then things quiet down for a while. Anyway I'm very honored as this one came from Cat Patches who told me my blog adds to her reading enjoyment, which as an avid reader I found to be quite the compliment. Thanks a million! So here's the scoop.
1. Add the award to your blog.
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Mention seven random things about yourself. (see below)
4. List the rules.

Then there is something about 15 bloggers, but you know how it is, I always pick people who don't want to pass it along, or it doesn't work with their content. So I'm going to scratch that part.

Seven random things hu?

1. I have a bug bite on my forearm. This is the second one today as I woke this morning with one on my other arm. I think it's this mild winter, bugs that should have died instead are dining on me.

2. I am the oldest of five children. The youngest was in diapers when I started dating my husband.

3. I have always wanted a rolling organizer cart. So back before Christmas when my mother offered one she didn't need anymore I jumped at it and now I don't know what to do with it, so it just sits in the sewing room. Empty!

4. I hate seeing children play in the street. It makes me feel ill.

5. For the first time in my known memory, my husband is sick and I'm not. Normally I am the virus and bug magnet in the family. (knock wood!)

6. I keep my fabric in my china cabinet. The china lives in a box so I guess we know which one I like more these days.

7. My computer desk is actually a table my grandfather built to hold one of his wood working machines. When I run my fingers over the wood smoothed by years of use I think of him.

Pins, Ironing, and Leftovers

2012-02-04T15:42:00.001-05:00

Pinned Lone Star Strip Set

Check Alignment Using a Standing Pin

Pins: Jayne made a good point about pinning. This quilt doesn't just beg to be pinned - it demands it. Here is a picture I took while pinning. The standing pins go in first and I pin them all the way and then check them so that they are lined up on the front and on the back too. You can do that by flipping and checking the pin on the back, does it line up as you see below? If it does you can move on but if it doesn't fuss with it now until you get it. Then I add more pins to be certain nothing slips as I sew. Then for good measure I sew slowly and carefully to be certain I hit aka sew right on top of where that standing pin was. I never sew over pins though, that scares me. I also like the flat head pins because I feel like the make less bulk and less wiggle room for things to not turn out okay. Stitch with a nice wide seam, check it and then sew over top. It's worth the extra time. Trust me as I did my diamonds both ways depending on my mood, and that meant plenty of unpicking when the points didn't hit right. Jayne pinned hers a different way so feel free to look at her way too.

Lone Star Diamond Ironing

Ironing: I made a comment in this post about this time last month I think, about ironing. After trying all ways of pressing that I could think of, I found that I liked the look when I ironed my seams open. That meant my first strip set was ironed all up, the second all down, and then when I put the diamonds together I ironed everything open like this. And while you'd like to think I'm joking you know I'm not. All eight of my diamonds have their seems pressed this way, and you can even click on the image to see it better if you'd like (and then tell me you iron better than I do, perhaps that way I'll give you my ironing from now on ;-). Now, you might find with the way you sew that you can iron everything to the right or left, which is fine. Even great, for you. But I found after hitting that point just so I really wanted it to show and show well.

Lone Star Strip Leftovers

Leftovers: The more carefully you cut a strip pieced set the more leftovers you will have. I cut as carefully as I could and checked my angle each time. Sometimes I corrected it more often than the pattern said, and sometimes I corrected it less often. I tried to be extra careful because I hate waste and because one of my strips was shorter than all the rest and I was worried it might not be long enough. I am now the proud owner of 21 extra strips of diamonds. At the most I would have 4 extra strips from a set, but every set (even the one with the short strip) gave me at least 2 leftover strips. That's about 460+ feet of pieced diamonds. Can you say, "border anyone?"

Y-Seam Free Lone Star Trick

2012-02-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

Y-Seams, who wants them? Why make them on purpose? I see neither friend nor foe when sewing Y-seams, but they are rather fussy, so I say, Why sew them if you don't have to? This little tutorial is all about how to sew your beautiful Lone Star aka Bethlehem Star without Y-seams.

Step 1: Have all eight of your Lone Star Diamond Pieces finished. Also have your background pieces cut. Your pattern should give you tips for knowing what size to cut your background pieces. Now fellow quilters, I know you can't stand it and want to sew this star together already, but I assure you if you do that you'll be following those directions of yours and come to a Y-Seam before you know it. If you'd rather not do that lay your star out on the floor or your design board now to your star add your background pieces. If a diamond just isn't seeming to want to line up you can try moving it to another location, often that will help, or if you star is a radiant star like mine is - aka both ends of your diamond are the same you can actually try flipping the diamond around so the outside most point is now in the center. I found that helps quite a bit.

Is your layout beautiful? If yes grab your top left square and your uppermost left diamond. We're going to work around this quilt in a clockwise fashion. Reverse is good too, just remember that you reversed it. Now you see that lovely little drawing I have for you? Sew that first background piece to the first diamond piece, right there on the teal line. Looking at the picture note that you need to start sewing by lining up the bottom of the square to the inner point of the diamond, that way any extra fabric in your background pieces will be towards the outermost part of your quilt. Iron as desired. Do this four times placing the diamond + square piece back into your layout when finished.

Step 2: Now take down the second diamond and the diamond + square piece. Pin the two diamonds together, taking care to line up the seams just as you did earlier when piecing your small diamonds. Do not worry about the square, simply let it dangle free for a minute. Sew along the blue line. Stop. Fuss with your fabric a bit and align the second diamond to the second side of the square square pivot the foot of your machine and begin sewing along the red line. Do this four times with your other pieces. Returning each newly sewn piece to your star layout as you go.

Step 3: This will work if you're using diamonds on the sides or if you are using squares on the sides. The shape makes no difference. My directions will show you using a diamond as that is the most common. Take your first double diamond + square piece and your first triangle background piece. Pin and sew from the right angle of the triangle to the outermost point of the star as shown with the green line on the left. Do this four times. Do not worry about the dangling edge of the triangle we will take care of that and wrap up this star in the next step. Return your pieces to your layout. Can you believe it, your star is a mere four pieces already!

Step 4: From your layout remove your first double diamond + square + triangle piece, as well as your second. As in step 2 pin your small diamonds carefully, leaving the triangle to dangle. Now starting at the centermost point of the star and sew along the red line. Stop, align the loose flap of the triangle to the diamond and sew the purple line. Do this four times and your star will be all sewn together without a single Y-seam. Now aren't you glad you decided to create a Lone Star Quilt?

I actually only started this star at the end of December, and I'm using a free strip pieced method that I found and you can get it here. If you'd like to see my past progress just click here and scroll down though my Lone Star Quilt posts.

Lone Star Support Group Session 2

2012-02-04T10:46:00.002-05:00

Lone Star Diamonds Laid Out

Good Morning Everyone. My coffee has gone cold this morning while puttering around. I have good news. The Star piecing of my Lone Star is done, as some of you already know. I'm holding off on piecing it together yet because I have a method that will let me skip the Y-steams, I made a tutorial that you can find here.

Lone Star Quilt Layout Sketch

So now on to the background! I'm not sure about the background color. I'm thinking a cream, or maybe a brown if I found the perfect fabric. I'd like to make eight paper pieced blocks for my background pieces creating rays that will radiate out from my star. Currently I like the idea of using a cream background with hot pink/fuchsia rays with teal rays in between. My dear friend Vicki found these free New York Beauty blocks, and my current favorite for this quilt it Block #8. I've only ever done one single paper pieced block and I had a hard time with the rough cut sizes to sew and fold, so hopefully this time it will come more easily. Vicki's math figures I need to increase the size of the blocks 225% which shouldn't be a problem as I will either scale it up myself or print it out normally and ask the copy place to increase it for me. Your amount of increase could vary depending on your star, though I'm certain if you want to make these blocks too just ask for help and someone can figure out the math. There was something else I wanted to say but I'll just have to share it later in the day because I can't recall what it was right now, as I am to excited to see what everyone else is up to. It was so much fun last month to trot around the blogosphere and see what everyone has done and where your at. I'm looking forward to another great day. Today we're linking up at Jaynes.

Lone Star Center Detail

The Second Act: The Snake

2012-02-02T11:05:00.000-05:00

The Snake in my Snake and Meerkat Quilt

I've been working on my Snake and Meerkat quilt lately. I used organza and pinned it to the flannel, luckily I could see through the organza to the lines I drew of my snake on the flannel. Then I ran a running stitch by hand stitching on top of the drawn lines. Once that was done I cut the organza back to the edge of the running stitch. Using glitter thread I painstakingly satin stitched overtop of my running stitch. I will hand stitch the fangs on next, but I'm not sure if I should use thread or embroidery floss. What do you think?

As this is a quilt about "What I would look like if I were a quilt". I can say that the snake, oh the snake. When the pain is very bad I can feel the snake in my veins hissing and spitting. Sometimes even driving to me to reach out and snarl at friends and family with words I would never say under other circumstances. Even though the pain is in my leg I can feel the snake in all of my veins, pounding and thrumming against my will. Since starting this quilt May 9, 2010 (I know it's been on the list a long time!) I feel the snake less often. Perhaps I could even say I rarely feel the snake.

Snake head in need of Fangs

But in the past couple of days I have learned that I'm not the only one with a snake. I think we all have one. Maybe it lives deeper inside some of us than others. Coming out sometimes to hiss? Perhaps not a hiss of pain, but a hiss of frustration? Of anger?

January New FO Challenge Bird Seed Catcher

2012-01-31T09:42:00.002-05:00

Meyer Parrot Pebbles with new DIY Seed Catcher

This is the first month to post the new FO we started for the month of January. The project can be big or small and there is no need to actually finish it. Since I started the Lone Star Quilt in December it doesn't count. So instead I made a bird seed catcher. In this case it is less to catch bird seed and more to catch the newspaper Pebbles our Meyer Parrot likes to shred. He is 10 years old and has been with me since his teenage-bird-hood. I recently turned his cage around to make it easier to give him kitchen peelings and scraps, which works out well, except it allows the news print from the bird cage to fall in the cat water bowl which I find rather unpleasant to say the least. This sorted everything out and only took a couple of hours over this past weekend.

If you'd like to join in our FO Challenge feel free to get more information here with Cat Patches as our hostess it's sure to be a fun year.

Lone Star Could Warrant Visit from Resident Gargoyle

2012-01-27T14:49:00.001-05:00

The Time has come. Oh boy, Oh Boy! I just, and I do mean just, finished piecing the 8th and final diamond in my Lone Star Quilt. Now for anyone keeping track (aka me!) there are 512 diamonds in this lovely star.

Lone Star Diamonds All Pieced

Lone Star Center Detail

I will not be putting this together just yet as I'm going to wait until I have all my background pieces ready. I've bounced around more than a few ideas about the rays that will come off of this star and my current idea is to use a New York Beauty Paper pieced block. Wont that be a new challenge! For now I'm looking for three colors to make up that block. Two different colors for the rays and the background fabric color. Any suggestions? One thought I had was that perhaps one color for the straight background blocks and a different one for the on point background blocks. But I'm not sure. I'm currently thinking teal, a lighter brighter fuchsia, brown and cream.

Lone Star Layout Plans

Here is the layout I plan to use. This layout will bring my quilt up to about 100" square. I think if I make this a bed sized quilt my husband will never let it come off of the bed much less go and live with someone else. I would have never thought that he cared where my quilts go to live, but there have been one or two that I've theorized about giving away and he's gotten sort of a stony gargoyle expression. I'll have to try to remember that the next time he tells me a quilt looks "good".

Foto Finish: Where you want to Live

2012-01-21T15:10:00.001-05:00

Today the Foto Finish theme is Where you live, but the theme is optional so I thought I'd apply that to be "Where you want to live". And thereby share a bit about my favorite place in the entire world.

This is the Belleview Biltmore located in Belleair, Florida. It was built in 1897 from Florida Lighter Wood Heart Pine. This lovely resort joined the U.S. National Register of Historical Places in 1979 and was given a historical preservation ordinance by the City of Belleair in 2005. Yet this hotel is not safe. It's very future is in the balance as the current owners have submitted a request for a demolition permit as they desire to tear it down and replace it with Condos, like Florida needs more empty condos.

Since our first visit to the Biltmore the night of our wedding, my DH and I have always talked about how great it would be to own this wonderful hotel. It was always a far off and nebulous dream, but a dream all the same. The thought that investors would be so callous as to destroy this wonderful soul fulfilling national landmark fills me with tears each time I read about its current state.

I have stood on those grounds, I have listened to the stories, and heard the echos of the past in those halls. So you know what I say? If I won the lottery I would buy this beautiful Lady of the Gulf, returning her to her former glory and give thanks everyday that this hotel could stand for future generations to love as I do. To many people get caught up in the here and now. If this hotel is razed it will never come back. It will indeed be gone forever. Yes, famous people have stayed here, but that isn't what it at stake. If the Beautiful Belleview Biltmore is demolished, the community, state, country, and perhaps even the world will lose a piece of ourselves. A piece we might never have known was there will be lost forever, leaving us with a void we can never fill.

So I stand up and say I love this Hotel, I love everything about it, be she bright and beautiful, or tired and worn desperate once again for a loving owner to fill the void left by a decade of loveless owners. I love this place and I will do everything I can to keep her safe. For more information please visit http://www.savethebiltmore.com/.

Lone Star: 6 of 8

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Lone Star Piecing

Every once in a while we work on something that turns out great enough to take our breath away. I think my Lone Star just might be one of those projects. Because when I spread it out on the floor so that we could see I couldn't help but think, look what I did! I now have 6 of my 8 diamonds sewn. If I were piecing these one at a time that's 384 little diamonds.

Let me see, what can I tell you today? Don't use the 1/4" quilters tape on this project. It's bad! Why? Well, you see you put the tape on one strip, and then mark your diamond joints with standing pins and sew. But the tape does something. It holds the diamonds so they can not stretch, not even a little bit. Why is this bad? Because the second strip the one you are sewing to, will stretch! Even with the most gentle handling the fabric without the tape will stretch a little bit and then the strips wont line up and when they do you end up with a mess that you have to seam rip apart. If you forego the tape; as you handle the two strips, pinning them together, and lining up they do stretch a little bit, but that's okay because they stretch and move together. I suppose you could tape both strips before pinning and sewing but that seems like a waste of tape and the directions on my package were very clear not to stitch through the tape which could happen accidently if you had it on both strips. I am glad to have the tape as I've wanted it for a while and will just save it for other projects. Not this one.

Now I can't stand it anymore! What do you think about my Lone Star so far?!?!

A Ray of Spring: Mozzarella Caprese

2012-01-19T11:26:00.000-05:00

I haven't spent much time on the Lone Star Quilt. Though I am nearly done with the 5th blade. Instead today I wanted to show you my little slice of heaven. The week before Thanksgiving I discovered that while I knew my sage plant had died earlier in the summer, I did not replace it, truthfully I simply forgot. No sage plant means no sage butter rubbed all over and in my husband's turkey. Do you know how hard it is to find a sage plant right before Thanksgiving? I called my local grocery store, two different home improvement stores who couldn't help me, before spending half an hour on the phone with the nicest man at a different my home improvement store who told me to call Walmart, you get the point

Of course after all that my husband finds Sage plants at Walmart. Yes, I could have purchased cut sage but for $1 more you can have a live plant to have for next time. Of course being the man he is, he doesn't just bring home the sage plants. He also brings home a tomato plant. I spent 4 years in Arkansas, I know all about tomato plants. They have an oil in their leaves which makes them stink all the time. No one else seems to know what I'm talking about but I do not like the way the tomato plants smell. I looked upon his new found winter hobby with distain.

Now I know, I was wrong and I'm glad I just left him alone with his little plant. Because when he picked a fresh tomato off the stem the other day he found another fresh and ripe one behind it, and one above it too. Oh how I love winter indoor container gardening! No weeds and amazingly summer fresh ripe and juicy tomatoes. If that wasn't enough DH brought home buffalo mozzarella cheese and fresh basil (yes it was the packaged kind, I don't have much luck keep Basil alive for more than a season or three - feel free to leave your tips so I can kill another plant).
I know food is hard to photograph to make it look good, but with something this fresh and wonderful I just had to try. What do you think of my Mozzarella Caprese? One thing I will tell you. We ate it all gone!

Half a Lone Star

2012-01-13T10:59:00.001-05:00

Half of a Lone Star

Is half a Lone Star a really Lonely Star? Honestly, I don't see how it could be as I've been working at sewing my strips together steadily. So here we are at the halfway point of my Lone Star. As I will likely be creating a secondary design on my background fabrics; half way is a bit misleading, but I'm going to take it and enjoy it. Look half my star!!!

At this point I am loving the way the brown and teal fabric is running around as the final "circle". What do you think? Anything you're liking?

Now for my confession as a serial blogger, I'd like to announce I have created over 700 posts since I started blogging in 2008. Therefore, I am on my last 6 MG of free blogger space. When I mentioned it to DH he miss understood at first. Yes, I said 6 mere megabytes. I remember when a kb would get you an email, but those days are gone. I explained that I can have 20 GB of additional space for $5 a year. For me that means my little hobby will suddenly be costing me money, abet not much but all the same... DH thought it was no big deal and said I should have told him sooner (aka before I deleted my two test sites to go from 3 MG avail, to 6 MG). Do you have any thoughts? Have you maxed out your available free space? Have you given it any thought?

Lone Star Diamond Progress

2012-01-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

I now have two of the diamonds for my Lone Star Quilt completely pieced. Each diamond will make up one section of my eight point star. This is a big accomplishment as getting each strip just right is rather tricky. I did the math and if I was piecing each little diamond to make this quilt it would take 512 pieces. Using this method it will still have that many diamonds but at least it wont feel like it. My two completed pieces are made up of 128 diamonds. How about that for little details?

Two diamonds down, six to go.

Lone Star Quilt: All Strips Cut

2012-01-09T16:13:00.000-05:00

Lone Star Strip Sets All Cut

Today I finished cutting all of my Lone Star Strip Sets. Don't they look nice laid out like this? The next step in the directions is to mark off 1/4" and use standing pins to ensure the seams butt together properly. The thought of that will need to simmer in my mind a little because it sounds tricky. The directions actually say that I should sew it with a large stitch length, check it and if everything looks good re-sew it with a tighter stitch length. That sounds like solid advice.
As for getting everything lined up though, I'm not sure about that so I picked up some of this. Has anyone ever used it before? It's 1/4" Quilter's Tape. I was looking for Tiger Tape that I hear about talked about on quilting shows, but this is what my local store had. I think it will work out just fine.

Quilters Tape for Marking 1/4" seam allowance offsets

*** January 11th Update: Don't use the 1/4" quilters tape on this project. It's bad! Why? Well you see you put the tape on one strip, and then mark your diamond joints with standing pins and sew. But the tape does something. It holds the diamonds so they can not stretch, not even a little bit. Why is this bad? Because the second strip the one you are sewing to, will stretch! Even with the most gentle handling the fabric without the tape will stretch a little bit and then everything goes bad. If you forego the tape; as you handle the two strips pinning them together and lining up they do stretch a little bit, but that's okay because they stretch and move together. I suppose you could tape both strips but that seems like a waste of tape and the directions on my package were very clear not to stitch through the tape which could happen accidently if you had it on both strips. I am glad to have the tape as I've wanted it for a while and will just save it for other projects. Not this one.

Evening Time: Slumber Party

2012-01-07T18:36:00.000-05:00

Sunny Sleeping

I didn't sew at all today. Though I did get another strip set cut. Five down three to go. Everyone here wants to call it a night and I thought I'd share what that looks like. Any wonder why I said a Sunny moment might happen to my bias edges?

Tiny watching from nearby

Just look at them on my uncut strips. This is where I found both of them after popping into the sewing room after dinner. I sound unhappy about it but the truth is they are welcome. I haven't seen both cats in the sewing room together in quite a while.

Starch

2012-01-07T11:37:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen the words "Handle these carefully to avoid stretching the bias edges?" I don't know about you but they fill me with more than a little bit of dread. As my daughter would say incredulously "Really?" After all I made them carefully, I pressed them carefully. Now I have to handle them carefully? And if I'm not careful enough? What if the cat comes through and has a Sunny moment?

Through the kind support of my neighbor Linda and my friend Vicki I found starch. What is this something more you have to buy that will cost money? Well yes and no. According to my neighbor all kinds of spray starch are pretty much the same and as long as the cheapest brand (under $2 for a large can) doesn't send your nose running for the hills you're set. So far I am still on my first can, and I'm using it for my second quilt with those bias edges.

Why talk about this now? Now those words are in the directions for my strip pieced Lone Star Quilt pattern, so rather than face the fear of trying to handle the strips carefully I just read that scary sentence instead to say, "use starch" and so far everything is working out well that way.

Lone Star Quilt-a-long

2012-01-07T10:30:00.000-05:00

Strips Sets Cut into Diamonds

Good Morning. What a great day! The sun is shining, it didn't freeze last night, I have the laundry going, and I have just finished cutting half of my strip sets for my Lone Star Quilt. That means you can see the spunky changes my strip sets have made.

Unlike the gorgeous quilt that Sue is planning, the diamonds that make up my star will begin and end on that deep fuschia/purple fabric. It sure is a change to see the strip sets change into diamonds isn't it?

In case you are wondering I am using a free pattern I found which you can find here. At the risk of sounding like a broken record Fabric "H" only needs 5/8 of a yard of fabric to be cut into 8 strips not the 16 listed. But other than that it seems like a nice pattern. Clear and easy to follow.

The 45 degree angle for cutting the diamonds

What is a Lone Star Quilt to you? What do you think of when you see a Lone Star Quilt? It's clearly a traditionally pieced quilt but can be made with so many different variations as to create a truly unique and modern quilt. Have you ever seen a Broken Star? Now there is a quilt I wish I had the fabric to make. Here you can see the Broken Star that inspired me to make my own Lone Star Quilt. At the ease of which this one is going so far, knock wood, maybe the Broken Star will be in my future too...

Take a look at the pattern I'm using. I only needed to add two fabrics to my stash for the star points and it doesn't cost anything to see if it is something you can do. Now is the time with Sue and her friend creating this great support circle for all of us. Happy Sewing!

Steady I Go

2012-01-03T17:34:00.000-05:00

Today I was happy to be stitching and listening to music two of my favorite things. I was thrilled for the Wii and my husband being off work to indulge in becoming a crazy exercise beast with my daughter.

Lone Star Strip Sets

I sewed three complete strip sets that means six are done with only two more to make. UGH! That 6th strip set - really got to me. I sewed in one single pair of strips in upside down and then couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. It takes a while to un-sew 42". When I was finished I was adding the new strips to the old ones and got myself all confused again and had to get out the chart. Can we all say B*R*E*A*T*H*E? After settling down with the chart and having everything suddenly start working I can honestly say I now understand why some quilt tv shows say "make a swatch chart".

A Swatch Chart, a Patch Up, no matter what you call it I have never made one. Never felt the need either... But this quilt is different and I do wish in my pattern searching I had read the words "make a chart for yourself!!" LOL. Sew and Learn right?

Now the last time I posted a picture I didn't mention, these strip sets are actually offset on one end, so the first strip hangs off by 2" and then the next by another two inches so they make steps. When I cut them it will be on the diagonal at 45 degrees doing that will make them stop looking like a dratted Bargello and instead look more like the Lone Star Quilt they will become as the squares become trapezoids that way.

Sue's Lone Star Support Group's first online pow-wow is Saturday. To say I'm looking forward to it is a bit of an understatement.

Lone Star Free Pattern Details

2012-01-02T14:45:00.000-05:00

Now as I mentioned I didn't want to share the free patten I found until I'd tried it my self but at the request of a follower I'm a going to share it with you now. For The Free Lone Star Strip Pieced Pattern I am using click this link. Please keep in mind I have already found one slight issue/error. The pattern says Fabric H needs 1 1/2 yards of fabric to make 16 strips. This is an error and should instead state that Fabric H needs 5/8th of a yard for a total of 8 strips. To verify my correction you can look at the letter layout grid and count the number of "H's" in Step 1. This is just an honest error and I do not expect more as I continue as the directions seem quite clear.

I have been sick for the past three days with what I hope is a short lived bug so I have not done any additional work since those three strip sets I sewed the other day. I myself am only to Step 2. It was my intention to contact the owner of the site and share my progress and see about asking her to correct the strip requirement but even though I have combed through the entire site I don't see a way to contact her.

If you're interested in making your own Lone Star Quilt no matter which pattern you'd like to use, I found out today that Sue and Jayne are in cahoots over a quilt along, in which the sole purpose is to share monthly progress and encourage each other. Here is the link to Sue's Post and she tells me she will be hosting this Saturday, but there are no deadlines so no rush!

Tips for Glitter Thread

2012-01-02T14:42:00.002-05:00

I wanted to take a moment today to share with you how I loaded my Janome 1600P with Glitter Thread for quilting. My glitter thread from Superior Threads came with an insert for use, which was likely included as their glitter thread is the only thread guaranteed to work in all sewing machines and if you have difficulties they will work with you to over come them. This is not an ad and I'm receiving no compensation, and it is doubtful anyone from that company will know I posted this. Instead I am merely posting my images and tips as FYI. The insert as well as a direct email confirmation told me to use a thin bobbin thread weight thread in the bobbin so I took out my old stand by cone of Madeira bobbin thread (it's 60 wt. 100% polyester).

As you can see from the above picture this thread is not cross wound. AKA you can't see the thread making "X"s over itself on the spool. That means it should load from the side. Midarm machines are not really designed for threads that but my tips should help you thread your machine and reduce the tension so that you too can use them.

Look again at the picture above. First notice that I have elevated the spool. This is a small spool as most glitter threads are and needs to be up higher to allow for smooth feeding from the side. Next note that I have bypassed the thread hook because that would feed the thread from the top and we don't want that. Also I have caught the thread with the hook for previously used exclusively for bobbin winding. This is because I found simply letting the thread droop caused it to catch on the spool pin under it.

Now the thread simply trails from the above hook across to the pre-tensioner. I had some difficultly finding the sweet spot way of handling this. In checking the manual it says for pickier threads (I doubt it said picky) you can run the thread simply through the first hole in the pretensioner instead of running it in and out and back in like normal. I have included two angles of the machine so that you can see what the thread path I am talking about.

After running the thread differently through the pretensioner as mentioned above I ran it normally through the rest of the machine.

Now turn the tension down. Way down. Loose. Never thought you'd have the tension so loose kind of loose.

Thread that that is to tight will curl. To test this stitch a bit and stop. Cut the threads (I don't recommend using the thread cutter as the ends are to short and it will be easier to tuck in the threads it you cut them with scissors) What does the glitter thread do after you cut it? Does it look like curling ribbon after you prettied it up with the scissors? Or does it lay flat? Flat and loose is good. Curling, any curling is bad.

What does curled thread have to do with anything? The curl is made by tension stretching on the thread. That means the tension is tight. Had you sewn more and more the tension would have gotten tighter and tighter until the thread simply popped and broke under the strain.

As other Janome mid arm 1600 users will understand I can't tell you what "number" I had the tension set at because the pre-tensioner makes that impossible. What I will instead say is that I spun the lower tensioner down until I was concerned about how loose the knob was, tightened it back up to mid way lowered tension on the pretensioner and then adjusted the bottom one again. Once adjusted I was good to go and all of the names quilted out beautifully.

Which reminds me. When I had the tension to tight and didn't know about looking for the curl in the thread, the glitter thread sunk into the quilt and the names were harder to read. When I fixed the tension I knew it was right because the names of the students on the Teach-In Quilt really stood out after only one pass and I didn't feel the need to quilt them a second time through to make them pop.

I hope these tips helped and that your project will turn out even better than you'd hoped. I'd love to hear from you so drop me a line and tell me about it.

Lone Star Strip Sets

2011-12-30T16:42:00.001-05:00

First 3 Strip Sets

Since I flew through the crayon quilt and didn't show very much of my process, I thought I'd try to keep you better up to date with my Lone Star Quilt. Today I sorted all of the fabric strips into strip sets which will later be cut apart and re-sewn to create trapezoids. After sorting, I carefully started sewing. If I've read it once I've read it 100 times that strip patterns require accuracy so I managed to sew together three strip sets today of the eight that I will need. I ironed the first set seams up, second set down, and the third set was up again. Hopefully this will help my seams to lock together in future steps.

Ready to Sew Strip Sets

There did seem to be a problem with the number of strips required. The pattern I'm checking for you said 16 of the brown and teal swirl but I've double and triple checked them since stacking the strip sets and it looks like it should have said 8 strips of that fabric, but that's okay, it will just mean a bit of extra fun when I go to play with for the borders.

What did you do today? Anything interesting? I know some of you are holding off starting anything new this close to the end of the year and I understand where you're coming from. But gee whiz don't you have fabric waiting? :-D

Sew Happy!

New Project: Lone Star Quilt

2011-12-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Have you ever started finishing a project thinking; I will work on my other quilts in progress, only to finish and discover you've been inspired to start something new? Well, I sure have.

This time it was the leftover strips from what the class didn't pick at the Teach In. It has me bean wound up to start two projects. The first one I've finished cutting and am ready to start sewing whereas the other is still tickling in the back of my head so well talk about the former now and the later another time.

A Lone Star Quilt! I think as my skills as a quilter grow I have to challenge myself to keep my own interest. I sure have done it this time. I think it was within my first year of quilting I alighted on a blue Lone Star quilt kit, it was even precut little pieces can you imagine the horror? So I did a little research and filed it away and now the time has come.

Fabric For Lone Star Quilt

My Lone Star Quilt is a strip pattern I found - free online (will share the link after I find out if it works). It uses 8 fabrics to make a 69" star. My fabric starts with a deep purple and fuschia batik for the center, and then dances out into shades of blue and teal. What do you think? I've cut all the fabrics and hopefully I'll be able to start sewing soon.

Christmas Cakes & A Chihuly Kiss

2011-12-28T14:46:00.004-05:00

We have a great many birthdays around my house this time of year. I was the cake maker for two of them. Below my sister shows off with her butterfly cake that had whipped topping for frosting and Funfetti cake mix inside.

My next cake is a black forest cake for my husband. It is my once a year cake. Once a year I make it for him. He never asks me to so it's a good thing I know how much he likes it. Normally it has a lot more cherries on the top, I must have gone overboard on the lower layers. Already DD is asking for one for her birthday, I think I can arrange that.

Christmas was good to us. You can always tell how good Christmas is in a house with a little girl because it looks like the Pink Barbie Isle exploded all over your house. Silly me, I forgot that I needed to clear out some toys in order to make room for new ones. So guess what? When DD's daddy asked her to pick up the living room she brought everything into the sewing room! LOL.
I love a good surprise at Christmas time. As a mom it's nice to know that people are thinking of you without having to say a word. So perhaps the most surprising of all of my gifts was this one from my sister. It is called a Chihuly Kiss, which my sister picked out for me when she visited our new Dale Chihuly Museum. Isn't it lovely? The shape, form, and movement are quite inspiring don't you think? I haven't found a home for this yet but you can be sure it will be somewhere good.

The Giant OH NO!

2011-12-20T10:37:00.003-05:00

Crayon Quilt Revised Finished

Yesterday I received a call from my daughter's teacher. It started with "The Quilt is lovely,
but there was a slight edge to her voice and I should have guessed something was wrong.

I missed a child! How does that even happen? I was so careful! I had all the strips folded together in a bag I tied off and I laid everything out on the sewing table in the way it looked best and then sewed it together. I've checked through the bag of strips that no one picked and everything, but no sign of the missing strip.

Hand Stitched Spelling Mini Quilt Detail

So I spent the entire rest of the day creating this. It is a purple piece of paper, the color was selected by the student, and this week's spelling words hand stitched on letter by letter into a mini quilt, complete with a 10/10 and the word Excellent on the paper. I had the mini quilt nearly done when my daughter came off the bus with my vagrant quilt, and I appliqued the little mini quilt on. Then I folded it up and off it went back to school today.

I feel so bad. I tried to be so careful. We all make mistakes but I never wanted to miss someone. I was so concerned about making sure everyone's spellings were correct... In retrospect I should have requested a typed class list "just to be sure" but as the teacher wrote the names on the papers they were all easy to read and I didn't see the need. I sure hope he likes his addition to the quilt.

Lounge Pants of Two Lengths

2011-12-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

My DH dreams of the day I will make silk lounge pants for him. Trust me this is another year he can keep dreaming. Instead I found the most beautiful flannel at my LQS, I passed it by the first two visits. Really I did. Even though I knew better and found myself thinking about it after the first visit. Well by the third visit the bolt was running low and my LQS does this great little deal that if you buy everything on the bolt you save 20%. That meant I bought the 2 yards I needed for the pants and got the last 1/2 yard free. With the way I cut it I was able to make both pants and shorts and had very little scrap leftover. This is my final Handmade Christmas present this year. I think.

After the first pair of flannel shorts I made, I now try to always use french seams. It lets me cheat by keeping my 1/4" foot on and I think it creates a nice finish. Now after the pair I made something kept tickling in the back of my mind about them - I now make little fabric tags in all of my clothing so that the wearer can know which side is the back. ;-)

Teacher's Crayon Quilt Done!

2011-12-17T09:27:00.002-05:00

Crayon Quilt Finished Front

I just finished up the Great American Teach In Crayon Quilt that I made. I call it Art from the Heart and I will send it to school on Monday for my daughter to give to the teacher. I really struggled with hand making the label this time as I just didn't feel up to all that stitching, so when a friend suggested I just write the label, I considered it and knew it would get the quilt done. Which is something I really needed to do so against my own grain I just did it and called it done.

Crayon Quilt On Reverse

The quilting is glitter stitched with each student's name in Superior's Metallic thread, the one they had on sale for $1.50 a spool. They still have some if you'd like to pick up a spool or 20. Look under their "Try Me Specials". I found that when I followed their directions everything worked nicely. Rick rack runs in two solid strips at the top and bottom which actually helped to bisect the quilt to make the pre-marking easier to gauge. I also quilted each crayon in the ditch so it appears to pop unto itself. Then I filled the remaining areas of each crayon with thread matched to each strip in loops and stars to resemble doodling.

The Students names were something I really wanted to make sure were right. So I left the tags that had each child's name on it from when they selected their strip during the Teach-In, and I kept those tags on until I had completely finished all of the quilting on that strip. I double, triple, and even quadruple checked and if that's a lot just think of how the child would have felt had I messed up their name?

Crayon Quilt Name and Pencil Detail

The pencil is a point of pride for me and is in the teacher's selected colors. I did not applique this independently and instead worked with many pins as I quilted it on. Trust me I was poked enough times to make me question my sanity. At the tip of the pencil and at the eraser, the pencil is independent and loose from the quilt creating a bit of a 3-D effect. Now if you look you'll see a bit of blue thread , How did that bit of thread end up on that final name?

The Quilt is topped with matching Prairie Points and loops behind them for hanging on the wall. For some reason it seems to me that it will be easier for a teacher to hang loops vs. a sleeve. The sides are traditionally bound which created a challenge at the two upper corners but I like the result and would make the same choice if I had it to do again.

This quilt is quilted rather densely so it took me more than my usual time to quilt it. Also I found the metallic thread to be nearly impossible to "snap" into my self threading needles, so instead I had to work in good light and thread it into the eye myself when tucking the threads ends in. Good thing it's a single thread instead of a woven one.

Sure hope the class likes it.

Reversible Christmas Capelet

2011-12-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

One of my daughter's Christmas presents is a beautiful white organza dress with purple embroidery. I'm a wear whatever you want type of person. Maybe that's bad, but if my daughter wants to wear her dresses to school, I say why not? It's not as though she's bombarded to be a flower girl every other weekend.

Her new dress though is sleeveless, which is a bit of a "no no" for her school's dress code. What to do, what to do? Clearly I bought the dress, I knew it would be a problem, but I figured it was so pretty it didn't matter as I'd figure out something.

Sure enough something hit, ironically a neighbor's niece is getting married this spring. My neighbor was having a go at making a capelet for one of the girls. What a pretty little capelet it turned out to be too! Nice fabric and a beautiful drape. I didn't make the connection right away, but when I did I started looking for girls free capelet patterns. My friend Vicki found this one. Which I love, but it's a bit more of a coat than I was looking for so instead of swinging my circle at 18" instead I checked some of DD's dresses and decided to swing instead at 10". I left off the collar and instead sewed and flipped like a pillow. Then I top stitched and added a button.

Perhaps I should say I added two buttons back to back so that it can be on the pink side or the white side. The first time I did this (sewing through one button into another) I made it to tight and I could hear the chorus of "the button is to tight" so I cut them off and started again. This time to ensure I had the space I actually buttoned the button and kept it that way while I sewed through the two buttons - one on each side. That worked well and I will keep this method in mind for future projects.

This is a super easy project, I think it took between half an hour to an hour, and I had to iron some very wrinkled fabric. I like the coat part of the pattern too so maybe I'll make a version that way some other time.

Christmas Quilt-a-long 2011 Wrap Up

2011-12-10T14:27:00.001-05:00

Shessh 2011 wrap up? Where did the year go? Anyway this is just a post to collect together everything I made during the 2011 Christmas Quilt-a-long. I'm listing everything in reverse order so my oldest projects are first and the newer ones are last. Note I didn't make all of these things one day a month, instead if I worked on it at all during a QAL day I'm showing you it in it's current state here.

Oh geez I mentioned the Me, the Snake, and the Meerkat Quilt. That one has it's back all finished and the front is waiting on me to stop being so afraid and applique the organza snake on. I'm getting better, I've worked with the glitter metallic thread and maybe it wont be to bad.

I made this little-tic-tac toe board for my daughter after seeing at the store for $30 on sale. She even liked it enough that she took it to school when it was her day to bring in a board game.

My Dresden Plate Queen/Full Quilt is now Flismy. I look at fabrics for the back each time I'm at a fabric shop, but so far nothing is quite right.

I made two rice ice/heat bags quilt lead to my Step By Step Tutorial. Which you can find here.

I finished my Twin Size Reversible Tropical Waves Quilt.

I made this camel back kid's sized cover for my daughter.

I finished the Reversible 90" square full/queen 2nd Blessings from Heaven Quilt. Finishing this quilt was a real milestone for me as I started it and made the first one 3 years ago when I first started quilting and never wanted to go back and finish the second. DD was delighted when I tucked this one into fitting on her Twin Bed. Let's just say there is plenty for her to curl up in.

My Children of the Sea Twin size quilt is a flismy with a pieced backing completed and ready to quilt in 2012.

My Reversible Scatty Stars Lap Quilt is all finished.

My Extra Long Twin Earth Turtle Quilt made it into a Flismy Form for Quilting in 2012.

My Peppermint Pin Cushion, I actually made more than one on that day for friends.

My Peppermint Burst Quilt is 70" square. It's finished.

That's my Christmas 2011 Quilt-a-long year, no bad for a year. Next year we'll be hopping all over blog land for the QAL. I'll be hosting October's Christmas Quilt-a-long 2012, I hope to see you then.

Foto Finish: Holiday Decor

2011-12-10T14:16:00.001-05:00

Today's theme for Photo Finish is Holiday Decor. I made during one of the 2010 Christmas Quilt-a-long days last year for my cousin Giovanna. It took all day. Inset lace, and all kinds of heirloom stuff. It's not what I'd normally make but I made it because it spoke to me about who she was. My husband built a handmade poplar box and lined it with felt to keep it in and then we mailed it off. Boy oh boy did we hear about that, don't do that again - you spent to much to mail it. And so on. But still it warmed my heart because I knew we'd made that for her. She passed away this past summer and I'm glad we made those things and gave them to her and her husband last year.

Crayon Quilt: Name Quilting

2011-12-07T12:48:00.001-05:00

Another good title for this post is "The Sweet Spot", you know when you're doing something and all of the sudden everything clicks into place and things start going really great? That was exactly what happened to me this morning with the quilting on the Crayon Quilt. WowWee! When I hit that spot I could see it in the way the thread was sewing. This is metallic thread and all I've ever heard is bad things about metallics so of course you know how much zest I approached this quilting with. Yet after the first couple of names I found the right way to thread my machine wrong in order to allow minimum tension without having to little tension and to allow the thread to spool off the spool form the side as directed by the manufacturer. Sure enough I can see a visible difference in the names I quilted after I hit the sweet spot and before. Now all the names are done except for those first two or three that I will requilt.

Now I just need to settle on how I will quilt the rest of the crayons... Hope you've found your sweet spot today!

Foto Finish: Cold

2011-12-04T12:56:00.001-05:00

Yes, it gets cold here. I promise it does. But showing pictures with dormant grass and people huddled up shivering just doesn't have the impact that a picture of that dreadful cold snow stuff has. So instead today I'm showing you a picture of Tiny back in her bottle baby days. She might have been cold and thereby ended up so puffed up and surrounded by love and covers, but more to the point I think it makes you want to curl up with her after looking at all those pictures of cold. FYI you'll have to be added to her list of approved people before cuddles are allowed, but you'll do fine, after all momma says you're okay.

Cat Patches hosts Foto Finish every Saturday so why not join in the fun?

Beginning Quilting on Crayon Quilt

2011-12-04T09:53:00.001-05:00

I told myself when I started working on this quilt that I needed to take many photographs. But the best laid plans of a quilter will often find you with your lap blouse and even hair full of bits of thread. Currently I have stitched in the ditch of all of the crayons using the color I plan to quilt that strip with. I have also handwritten the names of each of the children on their selected crayon strips. My next step will be to quilt over the names with glitter thread. I've never worked with such a fussy thread before so I've been planning every last detail.

Of course I didn't plan that we would still be full swing in the process of putting up our Christmas items. So far we have four days invested. We're decorated outside with lights, inside the tree is up and decorated, and the stockings are hung but no trace of the holidays can be found in terms of garland nor are the other rooms in the house decorated yet. I haven't even started on my Christmas cards yet. What bearing does this have on quilting? Normally nothing except the boxes are piled up in front of my newly shortened, for the holidays, quilt frame so I can't get at it until some of the boxes... Yes, I knew you'd get it.

What have you been up to lately? I've missed you what with all this mess clutter, not to mention holiday deadlines.

Crayon Quilt Piecing in Progress

2011-11-22T09:28:00.001-05:00

I've been working on sewing the strips together for the Teacher's Crayon Quilt. These are strips that the children selected as being their favorites when I went to the Great American Teach In the other day.

So far I have the strips sewn and pressed. All of the prairie points are made for the crayon tips and I've started working on the teacher's pencil. So far I really like the pencil. I went with a different pink than the one I'd planned as this one matched a bit better and I knew when I turned the tube I'd made the right choice. Doesn't that pink scream eraser?

For the quilting I'm going to be quilting the students names onto their strips (hence all those bits of paper at the top of the flimsy). Currently I'm planning to find the center and mark each strip with my Sewline Pencil and then write in the name with the pencil before quilting it. I am considering using gold glitter thread for quilting the students names. I've never quilted with glitter thread before, but I think it would unite the crayon colors nicely so it's worth the try.

I don't think I will be working on this much more until after Thanksgiving. DD was firm well over a month ago that we always host Thanksgiving so hence we will again this year. What are your plans for Thanksgiving? I think perhaps the best thing would be to simply sit at the sewing machine and give thanks for finding this passion of quilting in which to bury myself in. ;-)

Peppermint Burst Quilt is Finished!

2011-11-18T17:27:00.001-05:00

My Peppermint Burst Quilt

Tiny on the Peppermint Burst Quilt

I just finished tucking in the last of the thread ends, so Peppermint Burst is now officially a finished quilt. I love the feel of a brand new quilt and I'm clearly not the only one.

Peppermint Burst Shows off its backing

Everyone always wants to tell you how to take a picture of a quilt, and I was worried taking these pictures in the evening but as I spread the quilt out on the couch I knew it would be okay. Just look how well my quilting pops in the pictures. When I said densely quilted I really meant it.

I also flipped up the corner so you could see the way all that quilting looks on the back. As well as a detail pick below. That with the heart square with the heart quilted into it is 1". Yes, lots of people have quilted more densely, and that's okay. This is a cosy quilt, just right for those chill winter nights.

Peppermint Burst Heart Detail

I'd like to offer up a special thanks to my friend Sue who wrote and published Pick Four. This is my version of her quilt Starburst. Her directions for making flying geese were easy even for this hardened anti flying geese fanatic.

Art From the Heart

2011-11-16T15:53:00.001-05:00

Teach In Quilt Strip Layout

Today at the Great American Teach-In, I attempted to show the first grade students in my daughters class, that art is made with our hands, mind, eyes, and hearts. To take that one step further is to say that because art comes from your heart it is pure and good no matter what it looks like nor what others might think of it. I think I lost them a little on that point but guess what? As I'm making a quilt from the strips the children picked I get to reinforce that point when I make the quilt label.

Teach-In Thanks

I am now I'm the proud owner of a Certificate of Appreciation as well as a school mug. One of these days I'll hang all these letters and so forth up in the sewing room so that I can marvel at them. The mug was a surprise as I truly didn't expect anything. I met a fellow quilter while at the school, and we all know it's nice to meet someone that thinks like we do in our travels. I also met a mom who had met my daughter, currently her daughter is in DD's class last year, believe it or not she proceeded to tell me about my own DD without knowing I'm DD's mom. How about that.

I am really looking forward to getting started on this quilt. As a strip quilt I doubt it will take long and it is sure to be fun so I started laying out the children's fabric strips right away. I wasn't sure about the layout of the fabric, so of fussing over it to long, instead I went to my leftovers pile and looked for a strip that matched what the teacher told me her favorite color is. She said blues to greens. Thereby I picked the strip that runs across the bottom of the upper picture to make the applique teacher's pencil and I think that helped pull the colors together. I think the appliqued pencil will be thicker than that as I plan to make a tube and then applique it on that way running at an angle over the bottom right corner of the quilt. No one picked grey so that will be good for making the metal that holds a pencil on and I have a pretty pink polka dotted fabric for the eraser. I'm not sure about a wood color for the sharpened part but I should be able to come up with something and the lead point should be okay too.

My Visitor Before the Teach-In

2011-11-15T10:24:00.001-05:00

The Great America Teach-In is tomorrow and I think I'm ready. This is how I envision the strips to come together. The top will be prairie point binding to give the crayons their points. I will be adding a fabric to the bottom of the quilt of a currently unknown color and appliqueing a pencil in the teacher's favorite color with her name and the class information on it. It is sure to be a fun time. The quilting is my favorite part of this quilt as I will be quilting each child's name onto their selected strip so instead of a traditional crayon label it will be the child's name stitched onto the fabric they liked best tomorrow.

This morning while waiting for the bus to come I spotted a visitor on my neighbor's fence. I think it was going after a snake the way it danced around on the ground. This hawk stayed long enough for all of the children at the bus stop to see it and better yet long enough for me to run inside after the bus departed to take these pictures for you. This is a fully mature red shouldered hawk and likely a year round resident here. Still it is amazing to see such a powerful hunter so close up. I'm so glad cameras have zoom!

Christmas Quilt-Along November: Evening Wrap Up

2011-11-12T19:18:00.001-05:00

Can you work on another quilt? Those were the words my daughter uttered to me when I came in to call on her Barbie mess, so that she might move it to another room so I could reload the Peppermint Quilt. Now seeing as she always does everything I ask of her even if I have to ask three times I thought okay, but what else can I do? That's when I saw Halicha's post in which she made Christmas Tree ornaments. It sounded like fun and hers were so cute.

I should stop here and say I'm not crafty. People start talking about glue and scissors and see my birdhouse from sand? And a part of me freezes over and my eyes glaze. That's because I'm trying to figure out not only how much I need to pay out to buy the scissors glue and sand but how much I really need to get because I'll have to make it 10 times before it looks half that good. But I though this would just be a simple bit of sewing and I can do that, right? Ummm, WRONG. LOL!

Handmade Ornaments

Firstly I couldn't find a pattern, and then I thought I could wing it. But I wasn't sure so I started with a 3" square of fabric, and made HSTs of it. But they looked to big, so I put them back together and made them again. Now they looked really really way to small, but I was going for small and cute so surely everything was going to be okay. I start sewing them together. Not to bad, the top part looks okay. But then came time to cut the backing and deal with the binding. That's when I discovered my "cute little ornaments" are 2" square. Not 2.5" but 2" flat. How in the word do you bind something of that size?

So anyway here they are. If I bothered to figure out my time on them they would surely be in the top 10 most expensive ornaments in the house. At least they are done and there's no trace over 1/4" scraps left of them to nag me.

Peppermint Border Quilting

Thankfully around the time I was finishing up the 6th one DD was done and wanted to play on the computer. Hooray! So I loaded the Peppermint Quilt back on the frame sideways and set about quilting the side borders. I made it nearly all the way down the first side when I started having a tension issue. Rather than deal with it I walked away to make dinner. That was the perfect choice as I've since realized that when I changed the bobbin the thread much have slipped out of the proper path when I was putting the bobbin case back in. So now I need to unpick a red stripe. I started already but the light isn't good enough for that this late at night so I will go back to it tomorrow. Thanks so much for joining me today, I'm glad to have been able to join you this year and I'm looking forward to a 3rd great year next year.

Now before you go I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by today. The Peppermint Quilt and I haven't seen eye to eye through it's creation and all of your comments today really helped to bolster my self reflection. Thank you.

Christmas Quilt-Along November: Lunch Break

2011-11-12T12:04:00.001-05:00

I haven't made it back to my quilting. Walking into the living to load my Peppermint Burst Quilt on the frame for the sounds time took me instead to something that looked a lot like this so I just went back to the sewing room and made binding instead. It's one less thing I'll need to make later. What are you having for lunch? I'm thinking a salad, which is surely the opposite of Christmas but something light and fresh sounds good after my donuts earlier.

Christmas Quilt-Along Year 2: November Morning

2011-11-12T10:13:00.001-05:00

Good Morning,

It was cold here early this morning, which always seems to come as a surprise here in Sunny Florida. So I stayed curled up under my covers until 9 am, when I discovered the chocolate covered donuts my DH had bought as a morning surprise for DD and I. By the time I unloaded a reloaded the dishwasher I didn't want coffee anymore so I made a cup of hot coco. I'm sure by now everyone is happily quilting away at their sewing machines and I'm the late gal, but that's okay.

Peppermint Burst Quilt

Gingerbread House Detail

Today I'm going to be continuing to quilt on my Peppermint Burst Quilt. If you haven't been following along this quilt is modified from Sue's Starburst Quilt in her new Pick Four Book. Today marks the 4th day of quilting on this quilt and you can follow the above Peppermint Burst link if you wanted to see some additional pictures. Currently I have quilted the entire quilt from top to bottom. Skipping only the side borders, so this morning I will be putting the quilt back on my mid arm quilting frame turned 90 degrees to quilt the sides in one long line of quilting. I have four plain blocks which I quilted Gingerbread Houses into, unlike the candycanes and the gingerbread men in the border I did not stipple behind those and I was considering adding some scrolls or hearts above and below the Gingerbread houses as well. I wont get to close because I want the details to continue to stand out.

Hidden Christmas Tree

As you can see I haven't tucked in my threads but I will get to that. Have you wondered where Sunny and Tiny are? All these pictures and no cats? Well they're right here. Sunny is so glad I'm awake he's been enjoying a nap on my lap sleeping on his back just like a baby.

My Furry Darlings: Sunny and Tiny

After more quilting, hopefully I'll be able to get started on binding this quilt, but I don't know if that will happen today. Sew Happy!

Peppermint Burst Quilt: It's in the Details

2011-11-10T10:06:00.003-05:00

Hi there! I feel like I'm peaking out from underneath a rock to say hello. I've been working on the quilting for my Peppermint Burst Quilt for two days now and I'm about half way done. The quilting is rather dense on this quilt so the going is slow. Now instead of looking at the blocks as a whole, I took a tip from Sew'n Wild Oaks. I've been looking at each piece of the block and how it comes together to create the sort of movement I want to see in the block. Doing this is proving to be very midarm quilt frame friendly, as I can do part or all of a single pieced bit of fabric and still maintain a movement throughout the block that conforms to my vision instead of fighting with a pattern that is to big for the frame. Can you see how I have quilted the segments differently? Of course you can always click on the image to see it more closely.

Now look again? Do you see that velum paper you see at the top two corners? That is my attempt to try a technique my friend Vicki uses on her Felines and Fibre Arts Blog. I found a coloring book page of a gingerbread house that was just divine and I set about quilting on top of the velum to create the quilted image within the quilt. You will see more of that after I'm finished if all turns out as I hope.

I am also adding my own theory on this quilt. It involves the borders and came to me while I was quilting another quilt. You see when you have a midarm quilt frame like I do, your work space is only as big as that area you see in the above picture. Yes it's as long as the quilt is wide, but what about the side borders? When I quilt the top and bottom borders everything is one long continuous line of quilting. Beautiful, but when I work on the side borders I can only work as wide as the bars and quilt allow. Which is somewhere between 9" and 5" depending on where I am in the quilt and how big it is. Think about that, would you like to start quilt and then stop and cut the threads, while quilting a border every 5"? Not to mention what I've been going through to tuck strings ACK! So it came to me that what if I quilted the top border, then the body of the quilt, and lastly the bottom border simply skipping the side borders for the time being? What if I finish the quilting and then turn the quilt, putting it back on the frame only this time rotated 90 degrees? I can then work on the borders right to left just like when I quilted the top and bottom. I think this idea will work and work well. DH tells me it will be easier to load the quilt as a nearly finished piece as there will be much less pinning and very little aligning that needs done. I hope he's right.

Now before I go back under my quilt rock for the rest of the day, tell me what have you been up to? Something good I hope.

Quilting Peppermint Burst Quilt

2011-11-08T14:57:00.000-05:00

The Peppermint Burst Quilt and I didn't see eye to eye when I was piecing the border. I had plenty of seam ripping to do. So much so that when I was done I simply loaded it onto the quilt frame without taking a picture. I have started quilting the border. The pink has a swirled candy cane and the cream colored fabric has a little gingerbread man in each segment of the peppermint twist. Yes I meandered behind them I couldn't see myself. The inner border is again swirls which remind me of chocolate carmel drops.

Peppermint Burst Quilt 1st border on

2011-11-02T15:47:00.003-04:00

I've been steadily working on the Peppermint Burst Quilt. Today I finished sewing the blocks together and sewed on the first border. It seems like this quilt is one of those challenges. Thanks to Sue's directions the blocks were easy and all assembly line pieced. But that sashing? Goodness Gracious! First when I thought I was done with the center I discovered I left the sashing off the upper left and lower right blocks of one row, and then I found a pink square at the edge of the quilt sewn in where it didn't belong. Thankfully I discovered these when I was taking pictures and was able to fix each thing before moving on, that way I only had a some seam ripping to do and we all know it could have been worse! The 6" Peppermint border is the next and final border and I think I'll start that tomorrow.

Quilter's Fall Festival 2011

2011-10-31T19:48:00.001-04:00

It is time for the Quilter's Fall Festival again. Yippie! It's always a joy participate. Today I'm going to show you the first Wall Hanging I ever made. I made it to give my husband for our 5 year wedding anniversary. You're supposed to give wood for the five year mark so this was my take on that. Now I know you only have a minute so I'll stop chatting right now and say come on back anytime you want to read about quilts, cats, or my six year old daughter as I'm prone to talk about all of those things.

Good thing for the two of us that love is still growing after all this time!

Happy Halloween From A Fairy Princess!

2011-10-31T10:56:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween! As a child my mother was never one for Halloween, though in her defense when she was a child, kids in her community died from razor blades in the candy which is a pure and real horror, so growing up Halloween was more a holiday to advance you closer to Christmas than anything else.

That aside DD loves Halloween. I have no idea how it happened but it is her favorite holiday. DD loves Halloween even more than Christmas. She isn't into the super scary and in fact there is a commercial about some Halloween candy maker that always has her hollering "We don't have to buy that!!!!" Instead she has more of a Happy Witches in black and purple cheer.

In response, I've be able to enjoy a bit of Halloween Magic myself lately. Did you know I have a great daughter? No kidding. When I asked her earlier this month what she wanted to be for Halloween, she told me she wanted to be a fairy princess and she proceeded to tell me she had the wings (poor ripped and torn cheap green Nylon ones from Walmart from last year) and then she showed me the dress she would wear with it. One of her pretty yet faded dresses.

My mind started running a mile a minute but I wisely said nothing. Instead I went about compiling items for her to be a fairy princess. I shopped for a crown when she wasn't with me. I went online back to the shop I'd purchased the faded gown from (before it was faded of course) looking at numerous dresses and I began to shop for wings. I didn't want any more cheap-wish-I'd-just-flushed-$10-down-the-toilet-Wally-World-wings again. So I hunted and I hunted. I looked for DIY wings, and How To's as well as anything I could think of. After a few days I stumbled upon a "way to big" dance costume. The wings anchored on the dancers back and pretty elastic attached the wings to the dancer's wrists like bracelets, that was when I knew I was on to something.

First I found the perfect dress, then I bought the crown shopped for tulle, and eventually found the shoes on clearance. With a minute at the sewing machine the wings were ready. We already had hair ties, makeup and glitter. The glitter tulle came from Joann's as well as the pretty elastic. Together with the dress and the crown I think I paid about $25.50 all totaled. The sheer joy and wonderful happiness my daughter has been radiating since her dress arrived on Friday has truly been like Christmas morning for me. I love that I took my time and efforts and made everything as wonderful as I could for her.

Earth Turtles Flimsy Finished!

2011-10-25T10:57:00.001-04:00

Now lookie here. My Brown turtles in the green grass. Also known as my Art for Your Bed quilt top is finished. I finished up the applique and sewed the center strip yesterday. What a difference from the quilts I normally work on wouldn't you say?

This quilt is destined to be for a twin / twin extra long bed. It measures 57" x 99.5".

For the Serendipitous Leaf in the very center of the quilt I hand stitched that and then looped a connecting stitch back through all of my stitches to link them.

I took this picture of Tiny as she looked so cute and ready to help with my next project, Peppermint Burst. I'd say if you ask her it's sure to be a good one! Does anyone want to come cut the fabric for me?

Peppermint Burst Quilt Fabric Arrival

2011-10-22T12:02:00.001-04:00

The fabric for my Peppermint Quilt is here. Yippie! My postman delivered it today, and goodness that was a heavy box! All four fabrics to the left of the Peppermint Twist will be on the front as shown in the EQ file shown below. The blue on the far right will be the backing. I went with the 66" lap quilt because I love the way I envision it looking on the couch at Christmas Time.

I'll be starting this quilt after I finish my Turtles in the Grass top.

Foto Finish

2011-10-22T08:46:00.001-04:00

This week's theme for Foto Finish is Spooky. I had a really hard time finding a picture and in fact I wondered why I used up my Harvest Moon on you the other week. Yet, in due digging I found this one. This is a carving that my DH spotted back in the days before we were married, before the Housing Bubble burst when he was a Surveyor.

There where actually two of these, one a bony finger pointing the way and this one. I would have posted them both for you but I only found this photo. I think it is plenty Spooky. Cat Patches is always talking about something interesting (though my pie didn't turn out as pretty as hers) so why not join us this Saturday, by finding a bit of Spooky in your life?

A Serendipitous Leaf

2011-10-21T14:23:00.001-04:00

The current state of my Sewing Table

I've been working on my Brown Turtles in the Green Grass. My friend Vicki called it my Earth Turtles and I thought that sounded good. So far I have two of the three vertical rows appliqued to, and stitched on. The quilt is 99.5" long at this point so needless to say I'm not adding any horizontal rows. Here's what it looks like when I clean up before leaving a project for the day (something I rarely bother to do).

What do you think of that leaf? Personally I love it. It will be at the centermost point of the quilt, the one and only. It was taken from this last scrap of fabric. In a moment of pure serendipity, I saw the leaf was in that bit of scrap waiting to get out. After digging through pictures I found the perfect model a Red Oak leaf. The veins of the model were yellow and I just happen to have a lovely buttercream yellow which I will use for the detailing.

Can you see the leaf?

DD is off for a nice long three day weekend so I don't know when I will get back to this quilt but hopefully it will be soon as over the past couple of days working on it has been a real treat.

I won: The Devils Puzzle

2011-10-19T17:25:00.001-04:00

How about that for a blog post title? Sure enough it's true. Just the other day going through my regular favorite blogs and I discovered that Caren over on As the Thread Breaks was having a book giveaway. But not just any book. This is a brand new novel from the "A Someday Quilts Mystery Series". Now I don't know about you but I like a good mystery novel every once in a while and I can't seem to resist a book with quilts thrown in so this should make for a wonderful read. If you'd like I'll even review it here on my blog when I'm done.

As for other matters, would you believe DD lost her first tooth? Yes, it happened right here in my sewing room. I convinced her to allow me to tie dental floss to it and after a few minutes of her gently tugging she gave it one great pull (I have no idea why) and the tooth flew across the room! I heard it tink against something, but alas I've cleaned the room twice looking and DH even came through looking and we can't find it. The tooth fairy acknowledged DD's picture saying "I lost my tooth" complete with a hand drawn little girl with a big gap in her smile, by writing that it was okay and leaving the token of $1 anyway. I know $1 whole dollar. I guess that's the going rate. I recall getting pocket change from the tooth fairy but she much be getting rich on those teeth.

Tropical Waves is Finished!

2011-10-14T10:10:00.000-04:00

Tropical Waves Quilt

Tropical Waves Quilt on Reverse

Yesterday I spent the entire day sewing. Trust me things slipped through the cracks that made me a little frantic by the end of the afternoon, but look what I have to show for my diligence! Tropical Waves is all finished!

This quilt reminds me of the ocean both above and below so I quilted it like many of us view the ocean, complete with a sprinkling of surfers. A steady watery quilt meander moves throughout the quilt so that it looks like the rises and falls of the ocean and a border of waves and dolphins swim over all of the borders. DH asked if they were all boy surfers or if some were girls, so clearly I told her the ones that were female surfers were which ever ones she wanted them to be.

Like many of my other quilts this one is fully reversible. Originally this pattern was called Country Lanes, but the colors seemed to take it so far from Country Lanes, that I named this quilt Tropical Waves. I started the back with an orphan block and some extra pieces and worked from there. Before long a Tiffany look had come over the back and it grew from there.

Dolphin Border on Tropical Waves Quilt

Quilted Surfer on Tropical Waves

Now all the threads are tucked into the quilt and the binding is on. The quilt finished up at 54"x85" which is a nice twin bed size. Even Sunny thinks this quilt is top notch. Okay well this is the best you get for a Sunny picture because he wasn't thrilled I made him stop grooming and look up. I think it's a little funny that this is the best "why are you bothering me" face that he can manage.

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

Have you heard of this Christmas for Quilters? Well they are having big quilty giveaways over there and this week is multiple collections of Aurifil thread. It's open Internationally so everyone can join in. Why don't you go check it out?

Mr. No Quilt

2011-10-12T17:04:00.000-04:00

Sunny never seems to care one way or the other about my sewing and quilting. He could sleep on a soft surface but a hard one is fine as well. He loves to sleep half in and half out of the sewing room as many of you know. So today when I was tucking in thread ends I was surprised to see his face light up with his "let's cuddle!" expression. Not one to turn down a bit of Sunny lovins, I called him up to me and his face lit up even brighter with his "I'm so glad I get to jump to you!" face. After petting him for a time I went back to tucking in the thread ends of my Tropical Waves Quilt, and Sunny settled into my lap. I was surprised that he was so content so I called for the resident camera man and this photo was taken just for you.

Hooray Tropical Waves is all quilted and off the frame, it seems like the thread tucking wont be to bad, so that is good as well.

Tiny the Quilt Model

2011-10-11T18:30:00.000-04:00

I'm almost done with Tropical Waves, I was working on it yesterday and had high hopes to finish it, but I was fighting a headache and DH claimed the headache won when I ended up having to unpick a section of quilting, I was inclined to agree as nausea was setting in and it was clearly not a mere headache. I'm feeling all better, though I still have a little bit of unpicking to do which shouldn't take to long and then I'll be off and quilting the very last border of this quilt, wont it be wonderful to see it off the frame?

While passing through the house I caught sight of my quilt model and just had to share. She let me take one picture but when I started fussing with things and how it looked she said she was done it wasn't worth all that trouble. Good thing her demands are simple; good cat food, a clean litter box, and her BFF aka DH. Though if you are up for fulfilling wishes, Tiny would tell you that thunderstorms should be a thing of the past with only light drizzles to bring us rain, she also wishes to never be alone, and it would be nice if dirt disappeared forever. Hey what can I say she's a cat after my own heart.

'Tis the Season for PUMPKINS!

2011-10-08T17:25:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned we went to decorate pumpkins. I was surprised how many mothers are very bossy when it comes to their children's artwork. I tried to take my cues from them as what not to do and instead just tried to help DD make her pumpkin how she saw fit. Many of the girls made girlie pumpkins which I found surprising, even DD with her love of Halloween. No matter this is our pumpkin this year. Isn't she a delightful Jill-O-Lantern?

Foto Finish - Spider Lilies in the Moonlight

2011-10-08T16:06:00.000-04:00

Today's theme at Cat Patches is Old, and while I was sorely tempted to post a picture of my mother-in-law... I lamented why couldn't the theme be new or young, I could have really had fun with that. Oh well. My Image of the Day is a picture DH took that I call Spider Lilies in the Moonlight (aren't you glad I didn't name you?). Why are blooming Spider Lilies old? You see when we bought our house in back when this century was young, the house came furnished. We kept somethings, donated others and to this day some compliments will yield "it came with the house" around here. Well now, these Spider Lilies came with the house. I'm certain they must have been planted by the original owners wife who had passed away long before he found a new lady friend and decided to sell our home to us, and thereby they count as old. And if that's not good enough reason that awful Cactus grew taller than the house and was chopped down and out by DH this past summer.

Southern Giant Darner Dragonfly

2011-10-08T15:39:00.001-04:00

Today when we were just about ready to call it a day this Southern Giant Darner Dragonfly alighted my neighbor's leg and was inclined to stay there for a bit of a rest. She's not one for bugs so I saved this one from the wrath of a tissue and convinced him to alight to my finger and then eventually onto our Hibiscus bush. Then I came inside and went digging for what in the world was this huge dragonfly, which was clearly bigger than my hand. So here's what I can tell you. Southern Giant Darner Dragonflies can be as large as 5" from wingtip tip to wing tip and this one was bigger than my hand! They fly fast, nearly 60 miles an hour so it is very difficult to capture a picture of them, but it is very windy here today and this one clearly needed a rest. When I went back outside, after reading how hard they are to photograph, I went back to the exact spot and sure enough he was still there. Quite a bit better off for the rest too, because he took off across the street as soon as I came around the corner of my house. Good thing for a zoom or else I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to get close enough. Ironic as I couldn't get him off my hand to unload the car not to long before!

I nearly forgot to add these Darner Dragonflies are called thus because of their resemblance to a darning needle. I don't see it do you?

Christmas Quilt-a-long October Lunch

2011-10-08T11:30:00.008-04:00

Here is my first pincushion, the white is turned pieces that I did the other day and then hand appliqued to the to of the red circle, though it could easily be machine appliqued. I liked the peppermint and wondered if it would be a squeeze to get it's 5" to fit between the handles on the quilt frame. Clearly it wasn't a problem. I'm glad to say that I now have two pincushions. One for the midarm quilting frame in the living room and my little chicken pincushion to live in the sewing room. I think that means I need more pins.

On the bottom of this particular pincushion I attached the hook and loop side of a piece of Velcro and then I put the soft side strip of Velcro between the handles on the quilt frame that way it can't scratch me when I work if I decide to take off the pincushion.. This will keep the pincushion from falling down off of it's perch while I sew and allow me to remove it completely it it interferes with my view, and of course this way I can change it to a different theme if I decide to make another in the future.

The free pattern can be found here if you're interested. As for me, now I have to run DD and I are off to decorate pumpkins!

Christmas Quilt-a-long October Morning

2011-10-08T10:02:00.000-04:00

Wow you can really feel the Autumn breezes in the air can't you? It's just before 10 am here, and I have about an hour of sewing that I can do before my less quilted life interferes. This is what Sunny looks like this morning, he's here but not ready to go. I myself have everything for my peppermint pincushion laid out. Of course I forgot to make myself a bit of tea to keep nearby so I'll have to get to that in a minute.

I planned to work on the quilt I've been calling Brown Turtles in the grass, but slept longer than I thought I would. Waking up at 1 am something with your 6 year old in your arms, unable to move between DH and DD and wondering how it all came to be, will do that to you. I went to the couch for about 2 hours, waking up every hour until DD came to find me and then tucked her in her own bed and I went happily back to bed as well.

Now some of you amazingly strong women are thinking why didn't you just scoop her up and carry her back to her own bed? No way. Even at her mere 40 pounds I would never carry her asleep though the dark. She's to heavy and my walk isn't good enough after all what if I fell and dropped her?

I hope everyone has a productive day sewing today and I'll check back in after the chaos dies down.

The Great American Teach In Fabric Strips

2011-10-07T17:38:00.000-04:00

Look at this wonderful rainbow of fabrics. Aren’t these strips amazing? As I mentioned the other day my friend Vicki sent me fabrics from her stash for the Great American Teach-In which is coming up this November; between her package, my stash, and a bit of shopping I came up with these 44 beautiful strips. I think that’s a nice number for 20 children to pick their favorite from what about you? My goal is to sew the strips the children select as representing themselves together and make a crayon quilt. Then I will quilt each child’s name onto their strip much like a Crayon label.

So now I ask you, do you see any colors that are missing? I’m showing you the fabrics two ways so you can see for yourself. Does anything stand out in your mind as a color that isn’t visible as a choice? I would hate to think of a child looking at the range of fabrics and not finding a particular color that came into their mind when I say art.

Now mind you that black fabric that is by the fabrics will be joining the strips too, but it’s an extra wide fabric and I want to wait to cut the strip until after I take what I need from the yardage for the Christmas Quilt-a-long tomorrow.

Peppermint Quilt Mock Ups 2

2011-10-06T12:08:00.001-04:00

Oh my dear detail oriented followers! I sure put you all in a tizzy over those last mockups I posted didn't I? I'm sorry about that. Last night I was reading Sue's book and I saw that the quilt block I'd selected in EQ5 because it looked like Sue's block (sort of) really didn't show the true block well at all, not to mention that block did not allow me to fully explore my fabric options the way I wanted to. So let's try this again shall we? This is the real Starstruck Block and I have amended both quilts to show the candy cane border everyone liked. The first quilt showcases a change in the block and the addition of green. I have also used a different blue in order to create a flow in the fabric print scale variation.

Queen Full Peppermint Quilt With Green

The second quilt sticks to Sue's three color block and keeps the original blue, but this time I have used a different pink print. It is the same tones of pink, but it has big polka dots on it. This was the pink I'd selected first but I thought the scale might be a bit big. In retrospect it sure does look nice in the candy cane border doesn't it? So tell me what do you like, what do you not like? Note there is something going on with the scale of the blue snowflakes and the focus Peppermint fabric so those two details aren't showing as well as they should.

Peppermint Lap Quilt in Blue

No worries as any aspect can be matched to whatever my final quilt size decision is. So after writing this post, I started to wonder what the green would look like with the large polka dot, so here is that for you to see as well.

Peppermint Lap Quilt with Green

Peppermint Quilt Mockups

2011-10-04T17:40:00.000-04:00

Lap Quilt - 66" Square

Now as I mentioned the other day I already had the fabric in mind for my first quilt out of Sue's book. That is to use a delightful peppermint fabric, which is complete with a candy house, little silhouettes, and candy flowers. At this point I think I'll be using Sue's Starstruck pinwheel blocks, though I gulp over seeing how many flying geese she is calling for. Flying Geese and I have never been good friends, so maybe Sue's method will beat out those "you have to have a plastic template flying geese madness".

Queen/Full - 88"Square

Here are my two favorites out of what I've started so far. The first one is a lap quilt which would clearly cost less to make, and then just to see is a full/queen for my bed. I have these Pine Cone flannel sheets that would match perfectly... I didn't take the time to draft Sue's star blocks, that seemed like way to much work so I selected these paper pieced monstrosities as they convey a similar movement as Sue's blocks. Also note I would not go to all of that effort over my candy cane borders, instead I would use 2.5" strips at 45 degree angles or something around there, but this was the easiest way to depict diagonal stripes with EQ5.

What do you think? Any thoughts and or suggestions?

There's a Surprise on the Table...

2011-10-03T14:34:00.000-04:00

Today I had a leisurely chat with a neighbor and when I came home my DH said "There's a Surprise for you on the table". We chatted for a bit more and as I started to head inside, I asked if it was a package from my friend Vicki because she's sending me some fabrics for me to use with DD's class for the Great American Teach-In, though I hadn't started looking for that yet. To which DH replies "you'll see". As my eyes land on the package on the table I catch Sue's Blog Header on the outside of the package and then it all came rushing back. When I didn't win of the the autographed copies I knew I'd be beating an online path to amazon before to long, but low and behold Sue had extra copies and was willing to sell them so I bought one of hers. And now it's here!! Yippee and Hooray!

Now I've been waiting on this book, of course but right after offering up the books for sale Sue hurt her back, so my "patience is a virtue" kicked in and I was sailing on that. I have already selected the fabric I think will be my main headliner, and from the quilt previews on the publishers website I thought I'd picked the quilt too. But of course now the book is here and just simply flipping through it tells me there are many others so we'll just have to see. Okay you're right, I'll have to hurry up and figure it out because many of my compliment fabrics are on clearance right now so I need to get my butt in gear.

I have to say Sue's quilting and quilts are even prettier in this book than in the blog pictures I've seen. Sheesh, it's lovely!

Also on my plate is the knowledge that Jessica will need a Halloween costume, her school allows all of the children to dress up - within reason and nothing scary. She told me she would like to be a fairy princess, which means a beautiful dress and wings, so we shall see what I can dig up in the way of patterns.

The Miracles After The Fact

2011-10-02T10:01:00.000-04:00

DD loves her new pj's, they are simply huge on her but she's happily worn them three nights running. Oh yes and before I forget for all of you hardcore stick to the rules people - children shouldn't wear 100% cotton pj's unless they are form fitting. Ah well, is what I have to say to that, at least she's happy and comfortable. Which is good because we're entering a little cold spell. Yippie! I got to wear long pants today!

You see Florida residents are a little crazy when it comes to the cold. Winter sweaters, long pants, leather jackets and so forth, see very little time outside of the closet so as soon as the first cold breeze blows we all run to our closets to pull out our favorite warm things. Granted by the end of winter I, like you really want to have a burst of warm days in order to get my shorts and put the on again.

After tucking DD into bed two nights ago this is the face that greeted me, I saw her tucked in the shadows. Tiny has discovered how to cuddle with the quilts in progress even when they are on the frame, and of course I had to take a picture or two and show them to you. Yes the lighting is bad, but it was bedtime and that's my excuse. For the record Tiny is watching DD in the kitchen who snuck out of bed for a drink of water while I was taking this picture.

Do you recall those plants DD and DH planted? Well this is the one little cucumber that survived through the slight neglect of us forgetting the seedlings were there. Now that it's in a nice big pot with the trellis I'm starting to wonder if we might actually get to experience fresh cucumbers in December. Yes I know the flowers will have to be self pollinated by humans who care or else it's doubtful we'll see much of anything. I have grown veggies before you know.

Foto Finish: Feet

2011-10-02T09:04:00.002-04:00

I nearly forgot about Cat Patches Foto Finish, yesterday's theme was feet. So after going back to my old pictures, I found this one that I'm certain I've never shared. These were my daughter's shoes before before the days that she could walk. My momma always told me that if children can't walk there is no sense trying to keep shoes on their feet so don't even bother buying them. She always felt it was better to invest in quality baby socks that stayed on instead of being worried over loosing shoes and I saw the logic in that. So I didn't buy any of these shoes. Instead they came to me as hand me downs from friends and family. As you can see most of them have never been worn and many still had stickers on them. When DD outgrew the possibility of wearing them I happily donated them all to Hospice and sent them all paired together off for frugal Grandma's to pick through and gush over.

Winter's Coming

2011-09-26T14:40:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I altered some clothing for a neighbor and while I was at it some pink flannel started haunting me to make pj's for DD. Oh alright, it had been haunting me since before the alterations, but today I sat down with what I wanted to do and made them. What do you think? It's nice and straight in reality. The sleeves took more of the pink snow flake fabric than I'd thought they would so the skirt isn't as full quite as I thought it would be so I ran a nice big slit up the back just in case. I would never do that if we lived up in the frozen North, but we don't and most years we only have a handful of nights where it dips below freezing. As you can see it has a square peasant style neckline which looks so cute on I don't know why anyone fusses over curved necklines. The flannel is wonderful to touch and I don't say that about all flannel. The bodice lining is a silky stretch blend. Now you know one of two things will happen. Either DD will love it or she will fuss at me about size. Really? She's 6 anything that doesn't fit now will fit soon.

Did you know it's nearly October? The year Autumn has been ringing in loudly for me and I'm looking forward to days fresh and delightful smells coming from my oven and going without the air conditioner!

Foto Finish - Autumn

2011-09-24T11:04:00.000-04:00

This week's theme for Cat Patches Photo Finish is Autumn, and while this isn't the picture I was originally going to show I thought it was a more interesting choice from my collection (not to mention it wont make you hungry the way a picture of my house on pie day would have). This is a harvest moon that my DH and I witnessed in 2005 from our yard. What a beauty!

Surprise! My Grand Opening!

2011-09-22T14:29:00.000-04:00

It's finally here! The day I've dreamed of since I finished my first few quilts three years ago! My very own eshop! My new shop is http://www.zibbet.com/SandandSunshine so please visit me! Thanks to the folks at Zibbet I can now sell my quilts without having to pay outrageous commissions! Actually they don't charge commission at all, now wont that be a real change for me? Did you know by the time you PayPal and Ebay you're out about 20% in commissions just to sell a single quilt? That really hurts.

I'm accepting PayPal of course and while it says shipping within the United States I able to create shipping quotes on a person by person basis so if you see something you like feel free to drop me a comment or a note. This is a very exciting time for me and I thank you all for standing by me on my shaky journey to this point.

My current listings are my Lollipop Quilt, My I love you Freemotion Quilt, and Scatty Stars. It pains me to be selling them especially before the Christmas Quilt-a-long is even done, but I have run out of places to put them in my tiny little house (no kidding) and the sale of these lovely quilts will bring in some much needed funds for things like Christmas.

What is the Difference?

2011-09-18T09:04:00.000-04:00

Now I was going to start this post saying I didn't have a very productive day, but the more I thought about what I had to tell you I'm certain it was a productive day. So you decide, but keep in mind your only option is to agree with me. First there was 10 days worth of laundry...

I helped DD with her homework. She has spelling words each week this year, just like clockwork. She is still on the learning side of the reading hill so when the spelling list comes home I know she doesn't know any of the words, and that causes me a bit of turmoil. After all, I have one week to not only teach her how to read the word, but how to spell it as well. I know she'll hate me if I make her write the entire list of ten - five times each and everyday, and there is a part of me that feels without proper reinforcement that wouldn't stick anyway. So I've been trying to dream up new and different options to present the words in a fun way. This is what I came up with last week that DD liked so much we did it again this week. I tell DD the word and she finds the letters for the word and puts them together. This week I also added writing the word down on a piece of paper after it was spelled out, as I thought that would reinforce the connection between the capitalized Scrabble letters and the lower case letters she needs to use on the spelling test.

Tiny looks very disinterested, but she was really just waiting for the right moment to spell her own word. She singled out the letters TELC, which shockingly seems to stand for language fluency matters in multiple countries. I have only read two of The Cat Who mysteries so I'm not going to bother thinking she's smart; I already knew that.

After homework I was completely tuckered out, and settled in on the couch to start a new book. I was to tired to read and ended up sleeping while DD curled up in my lap to watch "Powerpuff Girls" episodes that I record for her every night (they don't come on here until 10:30 pm!).

When I woke up and felt in much nicer spirits so I finished folding the last load of laundry, and started to pin Tropical Waves on the quilt frame. I had actually started this project two other times. The first time I discovered that the uptake leader is bigger for a reason and mine was in the wrong spot. So I had to switch all those around. Then when I pinned it the second time I only thought I started pinning at center, but had really started at the 3/4 mark so I had to unpin everything. Needless to say after that I walked away and let it sit for a couple of days. Yesterday the pinning went much more smoothly with the only hiccup being some hamburger helper noodles stuck to the bottom of my pot and trust me no one cared.

So you see how can you call that an unproductive day? Yet that was how I felt; perhaps it was due to the nap, or the matronly laundry that I somehow forgot I did. I think we judge ourselves to harshly sometimes. I didn't get that quilt quilted, I didn't do this or that thing that I needed to do. But the question becomes what did you do instead? A nap? Cooked dinner? Study? More to the point, remember that all those things matter too. Regardless of how you intended to run your day, enjoy this one no matter what it throws at you.

2011-09-17T09:46:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday and I remembered to check over at Cat Patches for Foto Finish. This weeks theme is Look Up. I think perhaps the best part of this weekend venture is going back through the thumbnails of my old pictures and seeing what there is to see. This is DD I would guess for her 4th Christmas so she would have been about 3 1/2. I found it in the 2008-2009 folder so that works out about right. I think there is something beautiful about the way a child looks at a Christmas Tree, don't you agree? Though I'd like to state for the record I have no memory of my living room being arranged like that, so I can only figure that must have been the year we moved the furniture all around for maximum capacity for Thanksgiving. Wont ever do that again to much work instead just grab a seat and sit where ever you can!

Do you see Sunny above DD? How about out that window? Do you see my neighbor's green grass? That's life here in Florida. Now I bet right now you're all missing snow but just wait until it gets here and the roads are covered in that filthy slush and everything is covered in grime... Then you'll be back to enjoy my green grass.

Nothing Beats Stretching Out with a Good Book

2011-09-15T10:00:00.000-04:00

What will you be up to today?

Tiny is about 2 pounds smaller than her big brother Sunny, though he has his summer clothes on so he always appears small this time of year. Tiny graces us with about 10 pounds of long sleek muscular cattiness. She has lovely large skin flaps on her back legs as seen in Egyptian Maus. Somehow when I photograph her right side up she always looks mad. That is deceptive as she is a very assertive, playful, and often loving cat. When she is inverted like this she looks so much more like the darling she can be. This picture is courtesy of DH and I just had to share it. It's a shame this quilt is a $10 super clearance special or else it might make a good entry for the Pet's On Quilts Show.

Sewing Room Cats

2011-09-14T10:40:00.000-04:00

Here are my two Sewing Room cats. As I've told some of you Sunny likes to sleep on the line. Nearly committed but not really. That line of decorative tile is the threshold of the sewing room. To far in to close the door. Tiny is fully committed but Sunny not so much. This is as close as they will ever sleep together. My cats are not like those lovely curled up cat balls you see sleeping on the Internet. I love them and their visits regardless.

Christmas Quilt-a-long: September Evening

2011-09-10T18:47:00.000-04:00

What a day today was! I think I'm completely tuckered out. I fused all 5 blocks I had to do and then I appliqued them all down. For good measure I tucked the threads from the applique work to the back side of the quilt and this leaves me just one block shy of having all of the blocks I need for the quilt. Now if I could just remember how I decided to place these blocks...

These turtle reverse raw edge applique blocks will square up to 20.5" when that last block is cut and finished, so they are really good size. Who knows maybe my far fetched thought yesterday of wouldn't it be nice if it was done by the end of the quilt-a-long might actually work out. In the picture I opened up and spread out the five I did today. There are four folded up in the lower right hand corner, taking me up to nine completed. Hope everyone had a good day sewing.

Christmas Quilt-A-Long 2: September Morning

2011-09-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

I'm all set up for today's Christmas Quilt-a-long. I raced ahead and all month long I've been working on our Scatty Stars Christmas Quilt-a-long Block of the Month Quilt and finished it up on Thursday. What do you think? I went with a narrow folded border and then a wider border that I quilted a row of stars all the way around, which I thought turned out really nice and I wondered why I hadn't seen borders quilted this way before. Then I got stuck and didn't know where to go with it so I stewed for a while and eventually came up with flowers and swirls. The flowers were DD's idea, she wanted Zinnias, so I did those as well as daisies and orchids. The orchids are fun in the challenge they present. Each time I form one I stop and think about the shape as I move through the petals. Flowers are organic so there is no right and wrong way to make them and I found little dropping petals actually made them look better.

When Sue first posted about the BOM, I went to my fabrics and pulled out stuff that matched, I just kept going through what I had and trying to match it to her pattern requirements. That's how I ended up with this theme of Flannel and Novelty Prints. I actually had so much fabric leftover I made it reversible. Hey I said I've been working on it all month, what did you think I'd been up to?
I went with the dark pink binding and I really like it. There is something so wonderful that happens as you stitch a binding on. It's as though even the quilt knows it's nearly finished. As a bonus for finishing Scatty Stars my quilting table is nice and clear so I'm don't have a mess to try and photograph away from.

Does anyone remember this project? I prepped it all yesterday. This is my Art for Your Bed Quilt. It is the Reverse applique bonus from my Hawaiian Ocean Applique quilt and I'll even admit I haven't worked on it since May. It became my Christmas Quilt-a-long project but then I changed where I kept my active projects and it was out of sight and couldn't inspire me, but I've relocated it and am ready to get back sewing. As I said I prepped it all yesterday by re-ironing and then cutting all of my rustic brown colored batik and squaring them up. Now I just need to gab a bottle of water for the iron and I can get started fusing! Happy Sewing Today.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

2011-09-09T17:54:00.000-04:00

Tonight at dinner my six year old told me that 20 years ago there were cave men and dinosaurs alive and walking the Earth. Needless to say her daddy felt very old.

Scatty Stars is Quilted!

2011-09-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

I just finished quilting the Scatty Stars Quilt from the Christmas Quilt-a-long. I've been trying to make the binding for it, but I keep putting the pieces together backwards for reasons unknown so posting to you seemed like a good break.

After much thought and consideration I settled on flowers and swirls for the quilting. There are Zinnia/Daisy type flowers, as well as orchids. Once that was decided the actual quilting went rather quickly and I was able to finish it the same day I settled on my design.

Using the mid arm is becoming more natural and as each quilt is unpinned from the frame my arms breathe a sigh of relief that I didn't have to quilt it on my Elna with a mere 6 1/4" throat space. I'm not sure which quilt will go on the frame next. Any suggestions?

A New Step Forward with Bows!

2011-09-05T10:39:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a wonderful milestone for DD. She says "okay" so I can tell you all about it. Granted I would have told you anyway... DD learned to tie her shoes. Isn't that delightful? Long since gone are the days when the school would teach them so it's taken a bit for everything to come together for her, and I'm so proud of her. You see my mother brought over one of those learning to tie books and while it didn't teach the method I use, the two colored strings really helped her see not only how the book did it, but how I'd been attempting to teach her and then it clicked. That click is so wonderful I just had to share. DD looks so goofy happy in the bottom picture, I could have snapped it a second later and had a nicer pic, but this is what I captured.

Not doing much sewing this weekend. Instead were just enjoying being together, while the back of my brain fusses over how to quilt what I want on Scatty Stars.

Foto Finish - Things on Four Legs

2011-09-03T19:22:00.000-04:00

My new friend Dana at Stormy Days has a post about another blog called Cat Patches where they have a photo finish once a week. The theme is different each week and this weeks theme is four legs. I just had to join in so here's my four legged photo. Now as sure as she's sitting there you're thinking she does not have four legs and that's true, but she's sitting on my sewing table that does have four legs. So there. And besides this saved you another Meerkat or real cat picture. Hope everyone is having a good Labor Day Weekend.

What made the Frame?

2011-09-02T15:21:00.000-04:00

Scatty Stars! Sue's Christmas-a-long BOM has made the frame. Wow! When I put it that way this quilt shows nearly a year's worth of work. How about that? I'm still a little on the fence about how to quilt it, but the star border came to me as soon as I pinned the top to the other layers. Flash, stars! Oh the joy of being inspired. I just love the look of these stars along the top edge of the quilt and I wonder why I haven't seen them used in a border like this before? Maybe that will become clear to me while I work on the rest of the quilt.

This is the 3rd quilt to make my midarm quilt frame, I wonder how long I will keep track before I lose count. For the stars I kept everything the same including the tension. The flannel of this quilt really wants to grab so what would normally be only a bit tight seems to want to be extremely tight. This is an 80/20 lightweight batting which I think will be a wonderful weight for this baby quilt. The quilt I just finished was a hi loft full polyester so I was delighted the stars turned out so nice without any fiddling from me.

So while I dream of quilting patterns, why don't you tell me about your week? It's been a give an take week here. I'm glad it's September, August seemed to delight in throwing more and more difficult things my way and it's nice to move on. How about you?

Finally Finished

2011-08-31T15:44:00.000-04:00

I finished adding the binding to the final baby clothes quilt. This ended up being the 3rd of 3 that I kept for DD. The others are a twin, a double, and this one a very generous full/queen. I made so many others with her baby clothes many of them completely reversible such as this one is. This feels like an end. I'm actually glad to see it too. Knits are such a picky fabric to use in quilts. While it might be an end to the endless baby clothes quilts it's the beginning of the next chapter and I can finally close the book on everything I started three years ago. I refused to part with any of DD's baby clothes and stored them away like a squirrel jealously guarding a winter's hoard.

Then my Dear Friend Heather told me about the conception of her son; we didn't know yet that she was having a boy. That was a great day and I was so happy for her. I still didn't want to share any of DD's old clothes but I thought, maybe if she was having a boy, which is ironic since some of DD's clothes came from her! Lucky enough for my heartstrings she was indeed having a boy (who is now in Pre-K!) and that's when I first started allowing myself to pick things out of storage. In fact Heather got every last stitch of neutral to boy I had. Oh I did hold one back, you can see it in the heart in the bottom left corner of the above picture. See the blue with darker blue stripes? That was a footed sleeper, I bought it because my DH told me he was sure we were having a boy and I believed him. We have a picture of me with that sleeper draped over my belly laughing.

And all of this got me to thinking. My mother had quilted, my grandmother had sewn, why couldn't I make a quilt of these clothes? So I did. I took what the storage containers claimed to be dear goodness 52 gallons of clothes. I spent at least two months first cutting out the seams and then stabilizing the knits. Oh yes that's what I said. I started with interfacing but that was a real ironing nightmare with all those clothes so I switched to the stabilizer and spray adhesive and then after piecing ripped it out of each quilt before quilting. It was a real mess. Yet that's where I started. By that point I didn't know I'd found a passion that would allow me to explore every pent up bit of myself I'd ever boxed away.

My blog changed as I did. Instead of just the odd mother who talked about her daughter and only sometimes mentioned any physical limitations. I found this entirely new quilting world online. Which is good because I've long since worn out the ear of any loved one that doesn't live with me. Lucky for me DH and DD are still happy to listen most of the time. Aren't you glad I still talk about my cats too?

Since I knew how hard it was to part with those darling baby clothes both of my larger baby clothes quilts bear a label proudly honoring the three moms who shared their beloved baby's clothes with me. The quilting is feathers moving through sashing of the front between every block. Mostly because I knew I had DD's quilts already tucked safely away, I knew I couldn't ruin anything and I thought it would make good practice. Then the blocks are quilted with mostly double hearts, though there are some singles and a few triples to represent our family and the three wonderful women who shared more than just clothes.

Do you See What I see?

2011-08-29T18:29:00.000-04:00

Today I worked on the final baby clothes quilt. This is a near twin of one I made the first year I was quilting. I accidently made nearly twice as many blocks as I needed so I called it serendipity and made another top. This one is bigger than the original and measures 90" square. It has a pieced back as well, which I will show you after I get the binding attached. For now I've finished the quilting. Praised be! And delt with all the threads and trust me there were a lot.

This was my first BIG quilt to quilt on the mid arm frame. I will say there is theory which I picked up as much as I could reading everything I could get my hands on. This is real tangible data, but it has no true meaning until reality combines and the key clicks.

Keys to making the key click:

1. There are such a thing as defective needles. It might look great but if you've changed the thread, adjusted the tension, checked your needle plate for burrs, called in some else who knows more than you, clearly rethreaded the machine a zillion times, and checked the manual... Guess what? It might just be that brand new needle. This one in particular I felt the burr as soon as I removed it from the sewing machine. Wish I'd thought of that before loosing hours and hours.

2. When quilting on a quilt frame needle size should be two sizes bigger. So if you've always done freemotion quilting with a side 90/14 you need an 18. Don't try to bull you're way past that needle size. My home machine doesn't care, but the Janome 1600P, goes so fast it cares and will shred your thread.

3. Thread does matter. I read somewhere that Janome 1600's likes overlock thread, you know the two strand serger thread? I'm still trying to figure out if that's true. But currently I have everything set perfectly for the quilt I just quilted using So Fine Thread.

4. In a the span of half of a 12" block you should not have any thread breakages. Certainly not the 3-5+ I was experiencing for the past month.

When everything comes together it's like the best homemade gravy you've ever had smothering the best pot roast you've ever tastes. I'm sure there are more keys to unlock and mid arm frame tricks to learn. But I can't tell you how happy I am that after 5 amazing passes last night I stopped at half way and went to bed. Today I finished the quilt! Okay I still have the binding - let me know when you find a quilting frame that will sew that on too, I'm sure everyone will want one.

Do you know what that means? Another quilt from the quilt list will be gracing my living room. I wonder which one it will be? Actually I already know, but you'll find that out soon enough.

Back Flimsy Finished for Scatty Stars

2011-08-28T12:56:00.000-04:00

After much deliberation and should have checked twice math ordeals, such as counting the number of pink monkey squares in the purple and monkey border, and then saying but half is one color and half is another so I only need to cut 15 of each, instead of 30 of each. Or how the quilt oddly grew a single inch in both directions after I figured out that border and had it all pieced. I'm glad to say the Scatty Stars quilt back is all finished. I do like the way the gradient of pink tones show through the borders of color. The dark pink on the outside will also be the binding for this as well as the baby clothes memory quilt I have in the quilt frame right now.

So here it is a detail of the borders as well as both the top and bottom flimsies folded together. This is sure to be one cuddly quilt when I've quilted it. As I was thinking about the quilting last night when DD and I shared dinner together, DD told me I should quilt Zinnia's on it. DD and DH planted some Zinnias last week and they have come up with a passion. I'm not sure how to freemotion Zinnias in a way that will give me the all over panto feel I was wanting for this quilt. I did think that I could quilt Zinnias into the rail fence blocks as though they are blooms, but I'm concerned to much quilting dense quilting such as the Zinnia flowers would cause the quilt to loose some of it's cuddle factor. I always worry about that a little, and of course I love the finished project but standing here I'm just not sure how to proceed. I have some time to think about it as I need to finish the Baby Clothes Quilt before anything else can go on the frame.

It's the last day of the weekend but it feels like the first. Constant bursts of heat lightning kept me awake past when I would have normally gone to sleep. Heat lightning is wonderful amazing even, when you're 20 and on a date, but when you're trying to sleep and keep seeing flashes through your eye lids it's less than desirable.

Hurricane Irene has made landfall and as her feeder bands have been splashing rain on and off I'm inclined to say the heat lightning is a byproduct of her mess. I am very grateful that all my loved ones are safe and sound while my heart goes out to those others who have lost theirs in this awful time of need. Those of us that have lived through Hurricanes and come out the other side a bit more broken than we would have liked - our thoughts and prayers are with you.

With Needle and Thread: Little Quilts

2011-08-25T16:12:00.000-04:00

I went to my very first quilt show every, presented by The West Pasco Quilters' Guild, and before you ask as I told the lady at the gallery I'm just a silent fan. Much to far to pay a taxi to get to their meetings. This was the With Needle and Thread: Little Quilts, at the Progress Energy Art Gallery and will be there until the 27th of August. I have a great many pictures of these delightful minis, so why not sit back and enjoy my reviewing. There are many pictures, so you'd better get a glass of tea, or a something before you sit down with me. I will go in order as I saw them and add comments as I see fit. Please feel free to click on anything you want to see closer.

This is as you first walk in, and I found it perfect to set the scene.

This is a dream catcher, the roughness around the edges only added to the quilt.

This art quilt was detailed with so many different fibers it grew more beautiful the longer you looked at it.

This crab quilt is extremely noteworthy for the crab is actually part of the hand dyed fabric. All of the quilting serves to enrich this quilt.

Hand embroidered.

This is a 3-D quilt that comes right out and pulls you in. The background is hand detailed fabric and I loved how some of the butterflies were truly in a net.

This was an interesting piece hand applique of which you will see another one of in a bit.

Teeny Tiny Sunbonnet Sues, I added my thumb to give you perspective of size.

This is a personal favorite of many of the visitors to the gallery according the volunteer who was working there. I think it's cute myself.

Handmade matching bias tape gave this piece a nice touch.

I believe the center of this a print, but the beautiful beading and quilting really set it above. The bead work is all those lovely flags as well as the mainlines for the sail. Then the quilting gave real depth.

Maybe I'm a nut but I always like to see how quilters constantly come up with new ways to use rickrack and this mini was no exception.

This is another piece that really sprang up off the wall. The depth of the workmanship here can really be seen in the details.

I thought these were just lovely, and I was delighted by this point to discover that we were alone in the gallery and the flash wasn't effected by the glass.

This is a swing kit, complete with the little felt swatches where you would store your needles.

I didn't notice this one right away, and thought it was two pieces but no, a quilt as a box of candies!

You're entering another room, see all the quilts on the wall? I told you it was a real show.

This quilt is called 20 tiny bubbles. I liked the real seashells and coral at the bottom but as I looked back at it I noticed all the little graduated pearls coming from the fish.

This quilt is called the Green Eyed Monster. The eyes were all done with seed beads that riveted me. This quilt reminds me of like my brother would draw. He's 11 now. The quilting, theme, and the movement of this quilt reminds me of him and I would guess it was either done by a young artist or inspired by one.

This one is called Remembering Guam.

This dragon caught my eye from across the room. It is applique but actually relief cut to show the wings. Real talent went into this quilt.

Here is our second medallion that I mentioned above. The lighting washed out the purple a bit and I was certainly wishing for full spectrum lighting by the time we were here. I think it would have been nice to have both pieces next to each other allowing a direct compare and contrast of the two artists.

Now the curator asked me which one was my favorite and oddly it is this one. Normally I do get into landscape quilts, but this one is different. They are not the colors I would have selected but yet it pulls me in. There is a use of glittered fabric here that really grabs the eye. The far lilly of the valley are seed beads but in the foreground they are tufts of rough cut fabric.

This is a hand appliqued and hand quilted quilt. The humming bird is especially nice along the top edge of the feathers as the hand stitching bites into the wings giving them a real nice depth. I wondered about this clean quilt, clearly so painstakingly made. The binding is machine stitched on, and I wondered if perhaps the quilter ran out of time.

Now this quilt. My friend and neighbor who was with me thought this looked like a stained glass quilt and I agree but the methodology is so different from the traditional stained glass. The rocks - I will call them that are appliqued on with a straight stitch between 1/8" and a scant 1/4" from the edge. The butterfly details are reverse applique with the fabric being cut away to revel the color under neath. I liked the metal and glass butterfly in the corner as well.

What do you see when you look at this quilt? I see lots and lots of thread. This is certainly one to see closer. What I loved about this quilt is that while it is an abstract it all of the thread painting make it so real. So often I would look at a quilt like this online and be completely flabbergasted at the ability and skill, but seeing it up close touched me in that I feel like it wouldn't be so far fetched to try something like this (in teeny tiny can't regret the loss of fabric someday in a year or two) kind of way.

I believe this was started on an embroidery machine because while the beautifully satin stitched leaves could have been done on a sewing machine the "LOVE" gives it away. The flowers though those are nice, I believe they are all ribbon embroidery. Lovely.

This piece was nice how the binding changed through the setting sun.

This quilt called me back, it actually has dime sized - okay maybe a bit smaller lady bugs. See them? They give this quilt just the right final touch.

This green bracelet was for sale in the display case. I didn't ask how much it was, I'm not good about keeping things seed beads that on their string. The artist made the box underneath for it to come in, but what really drew my eye is that it looked like little dragonflies. For a person that loves dragonflies, this would have made a great gift.

Swatch Day = My Custom Meerkat Fabric

2011-08-24T13:24:00.000-04:00

I don't know how many of you have ordered custom fabric before. I have and it's one of those things that seems to have it's good with the bad. I'm not going to bother listing them but I did want to show you the delightful swatch that showed up on my doorstep on Monday. I could not be happier with this print. See below the original picture I used in my Meerkat post the other day? Now look at the scan of my wonderfully new Meerkat Fabric on the left. I scanned the fabric this time instead of taking a picture so the lighting in the room wouldn't adversely effect the colors. If you wondered the lines in the picture that you see is actually the weave of the fabric itself, the scanner didn't quite know what to make of it. For the fabric I went with something they were calling a light canvas linen, which should hold up nicely to all of my happy gazes. I think it might become a pillow for the couch. Aren't those designers always telling us to fill our home with things we love?

From this printing the things that stand out most to me are that I didn't doctor the print much, I just went with the original photograph (pictures posted to blogger have a lower resolution automatically than the original) and tweaked that for size. I just love the way his markings printed out so wonderfully rich and right on. The shrub and green plant life are rather out of place from a Meerkat's natural environment, but for a vacation picture, not to mention fabric for a vacation memento, it's marvelous.

The Beginnings of Scatty Star's Backing

2011-08-23T15:58:00.000-04:00

The backing for Scatty Stars is all the flannels that I used on the front. So lots of happy novelty prints in pinks and then some of the solid blue and pink from the front. I made the center of the back proportional to the finished size of the front, that way I can just keep bordering this out until it grows to the size I need it to be.

Currently the center is puppy dogs with rubber duckies, hearts, and bones, followed by a blue border, and next kitty cats in various states of sleep and dress.

When I was taken the picture of this I thought you might like to see these cats and dogs in better detail, so I took a second picture just for you to see. I think my next border will be one of the solid pink, but I'll have to sleep on it.

A Morning Border Finishes Scatty Stars Flimsy

2011-08-22T14:11:00.000-04:00

This morning I finished the top of Scatty Stars. I know let's dance a jig and be merry! Here it is laid out with the two borders I added. I really like the finish that the folded border and the pink give it. I think a dark pink or purple border will be in order. The dark pink I have whereas the purple would mean I'd bust my "stash only" efforts on this quilt. So we'll see.

Now I just wanted to post the next picture for those of you whose eyebrows found your hairline over my 1/8" seam. This seam really it just a bit of stay stitching to hold the folded border to the quilt top while you sew on the next border with a traditional quilter's 1/4" seam. See how that looks on the backside with the first seam and then the second sewn next to it. For a full set of directions, complete with pictures, of this folded border you can click on the link and visit where my friend Vicki for a full tutorial.

Currently I'm off to go play with EQ over the back for this quilt. I'm thinking I'd like to stick with the 9.5" blocks if only because that's what those four extra rail fence blocks are.

Until next time Sew Happy!

Sunny Love

2011-08-21T17:05:00.001-04:00

I've been at war with myself all afternoon. Do I send friends to SewCalGal's site and beg them to shamelessly vote for Sunny as crowd favorite best of cats on quilts? Then I saw a post from Sue reminding everyone that voting is open to everyone even those that did not participate in the Pet's on Quilts show. So that means if you want to share the love for my handsome boy and possibly win us some quilt stuff - not to mention have my undying happiness forever, you'll head over there right now polls are open until Midnight Pacific Standard tonight.

I know I'm shameless, but can't you see how tired Sunny is? We went to every single entry, okay I did - he mostly laid around the hallway sleeping. But I didn't vote for myself and I thought that was quite upstanding.

To vote click this link which will take you directly to the proper post on SewCalGal's site. Sunny is #71 for those wishing to vote for him leave a comment saying I vote for # 71, or whichever one you'd like. There is a category for dogs, cats, other pets, Art Quilt, and EQ Quilt so you can vote selecting your own choices one per category. And while my DH might claim Sunny is mostly dog... I'm certain he's a cat. There are over 400 posted comments there, so don't worry you're going to the right place. Thanks!

The Quilter's book of Age

2011-08-21T09:40:00.000-04:00

What do you do when it's raining so hard that you need to have the computer unplugged? Well DH and DD curled up and watched Back to the Future II, I know I got a kick out of DD's enjoyment of the movie, surely a good one for all generations. But rather than settle down and watch with them I snuck off to the sewing room. Turned on my good 'ole Little mechanical Elna and the iron and set to work creating the folded border for Scatty Stars.

Now I knew when I saw the quilt of Scatty Stars, that I would most likely deviate at the borders, though this is a little earlier than I'd planned. Currently I have the folded border attached, but it's only 1/8th seam so I'm not going to unfold and spread it out for you. Next I'm thinking I will add a 2.5" border of the pink flannel and then the front should be done. I did find my tape measure, DD seems to be whisking it away at odd moments and the quilt is currently 67x52.5. A 2" sewn in border would bring me up to 71"x56.5" and that seems plenty big enough for this quilt.

I'm really looking forward to getting started on the back for this quilt. I'm thinking good sized blocks of the novelty flannel from the front. Not sure what size though. 12" seems a bit big but 3" is much to small. Any thoughts? I'm wondering if I should let the size of the blocks on the back let the math work itself out to work with the front size measurements. Time will tell.

I've really been enjoying visiting all the blogs in the pet's on quilts show. Yesterday I was doing pretty good when all of the sudden an awful headache hit me. Later when it started raining - aka pouring I knew the headache was from that and would leave soon. I am much to young to be feeling the weather like that. So it says here in my quilter's book of age.

Pets On Quilts Entry

2011-08-18T11:44:00.001-04:00

This post has a second title and that is:

Sunny's Bad Day

FYI, Sunny is safe and as sound as he ever is now. The morning of August 11th I was sleeping in, happily curled up under a quilt of my own making I pepped open one eye when my 6 year old daughter came running in. "Daddy Lost Sunny and now he's outside!"

Say what? Most of that went right into and out of my sleep fogged brain. But I heard the words; lost, Sunny, outside and that was more than enough to have me pushing myself up from the bed. I tried to think clearly while convincing DD to explain it to me.

Eventually I got the whole story. It was pouring down rain that morning and as our yard had just been mowed my DH went to check the neighborhood drains to make sure the rainwater was draining away instead of clogging up. He came in and closed the door behind him. As DH went into the kitchen to make another cup of coffee he heard our infamous Sunny digging in the litter box. After a bit of early morning putzing DH went to the mud room and was alarmed to find the front door wide open. Seems the door hadn't quite latched. DH went outside and looked around - no sign of anything. So he closed the door (for real this time) and started a systematical search of the entire house.

Some of you already know Sunny is a special needs cat. He had two operations before he was a month old due to an upper respiratory infection that went to his eye, which sadly is somewhat common in feral neonatal kittens. Sunny is not all there at least part of the time. He has spent at least part of his past 7 years trying to get back under our house where we found him. Back to his mother (who was hit by a car and died a handful of years ago) and his mute brother (who died while Sunny himself was undergoing medical treatment for his eye).

I adore my Sunny, he lights up my days and makes me laugh so I was quick to become the crazy woman standing at the door in my pj's yelling "Sunny, Sunny!" out the back door. I spent the day looking out the windows for my red fur ball, and DH was out searching whenever the rain would let up.

Thankfully he was found around 3 that very afternoon, rolling around in my neighbor's driveway. DH brought him to me and placed him in my arms. He is a Maine Coon Mix so he was completely dry except for some very dirty wet feet. But Sunny seemed inclined to stay in my arms and I'm not the type to wash a cat that has only just found his way home.

You'd think that would be the end of the story. Cat returns home, everyone's happy. But instead the tale goes on. Sunny seemed to be more sort circuited than ever and would leave me only to get a drink or a snack out of his food bowl. He seemed to get lost trying to come back to me and would call out crying. I would call back to him and unlike his normal laid back personality that only comes when called sometimes, the new Sunny would come running and sit with me for hours. Maine Coon cats don't often speak and when they do they have a low rip your heart out sort of voice. That's what my Sunny sounds like. This behavior went on for about four days, he even took to sleeping with us. Let me tell you I love him but it wore a little thin. Especially as he would sit on the floor in the kitchen while we were eating dinner look up at one of us and cry. When he would jump down from my lap I began to wonder how long it would be before he would start crying again. And crying it was - long and low and sad. Thankfully after the 3rd day it started to lessen and now he's returned to his normal self. I can't tell you how glad I am that everything is back to normal.

My friend Vicki told me about GPS and radio pet collars that allow you to track your pets. I think Sunny needs one.

The Quilt Sunny is laying on is Patisserie Waltz and it's my daughter's quilt which I finished this spring. The Quilt is traditionally called a Tennessee Waltz, as it uses both snowball blocks and the fight star block. All I know is that when I saw that pretty Patisserie fabric I knew it had to be a quilt for DD. Then I saw Eleanor Burns making this particular quilt on her show and I knew it was the perfect answer for this fabric. My DH is a whiz with acrylic and made the triangle templates I needed and everything went together lickity split, of course until I tried to use fusible batting but that's a different story which you can read here.

That's my entry to SewCalGal's Pet's on Quilts Show. So often we read sad stories online and never find out how the ending resolved. Well let me tell you what this white pawed boy is staying inside with me!

Scatty Stars Quilt Top Awaiting Borders

2011-08-17T11:52:00.000-04:00

I just sewed together all my Scatty Stars for the Christmas Quilt-a-long. I didn't buy any fabrics for this quilt and instead went to my stash and started going through the fabric requirements to see what I had that looked good together. As you can see it's clearly not a Christmas quilt, but it was my block of the month and it's so different it makes me happy to look at it. The blue in the rail fences picks up the blue splashes in the purple background fabric and I like that a lot. My family is always running off with my tape measure so I'm not sure what the current measurements are for this quilt right now.

All of the fabrics in this quilt are flannel with the sole exception being the purple background fabric and it has cuddly written all over it. I highly recommend clicking on the image for a close up as within the two centermost blocks you will find the fabric I used for all the triangles this pulled everything together from the center. The rail fence blocks and the triangles lighten everything up so I will add small border of the purple fabric all around before setting it aside for next month's assignment.

The Meerkats and The Rabbit

2011-08-15T20:49:00.000-04:00

That sounds like the title of a children's book. But it actually really happened and I saw it with my own two eyes on our vacation to Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom last month. I planned our trip around their Resort Early Opening Days, so Animal Kingdom was our last park day. I of course love the fact that they have Meerkats and for the second time I planned to simply sit and watch them. Of course I didn't know I'd be sick and running a fever by then or else I would have planned a shorter vacation, but my short time with the Meerkats was a treasure all the same.

We started out our morning leaving our hotel. We stayed at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside on the off chance you were wondering. That particular morning was yard work day, and all the wonderful mouse employees were hard at work mowing the grass, trimming bushes and so forth. The resident rabbits were out in force and I think we saw three of them before we left the hotel. But those aren't the particular rabbits I'm talking about.

The bus came and we were off, I was sick but I didn't care. I was finally going to see my beloved Meerkats again. Why mine? Well I don't know, they aren't really mine, but all Meerkats especially Suricata Suricatta charm my heart. The plan? Ride Kilimanjaro Safaris and then take the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail of course, because the later is where the Meerkats are!

When we got to the Meerkats it was still nice and early. Not cool weather but certainly not the sweat dripping temps of an afternoon in July and who cares anyway because the viewing area for the Meerkats is covered. Nice of Disney to plan that resting spot for me! The last time we were there it was much later in the morning and only two lone males (all the Meerkats in Disney's Animal Kingdom are boys) where out. But this time more of the gang was visible. I was surprised that while it was July and clearly hot Florida weather (Lake Buena Vista had Record breaking temps when we were there) yet the Meerkats appeared to have their winter jammies on and thereby looking a little shaggy. What a charming change! Now would you believe while these boys were on their guard watching the sky, a rabbit had hopped it's way into their enclosure?

Often when watching them on TV and/or having gone without seeing them eye to Meerkat in a while it's easy to forget they are only 2 to 3 pounds. Small! Tiny even, makes my Tiny cat look huge. Now Meerkats are territorial. There's no doubt about it. They have to be coming from the desert as they do. They spied that rabbit, who was truly as big as they were and so they set about the business of chasing off the rabbit. Now I'm sure Mr. Thumper was a bit frantic trying to recall how he/she got in there and more importantly how to get out! But I was delighted - Meerkat mobbing behavior, what a treat! Yes, Thumper got away safe and sound, why were you worried I told you the rabbit as big as the Meerkats! So then of course Meerkats went back to being watchful Meerkats.

Of course while that was going on one fellow "guest" thought the Meerkats were going to eat the rabbit and disgusted herself so badly with her lack of knowledge that she had to leave the area. Really. I guess she missed Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor educating us all that a Millepede is an awesome and filling meal for a Meerkat or that they will eat ants in a pinch?

Maybe I'm awful but I think any animal willing to stand up to the most deadly snakes Africa has to offer deserves some respect, especially if they are only 10-14 inches when standing. Would you stand up to a Cape Cobra? When my pain is soaring I feel like I have a snake in my veins hissing, spitting, and sometimes even verbally striking out at my loved ones as I watch with my own eyes. Wild Meerkats fight the literal battle while I fight the analogical one within my own skin. But don't pity me, instead think of other people with chronic pain that have yet to find a mascot for themselves. Trust me every little bit helps and I don't feel the breath of the snake as often as I used to anyway.

Christmas Quilt-a-long Year 2 August Finish

2011-08-13T20:58:00.000-04:00

I guess I wasn't done after all. After looking around at everyone's BOM progress, I settled myself back down at my machine and started on those rail fence blocks. I now know why some quilters choose to make entire quilts out of rail fence blocks. It really is a different experience isn't it? I accidently made 24 instead of 20, but I'm sure those will come in handy on the back later.

Christmas Quilt-a-long Year 2 August Day End

2011-08-13T16:30:00.000-04:00

After lunch I decided to do a bit of quilting on the quilt frame. I have the second baby clothes quilt, the first of which I called Blessings from Heaven, all loaded and ready to go on the quilt frame.

This quilt is bigger than the other one. It's measuring 90"x91" and that's bigger than I remembered. I did a nontraditional scallop as the binding treatment on the first quilt which made the full size quilt more useful on a twin sized bed. And as it was only my second quilt I stitched the entire thing stitch in the ditch. But this one is another matter. Because I knew I wouldn't be putting scallops on this one I did a different border treatment all together.

So it starts with a small 2" outermost border which I have been quilting like this unununun (minus the serifs) The next is a border of 3" blocks those I spend a while thinking of how to quilt and came up with hearts that chain loop from one into the other at the bottom. Once I got the hang of those they turned out nicely. Finally is the final border that finishes off all of the sashing. Each intersection has a hand embroidered heart so I have been quilting feathers between the hearts and a doubling back to make an inner and outer heart through the embroidery. So far I'm pretty happy with it. There are some mild puckers and so forth on the top as the knits aren't properly interfaced - hey I told you this was a duplicate of my second quilt and made at the same time so why else do you think I've put off quilting it for two years? To deal with the puckers that I knew would happen to some degree the batty is a lofty 3/4" so hopefully when washed it will be nice and cuddly and at that point I'll just have to just say who cares, right?

Currently I'm in a holding pattern because it's time to start quilting the blocks. The quilt is so big that the sheer number of wraps around the rails wont allow me access to quilt any single entire block at one time. I had planned big loops within the heart blocks but as I only have access to about half the bottom of block I'm not sure how to proceed. If I work with it ignoring what I can't quilt yet I'll end up with way to many starts and stops. Which leads me to my other thought of simply picking an all over pattern and quilting that within each block. Does anyone have any other ideas? Feel free to throw them out, because this is only the second quilt I've done on my mid arm so I'm a bit bamboozled.

Tiny was so excited when I got up to post to you that I just had to share this picture of her. She must have wanted me to come in the sewing room because now she's sleeping behind the sewing machine.

Hopefully everyone had a great Christmas Quilt-a-long Day. I know I did.

Christmas Quilt-a-long Year 2 August Lunch Checkin

2011-08-13T11:58:00.000-04:00

Today I knew what I was going to do but I hesitated to say as much this morning because after all, without a pattern what if I can't make it work? I'm happy to say I did figure it out, though I had a couple of head scratcher moments.

The Problem: No Camelbak Insulated Cover in the Kids 0.4 liter bottle size available anywhere

The Solution: Made my own

I saw can and bottle cozies in a quilting catalog that came two or three days ago and while I knew the pattern would be the wrong size I was certain I could come up with my own pattern and method to suit DD's Camelbak and sure enough it worked. I used insulated mylar backed batting and it will be so nice not to have that cup dripping everywhere.

As for the vibrant kitties they match DD's new Iridescent backpack beautifully and she's already talking about how she can show her friends what her favorite animal is.

Personally I'm hungry for a bit of lunch. Hope everyone is having a good day!

Christmas Quilt-a-Long Year 2 August AM

2011-08-13T09:25:00.000-04:00

Tiny Showing off July's Blocks

Good Morning, Good Morning Fellow Christmas Quilt-a-longers! I have a confession and that is this past month has been so busy I only just finished July's BOM yesterday. I know I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, if only because that's so much more behind than I've been in past months. The good news is that I'm all caught up for today, and today of all days is a big one, I hear there are 20 rail fence blocks on the slate for today! Both Sue and Cathi seem to be up to their ears in things to work on. I'm planning on taking things simply (before I knew about the 20 blocks I need for today). So we'll see how everything goes as the day progresses wont we? I hope everyone has a great day of quilting.

My 12 Blocks Awaiting their Rail Fence Offset Blocks

Quilt Back for Tropical Waves Done

2011-07-31T11:30:00.000-04:00

Okay this one has been done for a while, but the trouble with the camera downloading and then I was on vacation (more on that another time) and before I could make it home I started having awful fevers that are even now plaguing me, but I missed you all so thought I'd show you this. I think this way holds true to the Tiffany look some fellow bloggers thought this piece was getting. I took off the floral print and instead you can see the purple inserts I made. As well as the additional borders around the outside. It's pretty hard trying to always remember to make the back so much bigger for the frame.

Now where is that cat? I know you're looking for her. Oh Tiny?!?! There she is, guess that's all you were going to get.

Purple Charity Quilt All Done!

2011-07-16T19:12:00.000-04:00

I took this off the frame a while ago but what with the camera issue... There are so many different things that I quilted into it you could look at it several times and not see the same thing twice. It says things like "Mom Dreams of Africa" "Daddy dreams of Mom". I tried my hand at meerkats and feathers. As you know DD did quite a bit of quilting on it, in addition to hearts she made flowers and other fun things. My DH ended up adjusting the tension and while he was at it made a couple of nice combinations. I didn't photograph them because after he was done I liked them so much I added more and more outward layers so you can't tell what he did from what I did.

DH's quilting to the right flows into mine

A friend of mine and I will be headed up to Quilt 'Til You Wilt in August and they are my local chapter of Quilts for Kids so I think I'll just run this up there when we go. That will keep it local as the local chapters give to their local hospitals. What do you think of the quilt though? Is it pretty enough? As a practice piece I guess I'm concern some will judge DD and I that this isn't the most colorful contrasting beauty I've ever stitched...

Christmas Quilt-a-Long Year 2 July Day End

2011-07-09T16:54:00.000-04:00

This morning I made some nice progress on the backing for Tropical Waves. It's becoming a refreshing twist on the front. Currently I have fixed the fabric I didn't like and replaced it with a pieced portion as well as reapplying the borders and adding another; all the rest - 2 more borders are all cut and ready to sew on. But still no luck with the camera, why does something that always works suddenly get to say "Device not Recognized?" After I stopped for lunch I confess I had a bit of a nap, so now I'm sleepy and I think I'm going to call it a day.

I hope everyone made beautiful progress!