Marathon Quilter

jelly roll quilt photo!

2011-03-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

This is the quilt top I made with my FAB -ulous pals last Saturday. The fabric is Moda, Butterfly Fling and really says Spring to me. Once this is quilted up it will live on Alice's bed here...and NOT go home with her either...I intend on keeping this one :-)

Sunday I actually got outside and uncovered our poor daffodils and crocus...did some weeding and enjoyed the results.

Rain has returned in buckets...poor worms are having to learn to swim to survive.

I have been squeezing in hand quilting at work on short breaks...gets me away from the office noise and I am so enjoying the stitching.

I am working on organizing a few local quilting friends for a get together and quilt day before the end of this month...there is nothing more inspiring to me than sewing with good friends!

just saying...

2011-03-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

How ever did it get to be March already? well, I continue to flounder with my camera and uploading photos and then finding them...some updates to my various camera/photo programs and I am not quite on top of dealing with trying to put any photos into this post. In fact, I lost my last post searching for the link to Saturday's entirely too much fun sewing time with my beloved FABS.

This year our challenge is sending fun stuff to each other for our birthdays. ah, a different kind of pressure/deadline! The January birthday FAB delayed her celebration and Saturday was it.

Oh the laughter as she opened her gifts "online" and we shared her joy and delight in each item.

Everyone did a fabulous job!!! One of the gals had come across the u-tube of this pattern and the birthday gal decided it would be so much fun to sew on her special day. And so we did!

Most of us followed the directions, but I think some of us would do it differently next time. I unearthed a several year old jelly roll I bought at market when it was here in Portland and was delighted with the result. And, the pattern used all of the jelly roll except for 18 inches...hurray for stash busting ! It's a Moda line called Butterfly Fling and when I have the mental energy I will post the top I finished. It truly did go fast...not counting time spent on joining all those strips.

It's off to work time and so...at the very least I have finally posted again with a mental exclamation to not take so darn long...as there is much more to be said...!

oh...note to last person that left a comment, you were a no-reply poster so I could not email you back and say thanks for stopping by...always enjoy a new reader...
!

it's a new year...2011

2011-01-01T17:03:00.001-08:00

The first day of a new year our wraptheminlove online group spends working on charity quilts...here is my finished quilt to kick off the year.

I also visited Tonya's blog and ordered her book-it will be here in about a week...a gift idea I did not share with anyone but so very much wanted...and now I will be able to enjoy it when it arrives.

Quilting mojo has returned...2010 saw many health challenges happen at once in my life...and I learned as you age, and you don't keep active...muscles and other body parts "lose" it...so now I am in the process of regaining lost functions which will enable me to fully live the life I want and love.

My sister asked what my word this year is...and after doing "balance" for 2 years, I decided on "follow through" for this year. I have many great ideas and intentions...and most of the time do not go any further with them than thinking about them...this year I will put into action many of them.

We often chose a theme for our home for the year as well....with M retiring later this year...setting the house in order is our theme- also known as less is more...!

We just finished having our living room floor tiled- with heating installed under the tile...cold feet will never be an issue (physically) again. I will share a photo of the floor in another post.

Last night Steve and Elizabeth (a former neighbor and dear friend) were married at about 12:05....thus their wedding date is 1-1-11...very cool. They are a wonderful and fun couple and we are so very happy for them...even if it meant we did not get home and to bed until 2 am!!!

It's been a pretty easy going day and tomorrow will most likely be more of the same...quilting/reading/sorting stuff/putting away/listening to music/and in general getting ready for the upcoming work week.

Thanks to all my friends who have accepted my being gone so long and are happy to see me back at my sewing machine and back doing again.

last fab fall challenge revealed and ...Alice as a dinosaur...

2010-12-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

This is Alice with her first quilt...she arranged the squares, sat on my lap as we sewed..her job was pulling out the pins, before the needle could hit them, and she is very proud of her "doll" quilt as you can see. Then, she came over to trick and treat at our neighborhood...taking her around was simply too much fun- look out!
Alice the dinosaur, roaring!

Then, the purse I made for Norma, a FAB member for our last FAB challenge - fall themed.

I made my first ever bag from a magazine , called the cross over bag..what a learning experience it proved to be. I am planning another one as a Christmas gift to a family member...with a few changes.

And, currently I have a third quilt going on the design wall !!! yes, three on top of each other.
I will share a photo once the latest is completed.
It is a quilt for our Christmas family's six year old little girl...who had asked for a blanket. As I made and sent a quilt for her parents two years ago, I am hoping by blanket she was thinking of that quilt. At any rate, too much fun working with kitty fabric and bright colors...nice to have my quilting spirit high and engaged. And, to end this challenging health filled year, I fell on our iced back yard cement pathway and tore 2 ligaments in my left knee...ouch! Tomorrow I will be fitted with a custom knee brace and hopefully that plus ...yes...more physical therapy my knee will heal without surgery...I will know by the end of January how it does.

Add to my knee challenge, we decided to empty the living room and put in new flooring. On December 24th, I will supervise the movers hauling the big heavy stuff out and around to the garage, get the fridge pulled out so I can clean behind it, and we will not get our living room back until right before the new year.
The sewing room will become very popular ! The two of us plus Zoe our boxer dog will be camping out amusing ourselves until the living room is done...I predict a lot of sewing in my near future LOL.

It's Sunday winding down afternoon - Eli and Alice just left after a fun visit, including pancakes out and visiting the best toy store ever according to Alice. She has been trained to say when she loves something, "add this to my list please"....need I add, it's a very, very long list !!! This year is the first year she is so aware of the gift coming opportunity of Christmas.

Hopefully loading 4 photos at once will work..I just could not do another blog post without photos. I still have not found the cord to my other camera...but...I know it will eventually show up...as we do the big clean up after the new flooring is done.

much joy to all....Cher

October almost over....and....

2010-10-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

Spring and Fall...my energy lift seasons. I love this time of year! And, it is a huge help to be feeling almost 100% healthy again- my shoulder/arm are back in full motion and I can even lift Alice Wonderful 40 pounds and nearly 4.5 years old now.

So? last weekend we spent a huge amount of time driving around our local area doing this.

Talk about amazing talent and inspiration galore! One of my favorites is Pam Grow, as her featured piece reminded me of a piece my son Eli made when he was a child doing clay class during the summer days back in GP Oregon. I saved and use several of the clay creations both my sons made during those fun summer times. One sits on my desk at work and another on our kitchen window sill...treasures!!

Pam doesn't have a website but many of the artists we enjoyed visiting do and one of them that I will be taking a workshop in January is here.

The glass work was fabulous....a few pieces had to come home with us. I will save taking classes for later in my life. I still have far too many quilt ideas stuffing my brain to add another art craft to!

My occasion book tells me I will be celebrating 5 years of having this blog on November 27th.

I think I could do something...to celebrate that fact. Suggestions?

For now, I am going to do my best to post when I have both the time and the joy....

meanwhile...Alice is on her way over and gosh...I have a bit of sewing left to get done before they roll into the driveway!

you all have a fabulous Sunday and hope the bit of sunshine here finds a way to light up your life.

Cher

wearing a sling...

2010-08-12T05:32:00.000-07:00

Mimi- your comment did not have an email address, so my response is...

1) I am an excellent one hand typist...much improved a year ago when I broke my right hand.
2) Oregon law may not address wearing a sling- just going from what my doctor told me. I could with a pillow to support my arm not wear my sling...at any rate I am not up to trying as yet.
3) thanks for your kind comment- I do keep in mind that it is a six month rehab process...so I do my exercises and do my best to try and "relax" through the "pain"...so much easier said than done!

4) I meant I am supposed to not lift with my non sling arm no more than a pound...yeah,right.
I do try and NOT over use my right arm which is challenging- as my job is all about being on the computer...I just take breaks.

the regular computer will be available tonight- my partner took it over this year when she figured out how to convert books on cd to a thumb drive and also how to download to her nano, bought just for that purpose (smile and shake of head). As we use the library 99% of the time as our book reading resource-what a deal for her. I personally prefer to actually read and I am a fairly fast reader- though I do not have the energy to stay up late reading like I loved to do, before my surgery.

All of which means I should be able to upload some photos and post a few photos tonight.

Meanwhile a friend came over and cut out a special project for me and as soon as I locate the right batting-I will with help from her if needed be able to actually sew on it.

All of my support team have been super in helping me do all the things I can not manage.

thanks again for taking the time to leave your comment.

oh joy, today is pt day as well !!!

later that month of April

2010-08-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

I became ill around the end of April- and with many ups and downs took a break from blogland..and much of my regular life too.

July 13th I ended up having my left shoulder surgery to deal with bone spurs and a rotator cuff repair-cause? wear and tear...sheesh...body parts wear out ! and I am not all that old in my opinion- doctor said I must have really been an active person...well...right...but...still...dang. Have been living with a sling 24/7 since surgery and my last day is the 24th of this month-August. Meanwhile PT is making me a grumpy person...drugs really do not deal with that sort of torture...trust me. I do my exercises and push as hard as I can and bargain with the guy to not wrench my arm around quite so much.

It was lots easier dealing with my broken hand. I know that means the memory has aged, because it wasn't much fun either.

Been playing computer games over at facebook and reading a lot. At least I knew to do a lot of cutting of fabric prior to surgery and once my left arm can be used "actively" I can get back to sewing seriously on a short term time wise. Since surgery I basically can use only my right hand and no lifting beyond a pound with it. It's nice to not have to feel guilty about doing any chores etc...but I do miss not being able to drive. I am hoping this weekend to try driving with my sling on...as I have been off pain meds long enough and as long as I feel comfortable the doctor said I could try driving. Not sure if I will feel up to it or not however. It's amazing how tired I can get.

Went back to work full time on the 26th and who knows when I will actually catch up? But, I keep plugging away. I am using my laptop without any photo ability but, will post a photo when I am able to get to the "big" computer and upload a photo of me in my sling. not nearly as pretty as my purple cast.

ok..have checked in and it's time to go do exercises and shower...oh...a thrilling evening huh?

You all quilt a bit more for me ok?

more of day one...sheesh

2010-04-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

I don't have the time or energy to figure out why blogger won't allow me to move my photos around..so here is Zoe and the cutting set up to go along with the previous post of my solo day of retreating...concert tonight so will have to leave around 5 pm at the latest...

and lucky me...FAB friends are sewing today too...fun to chat online with quilter friends doing what you are doing at the same time.

Have a simply awesome weekend!

back....solo retreat day- today!

2010-04-24T10:42:00.001-07:00

Where have I been? fill in from the various items:
1) took Alice to a fun quilt show after spending the night
2) had many doctor appointments and fun MRI's to take
3) work got overwhelmingly busy...
4) a lot of computer game playing
5) more thinking of quilting priorities
6) being on medication sucks
7) exhausted beyond belief...mega doses of vitamin D to the rescue!
8) two hours of gardening accomplished...hired someone to come help
9) one health result: pinched nerves in lower back- translate...no one activity for too long,
no surgery required (very good news) and time will heal...uh, patience is wearing thin.
10) without deadlines I seem to become the Queen of getting not much done if anything at all!!!

M is gone this weekend so I declared today a solo quilt retreat day...after my landscape guy canceled our morning work session. Following is the house taken over by a determined quilter.

and Zoe doing her favorite thing...hanging out on the deck enjoying the coming and going of sunshine...wishing it was more coming than going !!

back to sewing on circle blocks...I am not counting how many more I need to sew...I am doing five and then cutting or ironing or right now, posting this.

Sunday piecing before Gwen's class

2010-03-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

I am finding March to be even busier than usual. The next two photos are what I made before my class with Gwen. One is basted, the other I have started hand quilting. In fact, that one is the one I showed Freddy Moran and she loved it. I knew she would. ( it has the polka dot border)

Did I mention that Gwen liked all of these? And the two quilts I brought along; K is for Kindness - her comment was the big stitch was great in it...especially the spiral I quilted and a smaller one that hangs in our living room, she liked the curves I had put in. Sorry, I am too lazy to give you the link to backtrack in my blog and show those.

I have Alice's quilt up to the hand stitching of binding and the hand quilting I want to try.
Yesterday I went over to the Gladstone Community Airing of the Quilts and it was a fun show.
Anyone can enter so you had a chance to see every possible kind of quilt. It was great.

Once this is posted it's work on taxes time for me. I have been dragging my feet but put tax work on my calendar for today.
We are looking for a new coffee table and carpeting for the living room- we ran out to Ikea this morning but our trip did not yield anything for the living room, though we had a lot of fun finding other stuff we couldn't live without :-)

Next post: what I made in Gwen's class and a few photos of other stuff done by classmates.

Saturday night kick off

2010-03-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

I have done several small fun scrappy quilts and so to warm up and get into the spirit of being liberated and playing - I did this one after we were all settled in and I was set up and ready to sew.
I want to hand quilt with perle cotton all the quilts from this time in Sisters. So I am hand basting them as I go along.

This is 11 inches by 12 inches.

The white fabric started as a fat quarter- and jumping off from a quilt in Gwen's book suggested for our class, Abstract Quilts in Solids I did my idea. I fussy cut the designs to gain the impact I wanted.

Think tone on tone = solid and it works perfectly.

A perfect warm up- just the right amount of time spent and then it was bedtime.

More coming!

P.S.
I am doing Tonya's Amish Abstraction class...I think this small quilt would also work for that class, don't you?

I do have something more from the book she recommended however that will serve as an inspiration too...

the beginning of Sisters and class with Gwen

2010-03-13T19:31:00.000-08:00

most of the photos are uploaded- however..I am going to take my time and several posts to share the most wonderful experience so far this year in my quilting adventures.

A view from the front yard of our friends home we were staying at while we played in Sisters. Too bad I waited until the last morning as the clouds block the other two mountains of the trio of mountains that are so stunning to look at. It is their "vacation" home and doesn't see as much use as they would wish, we have a pretty open invitation to use it whenever-my immediate response was we could drive up every other month easily for a weekend. I had the huge dining room table for my sewing space and the small sun room as my ironing station. I used the kitchen granite counter as my cutting area and the quilting went extremely well. I neglected to take any photos while I was working there, but imagine a colorful mound of scraps which I then organized into similar sizes and the sewing was a joy.

And a photo of Gwen Marston and I. She is the most warm and friendly woman...a fabulous teacher and a lovely person. She gave M and I a huge group hug and was just tickled to swap stories with us.

The next post will feature what I created that first night in our new home. That would be Saturday- class began on Monday.

Kirstin of knitonequilttoo was in the same class and will be sharing photos as well in due time.
It was so delightful to spend time with a fellow liberated blogger and meet her friend Sarah too.
And, there was also a fellow facebook quilter in class with us as well- I knew her name was familiar but didn't connect it until I was back home..thanks Kim! for the post to help me sort that out. It's a very small world sometimes...

quilting into March

2010-03-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

I am telling ya, the days are just flying by! Last Friday night Alice came to play and sleep over. On the drive to my house, she announced she wanted her dinosaur quilt today. She has been playing and sleeping with the fabric for several months, I could understand her feelings. And, it turns out I actually had just finished making the backing for her quilt. So...here she is after we spread it out (it's for her "big" girl bed) on the living room floor and she announced she loved it ! whew, averted a big disappointment and bought more time as I explained quilts take a long time to make.

Once she went back home the next day, I cut and stitched on her top- pinning it together during this last week and managed to get it about half quilted the other night. Tonight as I was shifting it to get ready to quilt the other direction I found a surprise. Clearly, I did not get everything off the sewing table surface I needed to. And, I never noticed my machine slow down or anything! I think Janome should snap this photo up in a great ad about how strong this machine can stitch. I have removed it and will repair the stitching I had to undo. My goal is to finish up the center of the quilt so I can hand quilt on the one or two long sides...another time I will share a photo of what I used for my dinosaur template ...it's pretty funny.

We are leaving Saturday and I have been asked to pack up my machine tonight- which is no problem as the FW is strictly straight stitching only. I want to bring along Alice's quilt for hand work in the evenings. I know what I want to bring, and I am vowing not to over pack. I have a nice selection of scraps and solids to bring and the big quilt to quilt on. We will be back on Wednesday. I really need to upload my other photos on the 2nd camera...I know I have more to share but these two photos will have to do for now. Obviously I am not blogging much right now, but, I am enjoying a creative flow - ah the joys of playing with fabrics and your own ideas.

have a joyful time..Cher

more on the day off part

2010-02-10T11:11:00.001-08:00

Well, the photos in the last post did not move quite where I wanted them, but I think by looking at them you can figure out the front and the back, and how you fold the back up to make the pockets with the hearts . I knew Pam had a featherweight like mine, so I knew the perfect size to make it as of course with my machine I could double check for size. One day I will make one for myself.

In the meanwhile as M has been gone (due home tonight) I set up in the kitchen to have two machines available for use. However, I had not planned for several evenings of being gone on other stuff and as the photo of the pinning of the curve pieces shows...I did not get to the end of that part of the task. I always, always think I can get so much more done when I am home alone. Of course, as you see Zoe in the background sitting- she has only me to take care of her and she is one needy dog. Lots of in and out and play with me time sucks up more time than I ever think it will !!

So, I will sew and pin and by afternoon start cleaning up and returning the kitchen to normal.
I arranged my work schedule to have one whole day off this week instead of shorter hours all week. It was so nice to sleep in - as much as Zoe allowed this morning and be more leisurely in doing everything this morning. A lovely walk with Zoe not having to rush back to get ready for work was much enjoyed by both of us. I have a few errands to run this afternoon and in no time will get a call to go pick up M at the Max station. Our light rail system is great for commuting from the airport to close to home. So much nicer than fighting the traffic out at the airport to pick up incoming folks.

I found perfect backing dinosaur fabric for Miss Alice's upcoming dinosaur quilt- it's washed and the go with fabric too. I am working on a charity quilt using the fw machine, the curve block pieces on the Bernie..and will add in the dinosaur quilt to give myself a break from curve sewing.

Sounds good, right? Well, time to get off the computer and back to enjoying this day.

Oh...and also a photo of what I received from Linda...a wonderful wall hanging !!! it reminds me more of spring than winter despite the "wintery" fabrics :-)

a day off and catch up blog time

2010-02-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

I may have to break this into two posts...first- the reveal of the latest FAB challenge happened the other night. I walked in the door late evening to a phone message to jump on the computer and be part of the fun. I caught everyone in time and the reveal was wonderful. Each FAB received something made with the challenge fabric..several used a very small amount and not everyone followed the "rules" as I read them- but each challenge was perfect for the person it was given to and we all were delighted. Most of us are posting to our blogs- not sure if Norma had time before packing and flying off on her vacation however.

I took photos as I made Pam's challenge. I have long thought a machine mat would be a terrific quilting item to own and to give. This challenge I decided was a great time to jump in and make one up. Without a pattern but a vision in my head I started in. At the class I recently took someone had a similar mat that they had made. Of course I checked it out and found it more simple than what I wanted to do-however, it had similar parts that I wanted to include.

Here follows the steps of making Pam's challenge.
I drew the letters to get the right size .

until the reveal...

2010-02-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I mailed off the latest Fab Challenge to Pam. I reminded her in BIG LETTERS on the front DO NOT OPEN until the reveal. What a lovely feeling to have that winging it's way to her and be outta here.

I was pinning half circle triangles to arcs for the Freddy blocks when I realized I was short pieces.
Argh!!!! I fail to understand how I managed to not cut the right amount-so annoying. I pulled fabric and tonight I am pressing and cutting what really should be the last pieces. Then I can sit and watch tv and pin all of them together for the next round of sewing. I am determined to get this top done and I am considering sending it out for quilting. Then again, I may change my mind and quilt it myself. At any rate-at least I am back to working on the blocks-they have been up on the design wall all winter (I think fall too) and really it's time to wrap them up and clear the wall for new things.

My class with Margaret Miller was fabulous! Naturally I forgot my camera, thus, no photos to share. I finished the quarter sections of two blocks and part of a more challenging third block.

She asked us to not sew the blocks together so you can turn them and play with the different looks -until you like what you see.

My plan is to finish these blocks and turn them into a table runner-ready to show at the next guild meeting at the end of February. We were working out of her book, AnglePlay Blocks. I bought the full set of templates which though expensive I feel are worth every penny. These templates have the correct angles at the ends of the triangles so matching them up and sewing them together is really a breeze. I am not a huge template fan, but, they certainly have their place and for these type of blocks the payoff comes in the wonderful results you can achieve.

I would say I am happy to be back into full swing quilting mode with more fun stuff ahead. I have joined Tonya's current class and expect to really have fun playing with solids and doing my version from inspiration at this website.

We are staying at a friends place only seven miles from Sisters when we go up in March for Gwen's class - which means Zoe (our boxer) can come along and keep my sweetie company while I am gone at class. I have pulled my featherweight machine out and used it on the challenge piecing part and will continue to use it as much as I can - I am taking it as my machine for class and want to feel comfortable winding bobbins and so on for it.

Ok...on to cutting and pinning for me...

challenge top done

2010-01-24T16:19:00.000-08:00

I can't show the top, until after the reveal, but... I am very pleased to be at this stage. I did the complicated/time consuming parts yesterday before going in for a six hour work shift.
This morning I slept in and rose to pouring rain. Terrific! A stay inside jammie day perfect for sewing away. With a few interruptions of household chores and coffee drinking-I did the next time consuming part as I decided to go ahead and add a few wonky hearts to the design. For my first time making them I am happy with how they turned out. Then it was time to put all the parts together into the top.

We are supposed to go swimming (inside pool) and should be leaving soon. I had to widen the back I made as I ended up going wider than I first planned. I ran out of bobbin thread as I was doing that part, will wind more when we get back.

With luck I may get to the quilting after dinner tonight. I know how I am quilting it and it should go pretty fast. Once the quilting is done, I have one more tricky part to add.

I am so pleased this project has come together as I had envisioned it. Often what I create in my mind proves to not work out in reality. And, this has been so much fun to work on!

Ok- time to throw my suit on and get out the door...hope your weekend has been as fun as mine.

first quilt done for 2010

2010-01-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

It was a very busy weekend but I managed to get the binding on this quilt and a photo taken. It was a ufo from last March and I will pop it into the mail tomorrow-it may be a holiday for many businesses, but it's a regular work day for me.

This quilt was a brown bag challenge and I used 99% of the fabric (plus a bit of my own scraps to widen the color range) -the back is from 10.5 inch squares of the various fabrics that were large enough to yield that size. It's an empty bag now and I am happy about that!

Nice to have one ufo off my list and soon out of the h0use. I pulled the FAB challenge fabric and started working on my plan for it. It's a secret until we mail and we are able to open via online chat what we all received. It's an idea I have had for quite a long time and it's great fun to be playing around with the design of it.

Also this week I want to start prepping for my class later this month with Margaret Miller. I have been considering what fabrics to pull from stash that would be fun to work with. I really appreciate being back in the quilting frame of mind and playing with my fabrics.

Make it a joyful day!

quilting at last

2010-01-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

The first Sunday of each month my charity group meets and works on various quilts for the kids.
I have been working on string blocks and made real progress that Sunday. We had a relaxing weekend -yesterday the sun was out long enough for me to take down all the outside Christmas lights..and that motivated me to put away the rest of the holiday related stuff-back up in the attic until next year. I had finished 99% of the string blocks Saturday night so Sunday I trimmed and put the blocks together into a top. I had cut squares for backing and I was able to piece that together as well-wrapping up by making binding from the leftover fabrics. This project was a brown bag challenge from my local guild. It was due last March-I will quilt it up and send it in to the gal nearly a year later-but-it will be one less ufo sitting in here weighing on my conscience.
Once it's quilted I will post a photo.

January usually finds me busy in the creative quilting mode. This year I am joining fellow FABS in doing 10n10- check out Linda (sidebar) blog for a great explanation of what that stands for.

Some of my 2010 goals is to make the Alice quilts she and I have agreed she "needs". She pulled yellow fabrics as yellow is her favorite color- that stack is in here waiting. She is a huge dinosaur fan currently and I found some wonderful dinosaur fabric to go with other dinosaur fabric I already had-plus for her birthday I am giving her a larger doll with a doll bed- which of course will need a matching quilt. I have a FAB challenge due February 1st. I know what I want to make and that is up next on my goal list - I might just make that deadline.

The end of January I will be in a one day workshop with Margaret Miller-whom I have been a fan of since 1999. We will be learning her Angleplay blocks and that should be lots of fun.

March will bring a trip to Sisters and a two day class with Gwen Marston. I can hardly wait for that to come.

And then I need to send in my class application for the July Sisters class week. Some really remarkable teachers will be there. Choices, choices to make.

I was stalled on an art quilt postcard idea but when shopping at Michaels during the holiday season I may have found a solution. I am anxious to play with that idea.

I also want to step up on my charity quilting- last year was my lowest contribution ever and though the time off was reviving...I am ready to get back into that groove as well.

Plenty of wonderful inspiration abounds it's just making the time a priority once again to quilt.

2010 is starting off well- my hope is to keep that quilting flame burning bright all year long.

have a joyful day!

the year that wasn't

2009-12-31T06:24:00.000-08:00

2009- I chose the word "balance" as my word of the year. It's the last day of the year and I have to say it just wasn't much of the year I envisoned.

The spring was filled with quilt shows and gardening and lots of great energy despite breaking a hand.

The summer highlight was the Sisters week of classes and enjoying the quilt show.

Late summer was the FABS retreat held at my home and a totally delightful time.

By autumn I was running out of energy...I pretty much stopped quilting, reading blogs, and didn't even note my blog anniversary in November (4 years).

I did go back to my doctor for a problem(s) that has been ongoing for a year or so.

Now that has really sidetracked me from doing many things. I was handed on to a specialist and having gone through various tests etc, I won't hear anything until January 5th.

I am on a new medication that basically makes me want to sleep about 12 hours a day...of course I don't actually sleep that much, but I sure feel in a fog much of the time. I have very little energy and beyond working my job and doing the basics required..I am reading and doing low key entertainment.

Very gradually I am working my way back into quilting. I am halfway through a simple cloth napkin project- a gift with no deadline for a family member. An engagement has been announced-so a wedding quilt will be considered in 2010. The FABS challenge is due in February...another creative project that I have given much thought to as well.

An Alice quilt has fabrics pulled and waiting. There are quilt blocks up on the design wall and pieces sitting on the sewing table.

There is plenty around here to do- it's gathering the energy and the doing that is the next step.

I am going to give "balance" another shot in 2010. Though 2009 was balance in action;

2009 taught me the value of slowing down and appreciating that I don't have to do everything-in fact, I can do nothing and it's fine.

As much as I like being busy and productive- reflective time and resting time have their place.

Here's to celebrating the end of 2009 and looking ahead to 2010 !!!

With tomorrow being a day off some time will be spent at my machine, and some time not.

Balance, a little of this and a little of that all adds up to a full life.

Houston Quilt Show-special glass protected group project

2009-11-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

I am going to post all the photos I took of this amazing exhibit-including the title about it...sorry they are not the greatest photos and a certain young man features in a few (my son!) but it was a truly fabulous work to see in person...the glass setting was amazing.

Click to look up close....what a way to display a group project...simply stunning...

on a personal quilting note...still cutting...maybe by the end of the weekend I will be done with that step...so nothing new to show in the quilting department yet. So many ideas are swirling-and so little time right now to even consider them.

thanks for stopping by and have a joyful weekend!

current project photo

2009-11-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

I was so excited when I finished those curved parts and spent time putting the pieces up on the design wall. As you can see....I am missing some curved parts....and have another 18 "bowtie" (the middle piece) cut waiting for their curved parts. Oops!!! Clearly I did NOT cut all my curve pieces out.

Sigh. I always keep all left over fabrics from a current project together, so it's not a problem to pull that bag out and cut more. I just feel deflated that I am not as far along as I had first thought.

As long as I have to cut more , I am also cutting 1.5 inch strips for my dil and the postage stamp swap-so it's become a cutting marathon.

My dil so liked my hexagon project that she asked for a pattern to make a hexagon wall hanging herself. And, because of course she has zero fabric, and I have more than enough- I am cutting strips for her project to include with the pattern - all of which I hope to send off tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.

What a bonus to discover this about her-I have already sent my Janome Gem machine to her as she also wants to sew clothing. My sons have married creative and charming women. I feel so lucky to have both of them for dil's.

I am cutting some new fabric too for the curve parts..may as well use more fabrics that I bought for it as long as I have to cut anyway.

I am delighted to have this up on my design wall - just the balance to the gray rainy stormy weather that has arrived and seems to be staying around.

More Houston photos to come...for now it's back to cutting and doing laundry.
It's a relaxing Sunday- hope yours is the same!

close up photos...

2009-11-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

One of the things I did at Houston was take close ups of quilts that really caught my eye-in terms of being able to examine the stitching and fitting together of the quilt-all my photos by the way will enlarge if you click on them. Again, I have not tracked down the name of the quilter.

The zipper quilt was part of a special exhibit...I really need to pull my notes out!
I think a day of wrapping up should be granted when you come home from vacation-there just never seems to be enough transition time between coming home from a trip and diving back into work and home life.

I have finished my circle blocks-step 0ne. Now for some serious pressing time to be able to start pinning for the next step. Actually these are pie shaped "blocks", the half way mark of the finished blocks. However, I have arranged them as circles on the design wall for fun. In fact I have arranged them in all sorts of improbable arrangements, just to have that color play and shape to enjoy as I plodded through the stitching of the curves. Once these parts are all pressed, comes the real fun of arranging them with the middle "bow tie" shape piece and see how I want my blocks to go together.

And speaking of time zooming by all too fast:
No matter what, I am making sure I do some stitching each morning-five minutes is better than none and right now some days/evenings that is all I can manage.

Rain is supposed to hit us today and last for several days..ugh. Yesterday was so beautiful with colored clouds as the sun faded - pinks and deep rose-feathered clouds...it looked like a painting.

Working out in the yard until the light faded was such a pleasure. I don't mind raking leaves in the non-rain!

Houston Quilt show photos

2009-11-04T07:30:00.001-08:00

I am running late this morning so I will post a few photos and could not locate the quilter info on them-sorry! One is called Bridging the gap and the other is the dancing dead...I took a close up of that fabulous dead quilt-great applique and quilting.

I am managing to sew a little each day on my curve blocks...with 5 left to go-woohoo! I have to celebrate the small steps as I have so much going on right now...I am spending about 30-40 minutes in the garden - as much as my arm/back can tolerate, though thank goodness for drugs to offset even that little bit creating more pain than I like to admit. I will only take over the counter stuff...I hate taking pills and just prefer to deal with the results of my drive to try and get my garden to bed for the winter...we are having a dry spell and I know I need to take advantage-when the rains come..it will be wet world to the max around here...and I will be sorry sorry if I don't jump on what I can outside now.

oops...sidetracked myself there...sorry. I will post a few photos - with luck- every day...I really tried to take only photos of quilts I loved or inspired me..though I had to take a few because either I knew the quilter or my son really admired them.

Many, many quilts were tagged with no photography allowed- all of Paula N's incredible kaleidoscope blocks for example...none allowed....I will track down a link to hopefully share what I am mentioning..like I said...I am running even later now!

hurray for photos

2009-10-31T21:19:00.001-07:00

Back from Houston and finally downloaded and sorted through photos...but first I wanted to post what I am currently working on...and...a photo featuring both Alice and the quilt I gave to her daycare provider..holding up her quilt -who is hidden behind the quilt.

photos of Houston quilts at some point tomorrow.....

It's Tuesday...

2009-10-06T15:57:00.001-07:00

There is nothing like being ill to make you appreciate the simple things like being able to breathe through your nose. I have had a mild flu bug experience and am thankful to be feeling much better this quickly. This has been my second day home from work and each day I have been able to get some quilting stuff done- yesterday I quilted and trimmed the strip twist top shown in the last post. Today I have cut the binding and am half done sewing it together - I have another hour to work on it-and then I am going into the office.

It's great to be on track to finish this quilt by the weekend-my personal deadline for it. I leave a week from tomorrow and I want to finish several things before leaving town.

I was trying to remember when I last finished a quilt and it's been quite a while now. I have been on a break from quilting since mid August when the FABS +2 all met at my home and we had a wonderful quilty time together.

As Autumn makes itself felt here in chilly evenings and colder mornings-I am wrapping up all the outside chores and looking forward to being inside more as the weather continues onto the wet and cold season.

Hard to believe with the sunshine lately that those wet days will soon be here-it has been frustrating to be ill and unable to be out in the garden. Digging in the dirt really soothes my soul.

Once this quilt is done I will post a photo- due to my bad arm..and weakness from the 'flu...I did straight line quilting instead of free motion. I am happy with the design I came up with.

I am working on string blocks-none finished yet-another easy going project to get back into the quilting mood.

I have one special project I started and am itching to get back to...now that makes me smile, as it means I surely must be on the mend! Don't you always feel you don't have time to be ill? And yet, resting and healing is as important as everything else we do with our lives.

There is joy in every day.

finally a flimsey finish

2009-09-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

I finally buckled down this morning and did the last joining seam to have this top be finished- or as my pals say, finished to a flimsey. I am going to piece together some leftover batting and see if it will work to sandwich with this top. I will use various fabrics from this top and piece a back for it as well. This was my version of the strip twist pattern we all did in August at our FABS + 2 retreat.

I love that it all came from stash/scraps and my dil gave me a wonderful compliment about how serene it feels to her.

I am flying out October 14th and want this in the hands of the person I made it for. I can't even remember the last quilt I made this year- surely a charity quilt for WrapThemInLove. I added a link for this charity - I have been a group leader in my area since 2000 making and sending off quilts for wrap'm as we say.

And here is a photo of Alice, from a recent spending the night with us. She enjoyed her ducklings so much in the bathtub, they had to get dried off and come play in the living room with her...my, she is getting so grown up at nearly three point five. Time is surely speeding by!

I am flying to Texas where I will visit my other son and his wife, and he and I will spend two days doing the Houston Quilt Festival...this will be my first time to enjoy the venue, and I am thrilled my son wanted to come along and do the show with me. I have the very best boys!

back in the blogging groove too

2009-09-16T06:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we returned a new office chair I was test sitting and brought home another one. A new chair was urgent (I gave away the old one it was too painful for me to sit on anymore!) and my aunt decided to make it a gift to us. The first one the guy said his wife used and she quilted and it was the best chair - well, it did inspire me to use my sewing machine, but, no way was it great for me sitting at my machine and back it went.

The new chair is more comfortable, but, I haven't sewn sitting in it yet. Nope. Last night, I got off the computer and back out to the garage. I set the timer for an hour. I may be a grown up, but I find motivating myself to do certain tasks daunting some days. M had the house filled with moved furniture as she was vacuuming everywhere...sheessh...she was home all day except for our lunch/chair break and she had to do that when I came home from work? anyway.....

I escaped to the garage where I had made a giant mess while she was gone. I had big plans to do so much in those two weeks..but of course various other things interrupted that train.

I cleaned/cleared enough for her van to fit back in on her side of the garage. I realigned various boxes/bins/stuff up on my side set of shelving..new labels so I actually know what is in the top most ones too. I only added 25 additional minutes too. It is truly amazing how much you can get done when you set a time limit.

I went through the paint can collection and resorted-more to the collection to take out to the special disposal site. That reminds me...there is a huge bucket container of something I need to ask M about...in the 10+ years I have lived here...it's never been used. Surely it can go too?
Maybe I will just take it away and not ask.

Every year I go through parts of the garage...one of the most helpful tricks I have employed is dating each container that houses "stuff"-it makes me think when it's labeled 2002...gee...is what inside really needed? if I haven't opened it that long?

It is always good to sort through and purge and reorganize- it is just such a time sucking task.

Of course I love the results, which is why I put in the time. When the cold and the rains arrive I don't want to be out in the garage still putting stuff away. It's going to take a few more sessions though to finish up what is left.

Another good habit I have returned to is reading through the Liberated Quilters Ring during my morning coffee time. Nice to catch up with fellow bloggers/quilters and be inspired by what they have done or are doing. Talented, creative, and fun stuff!

yikes...I am going to be late chatting here so long...!
have a joyful day

coming up one month from today...

2009-09-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

My son called to remind me I had not sent the address for here. I leave October 14th for Texas.
I will be visiting my younger son and his bride of two years now-and he and I will be attending the International Quilt Festival/Houston for two days. I know it's a huge show, but, I think two days will be plenty for him to keep up with me as I will try and see it all !!

They live in Killen-close enough to Houston to make it drive-able. I have put him in charge of finding a hotel/motel room for Friday night. He thought he needed an address for "the quilt show"-to get an idea of what would be "nearby". Details, details.

I am pretty excited about seeing him and the quilt show is truly a bonus on top of that.

That's 30 sleeps away from tonight.

strip twist blocks done

2009-09-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I stitched the last section on the remaining blocks and then realized the light strip was too wide. drats! I ripped them apart and cut down and restitched. After pressing, I called it a night.

This morning I zipped them together, put them up on the design wall, rearranging as much as I could. This quilt put together as is, will come out about 45 inches by 60 inches. Large enough for an adult to snuggle under on the sofa.

That was my goal..an adult size snuggle quilt.

I could add borders, but, as I don't need it larger, and I really want to get it finished and given away I will just stitch the blocks together and let the binding add a final color touch on the edge.

I am thinking about quilting designs....probably something with curves..

Time to get out of here and to the day job...life is joyful

ending the evening on a sewing note

2009-09-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

Alice's visit today was so short, I failed to get any photos! We managed to get to the park and I pushed her in the swing until I was sure my arms were going to fall off :-) that girl loves to swing!
higher, higher she sings....and with her infectious laugh, well, you can't help but keep her going.

I put her down for her nap and while she settles down I am in the next room with an ear tuned in.
There were the usual sounds and small fussing and pretty soon, quiet. When we got her up ( her momma arrived while she was still sleeping) I realized she had gotten up to find "her" pillow. She cracks me up...I made a flannel pillow case for a small size pillow when she was old enough to use it in her porta crib...I guess a regular pillow just won't do now! There was the regular pillow tossed on the floor and her small flannel covered pillow on the bed...and her frogs still clutched in each hand.

M called to say the Folk Music Festival in Sisters was so much fun she was spending another night so she could spend all day enjoying the music. That meant I did not have to push to get the garage back in order - and as I had already picked up the house for Alice's visit-plus did laundry and changed the sheets on the bed- grocery shopped after Alice left- well...the evening was mine to do as I wished. I cleared the sewing table of odds and ends dumped on it from Alice's bed and finished up all the blocks that were almost done. I now have 36 blocks up on the design wall- with another 12 left to do. The strip sets ran short, so I need to make up the last side for these blocks. I have the fabric cut and ready to work on in the morning.

I am happy to make some progress on this project-it doesn't have a deadline as such, I just want to get it finished so I can hand it over to the person it's meant for.

And, it's only Saturday night- a whole day tomorrow to find some time to finish the last twelve blocks and start putting them together. Once it's a top, I will post a photo.

happy weekend everyone

ready to string together and mail tomorrow

2009-09-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

Meeting a swap deadline by the last possible day- again. oh well...at least they are going out and in return I will get the same amount back -totally different fabrics I hope *vbs*.

The red box holds the extra square I cut for myself and is a running review of what I have already sent out in the past. Last swap I pulled and cut from my Hoffman florals.

the stack in front needs a thread pulled through to hold it together and it's ready to mail..the rest as you can see just need the small stack added to the one on the left and then they need to be threaded up. I noticed someone last time had used small just right sized plastic bags...slick! As I have no idea where they found those bags..thread will do the job-just a bit more labor involved.

From previous experience of mailing these, I know a priority envelope will fit it all as one layer just right. This time I am going to remember to pop something extra for the swap hostess...she is the best and most kind/patient gal ever to work with. I have two other packages to send back to a business so one visit is going to really take care of two things needing to get out of here.

M called, she is over in Eastern Oregon headed towards Bend on Hwy 7...not sure how far she will get before camping for the night. At least I know Baker and the road - she plans to show up home sometime on Saturday. The time has flown in some ways...and not so much in others.
This year I did not make any real big plans to get anything major done. I still have to wrap up the garage and keep weeding..I nailed my guy down about a date for the load of soil to come and we may work some deal out to help me with the weeding. What two grown men could do in 4 hours would take me ...goodness knows how long! Of course I am a very thorough weeder...I dig out root systems and do some pruning too along the way. I love working in my garden...so it's easy to spend hours and not have so much done to show for all the time spent.

However, I need to come up with a new plan..there is no way to keep up with the weeding with my day job - so I am going to have to reduce all that available vacant dirt by putting down landscape cloth and using rock. I will put down a heavy mulch for the winter and see how it goes next spring. I think a neighbor and I are going to do some veggie growing partnership thing. She doesn't get enough sun and I don't have enough shade...and in the back..with plenty of sun I will grow the squash that was overwhelming in the front box this year. (plus next year I want to add pumpkin).

It's a lot like quilting- you can buy lots of fabric and have plenty of ideas/patterns..but it still takes much more time to actually make a quilt than you think. I don't mind a stash of fabric-within my space limits, but, too large of a garden quickly gets out of control weed wise and that is a stash that I really do not enjoy!

Well, these stacks are not going to thread themselves-time to get to it and off the keyboard.
I will read blogs while I am working with my needle however.

It's been a great day for me...hope it has been for you as well.

cutting trumps sewing

2009-09-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

I am in the same pickle as last swap time: cutting under a pressure deadline. I promised myself I would NOT do this to myself again...however...it is always such a surprise when I allow a deadline to be a month longer away than it is in reality!

Clearly I need to put these swaps in my daily calendar! So I switched from sewing , and started cutting seriously last night.

As I am currently on my own in the house, the kitchen table is cutting station number one and a portion of a kitchen counter is cutting station number two. The narrow cutting board is now the stacking station using half the stove top/counter space. I am not planning on sharing photos of this arrangement- I am sure you can mentally "see" how I have taken over other spaces to give myself enough elbow room.

I am 2/5's through cutting as of last night. I need 780 more 1.5 inch cut squares and then consider whether I should cut extras.

Yes, I am cutting 1.5 inch squares for a postage stamp swap we do on a quarterly basis. No, I have not done anything beyond collect these lovely little stacks that I receive and have added to as I cut for the swaps.
I have been seriously considering hand stitching them together. only briefly however. but recurringly. it could happen. maybe...

I had cut three stacks from the strip twist quilt project-my starter set. I pulled leftover fabrics from the small green pail next , once those fabrics were exhausted I moved on to the bag of scraps next to it. This is stash busting on a small scale when you are cutting a couple of 1.5 inch strips from leftover pieces of fabric. I have a few more scrap containers in the house before I would need to go hit the scrap bins out in the garage.

They will end up being 50 fabric squares in 25 stacks. plus a stack for myself. They have to be mailed off this Friday.

No problem. No meetings and visiting Alice tonight to cut into, well, cutting fabric time.

Yes, last night I had a meeting two blocks from Alice and handed over 3 binders of guild job notes (3 years worth) woohoo! More paperwork finished and out of here.

Naturally I had to swing by and say hello to Alice and her parents. We set Saturday as my day to have her while they do other grown up things. She won't spend the night, but, we will have tons of fun until her mommy comes and takes her back home. I find being a grandma to be every bit as fun as I always imagined it would be- in fact, way more.

Alice is my gardening helper and we should have no interruptions Saturday to having fun in the dirt- unless it rains too hard. You never know at this time of year...FALL seems to be wanting to come right now...and I really wish it would hold off...another month please.

Anyway...I do have 6 completed blocks up on the design wall and will share once I have a few more up - plus I noticed I seemed to have not cut enough strip sets despite cutting "extra" I thought. So, I will have to do additional cutting and sewing to have enough blocks for the quilt size I want.

It's nice to be back in the quilty groove again and the blogging groove as well. I have slowly been working my way around the Liberated Quilters and catching up a bit.

So much fun stuff to look at and read!!!

The clock is ticking away and it's time to get off the computer and ready to head out the door to the day job.
What a joyful day I plan on having- hope you do the same!

checking in

2009-09-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

I hit the halfway mark tonight working on my FAB retreat blocks. Over the last few months it seems I have done everything and anything but sew/quilt. It still took me until 9 pm to sit down at the machine and really get sewing.
Tomorrow my group (only two of us able to attend) will be working on charity quilts at a local quilt shop. I have that project cut out and ready to work on. It will be a set of string blocks and a change of pace from what I am currently working on.
With the heavy rain this morning it signaled a break from working outside taming the weeds and gave me a chance to run a few errands before heading over to Ikea with my dil. A shopping expedition and my dil was very successful in finding the perfect lamp for their living room, plus a wonderful curio glass cabinet for my son and some other odds and ends. I went to check out office chairs and work tables. I did not find a chair that suited me and will have to think some more about what table configuation will work best for what I have in my mind. I did do some shopping as they always have some amazing deals. I found a set of wine glasses that were just right, for example. My wagon worked perfectly to load up the larger stuff and haul it home. We realized however that the glass cabinet would not fit in her car, so as I am headed their way tomorrow anyway, we left it in my car.
Tomorrow after sewing at the shop my son is doing a turkey in his bbq and I will make mashed potatoes and the vegatable. This is how I managed to declutter my freezer of a turkey gift from Christmas! M has been gone for over a week and has another 10 days before coming back home.
It's going to be nice to sit down with family for a meal together. Alice is now sleeping in her big girl bed at home and has gorgeous butterfly sheets she chose on it, along with all her assorted quilts/blankets/stuffed animals. Her mom and I are plotting a room make over to go along with the bed change-and found a few things at Ikea that will work. Being a mom of boys, it is so delightful to have a little girl to buy and make things for...I am always finding something Alice must have.
It's getting late and Zoe long ago headed off to bed. I suppose it would be a good idea - I find it nice to stay up late and enjoy the peace and quiet time. I think a little blog reading sounds good.
I recently read this book, as my boss listened to it on cd and wanted someone to discuss it with-and I had to tell her I was not happy with the ending. It made sense, but, I still did not agree with it. I do feel however, it was a beautifully written book.

Off to read what you have been up to...

Iraqi Bundles of Love

2009-08-25T16:27:00.001-07:00

Tonya mentioned the link that led to my tracking down the next link-here is that link (scroll down)
Inspired by reading a link that led me here, I have two boxes , one medium size and one large size priority flat rate packed and ready to seal. The large is 13.95 and the medium is 10.95. I point the prices out as he quotes a 11.95 figure which, I believe is no longer valid. The reason they are not sealed and being sent on their way (that happens tomorrow) is, I am taking them to guild meeting tonight.

I belong to a small guild (140ish) members who have huge hearts when it comes to giving back.

I think a physical example of what I am sending will inspire them to go home and do the same thing. Many of our members do NOT go on the internet-so giving them an online address won't cut it. Of course I will give that information out to many of our members who are internet savvy.

Along with the boxes I will provide address copies and I printed out his one page - what to send, the link above. The great thing about this project is the deadline- September 7th. I do so much better when I have a cut off point to get something done.

I only scratched the surface of my stash of bonus blocks and a few ufos given to me that would not work for young children but are perfect for this type of donation.

I wrapped my bundles in yardage of fabrics as well. I am so tickled at the idea of creative women across the world enjoying my fabric bundles.

He said you could also send yarn, ribbons, sewing supplies of all kinds, buttons, notions..whatever you have extra or no longer need will be put to use by someone who doesn't have the chance to go shopping like we do.

I hope this inspires you as well.

wow, two posts in one day...

featuring Alice in August

2009-08-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Alice and her daddy came by during the FAB retreat-as you can see Daddy and Alice read together quite a bit. Later, after Daddy left there was a popcicle break with friends and
playing with scraps and dinosaurs.

I am playing catch up on life stuff going on...but...quilting will be showing up soon!
and blog visiting/commenting too :-)

Life is good! choose a joyful day

a bit of the FAB retreat and more

2009-08-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

Various FABS have been posting their photos and how they enjoyed the time together-the links on the left will take you to LJ -( Linda), Norma, Pam, and Pat. Though I believe Pat went from here on to another vacation time.

We had bonus visits from Pat's daughter, Michelle, Norma's mom, Mayvis, and my son and his daughter also dropped by. I would say it was a lively full house of people having lots of fun!

There was sewing, and laughing, and talking, and eating, and some fabric shopping, and some more fabric shopping, and eating out and eating in and in general just having the best of times together.

It's hard to pick which photos to chose, so I am going to post a few and then consider whether I need to post more.

I am putting up the various friendship blocks we each received...a fun little bonus to play with.

Two of us chose wonky houses, Norma's includes the one with the appliqued house-we all tried to swipe it by the way! just too cute done by Linda.

The other wonky houses are for me-the stars are Pat's, the single block is what Pam asked for, and that leaves Linda's with her in the photo as well.

I will save more photos for a later post that include Alice and the fun she had visiting.

I actually have worked on an idea inspired from the Sisters Quilt show and just need to do the small amount of hand quilting to be done.

Thanks for stopping by- it's been too long since I took some time to post...I will see if I can't be a bit more chatty here :-)

much later today....

2009-08-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have taken an extended break from quilting and blogging- obviously! All sorts of LIFE stuff has been sucking up my time and then, there has been playing Farm Town over at Facebook. Apparently I needed the down time.

Later today- the FABS+2 will be arriving for supper at my house, after shopping at Fabric Depot. This week I finally sprung into action to get ready for our first fabulous Fabs retreat. All sorts of cleaning and clearing out has been acheived.

I just need to hunt down one more surprise that I put away for this long awaited time.

I have cut everything for the pattern Norma posted about here. Scroll down one post . All my fabric came from my stash or was fabric given to me and I look forward to seeing how it works up. My plan is to give this quilt to someone who could use a good cheering up. (their choice of colors)

My friendship blocks have been ready for a week, I just need to snap a photo before handing them over.

And, while I was gearing up for this quilting retreat, I went ahead and finished cutting the rest of the template curved block parts from my Freddy Moran class in July. I have a feeling this retreat will get my quilting groove back.

I have enjoyed not quilting and not even being in blogland much-a break has been a good thing.

I am still mentally thinking several quilt inspired ideas out - all from the fabulous time I had at Sisters in July. I played with one idea and I need to do a bit more before I can decide whether it's going to work or not.

Mostly family and work and house stuff has really kept me busy-that and the recent heat wave really drained all energy to do anything once I came home from work. So glad that the weather has cooled off -

I have stayed up too late sorting through various stacks and containers in here and tidying up as I went along. Each time I go on the hunt for something I bought and tucked away in a "safe" place I swear...never again. It's off to dreamland for me now.

a little Tonye and Kathy

2009-07-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

I attended two lectures during my week at Sisters leading up to the Quilt Show on Saturday.
One was by Tonye Phillips (artist-quilter) and Kathy Deggendorfer (artist-watercolor), called "We've Been Framed".

Both women live in the Sisters area and are amazing artists- together they have created wonderful art. Last year Tonye's quilts really caught my eye and I took many photos of her beautiful and amusing quilts. This year I captured a bit of their magic together.

The High Desert Gallery does fantastic framing of their work, plus, many, many other talented artists. One of the owners was at the lecture and spoke briefly of the archival treatment they do when framing fabric and watercolor together...imagine the idea you could take apart the framed art work and the fabric would be able to be used!

Anyway..they did a lively and entertaining lecture with a terrific slide show. Many of their framed works were there and they introduced new bags they had designed for sale. I chose to buy the bag with the Scottie dogs...just too cute!

Here is one of my favorites of what they do together-and they encouraged us to follow their path, stalk an artist and team up your quilting with their art.

And, because this was a time when I kept running into people at the right time and at the right place...I found a glass artist to team up with. She lives in Portland and has a mother who also is a quilter. I came home and cleaned off the sewing table and hung my inspiration from her. I pulled a few fabrics...I set my machine back up from taking it along on vacation...now I need to play with the many swirling ideas/designs in my head!

I am also going to keep up on my class quilt. I have a lot more cutting to do before I can do any more sewing. I will wait a bit to share those photos.

I am so glad we cleaned house for the dog sitter before leaving on vacation! Everything looks just like when we left (ok, so the kitchen table is covered in "stuff"!) so I can ignore house chores for a while. LMAW, little miss alice wonderful will be spending Saturday night-so I won't get too much done once she arrives to play. That means I need to make the most of my time this week and not spend too much time playing on the computer!

I will save my class fun for another post.

a few of the promised photos...

2009-07-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

here is Michele, myself and Doni-whose blog I don't have handy, sorry. We try and meet each year in front of the library to view the quilts at Sisters Quilt show together. This year was the most fun ever! I believe Gwen and Freddy are well known enough to be recognized-this was during their very amusing trunk show at picnic at the park the evening before the Quilt Show.

This is Bonnie Hunter and of course me..we were successful this year in finding her! She was most kind and gracious to chat with us and have photos taken-she is quite beautiful and the nicest gal to talk with.
I was lucky enough to take a class with Freddy Moran- doing her dot.com quilt featured in the first book she and Gwen did together...not the same as the one behind us. I had to go back another day to get this photo as I forgot my camera class day! I did finish two blocks and had a fabulous time. Gwen came in and between the two of them, all my books were signed -except for one I forgot to bring by Gwen. And, Gwen admired my K is for Kindness quilt I had at my sewing area and recognized Tonya's free form letters immediately. She had the nicest things to say about Tonya by the way- and looks forward to Tonya's book. I managed to sign up for a two day class in March of 2010 with Gwen teaching at the Stitchin' Post quilt shop. It's possible there are still openings...you know I am so excited to have her teaching in my backyard so to speak and I know the time will fly until then.

I have more photos to share of quilts and something else by Gwen...that needs to wait another day or so.

Happy to be home, filled with terrific inspiration and just so dang happy I had the best of times!
I met wonderful online friends-walked many miles admiring beautiful quilts, and in general each day was filled with joy overflowing. A week in Sisters/Bend is just wonderful to renew your quilting spirit.

fast check in

2009-07-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful day of listening to lectures and sneaking in on Freddy's class to have my photo taken with her. Today I remembered my camera and made up for not having it the other day.

The picnic in the park event was so much fun despite rain drops finally convincing us to dash off -luckily after all of Gwen and Freddy's quilts had been shown and the entire program pretty much was over. Stunning quilts to see in person. I hope to take photos tomorrow in better light and without trying to take them over the heads of people. I did take a few of the Gee's Bend women singing...oh my...they are delightful women.

I have yet to sew at my hotel...it seems by the end of the day I just do not have the energy to sew. If I was hanging out with a quilting friend, maybe it would be different..but M has been reading up a storm and it seems so much more relaxing to just do my computing and enjoy the quiet.
I picked up two new books..Jean Well's latest, Intuitive Color & Design and Ann Johnston's
The Quilter's Book of Design. Glorious color and ideas...as if I needed even more! but could not resist tangible reminders of the direction I am going with my own quilting and what makes my heart sing the loudest. Yes, I even bought some fabric..and a frog pattern that will have me stepping way out of my usual style of piecing...as in doing the "a" word. stay tuned on that.

No way to share photos on this computer..but I am taking plenty and eventually will get some up here. For those of you who wish you were here...I say save up your nickels and make yourself a promise that you are entitled to come be inspired and surrounded by an astonishing number of like minded people. This has been the best year yet that I have come up and enjoyed many more days of what is to be explored leading up to the Sisters show tomorrow. I have signed up for a class with Gwen Marston in March here in Sisters at the Stitchin' Post quilt shop. Two days of playing with solids and making up blocks. You can see I am setting the stage for having fun next spring already.

It's been an action packed week and the only thing I have lacked is getting enough sleep. I am not unhappy about that...just getting a bit tired. Heading home on Sunday and will be happy to be back in my sewing room - ready to actually sew away instead of being sidetracked by other stuff. Hoping to meet up with several online quilters tomorrow as well. Fingers crossed it stays on the cooler side and I actually recognize everyone I hope to meet!

vacation time !!

2009-07-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

gosh...it's been ages since I posted! Alice had a birthday, then other family stuff...getting ready for vacation...leaving for vacation...and here I am on vacation checking in.

We are staying in Bend and I have been enjoying the Stitchin' Post offerings this week. I had a class with Freddy Moran yesterday that was totally delightful. Gwen was teaching next door and popped in to sign books. I had all my books by them with me with the exception of one.
Plus, Gwen admired my small quilt K is for Kindness that I had brought to show fellow quilters-and she recognized Tonya's free form letters right away. She and I made sure we told everyone Tonya's blog address-and Gwen said meeting Tonya was delightful.

Tonight I have the Gee Bend's presentation and tomorrow morning and afternoon lectures to enjoy. I forgot my camera yesterday! but will take it tomorrow for sure. I am using my new laptop without a way to upload photos, so that will all have to wait until Sunday night if I find time.

Life is good! Meeting up with a few fellow bloggers on Saturday...we are meeting at 10 am in front of the library...look for me in the tyedye dress...bright and bold. We plan on being there early and leaving after lunch time. Hope to meet up with Bonnie and friends at the park-if we can find them!!!
I plan on actually doing some sewing in my hotel room tonight...it's been too much fun enjoying the sights to do any sewing up to now. There is just so much going on to enjoy seeing and doing around here.

birthday pie

2009-06-20T17:07:00.001-07:00

My son and granddaughter Alice stopped by for birthday pie this morning. The birthday guy said banana cream pie was his favorite and it was enjoyed by all. This pie came from a local Marie Calendars restaurant-and I was happy to not have to make it myself. He opened his gifts and we enjoyed a short but lovely visit.

After they left I finished altering straps on M's sandals - four pairs are now the proper length and much appreciation was given. I used a leather needle on my Bernina and it worked well enough.
A fiddly job but better than paying some shoe repair person, it's my frugal side winning the day.

I did some much needed housework- boring, but oh so nice to see the results. I also washed up some flannel and have it folded away until I decide what to make with it.

The day has flown by and it has rained off and on as well. It was a good day to do inside tasks and take breaks to enjoy reading online or chatting with a friend when I had the chance.

I am doing the last of the paperwork sorting/filing/and writing up directions for the incoming person for my Washington guild recent position I have concluded. I can not believe the stacks I managed to accumulate! My goal is to stick with this tonight until it is a done deed.

With luck, I will wrap up in a few hours and then watch a movie with my sweetie.

I have a few ideas in the quilting realm for tomorrow.

And, next Saturday is Alice's big 3 birthday party. Last count was 15+ children invited and I have volunteered to ride herd , err, I mean help with the adorable little ones. If the weather improves I will be out in the garden..things are sprouting and growing and it's looking very green!

Have a joyful rest of the weekend!

another Thursday

2009-06-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

I have been spending the majority of my non day job time out in the garden. I finally planted the peas the other day as I wanted to use an additive my aunt gave me to help the seeds sprout faster. Meanwhile, many of the other seeds are sprouting and it's looking more like a garden every day. fun!

I still need to weed out around the roses by the front gate and the clay soil dried out enough last week to make it feel like I was trying to hack through cement! We have been having enough moisture lately that it would make the job easier- if I had any time to spend weeding-which I do not as of today.

Tonight I have my guild meeting where I present the proceeds of a very successful result of selling raffle tickets for our opportunity quilt. The winner of the quilt will also be given her quilt, as it is back from being part of the quilt show at Paduach. I still have paperwork to sit down and do before handing over my guild "job" to the new person. I leave from work to drive up for this meeting-no gardening time today/tonight.

Tomorrow- I am leaving from work for Mt. Vernon, WA. I am joining my friend Ellen as we sew together during a quilt in for the Wraptheminlove charity quilt foundation. My kind of retreat!
I am taking up two current quilts I have close to being done to work on and then will do whatever needs doing to help out there-as it is headquarters for the foundation and the final stop before the quilts head out around the world. I hear there is a stack of quilts waiting for labels-for example. There is always binding to be done as well. Whatever I need to do, is fine with me. The company will be terrific as her mom will also be with us.

I am taking my sleeping bag and will camp out there as well. I expect to be home by supper time on Sunday.

You know those weeds will still be there waiting! as well as other chores...but I could not resist going off to play and quilt for the charity that is dearest to my heart and the one I most support.

My computer time will most likely be just posting to the charity blog as we have invited fellow quilters to sew along with us.

We also have a yahoo group, I am one of the moderators-let me know if you are ever interested in joining that group. It's a private group which keeps out the spammers .

ok! off to the day job and on with a joy filled day- fill yours with joy too.

vacation stuff

2009-06-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

I have been on the go during my sister's visit with us and then back to work life has been even busier. I am spending far less time at the computer and much more time outside when it is not 91 degrees! It was our high yesterday and oh my-trying to keep hydrated and keep plants watered even with a sprinkler system has been challenging. Oregon late spring is so often exactly like this, rain and coolness then like flipping a switch, we are in the high temperature numbers. It goes from don't plant we still may have a freeze to oh no...hurry and plant and beat the heat.

anyway-I am finally uploading a few vacation fun photos. a photo of my sister and myself. a photo of her modeling my sewing efforts-my version of "wrist warmers" inspired by the local Saturday Market where we saw some truly fabulous works of art ones and butterfly pants like Alices-in Patty size.

When we were visiting Alice I was told her favorite pants are now the butterfly ones I made-months ago. Patty spoke right up wanting a pair too. I actually had a pattern for jammie pants that worked out great. M got a pair too in a different flannel fabric-all from stash.

Stash is good for stuff other than quilts!

And last of all, Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach where my sister and I spent the night on our own-a special time together just the two of us.

Next post I will get back to other stuff going on...but not much in the quilting mode.

I am having issues getting these photos where I wish...oh well...got to dash off and get ready for the day job.
Enjoy your day!

finished charity quilt

2009-05-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

I put the last stitches in this quilt last night. We have been on the go all day today- we went out and visited a friend who has three new baby goats, plus a two month old foal. Sweet animal babies! We ate breakfast out, then came home to do various things. It was over to my sons for a wonderful meal of grilled steaks and the best potato salad with plenty of yummy desserts we brought along. A very good time was enjoyed by all. We came home on the early side to be able to take care of the dog and wind down for the evening. My sister and I enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles together, we just completed a 1,000 pieced this afternoon and are about to tackle a new 750 piece one in a short while.
I did the last of the stitching last night when my sister and M were relaxing and reading. We are all huge readers and have already swapped some books and made promises to finish the current book so the other person can have it next. I am currently reading a book M really enjoyed and will pass it along to my sister for example. It's called The Book Thief by Markus Zusak- I am halfway done so should easily finish it before the week is over. I said I would post a photo of the finished guild charity quilt and so...here is both a photo of the front and one of the back. The front is the side with all blocks and black/white polka dot sashing. I used the rest of the go with fabric from the kit given, plus the extra blocks and a bit of stash to bring it up to size. The stash also yielded the perfect fabric for the binding- I am pleased with how it turned out. I did simple straight line stitching so you hardly notice it- but can really see the fabrics.
A visit to Saturday Market on Sunday has resulted in a few sewing commitments for M and my sister to be done before Sunday when my sister flies home. Stay tuned to see what they fell in love with and of course, I had to say I could make them for a lot less! Although, honestly the gal did an awesome job on hers. Mine will be a similar idea/style but with my own approach to fun.

hurray for being on vacation the rest of the week is what I have to say!

5 hours and counting down...

2009-05-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

My sister arrives from the other side of the country in about 5 hours. We have been cleaning and clearing out big time - it's amazing how inspiring company coming can be. It turns out that my hand strength is running at about 40% of what it "should" be. I could understand my recovering broken hand being on the weak side, but apparently my left hand is not much stronger! So, my landscape guy finished doing all the drip sets - along the way making some improvements as I pointed out a few changes that needed to be made for the reality of what I have in that part of the front garden. Yesterday they did all the digging for the stage two of drainage work - now the other side of my front yard looks like giant moles have taken up residence! I need to go snap a few photos before they come back and finish putting in the French drain and so on.

However, I am up early to finish doing the last round of floor cleaning inside. The guest/fabric room is all ready for my sister to move into-and the bathroom nearby is spotless. I shut the door to keep Zoe (the dog) from wandering in and leaving very short hair behind. It is shedding time with the very warm weather we have been having and more on it's way. Thank goodness for vacuum cleaners sucking up dog hair! I think this will be one of the rare visits my sister has made here when we are having really nice weather.

M has done an outstanding job of helping- my side of the garage has grown to about four feet high of "stuff" to be sorted through and much of it will go away for good. I put Alice's toy container and then stacked quilts on top of it in the floor space at the foot of the guest bed. There are 5 quilts on beds with another 6 bed size quilts stacked plus the fleece yardage I had to have last winter.
And, another 4 quilts lying around elsewhere in the house. ( I just counted at least 2 quilts out in the garage). I love them all but boy do they take up inside space. My plan to stack them all on the guest bed when it is not in use will help the storage situation however.

I am almost done hand stitching binding on the framed horse block quilt. Photo once it is totally done.

I keep changing my mind on what block to make for my favorite outgoing guild president. I need to just decide and get it done! And the last block I need to make and mail is a string block. I just need to sit down and work on that.

With those two blocks done I will be at the end of my "have to's" and can turn my creative energy loose on several ideas I have been considering over the last few months. Plus, keep cleaning/clearing out around here too.

I probably won't do any sewing while my sister is here to play with. So don't be surprised if I disappear for a week - I will be reading but...only during my morning coffee time-I expect to be hanging out with my sister the rest of the time. She leaves on the 31st-a lovely long visit.

Lots of great quilting and knitting and other creative stuff going on at the blogs I have been reading of late- thanks for the inspiration everyone!

Keep sharing the joy....

if I am not quilting, I must be gardening

2009-05-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

Right up there with quilting as a passion is gardening. I have loved digging in the dirt and growing stuff since childhood. Both my grandmothers were amazing gardeners-with fabulous gardens that I played in or admired all my growing up years. My aunt is also a fabulous gardener. That green thumb skipped my mom and found me.

I am showing before and in transition photos of the front left side of our home-as last fall I decided to re-do that area. I converted from a regular sprinkler system to a drip one. (saving so much water!) took out the ground cover/weeds, and relocated some plants.

before photo was from July 2008- after photo I took this morning. A few minutes ago I planted a butternut squash plant in the box closest to the sidewalk/driveway. I added two more plants into the front as well.

Last Sunday I was fired up to clean up and finish setting the drip system in the front deck area, do the rest of the front weeding and figure out where a few more plants needed to be re-located, plus plant the four new plants I actually allowed myself to buy. One was for the bleeding heart section, so that was easy to plop in. The other three were waiting as M came home and pointed out the umbrella I had put up needed to be weighed down or it would most likely tip over with any gust of wind. I put one cement block on but thought the other side should look prettier.

See that rock?

I decided it was perfect to help hold down the umbrella. Turns out whatever it weighs was beyond my lift it up and carry it strength. It got away from me and smashed my left index finger where the knuckle joint is located-on the inside of the hand. oh, major ouch! that ended my day plan of gardening. I spent the rest of the day icing 15 minutes, not icing 15 minutes-literally until around 7 pm. I knew it was not broken - but boy oh boy was it painful and yucky looking. Monday I checked with my doctor and was told-I did all the right things-it will remain swollen for about a month but go ahead and do whatever I can manage with it. I did win a tetanus shot as a result of this accident.

Admitting I needed some muscle help, my landscape guy came by last night and put that rock where I wanted it, plus finished using up all the tubing I had for setting drips. He ran out pretty fast-not even making it out the front deck area! He will be back today to finish up plus start the new french drain on the right side of the front yard.

The boxes will be planted with mostly veggies- the large pot is ready for the tomato plant we are getting from a co-worker's mom, and I still have plenty of weeding to finish up.

I am thankful I only lost a few days to my latest "body accident" and know how to rehab the left finger as well.

I can hardly wait to come home tonight and see how the front yard looks after my guy has done more work. Ok...it will only be black tubing done...only exciting to me ! :-)
but a big step towards the next planting time-in another week or so-we tend to have one more freeze in late spring and I am waiting to plant after that happens.

You all make it a joyful day!

argh

2009-05-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

I worked on these letters the other night. My intent was to do big and leaning-the big part was no problem..the leaning a bit more tricky. It will finish out around 18 inches...I used some hand dyed fabric I had but not sure where I bought it. I will have to backtrack and fix the h...I was going to chop off the longer leg, but, the more I look at it, the more I like it being longer, so I will have to back up and fit some background fabric in to make it work out. I think I played more with it being angular than leaning...still, all in all I am happy with this word. My goal is to have it in the mail on Monday.

Click on my sidebar on Tonya's name to go read and join in making Halloween words to send to her!

Last night I was at a meeting until far too late to have the energy to finish these into a block. I have a dinner date with my dil tonight-our idea of celebrating Mother's Day. I am really looking forward to the one on one time with her. I think she is a wonderful person, a fabulous mom, and a terrific wife to my son. And, lucky for me, she loves me too. We don't always agree, but, we do respect each others opinions.

And, I forgot to mention that Gwen and Freddy's latest book arrived on my birthday too! Or maybe I just did not post how much fun I am having reading through it. Amazing that they have made 61 quilts for both of their books - wow! I am inspired by their self portraits. I have to do a portrait type block for an outgoing president of my guild that includes both of us. Thanks to these books, I have come up with an idea for this block project.

Alice sleepover in the big girl bed

2009-05-06T06:18:00.001-07:00

My son reminded me- where are the Alice photos Mom??? You know her fans want to see and hear how the sleepover in her new big girl bed went! Alice will be 3 in about 50 days...she is the one and only grandchild of mine and lives close enough I get to see her at least once a week or more. More than quilting, she makes me wish I were independently wealthy so I could not work and play with her every day!

Anyway- here she is the day after sleeping in her new bed- I put the mattress on the floor and as you will note, the top bed is where I "slept" for the hour it took her to fall asleep. I think she did fabulously well with the change and I slipped in the early morning before she woke up and enjoyed watching her sleep and then wake up. She slept through the night and I think it was Zoe's chain collar that actually woke her up - that jingling sound is loud! Zoe was pacing because I had the door shut and she could not personally come in and check on Alice-after all, that is her main priority when Alice is here-keeping a close personal eye on Alice, and sneaking in slurps when Alice allows, or sometimes NOT.

When I was shopping at a favorite lqs-I picked up a few Alice gifts-and this one I opened up and showed her how it worked. Lacing cards are a great way to introduce the concept of sewing-and Alice had such fun she did a little on each one. I want to find another set of cards that have shorter laces and larger holes-I think she would enjoy them on her own better.
(blogger would not let me move the lacing card photo...)

The blocks I showed in my last post are all stitched into a top now. I checked in with the gal and she said go ahead and quilt and bind it-so sandwiching the top is on my agenda tonight.
Photo of the finished quilt when I get there.

It's another wet Wednesday here...very soggy outside...good for inside quilting once I am home from the office!

something else quilty

2009-05-04T01:23:00.000-07:00

At the last Clark County Quilters guild meeting I took a look at the charity kits and one bundle called my name. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with the main focus fabric so I brought it home and cut up the panel-pulled colors to work with the squares and did some strip cutting. Today I got back to this started project and completed all the blocks. You could make a top and backing and turn them in at the June meeting- but-once I make a top that I like, I want to have the fun of quilting it as well. I did some birthday fabric shopping a week ago and picked up a lot of black and white and dots fabric. I was moved from the waiting list for a class with Freddie Moran and the class is Freddie.com.....looks like a fun class with curved piecing and plenty of opportunity to play with all my favorite bright eye popping fabrics. My stash was low on dots and low on b/w and we had to go to a quilt shop I do not get to very often. Lucky me they had lots of fabrics I needed.
The black with large white dots was part of what I purchased that day. I happen to agree with Freddie Moran's idea that black and white are perfect to tie bright blocks together with. These blocks would have gone together faster had I not tried to distribute colors and horses evenly. I think it turned out fun and will make some child happy. I have not quite decided how I am going to quilt this yet-but I know it will be something simple and fast.
If you click to enlarge the photo you will see the small black and white dots in the panel also inspired using the larger black/white dotted fabric...it was meant to be!

Alice sleepover photos later in the week- Little Miss Alice Wonderful fans...we all had a grand time together.

thoughts on a wednesday

2009-04-29T06:18:00.000-07:00

24 days until my sister arrives. deadlines, goals, countdowns all help me to focus and accomplish those tasks related to them.

M suggested Alice have a sleepover on Saturday -which meant following up on ordering the trundle bed and have it set up for use by that date. We had narrowed the choice between two stores, so Monday I went over and paid for the one we decided would work best.

It will be delivered and set up on Saturday. My plan is to use the "bottom" one -the one that slides under the top twin bed - keeping it lowered to the floor for Alice. She would only have about 8 inches to fall out of bed onto the carpeted floor that way. As she still sleeps in a crib at home, I am sure I will be helping her adjust to sleeping in her new bed by lying down with her as she "falls" asleep. Like it or not, these babies grow up and it continues to amaze me how fast time is zipping by watching Miss Alice Wonderful leave babyhood behind.

Saturday and part of Monday we also worked on emptying out the fabric room - the plan is to clear it out and after the bed is installed, put back what fits. We have stacks of stuff everywhere in the house and some out in half the garage. UGH !!!! Clearly I have been adding to the stash...and not using it up even close enough to break even. And my approach to tackling projects by stacking them in "my way" in the sewing room has not proven effective either. So, I am feeling overwhelmed and somewhat challenged at dealing with the reality of my quilting "stuff".

This is when baby steps and a timer come to the rescue. My favored approach may be the marathon method, but, the reality of actual time available means the baby steps method is the one that will save the day-or rather, my sanity! I have extra time this morning, notwithstanding spending some of it at the computer to have already accomplished putting stuff in the bedroom away, and clearing off some of the stacked stuff on the sewing table.

The oddball Christmas items that never quite made it back to the Christmas storage boxes up in the attic have been rounded up and put away.

Of course as you put one thing away, pick up another few items, and toss out odds and ends it all adds up to order emerging from chaos.

It's been time well spent this morning in making progress towards that goal of clearing stuff up and away-now it's off to an appointment and on to the day job.

Hope your day is filled with joy!

inspiration

2009-04-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

I seem to be loading photos and having them get super imposed on previous posts. As I can not quite get a grip on the why of that I am moving on from quilt show photos to today's inspiration, thanks to Victoria's post of today.

I often tear something out that I think could be a jumping off point for a quilt idea.

As I am working on having balance in my life this year I came up with an old trick to help me have time to do those things I truly want to fit into each day.

So, thanks to using my timer method, I limit the gardening when I get home to what I set the timer for and then I stop. guilt free.

And, tonight, this will allow time for playing with fabric and seeing what comes of this inspiration.

more CCQ quilts

2009-04-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

Clark County Quilt Show photos

2009-04-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

I never posted the photos of the fabulous quilts from the Clark County Quilt Show (Vancouver WA)

Enjoy the show ....more when blogger will allow additional photos to load...it's balking right now!

something else finished

2009-04-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

don't faint, but I finally sat down and did my blocks for project improv! With the Fab challenge mailed off and the reveal enjoyed-it was on to the next thing. These blocks are being mailed tomorrow and that completes everything I "owed" others in the quilting projects department.
I am almost half done with the hand stitching of the kingsize sleeve on my show quilt. I am turning it in Wednesday night and feel confident I won't be stitching Wednesday morning - another few nights of tv watching and sewing should do it.

I have quilts to put labels on and take photos of and then ship off to headquarters for Wraptheminlove. As these quilts are an always on-going commitment I do not treat them as deadline driven. It is always great to send them on their way-but there is absolutely zero stress as they hang around waiting.

I will be returning to my word house project- the last class of Tonya's that has been sidelined far too long. Also, I have nothing to hand quilt and may have to whip up another free pieced scrappy little something until the house top is a top.

The last guild quilt show I am involved with on a working level is this coming Saturday the 18th.

Once all the paperwork is wrapped up and handed over to both guilds I belong to - I am done with my guild positions and can really relax.

The rest of the year my focus will be on personal plans.

Spring is slowly but steadily making itself visible-so gardening will be taking some of my time-I so love planting future color to enjoy. I am going to do some playing with decorative rock again and expand on some garden design work started a year ago. That is the outside stuff.

The inside stuff will be to finish clearing the fabric room-it's at the half way mark right now. Then, I can start looking seriously for the bed I have in mind to put in there. My sister arrives in 41 days-and that makes a natural deadline for having that room ready. Plus, Alice can't spend the night either until I find that bed-another good motivation. She has outgrown the porta crib and it's time for a real bed for that 2.8 year old!

Speaking of Alice, she and her daddy came over for an indoor Easter Egg hunt. Oh the fun we all had "helping" her. I think we had to re-hide about 4 or 5 times it was so delightful. I will leave you will a photo(s) of her joy.

wrapping up the week with a reveal

2009-04-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night turned out to be our FAB Challenge Reveal Night. Linda's package had arrived and we gathered everyone online to take turns opening our boxes. After each reveal that person posted a photo online so we all could see and admire and ohhh and ahhh. What a truly fun evening!
Of course I had taken photos of what I sent-so I ended up being faster at posting photos for Linda.
Everyone did a gorgeous job with interpreting their inspiration of what Summer in Winter was to them.
I came up with the sun wearing shades and that kicked off my design juices. So far, I am the only one of the group doing free letter piecing ala Tonya (see sidebar for a link) and of course I had to do letters. I even managed to do some perle cotton hand quilting before calling the quilting done.

To all the reveals, try checking out the blog links for Pat, Linda, Pam, and Norma on my sidebar.

The fabulous garden tool insert for a bucket was made for me by Pam-perfect for all the gardening stuff I lug around in a not pretty at all bucket-now I will be styling! and organized. Thanks again Pam for being so clever in making something I will use for most of the year.
As I said, each challenge was very special and I think fun for each of us both to make and receive.
Hey, it's Friday! I am picking up Alice and bringing her home to share supper and playtime with us for a bit. If I have any energy left once she goes home with daddy-I need to cut and stitch up a king size sleeve for the quilt that is going into a quilt show on the 18th! Nothing like putting it off right? A much less busy weekend ahead with celebrating Easter on a low key level with Alice and her parents. I am organizing her first Easter egg hunt...I think we all will have too much fun doing that!

music-JJ Cale

2009-04-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

From time to time I mention how great live music comes to Portland Oregon. Last night was no exception. JJ Cale rocked the house and we had a fabulous time. This link will take you to his newest release-which he played some tunes from-yes, we will be adding this to our music collection. He is 70 years-and his riffs are the best amongst all the top guitar players-an inspiration to Mark Knopler another top guitar player.

I have always lived with a guitar player as a partner. Lately the music has been happening in our living room and NOTHING brings a wider smile to my face than hearing that plunking and strumming live. Me? I sing off key-yes, really-and do not possess the ear to play any instrument, despite many attempts. I can't keep a beat either.
However, I am the best audience-and keep the music playing around myself the majority of the time. It is not the tv that I turn on-it's always the music knob I reach for.

There is not a quilt that has not had music as part of it's creation. Quilting? always better to the right beat of music. And, music always uplifts me-gets my foot tapping and my heart singing-puts a smile on the inside and the outside.

The sun came out over the weekend, and everyone was outside enjoying the light and the warmth. We did a bit of gardening even. I look forward to spending much more time outside as the weather permits. I came home last night and headed for the back patio and those lovely rays of sunshine. Sitting on the glider and soaking up the light was a happy ending to the day.

Chose to fill your day with joy-maybe put on some music and dance a bit, or just tap your toes.

my favorite quilt show photo from NW Quilters Show

2009-04-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten my camera but a fellow quilter took this photo for me - it was my favorite from the recent NW Quilters Show. The quilter is Maureen Eldred and I think she is my kind of quilter! Click to enlarge photo -and check out the variety of fabrics! The way this show was hung, it made it challenging to get good photos.
At any rate, today I am off to another quilt show-Clark County Quilters up in Vancouver. It's the last day and the one I volunteered to work at-I am also having the honor of reaching into the container of raffle ticket stubs and drawing our opportunity quilt winner at the end of the day.

I have a quilt to hand stitch binding on so I will stay busy when I am not volunteering or walking around to enjoy the show. It will be a long but fun day for me once I arrive.
And, I am bringing my camera so I will be able to take my own photos. I have two quilts in the show, so will take photos of those-always such fun to see your quilts hung up in that setting. I had yesterday off and once the workers left at 3:10 pm I was off to run a few errands and then put in some sewing time at the machine. I am still lagging behind in completing a few deadline projects. However, tomorrow is Portland Piecer group day-where I can focus on the charity quilting and great friends that join the fun. I have a huge stack of finished quilts to look over for attached labels and box up to be shipped out next week.
A bonus given to the workers was an older huge tv that was sucking up space in the fabric room. I also dismantled the porta crib-Alice has outgrown it and it's time to clear space for a guest bed that will work both for her and for grown up company that is expected later this spring. The stack of quilts will finally have a bed to be spread out on and stored nicely. The extra fabric is going to need to be shifted into a new place. We are determined to have that room re-carpeted and looking like a guest room rather than the piled up "stuff" room it has been for far too long.
Next Saturday that task begins in earnest. This weekend is filled with quilting events!

woohoo for Friday

2009-03-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

I started my day with an appointment with my ot person-we have decided I am pretty much done wearing my splint and I have a few new exercises added to my list to do each day. I went on into work from there and decided to leave early as I was not feeling 100%- some tummy bug bite me last night and it seemed to be acting up again. I decided to run out and check out the second guild quilt show in a series of four that are happening in my local area right now. I found the perfect handmade oak extension table for my featherweight. Too bad when I reached for my wallet I found I had left it at home! No worries, I have to be back in that area tomorrow and I will swing by with my wallet in my pocket ready to spend. I am also dropping off two quilts ready to be hung in the CCQ show on April 2-4th-check out here for more information on that show.
Tomorrow is the last weekend I am in charge of selling raffle tickets for the CCQ opportunity quilt.
We will be at Fabric Depot..oh...another good reason to have my wallet handy I guess.
However, the best news is when I settled in at my machine tonight, I put in some wonderful quilting time on my FAB challenge...my hand is feeling ever so much better and I had such a great time doing it. I just have one small area left to do in another color.

That will have to wait...time to rest the hand and wind down for the night. It's a jammed packed weekend with lots of fun ahead. And, I seem to have tamed the tummy bug too-sigh of relief.

make it a weekend filled with joy folks...

Alice and quilting on Sunday

2009-03-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

After two days of spending all my time at this quilt show I am happy to be staying home today.
The quilt shown behind me is the Clark County Quilters Opportunity quilt-benefiting the YWCA of Clark County-in particular two women's programs. (you may have to scroll down to an earlier post)

The quilt is made of various guild member blocks submitted for this quilt plus additions from the designer/maker of the quilt, guild member Cathy Erickson and quilted by Val Pellens a guild member longarm quilter.

This quilt will be shown at AQS Paducah later in April-we were all thrilled to hear it had been accepted into the show.

After two days of all that, last night I headed over for some Alice time and gave her parents a chance to go have dinner out as adults alone. My son commented without recent Alice photos I seem to be down in having comments posted! So, I am correcting that today. I gave Chung the long green scarf years ago, and it became one of Alice's favorite toys- as a baby, perfect for playing peek-a-boo, which she still plays but now, it also makes a fine cape. She is such an active on the go child! I love running after her - she will chant, you can't catch me! We had a grand time once she got over her parents leaving without her. The other photo is the nest she made of her deflated jumping castle-too bad it got several large holes in it. It is so hard to snap a photo of her laughing I was thrilled to catch her in this one.

Today has been a lovely day to spend some time finally doing some free motion quilting on the FAB challenge top. I am making progress by setting the timer for 15 minutes of quilting and than having a break. It is so wonderful to be back behind the machine working some stitching magic. I can not show any photos until after it has been received by it's owner, but, I will share photos when I am able.I also need to snap a finished photo of the rainbow rail quilt, now sleeved and ready to be handed in for the quilt show in early April.

cutting is a start...

2009-03-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

My cast came off on Tuesday, March 10th. I was fitted for a splint and on Friday had my first occupational therapy session. Ruthann is also a member of my quilt guild and had quizzed me on my cast at our meeting-as in, where exactly did I break my hand? Well, on Friday, she could pull up my xray on her computer and we both had a look at exactly where that break happened. A diagonal break between the knuckle of my little finger on my right hand and my wrist. Which means my little finger and the next finger over tendons are the ones that need the MOST exercising to lengthen and loosen up. Moving that little finger sideways and making a totally curled fist is major painful and beyond doing very well currently. Still, that is why you do your exercises and know that in less time than wearing the cast my fingers/hand should be working "back to normal". She made a new splint for wearing at work where I live on a keyboard/ten key machine the majority of my day. That splint rocks. I was good and left it at work. I love being able to take my splint off and enjoy the luxury of using both hands to put on body lotion. Those simple tasks are so much easier with two hands! So, she loaned me a special rotary cutter (the cleverness of choosing to work with a quilter) so I could do some cutting and make sleeves for the fast approaching quilt shows. I finally have something current, quilt related photo to share. This will become the sleeve of my rainbow rail trip around the world - a class I took with Billie Lauder a few years ago. It usually lives on my side of the bed (it's lap size) and only lacked a sleeve for entering into the first guild quilt show, due date for quilts being March 30th.
I need to take a new photo of the quilt, as I seem to only have one of just the top.

What I found using the new rotary cutter is, a huge difference in how you hold it-obviously and how much easier it is to use. It really needs a new blade, so I switched back to my old rotary cutter shown, after putting in a new blade in it. I would have done the same to Ruthann's except it looked more complicated to take apart and then, gosh, what if I could not put it back together?

So, I will put this new rotary cutter on my wish list and one day it will be part of my tool box.

The other cutting I did was for a backing, which is now pieced for the secret FAB challenge quilt project. I am taking it along today to sandwich and be ready for quilting next. Today is my charity group monthly meeting day. It was pushed back to this date for this month only, and will give me a chance to see how I do longer at the machine. After a small amount of cutting, even wearing a splint, I need to stop and rest. So, baby steps will be how it is for as long as it takes.

I am so glad to be able to do some quilting stuff. My knitting continues on my own now that classes are over. When I get to the toe bind off, I will revisit the techinque we were shown. No worries, I can always go to the shop and have a hands on help session. They will get done.

Despite the rainy weekend, it's been filled with joy and I hope yours has been too!

Sunday post- Quilt Show anyone?

2009-03-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

I was contacted by Connie Colten to list our guild quilt show at her site-she has a dedicated listing of all quilt shows, big and small across the United States..you can contact her at quiltqua"at"gmail dot com. And I am putting up a graphic of her website. The link on the graphic is not live-so to visit her website and find a show nearest where you live check it out here.

When I figure out how to put this on my sidebar, you will be able to use it anytime. I really need to update my blogger site computer skills! Right now I want to spend my time on knitting-final class later today and I am going to try figuring out how to knit the heel gusset using my book diagram, ahead of class and then have the teacher check it out. We do not seem to cover in 2 hours all that she hoped. On the other hand maybe I need to be patient and learn her method of how to knit the next part. After all, it is why I paid to take the class, rather than just learn on my own.

woohoo...two more sleeps and my lovely purple cast comes off.

Meanwhile I have submitted 2 of the 3 tax returns on my do first paperwork list. I also mailed off photos and applications for the first guild quilt show that are due this Thursday.

Today before knitting class in the late afternoon, I need to do the two applications for the 2nd guild quilt show. The post office is on the way to knitting class. Always good to combine trips.

On the more- good- news coming my way front-my sister is likely flying out in May for a visit. She has not been out since 2005, for our mom's funeral. Her husband died two months after our mom and with teen aged sons to raise on her own, it just has not been possible for her to come out on her own. Another excellent inspiration to clear the fabric room and install a guest bed.

Our plan to declutter went by the side when I had my accident. It will pick up steam once I am back in action. I have to say I have managed to do some clearing up in the sewing room. It is just more wearing to work around having a bulky cast on one of your hands.

Well, time to go make 50 or so copies of flyers for our MPS show and get this final mailing moving along.

Enjoy the day!

down the knitted path

2009-03-01T09:45:00.000-08:00

When knitted socks hit blogland I was very inspired. I promised myself I would knit some one day. I signed up for a knitting class that finally filled up and was really going to happen-on days that fit into my life, at the nearest yarn shop to where I live. Despite my cast, I found I could knit well enough to keep up with the class last Sunday. We were expected to do homework and here is my result. Yesterday I sat all day at a quilt shop selling tickets for a guild opportunity quilt, chatted with the owner of the shop and knitted. It was a delightful day. And, yes this color of yarn is close to the color of my cast!

Today we are off to enjoy an artwalk event and check in at the studio of one of our favorite local artists. He has invited folks to visit him at his studio this weekend. I have one of his very small pieces hanging in my work space. His name is Christopher Bibby. I will have to take a photo of it when I remember to take my camera to work-maybe tomorrow. We will probably enjoy lunch out and back home in plenty of time for my 3 o'clock class.

This class has taken my time away from the quilting path lately but I will be back on it very soon. I have been blogs this morning and being so inspired-so many wonderful quilts going on.

guild scrap charity quilt challenge

2009-02-25T06:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the momentum of quilting last Saturday, and in looking for something, I pulled out the bag of challenge fabric (for my guild challenge)- and per photo I have made a start on the quilt that is due the second week of March.

I sorted out the larger pieces and put up the likely ones for the backing. If you click to enlarge you will notice several stains on the small blue heart fabric. I had not planned to wash any of this fabric, however, I refuse to put anything stained into what I create . If it doesn't come clean by soaking it using a stain remover I will toss it and use another large piece from what was given.

There were assorted grocery bags to be handed out for this guild challenge-I think the majority of these fabrics in my bag will become a quilt that play together scrap style. I have made a start on stitching smaller pieces and yes, I can use a rotary cutter-not expertly and not super precisely-well enough to do an improv top however.

Adapting to living with a cast as anyone who has been there, done that knows, gives you plenty of discovery moments and lots of "aha" moments. I am always looking at stuff that "happens" to me to appreciate the lesson or learning opportunity presented.

Of course my word of the year-balance- is very apparent in my life right now too.
Between the focus on my word and the reality of my cast-I have more easily stepped back from much of the swirling busyness of life.

My cast has given me countless blessings-opening doors to allow me closer and more caring times with all sorts of people in my life when I ask for help. And, the opposite has been true-folks so consumed with their own situation they do not see my cast or the obvious consequences of wearing one.

It's been 22 days now of wearing it-I now laugh when people notice, oh, what happened to your hand ? etc...for me the novelty has long worn off and it is just business as usual dealing with it.

I do not spend any time longing for it to be off-I just plan stuff around it. I have plenty of time to meet the quilting deadlines coming up in the next 30 days-there is no stress or worry for me about them. I am not a drama person most of the time, I have fewer moments of allowing the negative to gain the upper hand in myself. It has been part of my work around gaining balance in my life.

Really,when you think about it, don't you find YOU have all the time you need to live your life?

as always, thanks for stopping by and if you leave a comment great, if not..that is great too.
make today be full of joy...that's my plan

quiling day-thanks Fabs

2009-02-21T20:41:00.000-08:00

My quilting cohorts , the FABS had a sewing day today and inspired me to set up my machine to do simple straight line quilting. I have had two pinned waiting charity quilts-perfect for doing simple quilting on and forgiving if not perfectly quilted. Hip, hip, hooray to finally do some quilting today!
I can not do the more demanding type quilting for other projects-this I could do. All within a day too. The last Bob the Builder panel I bought years ago -some little guy somewhere should enjoy this bright quilt. I may try using my rotary cutter tomorrow.

And a special thanks goes out to a dear friend for a much needed phone chat today too!

Nice to be able to post something newly quilted and feel not so much on the sidelines.

On a knitty note: class starts tomorrow afternoon-two hours and she gives homework.
So perhaps a knitty photo in the near future too. After three classes, we should have two finished socks done-thus avoiding the dreaded one sock syndrome.

I am thankful for
wonderful friends, near and far
doing something creative
washing my hair

knitting

2009-02-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy 150 years Birthday Oregon.

Yesterday I had a bonus day off-so I was home to some house related work we scheduled and once they were gone-I left on my own adventures. A bit of this and that to get done on a week day being so much easier than on the weekend. I swung by the yarn shop where I have signed up for a beginning class in socks. I was given dpn (double pointed needles) per my book of instructions, and proceeded to cast on and began knitting a gauge swatch-a friend the night before at guild meeting (quilt) who is an experienced knitter had agreed with me I should try knitting with my cast on and see how it went. So, I spent 2 hours at the yarn shop entertaining knitters as I struggled with using the dpn's and knitting, ripping out, re-casting on, and knitting some more.
I tell you, it was possible but pretty darn hard work! I will knit some more tomorrow as I need to keep at it and see if I can get gauge - the first big step in truly starting any knitting project I am told.

Now, I have knitted 4 sweaters and many, many scarfs...and one bag is partly done-but socks? Yes, I caught sock fever from many fellow bloggers that have made truly amazing, wonderful, fabulous socks. And, not having anyone in my family alive anymore that knows how to knit-well, I figure it must be time to truly learn if I want a pair of my own.

You get the scope of my determination-willing to knit with a cast as a handicap rather than delay until -who- knows -when this class may be offered again.

The gal that runs the shop promised not to tell the teacher-she sounded pretty gleeful about the possible look of ??? on this teachers face.
I think she mentioned something about a heart attack...but, I figure at least I chose matching yarn color to my cast and it won't be so noticable -and I am doing pre-class knitting, so she may decide to let me stay.

All of this knitting trial run was brought on by being told the date of my cast coming off is March 10th-after both of my knitting class dates.

And, I graduate to wearing a splint for another 2 weeks-sheesh! plus I get to do exercises...oh, let's imagine finger exercises, hand exercises, and probably wrist strengthening work outs too :-) gee, I can hardly wait.

Truly though, I appreciate my finger is healing well and the x-ray shows no arthritis in this hand-what bonus news!

I still have not tried sewing yet, the knitting adventure was pretty tiring and my cast hand was pretty unhappy that evening-so some resting before more adventures are tried.

Time to go spend quality Valentine time with my sweetheart.

24 days until cast removal day!

stuff

2009-02-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

long ago on a now defunct quilting list, Karen C used to do "stuff" posts.
I love how you can learn so much from others online.
So, until I decide to try turning my sewing machine on and seeing if I can manage to sew some scraps together, I will just post general stuff.
Life is full of things to post about. I am reading more online-though not as much as I thought I would be-I actually am dealing with necessary though boring paperwork.

I tied my boots yesterday, myself (each day I delight myself with doing something left handed that I never otherwise would have thought to try)-another small feat achieved. Now, I appreciate those natural left handed folks snickering at me-I am laughing right along with you!

I happen to live with someone that is not a nurturer by instinct. I chalk it up to growing up as a little sister-those of you like myself who are first borns, will know what I am alluding to. Plus, I was just born with an overwhelming "mom" gene I believe. So, unless I speak up and fast in the mornings-I get to master any number of small every day tasks, like fixing my own lunch. I always have a sliced up apple for example. And, I can now safely cut my own apple. I enjoy being self sufficent, so these minor accomplishments just tickle me. Besides, I need to have a decent lunch-driving out to lunch is just not part of my budget-though today I have a lunch date with my dil. I am looking forward to visiting with her!
oops-typing one handed sucks up a lot of time...got to run-the day job requires I actually show up.

a very good reason ...

2009-02-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the poor photo, taking it with my left hand was challenging! It explains the why of no quilting is or will be happening from me for at least three more weeks.

My fall interrupted a very productive quilt effort on the FAB challenge. It put a screeching halt to taking my quilt workshop classes today. I am hoping it will not stop me from taking a knitting class due to start Sunday-March 1st. Oh, it is only my fifth finger that broke-a spiral fracture-but not in need of pinning/surgery. They had to include the finger next to it to support the broken one.
I am getting very adept at coping one handed-though as I used mainly my right hand for much of what I do-it has kaboshed quilting for the most part-I may work with some already cut fabric..but certainly can not cut with the rotary. And, M has been emphatic-no help with quilting from her.
So, a great time to catch up on blog reading, quilt magazine reading ( 3 new ones as a feel better gift), and the stacks of paperwork that I had been ignoring as I was so enthralled with this challenge top.

Balance....yes, my word of the year to the rescue...time given to me to switch gears and tackle those other neglected tasks.

Hopefully the cast will come off in 3 weeks and-if I deal with all those non-quilty tasks-it will be wonderful to plunge back into this challenge with both hands! ok, you know I will anyway!

someone bid on the quilt I did last November...

2009-02-01T18:27:00.000-08:00

woo hoo! When I received the email that the small quilt I sent in thanks to Tonya's Project Hope Challenge back in November was now available to be bid on-I sent links to a few friends and family members. I was showing M tonight and realized someone has placed a bid on it, and I don't think it is anyone I know...how cool is that? I hope it brings in more money to help the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, as that is such a worthwhile cause.
Want to place a bid? just go here.

It's Sunday night and I have spent the majority of the day working on the Fab challenge-it won't get mailed tomorrow, our deadline, but...it's looking great and about to the 2/3 finished mark. Of course, then I need to quilt it etc. It has a huge amount of piecing in it and some not wonderful satin stitch applique work. It absolutely says Summer, and on a gray day like today was, a delight to be working on. I have bought very little fabric to go with the challenge and other fabrics I chose to use. So, though I can't share any photos until after the reveal-I will share photos of something I bid the highest on at our yearly guild auction a week or so ago.

I won house blocks (one is signed by Freddy herself - click to enlarge and look at the house with stripes) fabric and the book - autographed to Becky 2001. I suppose Becky made a few blocks in a class with Freddy and decided she did not want to finish this into anything. What a great contribution she made to our guild's yearly auction. I was in a bidding war with another quilter who finally made a deal with me- I could have this if I would stop bidding on another great item.
I also bid and won two other items which I will share another time. I have been reading Freddy's book and enjoying her approach to color and collecting fabric. Her home is amazing in it's use of saturated colors. I have some fabrics I brought back from our honeymoon in Paris nearly ten years ago and will add them in with the batch I won. Our ten year anniversary is next year and I think that is plenty of time to have something made using these blocks, making more, and using up this fabric. It will be the perfect quilt given the French fabrics.

And, I received word back on my application for this year's Sisters week of workshops. 500 people got theirs in ahead of me, so all classes I wanted were totally filled. I was able to get the lectures I wanted and we will attend the Friday night picnic and talk with Gwen and Freddy.
I am happy to look forward to enjoying the Thursday and Friday events in Sisters, in addition to the quilt show on Saturday. I am going to find another venue where Gwen teaches to try and attend in 2010. In the meanwhile I have plenty of great books to work from and fellow bloggers who enjoy doing the same liberated style of quilting to keep me company.

Well, another few hours of stitching and then it's good night on a great weekend.

fleeting glimpse

2009-01-28T05:31:00.000-08:00

I am spending about 35 minutes in the sewing/computer room- and that would be in the mornings while I drink my coffee of the day and wake up. It's been a most hectic January and this last week is more of the same. Evening meetings, morning gym dates-life is on the go with either zero time or zero energy to turn on the sewing machine.

My current challenge piece is half finished. I have cut the next part, but, I measured wrong so I am fiddling with making what I did cut work. The deadline is to mail it on Monday-which I may delay-the idea is to have fun doing this- no stress-in my case, I did not realize I would have no time!

Got to run, time to go head the gym-

2008 leftovers

2009-01-19T05:50:00.000-08:00

while I work on a new 2009 project (from a 2008 challenge) I finished up what I call Leftovers, a 15 inch by 15.5 inch small quilt. I used the same color perle cotton thread to hand quilt it -pieced from the leftover scraps bag from the two bed size jigsaw puzzle quilts I made a few years ago now, I also used these scraps in the K is 4 kindness wall hanging as well. And, there is still lots more left to play with and create new quilts or small art pieces.

It needs a label-the backing is the same fabric as the binding and too dark for any of the marking pens I have to write directly on the fabric and be legible. No sleeve until I decide on orientation or I may add two sleeves -one for hanging the way it looks in this photo, and the another as square.

I often keep leftover scraps from a favorite project in a bag of their own. I especially like how I used a checkered fabric to end up with a mini "four patch" square. I was too lazy to miter the border-I really need to prod myself and do that technique.

Other than this small finish, I have been immersed in - cleaning and rearranging parts of our home and making soup for my hosting on Tuesday night of my guild quilt show committee.

We went over Saturday night and had a game night with my son and his wife. He is an excellent game host. We learned a few new fun games and were treated to fresh from the oven warm oatmeal raisin cookies as a delightful food treat.

Yesterday Alice was dropped off while the kids went over and bought a new fridge-very similar to ours. It was close to supper time, so I made Alice's favorite "moodles" and lattes for M and I.

I bought Alice new "toddler" friendly metal silverware and taught her how to hold and use a fork so it actually pokes and holds a noodle all the way to her mouth. We had a delightful time practicing that until she could do a whole dish full by herself. I have a very small special dish just for Alice with a smiling sun and smiling octopus painted on the bottom-motivation to eat it all up to see them. Her parents arrived just as she was finishing her third bowl full and we all gave her lots of applause for handling a fork so expertly. I had cooked up penne pasta and cut the noodles in half so they were toddler size friendly. I love my new kitchen shears. A simple red sauce over the noodles and supper is ready in a flash.
There is nothing like a two year old for reminding you of simple joys.

It was a another wonderful weekend of balance-some practical stuff, some play stuff, and family time too.

wrapping up Christmas

2009-01-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

Our Portland snow event closed roads, made traveling a nightmare for many, many folks and canceled holiday plans in our family. We moved our get together to the weekend after the New Year but that did not work out either.

The stack of gifts we were taking sat on the kitchen table.

I had planned on making sets of coasters as stocking stuffers but never got around to doing them as we never went anywhere after all. Wednesday was a bonus day off-perfect for whipping them out and mailing off everything, thus literally wrapping up Christmas at long last in our home.

First I whipped together a few gift bags. As you can see, they turned out acceptable. I used perle cotton to baste and close the small bags...worked like a charm.

Next-the coasters. I pulled up the tutorial from here, and made one perfect coaster. The next three went together and then I noticed something the same about those three, can you see what I mean? Yep, a fatal flaw. So, I made another three and took a photo to share.

I will use the rejects here at my desk and at my office. I put the special heat reflective batting stuff in them and a nice green batik on the back-the green side works great. Making something that you end up turning right side in really challenged my brain in a different direction.

So, the box was sent off along with a few others I needed to get out as well and Christmas around here is over. As the day was a sunny, albeit cool 45 degrees I also took down the outside lights.
I am always sorry to take them down-twinkling fairy lights are just so magical in the dark, dark night. When I turn the corner at the top of the street and see them at the bottom winking at me, it always makes me smile and ever so glad to be arriving home.

Christmas may be gone for another year, but, Valentine's Day will be here in no time..I think this year I may decorate for it. After all, wouldn't red twinkling lights be romantic?

2nd word house

2009-01-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

I made this while working on the FABS challenge, sort of as a leader/ender type approach. Which is probably why I used that strip of green at the bottom-it's part of what I am working with creating the FABS challenge. The second block of Tonya's class - see sidebar link of House etc and I already threw in some print.

My challenge to myself may be making something using ONLY solids this year. I sent in my Sisters workshop and programs form the day after it arrived at my house.
One of the classes being offered is by Gwen Marston (see sidebar for link) and is all about solid log cabin liberated blocks. And, I could not resist and jumped in on the Project Improv group going on as well. It's the quilting direction I have been moving along and this will just be more of the same joy to do.

January so far has not seen as much stitching as I planned-however, once some of this 2008 overlapping paperwork is dealt with-watch out! my machine should be smoking as I put the petal to the medal. Ok, so I am not all that fast when it comes to piecing letters..! however, I have been playing with new ones and the learning curve is too funny. I made several attempts at a small "m" and kept doing my slants backwards...however...I just kept at it until it came together in my brain and with the fabric.

I am limiting my computer time to morning only-before leaving for work that is. I can read yahoo emails at work (thank goodness!) but there is a firewall to anything else-like blog reading!

I am content to pop in and catch up with various blogs as time allows. So, if you receive a very late comment...it's just me...catching up with you...and wanting you to know what I thought.

And, thanks to the fabulous blog links and/or other cool links-I seem to be traveling all over the internet lately!

Here is a recent book I just could not resist buying-oh my! the most fabulous, wonderful, and inspiring quilts in one book.

This week has only one evening commitment-visiting the Alice on Tuesday night. woohoo!
And, I have Wednesday off as my bonus day off. The square for that day in my planner says, day off.....period. Which means- I can do exactly as I please that day. Apart from if I stay home, I am the dog door person that is.

Balance means this week - a bit of working hard, more time playing, and a few want to do tasks thrown in.

all about kindness

2009-01-07T05:55:00.000-08:00

I have been on the run lately and spending little time at home, less on the computer. This morning I uploaded kindness photos.

I was going to put up photos of how I do my sleeves on the back of my quilts for hanging. This does show a finished sleeve tube -the trick is to pick a width that gives you either the measurement required by the quilt show it's being shown in and/or a width that will allow whatever holder you want to put through to hang it by. I forgot to measure and made an overlong sleeve. No problem, I cut it off and just stitched a new end -I turn the ends under twice stitching down by machine as a tube. I chose to not stitch the sleeve at the top so it would be part of the binding stitching by machine part. That came about because I failed to make my sleeve wide enough and it would not work out. After getting this sleeve on, I decided next time I am returning to my habit of putting on the sleeve after the binding-I just get it on more evenly when I have the binding done first. This sleeve is probably too narrow for the quilt show it's going in later this Spring-so I probably will stitch another sleeve over this one-d'oh! However, a four inch sleeve just seems an absurd proportion on this small-ish wall hanging and I would not want that large of sleeve personally.

Also a photo of my label where I used a rejected K letter. The hunt for that letter took an hour-as I had taken everything off the design wall at some point and stacked them in different groups in different places. I was determined to find it and use -and clearly I was successful.

Then, a nice close up and a less close up-I placed it over the chair I use most for sitting in during the evening and doing handwork. There is a standing ott light to the side of this chair - I can all the light I need exactly where I am working. Thus concludes my Summer Class project.

The house etc class project has yielded another house block - I will show a photo of that another day.
We are back to rain around here and it is so much easier to drive in than ice and snow!

some of what I am currently doing in the creative room

2009-01-03T13:28:00.001-08:00

the room where I keep my sewing table and some of my related supplies is also the computer room. It's really not a "studio"- but it is a creative room! after all, we create using a computer, often more times than with other tools/machines. Whether I am creating a blog post, a spreadsheet, or photos-I am being creative.

I was able to get a great photo of Zoe keeping me company in here one day when I was in the sewing groove. I do not often take photos of her like many bloggers do of their cats-but-she is an important member of my family and as I do seem to share many photos of Alice my granddaughter, well, Zoe should have her fame too.

I am starting on a FAB challenge-I have had the fabric for months..and the deadline is January 31st. Please note the date: January 3rd- NOT at the last minute, thank you very much.

I am doing my word houses as the leader/ender to go with the challenge. I mean, brights work together right? And our challenge is Summer in Winter... to me, Summer equals Bright.

What great projects to be playing with on a gray and threatening to rain sort of day.
As the challenge is a surprise reveal, you won't get to see more than photos of the fabrics I will be using...these two are a major part however. The yellow/orange is the challenge fabric- to be used in a major way on the front. Out of 41 inches, 18 inches must be used on the front. Plenty to work with I think. Isn't that a great green? I stocked up on greens when a local quilt shop went out of business a few months ago. It is going to be such a pleasure to work on this challenge.

I warmed up this morning by making a small yellow flannel pillowcase for my sweetie. I had promised a new case long ago- off my mental list of things needing to be done.

2009 won't see any "lists" of projects from me. I have ideas in my head, of course, but, I am not treating them as must-dos. It's a year to see where my creative spirit leads me.

This challenge is the only holdover from 2008 that is technically a must do. However, as I was one of the challenge creators...I feel less of the mindset of it being a must do, but, a fun do !!! And, as we are sending our challenge to another FAB...it's a chance to share my creative result with a dear friend. In my opinion, a gift is really not a MUST DO....it's just too much fun making something and giving it to someone you care for.

Happy 2009-a new word for a new year

2009-01-01T09:04:00.001-08:00

Last year I came across the concept of choosing a word for the year, rather than making any resolutions or goals for the new year. Here is the link to Christine Kane's blog if you want to learn more of the why of choosing a word rather than a resolution.

In her December posts she featured a different person and their word. I was pleased to be included. My word was Kindness and I am at the binding stage of the wallhanging with that title.

I considered many words before settling on Balance for my word for 2009. I wanted something more self directed than Organize, or Order, or the like. A friend with a similar sense is going with Self Care-at least I think that she settled on that word...but it embodies the same feeling/idea.
Here is part of why I feel Balance is the word for me: I want to step back and use clarity to honor my inner self and feel at one in the here and now. To be fully present to myself. Rather than flit from one task to another and feeling there is never enough time, enough energy, enough- to do for myself-I am stopping. I am taking the time to chose what is best for me to do next. To listen to my heart, rather than the inner voice telling me I must do "whatever" first. I am the Queen of delayed gratification. I have been known to wait years to allow myself to have or do something. And, I know there really is Enough for me to do whatever it is I need to do for myself. I look forward to seeing my intent unfold through this new year. Today I am enjoying each moment with nothing I must do, just whatever I chose to spend my energy and time on.

I hope you enjoy your day!

reflections

2008-12-26T09:52:00.001-08:00

our visit to family yesterday was delightful-long enough to open presents, play with toys, and enjoy a wonderful meal. Short enough that we were back home and able to deal with a slight stuck in the snow issue easily. A relaxed evening watching the movie Juno, enjoying the fire, and a little hand quilting. One of the treats in my sock was a small book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Things I learned from Knitting..whether I wanted to or not. I enjoy her style of writing with humor delivering much of what I have discovered during my life thus far-with a different slant which jogs the oh yes...that is so true thinking.
I have returned to reading every day-we have a stack of books which has helped inspire me to pick the top book from one of the stacks and plunge in. Actually the top book was one M was planning on reading next (yes, she is reading it now) so I took the top book from a stack over. It's The Fifth Book of Peace by Maxine Hong Kingston. [only 79 pages in ...a bit disjointed style of writing but I am continuing on]
The joy of living with another reader is the variety of books to be found in our home. M is a book buying fiend, rather as I was about fabric. We have called a halt on buying until the stacks are reduced.

Today I have called a halt to flitting from one thing to another-and feeling like I am just making myself dizzy and going "nowhere". M is off walking Zoe - who adores the snow and a chance to run around and feel free. I declared a day of writing to sort out the teeming stuff in my head.
I just feel out of step, out of sorts, spaced out. So many things I could or should do...I am feeling overwhelmed in general as a result. Has this happened to you? You realize you have misplaced things that usually you always put in such and such place? You have not remembered being told important things, or that "everything" has just stacked up around you? Well-I have come to the tipping point of feeling that way and decided: clearly I need to step back....do some reflecting...and then dive in and take action. I have been ignoring that inner voice-but-today is the day to stop and listen.

This morning I was checking in on Christine Kane's blog - my word of the year post was going to be there at some point in December and I forgot to keep checking in this month!
There it was...a while back...and here is the link if you care to go read. I am not going to repeat it here-instead, I will be posting my word for 2009 in a few days. You may want to read more about the whole idea at Christine's blog..it's been a great experience for me this year-and I am excited about doing it again. I have already chosen my word and given a lot of thought about what I need to do to allow my inner light to shine more brightly.

I hope each of you that read this post or have checked in over the years continue to share your inner light as well. It's all about living this moment. let's make the most of right now!

merry christmas alice quilt

2008-12-24T21:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve. I only need to wrap the quilt in the photo and I am totally done. If the weather allows, we will drive over tomorrow afternoon and enjoy watching Little Miss Alice Wonderful open her presents and in general celebrate being together. We have a new camera and I am looking forward to playing with it. This quilt was made from a kit I bought at a shop in Cannon Beach. A few fabric strips leftover -it worked out perfect. I used wool batting and left space in my free motion quilting so it is fluffy and cuddly. She has been enjoying the book this fabric was inspired by -which came from the box of books her daddy and uncle had as young children. I am not showing any more snow photos-it got worse and then we had some rain today-though only a bit of the snow melted away. It will be quite the white Christmas tomorrow morning. I made two pumpkin pies this afternoon -love that baking smell ! I worked from home and it was very relaxing. I had a lovely phone conversation with my sister and welcome news from my son in Texas. I had used the wrong address to mail his gift to, plus given it to the mail order company for his wife's gift, and also to his brother. Oh, I thought he would be missing out tomorrow! He stopped by the old address and there was my box- oh joy! They will keep an eye out for the other packages and I contacted the mail order company as well. The post office still has his forwarding address active-it's possible that somewhere in their system the other packages are being held to be delivered to his current address. So we both feel so much more positive about those missing packages ending up getting to them -hopefully soon.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season no matter how you celebrate or not.

a great day to be inside

2008-12-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

Here in Portland, OR we think this is the most snow we have ever seen in our neighborhood.
Lots of wind blew snow in against our front door as fast as we could shovel it away yesterday.
I did a final shovel out last night before heading to bed. This morning you can see little new snow out front, what is hard to see is the one inch layer of ice over the snow. Zoe in the backyard demos walking on top of snow...you can see the dents where she "fell" through. M had to stomp down enough of an area in the back so Zoe could do her business. No driving without chains today-period. As I don't have chains that means another day of not driving anywhere for me. I am not inclined to drive anywhere so no big deal. I stopped Friday night after work and stocked up at the market on various items I thought we could run low on and would miss. We are snug and happy inside - I am going to start quilting a top for Alice, part of her Christmas celebration. I had bought a kit and stitched it up yesterday. I have Christmas music going and have wrapped a few gifts, still need to write cards up, and in general we are enjoying the weekend.
We are grateful for our cars dry in the garage
a snow shovel that does the job!
warm snow clothes to wear
our power is on
hot coffee

first word house

2008-12-14T17:46:00.001-08:00

I finally finished this block today-my kick off to the house and hearth class by Tonya-
I will be making more blocks as I find time - I have been Christmas decorating around the house and deep cleaning as well. A snow storm hit our area today and here is a view out our front door- such gusting wind it blew snow all over the patio furniture under cover against the house. Foul weather outside certainly makes me appreciate being warm and cozy inside! It is supposed to be dry but 24 degrees tomorrow- I probably will drive in to work unless the news says it is icy. I can drive in snow fine- ice, no thanks. We are getting the brunt of an Arctic wind effect here. I have been busy with plenty of non quilting stuff going on around here-I know it will start to slack off soon and I am looking forward to being home more.

first house built

2008-12-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Here is my house block for a guild challenge which I will turn in tomorrow night. The block is nine and a half inches square. Now that I have broken ground on house building, next up will be class houses-which will include letters.
I have to admit, it was hard to use only solid fabrics! I may or may not add prints to additional houses. So much fun to be working on ideas I have been considering for quite a while now.

house inspiration

2008-12-09T06:39:00.000-08:00

Last Friday we had lunch at a favorite place and walked up to check out the bead shop and the quilt shop. Flyers for an art show and sale were posted, happening that day, so we walked down to check it out. Here is what followed me home. She had all sorts of these and at ten dollars I thought they were priced right for my budget! (artist is Robin Olsen)The fabric is going into the build a house block basket-which I am finally going to play in tomorrow. Bonus day off, time to dive into the new project I have been thinking about for ages. Here is also a photo of the finished quilt(for the Christmas mom and dad) on our bed - king size in the end.
I kept calling it queen size...but as you can see...it fits a king size bed well. I took the pillows off so as much of the quilt as possible is showing. It was picked up and will be delivered to the family at the appointed Christmas time. Photos should be clickable for enlarging.
I have all my Christmas gifts accounted for and just need to poke away at the wrapping part. Last year I made many Christmas themed gift bags and I plan on making several more. They were a big hit! I quilted two more charity quilts on Sunday and that leaves two remaining. I cut binding for all four of the builder bob quilts. Once these are all finished I will be happy to mail them off to headquarters and take a break. It's crazy busy at work right now- as far as I am concerned a good thing! who wants to sit around twiddling their thumbs, good to have plenty to do I say and should stay humming right along for a few weeks.

Life is Good:
I continue to have a job I love
I have lots of fabric to play with
I have wonderful kind friends
I have joy in my heart!

family time and quilting time

2008-11-30T13:58:00.000-08:00

In and around family holiday time, Alice time, and into the weekend-quilting has been going on.
I am in the binding stage of the queen size quilt (the hand part, one side done) and the machine binding of a ufo that will be donated to wraptheminlove. Of course, when Alice spends the night, photo opportunities abound. I was pinning a doll size quilt top when Alice wandered in and decided to help me. We were still in our jammies, being a very relaxed morning of playing and so on.
As she concentrated on picking out pins and sticking them in (a cluster in one corner) it was the perfect photo opt. One day I hope when she is much, much older she can claim she started quilting at two! In the meanwhile we will keep taking baby steps towards that goal. She is ready for the large yarn (dull point) needles, yarn and punched cards or canvas to play with next I believe-as she was quite entranced with watching me stitch binding. My love of hand crafts was encouraged by my grandma (on my moms side) teaching me to knit and crochet at an early age. She did not sew , nor did my other nonna. My mother could sew but was not inspired to do any beyond a dress she made for me and something for my sister. I took over her machine as soon as I learned how to run one in home ec class and used it to death until graduating from high school.
all photos will enlarge by clicking... note Zoe close by supervising Alice-by the time Alice goes home, Zoe is exhausted! While Alice naps, Zoe will frequently check the closed door-looking at me as though to ask, are you sure she's ok? I hate not being able to go check up close!

Ok- back to all that binding! The queen quilt needs mailing out on Wednesday and I only have one side done thus far. I also promised myself to have the charity quilt done before midnight tonight. It's a ufo and I want a November finish. If I stay away from the computer-it's an easy task to complete.

two quilted tops

2008-11-26T06:25:00.001-08:00

I just took the last stitch in quilting the 4 Kindness top. (it is click-able to enlarge) I am very happy with how it turned out- and decided to share it at the not totally done stage...but all quilted stage at least. I also finished quilting the queen size quilt a few days ago, trimming it up Monday night. No photo of the queen until I get the binding on it. Besides baking pies tonight, I will be stitching binding on as well.
I also need to empty out Alice's crib and have it ready for her spending Thursday night with us.
We head over to their home for an early dinner at 1 pm-ish and will bring her back home with us when she gets up from her nap I suspect.

Guild last night was fun. We presented our chairperson with her guild member blocks and actually rendered her speechless! no small feat-and something she had actually sketched out and wanted to make-how cool was that! Members took turns sharing why they are thankful - and the show and share of quilts at the end were fabulous.
We are a small but very friendly guild in Beaverton and it was nice to spend time with them.
I know I give thanks for discovering my passion for quilting and so appreciate all my quilting friends both online and off! Thank you to each and every person that takes the time to read what I have to share, whether you leave a comment or not. You never know who you will reach out and touch when you have a blog and I am always pleased to hear from everyone.

the half way mark

2008-11-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

I just hit the half way mark on quilting the queen size D9P top. I chose to do straight line quilting and that means it goes fairly fast. I don't have to mark anything, I just sew along the seam lines about 1/8 to 1/4 inch away. A simple grid system and then on to the binding. I have that made and waiting to be stitched on. We are not supposed to give away our names in the giving of these gifts, so I am going to merely put my initials on the label and leave it at that. It's a quilt meant to be used up - not an heirloom and I hope they find warmth and comfort in the use of it.

Thursday I went up to a quilting/craft show and did a little shopping. There were bundles of Cherrywood hand dyes at one booth-but I left them there. Instead, I bought a hand dye kit for beginners. I have been wanting to try my hand at this dyeing business and this looked to be uncomplicated and very portable-not a huge investment either. I think I can set the small containers in my bathtub , thereby keeping everything I need in the bucket which is, 9 yards of fabric prepared for dyeing, the dyes and the small containers in this bucket, the size of a three pound laundry soap container. How's that for not taking up a lot of room?

We are selling tickets for the guild opportunity quilt at this show, so I am headed up there again today. There is a booth with large cutting mats at a decent price I may decide to buy. My table size mat needs replacing and this might be perfect- otherwise there isn't anything else to tempt me. I will be taking along my hand quilting-with several hours of sitting and encouraging folks to buy a chance at winning a truly gorgeous quilt-I just may get to the end of the K is for Kindness.

Friday-almost the weekend

2008-11-14T05:55:00.000-08:00

This week has been a blur. I am slowly recovering from this cold/cough bug. I have taken on being the chairperson of our guild raffle ticket sales. I have 7,000 tickets to sell by April 4, 2009. Naturally I am not doing this by myself! We have a large guild and the expectation is everyone will buy 10 tickets and can then sell them or keep them. If everyone actually pays for their 10 tickets, I will still have 2,000 to sell to the public. Of course I do not think every member will actually follow through, and with helpers we are coming up with other ways of selling these tickets. My main task was to sort tickets into bundles of ten and put them with the name of each guild member.
Now that was quite the job that took hours and hours longer than I expected. We have state gambling rules to follow so there is much more detail record keeping to do than simply handing out tickets and taking money. I have to account for every numbered ticket and at the end send in a detailed accounting to the state. I am an accountant for my day job, so doing more spreadsheets was not such a big deal. We had a decent kick off last night, at our guild meeting, but even with two helpers, it got very hectic! I reaped the benefit of having all those bundles in abc order and record sheets at the ready.
My sweetie has also come down with this lovely bug and so it is survival mode at our house. If I can muster the energy I am spending the weekend getting the house back to some state of order and finishing up several piles of things dumped for dealing with "later". I am longing to play with the latest idea I have for some new house blocks-I even have some new fabric for it sitting on the table-under one of those piles! Bring on the weekend!

making progress

2008-11-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

Tuesday proved to be the beginning of what has become a yucky cold-the cough and the stuffy nose is so annoying. I probably am at the end of it, though still coughing and so on. I wanted to show progress on this large quilt I am working on. I have most of my end wall as my design wall.
At this size it won't totally fit when I get to the last third- but this shows how I am working in sections and checking to be sure the row above works with the row below and on the side. This will be six rows by six rows. I dropped having a seven row long quilt top. There will be a three inch border instead - color still to be determined. I have had no luck in auditioning or searching for the teal green color to go with the print shading I wanted to highlight. Probably a medium purple will be the most likely border choice of color.
We are off to another concert tonight. David Grisman and Jon Sebastion...what a duo! I did a little stitching this morning and will no doubt do more later tonight. No concrete plans for the weekend, other than to hammer a bit on this project. I have other life stuff going on that will be sucking up a lot of time next week.

starter blocks completed

2008-11-04T13:53:00.001-08:00

got to love bonus days off. Neither of my quilter friends were available today-so I ran my morning errand and got home in a timely fashion, only one stop at a quilt shop to look for more of a batik that would work as a border for the D9P variation quilt-no luck but I picked up a few possibles and a yard or two of some new fabric that will be put to use very soon. I finished making the rest of what I call starter blocks for this quilt. (see previous post...a third of the top already put together). D9P is all about making nine patches and then slicing them into fourths. My design idea was to keep the center block the same color fabric and mix up the other two colors in all possible ways. Here are most of the examples I came up with. I may have come up with a few more, but, I can't remember at this point. Next up- square them and slice them.
Then arrange on the design wall and stitch back together. This is what I am going to be working on as the election results are being reported tonight. I won't actually be watching the tv, but, it probably will be on in the other room and I can listen when I want to check in. Usually I listen to music while I stitch. Some folks love books on tape, podcasts, etc...I prefer my ipod shuffle.
It's 2 pm now, I can spend at least 2 hours slicing up and stitching before I need to finish making chicken tortilla soup for supper. I have a slight cold and this sounded tasty to me. There was some sunshine for a while earlier today and it was quite pretty driving out and about. The rain has started in and it's a sky filled with various shades of grey now. So many leaves hitting the ground and fading to brown.. yet so gorgeous in their red,gold, and orangy glory on the trees.

November kick off quilt

2008-11-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

you can click to enlarge

this is 12 blocks measuring 87 inches across and about 30 inches long right now(6 by 2). I have another 30 blocks to get to the size of 87 by 101-ish -queen size-ish. This will be for the adopted family we do gifts for every Christmas instead of exchanging gifts on M's side of the family. We drew the mom and dad this year and I knew immediately I wanted to make them a quilt. This is my variation of the disappearing nine patch block-limited to three colors. I am pleased it is all from my stash-there is enough of the vine fabric to make the backing and binding, should I chose. I bought this fabric many years ago and still really like it, I think because green and purple are a favorite combination currently for me. I thought I would get further than this considering I spent much of the day and evening working on it. However, the flannel (that would be the purple) has a way of stretching that has meant a bit of ripping and re-doing to get it to play nice with the other fabrics.
And, I have to stop and cut more fabric as I run out of pieces to stitch up. The disappearing nine patch block calls for making a nine patch and then cutting it into fourths-and stitching the fourths all back together. This takes longer to make the block too, as I play with the fourths and get them arranged to my liking. When I ran out of bobbin thread, I took the time not only to wind another four bobbins,( I had only used about a bobbin and a half before running out) but to thoroughly clean out around the bobbin area and add a drop of oil to the trace. That, and putting a new blade in my rotary cutter has made the cutting and stitching efforts go smoothly.
I am pleased with how it is looking. I will be quilting this on my regular sewing machine. I have a few ideas already for how I want to quilt it. I am considering quilting it in fourths and then putting them together ala quilt as you go method. It's been quite a while since I quilted such a large quilt and smaller sections might be a lot easier to deal with. The second quilt I am going to make will be simpler than this one and smaller thank goodness.

new fabric and complete blocks

2008-10-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

It's been an up and down sort of week nice to finally arrive at Friday night. I thought I would share the perfect tree word fabric I found for Nancie who was in our summer class of Tonya's-now that she has received it. Plus, I finished and mailed off 31 heartstring blocks to help in the green center short term project. I cleared this counter space and found it perfect for trimming the string blocks. You can see the nice pile of fabric debris left.
Tonight I have made the first block in a new quilt project. Once I get a few more made up I will share a photo. This is the quilt I am making for our Christmas family mom and dad. All fabric from stash, my favorite place to shop as a rule. Tomorrow I am having my one day personal retreat. I hope to cut and make a lot of blocks. One block finishes at 14.5 inches, so this should go together pretty fast. Sunday is our first Sunday of the month charity group meeting date. Karen and I plan on pinning several quilts and quilting up a storm. It is supposed to rain over the weekend and I can't think of a better thing to do than stay inside and play with fabric. And, as the quilt shop where we meet is only a mile from Alice, I think a fast visit afterwards will be in order.

checking in

2008-10-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

Friday was a bonus day off and I spent the majority of it out in the garden-supervising and working with a crew as we ripped out and moved large shrubs to other locations. I have been dealing with some minor injuries and there is no way I can do the manual labor required to get the yards ready for the coming winter. Of course once we got going I came up with a few additional ideas on what I wanted done. At any rate that took care of most of Friday, though I managed a small amount of block sewing. Saturday we decided to go across town and while doing an errand I checked out a new quilt shop and did a little adding to the stash. One yard I bought is being mailed off to a fellow classmate of Tonya's summer class. I don't think she has a blog but I will wait until I know she has received it to share a photo of the fabrics I purchased. I made progress on a stack of string blocks I am making to send in to Heartstrings.
We are in the midst of a green center block-athon and I look forward to finishing these today and sending them in. Meanwhile, I have decided the next project is to pull fabric and cut for the two Christmas quilts I want to have done by November 30th. I have several more weeks ahead of bonus days off and each day I want to devote to getting quilting done. Today is such a blustery day-the wind chimes are making wonderful music to sew by.

Oh, and we voted yesterday! That was part of our errands- dropping off our mail in ballots at the corner library into the ballot box they have set up. No postage to buy and we know they will be delivered on time and safely. When it is your turn, I hope you take the time to cast your vote.
Off to work on those string blocks and enjoy the day.

wrapping up the weekend

2008-10-19T18:10:00.001-07:00

I made these pants for Alice,

and when she woke up tried them on...not bad! She wore them home and I will make another pair longer in the leg next time..feel free to click to enlarge if you want to check out those butterflies. I have my string blocks out and set up to stitch on but have found myself not quite in the mood.

woo hoo it's Friday night

2008-10-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

I love this Friday night-it's my last being on my own and I know I will be able to sleep in tomorrow until I wake up. I buckled down and tidied up the fabric room-there is now plenty of room for Alice and her porta-crib to spend the night. I have been meaning to make a new pillow case for a pillow I came across that would be perfect for when she spends the night here. I am showing the before and after -I am not such a fan of creepy Halloween stuff. However, these bugs are exactly my type! (click for a larger view)
I have more of this flannel fabric for a pair of pants for Alice. I am looking forward to an Alice weekend and fitting in quilting as I can. I grocery shopped and stocked up on all her favorites. We are supposed to have sunny days this weekend and playing at the park will be at the top of her list of things to do. And, here is a photo of the space she will be sleeping in tomorrow night.

I will take down the big ironing board that the quilt is over there on the right side-plenty of room for a small crib - eventually we will get a twin trundle bed when she graduates to a "big" bed.
PS- the hanging quilts were not made by me- two were made by children in Africa for a fund raiser I contributed to and the other is by Bonnie M. Bucknam, called The Edge of the World 2007-she was a vendor at our guild show with wonderful hand dyed fabrics and a few pieces to showcase her fabrics-this was my big birthday gift that year. I have not found the right spot to hang it up as yet. She lives in Vancouver WA.

the quilting I am doing tonight

2008-10-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge and see where the green thread is to know the current quilting area, under the" is"
I watched the final Season 5 Runway show tonight and the designer I had been rooting for (Leeann from Portland OR) won! woohoo! I had to holler all by myself...being home alone and all. And during this show and others this is the quilting I have been getting done. I had to go find a glass in the kitchen to help draw half arcs (see the green thread??) as my curve sketching was not coming out the way I wanted. I am taking my time doing this hand quilting and really enjoying myself. I will finish across and then decide what and where to quilt next. I am making it up as I go along and loving it.
My workplace finally put up a firewall so I can no longer read my yahoo email at work on breaks.
drats! It was such a help to be able to pop on and shoot off a quick email or get some reading time in. Oh well. I think I will just have to leave my desk and take a quilting break instead.
Tomorrow night I need to go over to the kids and give some lessons in pruning to my dil. She is a budding gardener and I am mentoring her a bit. Always fun to go over to their house and visit.
Alice is coming on Saturday to spend the night-we can hardly wait!

back of rainbow hope

2008-10-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

I came home for lunch yesterday hoping for an email with a number for the rainbow hope quilt.
I was lucky and the number was there. I followed the directions and popped it into the mail on my way back to work. I took not the best photo- you can not even see the black sleeve, but, the label was the main focus and that shows up great. I plan on emailing family and friends to encourage them to go check out all these quilts and bid on ones they like. There is a wonderful variety of quilts to look at and bid on. Of course, I will do some bidding myself. What a wonderful way to support fellow quilters and raise money for a great cause. You can go take a look anytime here.

Quilted Hope

2008-10-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

Here it is all quilted and waiting for the quilt number to be emailed to me! No photo of the back until after I add that number. I had to add a traditional sleeve as I had missed reading that requirement the first read through.

I am pleased to have this finished and can turn my focus to several other quilting projects on the go. This week I am home alone and want to make the most of no distractions to accomplish a few things. So far I worked late Monday and arrived home at 8 pm. A good thing as I reached a goal at work and can cruise through the rest of the week easily. Tonight I will arrive home on time and ready to do the next thing- whatever I decide that is. I know how quickly this week will fly by and no matter what I get done or not, it's nice to enjoy some quiet and alone space/time.

Hope...

2008-10-11T17:08:00.001-07:00

now ready to quilt-I knifed edged it rather than bind it-which means it finishes at just under the size limit without losing any part of the letters on the sides.
whew! My plan is to hand quilt with perle cotton in various colors. Next post will show how that works out.
We are going out to dinner tonight and then I can settle in and quilt while catching up on tv watching. I may feel a little sad to mail it off come Monday but know it will help fund a wonderful cause.

I have something new to show

2008-10-05T01:39:00.000-07:00

though Alice and family were here for a visit and brought supper and they all were being adorable- nope, I am not showing new photos of them.
After they left, we cleaned up and I decided I needed to get some quilty things done, no matter how late it got. I fixed another pulled apart seam in my kindness quilt (nice that I had not done any quilting before noticing it this time), I cut fabric for a quilter in need, and then sat down with the priority hope challenge rules and notes. Aha, a chance to use the gorgeous hand dyed fabrics I bought at spring market. I started with this roll, cut strips, and here is the completed top. It can not be larger than 9 inches by 12 inches..I will be just about exactly that. I may have to trim a bit more, as it needs to fit in a priority envelope without being scrunched in. It was so much fun to make this, and fast! These fabrics can be found here.
If you want to join the fun of making one of these for a deserving cause- check out how to do that here.

Happy October-a day early

2008-09-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

brought to you by miss alice wonderful, in her new pumpkin dress from uncle ryan!

[My son Ryan was out for a brief visit from Texas-he brought all sorts of cute things for Alice, this being the one I could not resist putting on to see how it looked. ]