Copy Cat

Here's a snippet of the back of a quilt in progress, quilted by a talented long-armer.
And here's my attempt to mimic this for a pillow sham. It's actually not too shabby!! You'll have to wait a few weeks to see the fronts of the sham and quilt.

Lazy Blogger

Lazy bloggers get no respect or readers! Things have been so busy for me lately. I have one more class before finals next week. Then, no class prep for 4 straight weeks. Yea! I have been out straight sewing to complete a couple of Christmas presents.

In lieu of pictures of real sewing progress, here's a couple shots of Linus flimsies that I did about 3-4 weeks ago. The top one is all greens from a scrap bag that needed pruning. The border fabric, though it does not show well, has cute little red lady bugs. I may also applique a ladybug to the quilt before it is finished. These are all from my vast collection of florals- mostly scraps or pieces donated or acquired at Linus events. This top is 40"x50" and may get a border too. Once Christmas is past, I will get them quilted and finished.

Right now, that takes precedence over everything. I had 2 quilts off being quilted. They have both returned home to me safely, about 7-10 days ago. Thanks Ginger, your tips for quilters were both first rate. Except for a couple snaffus with each quilt, they are done, bound, washed and awaiting the freakin' wrapping fairy (AKA me) to get them ready for the tree. Since their arrival, however, I decided it'd be nice to make pillow shams. It really sucks to be SO ambitious, I tell you. Of course I had to order more of the Moda Simplicity charm squares to do this. Yes, OF COURSE. And the other shams just needed this fabric, which is scattered throughout the quilt. I think I initially had 6 6" squares of the stuff, and didn't even know it's name (that made the search process a bit more tricky!!). It's colorful stuff, and I knew it was Kaffe Fassett (or Philip Jacobs), and now know it is called Turquoise Grandiose. I found a shop in Portsmouth, NH with it in stock. Figured that is only an hour away, it oughtta arrive in a day or two. It's for accents.

So, rather than sewing this afternoon, since three of my fingers have needle wounds from hand quilting to an excessive amount, I opted to start wrapping presents. Kids love to unwrap lots of little things. But I sure HATE wrapping so many little goodies. I have only gotten through their stocking stuffers. Phew...

Our tree is partially up. OK, it is up, and decorated partially on the upper 2/3. The kitten we have is not so trustworthy yet so there's no fun baubbles within her reach. The poor clawless rat can't get too far up it trunk either! I may just have to chop off those branches anyhow to get the ton of presents we have underneath the tree :-)

Have a great weekend, and be patient. Only 2 more weeks and I have a least a week's worth of goods to show, one new project each day-

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Alien Food??

One might think that this is alien food at first blush. Actually, this is my feeble attempt at bringing a little holiday cheer into our thus far, undecorated-for-Christmas home(unless you count the fact that the stocking holders are ontop of the china hutch, and have been since last year ...ooohhh the gasps!!). I have all but decided not to put out the outside lights this year. It's been wicked cold for nearly a month now, and this is a definite outdoor, freeze your butt off job that will fall at my feet. Also, we got so much freakin snow last year, the lights were up (not lit mind you) until late April since the cords were burried into 2-3 feet of snow and ice for 4 (yes FOUR) months. This year is simpler. I usually have a mini tree in our balcony nook (visible from outside and from our upstairs, but not accessible by anyone but our precocious kitten. It will not go up this year, Gee...wonder why?? Hopefully this weekend we will attempt getting a tree from the tree farm.
Anywho...I decided on a wild hair it'd be fun for my younger two to make a few Christmas cookies today. They like to mix this and that, but when it gets right to it, they really like to pour on the colored sprinkles and eat them. So I went with store bought sugar cookie and gingerbread doughs. It was a hit.

These are a little scarry, but heck, they loved making them, as usual.

And here's 30 seconds after they went in the oven. "Are they done yet??"

Happy shots making the alien creations. A couple of aliens will undoubtedly decend on the cookie jar tonight after the kids retire, if you get my drift.

And as for quilty progress...there's a ton of it going on, but it's all for holiday gifts and I cannot share it right now. I have a couple of jobs nearly completed, and a couple more that need about 10 of the next 21 days to complete. I promise, on Dec 24 I will start to post some good shots. And I will have about a week of these :-)

Oh, took my 4 year old shopping for him to select a present for his 6 yr old brother. The first words out of his mouth later were to tell his brother! Coulda strangled the little bugger!!

Now if you havent already. go consider the swap I am hosting after the holidays. I need another 12 people still! www.four seasonsquiltswap.blogspot.com

Never Again

...will I think that a scalloped binding will be pretty. It is just a pain in the arse!!! ...all 400 inches of it :-) Cannot say any more as this is someone's Christmas present.

Four Seasons Quilt Swap New Session

I have posted the sign ups for the Session 5 of the 4SQS. Go Look-see if you think you might be interested!!

My link function will NOT work. So go here...

http://www.fourseasonsquiltswap.blogspot.com/

Happy Turkey Day!

3 of 5 rows added on. You get the idea, now go eat some turkey!

Little Dresses Update

This picture looks cruddy, I know. I had to have taken 30 yesterday in my hallway, under not the greatest lighting. That obnoctious alphabet mat needs to go for sure! Once I get it together, I can pin it to my board and get better pics without my shadows in the way! Or better yet...show it in the bedroom where it will eventually live.


Things have progressed well in the last week. My order of more stripey fabric came yesterday. All of the squares but the one remaining are bordered, and I have enough should I use it for the binding.

(double click for a better look)

Fourteen of Fifteen done, mostly. One needs to have the paper removed and possibly change the velvet sash to a smaller width (below).

Here's another of my recently done dresses. This pink fabric is in some of the stuff in the room already. Lisa sent me some great fabrics this week. one of the soft aquas will be used for the last dress block. IT's just the color I was hunting too!

I have gone nuts over these silly little bows, nearly ditching them altogether. If you remember, I started out with pink bows, and had done 4 or 5 when I discovered the pink stripe fabric (and that I did not like the bows with the stripes!). They are a wasteful pain in the butt to make. It takes about 45 minutes to make 2 bows. Paper piecing...(UGGH!)
Then, with the aid of Photoshop, I manipulated the colors of the bows a bit, and discovered that green ones were more attractive. I also realized I had done the central fabric incorrectly, and it needed to be the floral of the ribbon, rather than the ivory. I had that green floral (Moda Blackbird) material to do a skirt or dress for Sophie and had not gotten around to making it yet. It matches the quilt nicely. It will appear again in the borders somehow too!

Only, I found one more error in my PP planning (curses!!...fortunately I decided to just make ONE green bow to see if I liked it first). I made a modification to the PP pattern so that the floral "ribbon" will mate up properly, and now have 9 of these made. I need a minimum of 10. Ideally, if I could locate another half yard of the yellow floral (ribbon fabric), I'd do 20 of the bows. I have this material in Sophie's crib bumpers, but cannot bring myself as of yet to cut them up. The last go-around on the bows is definitely my favorite - they appear larger (fuller?).

So, the top is just about ready to be assembled. One block and one bow left, and a bit of manipulation of the sashings to make them have ribbon points (wait and see here)....not to mention rearranging the blocks a dozen times before sewing!

So, in 2 week's time, I have gone from this ...
to this...
Good improvements!

Swap Frustrations

Many of the people that read this blog have been participants in swaps, so they are able to share in my frustration. In fact, some of them have even hosted swaps as I do. You know the challenges of satisfying all people even more.
My round robin is coming to a close soon. People are finishing the quilting on their pieces, and sending them out to their final recipients. And then we anxiously await the happy email saying how much they like their quilt.

Or maybe not so much like that. This particular quilt did not really suit the taste of it's new owner, much to my disappointment.

In this round robin session, I allowed preferences as to what they like or dislike, and each of the 4 partners working on a particular quilt were given these. The intention was to more closely customize a final quilt to the end recipient's taste. It seemed good in theory. The problem is when quilter's take their own liberty to ignore these preferences, as is permitted (though not preferred). People come to expect a quilt that adheres to their stated preferences, forgetting that this is still a swap. I'd like to think that when people state things that they definitely dislike, a quilter will read these as a requirement for the quilt. Problem is, some people apparently dislike some colors that may be requested, and chose their own.

As the hostess of this swap, I feel somewhat responsible. But in reality, all I actually did was the quilting & binding. The center has a lovely applique. Simple, but still leaving the door open to make this in the requested colors. Because the borders are basic, I was stuck trying to be creative with the quilting (a position I prefer not to be in!!).

I used an ivory rayon thread in much of the center, and a variagated rose-red King Tut for the outer border. The center has some additional patterning, and is filled with a small stipple. Double click and you can see the details.

I mimicked the center flower on the outer border to try to carry the design through. This shows a little bit from the back side.

It's hard to blame anybody here. I hate to do that. Swaps by nature incur risk. I know that better than most, having a number of crappy swapping experiences this year. I am sorry you do not care for red. I am sorry that this was not specified in your preferences. On behalf of this quilting project, I did all I could to ensure that you received a nice quilt. That's all I can say.

Wanted: Need Some of This

Has anybody seen this, or have any of, this fabric?

I bought it about 2-1/2 years ago at Joann's. It is not their usual rough stuff. It's their premium fabric line, running about $9 per yard, and is very fine and heavy weight material. I checked yesterday, and they did not have any in my store, and were amidst a computer issue so all available clerks were busy with a catastrophe. I was not about to wait abolut with my kids, close to naptime, to ask about a likely needle in a haystack.

Please email if you have any. I ultimately would like about a half yard, and would trade about anything for it!

I Missed my Chance...

...to be a real Pioneer Woman. And to make a real Thanksgiving dinner. If only... If only I'd had a shotgun this morning...

We have followed these turkeys over the last 5-6 months. In about May, they began appearing in the early morning hours, walking right through our yard. Now, we live in a subdivision, not out in the wooded country. It's quite a sight to see a turkey family of 15-20 (5 adults, rest little birds) walking down the sidewalk!

Now they are obviously all grown, and it is an even bigger sight to see the flock of large adult birds within 10 feet of my study window, oblivious to the fact that many of us will be eating their kin next week for dinner. They are just lucky it is November, not May (open season for Turkey!).

Stripes!!

OK, so I listened to you all, some of you that is. I have to admit, when I went to bed Wednesday night, I was pretty convinced that the green was best. It matched a rug that is in Sophie's room very well, and it was, well, calming.

In morning's light, I did another mockup of the green and the stripes, and was pretty sure that the stripes were best (even before I got positive reinforcement from readers). Sophie even picked the stripes. She's not to be trusted alone though as she is only two. My husband jokes that when I get this quilt completed, Sophie will be begging for Star Wars bedding just like her brothers do!

So, I had a half yard of this stripe material. I knew I needed more if I went the stripe route. It's actually a bit hard to find, although I do have another yard of it on order right now from equilter. I may use if on the binding and other room accents.

This closeup shows the glorious sheen of the material. It is truly lovely. And girly! I am waffling on using the paper-pieced bows at the cornerstones though. I don't like the rose material that the bows are done in with the stripes (plus they are just a PIA to make). I'm weighing some other ideas while I complete the last 3-4 of these dress blocks, and await the Lakehouse fabric to arrive. Maybe they need to be done in different material, or maybe they ought to just be ivory (easy) squares! Don't know yet. Oh, and there is a border still to design :-)...this is just what is on the top of the bed!

Need advice

I just love my dress blocks, and I even like the bow-n-ribbon sashing. But what I am floundering on is whether I ought to do another narrower border (0.5") around every block to help unify them more. I think the answer is definitely yes. My quandry is which material to use.

I have some of this Lakehouse Dry Goods Hydrangae Garden ticking. It is a lovely stripe, with a bit of almost metallic/sheen in the pinks. I will do the stripes around all 4 sides of the blocks the same (probably even miter the corners), but for the sake of this mock-up, I just layed the dresses and sashings on the fabric.

My other fabric candidate is this sage print. It has a fine flower pattern on it. It too looks great in the bedroom, but brings a more subtle look. I cannot decide which to use!!!

I think I know which one I am leaning towards, but I want other opinions.

Also, are the bow colors OK if I did use the stripe?

A Royal Day

I got the Royal treatment today! I mean...I got the Royal Mail treatment today. Two great squishies arrived, both postmarked from the UK.

The first is another of the birthday block swap New York Beauties from Kate. Very colorful!... and thanks for the scraps for the flying geese border too :-)
The second package was from Anne, and is my ALQS2 quilt. It did not photograph as it is all pastels, but she is a very machanical quilter - immensely accurate. The fact that she never misses a triangle point strikes accord with my sense of order! There's no use in making a triangle if you are just going to chop off it's point with your next seam!
I think she may have made this with the thought that I might put it in my 2 year old daughter's bedroom, as it is decorated partly in pink. Either way, it will likely go there since the rest of our house is mostly in deeper colors. It just looks like a little girl to me.
Anne's quilting is textbook. Her hearts look like they were done by a programmable long arm, although I don't think that they were. I think she just knows how to make it all look perfect.

It's very lovely; thanks a lot Anne.

Here's Dress block #9 for Sophie's quilt (yes, only 6 more to bore you all with!!). I particularly love how the sash turned out.

I have also tried making a couple of these paper pieced bows. They are a bit of a pain in the arse, but thankfully there are only 8 more to do!! The next shot shows the sashing fabric I have leftover from the curtains (golden-pink floral). I really love this material, and the flecks of bright green in it. Thoughts...should the paler pink fabric in the bows be a deeper tone??

And one staged view of 4 blocks with the sashing. I don't want to sew sashing to blocks until I know exact block placements. Soon...

Planning at a Snails Pace

OK, so these are nothing new. You have all seen them a few weeks back. The plan for what I plan to do with them is all that is unseen, unless you consider my afternoon's meeger effort of adding a mere 1" border around each block. My mind has been taxed lately with completing other things, worrying about the quilting on a piece that I hope to have back before Christmas, and general life (my class, kids, etc).
I have wasted an inordinate amount of time today drafting a bow pattern to use at the junction points where the sashings will come together. The first one I drew up would have been a beast to construct. This can be paper pieced rather simply. And since I only need 10 of these, I'm not overly concerned about the complexity. I am tentatively planning to use a button as the bow centers. The sashings will all be the same fabrics, so as to make the colorful array of little dresses appear cohesive.

(colors not necessarily as I have shown...this is just for pattern/size placement)

The sketch above shows where the bows would be - at the junction of 4 dress blocks. The sashings will be done to resemble a ribbon. I think I have enough of the yellow floral fabric that is the outer stripe on the curtains shown here. It has hints of rose and lime green, and is just generally sweet and old-fashioned. It also tones down the many shades of pink being used.

I have a couple of Linus tops completed this week as well. One is still awaiting it's ladybug, but they're generally done. I'll photograph them tomorrow.

Now to go ponder if I want the entire top of this quilt to be 15 dress blocks, or if I ought to alternate with something else?? Thoughts?? ...indicision!

Two more from Julie

The bottom two arrived today from Julie (aka floribunda.blogspot.com). She sent two because she was uncertain of the first one's colors. I LOVE the 2nd one especially and think it blends wonderfully.

Playing a Little

It was an easy sell...convincing my husband that our 7 year old Olympus was not taking great pictures any more. Within 5 days or so we had a new Panasonic Lumix, with about 200 times the capabilities of our old Olympus. He did the research and said that this was a very good camera for the $$. Who was I to complain. Now I have to learn to use it. That could take another 7 years.

Here's a few of the NYB blocks I have thus far. The top two are from Terri (left one has a problem, but she sent it along anyway). I'll probably fix it so I can use it. These blocks take quite a while to make. I made the bottom two. They are 8", and should employ red, orange and/or purple batiks. I'd prefer them to have all 3 colors, but I failed to specify this early on in the swap. I'll love whatever I get. It's a very spicy color combination. I am excited - I have heard of 3 other people that have just mailed their blocks to me! I can't wait to see all of them together. I just wish I'd requested a small piece of a couple of the fabrics each had used (say 4"x4") so that I can do a cohesive flying geese border for this!...

I have been playing with the new camera, but have by no means mastered anything. These 4 pics were assembled with a scrapbooking software that I use, so I have no idea what it did to the original resolution.

Birthday Block Swap Blocks

...for the month of November.
For Debra - pattern selected is 14" Autumn Tints in pastel 1930's prints.

Angelina chose a southwestern Arizona theme. THis is my rendition of a saddle blanket. Hope she appreciates the trouble all those pesky angles was!! :-)

And I don't have a group 4 block to do this month because it is my month to receive. I got 2 of my red, purple and orange batik New York Beauty blocks today.

So Many Questions

To quilt or not to quilt?

To border or not to border?

AAHHH...! My head's gonna pop soon :-)

This is borderline too big for what I like to quilt on my machine. But I have wanted to try the quilting in sections method so that I might be able to quilt the top I am assembling for my daughter (twin bed size) - just to see if it's feasible. I know that I can hide the seams with this piece, as it is quite busy. I want to do feathers down the diagonals. My local machine quilter wants me to pay dearly for her to do the feathers (only because she'd rather do the more simple all-over pantographs).
center medallion. Not sure if I love this, but it's done.

So, I added the last 4 squares. Finished them up while my kids were not yet awake this morning. Need to assemble the blocks and then... A border? I only want to add about 3-4" per side at most. Any ideas on what to do? I'm kind of devoid of good suggestions. I have been hoarding my better blue fabrics for another big project for next year so I hate to use any of them for a boring 4" border (takes a good half yard to do). I do have some of the sunflower fabric I could use. What would you do??? or am I just being anal worrying about this?

And one totally unrelated subject, but I am looking for feedback. My digital camera is taking less and less great pictures. I have an Olympus C-700 with a great 10x optical zoom. When we got it 7 years ago, I LOVED it. The pictures were crisp. Now I feel like more and more I am having to rationalize why they are either bad light or grainy. I think I am in the market for a new camera. My only requirement is that the optical zoom be equal to the Olympus. Does anyone have good camera suggestions? I am in the $500 maximum mindset. I'd love to hear from you if you have a camera that you think is awesome.

have a great weekend

:-)