Snow Quilter

A whole day to myself

2009-07-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? I will get a whole day to myself this weekend! It is almost a little scary.

I will be attending the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair in Crystal Lake, IL where I will be shopping and taking workshops. I am looking forward to seeing Sue from Pacafil. I met her last year at the fair. She and her sister make batting from alpaca wool. It feels amazing and is supposed to be quite warm. I got a small sample from them the last time I saw them. This year I planned ahead and emailed them asking them to bring some larger samples (that I would gladly pay for) so that I can take it home and test how it quilts up. Can't wait to get the samples and give them a whirl.

I'm also looking forward to the two workshops I will be taking. The morning workshop is on sock knitting. I got my double points and some yarn this weekend at my local yarn shop (love shopping at the local stores - like to keep them in business. Here's a tip - cash is best at these small shops as they pay a hefty fee for credit cards). Of course the yarn I got is alpaca!

The afternoon workshop is on surface design. I think that we will be doing some painting, dying and other such fun things as the class description says to wear grubby clothes that you don't care get ruined.

Oh and I should mention how the quilt bee went two weeks ago. There were a half dozen or so ladies at my house. I set up tables outside and covered them with plastic. Then we wet our fabric and got to painting! We used setacolor soliel paints applied with either a sponge brush or a spray bottle. One of the ladies brought her mother in law who was visiting from out of town and even she got into painting. Too bad that the day was overcast or we could have had real fun with the solar reactive paints. A week later the ladies were still raving about how much fun they had painting their fat quarters.

Wow, sorry about the stream of consciousness dribble that seems to have gone on and on. I'll update next week when I will (hopefully) have my camera working (we are supposed to get a new charger tonight).

Found the Camera!

2009-07-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

I found the camera. I even pulled it out. I opened it up. I turned it on. The batteries were dead.

No worries, they are rechargable. I have lots of rechargable batteries in both AA and AAA sizes.

So I popped the batteries into the charger and plugged it in.

No go. Not charging. Flipped the light switch. Nope. Flipped the other switch. Nope. Unplugged and replugged with both switches on. Nope.

Took it to my favorite electricity guru. He tested the charger. No juice. There is a short in the cord. There will be no more battery charging until I can replace the cord.

Bummer.

Someone remind me to pull out my camera

2009-06-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

I know where my camera is, I really do. It just seems I forget to use it! So give me a pinch and tell me to get it out and I might have some photos for you one of these days!

That aside, what have I been up to? I have actually been sewing! I love it. I have not been doing well at finding time to sew every day, but I am sewing more than I used to. In the last couple of weeks, I made an attached the binding to a charity quilt. I still have to sew the binding around on the back of the quilt, but it is that much closer to complete.

I also caught up on the hand work on my Tropical Flowers quilt. I think that makes 8 or 9 completed blocks. I have yet to cut out and fuse the rest of the flowers so it will be set aside until I get the time to trace the pattern - won't happen this week.

Why not this week? Oh holy cow, let me tell you!

I am preparing to move this fall to my fiance's house. In doing so, I am getting a new sewing room. So I decided that I really need a good sewing machine table. I went looking for a table but decent ones are $700 to $1100, far outside my budget. While I was searching craigslist I found a 4'x8' countertop someone was selling cheap so I went to go see it. It was perfect! It is huge! And she was selling a whole bunch of office furniture. So I got the countertop, 2 armless task chairs, two 6' metal storage cabinets, a 5 drawer lateral filing cabinet, a metal printer cart, and a 6' bookcase. Oh and the woman gave me about 200 white kraft bags with handles just because she needed to get rid of them! I'll cut a hole in the countertop and fiance will get first dibs on the rest of the stuff for his home office. I don't imagine I would get any of it to fit in my sewing room - the countertop, once on legs, will just about fill the sewing room.

And that's not all! Tonight I have to get ready because tomorrow night the quilt bee will be meeting at my house. I promised to teach them to use setacolor soliel paints to "dye" fabric. I have three large banquet tables that I will cover with plastic and put in the yard. I have several colors of setacolor paints, various brushes, pots and spray bottles. Each quilter is going to bring a fat quarter to paint and hopefully everyone will have a nearly dry piece of fabric to take home with them.

Thursday night begins the weekend here in the US. Independence day is on Saturday and so most employers are closed on Friday, including mine and fiance's. We'll relax on Thursday night, have his brother and brother's fiance over for a cookout on Friday, clean up and reorganize fiance's home office on Saturday and meet with our gaming group on Sunday. Somewhere in there I will have to squeeze in some sewing.

As for today, I have my knitting with me here at work so that I can get a little something done at lunch time. Wish me luck on that!

Back into the swing of things

2009-06-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

It has been a very long time since I have blogged. I make no apologies. The blog is for me. I hope it entertains or inspires my readers, but I no longer feel obligated to make regular entries.

That being said, I hope that you will soon notice that my entries will become more regular.

I have recently had a birthday. For my birthday I got an iPod. I immediately subscribed to every free quilting podcast available. So all week this week I have been listening to podcasts while I worked.

I have become a big fan of a particular podcast by Brye Lynn called "Sew, Stitch, Create!" Yesterday Brye Lynn dared me... yes, she DARED me, no, she dared ME to make sewing a necessity - to make it such a priority that I made sure I touched my creativity every day. And so I re-embark on my adventure.

Last night I touched my tropical flowers blocks. I only sewed a few inches, but I touched it. It made me happy and I felt I had accomplished something. I also read a book. I'll save the title of the book for a later post when I will also review the book but rest assured it was a quilting book.

So here's a great big shout out and kudos to Brye Lynn for setting me on the path to creativity again. Now, can someone give me a map so I don't get lost again?

She's a pretty kitty

2008-11-05T05:36:00.000-08:00

This is the scene that I come home to every day. Yesterday I caught it on camera. I swear this cat is part dog.

2008-11-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a bit of a bust as far as crafting went. I was not feeling well and had little energy. I did get a few rows done on my second knitted dishcloth and I have almost all of my green scraps trimmed to standard sizes. I wanted to start (and finish) a casual jacket for my mother but completely forgot to get it started. I have the fabric and the pattern, I just need to cut it out and whip it together. No buttons or zippers required for this pattern but it will be my first time making something out of slinky. I hope it is forgiving.

What did happen this weekend is that I got a new front door storm door that actually closes and seals so well that it is noticeably warmer in the house now that it has been installed. In fact, we can leave the steel door wide open and there is no draft! The nicest part of the new door is that the screen rolls up into the door when the window part is up and pulling down the storm window reveals the screen. No way kitty is going to get her claws into it and as long as we keep the screen put away when we aren't using it, it is less likely to get damaged. Bonus - there is no glass to be removed in the summer when we want to install the screen, the glass just slides down and out of the way.

Dishcloth done!

2008-10-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here it is finished! It is a little small. I have started a second dishcloth with larger needles (size 9) and I am going to use more stitches (60 on the diagonal). This should increase the size of the dishcloth by about 35% on each side. Why the boring natural color? So that I can bleach the heck out of it after I abuse it in my kitchen.

Learning to knit

2008-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon, my library hosted a learn to knit class. The local knitting guild was there to teach anyone to knit. The library had pulled a number of books from the shelves about knitting for us to look at and check out and the guild provided door prizes. There were so many door prizes that they had one for every new knitter! My name was called last for the prizes so I didn't get a choice of which prize I received, but I am more than happy. I got a one year subscription to Vogue knitting and a book about knitting cables. I might have preferred some yarn to the magazine subscription as I didn't have any yarn to get started on a project with, but I am glad that the cable book is what was left. I have always wanted to learn to knit socks and cabled sweaters but would have felt silly taking the cable book as a beginner. Now I have the book when I am ready to take on the challenge.

They provided knitting needles and small balls of yarn. They showed us how to cast on, knit and purl. I was fairly confident when I left the library that afternoon and very excited. I love knitted dishcloths and had a plan to make a few of them this week. I headed out to the craft store and got two balls of cotton yarn - sugar and cream was on sale. I had my size 8 needles. Monday I downloaded a few dishcloth patterns and found my favorite one - very simple and knitted on the diagonal. I started the dishcloth on Tuesday night and I am already more than half way through the dishcloth. I am sure I will finish it tonight at basket bingo. Looks like my skeins will make 3 dishcloths each.

I will be at mom and dad's this weekend. I asked mom if she wanted some knitted dishcloths. She sounded skeptical but said she'd decide after she's seen one. I am sure she will want one after she sees how nice my first attempt looks. So far I have dropped one stitch and skipped one stitch. You can find the mistakes if you look for them. Otherwise my tension is fairly nice and the pattern is simple. It's a dishcloth for goodness sake! It is going to be used to wash greasy dirty dishes and wipe down countertops. It will have the heck bleached out of it too. No way I am going to unknit just to pick up one dropped stitch or one skipped stitch - I've got this in perspective.

More on the weekend

2008-10-21T07:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning we were up bright and early heading out to Port Clinton to go perch jerking. It was a beautiful day - mostly sunny yet crisp. Unfortunately it only got worse from there.

I wore a long sleeved cotton knit shirt, a long sleeved hoodie sweatshirt, and a thick fleece jacket. I also wore a pair of polypropelene thermal underwear, a pair of leggings and a denim skirt with a pair of cotton socks and a pair of thermal socks. I figured layering was the way to go. I also had a second jacket, a pair of gloves, a fleece headband, and another long sleeved thermal shirt in a baggie just in case I got a little cold. And it was a good thing I had these things along.

We got on the boat and headed off about 8 am. By 9 am we dropped anchor. We started fishing and weren't really catching much of anything. Sure there were a few fish here and there, but nothing notable. Then the wind picked up. I added the gloves and fleece headband. The boat began to toss. They were only 1-3 foot swells, but it was enough to make it difficult to fish. Ya see, perch school near the bottom of the lake, so you want to keep your bait near the bottom. Well if the boat rises 3 feet, your bait rises off the bottom 3 feet - moving away from the perch.

If that wasn't bad enough, by 10:30 we were experiencing 7 to 9 foot swells. This was when my brain and my belly had had enough. I was absolutely green. Then it got worse! Yes, worse I tell you! Captain Joe decided to move the boat to a different location south of the islands where we could still find fish but where we would have some shelter from the wind. He took off and I was hit with a wall of water. Yep, 50 degrees, 9 foot swells, and now I am soaking wet! So much for all the layers I intelligently wore.

I was completely miserable at this point and ready to burst into tears. Fortunately the first mate took pity on me and he and the captain allowed me to sit in the cabin with him. There I took off a lot of my soaked clothing - skirt, hoodie, fleece, gloves - and sat in the sun. I had taken a dramamine early on and so I was quite sleepy. I laid out with my wet legs in the sun and dried out while I napped. The captain and first mate would come in from time to time to chat with me and see how I was doing. They even offered me a snack of some crackers and a very delicious smelling catfish cheese spread (I politely declined - it smelled good but I wasn't entirely sure the movement of the boat would allow my stomach to agree).

About 2 pm we started to head back into the marina and got in about 3 pm. In all, we managed to catch about 12 fish. No one had done very well on the boat. There was a group of men that took pity on us and gave us their fish, and the mate gave us a few of his. We dropped our catch off at the cleaning shack, unloaded the boat, loaded the car and headed to supper. In all, we had about 30 fish, mostly small. They were 7.5 lbs of live weight, 2.5 lbs filleted.

We found a little diner in town and had burgers for a very late lunch. We finished eating before the fish were ready so we did a little shopping. The used book store was not much to mention except they had a signed copy of Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative. The bead store was more to brag about. The store had every kind of bead and bauble you could imagine packed into this teeny tiny storefront. I had a ball looking through all the beads and wished I had hundreds to spend - I could have easily done it. In the end I got some lovely very large glass "pearls" and some black cut glass beads.

2008-10-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a weekend!

On Wednesday we decided to go perch fishing in Ohio for the weekend. So Thursday I went to work and inquired about vacation time. Ya see, the boss did not know if the company was going to give us December 24 and 25 off or if we were going to get December 25 and 26 off this year. I had already requested off for December 26 (who wants to go to work the day after Christmas when Christmas is on a Thursday, right?). So I made an inquiry about the holiday plan at work. Turns out that we are being given December 24, 25 AND 26 as paid holiday time this year. Lucky me got an extra vacation day to spend all of a sudden. So, I took Friday, October 17th as a vacation day.

We left for Ohio on Friday morning, leaving the house around 9 am our time and actually getting on the road by 10 am. You know, stop for gas, get some road food, buy some beverages, etc. before hitting the highway can take an hour or so. I wanted to get to Ohio in time to visit my favorite quilt shop, Sonflower Quilts & Gifts in Sylvania, Ohio before it closed for the day. Lucky me, they were in the middle of a shop hop and were open late that day - until 6 pm!

Got to the quilt shop and oh what fun! They recently moved into a larger location in the same shopping center and what a difference it has made. There are goodies to be found in every nook and cranny. I am told they managed to move the entire store in only two days! It is nice to have great friends is all they kept saying - truly blessed.

So what did I get while I was there? I got a fat quarter for a friend. I picked up their notion of the month - a corner trimmer. Usually $5 I think I got it for $3 or $4. Actually I bought 3. The package contains a triangularish piece of acrylic and a booklet that describes how to trim corners of every kind to reduce bulk in your seams. I also found the world's greatest marking pencil. It is from Sewline and comes in yellow, white, black, pink, green, and maybe blue (not sure on the blue). It is nearly $13 for the pencil and a container of leads and an eraser, but it gives nice, strong marks that are very thin and the eraser actually erases the marks! You can purchase erasers and leads separately. I got the yellow pencil, but I know I will want more than just one! Hmm I wonder if my secret sister at guild reads my blog?

In any case, after shopping, we went to dinner and then drove out to the marina to reserve our places on the boat for the next morning. More on the trip tomorrow.

2008-10-15T10:34:00.001-07:00

For those who have been wondering, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I am alive and kicking and even doing well.

I joined a second guild a few months ago, got the studio reorganized (see last post) and decided it was time to tackle that massive collection of scraps.

I really have no idea how I managed to accumulate so many scraps in the first place. I don't think that I have finished on average more than one quilt per year since I started quilting about 10 years ago. Sure, I have made a tote here and there and I have half a dozen tops waiting to be quilted, but at first count I had five, yes FIVE small laundry baskets of scraps!

So I started in on the slicing and dicing. Scraps that were a half yard or more were left alone. Those between a half yard and a fat quarter were cut into fat quarters. Standard quarter yards were sliced into strips. Random smaller scraps were cut into standard sizes of strips and squares.

Now I have a collection of strips of various widths (2.5", 2", and 1.5") and a collection of squares (12.5", 6.5", 5", 4.5", 3.5", 2.5", 2", and 1.5"). If it didn't measure at least 1.5 inches square, it was tossed. I had to draw the line somewhere.

In all of this I discovered a few things. First, I have cut into a lot of fabric over the years. Second, I still need to work on that memory quilt for my mom. Third, I must really like blue and cream and beige tones are my favorite neutrals (as opposed to gray tones). I think I have enough blue 1.5" squares to make a decent sized quilt.

What am I going to do with my squares and strips? Most will be saved and used for scrap quilts. Some can be used for applique. I am going to use some of the intermediate sized squares and wider strips for baby quilts for the AQG charity drive. Someone I work with will soon be adopting and I will make a quilt for the new addition to his family - I hope it is a boy cuz I have all that blue to work with. I'll use some of the squares to put together backgrounds for art quilts. Beyond that, I am sure I will find plenty to do with my scraps... aprons, totes, jackets, ooo, how about a quilted jumper for winter? I wonder how comfortable that would be?

Oh and I am nowhere near finished taming my scraps. The first count was 5 baskets. Then I discovered some yardage in there. I cut about three quarters of a basket so far, removed the yardage and consolidated and I am down to about 2.5 or 3 baskets of scraps yet to be cut. I've taken just about every Friday between now and the end of the year off of work, so I should have plenty of time to slice and dice this fall.

Sewing Studio Remodel

2008-09-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

My dearest readers, please accept my sincerest apologies. I know that I have not posted in quite some time. A lot of things have happened since May... vacation, new job, gardening, summertime fun... but very little sewing. I have worked on a baby quilt for a special little girl but I will save the details of that project for a future entry when the quilt is complete.

Part of what has delayed production in the sewing studio has been the utter disorganization that had taken over the room. It was imperative that I remodel and reorganize before I would be able to move forward. So I set to work designing the ideal space, made a few concessions and came to a final, affordable and functional design.

Of course the work is not finished but it is coming along. The photo above is of the 12 foot wall along the back of the room. I have to share the room with another hobbyist and the desk, but the 12 foot wall is all mine. There are 32 linear feet of shelving for fabric and books, and yes, the fabric and books take up all that space. Currently there are tables and racks for work space. Soon these will be replaced with a 2 foot by 12 foot work counter at desk height. The two paper storage towers that are on the left side of the photo will be placed on the right side of the work counter. There are five rolling carts of basket drawers that will slide under the work counter for added storage.

I have also had a large cutting island built. It is on casters and holds four more basket drawer racks. The top surface is 4 foot square. There is a very shallow shelf just below the top surface for storing cutting mats and quilting templates. The counter is 36 inches tall, just the right height for cutting without stooping.

There's still lots to do... remove boxes from the top shelf, move fabric to the top shelf, place books on the lower shelf, hang more bins on the wall, organize the cabinet. It will take some time, but it is already much better than it was. No more plastic bins for my stash!

Photos of the garden

2008-05-26T10:38:00.001-07:00

The Garden is IN!

2008-05-24T21:40:00.001-07:00

I spent two days getting the garden together and now I am paying for it. Oh do I ache. But I have put in all the herbs, all the lettuce, the tomatoes, the peppers and the cucumbers. I also got the hanging pots and the flower containers in the front yard finished. I even got the sprinkler and the automated timer all set up.

I still need to trim some bushes - some need shaping and others need the dead stuff cut out. And earlier today I thinned mom and dad's lilies to plant on the east and west sides of the house. Hopefully they will fill in fast enough that this fall I can pull out the ugly bushes in the back and replace them with lilies. I hope to plant the lilies and get some of the bushes trimmed tomorrow.

I'll have to post photos soon.

Tropical Flowers and my nifty lightbox

2008-04-27T15:25:00.000-07:00

This project was a fusible applique block of the month project from 2006-07 at Sonflower Quilts in Sylvania, OH. Unfortunately I moved to IL shortly after the BOTM began, so I quickly fell behind. I continued to have the monthly kits mailed to me here in IL, but it took time to get my sewing room situated.

Here I am a year later finally getting around to finishing the last 5 blocks and the borders. The pattern is from Simple Pleasures by Cynthia Tomaszweski and is called Tropical Whimsy. The kits were made up mostly of colorful batiks and batik like prints and closely resembles the sample photo of the pattern.

You might have noticed the size of my light box. It is larger than two feet by three feet. This light box was made for me as a Christmas gift in 2006. The lights on the inside are made of rope light. One day I may change out the lights to an LED strand so that the top of the box does not get so warm. Then again, maybe I won't - the cat might be upset that I take away her warm lounging spot. It takes a few hours for it to get warm anyway.

2008-04-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the tulip quilt just last week. It even has a label and a sleeve for hanging. This is my first machine quilted "masterpiece". The center was quilted on the painted black lines and then echo quilted. The fence was stitched in the ditch and stippled between the rails and picketts. The blue border was quilted in spirals to give the impression of wind. I used a fiber that I got from the local cross stitch store. It came on a card and is called Highlights. I don't remember the company that makes it. I wound the fiber onto a bobbin and quilted from the backside. I am pleased with the effect.

Some of my friends might recognize the painted center block as the work of our friend Canuck.

Check this out!

2008-04-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

When I was at the International Quilt Festival last weekend, I was fortunate enough to meet Alex Anderson. She was at the Bernina booth chatting with friends and fans and promoting The Quilt Show. More than just an online program for quilters, the website is a full service oasis for quilting addicts. Blogs, newsletters, patterns, shopping and more! A single series is less than $25. I am told that series 1 will be available on DVD soon and Alex herself assured me that it would be at a great price!

In my few minutes with Alex, I asked her to sign my copy of her Hand Applique book and brought my version of the quilt with me to the show. It is a work in progress as I have not finished the quilting yet. I was pretty proud when Alex was surprised that it was my first hand applique project. She whipped out her camera to take a photo but I think she was out of batteries. One of the guys from Bernina was nice enough to shoot a photo and now that picture on Alex's blog! How awesome is that?

A guide to "doing" the International Quilt Festival - Chicago

2008-04-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

This was my second year at the Chicago International Quilt festival. I have learned a number of things:

1) Don't try to "do" the festival in one day - it is not possible. Take one day for shopping and another for viewing the quilts on display.

2) Carpool. Parking is $11 a day. Carpooling makes multiday visits more affordable and leaves more money for shopping.

3) Don't eat at the fast food kiosks that are available. Find the permanent cafeteria and eat there. I got a half roast chicken dinner with a giant scoop of mashed potatoes with gravy and steamed vegetables for only $9. At the kiosks they were charging $4.50 for a hotdog with no sides!

4) Bring a basic sewing kit. Scissors, needles (various), thimbles (one for piecing and applique and another for hand quilting), thread for sewing in various "neutral" colors (wind small amounts on bobbins)

5) Carry a backpack. Leave your purse at home - you don't need the extra baggage. Wheeled bags and carts are not allowed in the convention center. Tell the vendors you don't need a bag - shove it all in your backpack!

6) If you don't have an electronic navigator and have to print out driving directions online, don't forget to print out directions to get home!

7) If you are on a budget, bring cash and leave the credit cards at home.

8) Bring a water bottle

9) Don't arrive early. Get there about 30 minutes late. If you get there early, you will have to stand in line with no chairs. Early arrivals look like cattle being herded for slaughter.

10) If you will be there 3 days, buy the multiday pass - it is cheaper. If you will be there two days, buy all your tickets at once.

11) Take advantage of the student/senior ticket prices. You don't need to be a senior or student to purchase a senior/student ticket, only to use it.

12) Look up the websites of your favorite quilt artists, authors, and teachers. Find out if they will be there. If so, bring your copies of their books to get signed. If you have finished a small project from one of their workshops or books, bring it too! Teachers and mentors love to see the work of their pupils.

13) Bring a digital camera. Make sure you have lots of spare batteries. Make sure the memory card is clear before you leave. Watch for signs about items that cannot be photographed - there are some exhibits that do not allow photography and most vendors won't allow it. If in doubt, ask.

14) Sign up to become a quilt angel.

15) Avoid getting off the expressway right next to the convention center. You might get stuck on the off ramp for a significant amount of time (30 to 60 minutes). Take the expressway almost there and then use surface streets.

16) Pay for parking before entering the convention center. There will be a giant line at the kiosk to pay as you leave.

17) Leave your coat in the car. The walk from the parking lot to the convention center is by covered, and somewhat heated walkway.

18) Be aware that there is little room for wheelchairs or scooters in the vendor area.

19) Start your shopping in the MIDDLE of the vendor area - others tend to start at either end.

20) If you plan on buying a new machine, use one whole day to do some direct comparison test drives. Every one of the major machine manufacturers are at the show with machines for you to try out. Create a list of questions for the representatives and write down the features that you like for each machine. You will find the best deals on new machines at the show.

21) Look for the lecture and mini classroom areas. You can take free and low cost make and takes and you can sit in on lectures from world class teachers! They always post a schedule near the entrance to these areas.

What ever you do, go to the show and have a great time!

Just a working schmoe

2008-03-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize to my loyal readers for not posting in a number of days. I have had a very hectic two weeks. Last week I spent a good deal of time at mom and dad's house helping them with spring cleaning. We cleaned on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I spent the night Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Thursday night mom and I went to basket bingo at mom and dad's church (the church I attended when I grew up). It was a heck of a lot of fun even though I did not win. The idea is that you buy three cards for $20. They play 20 individual games and the winner of each game receives a Longaberger basket. They serve a free dinner of hot dogs, chips, yummy potatoes au gratin, sloppy joe, coffee, and dessert (donated bake sale type items). All the money made goes to the altar and rosary society.

Sunday, my entire extended family attended the birthday party of my great aunt (at mom and dad's house). She turned 90 yesterday. This woman is amazing. She still lives on her own, drives, does her own shopping, yard work, housekeeping, etc. and finds time to pick up a carload of ladies younger than her every day on her way to church. Happy Birthday Aunt Lucy!

Monday I started a new job. I hate it. Enough said.

The only advantage of this new job is that I get scheduled, paid breaks in addition to a 30 minute unpaid lunch. This gives me plenty of time to do handwork. I have become a bit of a spectacle in the lunchroom. But look at all I have gotten done! I particularly like the sequin flowers and I think I am going to like the sequin paisley.

Workin for a livin

2008-03-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I got a new job. I am sure it will put a damper on my quilting time, but it will do wonders for the supply budget. In any case, I have one full week in which to enjoy my creative freedom before I get back to the grind.

This past week I have been working on the vase of flowers quilt and preparing a embellishment sample for my upcoming demo.

Excited, motivated, exhausted, overwhelmed

2008-02-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a day, and it's not even over yet! I got up at 6 am this morning and was out the door by 8:30. I caught the 9 am train to Chicago and was at the Art Institute by 10:30 am. I wandered the galleries for four and a half hours taking photos, writing notes, getting inspired and becoming overwhelmed. I am exhausted.

On the other hand I have a million and a half ideas for quilting. Pollock inspired some thread painting ideas. Picasso inspired some interesting color combinations. O'Keefe inspired some lovely applique ideas. Of course there were many other artists that was inspirational as well. I focused on the use of color to indicate light. Unusual use of color in landscape and figures (One painting had a woman with green bosom and a blue leg but it didn't look out of the ordinary as well.

If I learned anything today it is that I have to expand my view of color. I have never had real trouble with color. Whatever I put together always seemed to work, but I think it is time to take color to the next level. I need to start working with using color saturation to represent light and dark. O'Keefe's flowers use shadow to indicate petals and I think that would be valuable in applique or in translating flowers to a paper pieced pattern. Of course with fabric as a medium I have many choices, I can use paint or thread to indicate shadow after the top is pieced, I can use creatively colored fabric or reverse applique techniques to indicate shadow while piecing. There are so many options!

I tried taking notes of all my ideas as I walked but it was so busy and there was so much to see, I fear that much of it was lost. I gave up half way through with trying to take notes - about the time I decided that it would be awesome to paper piece some Frank Lloyd Wright window patterns in an inspired quilt.

Watch these pages later for more ideas that come out of today's trip. I need to go home and scrapbook my photos and examine them and make my ideas cohesive.

Oh and I got a few "coloring books" of Mexican art, FLW windows, geometric shapes, and Mandalas to play with too.

Wow, I have a lot to do this weekend. And I made the resolution to not start any new projects until I have finished what I have started! I better get moving so I can play with my new ideas.

Not a good week for quilting

2008-02-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

No quilting since Monday?! Pete was home most of the day on Tuesday, which is rarely conducive to quilting. I had job interviews yesterday and today. On top of that, I woke up this morning with a terrible crick in my neck so there is no quilting between now and tonight's guild meeting.

On the plus side, I got to go shopping at Pieceful Gathering today. I got three months of door prizes for guild figuring on allowing the winner to choose their prize. I plan on leaving early so that I can stop to pick up adhesive name tags for visitors too. Exciting day huh?

At least I got to go shopping on someone else's dime. The new JoAnn's ad arrive today along with my May issue of McCall's Quick Quilts too.

Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

2008-02-25T15:24:00.001-08:00

I managed to stay motivated for several hours today. I actually sat at the machine for over 2 hours and quilted all three stars and this corner of the vase of flowers quilt. I am still undecided about how exactly to deal with the quilting on the vase, but I will cross that bridge when it is absolutely necessary.

The quilting of the background is very dense. I want the figures to pop out of the quilt as well as the kitty image. The background quilting has been done with a walking foot. I invented a new way to quilt straight lines that must go point to point without marking the quilt to get the stars quilted too.

I would have quilted longer but Pete came home early today. I often quilt on a table in the middle of the living room which is great for me to watch TV while I quilt but blocks TV viewing for anyone else that might want to watch. So I take the table down every day when Pete gets home so that he can see the TV also. I am happy with this today because I am itching to do some hand sewing. I'll have to remember to post some photos of that project one of these days.

Blogging is hard work

2008-02-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

I just spent two hours helping a friend set up her blog. It was time very well spent. I am glad she has a happy blog now.

As far as the rest of my day... three movies and a lot of lounging about. It is great. I think I even managed to convince Pete to cook dinner. Don't know what is up his sleeve but I'd be happy with just about anything that won't stress my tummy.

I am going to get some sewing done. I'll work on my tropical flowers.

Blah Blah Blah

2008-02-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

This morning didn't start out well. Some people just tire me with the way that they just love to complicate life.

Later I got out to the fabric store and picked up some thread to quilt the stars on the vase of flowers quilt. I haven't gotten around to actually quilting it today, but tomorrow looks promising. Pete went with me to the store and was excited to find canned air on sale for less than $4 a can. At least he wasn't completely bored.

I'm still eyeing the artist paintstiks and texture plates they have there on clearance but the set of 6 paints anywhere else is $35 or 40. Still steep for my budget to pick up a couple of packs and a few texture plates even at 40% off. Fortunately there must be a lot of others who feel the same way because they have been moved to the back of the store in an obscure location and there are just as many there now as there were a month ago. Hopefully I will be rewarded for my patience.

While I was surfing blogs, I found one called sew in love. Elisabeth does beautiful work but poor thing has been under the weather. She has the most beautiful sewing boxes, both inside and out - I like how she has filled them and I like the boxes themselves. So now I have a new mission... I need a couple of boxes like this for myself. Maybe one cantilevered box like hers for my machine sewing suplies and a tall freestanding chest for holding my handwork embellishments and fibers. Of course this means I get to shop garage sales and flea markets - hooray!

So all in all, today I have neglected my house and my sewing and spent the day websurfing and watching movies. A real veg out day. Maybe I will become motivated enough to load the dishwasher (I think I will need to unload it first) and get some of the blanket stitching done on my tropical flowers WIP.

Good news and Bad news

2008-02-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

The good news? I figured out how I am going to finish the quilting on this quilt.

The bad news? I need yellow and orange thread and I do not have any.

Good thing I have a guild board meeting right next to JoAnn's tomorrow. I should be able to find something there.

those darn flowers again!

2008-02-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

I sketched out the window panes for the quilting and it just doesn't look right no matter how many panes I do or don't draft. The proportions just aren't right. The center of the quilt is just too wide for an even number of panes and too narrow for an odd number of panes.

So no more panes.

This leaves me with only the decision of how to quilt the stars, the vase and the background. I think I'll do some web surfing for inspiration.

Those darn flowers

2008-02-21T14:08:00.000-08:00

Today I quilted the flowers and the leaves. I need to do the stars and the vase but I am not sure how I want to do it. I thought of star bursts or just interior echos on the stars. I thought of just tracing the pattern in the vase with a specialty thread... maybe couching. Still have not figured out what kind of thread to use to suggest window panes.

I'm stuck

2008-02-20T15:42:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the stitch in the ditch for the main portion of the applique quilt. Every aspect of the applique was quilted with matching thread. I also quilted the interior of the pieced border with monofilament thread. Besides the monofilament, all the thread used for quilting is trilobal polyester. The kitty face was quilted with thread that blends with the background.

Now I have reached an impass. I want this quilt to look like a window such that the observer is looking in on a room that has a table with a vase of flowers and a kitty peering over the table. The problem is suggesting the window without being overt. I want to quilt in window panes and a window frame. I'd like the lower border to appear to be a flower box from which the vines emerge. I envision quilting shutters into the side borders and I am going to use monofilament to quilt in another vine to twist in with the vine that already exists.

The question is, how to do all of this. The shutters are simple parallel, horizontal lines, the vines are just as simple. The window panes are fairly easy too (just four panes so just four lines - two each through the center both horizontal and vertical. The flower box idea is a little more difficult. And then there is the question of what type and color of thread to use for all of this. All monofilament? I thought of using a color that somewhat matches the background but a little darker for the shutters and quilting up to but not over the berries, vines or leaves of the outer border.

I want to let the inner border to appear to be the window pane but then what pattern to quilt it in?

So many questions, does anyone have any suggestions?

Oh and notice that Tippe is taking particular interest in this quilt now that her image is a part of it.

Can you find my kitty?

2008-02-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

Well, since I cannot finish the tulip quilt, I have moved on to other projects. I will finish the tulips as soon as the thread comes in. In the mean time I am working on my applique wall hanging. I wanted to quilt a silhouette of a cat into the quilt but there just wasn't enough empty space around the vase, so I opted for a face of a cat that appears to be peering out above the table the vase might be sitting on. I even used a pattern based on my own lil furball Tippe as inspiration.

It took me about 6 tries to get the cat outline in there correctly. I could not figure out what was wrong with my machine, but every time I tried to turn the third corner, it would foul up the bobbin and lock up. Turned out that my needle, my nearly new needle, was bent. I should have guessed sooner - these things happen with size 60 needles. So I finally got the cat face quilted in. Can you find it in the photo?

While I was at Susan's house today, she worked on the applique part of the quilt for her mother. I worked on the stitch in the ditch portions of the applique quilt. I have to finish the heart on the vase, two of the flowers, and the straight portion around the colored border and the first part of the ditch stitching will be done. I think I will echo the stars on the interior of each star, quilt petals into the flowers and veins into the leaves. I am not sure what I will do with the vase or the background. I am open to suggestions!

Close but no cigar

2008-02-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

The tulip quilt is sooo close to being done. I got some awesome thread from the cross stitch store yesterday and quilted the last border today to give the feeling of wind. The thread is a blue with blue metallic and looks very subtle with whisps of shine.

Only problem is that I bought 40 yards of thread and ran out about 10 yards short!

Back to the cross stitch store tomorrow.

Ahhh... Quilter Porn

2008-02-07T20:29:00.001-08:00

I don't know why I didn't think of this before! You can go on You Tube and find video of quilters, even some very well known quilters, getting their quilt on!

I have been watching some artsy quilting stuff, but I think my all time favorite is Quilting with Buck. Buck is awesome!

I also recommend the video by Trish Stewart - fabric painting with shaving cream.

And if you have ever thought of buying that quilting calculator, try this video.

Finally finished the fence!

2008-02-06T14:46:00.001-08:00

Well, here it is! I finally got all the little bitty parts between the fence posts quilted! And boy was it a chore. the pieces are as small as 0.75" square and so the stippling had to be very tiny. I use a very small needle and a fine polyester thread.

Homemade Pasta Sauce

2008-02-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made 8 quarts of tomato sauce in my 18 quart roaster. YUM!

Last night we had spaghetti with sausage.

Today I am canning 7 quarts of tomato sauce.

Here's the recipe:

2 or 3 pounds of pork neck bones
4 large onions
one half head of fresh garlic
4 tablespoons of chicken bullion paste
2 cups red wine
olive oil
salt
pepper
basil
2 #10 cans of crushed tomatoes
1 #10 can of tomato sauce
(I have been known to make this with home grown tomatoes but these just aren't available in January in Illinois)

Chop the onions. Sautee the onions in the olive oil in a large frying pan until they begin to become translucent. As the onions cook, peel the garlic cloves and using a garlic press, add the garlic mush to the pan of onions. Once the onions begin to sweat, add the pork neck bones. Be sure to brown the pork neck bones well on every side.

While the pork neck bones brown, open the cans of tomato sauce and tomatoes and dump their contents into the roaster. Add the chicken bullion paste to the tomato mixture. When the pork neck bones have browned, add the necks bones along with the onions and garlic to the tomato mixture. Allow these flavors to cook for a bit.

Add the wine and seasonings to taste. Allow to cook a bit longer so that the flavors can mix.

Once your sauce is done, you can pressure can it to save for the future or freeze it in convenient 1 quart containers.

Big sale at Hancock Fabrics

2008-01-31T15:51:00.000-08:00

I went up to Hancock Fabrics to get some white thread. I wanted to use it to quilt the tulip quilt fence (in the ditch). While I was there, they were having a good sale. Lots of stuff 50% off (of course thread won't be 50% off until Sunday and I need it today!) and bunches of new stuff on clearance.

They had put the paint sticks and texture plates on clearance at 30% off. They also had this nifty fishing flannel at 50% off. I don't think that is a good enough price for the paintstiks yet for me to run out and get all the stuff for painting fabric. The flannel was still $3.50 a yard after the sale. When the paintstiks go to 50% off and the flannel is $2 a yard, I will reconsider.

I did however get some reading glasses at 80% off. They were $2.40 a pair, so I got two pair. I have used them to make my quilt appear larger when I am quilting and boy does it make a huge difference! I wish I had gotten the glasses sooner!

Stuck on the quilting

2008-01-30T14:08:00.001-08:00

I am at an impass. I am just not sure how I want to quilt the rest of this tulip quilt

I have come up with two all over quilting patterns that I am interested in using, but I am not sure about them. I like these curlies for the blue "sky" part of the quilt.
And I thought about using these flowers for the fence part, but I don't think that is a dense enough pattern for this quilt.

I tried to do a pattern that looked like wood knots for the fence posts but it just didn't look right.

So I have decided to take suggestions. All of your lurkers out there, it is time to post a comment. Help me decide what to quilt for the rest of this tulip top.

Today's a bust

2008-01-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

Today has been a sewing bust. I didn't get any sewing done whatsoever.

So what did I do? Well I did some cleaning. We went to lunch. We went grocery shopping for just a few things (and spent $75 - how DOES that happen?). I cleaned up the backyard from the boat building crap that he never bothered to clean up despite having several opportunities. I am sure our new neighbors think we must be rednecks because Pete is always leaving garbage all over our yard and never bothers to put any of the yard stuff away.

There is more cleaning to be done. I got the bathroom taken care of and most of the bedroom (have to put sheets on the bed). I straightened up the kitchen but I need to put the non-perishable groceries away. I also need to do a bit of straightening in the hobby room. I am thinking that room needs major overhaul including rearranging furniture. And of course I have a giant mess of stuff that I brought in from the garage that needs to be cleaned up and put away properly.

Oh and I am also finally getting around to working on putting all of our music onto the hard drive of the computer so that I can load more stuff onto my MP3 player.

the echo has died out

2008-01-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

I finally finished echo quilting those tulips. I thought it would have to wait until tomorrow when I broke 3 needles in 20 minutes but I took a break and found another package of needles in my stash. These things happen when you are using a size 60/8 sharps machine needle.

Isn't it stunning?

Keep on Truckin'

2008-01-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

I finally got back to quilting that tulip quilt today. I finished the flower outlining and now I am working on echo quilting the area around the flowers. You might wonder how I am marking my quilt top. I am using a yellow Sanford Verithin pencil (sharpened to a good point) and a flexible ruler that is made for tracing off curves. I am marking the echoes one ruler width from each other. I am using a domestic electronic Kenmore machine and an open toe darning foot while free motion quilting.

I may have mentioned that I have trilobal polyester thread from Coats and Clark in my bobbin. The black thread I used for outlining was also a trilobal polyester and is from Mettler. The thread I am using in the needle for the echo quilting is a butter cream color. It is a rayon machine embroidery thread from Coats and Clark.

Kitty Lovin'

2008-01-26T11:39:00.000-08:00

This is Tippe. Her hobbies are running around the house chasing ghosts, licking bits of fish out of tuna cans, and sleeping on the water heater. Her favorite people foods are fresh caught walleye bellies, any kind of salty chip and the milk leftover after her mommy finishes eating cereal. Her favorite toy is a little mouse with a secret catnip pouch in his belly and her favorite snack is Temptations with dental control. She is a Gemini and has been spayed but never declawed.

She is a charming, precocious, curious, cowardly, anti-social, minor calico kitty. She has one lazy, gooey eye and has a habit of blinking one eye at a time. As many cats like to do, she will climb into mommy's lap when I am using the computer and sometimes even goes so far as to sit on my forearms or push the keyboard away from me when she wants attention. She is afraid to venture very far outside but will hang out in the yard with me when I garden. I have tried to get her to play well with other pets - other cats and dogs - but she just sits in a corner and hisses at them. She never attacks, just defends. But in her defense, I got her from a friend who had rescued her from a dog mauling when she was only a few months old. She likes visitors to the house but only one or two at a time. She especially likes pizza delivery and is always curious about who that person is standing in the doorway.

Yellow Bunnies on Purple Backgrounds will haunt my dreams tonight

2008-01-25T15:45:00.001-08:00

About 4 and a half hours later I have found over 130 bunnies. Whew!

Bunny Chasing

2008-01-25T11:41:00.001-08:00

Today's obsession is the 180+ store online shop hop. I have bunnies running through my mind, my stash, my bobbin race! You can chase bunnies too.

Kudos to "Life's A Stitch"

2008-01-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

I have to put in a glowing review for an online store that I recently purchased some quilting items from.

I had been looking for the panel fabric from Mark Lipinski's Katmandu line by Troy for an activity for the Algonquin Quilters' Guild . The Troy website listed a number of locations that carried all 44 different fabrics from the Katmandu line. I did a little research and found that although the panel was listed as only 24 inches wide, most of the stores were selling the panels for $6.50 to $7.00 each! That's $9.75 to $10.50 a yard! Life's a Stitch listed all the fabric in the line at $4.25 a half yard, including the panels.

So I called Life's a Stitch in Connecticut on Monday night. I needed 8 panels and didn't know how to enter my order correctly because the order form wanted yardage. I received a return call on Tuesday morning but alas, I was not available at the time. Pete took a message. Karen told him that I could call as late as 10 PM eastern! I returned her call in the early afternoon and she answered very quickly.

Karen was very accommodating and personable. We discussed my needs, the intention of the fabric and we even got to talking about spouses and children a little. I asked that she fax a receipt to me so that I could get reimbursed at my Thursday guild meeting. Although she was unable to fax a receipt to me and I could not place my order online (because of the panel yardage thing), she agreed to send a receipt via post that afternoon.

I was floored when I went to the mailbox on Thursday morning and found that I had not received a receipt but that the fabric itself had arrived in only 36 hours via USPS priority mail! To make the experience even better, Life's a Stitch's shipping policy is to charge for only the actual shipping costs via the most economical shipping method that is readily available. She even said that if they can get it in a flat rate envelope, they will certainly try to do so.

So thank you, Karen, for being so helpful. I received my reimbursement at my guild meeting this evening and everyone is looking forward to our embellishment demo next month.

Back to the Polyester

2008-01-24T13:54:00.000-08:00

I did a bit of quilting yesterday on the red tulip. After only an hour or so, I was having trouble. The cotton thread just kept breaking. I decided that because it wasn't a long staple thread, it just couldn't handle going through the paint on the panel. It was time to go back to using the polyester thread.

Since switching back to polyester thread in the needle, not only have I had no problem with thread breakage, but the back of the quilt looks even better. The areas where I took a few stitches in place to secure the beginning and end of a line of stitching have little nests of black cotton thread on the back of the quilt. The areas where I began and ended the stitching in the same manner using the polyester thread is cleaner.

I am still not happy with the amount of black thread showing on the back of the quilt but my guess is that there is little I could do about that save changing needle thread color. I am only going to use the black to outline the flowers and leaves. After that I will switch to white and quilt around the flowers. I haven't decided if I will do a random pattern around the flowers or if I will simply echo quilt them. I am leaning toward echo quilting.

TEX weight and motivation

2008-01-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

I looked into the weight of the black thread I have here at home. It is a 50 weight mercerized cotton. I think it will be fine for a wall quilt. It isn't a long staple thread but it is a wall quilt and this thread will only be used for a small portion of the quilt.

On the other hand I am having trouble getting motivated today. There are a few quilting shows on public television this afternoon. Maybe watching one of those will be inspiration to get moving. In the mean time I guess I could get some lunch and do some web surfing for quilt pattern ideas.

Getting Around to Quilting

2008-01-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

It never fails. I wake up every morning with every intention of getting some quilting done but it rarely seems to happen. Something always seems to get in the way. Some days I can pinpoint exactly what happened that kept me from quilting. Today is not one of those days.

So let's see... what DID I do today? Woke up, watched a little TV, did some web surfing, made lunch, emptied the dishwasher, reloaded the dishwasher, made plans to go embellishment shopping tomorrow, cleaned the kitchen counters and sink, did some more web surfing, made dinner, watched TV with Pete, built a blog. Wait a minute! I did do some quilting! I think it happened somewhere between web surfing and making dinner. I managed to get about 2 inches of my tulip quilt quilted. Hooray for me!

But now that I look at it, I may tear it out. I am not sure that I like the thread I used. Trilobal polyester in both the bobbin and the needle. Can't see the stitches on the front. Not sure I like that. If I am going to go to all the trouble to very carefully quilt this with very tiny stitches, I might want to be able to see them.

Maybe I will do a test run of some black cotton thread in the needle on the tulip quilt tomorrow. If I find the time. If nothing keeps me from quilting.

I wonder what the Tex number is on the black cotton thread I have