Thursday, February 21, 2013

scattered...

just like these photos. 
Thought I should pop in and document what's going on in the sewing room.
Lots.
Too much.

This is the back of Swirled Christmas Trees 
all leftover stash pieces.


***********
The start of a long project I fear.  
Meghan loved the purple yo-yo quilt I quilted for a customer.
She wanted one. I said 'oh we could do it together if you like--I'll show you, it's more of a craft thing than a quilt thing....'
I bought the yo-yo maker.  I made one.  
Meghan came down a few days later while I was working on something else and started fiddling with the yo-yo's  (be still my heart).  I tried to ignore her--ie: not pounce and scare her away ya know.
Finally, she asked how this works.  I calmly got up and went through the steps, trying to keep ALL signs of over EXCITEMENT out of my voice.
I showed her how to line up the front and back. I picked up the already threaded needle and said 'and then you just sew through the holes' like this.

She blanched (not an exaggerated word for effect)
Her: WHAT? you have to sew this?  YOU TRICKED me!!
(yep, she actually said 'you tricked me')
Me, laughing:  What are you talking about this is how you make them?
Her:  I didn't know we had to SEW them!
Me: well, yah, that's how you make them, how did you think it worked?
Her:  I thought you just popped them in and out of this thing and it was done somehow.
Oh my shattered dreams.......

This picture shows the first Three yo-yo's.
409 (yes, four hundred and nine) are all that is needed.
sigh......

*******

My guild's Christmas BOM blocks.  I will be taking out the applique globe one and just making the pieced ones.  (they give us both pieced and applique patterns every month) I thought it was required that we make both. I was going to give up the project.
  It's not required.  
So I'm not.
I love it when I get all rebel-y.


******
Thread catchers.  I started making these while I was pulling stash for the back of the Christmas swirls quilt (see above).  I had some nice pieces and had been thinking of making some of these for either the guild's silent auction at the end of the year and/or the guild's show gift boutique.  I ran out of the strapping to finish them. Hubby is going to bring some home next time he gets a delivery.  I use the stuff that they put around boxes.  It's perfect and free. And another example of how/why things don't get finished around here.

******

Christmas Swirls quilted with swirls
am I an original or what????  
:)
I do love this and have the binding made-same aged muslin as the background.
I'm thinking of sewing it on and then taking it to retreat so I can hand sew it to the back when I get tired of piecing.  
Right!  Like that's going to happen-stop piecing to hand sew binding....
I probably won't work on it but I might and I do so like dragging everything with me when I go on retreat so take it I will.
Unless, of course, I finish it before retreat.
buwhahhahahahaaha.


*********

 My design wall.
starting at the left.  

My urban candy blocks:  no work on them for weeks.  I have all the pieces cut and they will be going on retreat with me.

The lime green and blue * asterisk* block-ain't it cute.  I saw it in a book I was looking through at JoAnn's last week and just wanted to see if I could make one when I got home...uh-huh so now what to do.

The 2 blocks with blue background are another block I saw in a book and thought would be cool to use for the strings I have.  It looks like the bottom left of the first block has a chunk cut out, but that is a little note with how I made it pinned to it so I don't forget.  Four blocks sewn together forms an "X".
These are going on retreat with me too.

Dresdens: The fifth and final row with sashing sewn on is last, if I ever get off this computer and get dressed I'd like to take the 10 minutes to sew it on to the bottom of the quilt, for pity's sake why do I put this kind of easy thing off.


  ********

My sewing table-and hence this posts' title 
SCATTERED
holy mackerel!


and yes that is a Christmas wreath above the fire place.
It's seen better days and I had it sitting by the door to get rid of it (before Christmas) and then I didn't so I stuck it up there on an empty nail and forgot about it
until now.
*******



fun times, fun times.
Life is good.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

I've been

Baking bread,

enjoying the view and the deer in the woods behind the house,

baking more bread, 

customer quilting,

wonky feathers
and 2 yo-yo quilts 

and how about this:
I woke up this morning and Paul had my valentine's card on the table.
I went into my little Hallmark organizer where I keep all my cards.
Egad! no valentine for hubby!!!  I've been under the false assumption that I got one when I put the cards up at work in January!  Either that is correct or it's misplaced somewhere here.  
How embarrassing....
so now I'm off to get a card on my day off
sheesh.

Happy Valentines Day!


Monday, February 4, 2013

quilting swirls

these take a bit of time but I love the texture




not sure if I showed the final (crossed fingers) 4 Dresden blocks.

I pulled out my CW blues/greys to cut some more 2.5 inch squares for the sashing and the pile is just sitting there...

I quilted the second Baby Life quilt yesterday-random wiggly lines.  I even have the binding sewn to the front.  

Modern Misfits is still sitting in a heap on a chair with about 1/2 of one side with the binding sewn down.  
It's mocking me even as I sit here writing this.
I hate it when they mock me.

*********

Paul put the new wheels and carriage track updates on my HQ on Saturday.  The hardest part was getting the old glue off the carriage.  
He has the patience of Job.  I would have been swearing and thrown the dang thing through a window.

I've been having a bobble in my quilting right in the middle of the table, which I have been blaming on the new table tracks.  After talking with the local rep on Friday, it doesn't appear that was the problem.  I explained this all to Paul and said, please fix it.  I can't have this bobble happening. And then (half serious/half joking) if it can't be fixed, I guess I'll have to get the new table....and as the rep said, 'new table might as well upgrade to the bigger machine...
it didn't even get too much of a reaction  
:(
sigh......

Long story short, my table has a slight bow in it.  The weight of the machine over time and all that jazz.
Paul being the mechanical/fixing/welding genius that he is, got busy and has made some kind of support that hopefully will 'fix' the problem.  As soon as the paint dries, we'll try it out.  

I being proactive have been visiting the HQ site...just in case.
oh. I kid, I kid...














Thursday, January 31, 2013

I had leftover pieces from the last curvy block in the quilt along.  I didn't want them to feel left out *wink* so I made a curvy broken dishes block.  
yeah!




I have another Baby Life section ready for the blanket stitching.  Love these colors!


 

I had to have a little dental work on Tuesday so I had a 'free' day....I spent part of it like a slug watching HGTV while the Novocaine wore off.  Then I thought now is as good a time as any to get four more Dresden plates ready.  So I did that.


Yesterday, I blanket stitched all four to their backgrounds and then started cutting more 2.5 squares for the additional sashing sets I'll need.....

I've been blog lurking/surfing and have about 4-5 'new project' ideas, which I'm hoping I'll forget about as I am so trying to not start too many new things.
I shouldn't be starting anything new but sheesh I can only take so much


Saturday, January 26, 2013

Quick Curve Ruler Quilt Along

This morning I put together blocks six and seven.
Curvy Flying Geese:
block 6
Curvy Log Cabin
block 7
all blocks 
I didn't care for all the fabrics I had originally cut for the curvy flying geese block, so I cut a different one for the center, which now leaves me with enough for a 2nd curvy geese block.  I'm going to make that up this week.





Thursday, January 24, 2013

Modern Misfits is quilted and I even have the binding sewn to the front!
The quilting is very dense and I love it.






and the pieced back.
The label is in there as part of the backing-so nice when I remember to do that.  
Today I finished the green Baby Life quilt I started last week. I even have the binding nearly done!

and here is the pieced back. I like it as much as the front (almost). 

***


Monday, January 21, 2013

oops!

I was so excited with my Slim snowman I forgot to finish dressing him!!
**how embarrassing--for us both!**



He definitely needs that scarf.
 It's COLD outside!