Quilts Numbered 30 & 31

I am especially pleased with the quilting on this "Stack of Coins" quilt. When I first completed this top I knew it would need something extra in the big wide gaps. I think the free hand quilting is a nice fill for the gaps. Also on this quilt I made a variegated binding to match the coin stacks. it was a bit narrow and difficult to work with but I like the effect.

The "Feathered Friends - Love Birds" is my 30th anniversary quilt. (Thirtieth quilt, not thirtieth year.) I fell pretty hard for the fabric and so the quilt cam together quickly. That is something I am discovering in my quilting: If I really like the fabric, I tend to work more on a quilt (mostly). Of course, as soon as I type that I can think of several exceptions to this "rule", but mostly I would say it is true.

For the Love Birds, it is definitely true, I really like the color combinations and the bird fabric is SO cute. The blue trim coordinating fabric is another favorite. I did a border of free-hand quilting to echo the floral pattern in the quilt which turned out pleasing. (Funny Side Note: I labored and labored on the border quilting of this quilt and when my arms were about to fall off and my fingers were crying for mercy, I showed my husband the work and he said it looked nice. My husband is really awesome, but I realized that I was going to have to wait for my Mom to arrive for someone to FULLY appreciate all of the hours of labor intensive work that it really was.)

Soothing Squares

I am pretty sure that this is one of my favorite quilts so far. I cannot decide if it is because of the colors and simplicity or if it is mainly the stipple quilting. The colors are captured very poorly in these pictures, but you get the idea. I repeated some of the pattern on the back--which turned out really well. I think it is my best "patterned" back so far.
Here is a little side note: if you look at the photo above which shows the back, at the top you can see two paving bricks which are holding the quilt for the photo. Actually you will see them in many of my pictures like this. The crazy part is this: I don't think it is ever the same bricks. I always leave them neatly on top of the block wall for the next time I photo and then when I come back---they are GONE. It has got to be my kids---why in the world would they feel continually compelled to move those bricks (which they have seen me use numerous times)?!? My other thought is that it could be my husband. He probably has no idea how those bricks keeping moving up to that same spot. I can hear him thinking..."those darn kids, why do they keep leaving bricks over here?" For now, it is a mystery and there is a brick bandit on the loose.

A Burst of Activity

I have been working away on a number of quilts, just a little bit here and a bit there, depending on what moves me. Then I got motivated and put together three quilts in the last few days. They are so pretty. This first one is an old pattern called crossroads. It is basically two different blocks (one is a 16 patch and the other is an x-block) Together they look wonderful. I am really beginning to appreciate the way two different blocks can play off of each other. I am working on a couple of more quilts with this two block play, I will show them later.

This quilt is a Full size (70 x 88).

The second quilt I finished is the one I copied from a local fabric store sample. There are no unique additions, I liked the original so much that I really just made it the same. Or at least the same as I remember it being. I backed it with a nice solid yellow. I would have loved to use one of the front fabrics but I do live on a budget! :)

Completed it is smaller than I would usually make only 64x76inches. A twin or large throw size I guess. I just followed the pattern and purchased only the fabric the pattern called for. But I am really pleased with the final result!

I haven't had a chance to photo the third I finished--my favorite--because we spent all of our daylight (and beyond) up at the river. Yeah for family fun!

Catch 22

Don't you find that life is full of contradictions? Mine is. It is like a Catch 22. You can't win for losing. Especially the Lupus part of my life. The strangest part to me is that the medications I take keep my immune system at a barely functioning level to keep my body from fighting its' self. It seems that my body doesn't like its' own cells and feels compelled to stage a full out war on otherwise seemingly innocent cells. It is a major contradiction at the core of my health. So the collective doctors in their infinite wisdom have decided that the best way to deal with this is to kill the protective immune system to stop it from attacking healthy cells. This seems a little backwards to me, but who am I to argue with "the doctors"? The biggest side effect of this kind of treatment is that those soldier cells whose job is to protect are now dwindling in number and protective power. So along comes a little cold virus that should be wiped out with very little trouble, but it just storms past those wimpy sedated soldiers and takes over my body like a wicked step mother moving in.

Guess who has a horrid cold? Ya, me. It is going on something like 14 days. Doctor has me on antibiotics for the resident sinus infection. Ugh. Just to illustrate how rotten I have felt...today is the first day in that long I have sewn anything. And I only put the binding on a baby quilt.

Well, it is the cutest little Baby mermaid quilt.

But now I am exhausted an think I will sleep for another 16 hours. Goodnight.

A Magical Mystery Tour

This is the Fabric Store Copy: Birds and Swirls.
I just love the bordering bird fabric.
These fabrics are from the In The Beginning Collection This is what happens when you buy a bundle of the prettiest soothing fabrics and just have to put something together. Ahhhhhh.

Do you remember my little Heather Ross Free Spirit Mermaid Fabric? I have sparingly used some of it to create this adorable baby quilt. Then I quilted it with loops and swirls. It is great.

This Jettson-like Baby Quilt is kind of hard to explain. The fabric was $2. Does that make sense to you? Either you get it or you don't.

First, I am posting pictures of some of the projects that I am working on currently. Second, this is off label, but I had to write a background letter of introduction for a class I am taking. I thought it was somewhat humorous; I am posting it here, so you can see how strange I am. Just in case you thought I might be a normal person.

The year of 1978 impacted me in many different ways. At the time, I would have never guessed that the new strange movie series of Star Wars was something that thirty some years later would still be filling my home with the dreadful “…dum dum dum, da-de-dum da-de-dum” music as my own children play and re-play the popular movies. Somehow I would have guessed then that it would have been the Cassidy Brothers singing "Da Doo Run Run", but I guess I must have thrown away that beautiful flowing haired scholastic poster of Shawn Cassidy.

Jim Jones proved to be a very motivational leader in the very sad mass suicide of his followers that year—I personally vowed that year to never again drink kool-aid which my sister made (just in case). But the most motivational leader in my life that year was the leather-patched, brown leisure suited Mr. Patridge of my fifth grade classroom. Mr. Patridge inspired me with a life-long mission to teach kids. He had a real knack for reaching out to kids and finding them where they were and then helping them move forward. I learned to read in the fifth grade. I must have read my library favorite “Mio My Son” two or three times, although the library card would look like it had been many more times, since it was my name scrawled on it again and again (except when that awful Kelly Johnson would request it from the librarian just to get me riled up). Next week, when it was my turn again I would neatly darken my name repeatedly on the lines and leave Kelly Johnson’s name insignificantly light. That thick side-burned Mr. Patridge changed the course of my life that year. He instilled in me the vision of what a great teacher could be, and created in me an unending desire to be just like him—minus the short fat tie.

Fast forward quite a few years, I followed my heart and graduated from college prepared to teach and immediately went to work in a fifth grade class in California. A new taller, darker, and more handsome love in my life lead me through wedding bells to Idaho State University where I returned to school. First comes love, second comes marriage, and third comes…well...a series of 4 babies in baby carriages over the course of the next 10 years. My education served me and my family at home for the following years as I taught and nurtured our family from home until they were each in school.

My teaching experience has been rather sporadic since then with several part time and full time gigs primarily in the reading area as well as substitute teaching. I now work full time at an online and catalog gift shop for Fly Fishermen. Yes, “Unique Gifts for Unique People”—a slightly unusual turn in my career, but technically challenging. My job now requires a much higher development of technical training in web design and e-commerce than I have, so I am constantly in a different type of classroom, just to keep things going smoothly for all those great Fly Fishermen that fill my days now.


I currently have an Oregon Teaching license which I keep current, in hopes of someday returning to the traditional classroom when the time is right. And hopefully, when that day comes, I will be able to find that glossy wind-blown Shawn Cassidy poster to hang proudly in my classroom in honor of Mr. Patridge and all that the year of 1978 stood for to me.

Breaking Up is Hard To Do

Today I said goodbye to this Mint Chocolate Chip Beauty. It is not easy to end a quilting relationship. She was lovingly packed up and sent to South Korea with one final farewell. I started this quilt last year and played with it off and on and then finished it in a flourish. Not nearly enough time to get used to the idea of breaking up and saying goodbye. Lucky for me, there is a small twin-lette Mint Chocolate Chip Quilt that sits folded up in my drawer to occupy me when I feel the urge to have another scoop. It is the end of something and the beginning of something with leftovers. I hope it will be as patient as its' predecessor with my scattered loving attention.

Saying farewell got me thinking, I currently have several Pretties waiting for homes. My kids would have you believe they are in desperate need of another quilt, but I need quilting fabric more than they need another quilt....right?!? Well...I think so.

So, the following quilts are available. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing one of them--we can work something out. You can have your own strange relationship with a quilt....

Pink Floral Fantasy:
A Double White & Pink Female looking for a lasting relationship with someone who loves to snuggle. A real blushing beauty.
Yours Truly, The Gadabout:
A Throw Sized Flashing Showgirl, Looking for a long term relationship with a couch potato.

My Life's Ups and Downs Quilt should be on this list, along with the Smoothy Quilt, but I just can't bring myself to post them. Let me know if you can't live without one of them. That seems to be how it is for me and creating a quilt: I get so connected. I read somewhere someone said that they hated to send their quilts away to strangers--it is much better knowing they are going to be loved somewhere familiar, I think. My two girlfriend who have my quilts were super easy to give to. I know they appreciate the work and love investment. And familymembers are also very easy to send a quilt home with, plus you can always check in on your beauties to see how they are holding up. Speaking of which, I just visited my sisters Birds and Swirls. That is such a pretty quilt. It was created to pair with a beautiful Asian painting for her bedroom and bordered with hand embroidered birds. I still need to get a picture of that one and share it!

Tonight has been an interesting restless night. First assembled a Fig Tree Quilt creation which I copied fabric choices and pattern from the fancy fabric store I love to visit and leave money at. OOOO, just wait til I get my camera on that one. Then I created mega blocks by assembling smaller stained glass hour glass blocks to get a feel for how that quilt is going to look. Soon enough I moved on and created a pattern for one quilt--worked it out and then started the quilt. Finally I cut charm squares out of this wonderful fabric combo that I have been oogle-ing for weeks and sewed together a stack of them to get a feel for that new quilt creation. None of these projects have ANYTHING to do with my recently hung "inspiration piece". Maybe it is just inspiring me to try something different....I think it is just hard to settle back in after the big break up with me and Mint Chocolate Chip.

The Quilt-A-Thon Results Are In

You may remember that I was headed to my mothers for a Quilt-A-Thon weekend. We had a wonderful time. It is always great to spend time with my mom. We enjoy doing so many of the same things, that we get along like oreos and milk. Between the two of us (an addition to a night at the movies with the best Sushi I have ever had, a family BBQ with my aunt and Uncle and Cousin's family, and lots of patio time soaking up the sun kissed air), we sorted dozens of color schemes for future quilts, we finished 5 quilts and started 2 and made progress on 2 more. Wowza- now that is a Quilt-A-Thon.

Quilted - Mint Chocolate Chip Quilt:

(p.s. Mom- I need some more of the green with brown print for additional binding, I am a little bit short)
Life's Ups and Downs is finally complete:

Don't you love the polka dots?

Also quilted the Floral Fantasy Quilt and the Smoothie Quilt. That is 4 quilts quilted in just 3 days! Went a little crazy, but my Mom has the greatest machine for quilting so I took advantage of her generously offering to let me quilt away on it til my heart was content. Well I did quilt away and away and away into the night and morning. I brought 6 quilt tops that needed quilting and 4 was all that my body could handle. Pesky body needed some sleep.

Floral Fantasy above
Smoothie Quilt

The Mint Chocolate Chip Quilt is going home with Danbi for her parents in Korea, but I am willing to part with the others if anyone is interested. Speaking of which, I am getting together photos and information for a portfolio of my work for potential quilt making gigs. Let me know if you are interested, we can work something out.

You may have noticed I have listed Ribbit in my pending projects, but have never shown you any photos of it. That little fellow is almost complete also. It is very special, just a little something to look forward too. I hope to have it finished within two weeks and I will unveil it then.

Also I have a new little romance going with this seductive color scheme:

I will keep you posted.

Princess in our Midst

This is not strictly quilting, but it is still sewing so I think it counts. My sweet teenager talked me into setting aside all of my quilting projects to complete a labor of love for her. The big Spring Banquet is coming up and unfortunately the dress she wanted could be rounded up to $1000. (yes, three zeros) I was delighted when she showed interest in me making the same type of dress for a fraction of the price, plus using the burnt orange she really wanted. (Orange not shown in picture--it shows up further down the assembly line, it will wrap around like a super wide belt and bow in the back.)

This is one of the "Poofy Test" picture series. Obviously as a teenager, my daughter needs to be able to show her BFFs at school the rough draft of the dress and get their opinion on the poofy-ness. This is not great news for me. That is 32 yards of tulle gathered and attached to a

23 inch waist. But I did cheat and fold the whole thing in half so I only really had to work 16 yards. But still, 16 YARDS!! If the BFFs decide it is too much "Poof" then all my hand gathering is going to go "poof". However, I do have a backup plan if they love the "Poof" and want more. There is a provision for an additional under ruffle of poof at about shin level. So keep your fingers crossed with me that the dress at least passes the "Poof Test" or goes in the direction of believing if a little is good, more is better. I do not have much time to work on this baby--I am headed to my mom's place on Thursday, where it will be just me and my mom and a couple of sewing machines. Yippee a quilt-a-thon, enough with the fluff.

Bye Bye Baby!

Check it out!! My very best ever binding job ever. So... I followed a tutorial at a blog by Red Pepper Quilts step by step--I even used an adorable red and white just ike the tutorial. And it turned out faublous. Backing up a little bit, here is the story.
Last night I got this wild hair and put together a baby quilt for a friend of my husband. I went with the wonky stars in primary colors. Those stars have been on my horizon for a few weeks now and so Danbi, Sara, and I sat down together and cranked a few out. Danbi is the best international daughter in the world, and Sara is her good friend. Danbi is making her very first quilt, so she is a ace on the sewing machine. Sara had never put her foot to the petal before, but she sewed like a champ. The girls helped lay out the pattern. The gift actually went to a teacher of theirs, so they had fun being a part of its' creation.

Sorry the pictures are so washed out. I finished the quilt at *:30 (the actual number will be left out to protect the obsessed), and the sun had not quite come up yet (althought it was pretty close). After an alarmingly short nights sleep, I dragged myself out of my warm snuggly bed and took a sad and sorry couple of photos before my husband could give this cute little baby quilt away. Bye bye Baby.

Just an added quick note: This is a great tutorial for making a "wonky star" quilt. Go to this link: http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonky-star-tutorial.html

She does a great job to help best utilize fabric--I wish I would have seen it before this quilt baby.

Apparently Not Too Soon For "Fall"

It has been busy around the house lately. I have been working on a few projects (not the least of which is house cleaning and laundry taming). I managed to finish all the rows for the Zig Zag and the Blue Signature style quilt. The Dutch Butter Churn squares are slow and seem very small when they are finished, I haven't taken inventory on how many more I will need for that little pretty, but I am sure it is in the neighborhood of a million. The black and whites are strictly scraps from a Christmas gift quilt to me niece, I am really excited about how they are coming together.

And while we are on the subject of exciting things; my 15 year and friend had a great big "fall" off a water tower. Yes, you read that right "a water tower". This was not an approved activity--not climbing on the tower nor falling off the water tower. She and her buddy both broke bones and are a regular pair of gimps for a while now. I told her there would be consequences in addition to her pain and suffering. But after 2 casts and 1 full arm splint, I just haven't had the heart to punish her. So it turns out I am a big softy.

The partners in crime before:

And after:

Ironically, we just paid off our bill at the local orthopedic center. The cast tech said he would meet us somewhere else, we didn't have to keep breaking bones to see him. We were hoping for a frequent users punch card, I am pretty sure we are up to our free treatment by now. I guess I will just keep watching for it in the mail with my fingers crossed.

Last night I read the funniest thing about unfinished quilting projects. If you have an unfinished project or two or eighteen, you will enjoy this. Follow this link to read about The Tricky Art of Finishing What You Start: http://makegreatstuff.com/the-tricky-art-of-finishing-what-you-start/ Sara Bush is a fun blogger to read, I could really identify with her. I am motivated to get a few more projects finished after reading her blog...well, I mean theoretically, I am motivated, except it will have to wait because I am currently entertaining a new romance with a seductively good-looking idea (plus there are birds on the fabric and I just love those little guys).

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

My short attention span has got me doing a little bit of this quilt and then moving on to another. Lately, I have just wanted to bop around from one project to another. Today, for example, I worked on the Denise quilt--I finished all of her squares. I worked on designing an animal print bed covering quilt for my Steph. I completed three rows on the Zig Zag and then started playing with a pretty selvage edge spider web quilt. I should probably be medicated for some form of attention deficit disorder. Lucky for me, there are few drawbacks to thriving on variety. And in this case plenty of rewards.

The selvage edge spider web quilt is just one of those little rewards. While surfing my blog favorites, I got the idea from the this blog. It is so pretty and the quilting is inspiring. Check it out: http://selvageblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/spider-web-quilt-is-quilted-wow.html

I can't remember exactly where I found the tutorial , but I will look and try to add it in for reference. ( Here is the link: http://tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com/2010/04/spiderweb-tutorial-for-selvages.html) When I looked at the directions I began to doubt I would still want to do it, but once I got going, it was not difficult. Plus, look I got to use a smidge of my mermaid fabric. The tutorial suggested cutting the selvage edge with varying thicknesses of fabric showing. You can see that some of mine are real thick and others are a narrow band. But you will notice each of them has at least a little peek-a-boo of the fabric which the selvage edge is attached. The thing that makes this quilt so cute is the combination of all of the color info and logo on the selvage edge. ...And to think, I used to just throw that part away. A finished square looks like this: Each diagonal half of the square is assembled on a piece paper. The first thing is to follow the tutorial directions to cut the tan piece. Then lightly glue the it on diagonal half of an 8.5" square piece of paper. The first layer is closest to the tan, place a section of selvage edge right sides together with the outside long side of the tan and sew along the long side of the tan. Sew through the fabric and the paper. Then flip that first section of selvage right side up and get another selvage edge ready to tuck 1/4 inch under the bottom edge of the previous section. Sew the first edge down right at the edge of the selvage edge with the new piece tucked 1/4 inch under. Keep adding selvage edges until you reach the point (try not to make it bulky here). I realize that these written directions may be difficult to follow, so I suggest checking out the very clearly illustrated tutorial.

So this is what the piece top looks like after all the sections are sewn on and only one side has been trimmed. If you flip the triangle over, it looks like this:

When you have 2 of these triangles finished, then sew them together, right sides together along the long edge of the triangle. When you get a few of them done, you can lay them out and take a peek:

Do you see my little Heather Ross mermaids?

I have raided all of my fabric stash for selvage, the more color test dots the better.
It is a good puzzle like activity of trying to best utilize the pretty stuff on the edges. Seriously, I spent way too much time playing with it. How many hours of sleep at night are REALLY necessary anyway?!?

A Great day for a Smoothy

Here it is...a delicious fruit smoothy. I think this quilt turned out so nice. The colors together are wonderful especially with the crisp white background. I have more of the accent floral for the backing and the stripe for the binding. This is probably my best yet as far as technique and lining things up. I would definitely recommend trying this Whirly Gig pattern. Just be sure to put together one block first to make sure everything looks good first. I would have saved fabric if I had followed this advice. Next time I make this pattern, I am going to try to add an additional fabric for some of the "background" white whirly gigs.

Other great news, I received a couple of squares from my momma. These are for the Denise Quilt in the unfinished projects list. They are the final squares, so I guess I better get to work.

I am not sure if this is good news, or just enabling myself in the fabric acquiring area. I ran into this super sweet Free Spirit print at the local fabric shop. I used a lot of will power and only bought a half yard of each of the two. One of these days I am going to figure out my incoming fabric to out going fabric ratio. I guess I will need to measure how many yards I have in my stash and then I can add and subtract after that. Maybe it will help me keep tabs on my fabric purchases.

And finally the best news of all! You will never guess what little beauties swam my way yesterday...drum roll please.....

Heather Ross's Mermaids

Yipee!

Didn't I warn you they were sweet. Just zoom in on their little faces. This fabric was love at first sight for me. I don't even know what I will do with it (except for some fussy cutting). I guess just stay tuned to see.