Attack Sewing Machine....

Yikes...I had so many things to do today. And what did I get done? Nada. I sort of wish I could curl up in the bowl like Goldie....

I had gone as far as taking out my DH's dreaded red, white and blue quilt and made a list of what I needed to do to get it finished. By 0900 I had even cut out a few strips and made my way to my sewing machine. That is when all progress stopped. The gremlins that I thought had been banished from my machine were back...I could not get the needle to center. Duhhhhh. So after a few minutes of playing on the computer I grabbed another coffee and confronted the evilness. Success...don't ask me how? I just hit lots of buttons....

Of course by now we are wayyyy past walk time for Macbeth (the too cute Scottie that rules my house.) So off we go so he can sniff every mailbox, street pole, and fence that he sniffed yesterday. When we got back I raced to the sewing room. Then bammmmm...may sewing machine went gangsta' and shot me. (at least that is what if felt like!...not that I have ever been shot but you know what I mean...)

While I was on the sniff patrol with his highness the power had gone out...then came back on again allowing the gremlins to take hold of that needle and put it right over the foot again. When I put pedal to the metal...well the needle went to the metal and then right into the middle finger of my left hand. Now I am pretty good with math but I still can't figure out that angle...that gremlin can fade a shot like Tiger and with almost as much power cause that little tip of a needle went way in there.

So by 1000 my day was shot...no pun intended. I was supposed to be cleaning the house finishing a baby quilt for a neighbor, and meeting my Dh for lunch to celebrate Fat Tuesday. Instead I made a quick (as quick as it ever can be) visit to the emergency room where the doc used the coolest long tweezer that sort of locked (so many fun uses I could have for that tool in my sewing room....) My lunch ended up being a banana split at the funky icecream store because don't you always get icecream after a doctor's visit?
The good news is Merry Maids were here just last week so the house is clean enough...though is is my older sister...wooops. Tomorrow I meet her up in Charlotte (with a side visit to Mary Jo's.)

(photo above is from the retreat last month...I love the color in that border fabric! It is on my list for tomorrow....) Hopefully a more quilty post later in the week....

Playing vintage....

My big accomplishment this weekend...I cleaned off the dining room table. Woohooo...it may not sound like much but this is the first time we have been able to sit down and eat a meal on this table since we moved back into the house in December! (It was sort of driving me crazy...)
I did play in the scrap pile a bit. I have stacks of vintage blocks that I dream of someday using as inspiration to make a new quilt. The block above is one of my favorites in the pile. The fabric is very fragile and the dye is migrating but I like how graphic it is so....

This is my scrappy version! It worked up pretty quickly (once I fixed a minor math error...really good reason for test blocks!) I used my box of 2 inch strips that I had already cut (a la Bonnie's stash management method) so the only bits I had to cut were some 4 inch squares. Very fun. I do have to put it aside for a bit though and find a finish it project for March. (My Dh is hoping it will be his red, white and blue.....uhggggggg)

I also made yet another of the airplane binders...these are fun. I have some of these vintage wedding ring arcs rescued from a yard sale that are never going to the alter so I have to find other destinations for them...I put one of the cover fabric but it didn't quite jump out at me so I added some handmade lace...(lace wedding ring...get it?!)
This was better but still....so I added some rick-rack....And since it was now a bit OTT so why not just go all the way and use some black for the binding! (also to keep it from getting too cute...)

So why all these binders? Well, I'll give you a hint...watch this space from March 10th to the 14th. (I know that sort of gives it away but not entirely.....)

The basics...

I made my first quilt when I was 16 (I'm not telling how many years ago that was!) but every once and awhile I find myself going back to the basics. I think all quilters should have at least one good reference book on their shelf.

For example today I wanted to make continuous bias to finish off another little quilt. Now I don't know about you, but I tend to just cut a square and go to town- which is why I have a very dusty box of random lengths of bias binding hiding in the back of my closet. (I keep telling myself that someday I will have the perfect scrap quilt to use all of it on...ya, right!)

So this is my referance book. The Quilters Ultimate Visual Guide from Rodale Publishing. There aren't photos of beautiful quilts, lots of gorgeous fabrics to drool over or patterns that make me run to my stash and rev up the sewing machine. What it does have are those prickly little factoids that my brain just doesn't have space for anymore (and it is so much better organized than my brain...)

The answer to my question on how much bias binding I need is on page 46:
"To estimate the amount of binding a square will produce multiply the length of two of the sides. Divide the result by the width of the binding you want. For example using a 30 inch square; multiply 30X30 to get 900. Divide 900 by 2 to get 450, the length of binding you would get from a 30 inch square."

(I knew that....) Of course I use 2-1/4 inch binding meaning I have to go dig the calculator out of the kitchen catch-all drawer....
I have found one use for some of my random binding and some of my crumb pieces...I'm using them to make some of the airplane binders. It is a lot of fun. It also gives a home to some of the buttons I have been accumulating for years! This project drives my DH crazy...he walks into my quilting room and looks at the bookcases and boxes filled with fabric and then picks up a crumb block made up of pieces as small as 1/2 inch by 1 inch and says, "you are never going to get through all of this." Like that is the goal...silly man. (and he isn't even counting all the boxes under the bed!)

Which makes me wonder...how many other quilters have included the disposition of their quilting room stuff in their will? Our lawyer said I was only the second one she had seen....

OK, blogger is fighting my photos...the one at the top (that will not move...) is some of the blocks I made this weekend to send off to Tracy in Aus. She is putting together sampler quilts for victims of the fires there.

A flourish of finishes...

I love words...a murder of crows, a exultation of doves, a crash of rhinoceros, and a parliament of owls. So why not a flourish of finishes?! (which has me thinking what would you call a group of quilters....)

Anyway, the little quilt-lit on the top is 15 inches aby 15 inches and was started...wait for it...in 1997. How could something so small take so long? Got me. It has only needed binding for about the last 5 years but kept slipping into the twilight zone we lovingly call my quilting room. Amazing how these little projects can hide....
Since I have been so good about meeting my goal of finishing one old project a month I let myself play with some little projects this weekend. After working on quilts that take months (ok, I admit it...years) to start and finish something in an afternoon is eye-opening. Big sigh....


Now of course we get into my bizarro world " if there is an easy way of making something then I will find another way..." The directions for making these little Airplane Art Binders are posted on Terry Atkinson's blog. They are pretty straight forward sooooo...why use a single piece of fabric for the feature fabric...I have all these strips left over from the blue courthouse steps...and well I don't have any deco bond so lets use some fusible fleece...oh, and wouldn't a button look nice....got the picture. Anyways, my first didn't quite come out like I wanted, but after a tiny adjustment (and a bit of experience) my second one is better and actually fits all eight pencils. (note the first only fits seven pencils...duhhhh)

Well, off to do some gardening this morning. Some girls get roses and chocolate for valentiene's day...I get a composter and three blueberry bushes. Isn't it convenient though that this morning cutting his bagel he also cut his hand so he can't help dig them in? And isn't it convenient he had the money in his wallet to pay the teenager down the street to help me today? Convenient, I dont' think so...Ah, how far my Dh will go to not get his hands dirty....

An Opinion

One thing you can always be sure of in blog-world is opinions. (not to be confused with Bloggo-world where you attempt to sell Senate seats...but I digress)

My Double delight has again become a double dilemma (does that make it a Double squared dilemma, a double double dilemma or a double dilemma times two....duhhh, that is not the question....) The issue/dilemma is border choice.

I started this quilt with a bag of fabric I had put aside years ago for another project. In the bag was three yards of the purple leaf and three yards of the beige. In my mind these would be the inner and outer borders. Now, not so sure. So these are my options...

A. The original...purple leaves with beige
B. Purple leaves with pieced green inner border

C. Gold (grapes?) with pieced green inner border

D. What are you thinking girl...dig deeper into your stash

E. Support your President and get thee to a local quilt store

Oh, dear...on another topic. I made a couple of wonky stars to send off to Australia to make quilts for the victims of the fires. Now I have to go and find the blog that I read yesterday that had the address - yikes. You would think I would have made a link to it or something...noooo. There seems to be so many bad things happening. I had to turn off the news this morning for a bit and just play with the cats for a bit.

If I don't post tomorrow...Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Here are some postcards that I started about 4 years ago...I may have one finished tonight for my husband and maybe not. Do you think he would notice if I didn't get the edges finished?! The photo on the top of this posting is of some logcabin blocks I made last year. Didn't like them enough to make more (they measure 14x14...what was I thinking?!) but today I dug them out and am putting together a Valentine's day bag...a bit too cute but it is tough not to make a valentine's day thing-y not cute!

Double delight getting closer....

Ohhhh so close to being done! I just have to square up my double delight and put on the borders...this quilt is fun. Once the blocks are done the rest goes together pretty quickly. I used enough fabrics that there was no problem with it becoming too match-y. I love the purples in this quilt!

And hold on....

Another quilt top finished! This ended up being small enough that I could get the borders on. I went with two greens on the border and used up some scraps in the corner pinwheels. Now I just need a name for this one.

I actually had something to show when I went to my local guild this morning. One of our members did a presentation on Crazy quilting. She does nice work. I particularly like the one she is working on right now...all creams and blacks. She coffee dyed the lace for this one. she also put on each of those little pearls by hand...hence the name crazy quilt!

So this is a quilt top in January and one in February! Keep up this pace and I could be going for a personal finish-it record this year.

Scotties Rule!!!

A none-quilt moment...tonight at Westminster Dog Show Roundtown Mercedes of MaryScot will be representing the terrier group. That is right...a scottie dog could get best in show again at the mother of all dog shows! I even prepared some special treats for my MacBeth so we could enjoy the show together! Of course last night he was much more interested in the cat on the back deck than on the dogs running across the TV screen...
I have made some progress on my jellyroll quilt. Don't the colors look much better when the photo is taked outside?! To make this I started with a free pattern on the internet. Let me just say that I didn't have to do my suduko or my crossword that day since I exercised my brain cells enough trying to figure out those directions. In the end I tossed the papers and just wung-it (is that a word?) I am going to put a border on it when the arms are up to the heavy lifting. In the end it took just over 40 2-1/2 by WOF and 5 4-1/2 by WOF strips to make this top. I will most likely dig into my 2-1/2 bin for some greens to make a pieced border and binding.


There are a couple off quilters playing with nosegays so I thought I would post this photo of one from the 1940's. I helped a local museum put together an exhibit of local quilts a few years ago...I love how there is one nosegay up in the right hand corner that is upside down! And several of the setting triangles are pieced...how tough would that make it to square up the quilt! but I love the look and the scrappiness of it all....

I may work on my Double Delight quilt for a bit today...I need something to get me away from the televison. I've been watching too much news and my blood pressure is rising! I just want to get all of congress in a room together and scream "this is our country - what the heck do you think you are doing?!" Then I want to pull all the news reporters and anchors into a room and scream "this is our country - what the heck do you think you are doing?!" There, I feel better already....

Playing with Jellyrolls

It has been a quiet weekend. Still feeling a bit weak so I am playing with strips when I really should be putting borders on some almost finished quilts...don't quite have the arm strength right now. The pinwheels in the photo above look black but they are really dark green...I wish I had gone with the orange but I am so not going back now! I'll pick the green up again in the borders...
I did make it to my quilting group this week. It was nice to see the old gang again. This little purse/thread case was made by one of the members. I love it! She felted the wool herself, lined it with Fasset cotton, and then embellished it. She does great work. I do not need to start collecting wools now but then again....

I know I have said it before but it is amazing the things you find when you move. I've been going through some of the little bags and wondering what was I thinking? The photo above is of a project at least 14 years old...I know I am never going to work on it again so I need to let it go!

The news has been crazy this week. I hope all our bloggers in Australia are doing OK with the fires and the bloggers in the UK are staying safe in the snow.

Mid week catch-up

You wouldn't know it by my posts but I have been getting a lot of sewing done! (maybe that is why I haven't been on the computer?)

Anyway, I have put the borders on my blue and white quilt. Are you a borders quilter? I have tried to make quilts without borders but in the end regress and slap one on...just feels more finished to me. Anyway, this is one I did not plan on putting a border on but did mainly because it needed to be about 8 inches longer.
I also pieced a backing for it...I know a little bit of red creapt in! It is on the back so it doesn't really count. I like putting good feeling fabrics on the back of my quilt. I am always check the sale bins at the LQS...I am less concerned with the color then the "hand" of the fabric. I backed a quilt for my Mom with Liberty fabric...that was back when I was working and a bit crazy....

My Double Delight is soooo close to being finished! Only two more strips to put together...if I could just keep Goldie and Brownie away from it for a day it would be done. As it is I have to keep rearranging the blocks every time I leave the room! Incentive to get my design wall up in my sewing room and to stop using the bed...or should that read "their" bed!

Also on the sewing machine...some twist blocks from Bonnie's Superbowl Challenge. Totally by accident I started putting together some 2-1/2 inch strips as leaders and enders. This quilt goes together really fast. Which is good since my favorite nurse from the clinic is leaving in two weeks so she can stay home and take care of her sick Mom and I wanted to finish a quilt for her...she is always talking about taking up quilting.

On the nurse/clinic front...things are a bit scarey. I dont' want to go into it too much but lets just say they have pulled me off of all my meds (yes, even those great pain ones that let me sleep or the ones the let me keep going on bad MS days.) Going infor more tests this afternoon. A big yuck....maybe I will stop at Borders on the way home and get myself a treat...

There are Gremlins about

Gremlins seem to be having a hay day in my house this weekend. (And these aren't the brown or gold fuzzy type of Gremlins....)

First, somehow while I was making dinner last night I completed the January Shop Hop. Amazing since I wasn't at the computer...I suspect my DH did it. I've been having problems with my eyesight this week and I've grumbling about that d!#$* rabbit enough that he may have taken pity on me. (He may have also realized he could save a lot of money by keeping me away from those quilting web sites! Have you folks seen the Halloween Baltimore album quilt...sooo fun.)

Second, two shelves of very neatly (and recently) folded fabric ended up in the middle of my sewing room floor. Earthquake? Don't think so. Why those two shelves? Gremlins....

And my sewing machine....it will not keep the needle centered! Twice I have broken needles when they have wandered over and hit the foot! If I shut the machine off I never know where the needle will be! I had all these projects to work on today while DH watched the game...now I have to dig out some hand work or put up one of the other machines. Gremlins....How is it we are the only house in town that has Daffodils in the yard? Lots of them! When we walked Mac this morning I didn't see one other flower yet in our area. (even our paperboy commented on it!) Garden Gremlins.....

And in my computer...gremlins. It takes four tries to post a photo. At one point my computer totally froze up. So I run my security software. Nothing. I update my software and then run again...ah, some unknown programs. I delete. Still, no photo-love. So, I refrag my hard-drive...finally my photos are uploading again. I have spent most of my day battling gremlins....

Hopefully I'll have a more quilty post tomorrow...