Fall cleaning...

CW block 45: Port & Starboard

Sorry I've been out of blogland for a few days while we got a new computer up and running. It is amazing how much faster this one is than our old one! It is however just enough different to make things awkward...

Also I have been helping a friend with her search for a new dog...a lab to more specific. She is adopting Cleo from a shelter in South Carolina. Going to these shelters breaks my heart...but I have to say the folks working in the Aiken shelter really do a good job with the animals. It is so hard for me not to bring home another dog or cat every-time I go...this time I only brought home the scottie dog dish towel. You can imagine the sigh of relief from my DH on that one!

I've also been sorting, refolding and reorganizing some of my antique and vintage quilts. Every few months I like to take them out and check on them. As I am changing out the bed linens from summer to winter it just makes sense to to this at the same time. This redwork quilt top always makes me stop and think how lucky we are to have such a wide choice of fabrics to work with...imagine doing all that embroidery only to have the sugar print still show...

For each finish a start...

It is still brutally hot out so I continue my hibernation in the sewing room. (could this be a quilting cave?...just a thought....)
On the good side I have been sewing a binding on so soon will have a real and complete finish to show! On the other hand some of you may have read Bonnie Hunter's post the other day when she showed a photo of a 1940's Jacob's ladder quilt then posted the direction and asked if anyone wanted to "play" along with her making the quilt. Did someone use play and quilt in the same sentence...whoosh, I was off the cutting board. Who needs a finish when I can start a new quilt!
Yes, I know we have all been there - sigh...at least I am using fabrics from my stash. ( That rationalization works about as well as the about drinking diet soda with pizza to cancel out the calories...)

I finished this week's Civil War block...Now that I have a short stack I wish I had been bit more consistent in fabrics. These 9 blocks work well together while when I spread the whole bunch out...not so much. And that is coming from someone who loves scrappy...maybe the "scrappiness" combined with all the block variation is a bit much...I'll have to think on this one....

Mystery box

I'll admit there are still a few boxes from our move two years ago that still have not been unpacked. One marked "Linens" was in the back of the closet in my sewing room and finally was opened this past weekend...I guess our movers had never seen a box full of quilting UFO's before!
I showed a couple in my last post but this is the box that just keeps on giving...one big surprise was this piano key border that was made for a king size quilt. When I was finishing the quilt I looked everywhere (well, almost everywhere) and could only find three sides...so I ended up remaking one. Now I have the original 100+ inch piano key border to play with....First, I looked for a quilt in need of a border. No luck. Then I tried using the box of 4-patches with the piano key...not so much. Finally I cut the boarder into three pieces and auditioned fabrics for the alternate strips. The first group was too predictable and dark...the second took too much attention from the piano keys. This is the one I ended up choosing...
I think I'll baste it and handquilt some elbow/baptist fans. Maybe I'll call it the Goldilocks Quilt....

Made my Civil War block of the week...feels good to be back on track with this project again.

Day of Rest...not so much

Today is supposed to be a day of rest but since I am sitting on a To-do list longer than my arm I've got to get a bit of work in before the list is dragging on the floor and trips me up!I've already spend a few hours on the deck preparing for a guild program next Tuesday on Quilt Appraisals. This did double duty as review for the exam later this month...cannot believe it is finally here! (Dobby likes to sit play on the deck when I have my morning coffee...can you believe how much he has grown!)
Also the kitchen needs to be cleared of fabric and quilt-y stuff before I leave for Paducah which means I need to start now! And speaking of "kitchen fabric," I finished this week's CW Block of the week. I pieced it a bit differently from the directions - instead of sewing a 2-1/2 square to a 2-1/2 inch HST I sewed a 2-1/2 inch square on the diagonal to the 4-1/2 inch strip. That gives the stripe continuity...and me less of a headache! This may be one of my favorite blocks in the growing pile!

Finally, the dreaded spring cleaning of the closet. Temps here are already into t-shirt weather so the heavy sweaters and coats have to move to the to shelves.

So with this...I'd best be off seeing to chores...even if it is a day of rest!

What is on the cuttig table?

There was a post the other day where the writer mused how the two projects on her cutting table sometimes got mixed up. She was going to limit herself to one cutting project at a time. That got me to wondering...just how many projects are currently on my cutting board?The most obvious is the 6x6 Material obsession project. This had been stalled due to running out of the one consistent fabric in the quilt...luckily a friend had a fat quarter of it which is just enough. (I cut that after several deep breath and as many cups of coffee...)The scraps from the MO project were used as leaders and enders to make a scrappy spider web (also in on of the MO books.) The scraps got big enough that I did a couple of test blocks yesterday. Jury is out if I like it well enough to finish.

Also am cutting binding for three quilts. The green is for this Spring Winds quilt (that has been quilted for almost 6 months and just needs binding!) Also in the binding que is a Crab Apple tree and a Scrappy trip around the world. I'm also making the binding for my Q4L which is still being quilted but I want to get it in the mail this week so it will jump the que the minute it is off the machine!

Since I started the CW block of the week on Barbara Brackman's blog it seems like there is always a bit of civil war reproduction fabric on the cutting board. Last week I made two...one from her blog and another with a print of General Lee. The quilt is going to my FIL and his family is from Virginia.
There is also some black Moda that I am using for sashing on those Halloween Arrowhead blocks.
And some 9-patches from garden-y type fabric left-overs for something in the future. They may be use as a border or maybe as a quilt of their own...love 9-patches....

As I looked over the projects I asked myself "do I ever mix up my projects?" Of course I do but that is a good thing. How else would I know that a bit of the plaids I'm using in my MO project would work for a CW block of the month and the some CW reproduction fabric is ok in those scrappy leaders and enders. My cutting table is the mixing bowl of my scrappy quilts.

CW block and Dobby rescue

One more CW block goes into the stack. With the eyesight this was a bit more difficult for me. Instead of spending lots of time playing in the fabric I went for a bag where I knew the fabrics matched well...they were put aside for a special project.I took a small piece of three of them which shouldn't hurt the main project at all. I tend to "over estimate" and end up with lots of fabric for the stash!

During the week I made another "unofficial" CW block. I liked this cabin fabric and thought it would go well with the Lincoln block.

Dobby provided the neighborhood with some excitement this week. Thursday evening he got by me at the back door. This has happened before and usually after a few minutes of sniffing around he runs back in...not this time. I was up every hour going all over the back yard and made several rounds of the neighborhood (at all hours of the night!)

Finally after sunrise we found him...two stories up in a neighbor's tree!Generally the Fire Department will not come out for an animal rescue however the conversation my DH had with them went something like this -
"Our young cat is up tree...about 40 or 50 feet up...my wife is out there tossing a rope up around a branch and planning on climbing up there the way they taught her in the army...that was 25 years ago...she has MS and is sort of blind right now but really stubborn..."
The firetruck rolled up with a couple of cadets and their instructor about 5 minutes later...within 10 minutes Dobby rode down the ladder clinging tightly to the fireman's helmet.He is still a bit exhausted from the whole thing...but we do not have to worry about him at the doors anymore!

Superbowl sewing...

My superbowl tradition is to do lots and lots of sewing on Superbowl Sunday. Basically I offset my DH's not-so-quiet but uninterrupted-by-me time in front of the TV tonight with some uninterrupted-by-anyone time in front of my sewing-machine.

I finished this weeks Civil War Block of the Week from Barbara Brackman's blog. Notice this was the first project I worked on this morning...not enough coffee. I didn't notice the whoops until I went to take its photo. And no, I am not redoing it!

With the left-overs I made a variation on the Richmond block. (once again, I was cutting out the block on only one cup of coffee so I cut out almost enough pieces to make two blocks - there is a direct correlation between caffeine consumption and math skills.) Besides I know I will want to make a bed size quilt out of these and so will need some extras.
These quick blocks are a nice break from working on my RRCB...I only have a few more hst to make before I can focus on putting the blocks together...all I can say at this point is there are a lot of bits and pieces to this quilt and I can only hope that all of them are in the box.....

500th Post and counting....

Dobby - still growing!

I started to draft a wonderful post for my 500th...decided it was way too, well too! So to simplify - thanks to all of you who follow my posts; big thanks to those who leave comments; huge thanks to all of you who post on your own blogs and make this such a great quilting community to be a part of. At the risk of sounding like one of those simpering acceptance speeches I'll stop there.

I did the random generator thingy (but blog is being a pain today and not pasting the link...) anyway, the winner of the "giveaway" is Debbie at #25. She does not write a blog of her own but does follow lots of quilting blogs. I have contacted her by email. She is getting some civil war fabrics for her Brackman block of the week project....

Speaking of the Brackman Civil War block of the week I finished this week's block - forget my initial comment about these blocks being quick! Little 1-inch finished HST's...lets say lots of coffee was consumed in the constructing of this block!
These are the 4 blocks from the project plus my Mulligan block. I a still have the 7 sisters applique block in-process. All and all I feel like I am keeping up. I do want to put a bit more green in the next few blocks and perhaps a bit of yellow.This week I am going to make a dent in my Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery quilt. I packed it up to take to retreat and have yet to unpack it and work on it at home again. I also want to get binding on one of the 5 (yes, five!) quilts that just need binding to be really and truly finished! A finish would feel good right about now, no?!

Mulligan block and road trip...

Like many of you I have been trying to keep up with Barbara Brackman's Civil War block of the week. The last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy with lots of quilting and medical activities so when the block came up on Sunday I thought maybe it would be easier for me to paper-piece this block.

The answer...not so much! Paper-piecing helps keep my points nice and lines even but it does not help with putting the fabric in the right place. oh no, the T's were supposed to be blue! Duhhh...so I ended up with extra pieces and put them together in a slightly different (and easier!) block.

I figure now I have a bonus/mulligan block in case I have to miss a week later on this year!

In other news...What do you think of this fabric stack? So not like me is it! About half of it came from my stash and the other from a trip to Intown Quilters in Decatur, Georgia (part of Atlanta.) Just going into this store makes you happy (a bit dazed, confused and overwhelmed but happy!)

They carry lots and lots of Kaffe along with the other Westminster designers. In the back room are brights and 1930's repros while in the basement are the clearance fabrics. Before the holidays I bought two of the Material Obsession books and have decided to kick the fabric selection in my next quilt up a notch...should be fun!

More on the other places we visited when I get the fabric out of the car...

Block a week

Two weeks and I'm keeping up...may be a record! This is part of Barbara Brackman's new Civil War Quilt history blog. I've put up a special "design wall" so I can keep the blocks in view (out of sight out of mind is not good for long term projects!)
We got slammed with ice and snow last night...they say it will continue until tomorrow morning. Good thing I made lots of Beef Barley Soup last night and bought lots of coffee and cat food...ready for a long hunker-down if need be! (oh ya, and I have lots of fabric and quilting projects to keep me busy!)
Can you believe I filled this bird feeder last night! The birds are treating like a McDonald's drivethrough! By noon it was empty and the ice had frozen the top shut. I ended up putting some seed on plates and setting them into the snow. I'm amazed how many different types of birds I saw...cardinals, orioles, a chickadee, and many small birds that I can't quite id.

Easing into the New Year

No I don't have list of resolutions finished..my Christmas tree ornaments are down but the tree is still standing in my dining room...and the new organizer for my closet that I vowed to get in before the new year is still in the box. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come!

Oh dear...between my leg problem and a cold I just haven't been very productive. I spent most of today trying to uncover the parts for my Roll Roll cotton Boll. During the holidays they seemed to have scattered like cotton on the back of the truck during harvest time. (I love driving down the back-roads here in Georgia in the autumn and seeing the bits of cotton drifting along...)

Brownie (the cat) had taught Dobby (the kitten) how to block surf...these cotton boll paper pieced blocks rock as kittie boards. They have been setting all sorts of distance records across the living room....(and I wonder why I am not getting anything done.....)


I did make the first block, Catch me if you can, from Barbara Brackman's new blog. She is posting each week with a block and a bit of civil war era history to commemorate the anniversary of the start of the American civil war. Living here in the south I expect there will be many events in my area. In fact later this month they are re-enacting the handover of the local munitions factory to the confederates at the start of the war. I am going to try and keep up (perhaps rename this block "keep up if you can?) with the blocks she posts. I've seen many around "blog-dom" doing the same...