Busy Weekend

Estate sales and quilting made for a busy weekend!

I was looking for a spinning wheel for my niece and saw a couple listed at a local estate sale.  In the end I didn't get either of them.  One was way too large and the other I wasn't sure was working properly.

I did get some fun little things for me...silver spoons with delft shoes on the bottom (yes, I have a thing for Delft...started with a tea set my cousin gave me when I was 5 years old!), a fun container for sewing stuff in my sewing room,

and a cute little children's handkerchief.

I have no idea how old it is but the colors are great!  So all that fun for less than $10!

Then I went to my guild's "Mystery at the Masters" quilting day.  Now I'm not usually a mystery person (except for Bonnie Hunter's mysteries!) but I thought it would be a fun day.

It was a full workshop with over 40 quilters in the room!  We used a mystery pattern from Debbie Caffrey called O sole Mio.  I got as far as step 9...pretty good.

Except by 3:00 in the afternoon I was fried!  I ended up spending Sunday frog-stitching (ripping out stitches) from the blocks in step 9 and am resewing today.  My left arm had gone numb and the seams from step 9 had gone all cattywampus leaving me with wobbly edges and about 1/4 inch difference!  Not acceptable!

As I press the redone blocks I also realized why I don't do 3 fabric quilts...I get fabric-bored.  Since it was a mystery and didn't have scrappy suggestions I went with the pattern.  I'm sure it will be a pretty quilt but I don't enjoy the process as much.

On the Watson front...still no fence!  We had heavy, heavy rain this morning so I doubt they will be working on it today.  He is doing a better job of accepting it though...lots of walks and treats seem to be helping!

May Mystery Quilt Finish!

Not even the middle of the month and I have a finish on the calender!!! (and already cat tested and approved!)

With a little help from a friend I go the binding on my Orca Bay...this is a big quilt!  I really like the black binding on it.  Usually I like a pop of color or a stripe on the binding but the center of the quilt is so busy that I used and almost solid.  Orca Bay was Bonnie Hunter's  Mystery Quilt in 2011 (?) ...not recent but not too long ago!

BTW...if you are a Bonnie Hunter fan you want to be at my guild's show this October 11 and 12th!  Bonnie used to be a member of our guild (before she moved up to North Carolina) so with her permission we are doing a display of quilts made by guild members inspired by Bonnie!  Looks like we will have over 30 quilts as part of the display!  And yes, my Orca Bay will be one of them.  Think we will have at least one of her last four mysteries!  Our show is at the North Augusta Activities Center, 100 Riverview Park Drive, North Augusta, SC  29841.

Monday quilting update...

I cannot believe how many quilters have finished (quilting, binding and everything) the Easy Street Mystery designed and hosted by Bonnie Hunter.  Needless to say I am not among the over-achievers!

My top is plugging along nicely, thank-you-very-much.  I have the four corners and most of the setting triangle pieced along with two of each type of 15 in center block.  Not breaking any speed records but steady as I go....

I basted one of my small quilts - rows of crayons.  I am going to quilt this one on my domestic machine.  I find thread basting easier on my hands these days.  To baste this 36 by 45 quilt took me most of the Redskins Games yesterday.

Started packing for my guild's annual retreat.  Every year I pack way too much.  This year I'm promising myself only a few projects...perhaps one for my machine and another hand-quilting for the cabin....

Three days and holding....

Wow, three days into the New Year and I can report I have stuck to both my quilting and my healthy eating resolutions.  Neither was easy!

                                                           Goldie...now dubbed "guardian of the quilt-top pile"
I went to my Guild meeting today.  Every time I looked up there was another plate of cookies or bowl of fudge being handed around!  On top of that there is another workshop this month that I signed up for before I made my resolutions (workshops are breeding grounds for UFO's.)  Then they announced a mystery quilt program for the guild.  So no cookies or fudge and no mystery quilt...I will do the workshop.  "Two out of three aint bad...."

I have made a couple backs for my tops and I have worked diligently on my Easy Street.  Let's just say Easy Street is not the first thing that comes to mind as I sew these blocks together...

I still like it but Easy Street...really?  Does that look easy to you?  Jus' sayin.....

And this is the guild's 2013 Donation quilt.  Proceeds go to benefit a camp for children with cancer.  It really is much brighter in person.

Photographing the green batik background is really difficult...any hints from real photographers out there?

New Year Quilt List

When it comes to quilting it seems like I alternate between start-it years and finish-it years...this will be a finish it year.

So what is on the docket?  I picked out 12 quilts that are in various stages of work-in-process.  They range from just needing binding to a half pieced mystery quilt and every stage in between.  I thought that would keep me from getting bored and hopefully keep me from starting too many new projects.  I know I wrote too many...it would be like telling a person on a diet they could not even sniff a bit of chocolate if you told me no new projects!

Drum-roll please....

1.  1930's scrappy trip around the world...this only needs binding.  It was on my 2011 list!  I need to dump my angst about what color to bind it with and just finish this one in January!  How old is this quilt?  I started it when I was living in England....ouch!

2.  Seaglass - quarter log cabin: All set to machine quilt.

3. Material Obsession - All set to machine quilt

4.  I plan to hand quilt the Charleston Basket using a perl cotton and a big stitch.  I still have to piece the backing....

                                                                 Ribbon Candy
5.  Ribbon Candy will be machine quilted.  I need to piece the backing and decide on the quilting design.

                                                           Russian Sunflower
6.  Russian Sunflower.  I plan on hand quilting this small quilt.  I have the quilting design all planned out and have it pressed and ready to mark.  The backing and the wool batt is ready!

7.  Last year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt, Orca Bay, is all ready to be machine quilted. (no photo)

8.  Crayon Rows...not sure if I am going to handquilt this small quilt using a big stitch or if I am going to machine quilt it....

                                                                      Carnival Corn
9.  Carnival Corn...think I am going to machine quilt this one...this was based on a vintage top I bought at auction up in South Carolina.  You can tell I pieced this one about the same time as Crayon Rows!

                                                          Easy Street
10.  Easy Street is the quilt in pieces on the cutting table....

                                                                                       Teddington Stars
11.  Teddington Stars was also made while I lived in England.  I want to put a border on it so it has languished in the "what next" pile of UFO's....sometimes you just have to start sewing!

12.  Guild Donation Quilt....this is in the very early stages so no photos yet!

So 12 projects made the list and there are 12 months in a year - great symmetry but somehow I doubt I will stick to finishing one a month...more likely I will finish one in the first 6 months and 6 in the month prior to my guild's show!  But I can hope....

Easy Street...slow walk.

With all the holiday obligations this past weekend I didn't get too much done on Bonnie's Mystery Quilt, Easy Street.

I knew I would fall behind this week but I scheduled 30 minutes on Saturday and Sunday to stitch.  Amazing how much you can get done when you know you are racing the oven timer!

  It also helped that I had cut too many of the purple pieces for the last flying geese step so I was halfway there for this one!  (lesson learned - do not clean off the cutting table until the mystery is over!)

Yesterday I finished making 8 dozen biscotti and made the batter for mint chocolate and molasses cookies.  Those I bake today.  If I have time I will also make some Kouremmbiethes (Greek Butter Cookie.)  If not I'll make them on Christmas.

This little kitten is our new neighbor.  Macbeth, my scottish terrier, loves kittens and we are having a difficult time keeping him in the yard.  It has been years since he has dug under the fence!  To be honest I didn't think he had it in him (he turns 13 next month!)...but surprise!

So I've had to get more dog toys and bones to keep him active and distracted.  He doesn't really chew on bones...he just carries them around debating where to hide them...it can take hours!

Easy Street Step three - beware of Gremlins!

Amazingly I am keeping up really well with Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery!  It helped that I had 90% of the fabric in my stash so there was really no extra shopping to do.  Even more was the pile of 2-inch black and white strips already cut from an earlier project.

                                  Left to right: what I cut...what I should have cut...what goes into the scrapbag!
However just as I was getting all full of myself for being so smart the quilting gremlins smacked me up side the head to get me back in line.  This week we needed to cut more black and white hst from a 2 inch strip using the easy angle ruler.  No problem.  We also needed hst from a 3-1/3 inch of turquoise.  Ah yes, this is where the gremlins saw an opportunity...you see I didn't have coffee Saturday morning before I started to cut the fabric.  I used my companion angle instead of the easy angle.  They are so not interchangeable!

Fortunately I am able to cut the piece I needed from what I cut.  The piece I cut off is large enough to be used in another project somewhere!

Part of my reason for sharing this is to let some of the beginners out there know it isn't a disaster to make a mistake.  (I know of a very talented quilter who made the 4-patches using 2-1/2 inch strips and is in the process of cutting them all down! Gremlins must have gotten to her as well....)

To help here is a list of my anti-Gremlin tactics....

1.  I love reading Bonnie's post for each step but when it comes time to cut and sew I make myself a cheat sheet.  One piece of paper with a drawing with measurement of what I am supposed to be doing and how many.  I am easily distracted...for Orca Bay I ended up with twice as many of one step than I needed....

2.  Before starting a large quilt (and this is Bonnie so you know it will be a LARGE quilt) I change the blade in my rotary cutter and the needle on my sewing machine.  I also put a thinner thread, like Aurifil #50, in the machine.  It makes a huge difference in accuracy.  There is a lot of pieces in her quilts and in this quilt we are working with a fair amount of bias...accuracy helps.

3.  Slow down.  This includes taking breaks often during cutting.  Taking breaks during pressing.  Alternating tasks so I don't use the same muscles too long at one time.  This also includes running my sewing machine at a reasonable (for that read slow) speed.  This quilt uses a lot of half square triangles which don't give you a lot of fabric to hold onto.  Better to put it through the machine slowly than to have to rip it out later...bias really doesn't behave well when ripped out.

4.  Don't fight the process.  What do I mean?  I am a "make a test block" sort of quilter.  Anytime I start a quilt I want to have the crutch of knowing exactly how the quilt is going to go together and how the fabrics will look.  Mystery quilts don't work that way.  But you know neurologists say that sometime doing something in a new or different way is good for the brain.  That un-comfortableness you feel is your brain having to work a bit harder.  If it helps treat each step as a "quilt" and make a "test patch" for it before you start...it isn't giving in to your type A personality but just tossing it a bone (or a block....)  Just think, if I had done that I would not have cut out 64 turquoise companion angle pieces....


Nerd note:  Just read that Gremlin is a term believed to come from the British Air Force either from WWI or II.  Just like today it was used to describe unexplained mechanical errors.  My Dad, a WWII pilot, used to use the term often!

Second step down Easy Street

Just counted out my last stack of 4-patches and I only need to make 4 more!  Why does the count always come out differently before going through the sewing machine to after being pressed?  I mean how can I lose blocks during a 5 foot walk?

Anyway, I also have a good start on step two...about halfway there.  I sew a bit slower on flying geese...I press a bit slower too.  I have now burned three of the fingers on my left hand...what a klutz!  These are some small geese though so I expect to have toasted digits until these are finished!

I am really happy with the purples.  When they were all piled up as fat-quarters and yardage I wasn't  sure if there was enough values and patterns.  When I see the pile of smaller pieces I feel better about it!

When I'm not working on Easy Street I have been trying to get some Christmas decoration out.  Hoping that will get me in the Christmas Spirit!  I've used this quilt as part of my decorations for the past dozen years of so.  It is a 9-patch on point, circa 1880 from Pennsylvania.  It looks great hanging on the wall behind the Christmas tree.

Easy Street step one...

I got quite a bit done on Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt, Easy Street, this weekend.  I am more than half finished with step one and since she only posted it a few days ago that is saying something.

Having done many of Bonnie's prior mystery quilts I am feeling sure that she started out with an easy step to lull us into a sense of accomplishment...I am sure I'll be splattered when the next step is posted on Friday!

I am looking forward to cutting into some of the fabrics I've put aside for this though.  I was surprised how many I had in the color scheme.  Maybe it is because I never put these in one quilt before!

I've also been working on some Christmas projects.  I have several of these vintage Dresden plate blocks.  I traced an embroidery design in the center.  Now I have to decide if I am going to use a variety of colors/threads

or just red or blue?  (more traditional...)  The blocks are 16 by 16 inches so I am making pillows/cushions.

What do you think?

One month update...

It is the first week of February and I can say I did get some finishes done last month.

My Pensive Quilt came back from Judy Lockhart, longarm quilter, and it looks great. Tonight I am cutting some red binding and should have a complete finish photo soon!

I also finished two tops. My Phynazy Swamp (Orca Bay/mystery) quilt and my Pink Lemonade. I had hoped to go to Mary Jo's and find a backing fabric for them but legs and eys are a bit fragile today so instead I'm sorting scraps. Maybe I'll go online instead. In any case, I consider a top a finish...at least a resting point.

Also, I finished this little schoolhouse quilt for my friend Shannon who was selected as county teacher of the year! Go Shannon! We all met last Sunday and four of us gave Shannon a little wallhanging to show how proud we are of her.

I met my goals on the Sprigs and stars project...I completed three applique blocks are ten stars. Also have a plan for a different border...thinking I may be crazy...but so is the original border! I am trying to be a bit "looser" in my fabric choices and so far am pretty happy with it!

Finally on the "starts." I have been pretty good about saying no to projects. I'm not doing the guild block of the month, I'm not doing another blog mystery, and I said no to a major restoration project (a 1930 Dresden plate partially eaten by a dog....) I do however have a couple of starts....

Locally they are building a house for an injured vet (see my last post.) A few of us decided we should make a quilt for the key ceremony. I had used Bonnie Hunters Strip and Twist pattern for a some quilts of Valor so I dug out the box with the 2-1/2 inch red, white and blues. There were already several blocks there left over from other quilts. I also had a left over house block from a quilt I made my Dad so with a bit of sashing I made a center block. Leftover 2-1/2 squares make up the pieced border. I leaving it out in the guest bedroom until the other members of the group can see it and make a decision if we want to finish it for him.

I also started a little quilt for a doll-bed (14x10 inches) given to me by a friend. I need to have this finished by Superbowl Sunday (that is this Sunday for all you international readers.) This week I made a mattress so a finish is definitely do-able!

I also started a project reproducing a small antique quilt. Just started so more on that later....

It's a top!

Can you believe it...Orca Bay (or in my world Phynizy Swamp) is a quilt top! This is a first step finish in my book!

Now to find a back for it. Which means Road-trip! Next week I'm going up to Mary Jo's with some other quilters. Should be fun. I have a short list of things I need look for...mainly some backings, a border, and some wools. All good.

I went by my friend Ille's house this afternoon. This snowball quilt she is working on is wonderful! Love how she designed the center panel.

It has a lot of thread-painting on it.

We also looked at some of her vintage tops. She is thinking of selling this red and white Whigs Defeat top...

Now I have to spend some time putting up the fabrics I used for the Orca Bay and start to work on my next UFO...

or maybe play with the cat...cleaning is so overrated....