Progress Requires Change

There have been some significant changes in the last five months. The largest of these being that I have moved.

To New York City.

The country quilter is now in the big city! w00t.

This is primarily for a new job I have taken with an immigration firm in lower Manhattan. There are daily challenges and loads to learn so I am excited.

The sad part about living in NYC is the fact that I have had very little time to sit down and do any quilting. None, in fact, until this past Monday. The admin assistant to the attorney I work for his having a baby and I jumped at the idea of making her a baby blanket. She is having a little girl this December.

This was also an excellent opportunity to check out what the fabric world is like in this city. I think I'll take a tour of the quilting shops of Manhattan in a few weekends and really check things out. But to start myself out, I went to SoHo Purl on Broome St. off of Canal in (you guessed it) SoHo. They have beautiful fabric but nothing even close to what I would call cheap. White muslin was $7/yrd. If I were more of an artist and less of a casual quilter this place would be Mecca. Sadly, I can't afford to drop $80 for fabric that is just enough for a baby blanket. A pack 6 fat quarters was $46. I never thought I would say this, but I miss Joanne's. I might have to do some serious fabric shopping when I go home for Thanksgiving next month if this is what the majority of NYC fabric is like.

Anywho, pictures to follow of this white and pink creation.

Gotta Love New England

In the military they say "if you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have signed up". Well, if you hate snow, you shouldn't live in New England and this year really illustrates that. We got clobbered over Christmas and it just kept coming with a few days for a break here and there. Last week was my first full week of work in 2011 and is starting to look like the only thus far. We are due for +20" this week. Not even over the course of the week...over today and tomorrow!!!. As if single degree temps wasn't enough...

My car is under there...somewhere

But when I'm inside, warmed and cuddly with Tim or wrapped up in a fantastic quilt, it makes me really happy that I live in this part of the country and that I have a great hobby that helps keep me and others warm. I'm hoping that soon I will be able to start sharing this fabulous hobby with others! And what a great time to learn! It's sooooo cold outside and what is better than curling up on a snow day with your very own, hand made quilt with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book or movie? Nothing, I say!

Quilt Zombie Rises Again

The holidays where a great success! Everyone loved their quilts and it all turned out alright. Still need to get a picture of mom's finished quilt but I can do that next time I swing by I-Town. But with all those projects getting pumped out I was deserving of a break hence the leave of absence.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I moved out of my dad's. The computer is down in the bottom floor of the house where it's very cold. Sadly, this is where my sewing machine is too so quilting and blogging are now very chill affairs being the middle of January in one of the snowiest seasons I can remember. Usually I'm all bundled up down here in fluffy bathrobe, blanket and my warmest jammies. But on the upside the cats keep me company. Or drive me crazy. Whatever they are feeling. 

Vacation in the islands was lovely. And in typical heebs fashion....I found quilting fabric. Hand dyed batiks! In a jelly roll! It was 20 bucks and totally worth it. I has since resulted in the following project. All the batiks cut out and alternated with a nice Caribbean blue batik I picked up at Joann's looks super super cool. The colors to fade from dark to light going left to right respectively. Can't really see it in this picture though. The problem was picking and choosing which strips to keep and which to chuck because the total amount of fabric would have been enough to cover a twin bed and a half length wise! Some got taken out and will be re purposed as a binding. It's been a nice way to break out of my hiatus. 

I found a really great channel on the YouTubes that shows tutorials of great filler stitches. I'm using her Poseidon Eye on the Caribbean Quilt. You can kinda see it in this picture. Swirilies!!!

I guess the real reason for this post is because a good friend of mine was pondering blog creation and I realized that I've been too lazy to post an update lately. Time to get off my bum and rock out!

HUGE yet AWESOME setback

Here is the good news: Moms quilt is done. And Grampa's table runner is all machine stitched together. It just needs the bindings sewn on and the center piece to be cut, folded and pinned. So about a days worth of work left there.

Here is the bad news: Uncle Jimss totally awesome super mario bros pillow has been put on the back burner for so long that I almost forgot that it wasn't a completed project. That certainly isn't for lack of love for my totally awesome, techno savy uncle! But it would seem that these projects wont be completed until the xmas deadline is staring me in the face.

Here is why, and this is the awesome part that makes up for this ( I hope).

Awesomeness part I - im going on vacation to St. Johns (USVI) for the first time in my life this Saturday for a whole week. The primary objective of this vacation is to spread the remainer of my grandmothers ashes and celebrate my fathers 50th birthday. I think, just to be a nerd, I will bring grampas project with me to do on the plane on the way down. He is flying separately from us as he is coming from FL and not the far north. Ill just have to hide it while im down there.

Awesomeness part II - I am moving out of my dads.
Some may think that this is not a big deal. I would say "nay nay this is huge!" However, with everything getting packed away it will sadly mean that Uncle Jims pillow will be the last thing I finish this year even though it was one of the first that I started. Again, not for lack of love for my wonderful uncle but for lack of love for those frustrating little squares! Tee hee.

I've gotta say, im so excited could throw up!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Nearly Done!

In light of the fact that the holidays are fast approaching, not to mention my week long vacation in the caribbean, I am cutting some projects short. I did a quick evaluation of my mother's quilt last night and found that, in it's current state, it will just barely drape over the edges of a queen size mattress. I had intended to make it larger however she had mentioned to me that she really just wanted something to snuggle with in front of the tv so there is really no sense in going larger. So I tossed on the inner binding, which really brings the whole thing together. I still think that the stars are a little eye twisting to look at because they are constructed from very heavily concentrated patterned fabric. With the backing cut now I just have to sandwich the whole thing, which I am hoping to get to tonight.

This means that I should be able to do most of the quilting over the remaining week and weekend and bind it all up next week. Possibly even before the holiday. Wow, that would be nice. Then I can use the majority of the holiday to whip up grampa's table runner and center piece. Once Grampa is all complete I can put the finishing touches on the nagging SMB's pillow...

and then I'm done! :)

I have learned over the last few months that quilting massive amounts of projects with a deadline as hard as Christmas hanging over you really doesn't make for enjoyable quilting when you start coming down to the wire. Considering that I don't have every weekend off to quilt I have just odd hours on either end of my most hated job to work on my projects. I will, of course, continue to quilt, but I think once the holidays are over I'll probably spread projects for next Christmas out over a whole year. Though a serious chunk of next year will be taken up with Dragon Age II, which comes out March 8th. I'm a geek, I know. :)

Even though, at the moment, I don't have a single comment on my blog I am hoping that people will come to this blog once they have been given their gifts to see how they were constructed from start to finish.

A Quilt Top Update

This is mom's quilt top so far. It's about a third of the center of the quilt itself. It is massive and I'm wondering what to do for quilt stitching on it. The piecing is coming along great though. As you can probably imagine the center stars take a lot of time. I can probably bang out three stars, four max, in my limited quilting time in a week day. I think I did the majority of the Irish Chains in one night! Thank god for easy blocks or this thing would take forever.

The Great and Powerful Mac is sharing this chair with me. He has suddenly decided that he wanted to sit and cuddle but thought being wedged behind me would be comfortable. Cats are so weird.

a new kind of post

So this is a slowly typed entry from my Droid. Its by first time using a qwerty keyboard so things are still in the learning stage. Though I do need the practice so I can be more efficient.
I do love this phone though.

Quilt update: Mom's quilt is slow going. The star blocks are time consuming with each taking about 45 minutes each. Im thinking I will stop at 16 and assemble the center of the quilt. Im thinking that can be completed before St. Johns in 26 days. I think it would be optimistic. To the point of foolishes to expect more than that given the OT I want to pull this coming month.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3