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

Bit of a Break

God may have rested on the seventh day but it take a little bit more to get me to put my scissors down. Today is one of those days. Previously I had been the unhappy owner of a Blackberry Storm 2. I have never, ever, been so disappointed in a phone in my entire life. The thing did better as a paper/fabric weight. After months of frozen screens, short outs and frantic calls to customer service I decided to go out of my way to get out of this telecommunication hell. Today, I have walked out of the land of dispair and back into a field of bright happy apps and more features then I had ever dreamed imaginable on a phone.

I got a Droid.

I had thought that I would pick it up in the morning before work, take a few hours to play around and then settle into a happy groove of having my new toy. It wasn't until I realized that it was 12:03 that I realized that I should have already been at my desk and not in my car in the parking lot of my office. I loudly cursed the clock and whined over the fact that I had been tinkering for two hours and still had hitherto unforeseen fantastic abilities to figure out.

It wasn't until a full day at the office and getting home did I have the time to sit down and realize that the little microphone button in the menu bar while writing a text message would actually let me speak to the phone and it would write the text message to me. Given that texting and driving is becoming illegal throughout the north east this is going to be fantastic. At the very least it will allow me to write my 90 ETA warning to Tim easier when I go south. Texting on the Tappen Zee Bridge...not a good idea.

In my systematic run through of the phone I have discovered so much. I have yet to get to the google run star map or any of the gps navigation programs. Today was mostly social networking, texting, syncing contacts correctly and playing around with the voice command options, which are extensive. I will admit that the qwerty slide out keyboard is a little awkward even though the keys have some definition to them. The top row is just a wee bit too close to the upper face of the device so it can be a little cumbersome.

Such distractions have made me realize that I have yet to clean my room or hallway. Tim is coming up this weekend and my room is a bit cluttered with laundry that needs to be done.

So, good excuse for not completing todays 2 alloted stars in order to meet my goal? I hope so. :)

A Star is Born

Up at 6, drive for 5.5 hours. Work 8.5 hours (really only about five of those :p), errands to run, people to talk to...and finally after all that I get to take some time to put together the first block of my mother's quilt.

This is my first realization that I need to put a little more planning into the scale of the patterns I choose. Looking at this block and knowing it's going to be along side 31 of it's identical fellows and several irish chains I can see that there is going to be a serious problem. It is going to look far too busy! you can barely make out any definition in the white bits of the outer and inner stars. The backgrounds for the Irish Chains is a little more plain but it does have red pattern on it. I'm hoping because it's a smaller scale pattern that it will help to balance all this out but I'm starting to worry that it will be insignificant to the issue.

New thing learned with this block: Flying Geese
The triangles are part of a Colonial traditional pattern that when arranged appropriately they resemble geese flying in formation. Doing geese on this block involves drawing lines on the wrong side of the fabric in pencil or chalk over the diagonal and using that line as a guide. Drawing that line adds time to the whole process but it's worth it to maintain accuracy.

Here's hoping this quilt doesn't turn out to be pattern vomit!

Weekend in Jersey was nice. Went to go see Red...which is a DC comic flick about retired CIA black opps. It's not bad - certainly entertaining, but it's not a thinking movie. More of a "all my favorite actors are in this movie save Samuel L Jackson so what can go wrong" kinda movie. John Malkovich was fantastic! We also had a bonfire on Sunday and I got sunburned. Toasted! In October!

Pretty Stacks of Pretty Pieces

I set a goal and met it. All the pieces to my mother's quilt are all cut and ready to be pieced together. Now I just have to hope that all that cutting goes together the right way and that the instructions aren't crap. Considering it's coming from Quilt Sampler magazine I sure as hell hope that it comes out alright.
For a while there I thought I was going to run out of that red and white paisley but I thought I had a lot more to do.

Now it's time for a nice weekend off and enjoy the last vestiges of warm weather down in Jersey. :)

When I return...let the sewing begin!

A Good Night's Work

BAM! Stacks like woah :)

Like I said, the cutting instructions for my mother's quilt is mind boggling! Usually I quit at midnight for fear of screwing up royally (though sometime even that is too late). But tonight I was feeling a bit ambitious. After a few solid hours of cutting I have a good chunk cut. If things go this smoothly tomorrow night I could have the whole thing cut out before leaving for Jersey on Friday and that would feel really good. There's nothing like coming back from a nice weekend and being able to start a fresh stage of the production process.

I will admit that looking at the cutting instructions was daunting to say the least. Especially when it comes out and says 148 of this. Other times it hides how much cutting there is by saying make 32 sets of 8 of these. Lies, I tell you! Just come out and say 256 of x and I'd be a lot happier.

 I'm totally in love with the white and black paisley and I'm so glad that there is about a yard of it left over. Whoever wrote these cutting instructions did so with the idea of giving you plenty of goodies to put in your stash. I can't complain. I have next to no stash at all and I'm pleased to say that all these quilting projects for Christmas this year is really helping to build up a good stash. I have some nice blues to pick from and this quilt will produce some nice red leftovers. Terry's table runner made for some nice pinks too. I'm hoping that by the end of next year I'll be able to create something decent from my stash.

Cutting Rage II

feeling a little special tonight...when i say special, I mean short bus kinda special

when you cut 15 strips of fabric each a half inch too short...it's time to put down the rotary blade for the night

this, ladies n' gents, is why you always buy more fabric than you need and not cut that fabric before bedtime. 

durp-a-dur *facepalm*

Last Quilt Before Christmas?

I had only planned on doing four quilts for this Christmas, one for each of my aunts and one for my mother. Being worried about time I had deliberately picked simple patterns. But, because she's my mom, I wanted to do something special for her. So with it being just about half way through October and I have a few weeks to get through this one I'm now starting to plan how I'm going to tackle this project.

I got the pattern out of the Fall/Winter 2010 Quilt Sampler Magazine. The original project is entitled "Mint Chocolate", which made me think of Tim...but since he's already got a brand new quilt to cuddle up in he's out of luck for now. So I'll be taking this quilt and changing the color scheme to red, white and black. I think it will look really sharp when I'm done with it. And everyone loves a good stripey binding! :)

I haven't taken on a pattern this complex before. Even the pattern I did for Tim, which was self designed, wasn't as complex as this. This quilt incorporates a Rising Star block with an Irish Chain block to connect the whole thing. Just looking at the cutting directions is a little daunting. It's going to take me several days to just to cut everything out. I'm tempted to take it all down to the quilting studio in Amesbury to try out their press cutter. They say they have one member that can cut a whole quilt in 8 minuets using the press. That is insane!

Another One Off the List

Despite having spent all Saturday and Sunday with Tim, I managed to finish Andrea's quilt and completely start and finish the gift for his mother, which is a double sided table runner with matching center piece. The little fabric balls are made of two inch square pieces double folded and pinned to a Styrofoam ball. They look sort of like artichokes. I lake good lighting and space to take pictures of them at the moment so here they are on my fabulous cutting table.  The darker side is made from scraps of a previous project I did for Auntie Pam last Christmas while the brighter pink side is from a jelly roll I picked up in Maine two weeks ago. I'm...not entirely pleased the way it came out but I do like the concept. Thinks got a little crooked here and there but I still need to do the quilting on it. Save that the entire project is done and I post this now simply because I have no idea how I want to go about quilting this yet. :)

Autumn Stroll

Special thanks to Dad for 'modeling' this for me

Quilted for: Aunt Andrea
Started: September 23, 2010
Completed: October 11, 2010


This quilt started by just browsing the fabric wall at Joann's and seeing a pattern that really jumped out at me. With the rest of the collection being fully of busy patterns I wanted to keep the pattern nice and simple so I chose Eleanor Burn's 'Don't Fence Me In' pattern. The pattern was simple but allowed me to get some practice in on squaring off the corners of my blocks before assembling which made for a much squarer quilt than I have previously constructed.

I had been worried about how I would go about quilting the sandwiched pieces together and thought I would do straight lines following the cream and dark brown lines that traverse the quilt. I was more impressed about how cool it looks on the back of the quilt when I was finished. Since the whole back is one pattern it break it up a little with the geometric pattern.

All n' all I had fun making this quilt. I think I would definitely do this pattern again. It is so quick to bang out that it would be great if I needed a pattern for a last minute project but it's still aesthetically interesting. I think it could also be made into a great baby blanket if you back in it warm fuzzy type stuff. Auntie, I hope you enjoy your quilt.

the great and powerful mack doesn't like it when you take his sun away during nap time

Flooding

With every change in the season my sinus decide that it is time to make a fresh attempt at drowning me. Needless to say it has allowed me to do some serious planning for Mom's Quilt, Terry's Table Runner, look for a halloween costume (Tim and I are going as Bonnie and Clyde) and come up with a snazzy idea for a birthday cake for Kota. I have a vision for Kota's cake...vanilla cake with raspberry reduction filling with cream cheese icing. What can I say, he's my little brother and deserves awesome cake. 

Other than that I'm planning on sandwiching Andrea's quilt Friday night while I await Tim's arrival and finish it off after he leaves over Columbus Day. With a little luck I'll be adding another picture to the finished project gallery by Monday night. 

In the mean time, here is Auntie's binding roll :)

Night Off

Quilty Weekend Continues

When you wake up in the morning with that fresh attitude and know that this would be a great day to get a whole bunch of stuff done it's easy to be off like lightning and that's exactly what happened today. After a leisurely cup of tea and oatmeal with dad while watching Sunday Morning I was off and running.
The drive up to Maine was gorgeous. The foliage is coming out nicely there, though it's not at peak yet. That won't be for another few weeks.

Fabric Dept

What I was told about Mardens is that it can be a little intimidating at first. This is an outrageous understatement.  The fabric department was about the same size of selection that you could find at a smaller Joann's and not nearly as organized. Marden's is similar to the Christmas Tree shops. You walk in and you never know what you're going to find. The fabric department works on the same idea. There aren't any real complete collections that you will find. It's all sort of mashed together and I feel lucky that it was all at least sorted by color though I'm not sure they have a clear concept of the differences between red and orange. :-p

The prices were just as they said it would be on their website. Dirt Cheap! They are so cheap that it may be worth it to me to wait until I have a few projects in the cue and then take the 45 trip north to get all my supplies. Sure, it's the chocolate box of fabric stores but I find that sort of fun. I took and hour and fifteen mintues to find fabric for my mother's quilt and while agonizing over color and pattern scale I kept seeing things that had me going "ooo...that's super pretty!". So, for this trip here is what I walked away with: 

1 Jelly Roll

1 Fat Quarter Roll

Wicker Basket

2 Candles

2 Decorative Ball Things

Fabric for my planning boards

and 

about 18 yards of fabric for my mother's quilt

GRAND TOTAL

$118

I'm fairly certain I couldn't have gotten the fabric for my mother's quilt for $118 bucks if I went somewhere else. 

But the Quilty Weekend didn't stop with just that shopping trip, no sir. A quick stop at Lowes on my way home and I finally had my planning board Styrofoam. They came out great and are just wide enough between the two of them to let me plan out a twin sized quit top without boarders. So it was on to cutting out Andrea's quilt top blocks and I thought it would be nice to pin them up to see how they look. The pattern is called "Don't Fence Me In" and can be found in Eleanor Burns' book "Still Stripping"....and as my father and cousin have pointed out, that is a highly misleading title and has led to some serious disappointment. Even still, it has some great tips and ideas for patterns. 

This is why I don't quilt for myself

I become torn. I find beautiful things that I want to make and they are all so freakin' pretty. I found this one, randomly. But you know what? Screw you, Pottery Barn. 250 bucks!? Oh, how I laugh at you! 

Topsfield Fair Inspirations

Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts is the oldest agricultural fair in the nation having been originally established in 1818. Over 192 years it has blossomed from local farmers meeting to discuss better farming methods to your typical fall fair with rides, rabbit barn, horse and live stock shows and food (omg food!). This year was a little different for me because I went with a new interest. There had always been quilts in the textile and craft exhibits but I had never gone with much of an interest in them. I now find myself browsing with great interest and finding wonderful inspiration. Many of them were of the older country-esque style that I don't personally care for but were inspirational nonetheless.  

As always, click for larger

Paper Piecing...Amazing Work

Good Night, Moon
:)

Best in Show 2010

While at the show I also met two lovely ladies. Jensi Rogers from Crafters Quarters in Amesbury, MA. She had a lot of great ideas and was piecing together a great quilt for her dad on a 1936 Singer Featherweight. She said it was an absolute tank - nigh indestructible and will last for forever. It was really great to see her working on it. She was super fun to talk to and I look forward to swinging by her studio to get some more ideas. I also met a nice lady from a studio in Kingston NH that is called Sitched in Stone. I'm stoked that these places are local to me here in Statham. Now that I know these places are here I may end taking sometime to look at them to see if I can find myself a new quilting home!

The fair wasn't all quilting. Oh no. Aside from the italian sausage, hot apple cider, honey sticks, corn on the cob and fried dough that was consumed between my mother and I we also perused through the little vendor stalls there. I won't lie. Most of it is crap. But there were some pretty sweet hats and we couldn't help but have a little fun. 

*rawr*

Also, I'm super excited about tomorrow. I'm going north to Sanford Maine to take a look at a fabric shop that my other mom mentioned to me called Mardens. Their website says they start at $2.99/yrd. That is almost unheard of! I can't wait to go. I don't have a whole lot in mind but I'm thinking I might, at the very least go and get fabric for the table runners and fabric cones that I want to make. It's a very quilty weekend. 

Transitions

I was so pumped to go into the home stretch on the Super Mario Bros pillow. I was certain that I could finish today and put little tiny squares out of my brain for a while. hahaha. Sadly I could not accomplish that today as I ran out of black flannel. I reached into bucket of black squares to find only the bottom. It was a sad moment as is means that I'll have to buy another eighth of a yard to finish it. The 1Up mushroom is competed and I think it looks great.

*Click for larger*

Not wanting to waste any time I ironed out Auntie Andrea's fabric and stripped it out and arranged on my chair in the order I think I want them to go in. I ended up buying what was left of the bolt of the blue that is second from the right. so that might end up as the binding. But I do like the way the scrappy binding came out for Sue's quilt so I may got with that.

On an unrelated note, my little Jetta nearly had her butt smashed in when a Prius rear ended me. It happened right before work and I was sore all through my shift. Thankfully I got up this morning and felt fine. The car also got the green light from my car dude. (as if a prius could hurt a jetta! lol) So all is well! I would have been super pissed off had it kept me from work or worse - quilting!

Good Lord! It's October!

Progress! How I love it!

However if you are concerned with the fact that he has a gap in his head, fear not! I'm just too damn tired and grew frustrated when I realized that the top line of the large green blotch is crooked and will need to be taken apart to fix at some point. But such are the mistakes common with sewing late at night and are to be expected.

It has been pointed out to me on many occasions that I have yet to quilt something for myself. This is true but only because I think that crafts should be shared and not hoarded. A college roommate of mine has nine of my hand knitted scarves. What started as a request to make her a Harry Potter scarf turned into "hey, i just made this. want it?" time and time again. Until recently I have not found a quilt style that I loved. I enjoy modern themes and whimsical patterns because it makes things fun. And I adore red tones. My whole room is done up in reds and golds. With that in mind it took me a while to find a quilt idea that I would like enough to make my new comforter.

Gorgeous, isn't it?

 
I love it. I found it while using StumbleUpon. Aside from being down right addicting and being the bane of all bedtimes it does bring me new and exciting new ideas for quilting. This was found here, in a sort of tutorial and comes with a link for a book that can be purchased to teach the techniques of color transitions necessary to make this quilt. Surprisingly enough, this quilt was done entirely in batik patterns, which you would most commonly see in island dresses or sarongs. I think they are so ugly on the bold when I see them in stores that I often forget that their garish colors and patterns are lost to small scale pieces. When used in a piece such of this you can hardly tell. Once Christmas is past and have recovered from what I will assume will be a total burning out from sewing I will make this my own personal project.