More Patriotic Progress

Well, got it all put together, now I can start adding borders. :)


A two inch red comes next, then the sawtooth half square triangles. Neither one of them should take me too long, all the hsts are already made. Looks pretty much like my EQ design, doesn't it?

I'm always amazed by the number of people that say... but have you ever used EQ to design and make a REAL quilt? Yes, All The Time. :D

Fairie Applique

I like to have something to do by hand as well as a machine traditional pieced quilt going, so here's my newest project:


Linda Poole got me interested in fairie applique, and as I haven't taken the class from her yet, I don't want to start on 'her' version of her fairie. She's coming to our guild's retreat in November, and I'm really looking forward to it.

But looking on the web for inspiration, I found another lovely site with artwork of fairies, and got permission from the artist to try one of her designs in fabric. I'll write and ask if I can tell you her name, she may prefer not to be recognized. :)

I have a lot left to do on this one - I'm using a teeny blanket stitch around the tree branch and leaves (I fused the bits down first) and I've used the smallest applique stitch my Janome had and some invisible thread to go around her body and the orange flower she's trying for a hat. I've got some lovely fabric with flowers that I'll fussy cut and add to this in some of the obvious blank spots, so it looks like she's picked the one on her head from the branch beside her. I'll also add veining on the leaves, and a lot of detail on her wings and little leaf outfit. Probably some beading too, but that will come much later. And her face right now is drawn on in one of those water-erasable inks, I'll do it with a pigma pen later, probably in black.

The only thing I am not happy with so far is the lack of contrast between her peach skin tone and the background. I really didn't want to outline her in black, but can any of you think of another way to make her arms and legs stand out a bit more?

I was planning on making 4 fairies, one for each season of the year, putting them all on a batik fabric, and giving them different props appropriate for their season. The fabric this one is on varies quite a bit, and there's enough of the bluey you see at the very top, but mixed with more pale purple and white, that might do for a winter scene. I'm not sure if this one will be Spring or Summer yet, I'm leaning toward Summer, especially when I get more flowers on. And because she's not really dressed for Spring!

Linda's fairie pattern has long blowing hair, and is wearing a long skirt, so I'm thinking that one might be good for either Fall or Winter.

If I can find appropriate fabric, I'd LOVE to make this wall hanging more ethnic, and make the fairies for the other seasons have different skin tones. I'm thinking it'll hang in my library, where we have a pretty diverse population. No luck in finding anything but this peachy tone yet, though. All the browns I found were just toooo dark to be able to put a face on.

Patriotic Progress

Well, got to playing on my EQ and decided I wanted to swap out the colors in the sashing, and put the flag print in the middle of dark blue. Then for the border around the middle, I'd been planning on using another fabric entirely, but EQ was trying to tell me I'd need a whole yard to border a 24 inch square... I knew that wasn't right, but still wasn't sure if I'd have enough fabric, so I switched it to the khaki I was using for background. Now I like this version, with the center star floating, better anyway:


And here's my progress on it so far:


I ended up making the border around the star scrappy, not because I was running out of fabric, but because I thought I'd like to bring some of these prints into the center. There was one print that was too busy for background, really, but it was patriotic, and this is an ENTIRELY from stash quilt. See it in the background of the edge blocks? Notice how carefully I left it out of the star block I picked for the center? :D

If I don't use the patriotic fabric up in this one, where will I ever use it? Anything left that remains from THIS, my second patriotic themed quilt, is going right into the Heartstrings bin. I promise. :)

More Fabrics!

Well, here's the batiks I won by bidding on eBay... no, I didn't need this much fabric (it's close to 25 yards) but I really did need the six yards of indigo batik on the upper left corner for my indigo project. And then I saw the two brown/yellow fabrics and thought they'd be wonderful for the fireplace screen applique I plan on doing some day. (Bet you can tell which one I wanted for bark on a flaming log and which I thought would make glowing embers or coals!) Then I saw the 6 yard length of the stripey batik on the upper right and couldn't pass up six yards for $9.99 so I bid on THAT. Of course, then I was into the larger flat rate box for shipping, so started bidding on the blue and the green/khaki batiks, got them all at a great price.


They're from Phillyfabrics, if you want to look them up. She's got a lot of poly-cotton up now, fabric for making scrubs, if any of you wear those.

And here's what I'm working on now, while I waited for my indigo batiks to arrive, a little something to use up all my patriotic stash:


I need a couple of hundred half square triangles for this, and I'm well into them. I print the papers from my computer and do sets of 8 at a time, then take the bits into work to remove the paper on my lunch and breaks. It's not often that a machine piecer has a project that can travel well!

And finally, I'll close with a picture of Libby:


Any of you ever gotten this Look from your cat? She's getting very irked at me for flashing the camera in her face - that quilt has become her favorite place to nap, and I was Keeping Her Awake.... lol The quilter's cats never have a soft place to lay, do they?

Backings and Blues

Well, I added the last border to the pink twist quilt, and cut my binding while I was at it. Now for the backing. I'm such a fabric scrounge that I like to use up the matching scraps on blocks for the back. I had cut up some excess 5 inch squares when I made my triangle border, and of course, some leftover strips, so they'll go into crumb blocks, then I'll put them together into 8½ blocks. Here's the first few:


Then I also had some extra triangle sets left over from making that diamond border, so I put those points-in and made 6 blocks with them. One of the pink flower edged ones is missing, I think the cats got it:


I'll probably stitch the backing up like a row quilt, a wide length of fabric for the top and bottom, then fill in the middle with a few rows of these odd fabric dregs blocks.

I've also been collecting some indigo fabric for my next project. Not sure where I'm going with them yet, but here's what I've got so far - several half yard pieces of batiks and, on the top and bottom, some white and blue marbled to pair with them:


And finally, here's the design I like the best of what I've been playing with on EQ so far. I started with the log cabins that have bigger strips on one side than the other, then added the triangle corners that Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville used on her Pineapple Blossom quilt. EQ didn't have much in their library of fabric to match my indigo batiks, and I'm just too lazy to try to put in bitmaps of all my exact fabric, but you can get some idea:


I was trying to use blue on white fabrics for the light areas, but looking at the design now, it looks a little cloudy. The next time I'm in EQ, I'll switch all the light areas to white, I think I like that better, 'specially since the batiks have more white in them than the EQ fabrics I'd used.

I've won a couple of auctions for batiks on eBay recently (well, alright, more than a couple, 25 yards +) but they really are nice batiks and at a super price, even including shipping. Most of them are bright, colorful batiks, some oranges, turquoises, rainbows and even a couple of gold-browns, but there's a 4 yard piece of indigo batik that will fit right in with this project.

I'll show pix when my box comes. :) I can't wait, I love getting packages, even if I know what's in them, don't you?

Pink Twist, 4 Borders

Well, here's what I decided on the quilt ... and I'll add one more skinny border of the deep mauve, I think, and since I've kept them skinny I should be able to both add that last border and bind it in the same thing:



I didn't want to end it with lots of seams on the edge, not only is that a pain to stitch the binding on through, but I've heard that unless you backstitch the outside seams, they tend to come apart when you stretch them on the longarm to quilt. I most certainly didn't backstitch these squares, they were all rotary cut from leftover strip sets from the middle of the quilt! In fact, that's why the middle row of squares is slightly smaller, lol.

It'll teach me to draw all my quilts in EQ first because, I think now that I look at it, I would have liked those dark mauve points to point toward the middle of the quilt all the way around, instead of toward the outside. Too late now!

BOM and Pink Twist Borders

First, a couple of Halloween blocks, made for my guild's block of the month. Instructions on my guild's webpage if you're interested, either in sharing it with your guild or making some yourself! It's just a simple square in a square, but I've found out that people are much more likely to do a fast, easy block for block of the month. We draw names, and one person gets to take all of them home.

http://www.ucquilts.com/bomsept2007.htm



And here's the progress of the pink strip twist quilt, hanging up in my kitchen doorway. I've added a 1½ inch wide deep mauve border, then the strip of diamonds.



The diamond strips were a pain, they're easy to make, but so much harder to fudge the size of them to get the border to fit and end up in the same place on the corners than I thought. I had to take up some of the diagonals (and I did, losing points too) so perpendicular seams would have been easier!

Sorry you're not seeing all of the quilt, I really DO have all 4 diamond borders on. Hanging this in the kitchen doorway made the Siamese curious, and they kept ducking under it to see who and what was on the other side, so I had to crop out a kitty butt!

Next, I plan to put on 4 border strips like this one you see on the left, below, but I think I need another skinny border (that reads as a solid) to set it off first, don't you? And then maybe a final dark border, or at least a dark binding.



I have a yard of medium pink, and a yard of medium lavender, and 2 yards of the deep mauve, enough to put a skinny border on, and a final border on, OR bind it in the deep mauve, but probably not all three. Any suggestions? What would you do?

Another Strip Twist Quilt

Here's what I've been doing lately... Girly pink quilt, anyone? I've had these pink, mauve and purple fat quarters in my stash for a lonnnng time (see the stashbusters ring picture on the left where I substituted a pic of my stuffed pink fabric drawer.) I've been thinking I'd like to use them all up in a more controlled color scrap quilt, using Bonnie's strip twist pattern from Quiltville:



This is a third of it. I plan to make two more sections like this, then I've also started cutting out the leftover bits of strips to make a pieced border. I've been stitching them together as leader/ender squares between blocks, so that'll go pretty quickly too.

I've already done a strip twist, and really liked the way it turned out. I'd picked colors for that one to make a guy-type quilt... if you want to see one I gave my brother, click here for pictures of a strip twist in olive greens, rusts, beiges, mustard, etc. They're easy to make, and I love the way it looks set on point without all the bother of cutting setting triangles for the edge.

Also been thinking of machine applique'ing something on top of this one, perhaps in the dark purple or maybe red - a trio of big hearts? A curled up egg-shape of a sleeping siamese cat on one corner? Any suggestions? I think I'll wait and see how busy it gets when I've put the pieced border on.

Splish Splash

Got up at my normal time this morning, had to be at work at 9:30... headed for the bathroom to take a shower... and my whole bathroom floor was an inch deep in water. Somehow, overnight, my toilet had sprung a leak.

Thankfully, I hadn't washed clothes yesterday, so I had half a load of lights and half a load of darks (including two dark green towels) all sorted out on the floor, and they soaked up most of the water before it got to my bedroom carpet. The carpet's a little damp, but only at the edge. I wasn't able to turn the water off under the toilet because THAT little valve was broken, but I was able to turn it down to where the leak was manageable. Funny how you never know that your shutoff valve doesn't work until you need to use it. :)

AND thankfully, I was able to find a plumber to come out on Saturday...



These guys are from Best Rooter - That's Stan Holman on the right, holding the tank. If you're in the Memphis area and need a plumber, I highly recommend these guys - he gave me permission to put his number online... call (901)358-1008 or cell (901)864-5700.

First thing they did was turn the water off at the street and replace the valve to stop the leak... Turns out, I needed a whole new toilet.

But also turns out that a gasket was missing, the one that goes between the tank and the toilet, (I'm just parroting what they say, I have no knowledge of the inner workings of toilets) so off they went again to Home Depot for that. But it's fixed now, and I have the cleanup to do, all the wet clothes and grubby floor. Fun day, huh?

Popsicles!

It's been HOT for the last week here in Memphis, temps with highs in the triple digits every day. I found some great popsicles at the store, pineapple cherry and pineapple mango, so I selected 'Cool Summer Treats' for the guild's block of the month theme:

http://www.ucquilts.com/bomaugust2007.htm

Of course, as block of the month chairperson and web page maker, I have to make a sample myself, every month, so here's my two:



And here's Toby, waiting from the couch for his chance to park his rear end on the two new blocks, but innocently pretending he's not watching them:

Van News

Well, got my van back, and it looks like new. Drives great, they fixed the driver's seat, replaced that inside cargo area, everything. Dobbs Collision here in Memphis did a wonderful job for me:


Scroll down if you want to see a before picture. ;) Now, the only thing I want is a couple of things that were in the back cargo area of the van replaced. First, being inspected by the nosier half of my resident siamese inspection team, my big cooler was damaged and needs to be replaced:



The cooler was sideways in the back of the van, so I had room beside it for other stuff, and when the back of the van was squinched in, it pushed the two short ends of the cooler in, and the edges bulged out, cracking the plastic at all 4 corners and breaking the handle (the one you see there) that was closest to the hatch door. On the left side, the squinching pulled the white liner away from the blue outside, and on the right side, the blue stayed stuck to the white, instead it created a long crack along the corner rim of the liner.



They wanted to know what size it was, but the cooler didn't say on the side... just the name Coleman. I put the red Igloo 12 inside the blue one so they could see that it is bigger than a 12 can cooler.

It also broke my sunglasses, which were in the same cargo area - normally I carry them up front with me and they don't leave the car, but I was using the coolers AND the sunglasses, and they both ended up in the back. Here's what they look like now:



Yes, they were prescription, and for insurance purposes, there's a copy of my prescription on the left. If I can get them replaced before the prescription gets a year old, I won't have to pay to get my eyes examined again. I have till Sept. 22. On the right is an estimate for replacement from Walmart. Frames $99 and lenses $178. And I don't even think that includes getting the edges rolled and polished, which I DID have on these sunglasses. Bifocals get expensive, don't they?

The thing that irks me is that when I got these wire frames not too long ago, they didn't have many BIG lensed frames to choose from. The little 'frame selection associate' at the store I got them from told me in all seriousness ... "But NObody wears big frames anymore, the longer narrow frames are what's in style." I don't care what's in style, I like big sunglasses. And ALL the movie stars I see trying to evade the paparazzi are wearing big dark lenses... lol.

Anyway, I'll send the blog address to all the insurance folks, and I have more pix I can send (say, if they really want to see all 4 corners of the cooler) and I can fax a copy of the glasses estimate and prescription if they need it. I think since I was honest and didn't try to claim whiplash or back or neck injury, the least they can do is replace these two things, don't you?

Kaleidoscopes and Classes

Fun! I had a LOT of fun on Monday - I took off work and went to a guild sponsored class taught by Marti Michell. It was a great class. I ended up buying her Kaleido-ruler and a set of little mirrors that you can test the pattern of kaleidoscope blocks with.

The kaleido-ruler will let me make a whole range of kaleidoscope blocks, from 6 to 16 inches, AND when you rotate the ruler, you can easily cut the triangular bits to go at the end of the kaleidoscope wedges, too. I made 9 little six inch ones in class, using scraps of fabric left over from my big blue and khaki quilt. I plan to make a pillow with it. Here it is hanging on the library shelves next to the quilt:


It's 18 inches square now, so I'll probably use more of that khaki and blue ferny fabric on the outer border of the quilt to border the pillow, and also use those fabrics for the pillow back, if I have enough.

If you ever get a chance to take a class from Marti, don't hesitate. ;) She's got an excellent sense of humor, knows what she's teaching, and I learned a LOT. I really wish I'd known some of the tricks she taught before I made all the kaleidoscope blocks between the depression blocks in the king size quilt. Even though the blocks I made can't be made with her ruler (the depression block is a 16 patch, her ruler makes blocks divisible by three, for use next to each other or with nine patches) there were still some tips that would have worked on my blocks.

Speaking of which, I also finished that, and got the borders on, then got a picture of it before I send it off to get quilted. NO way am I trying to quilt a king size on my machine at home! It's so big, it even draped too long when I hung it on the tallest shelving unit:



Now I need to make pillow shams for this quilt, and get the backing ready... then what should I work on next? :)

Delectable Mountains and Kaleidoscopes

Here's my most recent finish - a blue and green delectable mountain quilt - pattern from Bonnie's site, www.quiltville.com, of course. I liked the lanterns layout on her examples, and the zig zag layout too, so I combined them. It was quilted by Mary S. in Missouri, and she did a great job for me, as usual, even constantly switching threads, using blue/green thread on the dark fabric and cream thread on the light fabric.


And here's what I've been working on lately - remember the hundreds of blue and beige half square triangles I was doing a few months ago? I sewed them all into depression blocks, then used some of the same blues and beiges to make kaleidoscope blocks. It's not your typical kaleidoscope wedges, though, I made the blue kite shapes skinnier and the beige parts wider, to fit edgewise with my 16 patch depression blocks. This is half the quilt top, it'll be kingsize, so when I get the top done, even without borders, it won't fit on the fence.


And finally, I got a rental car, the insurance companies decided that yes, their clients were at fault, and they're fixing my van this week. But lookie what I get to drive instead! I'm going to be so spoiled that I won't be happy when my van comes back... lol.



It's not near as big as it looks in this picture, but it sure is nice! It's a Toyota 4-runner, with all kinds of things I'm not used to. A lot higher than my minivan, for sure!

Some Finishes

This pink and brown one I started at our guild retreat last November (well, actually, we had some homework to precut our squares before the class, but didn't start making the blocks till the second weekend in November.) We had a great instructor, and almost everyone finished the top during the weekend, a few finished top AND borders. I sent mine home with my longarm quilter, to Missouri, and just got it back from her a couple of days ago.


I'd used up most of the fabric that matched it in the piano key border, but I was lucky enough to find another yard of the one I wanted (the dark reddish brown one) at the store.

Here's the back of a smaller couch-throw quilt... remember the floral windmills I put up on the blog a month or so ago?


And here's the front of it. Mary S. really did a great job quilting both of them. This floral one's already been washed, and really came out all soft and nice. Too bad I don't need a couch throw this time of year! I like the look of the pieced binding - it might have looked better against a less dark final border, but since this one was completely from my stash, I wanted to use up the last few floral strips.



Nothing new on the mashed van yet. Because the delivery truck hit me, then a car hit the delivery truck, they'll have to argue about who has to pay what percentage of the repair. A guy from the insurance company is meeting me at work tomorrow to have a look at the damage.

And finally, a question... have any of you seen the quilts that fold in on themselves and become pillows? Is it too late for me to do that and attach it to the floral quilt, or should I just make a separate little zippered pillowcase for it? If you attach it, do you put it center bottom or on a corner or?

KaBam

Got involved in a fenderbender yesterday on the way to work. I'm fine, I had my seatbelt on... but the big delivery truck that rear ended me just mashed my poor van. I was actually hit twice, once by the truck, and then again by a car that rammed into the back of the truck. Here's a picture of what it looks like now:


And here's a picture of a van the same year as mine, showing what it looked like before:

I'm still able to drive it, but it drives/rides 'funny' and it feels like my seat is back too far from the steering wheel. (I've driven it for 7 years now, and know exactly where my hands fit on the wheel, and the wheel is too far away by about an inch.) I also noticed that the mirrors were showing too much sky, so I'm wondering if the underneath is bent up too. I tried to get a rent-a-car to drive, but this is a bad weekend to get one, they were all out of cars at the two locations nearest me.


The delivery truck was owned by a fairly large company, with locations in several states, so at least they've got insurance. I've already been in contact with them, but things move slow, esp. with the holiday next week, and I have to have a claim number before I can do anything about getting estimates or repairs.

Does anyone know anything about driving a vehicle with frame damage, if that's what it is? The linen delivery truck was pretty big, and he hit me pretty hard, almost straight on. Here's a pic from their website of one like the one that got me:



Out of the three vehicles that were involved, I was the only one that didn't get ticketed, and all of us were ok, so I guess I should be thankful for that.

Retreat Results

Well, here's the main thing I did on our retreat this weekend, sewd four half lone-star blocks to the 4 corners of this unfinished ostrich of mine, setting it on point. It's not quite as pinkish as it looks in this photo under the indoor lights at the lodge:



This was my first lone-star, and I realize I've still got a lot to learn about quiltmaking! All those set-in squares are SO not my thing... but I can do them now. And I need to work on my pinning and accuracy! Most of my seams match pretty well, but I've got to be more careful, I think.

I also got a quilt bound - one made with the delectable mountain pattern from Bonnie's site. I'll get a picture of that one later. *Yawns* We were up late the last two nights, talking and eating and sewing and laughing, so I think a Sunday afternoon nap is called for. :)

Quilts in Progress

Well, I'm back to work on my own stuff now, and here's some of what I've been doing. First, I'm going to a retreat the end of June where we're going to learn how to make a strip pieced lone star quilt block. We had to make a paper paste up using our fabrics, little ½ inch diamonds. I have a ruler that cuts that angle for me, so making the little bits was easy. Deciding on the final color layout was the hard part:


The paper was nice and flat when I first glued it up, but unfortunately, someone (who shall remain nameless) decided it'd make a good place for a kitty nap.

I actually plan to make two of these stars, and stick them on my UFO that started out as the Ostrich that Peachquilting was doing. I figure half on each side, and then maybe I'll come up with a big block for the four corners? Here's what I've planned so far in EQ6, many of you may recognize the middle part of the design. My favorite of the 4 corner blocks is the bottom left one, but it has 16 points meeting in the center, and that's a bit much. I'll have to keep looking. I have Block Base software that works with EQ too, but I've yet to install it on my new computer.


Or maybe I'll do some border stuff between the lone star halves and the next bit? I have an idea for a strip of triangly pieced bits I'll have to try in scraps before I use the matching fabric from this quilt.

I've also made most of a quilt top - but I can't show it because it's a sample for a mystery that I'll be teaching at a guild retreat. Won't be much of a mystery if people see it here, and there are a few people I know from guild who stop in at my blog. But I'm really happy with how it's turning out, and wish I could show it off!

Happy Quilting!

Last String Top

Well, ok, here it is, folks, my last string top - at least for a while! This one used all but ONE of the blocks my guild members made for two months of block-of-the-month:



Can you find the one block I used in there with a red center string? The only other block I had left was really dark, all thimbleberries colors, red, navy, forest green, plum... I needed something brighter there and decided the red string looked better there, even though my eye picks it out first... lol

I also finished another string top this weekend, but it was nothing to take a picture of, just a 4 blocks by 5 blocks combo, nothing exciting, no sashing. Both of these quilts will go to my board meeting Monday night, and I'll try to get someone to add one last outer border to them and quilt them. :)

I'm really itching to get restarted on some of my own projects now, seems like my life has been string blocks for toooo long. I'll probably return to them, or at least charity quilts of some pattern, but I've had enough of strings! Maybe it'll be time for some chinese coins?

Heartstrings Pinwheels

Here's another just finished heartstrings wheelchair sized top:


I'm about heartstring-ed out, but I still have a few more of the heartstring blocks my guild members made left, to put into a quilt. I did finally finish trimming the ones I have. I found out after I'd started sewing them into strips to make a top that some of them measured 10 inches square, and some measured 9½ inches, and some weren't square at all. And there I was thinking, boy, these things sure must be stretching, because my strip side seams weren't matching up at all. :D

So, quite a bit of ripping seams later, all of them are now 9½ inches square. Off I go to visit all of you!

Heartstrings quilts and tops

Here's what's quilty lately, three more heartstrings quilts (wheelchair sized) from the blocks made by my guild. First, a square top in the brighter string squares from the pile of blocks:


And a rectangular one with with no brights, but lots of navy and khaki strips, and khaki sashing for the guys who prefer something in mostly 'manly' colors:


And finally, a strip pieced star thats gotten quilted, that I happened to get back to put a label on. The quilter did a superb job, lots of feathers and swirls and very tight quilting. It turned out so beautiful I almost don't want to give it away. :)



And about the EQ difficulties I was having? The copy of EQ6 I got wasn't an upgrade, so I didn't need to install EQ5 first, it turned out to be a BUAK problem (between user and keyboard.) I tried to open a file that I'd saved and moved from my old to new computer, but neglected to notice that at the very bottom of the file window it says 'files of type' with a little EQ6 in the window. So of COURSE when I looked in the EQ5 file folder, it showed nothing, there weren't ANY ... EQ6 ... files in my EQ5 folder. :) Boy, did I feel stupid when I finally figured it out.... :D