In the mood.

There's nothing like scrubbing a bathroom to get you in the mood to quilt. I realized while cleaning that if I was quilting I could procrastinate from cleaning. Too late now, the bathroom is clean, top to bottom. Why do I always have these profound realizations too late?

I did get a quilt back made. And I figured out how to make the coasters.


The above picture doesn't show the feature of the coaster very well. There are little pockets in it. I've put paperclips into each pocket....see?


My Aunt's coasters were all one fabric, so that is what I used, but I think these would be cuter with two fabrics...make it look like an hour glass block. It will take about 1/2 yard to make four 5 inch square coasters.

Would anyone be interested in a tutorial? Besides my Mother?

In a mood.

A blah unmotivated to quilt mood. I have lots of quilt related stuff to work on (you've seen my list), I just don't feel like working on them. I don't even think I'm in the mood to start something new.

My aunt had these cute little fabric coasters, my Mom wants me to create a pattern. I figured out how they were made and tried to make one tonight....it turned out so so...actually it turned out pretty bad. I think I'll try it again tomorrow night but not put batting in...and maybe 5 inches instead of 4.5 inches. I think this is just more procrastination from quilting, but if I can figure it out, I might be able to make a few Christmas gifts.

Besides I can't do any sewing right now, Siddi is sleeping in my sewing chair. I couldn't possibly wake her up. No, really, I can't wake her up, every since I got home she has been bugging me to pick her up and hold her.


Oops, too late, she woke up.


That is her "do not even think of putting me down, and stop flashing that thing in my eyes" look.

Honey, I'm home.

I'm back. We (Jayme and I) had a safe fun trip, we did a little shopping, ate, did a little site seeing, ate, played lots of cards (since I was winning all the games I think everyone in Idaho was glad I left), ate, and then ate some more. My tummy still hurts.

The first stop we made was the Windy Moon in Reno. This shop has everything! Tons of fabric. All over the shop I kept seeing these cute little place mats.

This was one of my favorites...I even have some rooster fabric I could use for this.

They are made from a pineapple block like fusible foundation interfacing. I, of course, bought four. I also went to two shops in Meridian, Idaho and did my bit to help the economy. Jayme is a great travel companion...she doesn't quilt and was quite patient while I did all my quilt shopping.

I made this trip to give Rose the Blue Delft quilt, she LOVED it. I think she liked the back panel almost as much as the front.

I stayed at my Aunt Willie's house, my Aunt Lucille lives right across the street. Both had housefuls of people...did I get a picture of any of them? No. None of Rose and Don or Martha and Jack, all visiting from Virginia. Nor did I get any pictures of my Aunts, my Uncle Tom or my Mom and Ben. This is Bosley, my Aunt Willie was pet sitting for some friends. Isn't he cute? He followed either Jayme or I everywhere. I think I have three or four pictures of Bosley.

This is my Aunt Willie's back yard. It backs up to a golf course - it was so pleasant to go sit in her backyard, drink my morning coffee and watch the golfer's go by.

As nice as that was, I love sleeping in my own bed more. It is so nice to be home.

Road Trip

Going on a road trip. Remember I said the Blue Delft was a gift? The person I'm giving it to lives in Virginia, however she is visiting my Mom and aunts in Meridian Idaho this month.

There are some nice quilt shops in Boise and Meridian, so hopefully I can do a little shopping while I'm there. I'm going to try to post while I'm gone, but no promises.

On the road again -

Just can't wait to get on the road again.

The life I love is making music with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again

...Willie Nelson

Itches

Green Fairy Quilts is having a give away.


Go check it out.

Before quilting I loved to do cross stitching, before cross stitching I loved to embroidery. When I first moved here one of the monthly classes I took was primitive embroidery - those were fun. I haven't done any needlework for a while but I had an itch to do something...here's my something:

As I said fun...and it kept me from the bigger itch of starting a new project. Which is what I REALLY want to do. I've told myself if I finish one more project off my UFO list I can start a new project. Huh! Notice I told myself this AFTER all the small wall hangings were done.

The same yet different

I've mentioned before that one of the things I like most about quilting is how two people can take the same quilt pattern and make it unique. This is a Squares and Rails quilt I made (next on the list to be quilted).

This is the quilt Nancy was working on at my house a few weeks ago. She finished it yesterday. Same pattern, VERY different fabrics.

I like mine, but I think I like Nancy's better. Wonder if she would notice if it moved to a new home?

Such a deal

Today I met Karen at Quilter's Corner - a quilt shop that is kinda sorta half way between her house and mine. She is a soccer mom, soccer mom and gymnastic mom (translates to 3 kids) so her schedule is hectic (understatement) - so when we get together it is always special. We originally met at work and just hit it off from the first minute we started talking. I am so happy we have continued being friends even though we are no longer co-workers. Have you ever had the situation where you worked with someone for years and years, knew everything about their life, family, etc., but once you stopped working with them you never saw them again? Luckily that hasn't happened with Karen, which is a good thing because I adore her.

We both did a little damage at the quilt shop. Below is what I bought: four yards of the green fabric for a quilt back, Moda Fig & Plum quilt kit with pattern, and the University Moda Prairie Paisley pattern. The fabric and kit were 50% off, and I had a completed store punch card that basically paid for the Prairie Paisley pattern....like I said such a deal!


Still no sewing, Obba likes the spot in front of the sewing machine. Notice the hostile look in his eyes when I mentioned I wanted to sew.

Excuses

This is why I didn't get any sewing done today.


Does it look like a good excuse?

Really little wall hanging

When I first moved here 10 years ago I didn't know anyone - nobody. To meet people I started going to monthly quilt classes or sewing socials. The "monthly" part allowed me to meet the same people each month and really get to know them. Lucky me, I met some great people and have made some wonderful friends.

One of the monthly classes I took was for miniature quilts, each month we made a different miniature quilt. I must not have liked miniatures because I only made three, and I just now finished the third one...nine years later.

It is 12 x 10 inches, the 9 patch blocks on point are 1.25 inches. I don't know why I didn't finish it 9 years ago, cause I really like how it turned out.

Check another one off the list

I finished another wall hanging. I have been on a small wall hanging kick this year. Most have been very simple to make, all are made from stash. Most from fat quarters of fabrics that I liked, but not enough to buy a lot of...like all of the fabrics in this wall hanging.


I don't know if it is the good feeling of using my stash, or just because they're quick and easy, but I'm having a lot of fun making these.

Status Updates

Well, after four washes (with Shout Color Catcher) and a three hour soak in just Oxiclean, the majority of the blue is gone, not all but the majority. I can live with this...and feel good about giving it as a gift.

Here's the chair all done...I'm sure someday someone is going to look at it and say "why'd she cover it in that fabric?". Why? Because I had it and didn't have to buy it. Probably why my Grandmother covered it in grey vinyl.

I finished the Liberty wall hanging this evening. Yeah, another one off the list. Nobody can say I don't use every last bit of my fabric. I used this fabric to make a wall hanging (about 10 x 22 in).

The little Patriot Puppy I showed you last week.

And this was the original quilt I made about seven years ago.

And I still have more left. I tend to way over buy fabric.

Vertigo

Have you bought a new mattress in the last 10 years? They are DEEP. Box and mattress are about 18 inches compared to the 15 inches of an old mattress I have in the other spare bedroom. It doesn't help that this old bed has high side rails...12 inches above the floor. I bought an 18 inch dust ruffle and it doesn't hit floor. You need a step ladder to sit on this bed. I'm tall and my feet are no where near the floor when I sit on the bed. I feel like Edith Ann sitting on it (did I just age myself?). Good part about it...lots of storage under the bed.


I love the acorns on the bed posts.

The quilt is Pineapple Blossom from Quiltville (www.quiltville.com) . It is truly a scrap quilt, every fabric you see is in another quilt I've made.

This and that and upholstery

I spent most of the day doing odd things that needed done. Picked the last of the tomatoes, then cut down the plants. Vacuumed all the cat hair and thread bunnies in the sewing room. Pinned the layers for three wall hangings so I can start quilting them tomorrow. Sawed bed slats - new mattress for the spare bedroom will be delivered tomorrow - set up the bed and re-arranged the furniture in that room (again).

The spare bedroom contains an antique cherry wood bedroom set that I inherited from my Grandmother. It originally belonged to her mother. I also inherited a desk and chair. I don't know if the desk and chair were purchased together, I don't think so since they don't really match, but both are pretty old. Okay, sort of old, maybe from the 40's. For some reason my grandmother had upholstered this traditional wood chair, with a carved rose on the back, with this horrible grey vinyl. It was all stiff and cracked with age and has been on the chair for 15+ years. One of the things I decided to do today was re-upholster that chair.

Under the vinyl was this gold fabric. Very stained, may have been pretty when she first put it on.

Under the gold was a very faded tapestry fabric.

You can see the colors better from the back side.

I thought the tapestry was the original chair fabric. It was very nicely upholstered with copper upholstery tacks every 3/4 inch. But when I took it off I found this very thin drab brown fabric.

This was the original fabric for the chair. The underside of the seat is stamped with a number and the words "Brown Satin". I wish I knew more about the chair and the desk. The chair needs new padding, so I didn't finish it today. I'll post a picture when the chair is done.

Tamed the wild beast

I fought the wild beast and won. The wild beast is the honeysuckle that grows on my side yard fence. When it starts reaching out and trying to pull me in I know it is time to get the clippers out.
Honeysuckle is like the python they took out of that guy's yard in Florida, you pull the vine out a bit to clip it and the next thing you know you have an 18 foot snake you are trying to trim off. It had invaded my tree and one of the shrubs, in those spots I really cut it back. Funny part is, they are not even my plants. My neighbor planted them all along his side of the fence. I don't really mind it, otherwise my side yard would just be fence, concrete and rock, boring....and its probably the only thing that is holding the fence up.

No sewing today, with all the pruning I can barely move my hand, I'm typing this with two fingers and spell check.

Anniversaries

Today would have been my parent's 55th wedding anniversary. My Dad was also a firefighter. He passed away four years before the fall of the Twin Towers in New York but whenever I think of the firefighters and police officers lost in the Towers I always think of my Dad. He didn't talk much about his job or the calls he when out on unless they were funny or weird. Most of the calls he went out on were resuscitation calls where someone was hurt, some were heart attacks and such, others were car accidents. He didn't like talking about them; they were emotional occurrence to him, not just an event, as today is an emotional anniversary for all of us, not just a remembrance of an event that occurred.

Another blog (sorry can't remember which) said to make something patriot today, so I made a point of finishing up my little patriotic puppy.

Good news and bad news

Lets start with the good news...Suzanne at Just Another Hang Up is having a giveaway. (Sorry don't know how to create a hotlink yet: http://justanotherhangup.blogspot.com/.) She is giving away this delicious tote bag that she calls "Chocolate Covered Raspberry." To win it, go by her blog and leave a comment - but just so you know, I'm going to win it.

This is the back of the Blue Delft quilt. Someone gave me this panel years ago and I knew I'd never make a quilt with, I thought it fit the quilt theme perfectly.

This is the front of the Blue Delft quilt.

The bad news, notice the extra tint of blue near the flying geese units. Lesson learned, always always ALWAYS prewash batik fabrics. Here is a close up....the blue batik bled.

I'm going to wash the quilt and include a color catcher sheet. I'm really hoping that will solve this problem. This is suppose to be a gift, I know the recipient would love the quilt no matter what, but I hate the thought of giving something that I think of as damaged.

Have you ever been this tired?

Someone sent me an email with that subject line today. It included a bunch of cute sleeping animals and children. Here is one:

Isn't he cute? But all everyone does around here is sleep...

I need to get back to a normal sleep pattern. Oh I get my 8 hours, but since I'm not working it is normally between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Today was spend focusing on the job hunt. Yesterday I was asked what my job objective is, I call myself a Business Analyst - which I think is a very general description - so how do I describe what I do or specifically what I want to do but not the tasks that I used to do. I found the following definition of a business analyst online:

A business analyst is a vital position in an organization since they are responsible for analyzing the business needs of an application in an organization. They are responsible for finding out the business problems and also propose solutions for the same, using various techniques and tools they mastered in the branch of business analysis. They must have good analyzing ability to analyze the current system and also proposed system to find the feasibility of systems which is very vital for organizations stability. They must have good written and oral communications skills since they need to interact with different members in the organization namely project managers, designers, testing team, subject matter experts, and customers. They must continuously upgrade themselves both in business knowledge and technical aspects to improve the business process effectively and efficiently.

I like this definition, it narrows the general description by providing tangible skills. I need to make sure my resume clearly conveys those skills. Time for a re-write.

No picture of the Blue Delft quilt. I quilted butterflies in the center and border of the quilt. I used a stencil and a Mark-B-Gone marking pen. Well the marks would not be gone. I finally soaked it in the washing machine. It is currently blocked and drying on the guest bedroom floor.

More Quilting With Friends

I went to the Bay Area for a few days to quilt with Stephanie. She started a new quilt project, a bright Jacob's Ladder using a black background, and I worked on quilting the Blue Delft quilt.

Do you know what the most frustrating thing ever is? To quilt for 2 minutes then the thread breaks...re-thread the machine restart quilting, quilt for 2 minutes and the thread breaks again. Over and over again. I tried putting in a new bobbin, a new needle, took the machine half apart cleaning out fabric dust bunnies...still the thread would break. It took almost all day but I finished quilting the Blue Delft. I put the binding on this afternoon...now I can cross that one completely off the list. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Stephanie and I also did a little quilt shopping, we checked out a new quilt shop (new to us), checked out an old quilt shop, went to a barbecue at her parents (yummy food) and generally had a great time hanging out.

As I've said, quilting with friends is the best.

I didn't take any pictures while I was visiting with Stephanie however I feel like I have to include a picture of something, below is a Jacob's Ladder I finished a few years ago.

Quilting with Friends...

...is the best way to quilt. Nancy came over to quilt today and brought her beautiful batik quilt with her to show off. The picture doesn't do the colors of this quilt justice. It is made from a jelly roll of Bali Batiks and the cool blues and greens definitely look like a Bali beach vacation.

We spent the morning picking out patterns for some of her fabric groups. Nancy likes big bright bold florals and trying to find patterns that show off the big prints is a challenge but I think we founds some winners. Hopefully she will bring back the finished quilts and let me show them off to you.

The afternoon was spent sewing. Nancy worked on a Rails and Squares quilt. I recently made the same quilt pattern using a soft romantic pink rose fabric with a lavender frame and white background. Nancy liked the simplicity of the pattern. Her fabrics: Bold 60's floral, maroon with pink pokka dots for the frame and a sunshine yellow background. Wow! I think what I love most about quilting is how two people can take the same pattern and make very unique quilts. (Shhhhh....I like Nancy's better, don't tell her.)

I made wonderful progress quilting the blue delft quilt. The center is done. Now what should I do in the border?

Learning

Having a blog is a learning experience. I am learning all the features of the blog site (and frustrations). I'm learning a little bit about HTML as I try to make the blog site do what I want it to do instead of what it wants to do. Finally I'm learning more about my digital camera, I must include pictures, right? Here are some pictures I took in the backyard today:

The pictures are not as sharp as I would like, could be the camera, could be the photographer, but I've never had this much success in getting a good close up shot.

Need tomatoes? Look at this bush! It is covered with ripe and almost ripe tomatoes. What am I going to do with all of them?

Worked on the little patriotic puppy this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm working on the blue delft quilt. It must must must be quilted by next weekend.

Thoughtful Thursday

A Family

A family, like a quilt, is made one piece at a time.

Sewn a stitch at a time with love,

laughter, patience, kindness,

joy and sorrow.

Each piece needing the other,

never alone - but together.

Warm, comfortable and secure.

Author Unknown

Kitties and Puppies

This is Siddi, if she had her way I would carry her all day. She is the sweetest thing, except she likes to chew things...like the thread on my sewing machine.

My Mom had a little scrappy fabric dog that she bought at a garage sale. I've always thought it was the cutest thing. During one of my visits I was working on a watercolor quilt, since I had lots of left over 2.5 inch squares I made one of my own, about a third the size of hers.

The ears and tongue are felt glued on. I've always wanted to make another one.

The red, white and blue fabric are leftovers from leftovers. The original quilt was a four patch on point. Then I made a small wall hanging (Liberty, yet to be quilted). I was going to use the blocks to piece a back for the wall hanging but they were just calling out to me..."make a new puppy". The voices in my head are starting to scare me. I'll post a picture when it is done.

So much for not starting a new project.

FYI, I got the binding made for the butterfly quilt, finished the book, job hunted (even applied for two) and got bobbins wound for the blue delft quilt.

What did I do today...

What did I do today?

Nothing.

Nada, zip, not a thing. Didn't job hunt, didn't get the binding made for the butterfly quilt, didn't finish my book. Zilch. Going to Target and the grocery store don't count.

This is something I finished recently...but not today.

No quilting today

Today was spent job hunting. Whew! IF you can find anything to apply for, it takes forever to process most online job applications. I strongly recommend you have a text (no formatting at all) version of your resume. This makes cut and pasting your resume into an online application much much easier.

I'm also about 7/8's through Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke. It is the last book in the Inkheart trilogy. It is due back to the library next week and since it is a "hot" book I can not renew it. Shouldn't be a problem finishing it...hmmm it is only 12:25 a.m., still time to finish it tonight.

It is now September. I think August had 89 days in it. For some reason it has felt like a very long month. And Labor Day is still a week away. Time is playing tricks with my mind.

This is my next project...to finish machine quiting the Blue Delft quilt. The center is done, I'm trying to randomly put butterflies in the white background.