Sick House

While I'm under the weather, and it's not horrible, just uncomfortable with a sore throat and cough.  Not something that'll keep me from doing the things I have to do, but enough to make me want to do very little else.  I got Cammie's Girl Scout quilt on the frame after piecing the back together with the leftover fabrics, but I haven't yet cut the batting for it, but it'll be done tomorrow.  If I get the energy.

In the meantime, we are remodeling the kids' bathroom.  We have an odd collection of furnishings in the hallway...It started out with wanting to change the floor to make it more waterproof and putting into a better fan.  It turned into replacing the vanity, mirrors, lights, a paint job (which it really needs), and putting in heated floors.  We picked out the tile yesterday and today I got the vanity & top, and we got the heated floor coils.

Our handyman tore up the bathroom today and found a lot of water damage near the tub--no surprise.  We still need to bleach the walls, seal & paint, pick out lights and mirrors, and sometime next week, the vanity & granite top will show up.  We're trying to do this on the cheap, or at least as frugally as possible.  We found a neighborhood cabinet and granite place that is selling pieces that are better quality and half the price of the big box stores.  Funny enough, as I was picking out the vanity, one of my neighbors stopped in at the tiny store!  She's doing her bathroom, too.  Small world...

Gotta get to bed.  Long day of nothing tomorrow...

Planning the UFOs

Here's a straight-on shot of the Girl Scout quilt.  It's hard to tell what it looks like when it's laying on the floor, and the colors were not well represented in that dark room.  I still have to take the one column off and turn it into a row and save one block for the back. I still want it to be twin bed size, which runs about 65" x 88", but no larger than 72" x 90".  I think the quilt top now measures about 65" square...before adding any borders.  Hence my thought about moving the column to the bottom making a 4 x 6 grid.

I went to ol' Wally World and picked up these three pretty blue bins to keep the Top 3 UFOs in.  When I'm not working on them, I can put them in these three bins and keep them on hand for working on as time allows.  All the extra fabric fits in them...or mostly fits.  The top bin has all the fabrics for the borders, back and binding...and probably more fabric than I really need.  Pillowcases?  A skirt, maybe?  A Girl Scout vest? A duffle bag?  All of the above?  I'll have to find out how much fabric I have left over after finishing this project.  I don't want to buy more of the fabric unless I have to.

I'm actually considering replacing one of the UFOs--the Japanese One-Block-Wonder that I had chosen for Emma's quilt.  I'm not very inspired to work on it, and I don't think she'll like it much...the colors are a little odd--lots of oranges.  I think she'd prefer the Kimono and Lanterns quilt for which I have only one block made.  I picked up the pattern for the kimonos but need to copy the pattern a bunch of times to make the blocks.  The pattern looks a little bit like this one by Betty Blais (or maybe exactly like this...I don't know for sure).  Unfortunately, I don't have many Japanese fabrics.  Maybe I need to make a bunch of the patterns and hand them out as a friendship block.  I think that's the winner.  It'll get a lot more variety and cut down on the amount of work I'd have to do.

The one drawback, of course, is that it'll take three or four months to get all the blocks back--patterns handed out in September will be returned in October, November and January...we take August (the picnic month) and December off for officers' duties, but I can do a simultaneous friendship block of lanterns so I can get a larger quilt done without having to do so many blocks.  I'm thinking I could off-set the blocks around the edges and make it look like they're strung up as a border.  Maybe I could get it done by February or March?  It seems like a long way off, but I have two other UFOs to finish already.

After talking with Linda and brainstorming, I have an idea of what I want to do with Ben's MONSTER! quilt.  I have 13 monsters so far, and I'm not sure I want to make more monsters.  The applique blocks are a lot of work, and I'd have to find the book again, copy and blow up the drawings and make the blocks.  The other option is to alternate the monsters with MONSTER HOUSES!  She suggested that I make wonky houses like these.  If I get really creative, I can have doors and windows that open, have a Monster school, a Monster factory, a Monster outhouse...it'll be fun!  Creativity reigns!  If I make 12 monster buildings, I can use 12 monsters to make a 4 x 6 grid (similar to Cammie's) and use one monster for the back.  

SO...I guess I have my work cut out for me!

Patchwork Pirate Retreat Weekend

Lauri and Linda joined me in a mini-retreat this weekend.  We have had as many as eight join me for at a retreat at my house, but this time we had but two.  However, we had plenty of space to spread out and didn't have to fight over cutting tables and ironing boards.  

Jeanie and her friend, Bridget, joined us for dinner at Olive Garden (truly a most authentic Italian restaurant...snerk!).  She is a delightful young lady who belly dances with Jeanie, and has quite the skill with making fabric flowers for hair decorations.  Jean was wearing one oversize flower in her hair--beautiful!  Sadly I didn't get any photos of either Bridget or Jeanie's hair flower.  

During the weekend, I worked on several projects:

Finished working on Sharon's Patchwork Pirate quilt.  It took a bit of work since the last row was not put on straight, so I had to trim down one side and let out a couple of seams to lengthen the other.  I just hope that it lays flat when it's done...I wasn't totally confident that it was done well, especially with all the adjustments.  The punch of color around the outside is the perfect balance to the quilt, although it's a bit off-center from the previous rounds.  I guess that it is telling for the types of quilters we are--a rather colorful and lopsided crew.  In case you're wondering, the flags read:  "Kona Black Bess" which is Sharon's Pirate Name.  Mine is Capt. Cutter the Mad.

Next, I was cutting Halloween fabrics for a charm square swap for my local guild.  Every month, the guild has a themed swap in which you make packs of 3 different fabrics cut to 6" to exchange with each person signed up to participate.  In this case, there are 18 people signed up to swap, so I cut 18 copies of each of three fabrics.  I will collate these and pin them together with my name on them so they know who they came from.  Since I signed up twice, I need to choose three more fabrics.  I will get duplicates of everything, but if I'm making 4-patches, that will be perfect--two of these and two of those...  Or I can sub-cut them into four 3" squares and make smaller 4-patches or 9-patches if I use a different center square.  There are lots of design possibilities, although I have to be honest--I have yet to do much with the dozen or more swapped sets that I've done already (there are birds, patriotics, dots, Christmas, farm animals, summer fun, and several more).  I did start piecing a charity quilt with some bright ones that were donated to the guild, and I added a few from my collection to make a couple more blocks.  Other than that, I haven't done much.  The Frugal Fairy reigns:  this swap didn't require me to purchase anything--I pulled these right from my stash of Halloween fabrics.  Maybe I will sub-cut them to 3" squares and put a black square in the center...or something blood red...ooooo...the creative juices are flowing now!

I also worked on piecing together the blocks for Cammie's quilt.  It still needs a border or two around the outside before it's complete.  Right now it measures more than 5 feet square--I wonder if I should take one row off the side and make it narrower and longer--a 4 by 6 grid, rather than a 5 by 5.  Sure, I'd have one block left over, but it would be put on the back as part of the label or just for decoration.  Then I could add a simple border--something in Girl Scout green, perhaps, and piece the rest of the fabrics I have for the back and a pillowcase.  Then I can put it on the longarm and get it quilted up for Miss Cam...maybe by her birthday!

Community Service blocks - 9 patches from donated 2 1/2" squares, which will be sewn into quilt tops and donated to one of a variety of charitable organizations locally.  There are a number of organizations that they have given to over the years, including the Red Cross, a women's shelter, Churches, police and fire departments, foster care, and many more.  The committee usually selects one charity to donate to each year, but I don't know which one was selected this year.  I was able to complete 32 blocks for this endeavor.

Friendship blocks - I made at least 8 different blocks for friends--I still have two more to make, but I can work on those tomorrow, I think.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of them--I handed them over to Linda to account for them and they will be turned back to their owners next month at the meeting.

Kelly and I watched a TV miniseries called the Crimson Petal and the White.  Intriguing story, but it ended like a Crichton novel--abruptly and with more questions than answers.  What happened to the wife?  Where did the nanny take the little girl?  WTF?  I hate those movies.  Gimmie a good ending or a gruesome one...just don't leave me guessing!  Now I have to stay up late and try to think up my own ending.  Gah!  Maybe I'll just go watch Pride & Prejudice again.  Gotta get me some Firth!

Pirates' Invasion & Patches for Service

I laid out this quilt at the show last month and thought I'd take a picture of it before tucking it away again.  This was made by my great-aunt Addie, presumably the only quilter in our family that I am aware of.  And this is the only quilt known of hers in existence.  It was damaged pretty badly over the years and was lovingly repaired by my Mom, although I may do a bit more to it at some point.  Aunt Donna's name had been in it but it appears the threads have come out, along with the names of a couple more that are starting to pull out.  I have to fine some matching thread for the blocks and I'll try to follow the stitching lines as they still exist, but this piece is so fragile now, I hate to do too much.

I finished putting the sashing and cornerstones on the blocks for Cammie's quilt and had her lay them out how she wants them.  We made sure that the fabrics didn't match up from square to square, shuffling them a bit for more random variety.  Now that we're satisfied, I'll add the last strip pieces around the edges and sew the blocks together.

Here's the final layout.  I'll work on this tomorrow while the Pirates invade.  I anticipate I'll be able to get the top done fairly quickly, and may be able to get the borders on this weekend.  I have Laura's quilt top on the frame still, and should try to work on it a bit in the morning.  I was supposed to get it done for Lauri by this weekend and kept getting distracted.  

At the guild meeting on Monday, I picked up eight packets of 9-patches to sew up for the community service committee. We ended up getting far more squares donated than we used up at the quilt show, so the committee arranged these packets to have members take home and sew together.   I was thinking that there were two 9-patches in each ziplock, but there were four.  So instead of 16 blocks, I committed to make 32.  Ah, well.  They sew up quickly and it's all for a good cause.  

I got half of them done tonight and can finish the rest of them tomorrow and give them to Michele for the project.  I also have a bunch of friendship blocks to get done to hand over to Linda this weekend.  I have a solid list of things to work on!

Then I have to figure out what Friendship Blocks to hand out for the guild...I am eligible to hand out three times now.  I didn't realize it was so many.  Guess I need to get to work!

Updates!

Because I had a question on it, I thought I would show you the whole quilt that I was working on the other day.  This wasn't a Dresden Plate quilt, but a Wedding Ring!  Because I showed such a tiny piece of it, I can see how that mistake could be made.  This is the one I made for our 12th anniversary...makes sense, right?  12 rings for the 12 years...

Also, I've made some more progress on the Girl Scout quilt.  I've gotten most of the sashing and cornerstones on it.  I have to add the outside sashing bits after we complete the layout, which I wanted to have Cammie take part in, since it's her quilt.

Conference with Ben's teacher today and a long weekend, which will involve a doctor appointment for Ben with an autism specialist and Emma's got a "Moodle" day...it's like a home school day where all the assignments are online and are submitted back to the teachers online.  This is a rehearsal for any snow days so that students will have fewer days to make up at the end of the year, should school closures be necessary. Kind of a cool concept.

UFOs of All Shapes & Sizes

One sock down, one to go!  

Heide gave me this sock yarn when I visited last month and after frogging it back to the toenails, I cast on a new sock.  Last night I finished the first one and cast on the second.  This has been a great purse project although I have found that I'm doing less sitting & knitting in the car and more dashing back and forth between school campuses.  I'm thinking I may have to juggle the schedule around to accommodate other after school activities.  The Anime club meets Wednesday after school which conflicts with karate.

UFO challenge:  Three quilts.

One of my online quilt friends decided to challenge us to find three UFOs and focus on only those to finish.  With those three, write down all the steps that need to be accomplished and when you have time to quilt, pick one and work on one step.  This, if nothing else, makes it easier to see the bite sizes instead of the entire elephant.

Given that I have three kids and haven't made any of them a quilt in a while, I chose these three:

For Emma, a One-Block Wonder made from a Japanese print.  These 60 degree pieces are made from cutting the fabric yardage at where the fabric repeats, stacking six layers of this repeat and then cutting into triangles.  Sewing into two sets of three, you then lay them out into a pleasing arrangement and sew the half-hexes into rows.  The fabric itself was pretty, but after cutting it into triangles, I'm not sure she'll be into it.  I'll finish the top and then decide.  It may end up being Ebay fodder or donated to the guild.  We'll see how it goes.



For Cammie, a Girl Scout strip-pieced technique where long cuts of fabric are sewn together then cut into triangles, and twisted into squares.  I have a few more one-yard cuts to be used for borders, binding, backing...whatever it tells me.  This last couple of days, I've added the cream colored bits for sashing to calm down all the colors and movement.  It makes the rest of the yellow pop!

Cammie chose the yellow for the corner stones, which still have to be cut and added to the sashing strips.  Of course, as I was cutting the necessary 60 strips, I realized I was only 90% there...6 strips short of a quilt top.  I dug around in the stash and found another fabric that was very close--just slightly more yellow, but hard to pick out in the spread of strips.  ("One of these things is not like the other....")

For Ben, a Monster quilt!  I handed out patterns more than a year ago for a friendship block and although I handed out 20, I only got 13 back.  I want to make a few more to make it 20 blocks, so I'll have to go back to the 101 Monsters You Can Draw book that I found in a discount bin at a grocery store a few years back.  From that, I had made a bunch of patterns and handed them out.  Unfortunately, I didn't get back the unused patterns, so I'll have to make them up again, and find a couple of fabrics to coordinate with it for sashing, borders and binding.  I had picked up some monster fabric during shop hop, I think...I'll have to figure out where I tucked it and see if it actually works as a border, or maybe as a backing.

Other projects:

UFO for my 12th anniversary.  I started this just before our dozen-year mark to hang on the wall of our bedroom.  We have since moved and celebrated 6 more anniversaries and I still haven't gotten it put up on the wall.  I put it on the long arm and quilted it up, so now it's ready for binding.

The Pirate Round Robin.  I ended up with three quilt tops at my house--I have no idea why I got so many of them dumped on me at once, but I finally was able to finish up two of them and have hung up the third on my "design wall" to interview fabrics.  I'm thinking about adding the blue strip and map fabric on the right.  I know what I'd like to do after that, but I'm not sure I want to technically do two borders or save that for the next quilter to do.  I think it needs some really bright checkerboard strips, like the center block.  Either that or I can ditch the map fabric and do the checkerboard instead.  I have enough bright squares cut up in my stash now that I can pull a lot of pre-cut pieces without a lot of fuss.  Math will be difficult to figure out exactly how many I'd need.

I also finished working on Sherry's beach scenes quilt, which I believe she wanted to attach together herself.  This feels like it needs something more on the right to balance it out, or perhaps some kind of activity on the water, but I have run out of time and momentum on the project.

Finally, I have several quilts waiting for quilting on the long arm.  This is for Laura, Lauri's mother in law.  Her favorite colors are green and lavender, so this is perfect for her.  I was hoping to have it done for her by tomorrow, but I need a little direction as to what thread to use and what pattern I should quilt on it.

Girl Scouts starts on Tuesday, so we'll see how that goes.  Our troop has merged with another one to increase the numbers (we have about six each), and to spread the work load out.  I'm pretty sure this will be the last year I'll run it since I've already spread myself too thin.  Which reminds me, I need to write to a couple of other people I had formerly volunteered with to let them know that I am going to politely decline helping this year.  I know I have a lot of volunteer hours to complete for two schools now.  Wish me luck.