It's been years since I have done any hand-quilting, but I am pleased that my skills are mostly intact. Very satisfied with how this quilting looks.
As of yesterday, I started the last class that will complete my Masters in Accounting (do I know how to party or what?). It's nice to have project to pick up when I can manage a quiet moment. That said, my brain is already clamoring to think up some new project. If I can just keep it from running amok in the next 7 weeks, then.....
This one was a long time in coming. P of The Way I Sew It sent the center Dresden to me in early 2010. I'd finished the piecing before moving from Nevada in November of 2010. I got it sandwiched in 2012. And FINALLY finished quilting it a couple of weeks ago. It measures 23" X 23". Only 4 years.
My intention was to bind it in black. But being determined to utilize something from the stash I've been dragging around from place to place - and adding to along the way - black was not an option. Hence the zebra stripe. I'm quite pleased with the effect.
The Dresden itself is quilted with stitch in the ditch to make it pop. The center has an organic spiral (read as imperfect). The black background is stippled.
I've discovered I really do not like stippling. My brain does not do random. I have to make myself be random. And if I'm concentrating on making no pattern is that really random? (There's your philosophical question for the day.)
The wall hanging resides above my computer - the one I use for blogging and gaming. :)
Every time I have tried to re-commence quilting in earnest the last couple of years, sooner rather than later The Fates intervene, and I get derailed, the quilting mojo slipping through my fingers like so much sand. This time..., this time will be different. I'm trying to sneak up on it. Oh sure, I've got full sized quilt tops that need quilting. I've got a small wall-hanging that I've bound and begun to quilt. Just one problem, I haven't yet located it since the move. I know it's here somewhere.... (Yes, I moved again - but that's another story.)
So the plan is to start with something completely brand new and small - so as not to attract the The Fates' attention. Shhh.
I've decided the best way to show off the fairies in this baby quilt is to sash them. These pinwheels will reside at the junctions. They measure just 3 1/2 inches.
Vegas Baby!
Last week at this time I'd just arrived home from visiting my friend, Michele in Las Vegas. Seems ironic, but we didn't step one foot inside a casino. After living there for a couple of years, the casinos lose their appeal. Besides, why would we need to go anywhere with a fridge full of beer?
Okay, we did get out one day and walk down the street to Nacho Daddy's where we had, yes nachos, and margaritas. After all, a woman cannot live by beer alone! :-)
Michele
It was one of those terrific low stress, hanging with the girlfriend type of weekends. I need those more often!
Blogger Layout:
I've been tweaking my blog layout. I increased the size of the main column, the post column, and in so doing, made the entire blog a bit wider. That's fine except that I am having trouble with my header picture. I tried to figure out how to center it to no avail. Then I tried to make my picture longer both in Picasa and Photoshop. None of those efforts translated well at all. Any tips?
This diminuitive table-topper ~ yes, it is just slightly larger than
8" square ~ is a gift for a friend in Germany. I shipped it her way
yesterday and hope it arrives safely and in time. If all goes well, it
she should have it in a week. One Christmas her gift didn't arrive
until February. I guess the post office sent it by wagon train that
year.
With each project, I expand and attempt to perfect my free motion
quilting skills. I quilted these Christmas trees on the points. As Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict would say, they are "organic". Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Actually, it's an interesting phenomena. When I look at each
individual Christmas tree I quilted, I see all of the flaws. However,
when I look at the topper as a whole, those Christmas trees really look
kind of cool.
I quilted the outline of the gingerbread man. It made him puff quite nicely.
As I tend to immerse myself in rather large quilting projects, I am finding these small projects exceptionally rewarding.
When I posted on the Maple Leaf Table Topper, my wise-ass cousin-in-law, and best friend, Eric, commented thusly:
I'm thinking even that's too big. Can you quilt me a single coaster? Thanks!
You can imagine how snickered, as I created this:
(Thanks for the picture, Eric!)
It was a quick process. Eric had so enjoyed the Asian themed fabrics in my mom's latest quilt, that choosing fabrics was a no-brainer. Since the project was quite small, I merely raided her scrap bag. Then, I snickered some more. The whole thing probably took an hour, and most of that was hand-sewing the binding down on the back. And I snickered as I stitched. (Are you sensing a theme here?)
I snickered when I surreptitiously laid the coaster on Eric's keyboard while he was away from his desk. And I laughed out loud when he came out of his office carrying the coaster, giggling, and saying, "I can't believe you did this." The coaster now sits on his desk amongst other interesting treasures, which he blogged about here.
Joann's:
Made the trek to Joann's at the Town West Mall yesterday morning. Normally, I would avoid the mall on the weekend after Thanksgiving. I have no urge to deal with the crowds. However, I needed some supplies to finish some Christmas gifts, so what was a quilter to do?
Fortunately, the crowds were not too bad (maybe they'd all shopped themselves to death the day before?) and the sales were great. No, not just great, fan-freakin-tastic is more like it. I came out of the store with 7 1/2 yards of quality fabric for $19. $2 off per yard Keepsake Quilting fabric; 75% off end of the bolt fabric (I picked up nearly an extra yard with this deal), and 25% off the total price coupon. Do I feel like the cat that swallowed the canary? You bet!
I was so blown away with my savings, I blew off the gym too. My cousin, Shirley, said I could justify it by having "weight-lifted" bolts of fabric. I love her! (And really it's okay, because I hit the gym on Sunday and redeemed myself.)
When you have nothing to show for yourself, well then show someone else's!
My mom finished this king-sized beauty right before Thanksgiving. Its inspiration was an Asian themed fabric pack.
If you click on the picture to make it larger, you might be able to see the feather quilting on the green sashing, and the leaves on the black frames. She did an impressive job. No one can tell that this was her first attempt at free-motion feathers and leaves.
I have been so erratic about reading your blogs. I apologize. Despite my regret and hopes of doing better, life just keeps happening.
QI's
Meet the new, up and coming quilt inspector, Chuzzlewit:
It looks like she was a little confused, having to inspect the stack of napkins in the bowl atop the table-topper. Oh well, she was trying.
Quilt Shop
Saturday, my mom and I checked out the quilting shop, Material Girls, in downtown Wichita. While we are always on the look out for a new place spend a little a lot of money on fabric, it was the clever name that caught our attention. We were not disappointed. I have never seen a larger selection of batiks, amongst the many other fabrics. The staff was very friendly. Quite a happy place. The picture below does not do the shop justice.
Quilting:
I have been doing a little quilting, but all of it is for Christmas so no pictures. I don't want to give anything away to the recipients.
The quilting Gods decided to play a dirty trick on me. I was making stupendous progress on the Pansy Sampler Quilt, finished all of the quilting except those on the borders, could see a finish near at hand, when muscle spasms in my left shoulder and neck made pushing and pulling that heavy quilt through the Juki an exercise in pain.
I finally made myself set the quilt aside.
I'd been toying with the idea of making a fall table topper or table runner for some time (as soon as I finished the Pansy Sampler quilt). There was no time like the present. I knew the small project would cause me no harm.
Voila! My cousin chose the color of the maple leaves. It measures approximately 16" square and now resides on a table in the living room. Lori has the house beautifully decorated with a combination of a Halloween ~ Autumn theme. (She has our grandmother's talent for such things.) The table topper is my small contribution to the effort. It went together really quickly, and I'm yearning to make others.
The thing that took me the longest was deciding how to quilt it. The center space between the maple leaves is pebbled. I was puzzled about quilting the leaves themselves and hoped the design I chose would be somewhat reminiscent of wind.
Please forgive the rather poor pictures. I do not have Eric's talent for photography. Normally, I would have had him take them, but he has been working 16 hour days. Ack!
Some free motion quilting adventures fall into the undesirable category. Having the corner of your backing tucked under and quilting it down as in the photo below is one of them. Sigh.
And the leaves looked really good too..... Rip, rip, rip.
Just as an aside, another thing I've learned is that if you're going to use multiple colors of thread, it may be a good idea to go with a wildly colored backing. As you can see the non-white thread shows up brightly on the white background. Not all of my quilting is that pretty either. However, this quilt will go on my bed, so most people won't know what the back side looks like except me. (And of course, all of you, because when I'm done, I'll probably post a picture of that too.)
My cousin and I have been looking forward to setting up our Quilting-Crafting Studio since we knew we returning to the house in Newton. The basement has plenty of space and will be perfect for our needs. The only problem has been digging out from underneath the pile of boxes.
A few days ago, Lori got inspired and removed the boxes from our space.
Eric moved the desk into place for us, and I found the fabric and unpacked the Juki. Eventually, there will be shelves to hold the fabric, but in the meantime, the window well works just fine.
Along with the setting up the sewing room, came setting up the office (off camera ~ and the subject of a separate blog post), and organizing all of Eric's computer stuff. Boxes and boxes of computer stuff.
In the corner opposite the Juki, Lori began setting up a space for scrapbooking. We're still looking through boxes for all of her supplies.
Despite the area needing more work, I sat down and did some free-motion quilting for the first time in six or seven months. The good news is that in the interim, the skills I had did not abandon me; the bad news is that I didn't get any better.
I finished this block this afternoon ~ one I began quilting in January or February. It is far from perfect, but it sure feels good to have completed it.
Again with other people's projects. My mom has started a new quilt. The pattern is called Autumn Braid.
She's used an Asian fabric fat quarter pack, and added like fabrics from her stash. Isn't it gorgeous? It's going to be king-sized when she's finished.
She bought the pattern at the LQS, Charlotte's Sew Natural, in Newton, Kansas. (One of the benefits of moving back to Newton!)
Maybe one day I'll have my own projects to show again....
Color. As we quilters, toying with color in all its various combinations is a significant part of the joy in the art. I was blown away by the way color was used in Taos. It wasn't that there were any new colors; it was it the way the colors were put together ~ the rusty tones, near reds, and gold paired with turquoise, teal, royal blue and occasionally purple. This wall of pottery suns shows exactly what I'm talking about:
The photo above contains the more muted tones, but this one shows the same color combinations in vivid brights:
I came home inspired. Now if I can just find a time to put vision to fabric....
(My thanks to Eric for again allowing me the use of his pictures.)
The New York Beauty quilt is coming along. I'm currently hand-piecing the quarter blocks together to make the circular design evident in the picture below. I imagine I will hand-piece the entire quilt. It gives me better accuracy. However, when it comes to quilting it, I intend to reacquaint myself with my long-neglected Juki.
Taos, New Mexico Part 1:
Taos sits at approximately 6,900 feet and is well known for being relatively close to several wonderful ski slopes. Not a consideration in the summer, but none of us ski anyway. That said, Taos was a place we'd never been before, and seemed like a great escape from the summer heat of Texas. We were not disappointed. The daytime temperatures rose to the mid-80's and the night time temperatures hit the mid 40's. Low humidity.
Nearly all of the buildings in Taos are adobe. Not just the houses, but the businesses as well. I was struck by how well the adobe buildings blend into the environment.
Juniper House, Taos, New Mexico
This is the vacation home we rented. Honestly, the price wasn't much more than you'd pay for a decent hotel, but instead of having a room or suite, we had a whole house.
Myself and Lori in our cheap Wal-mart hats
Juniper Street
We took an amazing walk around the neighborhood, reveling in the glorious weather. The houses here sit on the edge of town.
Juniper House, interior
We all enjoyed the Southwest architecture and interior design.
The entire back of the house contained floor to ceiling windows. Here's a shot of the master bedroom from the outside.
The windows looked out on a beautiful backyard:
Eric photo-shopped this picture to resemble a painting.
We spent time a lot of time enjoying the desert air sitting under the ramada, making use of the grill. It is the shelter you see in the background at the mid right. If you look carefully, you'll note the hot tub in the mid left. Mango Margaritas are a perfect accompaniment to hot-tubbing. Ahem. :-) We made them in Solo Cups. Class all the way!
Myself and Lori, looking at the reflection in the windows
My thanks to Eric for doing the photography on this trip, and allowing me the use of his pictures on this blog.
I'm fortunate that other people in my life have been busy getting some quilting/crafting projects done, so I have something to share on my neglected blog. Today, I wanted to share my mom's latest completed work. She made the quilt for her cousin, Shirley, who was so instrumental in helping us make the transition from Nevada to Kansas last fall.
Shirley's favorite color is purple (a woman after my own heart), and Shirley's husband's favorite color is copper. Yep, copper. The man's an artist, so naturally his favorite color would not be anything generic. The same day my mom and I nonchalantly extracted that information from them under another guise, we ran across the floral fabric you see in the border. Decided the burnt orange shade in the floral was as close to copper as we were ever likely to get, and the floral became the focus fabric the quilt was built around.
It's interesting what a new perspective will provide to the quilting process. I recently returned from a short vacation in Taos, New Mexico. While I intend to blog on the sights, colors, and high desert air soon, the point of this post is how I came back refreshed, and ready to return to quilting in earnest ~ a feeling that I've been lacking for some time.
To that end, I've finished (provided I've counted correctly) hand-piecing all the blocks I need for a full-sized New York Beauty quilt. It's nice to feel inspired again.
It's been an entire week since I last posted. I'd love to regale you with stories of pre-Christmas busyness that interfered with my posting, but the fact of the matter isI was just not feeling well. Picked up some mild bug somewhere. I'm still shaking off the effects.
Photo by Clara S.
Christmas:
Christmas proved to be a restful day, here at the Prairie Quilter household. A much needed reprieve from painting and feeling that we simply had to be productive. So we lounged around, except for making the pancake brunch that the four of us (my grandparents, mother and me) enjoyed.
Also we were preserving our strength. My cousin, Lori and her family are here, arriving yesterday, the 26th. While a visit from my cousin is always an enjoyable occasion, the thing that will make this visit special is that we will celebrate our birthday together. Lori is two years younger than I am to the day, both of us born on December 30th. This will be the first time we've celebrated together as adults. In fact, it will probably be the first time either of us has done much celebrating in years. Having a birthday stuck between Christmas and New Year's is really rather inconvenient. Most people are just happy to have made it through Christmas and are hoping to regain enough steam to push on to the New Year--myself included. But with the two of us together the formula this year has changed.
Photo taken and modified by Eric H., Lori's husband
This Year in Review:
I don't tend to be an overly prolific quilter, and this year with all of the turmoil, it was particularly true. Still, I'm proud of what I did finish this year:
After reading about Myra's 2011 PhD Challenge over at Quilting in My Pyjamas I decided I'd jump on the Projects Half Done bandwagon. You see, Projects Half Done could be my middle name. I've got one flimsy that is probably getting upwards of fifteen years old. I'm a much better starter than a finisher. And in the past, I've been a much better piecer than quilter. I'm trying to remedy the latter by learning how to FMQ. That said, I'm only committing two projects to Myra's PhD Challenge, as life has a habit of getting in the way of my quilting goals. Plus, I reserve the right to start a new project and live with the guilt of that fifteen year old flimsy.
PhD #1: The Scrappy Star. This project is at least ten years old. It's now gone through two major moves. In my defense, this quilt is hand-pieced and the blocks and the inner checked border will be hand-quilted. In the interest of having this one finally done, I'm going against my obsessive-compulsive nature and will FMQ the last two borders. At this point, I have 1 1/2 blocks and part of the checked border left to hand-quilt. All of the two outer borders still need to be quilted.
PhD #2 is sampler from a block swap. The swap was called "You Pick" and was hosted by a gal I became acquainted with on RCTQ (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting), a quilting newsgroup. Each participant chose a focus fabric and sent a 12" square of it to the other participants to make a block. My focus fabric was a pansy fabric. I received some gorgeous blocks back.
I have begun free motion quilting the sandwich, and have five of the sixteen blocks done. I'm doing the sashing as I go.
As you can see since these projects are really more than "half done", I should easily be able to finish them by June. Now, I only hope that it's true!
