A Flock of Fairies

Historically, I've not been a big fan of panels.  It's not that they don't look great, but somehow I always felt that I was cheating if I used them.  However, when I found the fairy fabric, I had to have it.  It was simply too adorable to pass up.  I had no use for it at the time I bought it, but life has a way of taking care of those issues.  My cousin and his wife are having a baby girl in April.  Fairies for a little girl.  Perfect!

I finished the flimsy last Saturday.  I'm quite pleased.

Monday Miscellaneous

A Pile of Pinwheels! 

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? 

UFO's, WIP's and a Poll or Two

In 2010, I decided to get my UFO's and WIP's whittled down to a more manageable size. To that end, I joined the Yahoo Group, Quilting and Finishing in 2010 and I've posted a list of my UFO's and WIP's on my blog so that I am frequently reminded. As of now, my list consists of 9 projects. I've managed to get two off my list this year--a quilt I gave a friend for her birthday in April (I'd been working on it for nearly 2 years), and a baby quilt for my cousin and his wife who are expecting in July. The last one was a project I welcomed, but was added last and finished first. After all, when a baby is on the way, the baby quilt is a priority. So my list went from 11 to 9 in the first 4 months of the year, and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Why 2010? It's not that I haven't considered taming the project list before. The turning point came when I got my Juki TL-98Q in December. I love to hand-quilt, but obviously the process is slow and I can only hand-quilt about 6 months out of the year when the temperature is cool enough. I tried machine quilting on my little Kenmore sewing machine. It's a great little machine, but pushing a quilt of any size through its standard harp is a major chore, and I could never get the tension right for FMQ because it's difficult to set the bobbin tension. The Juki's larger harp makes a world of difference, and I didn't need to make any tension adjustments on it for FMQ--although I easily could if I needed to.

That said, I have two true UFO's, the Sister's Choice quilt pictured above, and the Black, White and Red quilt. I'm embarrassed about the age of the Sister's Choice. The result of wonderful block exchange, it's nearly 15 years old. Why didn't I finish it? A major move, no longer having any of the off-white background fabric, and not being able to decide what I wanted to add as far as borders to make it big enough to go on my bed. Luckily, my quilter buddy, P, (see her blog, The Way I Sew It, here) has discussed the project with me, and I can see light at the end of the tunnel on this one, although I haven't yet started. The Black, White, and Red quilt is ready to sandwich and quilt, as soon as I'm done quilting Matt's quilt.

The other projects are WIPs, although 2 on the list, the Drunkard's Path and the Storm at Sea, are in the collecting fabric and cutting phase. That leaves 5 projects that are getting my attention, however, the Scrappy Star is being hand-quilted and I have had to put it away for the season. (How does that count? Still a WIP or is it again a UFO?)

I'm asking myself, what is the perfect number of projects? I know that 9 (or more) feels like too many. I do both hand and machine quilting projects. With the hand projects I'll probably need two of those; one for hand-quilting in the winter and one for hand-piecing in the summer. I could probably get by with just one machine quilt project though. And perhaps, I need one project waiting in the wings, one for which I'm collecting and cutting fabric. So, I'm thinking 4 would be ideal. I intend to whittle this list down enough to try it and find out. However, I admit that I do love starting projects more than finishing them, and so I'm having to flog myself into submission to keep from starting something new, despite that I've got too many projects now. Crazy huh?

So what do you think? What is the perfect number of projects to have on hand? Oh, and don't forget to answer the new polls about your UFOs and WIPs!

Pin Basting--Like a Teenager With Too Many Piercings

Basting. It's my least favorite part of the quilting process. Consequently, I tend to gravitate toward the method that is the quickest--spray basting. Since I've never found a way to control the fumes and the mess, I spray baste outside. Unfortunately, that leaves me at the mercy of the weather. Ever try to find a day in spring with no wind?

Enter pin basting, my second choice. Actually, it is a pretty good basting method too. Not as fast as spray basting, especially if the quilt is large, unlike the featured baby quilt, but faster than thread basting. No fumes. No waiting for the weather to cooperate. So what's not to like?

I discovered when pin basting this baby quilt, what I don't like is the look. Yep, like a teenager with too many piercings. I can't see the beautiful kid, because I'm staring at the 5 silver rings protruding from his lip. (I'm not against piercing per se, but like anything, it can be overdone.)

You're probably thinking that's weird. After all, in quilting, the pins do eventually come out. Very true. However, so much of my enjoyment of quilting is the texture and color of the fabrics, and how they play together in the quilt design. Somehow with my quilt full of pins, all I can see is the darn pins!