Random Gift

When I arrived at work yesterday there was a large grocery bag sitting in front of my office door.  This wasn't the typical plastic grocery bag either, but a huge paper deal with handles like you would find at Panera Bread.  It had a note to take what I want and donate the rest. 

Are you kidding?  What wouldn't I want to keep?

Oh, what was it?  Left over cotton fabric, most of it decades old, all of it very outdated.

And I LOVED IT!

I sought out the mystery gifter and thanked her profusely.  She warned some of it was probably too small to use.  Ha!  I keep some of the tiniest scraps imaginable - I am a true scrap quilter.

She was happy to be rid of it and I was delighted to receive it.

Clearly it's time to return to the basement and start quilting again.

Quilt For Grandma

When we retrieved Grandma's stuff from her room I spied the quilt I made for her a few years ago.  I promptly announced that it was coming home with me.  Currently I'm curled up on the couch with it.

It's a rail fence pattern in shades of blue, Grandma's favorite color.  Rail fence is a pattern I use frequently as it easily pulls in pieces of fabric in some of the smaller sizes.

The quilts I make are each unique and I remember them individually, not quite like children, but close.  They mean something to me as they bring pleasure to make and to see people light up when they receive them.  I never imaged one bringing ME a stream of joy.  This one was laying on Grandma's bed when we emptied her room, telling me it was one of the last things she touched before being rushed to the hospital.  This is a very physical way to keep Grandma with me.

Stash Report - July 26 2011

I can't do a proper stash report for my fabric collection but I do have to brag on the awesome additions I made.  A new Joann's is being built so the one close to my house is closing.  I knew at some point they would start selling fabric by the bolt.  Sure enough - at 75% off!

I ended up with about 30 yards of fabric, originally around $300 and paid $80.  While I was out, I picked up a new cutting mat, figuring the one I've been using is nearly 20 years old.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of this cloth.

Kindle Cover

My daughter requested a quilted cover for her new Kindle.  I pondered how to attack such a project.  I dug through my project bin with my mind focused on a set of scraps with no color pattern.  Instead, I pulled out two squares left over from another quilt, purple with butterflies.  An online search gave me dimensions and these two squares would be perfect.

 

I stitched the two squares together and then with batting and a muslin back.  This was my first project to hand quilt a design.  I doodled some loops and stitched over them.  That was great to do sitting in front of the TV and really didn't take too long.

It needed a flap so I dug through my pile and found a dark purple.  I also gave it a muslin back (no batting or quilting).  All seams were folded under so no loose threads to generate damaging debris.

I'm a little upset that I used purple thread to stitch it all together.  That looks sloppy.  I found a button in a tin of stray buttons (just like my mom has) and added some embroidery thread as a fastener.

Friday Fragments - February 25, 2011

And here we are again, Friday.  Fridays are such strange days, frequently very silly days.  I really enjoy them, even when it includes a ton of work, especially after a day like yesterday that felt every bit like a Monday.  How is it days of the week have a "feeling"?  I don't know, but they do for me.  And isn't it great Mrs. 4444's sponsors an opportunity to spend this wacky day together, sharing our bits and pieces of the week?

*Well, last Friday I was off work as a little reward for completing a huge project.  Unfortunately it was NOT relaxing.  I had five, FIVE, freaking calls from work.  I really need some assistance in my department soon.  Interviews have been going on and possibly a last round next week - keep your fingers crossed.

*Friday night made up for the bogus day off as my friends gathered for happy hour.  Over priced plates of munchies but delicious drinks for several hours.  It was great to get out.

*Saturday I attended a baby shower for a co-worker expecting twins.  She is the recipient of the first two projects produced by my new sewing machine, crib quilts.

*On Tuesday I attended a career fair looking for an intern.  Some really great candidates came through so now I need to take a few minutes to actually review their resumes and schedule interviews.  Would it be wrong to look into getting an intern just focused on attending career fairs and conducting interviews for future interns?  Worse yet?  Not one single phone call from the office.  I knew that would happen - endless calls on my day off and zilch when I'm out of the office for work purposes.  Murphy and his stupid law can suck it.

*Tuesday night was the last hockey practice of the season so we made it the parent-player game.  AND WE WON!  Without cheating!  All I can say is, damn, I'm out of shape.  It was fun, though.

I hope everyone is safe after last night's storms that swept across the US.  It's rare to have turbulent weather from coast to coast.  Yesterday St. Louis had torrential rain and this morning we woke up to a light dusting a snow.  My friends in Nashville had tornado sirens over night and I see that snow is expected in San Fransisco.  Stay warm and stay safe!

UFO Challenge

It's a quilt thing....

A UFO is one of those projects that sits unfinished for one reason or another, sometimes for months, years... decades... forever?  Judy at Patchwork Times is challenging us to dig up those old projects and FINISH them in 2011.

So here's my list and I'm supposed to come back and update my progress:

-"A" quilt for Amanda
 The top is pieced but is in dire need of a border.  I'm working on the border right now

-Crazy Quilt
 Four blocks done

-Sampler Quilt
 Assemble all of those miscellaneous blocks when testing colors, patterns or left over from projects into one cohesive quilt.  I've done it once already, let's see if I can do it again.

-Pink Flamingo quilt for me
 The fabric has been sitting for at least five years, waiting for me, but nothing, absolutely nothing has been done with it.

I'm sure there are a million other projects I've forgotten in the bowels of my basement/sewing room but these are pressing on my brain to complete.

If you're nosy (like me) and want to keep tabs on everyone else in the challenge
http://www.patchworktimes.com/2010/12/15/my-ufo-2011-list/

So let's see how well I meet my UFO Challenge and moreover, update this link???  Anyone want to place bets?

1/10/11:  Major set backs in trying to sew anything at all as I currently have THREE non-operational sewing machines sitting in my house.  Before the last one croaked yesterday I did manage to eek out a few bits of border on the first quilt.  YAY!

2/9/11:  Machine bought, died, returned, refunded and new one replaced - arrived yesterday!!!  Why am I playing on the internet?  Another project added to my list with a double-whammy baby shower in two weeks.  A coworker is pregnant with twins, a boy and girl.  I think simple squares in pink for one and blue for the other.

2/19/11: WHEW!  Completed project

3/7/11: Another project not on my to-do list - a kindle cover for my daughter.  I guess she'll get the "A" quilt (one at the top) for Christmas.

Friday Fragments - December 10, 2010

Time to unwind the week's events and all of the little stuff that may not be enough to make a full post...

*Fruitcake was baked on Sunday.  OMG the house smelled divine!  The batch makes multiple cakes (the better to share, you know) so I poured one cake before I added the nuts.  That was for ME, the nut hater.  Then I packed the pecans into the rest of the batter.  The Husband was very happy with the results.  He's also not a fan of soaking the cake in more alcohol so it's perfect that we have separate cakes.  I decided that my cake would be even better if served with ice cream so last night I finally had ice cream in the house.  I was right.  It was perfect.

*The weather people have been talking for several days about some swirling mass that looks vaguely like a hurricane off the coast of Washington.  They've been using ominous tones when referring to the impending storm headed our way this weekend.  WEEEEEEELLLLLLLLL.... that just scares the dogshit out of St. Louisans.  Salt is flying off the shelves and grocery stores are packed as people stock up like they will be locked in for the next month.  Already the predictions are showing the storm missing us for the most part.  The ugly part is headed for Minnesota.  Yeah, Minnesota, the state where the residents have already prepared for big ugly blizzards and don't need to flock to the store en masse everytime a snowflake is predicted.

*I can usually produce a quilt in a matter of days.  It was not unrealistic to have my head filled with Post-Thanksgiving plans of finishing off three or four quilts by Christmas.  That is if my sewing machine wasn't hellbent on pissing me off!  I think Santa Claus is tired of hearing my endless stream of profanities and may take mercy on me.  It won't get the quilts finished by Christmas unfortunately... *&^#@!!!!

*My powers as WEBMISTRESS are getting stronger.  Oh my my, this is too much fun.  I never ever thought this would be something I would enjoy.  Not just enjoy, but I get it.  I'm fiddling with HTML code with barely a clue of what I'm doing and getting some very desirable results.  Now I'm not building from scratch and I don't know that I will ever be at that stage, but I'm tweaking current settings with giddy delight when it comes out exactly as I envisioned.

 

Craft Time

Only a few weeks left before Christmas and NOW I finally kicked my butt into gear.  I'm busy chopping fabric into tiny triangles to finish one quilt.  As I slice and dice, other quilt projects are starting to brew in my head.  One year I pushed out five quilts in just a matter of weeks.  Hopefully I will be just a successful this year.  It certainly would make Christmas easier on the pocketbook.  So if I'm not around, be assured it's not because I'm avoiding you.  I'll be holed away in my basement playing with my fabric.  I'll post pictures when there's something to see.

Back To Work

Well today I return to work.  The Husband is concerned that I might not be ready.  My biggest problem is sitting upright for long periods of time - I'm most comfortable in a reclined slouch with my feet up (aren't we all?)  I think my office chair has enough recline to it not to stress my stomach muscles and if it gets really bad I can retreat to the couch in the reception area with my laptop.  If that doesn't work I guess I'll come home, but I think I will survive.

Yesterday I finally made good on a promise to myself and sat down at my sewing machine.  I started a quilt for my daughter quite some time ago.  The date on the picture is 2007 - wow!  It was inspired by doodles I frequently scrawl while taking notes at work.  I pieced this together and then I embroidered it.  It came to a screeching halt when I couldn't come up with a satisfactory border.

Determined to find an answer, I flipped through my quilting books yesterday and saw a zigzag that should be exactly what I need.  So I tooled around with colors (more purple) and decided how to attack the zigzag.  It looks like I have a lot of triangles to cut out - boo!  I hate cutting triangles.  It's easy but tedious.

Now that I have this one "solved" my brain is now wandering over the rest of the purple fabric.  My son's girlfriend needs a quilt too and purple is her favorite color.  I have the fabric selected and patterns are starting to bounce around in my head.

Sunday In My City - July 4, 2010

Happy Birthday America!

I snapped a few shots of this flag a few months ago, when we bought our pick-up truck.  It was a brilliant spring day with not a cloud in the sky and a little breeze, both rare qualities to be found in St. Louis.  The huge flag above the dealership kept snapping in the wind, just begging for me to take its picture (good thing I carry a camera in my purse).

If you'll indulge me to switch days - this was Christmas a few years ago.  I made a quilt for my mom who collects americana.  I was digging through my scrap stash putting together another fence post quilt when the red white and blue just sort of came together.  I went out and bought various blue fabrics with stars to properly finish the squares.

And this is Sunday in my city and all of the cities around the USA, proudly displaying our flag, Old Glory, celebrating our national independence 234 years ago.

Join the Unknown Mami visiting everyone else's city

Ian's Quilt

I'm being lazy today - go to my parenting blog to read about the quilt my son made (with a little help)

Flying Geese Quilt

I don't know why it took so long to start playing with triangles.  They're straight and as long as you stay true to your seam allowance (I'm known for dancing back and forth over that line so my blocks are never even) these practically fly together.  This is one of many quilts that came together in just one day.

It was made for my brother and it was really hard to find non-floral prints in my collection.  Unfortunately it was not quite large enough to fully cover his 6'4"body so it hung out in the guest room.  Last April it was lost in the house fire where he lost everything but the load of clothes he had in the car to go to the laundromat.

I guess I'll have to make a new one for him, bigger this time.

A Sampler Quilt

Ugh it's Monday.  It's one of those days you just want to snuggle down with a cuppa something warm.  These are the days we want a quilt to wrap around us as we sit in front of a crackling fire contemplating a long vacation to someplace tropical with warm sand and cool water lapping at our feet.

My next quilt that I've chosen to highlight was a sampler that I made as part of a class.  I've only taken the one class.  It was something my mother-in-law and I signed up together.  Every month we were given a new square and taught the techniques for cutting out and assembling the block.  We would bring in our squares to the next class for a little show and tell.

I was pregnant with my oldest son and missed the last few classes, but my MIL collected the directions for me.  Like so many of my projects initiated those days it sat untouched for a really long time.  Such is the curse of being a new mother and may explain why quilting seems to be a grandmotherly art.

Because this quilt was assembled as part of a class it was the only one I purchased fabric specifically for it.  Everything else I have ever assembled has been hobbled together from scraps and fabric on-hand.  Unfortunately I only had enough fabric for the actual squares and not quite enough to finish the borders.  I went digging and found a complementary pink to intersperse with the burgundy borders.  That explains the "unique" pattern between the blocks.

My sampler quilt found its way as a graduation gift for a friend's daughter.  Before I gave it away I was able to finally take it back to the quilt shop that had hosted the class so many years ago and do a little show and tell with the original instructor.

Crossroads Quilt

Some fabric is just meant to go together.  The colors and patterns mesh perfectly.  I will flip and twist piles of fabric to find a perfect match, but some just jump into my hand.   This is probably my favorite part of quilting - playing with the fabric, finding those matches.

This was a denim colored cotton and a pale pink with little denim diamonds.  These two sat side-by-side in my collection waiting for a quilt, I knew they were destined to be together.  I don't remember where I found the pattern, but I cut it out of my own design based on something I saw elsewhere.  I'm always fascinated by floor tiles, seeing quilt possibilities and I think that's where it came from - someone's bathroom floor.

Like many of my quilts, the core of the quilt top was assembled quickly and then sat for several years waiting for some sort of inspiration.  When it did arrive, the quilt was finished in a matter of hours. 

The border was from fabric that I detested.  It was a hideous combination of pink and blue flowers on a brown background.  When I held it up to the pink and denim it just meshed and stopped being ugly.  I also had a little bit of bunny rabbit print, surely something I found in the remnant bin (my most favorite place of any fabric store!). 

It was the first time I tinkered with the border, making it pieced instead of full strips of bland fabric.  I'm totally infatuated with doing borders this way and it will be found on many more quilts as I move forward. 

This quilt also has more of the bunny fabric appliqued in the middle of the quilt, and I think I did some on the back too, but I don't exactly remember if I did that or not.  I don't applique much, but it just screamed for it.

Baby Blocks Quilt

As I posted before, I started quilting when I was pregnant with my daughter.  My first quilt went to a neighbor.  Little did I know that it wasn't my ADD, but just being a regular quilter, when I was already looking toward my next quilt and the one after that.  Maybe quilters have ADD???  It's a common joke in the quilting world about having oodles of unfinished projects.

But anyway, the next quilt on the horizon was baby blocks.  This is an aggressive project for a novice quilter as I quickly discovered.  I managed to cut only a few blocks using the some of the same fabric as my daughter's Easter dress.  I got as far as assembling my blocks into a circle and stopped.  It was as big as a doily and I couldn't envision taking it any further.  A few years... yes YEARS... later I found a pink and a blue sheet that would be PERFECT backgrounds to that block.  I pinned it together and eventually mastered applique.  I have always liked this quilt top.  It hung in my sewing rooms... yes ROOMS, ie multiple houses... before I attempted finishing it. 

I was given a quilting hoop so Baby Blocks found its way to the hoop in hopes of hand quilting.  Yeah, that sucked.  I have never been taught how to properly hand quilt so I struggled with this project quit a bit.  Eventually, I returned it to the sewing machine for a rather crappy quilting, but it was finally FINISHED.

My daughter received it for her TWELFTH BIRTHDAY.

Her next quilt is lingering in similar fashion - top assembled, waiting for the perfect border and final quilting.  Her twenty-fourth birthday is only two years away and it's very likely that's when I will have it finished. 

For her sake I hope she isn't on a twelve year plan for receiving quilts from mom!

My Quilting Hobby

I haven't discussed my quilts here, but if you read my full profile you'll see that quilting is one of my hobbies.  I have very carefully chosen the word, "hobby" as I do this for my own pleasure, not for profit.  Once I tried to assemble a quilt to someone else's exacting request.  The project sat and sat and sat and inspiration never kicked in.  I returned the fabric to her (no money had been exchanged) and offered my apologies. 

Only a few years ago did I wise up and start photographing my work.  It might be a good thing that I didn't capture my very first quilt.  Oh it was bad.  Worse yet, I gave it to a friend for her baby son.  The blocks weren't exactly the same size, none of the corners met up and I paid no attention to seam allowances.  I'm sure it fell apart in the first weeks.   The only redeeming thing about this quilt were the fabulous colors - dark blue, powder blue, and orange.  We lost contact shortly after the birth of her son so that surely saved her from telling me about the crappy quilt I thrust on her.

Back in 1988 when I was pregnant with my daughter I started watching the Home Show - a precursor to Martha Stewart with all of the artsy crafty things you can do around the house.  One of them was quilting in a new and easy style - strip piecing.  I'm not a seamstress.  I can muddle my way through threading a sewing machine, but after that I'm pretty clueless.  This strip piecing thing, however, looked very possible even with my limited sewing skills.

My mother was astonished that I asked for her old sewing machine, but she ended up being an invaluable resource as I began my quilting adventure.  That first quilt was assembled with remnants found at the local fabric store.  Those remnant tubs are my absolute favorite and I gravitate to those first when entering any fabric store.

A few years later I found an entire box for sale at a flea market filled fabric, half finished squares, thread and patterns.  I bought it for $5.  I am constantly pulling bits and pieces from that collection.  And while that collection quickly blended in with the rest of my stash, I can immediately point out those pieces because they are the oldest fabrics.  Most of them are from the 1930's.  Pretty damn awesome flea market find!

Some of those partial squares made it into a sampler I made for my dad, another unphotographed quilt.  It nearly flew together and before I knew it, the quilt was completed and ready to send off.  Every time I talk to my dad he raves on and on about his quilt.  It was made with love and he says he feels it.  YAY

Another quilt that came together quickly was this Purple Flying Geese.

I made it for one of my internet friends, my timing random with no reason behind it.  It's a lap quilt, the basic size of all of my quilts.  Don't ask for specific dimensions because these things sort of blossom according to my whim.   I really like how the line of scraps turned out on the edges.  More of my quilts will have this touch added on.  It amazes me that I can tell you about many of the fabrics used here - the ones that were purchased by mom for a dress for my daughter, the one used for the quilt I sent my dad, the ones used for a sampler class I took, the fabric my son picked out for his "Japanese" quilt.  The purple background came as a gift from another internet friend.

I want to do quilts for many of my other internet friends, but my kids have this strange notion that they should be on the receiving end of some of mom's quilts. 

Currently my sewing room has become a storage facility and there is a possibility that we might move before summer (that's a huge ol' maybe).  My projects are again collecting dust and I'm starting to get antsy to go play with my fabric once more.  In the meantime, I'll play show-n-tell.