A Little Retreat

Sharon and Karen, a couple of my Chattanooga friends, came to visit over the second weekend in April. They stayed in a really nice hotel on the beach and we had a wonderful time.

This little quilt was such a big surprise to me — it was made for me by my dear friends in the Chattanooga Quilt Guild. And everyone signed the label. I absolutely love this quilt and especially the sentiment behind it.  It is such a lovely reminder of all the good times we had in Tennessee.

Here we are on the beach. The weather was perfect that day.

These are some shots of the room and how it was set up for quiltmaking.  In the first picture you can see the cutting table.

 Here you can see Sharon and Karen at their sewing tables and the portable design wall cleverly created with a flannel backed table cloth and a few push pins.

Another view of the design wall. Sharon was working on the wonky star quilt and Karen is making a double wedding ring quilt for her sister.

They made pretty good progress on their projects and still had time to go out to eat and to visit several quilt shops including: The Florida Key Lime Pie Company, Brano’s Italian Grill, Sew Central, The Quilt Place, and Fabric, Fabric, Fabric.

I didn’t actually work on anything. Well, I took some knitting and got a couple more rounds on the pair of socks I have been working on for about a year, but I concentrated on just hanging out and visiting with the gals. It was such great fun.

Here is the ironing station.

They came by to see the house on their way back up north and became the very first visitors to my little sewing studio.

It was so nice to see my northern friends again. I look forward to seeing them again soon. Hopefully next time I will have my guest room ready for company.

First Finish

Here is ‘Anchors Aweigh’ all finished. Well, the top is finished and the binding made. I will send it to my Quilts of Valor group, The Georgia Belles, to be quilted. Nice thought to have started and finished a project in my new sewing room. 

I didn’t follow the pattern exactly — had to add a border to get it to the right size — and I am happy with the result.

The Waiting Game

So we have been in Florida now for 12 days. We found a house that we want to buy, made an offer that was accepted, and got the financing process started. Today was the home inspection, and although it turned up some little things that will eventually need repaired, there were no big surprises  that might persuade us to look for a different house.

I think we have filled out and signed every piece of paper necessary to buy this house untill the actual closing, which leaves us waiting while the paperwork  is shuffled from one desk to another.  That gives me a lot of time to think about arranging furniture and what new items might need to be acquired.

I took this picture of the outside of the house a couple of days ago.

When you walk in the front door you see this lovely living room with hardwood flooring, and right through the big sliding window to the screen room in back of the house and into the back yard. This big room, which is 16′ x 17′ is going to be my new sewing room.

I am having a great time imagining how I will fit all my tables, shelves and fabric in here, and I am sure it will be a great place to play.

There is a nice sized family room which will be our TV room as well as a dining room, kitchen, four bedrooms and two bathrooms.  When we walked in the door we could feel the great energy in this place and knew it was for us.

The closing on the house is tentatively set for February 18th which seems like a hundred years from now, but hopefully things will go more quickly.  Cross you fingers for us. I am starting to really miss my sewing machine.

April

Here is the disappearing nine patch experiment. I guess I forgot to take a picture of it with the binding on, so imagine it with a purple binding the same color as those little blocks in the front. I gave this to Project Linus.

 

These are the ATC cards I got from the March swap — the topic was “Feet.” This was a challenging one for me and I am delighted with all the clever cards I got back.

Next is a panel that I quilted. It still is not bound, but when that is done I will give it to Ronald McDonald house.

Although this is an old qult, the new part of this is that finally — FINALLY —  I got this crazy quilt hung up on the wall. I think I finished it in 2003, so it has been waiting for a long time.

Here is  the 16th and final block for Pushing UP Spring. Now I need to work on the border and corner blocks before I can assemble this one. I am thinking of going over all the blocks and adding some hand embroidery before I assemble them. I think it would accentuate the big flowers and solid colors. It will probably take another year at my pace, but would be worth it.

Next is the a green stripey quilt I made at my first Onderful One Fabric quilts class. I have made three quilts in this same style but somehow this one got quilted last. I really like it though. As you probably know, these are made with border print fabric cut and sewn together to make it look like lots of intricate blocks. This is similar to a technique called Hidden Wells where you sew fabric into strips and then cut them the same way. I had about four yards of this striped fabric and ended up using nearly every bit of it. I think I had less than a 12″ square of it left.

Here is a chair we got at a yard sale that now resides in my studio.  Although it is in like-new condition, or maybe because it is, I have it covered with a throw to minimize the cat hairs that will inevitably attach themselves to it.

Check out this hexie pin cushion. I think the hexies are 1 1/4″ on a side and this size makes a very nice pin cushion. I filled it with crushed walnut shells.

I can mark off another one of my UFOs to finish this year. I allowed one month to get all these blocks assembled. I had all the smaller squares together and just needed to put the blue and grey flying geese around the sides. There are 49 blocks and I just finished them last week. Another month will go for sewing the blocks into a quilt top with borders.  I think I am a little ahead of schedule on UFOs this year. Hooray!

This was my April lotto block contribution – a wonky log cabin. I really like it and plan on making some for myself.

Finally, I signed up for a paper piecing class where we are making place mats for each of the four seasons. this is Autumn. I don’t have the faces on the scarecrows yet — that will be some hand embroidery. Oh, and of course I am making one for me and one for Raymond.

Well that finishes last month.  Ok, there are a couple other things, but I have to keep them secret till after guild meetings and such. Check back again to see what I get up to in May.

 

Still Marching Along

Ginormous Tote

At the March meeting of the Chattanooga Modern Quilt guild we had a sew- in and learned to make this ginormous bag. I love mine. It is so big I can carry a couple of big quilts in it or a lot of different projects.  I used a ‘cheater’ fabric that was printed to look like hexagons sewn together for the body and the straps are some really old fabric that I found in my stash that almost perfectly matches one of the hexies in the print. I thought that was very cool. I tried something new with this bag — I used a satin fabric for the lining. I think that will make it a lot easier to put things in and take them out because it will cut down on the friction.

Janet found this idea at

Tutorial: Ginormous Quilter’s Tote

so if you want to see how to make one just click (or cut and paste if the clicky thing doesn’t work).

Pizza Box Blocks

After the Chattanooga Quilters guild missed two meetings because of winter weather, we finally got together in March and got to finish up the Pizza Box Challenge that we had been working on throughout 2013.  Everyone got their pizza boxes back and we got to see the blocks all together.  Here are the ones that were in my box:

Aren’t they wonderful!

And here they are with the extra ones I made during the year. I wanted to be sure the pattern worked before using someone elses fabrics. That gives me twice as many blocks to play with and this way, I can remember everyone who made blocks for me as well as what blocks I made for others.  This picture shows them lined up the usual way.

This one shows them arranged on-point. Either way will look very good with a little sashing and a border or two. Right now though I think I like the on point version better. It will take a while to decide on placement of the blocks, but that will be fun when I get to it.

This was such a fun project. I love my new blocks and am pretty amazed at how much care was put into each one.  They will become a treasured quilt that I will enjoy sleeping under.

I probably mentioned when this round robin began that Lauren wrote a cute murder mystery story to go with the block exchange. Each month she told us about a different potential killer and his or her motive for committing the crime.  It added an extra dimension that kept us interested.  This month the mystery was solved and the culprit was taken into custody. Great job Lauren!

Studio Changes

I had an idea to move things around in the studio and after a couple of days of trying to ignore it I gave in.  Maybe it is that spring cleaning urge.  I switched the cutting table, the design wall, some plastic drawer and ironing board around.   I think it is nice to change things up every now and again, and I am always trying to find that perfect arrangement.  Here are some pictures of the new look.

The ironing board and design wall where here where then cutting table is now.

The design wall is where some plastic drawers were.

The ironing board and plastic drawers are where the cutting table and its pegboard of tools were.

One more look, this time from the door looking in.

 I think this will work out pretty well for a while — at least until my next idea comes along.

February Accomplishments

Here are a few of the things I have been working on this month.  There are more, but you will have to wait till March to see them. I had some things ready to take for show and tell at the Chattanooga Quilters guild this month, but the bad weather cancelled the meeting.  So after next meeting,  I can share the pics.  For now, this will have to do.

Every month, the Modern Quilt guild has a lottery block challenge.  If you make and turn in one of the designated blocks for that month, you get a chance at winning them all! I really liked this modern twist on the Dresden plate block so I made this version for the lottery.

Here are the blocks I won!  They are all very different in style and color.  Somehow I have to put them together into a quilt top. I am still thinking about it and it may take a while, but I love them and the challenge.

This is a picture of my little design wall. The big one is packed away and I am just using the smaller one. My sister gave me this gray checked fitted sheet and I was going to sew it and cut it to fit the PVC pipes that form the frame of my design wall so I could use the lines on the fabric to help make sure the pieces I put on the wall were straight. Turns out I was able to slip it right over the frame without any cutting or sewing.  Cool! I will probably take it down and do the cut and sew thing to straighten the lines a little, but for now, this is working fine.

 

February for me is all about Valentine’s day and this year I made new covers for our TV tables. I used leftover pieces from another Valentine quilt and added borders till they was big enough. Then I quilted the dickens out of them, which turns out to be wasted since the fabric is so busy that it doesn’t show well. I left a heart-shaped bit in the center unquilted so it would puff up a little and you can almost see it in this picture.  To finish, I added casings and ran elastic around the edges so they would stay snug on the tables.

Oh, and I made some changes on my blog pages. I was curious to see just how productive I am during the year, so I went back through my photos and sorted out all the actually finished projects for each year. Instead of making them blog entries, I decided to make a page for each year.   It is interesting to look through the years and see just what got done.

It is also interesting to note that there are fewer and fewer things the further back I look.  Partly that is because I didn’t have access to a digital camera way back then and took few pictures of projects that would need to be developed. Once I got a scanner though and figured out how to use it, I was able to scan smaller things, although the quality of those pictures are not that great. Then again, I started making traditional quilts around 2001 or 2002. Before that (in the early 90s)  it was just crazy quilt projects.  And before that was an assortment of needlework and crafts that I dabbled in for a while.  Nothing has been as captivating and intriguing as quilt making.

I don’t think the pages are complete.  Maybe they never will be. Every time I look through the pictures I have saved on my computer, I notice something out-of-place that I missed, and I add it to the appropriate year’s page.  And I have a few boxes of ‘real’ photos that are packed away.  When I get them out there may be a few more additions to the history pages.

August – This and That

Studio Redo

I moved the studio around a little. I had a nine section cubical in my bedroom closet that I didn’t need after rearranging my clothes (everything I don’t wear often is packed in boxes for the big move) so I brought it downstairs. You can see it against the wall below the windows. I find it a very handy spot to keep all the little things that  tend to clutter the sewing table. This keeps everything at hand, but out of the way.

Then I moved the two cubicles holding the books and magazines from the side of the fireplace to closer to that corner you see in the picture.  This got the treadmill out of that corner and moved the ironing board a little. I think this setup is more functional. The wicker table you see there is in place temporarily while I am working on the paper piecing blocks. It is handy to have a cutting board there so I don’t have to run to the big cutting table every few minutes.

UFO

At the last guild meeting, I was given a UFO from the stash of a member who is no longer with us. What an honor.  One block was paper pieced and the rest were rail fence blocks. I decided to sew them together like this.  Once I get a backing and quilt it, I think it will make a cute Christmas table topper. there are a few leftover rail fence blocks that I will put into the backing.

Hexies

This may be the big project I have been waiting for. I saw a picture of a heart shaped by hexies online and realized I could make one. So here is my sample one.  Isn’t it cute! It measures10 1/2″ by 11″.  I am thinking I could make up a bunch of these in different colors. Once I have a bunch of them, I can see how they could be put together. Maybe combining it with other shapes will be fun.

Studio Rearrange

Big changes happened in the studio a couple of weeks ago — we finally got that pool table out of there so I have room to really spread out!

Here is the view looking into the room from the little hallway.  The tables are kind of in the same place, but turned around a bit.

 

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Still standing in the hallway looking to the right. There is the corner of my desk and a view of the patio window.

 

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A better look at the desk and the aquarium. Hanging that little quilt on the wall is a change too. Before, it was just an empty bit of  wall. That quilt was created during a round robin at Crazy Quilter’s Guild. I made the center block, Sharon G. made the inner borders and Delores D. made the outer borders. Needless to say, I love it.

 

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Continuing around the right — notice the treadle is by the window where the ironing board use to be.  In fact, I have a new ironing board thanks to my generous friend Carolyn K. You can probably see my old board tucked in that corner. I am planning on taking that one to my sister for her studio when I go visit her in Virginia later this month.

There was a narrow pegboard in that corner too, by the fabric shelves, but that is now on the other side of the room.

 

— * –* –* —

This shot is with my back to the patio window and looking across the room. See — NO POOL TABLE! The little sofa is pushed closer to those small windows, but not right against the wall. I stacked all the big plastic totes full of crazy quilt and garment sewing fabric behind it. The totes were under the pool table before.  Also against the wall were a bunch of plastic shelves there holding all manner of things.  One stack of shelves is still there. See the new ironing board? And there is the little pegboard against the wall right next to my UFO drawers.

 

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Here is the fireplace, hidden behind fat quarters, my tool chest, an extra monitor and the old TV that had been hiding under the pool table.

 

— * –* –* —

The bookshelves stayed put. That little wicker table down on the left was on one end of the little sofa. It holds a few binders where I keep papers from my various guilds. The treadmill is behind the wicker table and is doing a great job of holding some of the stuff that I haven’t figured out where to put yet. It is also a great place to ‘display’ a couple of finished quilts. They in turn keep dust off the treadmill.

On the table is a little project that I am working on that you will probably see more of in the next post.

 

— * –* –* —

This is a better view of the ironing board. I haven’t had time to get anything new on that design wall for a while, but hopefully that will change soon.

 

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Another look at the ironing board, design wall, little pegboard, UFO drawers and part of the little sofa.

 

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Continuing around the room showing the sofa, the stacked totes behind it, the little design wall and a glimpse of some fabric drawers.  But wait, there’s more:

 

— * –* –* —

Here you can see the pegboard holding rotary cutting rulers and tools. I rearranged some of the plastic shelves and turned them into a cutting table.  I think it is very cool and even better than the pool table was for cutting fabric.

You can also see the cork board I put on the wall to help me keep track of what I am working on.

 

— * –* –* —

It is very handy having the rulers and cutters to the side there — easier to get to than before. The table is just a little higher than the pool table was too, so it is even easier on the back. I had to put a light there though as the big pool table light is also gone. This works great like it is.

 

— * –* –* —

Here is a look at the cutting table from the other side.

So that’s pretty much how it looks now. It is even more fun to play in than it was before. I certainly feel blessed to have such a nice space to create in.  I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can — you never know when things might change — but that is a story for another post.

Happy Day!

Catching Up Again

I don’t know where the time goes, but I find myself behind again. Here is a cuddle quilt I started at the February meeting of Chattanooga Quilt Guild.  I didn’t get it finished that day, but managed to turn it in at the March meeting.

 

For no reason at all, my sister sent us this beautiful wall sculpture of ginkgo leaves. I have always loved ginkgos because the leaves are so unusual.  Doesn’t it look great above the TV?  I have the best sister in the world!

 

I finished another pair of socks early this month — the fifteenth pair since I learned how to knit them. I think this is the fifth pair that is mostly pink. Hmmm, do I detect a trend?

 

I got another block done on Pushing Up Spring:

This is block  #11; only five more to go! This is going to be such a bright happy quilt.

 

Here are some pictures of a sewing caddy especially for applique projects. My friend, Vicky K., came up with the design and was kind enough to explain how she did it so I could make one of my own. It is very a very handy way to carry a project with you and have everything you need at hand.  Here it is all ready to go:

Here it is out of the container and ready to stitch. There are pegs to hold eight spools of thread, a pin cushion to hold needles, and special spots to hold scissors and a needle threader so you don’t have to dig around to find them. I also like that I can put any scraps of thread or  fabric in the bottom of the container to dispose of at home so I won’t leave any mess behind. There is even room to store the folded up block inside the container either under or on top of the caddy.  I love this. Thanks Vicky!

 

Here are my pizza box blocks for March. The red one is the practice one and the other one is for Denise H.  The requirement for this block was to have a four patch.

 

Here are Sandi S. and Sharon G.  at my house a couple weeks ago. We had a great visit as usual and shared a ton of ideas. I love having quilting friends over. This is actually the second time Sharon and Sandi came over since the studio moved downstairs, but I didn’t think to take a picture before now.  Vicky K. came over once too and we had a lovely time.

 

In honor of the Irish holiday this month, I made some quilted mats to go on our TV trays. I used some of the crumb blocks that I made a while back and just sewed them together till they were the right size. Then I did a little straight line quilting and finished the edges.  My plan is to have different mats for the different seasons and holidays. The fabric on the back of these two is a snowy woodland scene that will be great for the winter months. For February, I used our Valentine place mats, but they are smaller that the tray tops. I like this size much better.

 

More knitting ahead: After I finished the beige tweedy socks that I tried as an experiment with knitting worsted weight yarn, Raymond expressed an interest in having a pair like them. I searched around and found a pattern that I though might work on Ravelry.com called ‘sasquatch slipper socks.” They are made using two strands of worsted weight yarn together so you can imagine how thick and warm they are.  Since the yarn is so much bigger, these socks knitted up a lot faster, and Raymond is happy with the result. I took a picture of mine and his together so you can get an idea of the difference in size.

 

Are you still with me?  What a long post this has become. Well, hang in for a little longer and I promise not to take up too much more of your time.

 

My chosen UFO to have finished for the March guild meeting is one I started several years ago and set aside and forgot.  I got the idea from Scraps by Judy Martin.  The quilt she made is called Newport Beach and is with lots of bright fabrics on a white background with a darker fabric that give the impression of dimension.  I decided to use up some of my brown fabrics. The basic blocks start with a three-inch square of brown fabric that look like this:

In Judy’s quilt the different colors are scattered around randomly and my original idea was to do that too.  When I dug out the blocks to start working on them for the UFO finish, I decided that I might like it better if the same fabrics were set together, and decided to make nine patches of the smaller blocks with a narrow sashing between to emphasize the shadow. I got a lot of blocks done but not in time for the March meeting.  Since then though I have assembled twenty-five blocks. Here they are all together:

Each shade of brown with its nine sections ends up around 14″ square. I haven’t sewn the larger blocks together yet. Pretty cool, eh?  The next idea I have is to separate the blocks with a 2″ sashing. Today, I made a few just to see how they look. I think the space between will add a nice contrast to the busy blocks.  Raymond likes them all scrunched together better, so I am giving some more thought to it before I decide which way to go.  My plan is to make this big enough for the master bed which is king sized, and I want us both to like it. Which do you prefer?

I don’t think I will have this done in time for the April meeting either.

 

The other day, I dug out this map of the world panel and made a quick quilt out of it for Project Linus. I probably should have added borders, but then it would have been too  big for the bit of batting I had for it and I would have had to wait to get to the store for more.  It is big enough for a kid as it is, and ‘finished is better than perfect.’

 

Finally, I though I should show you the latest addition to my fancy desk. We added two shelves to the center part that provide a lot more space to store this and that.  I have still been sorting and re-arranging things, but this is the only new thing.

That’s all for now. Happy Day!

Mid February

Well, I let a couple of weeks go by without a note from me. That means this will be a busy post what with all the catching up. Here we go. . .

Easy Street

First up is step four of Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilt Easy Street.  I skipped step three for the moment until I get around to getting a couple of special rulers to make those blocks.

Modern Challenge

Here is a challenge block I made for the Modern Quilt Guild using Madrona Road fabrics. As you can probably tell it is supposed to be a variation on a log cabin block.  Well, this is a rather wonky log cabin, but I kind of like it anyway.

Pizza Box Challenge

We are doing a pizza box challenge at Chattanooga Quilt Guild this year. Each participant put six coordinating fabrics (1 yard each) in a pizza box that will be exchanged every month so that by the end of the year we will have enough blocks made by different people to put into a quit. Our challenge coordinator, Lauren, made up a clever murder mystery to go with the monthly exchange.  The clue for the first block  indicated that the block had to  include a square.

That seemed simple enough. I decided to make a practice block before cutting into anyone’s good fabric and since I had more of the fabrics I sent in my pizza box, I use that to make the first one. My fabrics are mostly red and green and I hope to have a Christmas quilt when the challenge is done. This is paper pieced and from Vol. 1 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks. This block is called, “Happiness in a Block.” I like the name and was happy that it came out to the right size.  The block on the left is from my fabrics and the one on the right is the good one, and I think the second one has better contrast than the first, although I like both of them.

We exchanged boxes again at the February meeting, so after next month’s meeting, I will show you the next one. We got to see all the blocks made before the exchange and it was very exciting. I love this challenge.

More Socks

If I am counting correctly, this is my fourteenth pair of socks since I learned how to knit them a couple of years ago. Wow! I can hardly believe that.  And I have started another pair already. There is something comforting about sitting and knitting, and it makes watching TV feel a little less wasteful.

Sweet Surprises

Week before last, Raymond came home with a couple very cool things and totally surprised me. He had been on his way home from the store and just happened to be driving by a house where they were taking things out to the side of the road. He stopped and talked with the couple and found out that they were moving and couldn’t take everything they had and were setting a few things out for people to take — for free! He had stopped when he saw this cute jewelry cabinet thinking that I could probably find something to put in it.  Wow! This is one of those things that I have secretly coveted for years.  Not particularly for jewelry, but gosh, can’t you just see all those little drawers filled with sewing things? I can. And it’s almost like new. The finish is beautiful, the drawers are lined with dusty rose velvety stuff. Wow!  What a wonderful husband he is.

While chatting with the couple about their upcoming move and all, he mentioned that the only thing that would make the surprise even more perfect was if they were also getting rid of a treadle sewing machine. He was not sure at all why he even said that, but it turns out they did and he got it!

I have been talking about getting one of these for years. My friend Willa has started a treadle collection, and several quilters whose blogs I read love them. They like the  straight stitches they get with a treadle, and the idea that they work when the electricity is down is cool too.  This little  beauty has seen some use, but I think we can get it up and running with a little TLC. It belonged to the woman’s great-grandmother. It came with a belt and one extra foot that I think is some kind of  narrow hemmer. The hand crank turns smoothly, which is a good sign. According to the serial number this was probably made in  1914, which makes it 99 years old. How cool is that! Right after I got it, I sent an email to the Singer Company asking if they had any information on this one and today I got a message back from them. It is a model 127  and was manufactured on August 6, 1914 in Elizabeth, NJ., and I downloaded a free manual from their website. Isn’t that cool!

Studio

On the studio re-do front, I got the file cabinet cleaned out (who needs all those tax return papers anyway) and slid under my desk.  I have some piles of files to go through and put back in the drawers, but there will be plenty of room for my quilting files too.  One day we may get around to painting it white to match everything else, but for now this is fine.

Cuddle Quilts

We had a cuddle quilt workshop at Chattanooga Quilt Guild last Wednesday. The plan was to use three coordinating fabrics to make three different quilts with a nine-patch technique.  I am not sure I like the fabrics I used, but here they are anyway. The print has different colored letter of the alphabet on it. These are just tops — I still have to quilt them.

Birds of a Feather

I also made more progress on my Birds of a Feather quilt. I cut and sewed the borders on.  The next step is to applique some vines all around the center part and add  some leaves. The original quilt has more birds in the border, but I don’t know if I will do that with mine.  I am thinking of making the vine from one of my darker reds so the green leaves will contrast a little.  Seems to me that would look better than all green on the border.

Pushing Up Spring

Here is a blast from the past – Pushing Up Spring – an online block of the month that I started working on a couple of years ago. I dug it out to look at the other day and decided to stitch on a few blocks.  I’ve finished three more just in the last few days.  If you remember, there are sixteen all together so the finish line is in sight. I love these bright colors.

Pot Holders

Finally, I also made a few more pot holders. These are lemon ones.  maybe I will end up with sets that I can use as gifts. I know I don’t need this many.

Hopefully, I will write to you again next week.  Happy stitching!