Happy New Year 2011

Another year has simply flown by, but what a good year it was. I had the last two weeks off from work, and there was a lot to do at home. Cooking, baking, candy making, and of course some quilting. I raced to finish quilting and bind the two Tom's t-shirt quilts made for my sister and Tom's daughter Jan. Jeanne got hers last Wednesday; she got first choice. I'll now add the label to Jan's and bring it back to St. Louis when Jan is also in town so she can have hers. Here they are:

Jan's quilt

Jeanne's quilt

I simply meandered the quilting all over in loops.

So good to have these done. They were fun to design and relatively quick to quilt.

Now on to other projects. I spent some time adding the fusible black bias to the Celtic Cat wall hanging. Still need to outline the cats on that one. Maybe tonight. I'll show that soon. I also need to spend some time reorganizing the holiday storage in the basement, an annual event for me. We took down all the Christmas decorations New Year's Day, but I didn't put them away yet. They are all over the basement, spilling over into my sewing area, on purpose. One sure way I'll put them away sooner rather than later. Then perhaps I should spend some time cleaning up the sewing space? I still have some select non-quilt items taking up floor space that I could photograph and put on Craig's list for sale.

That's it for now. No 2011 resolutions to post. I'm just going to work my way down that UFO list I have and make every effort to keep quilting time on my weekly list of things to do.

Love making progress

It often takes a retreat weekend or a very determined effort to carve out 30 minutes here and there over a week or so to see me make progress. I had the former although the weekend was a tad short. Couldn't get there until 5:00 on Friday evening, and left early on Sunday to get home before a winter storm worsened with high winds. But I'll take what I can get.

Friday night I warmed up with some small projects, like laying out and pressing the Celtic Cat hanging. Alas not enough black fusible 'leading' to do the seams, and the store adjoining the retreat center did not have the plain black.  Saturday I put the major elements together for my Gaggy 30's bed top. Here it is so far:

There are white panels to each side of the center 'window' and I may add more white all around to get it to twin bed size. Then I'll add some of those rose type of flowers with vines and leaves going up each side of white and overlapping some of the top arch window. This is the design I wanted, and now it will serve double duty in hiding some of the piecing patching I had to do to get that arch to fit level on the body.

I am really liking this. While it is the dreaded 30's fabric, at least they aren't the overly sweet prints.

Then my other big project I did on retreat focused on the Tom's t's quilts. One I machine quilted with 'e's and o's' and the other I pin basted. Now to tackle the binding on the former (with label) and the quilting on the latter. Good thing there is a holiday vacation in the offing.

Photos are here

I finally snapped some photos of the two UFOs I finished in November. Here is the final Kitty in the Corner wall quilt, about 35" square. I took the time to try some freehand feathering in the center and border. I didn't like the way the corners turn on the small white outer border. I see these kinds of projects I do for myself as times to experiment. Sometimes I'm pleased (the quilting) but other times not so much.

Sorry for the funky angle. It's on my wall at work and it doesn't hang the best floating away from the wall.

Then here are two pictures of the purse I did. I'll need to post the pattern source later. I love the light weight feel, and no I didn't jettison extra stuff when I switched from my canvas purse to this one. It has the necessary outside pocket for my phone and everyday key, and look-there is an interior zippered pocket too! Not shown are a series of smaller open pockets on the other side of the interior. I'm going to like this purse. Now that it is done, I'll use if for a couple of months and then decide how to tailor it for a spring look. Another outside pocket? Sturdier handles? Firmer bottom (can I have that on the purse and myself please)?

Ok-that's it for now. I'll take an in-progress photo of the Celtic Cat quilt soon and report back. Sometime in here I need to attend to holiday decorations. It is December 1 and we have a couple of items to hang that count down the days. And then there are cookies to plan for and bake! Not to mention making time to satisfy the quilt muse in me. Sure will be good to have my DD on holiday break in just 16 days because then my evening homework on-call time will be suspended. Unfortunately that is just too late if we want to get in the holiday spirit.

Another month gone by-where are the photos!

Yes, it is the end of November, and while I've carved out time to finish two UFOs, I still don't have the photos to prove it. The kitty in the corner quilt is done. Then I made a new purse, from great pinkish/brown fabrics that look a bit wild for me. This mostly accomplished before Thanksgiving, which has come and gone. That long weekend allowed me to get the easy tree up and decorated in the foyer, but then I chose to ignore the family tree job. Just preferred to escape to sewing.

What was done was the selection of fabrics for the Celtic Cat wallhanging, and I've gotten most of that laid out with fusible. Need to still add some border leaves. I'll give that a good press in coming days and it will go with me for a Danville retreat on the 10th. I'll add the fusible 'leading' to it while there and see if I can get it layered and quilted on the leading strips.

The other overdue task was to spray baste one of the t-shirt quilts. I thought this type of basting would be a breeze and simplify the basting. It did not, and I think I'll leave that type of basting to small projects only in the future. I'll go ahead and pin baste the second t-shirt quilt I want to do when I get to Danville.

So far my retreat projects will be the Celtic cat project (till I'm tired of that), then some t-shirt quilt quilting (till I'm tired of that), and then I'll also bring that batik bubbles on strips quilt that needs the bubbles sewn down. For added interest I'll also bring those two mystery round robbin blocks that require the overdue 3" border and the corner set pieces. I'll see if I can catch up on those projects.

Of course this may change if I get the chance to look through other UFOs to see if there are any holiday themed projects that should demand my attention. Maybe put together some poster board photo ornaments? I'm years behind on those. Guess that would require me getting some photos printed too. I'll see.

I plan to take that day off from work, pack, and then travel first to Paris to shop at the LQS. Then I can head north to Danville by dinner time and check into the center. Maybe grab the chance to shop a bit there too?

I'm looking forward to the time away. December will fly by at the rate this year has gon.e

Blog inspiration

So I'm following about a dozen blogs and getting inspiration from all, especially the non-quilting ones. I'm realizing that even without a photo, it is good to post more often to this blog. I'm also on facebook, but I don't like to post there-my thoughts of the moment seem too personal to put there, and I'm so conscious of the wide variety of possible viewers-quilt buddies, daughters, family....

Yet, I need to keep my posting semi-quilt related here, right?

So tonight is our guild's business meeting, and a board meeting before that, so I need to go home early to make sure a dinner is at least planned for DD and DH. Plus I need to gather up my guild bag and nametag since I didn't remember to do that last night. I don't have much business to present and intend to have others on my program committee do the talking tonight. That's kind of nice.

Laziness or really busy? Which excuse to use when I admit here, now, that no quilting related progress made this week, since Sunday that is. At least I worked on some projects Sunday with my small group. So this weekend I wish to:

Cut all the remaining parts for that purse

1. Hand applique the circles I have pinned in place
2. Machine quilt the borders on Kitty in the Corner
3. Perchance, even cut and sew on the binding for #3?

Non-quilting tasks?

1. Trouble shoot (and repair?) the non-functioning closet light for DD
2. Trouble shoot (and repair?) the broken garage side door jamb
3. Shop for a new chest freezer and get that installed. I'll leave dealing with the old freezer for Monday

That's it for now.

How to get back into the quilting swing of things

I really have been sewing-more than the blog or I recognize. The new school year started about six weeks back, and I knew there would be homework nights with my DD. So I visited my quilting space and located the UFOs I wanted to work on as part of a guild challenge for the next year, through August 2011. Then I figured out the baby steps those projects have that would need smaller time chunks. It helped that I've set up an old DVD player in my sewing space, and I'm working my way through the Harry Potter movies in advance of movie #7 coming out soon.

So here's my progress so far:

• The kitty in the corner hanging from a previous post: the center is quilted (two 1 hour evenings) and the background around the kitties is quilted (two 1 hour evenings).
• I have cut and pieced the backgrounds for the Tom's t-shirt quilts-I even have the batting bought. (four 30 minute evenings) Layering comes once I have the kitty cat quilt done. I'll use fusible spray.
• The paper pieced flowers for the gaggy 30s quilt are done (two Saturday afternoons-including that recent retreat)
• The black yo-yo flower centers were done (three 30 minute evening sessions)
• Took a Becky Goldsmith class (spent two days as her hostess and pupil), and finished 3 of the 4 class projects. I'll get the circles done soon.

So in the past 6 weeks, I've worked through 15 separate sewing room visits, not to mention making great strides with an antique needlepoint project I'm determined to have done by next summer's end. I have set aside Sunday afternoon to go sew with buddies, so that will be productive time. If the weather is good, I may take one of those t-shirt quilts outside and do the spray basting. We suspect the spray bothers my DD, even though I don't think the smell is overwhelming. So that is better done outside.


I'll need to get the gaggy 30's quilt back on the wall soon to make sure I'm making that flower section and side panels the correct sizes. I'll take pics and post soon. (Yeah, famous last words!)

Weekend here I come

I've been so tired all week. This is greatly due to the retreat last week, when I delighted in shorting myself on restful sleep so I could sew more. I did get to bed around 11:30 at night, but then chose to read a murder mystery till way too late in the morning. Such a treat, only because I could do this without the guilt of keeping DH awake. Then there was no rest for the weary, since once I was home, DD has needed some support all week in the evening with writing, math, or physics. Often until 11:30. And then up again by 6:30. Yikes, this boils down to no chance of me sewing now for FIVE whole days. This is serious withdrawal after that intensive retreat.

So DD has a cross country meet out of town tomorrow. She is out by 6:30 am. I will see her out the door, and then nap. Yipee!! Maybe I'll have a four hour stretch after said nap where I can make it to the machine and put together the backing for one or two of the Tom's t's quilts. Maybe even get one spray basted.

I put together a rather long UFO list for myself as part of our guild challenge. I would need to quilt a quilt every 6-8 weeks for the next year to do half of what I want to do. I'm going to make a serious effort to see if this is possible.