quilt plans and making lists

A blogging friend who I have recently met and began following at  A Left Handed Quilter posed an interesting question today.  (Her alter ego Quilter BOB has separate blog and has some even more takes on quilting!!  Some that I agree with---a lot!  But I digress.......)

Anyway she asked

If you KNEW that you had only one more day before you died and in that day you could make one more quilt, what quilt would you make?

She named several styles of quilts and oh, there were some good ones to chose from!  I don't think I am what you would consider a MODERN quilter but the reasons/rants about that will wait for another day.  Scrappy, Traditional, more my speed really.

She also wondered if you would take that day to finish up a UFO or start something new.  I thought about it for a bit.  Actually I think about it a lot---no, not the only having one more day to live part but what I want to work on next.  I especially ponder this when I am working something like binding.  (The Row QOV is done but does not look appreciably different than it did  the last time I posted it on the blog but you might check the 2012 finishes for a better picture of it)

 So, even though I stated that I had three bed quilts that I have started and would like to see completed,  vaguely, "sometime this year"  (Popsicle Sticks, My Sunshine and Cheap Trick/Two of a Kind) I selected TWO different projects.  I guess I would have to beg for another day, LOL.

My choice would be to complete my Christmas JOY quilt begun with the Collinsville Rowers as a pass-around quilt. I fell in love with this quilt featured as a series quilt in the Fons and Porter "Love of Quilting" magazine the first time I saw it.  I guess it was quite a popular pattern and they sold out of the magazines it was in as they now sell the pattern as a booklet. Poinsettia row back in Sept. 2007 and then sent it on its merry way.  We had a retreat the following August and the rows were revealed then.  I take it out every now and again but so far it has not been completed.  Basically I need to find a nice Christmas red and a cream or white to make the checkerboard bits between the row elements.

And my other choice would be to make my version of Farmer's Wife Sampler.  I have been living with this quilt in my head for about 6 weeks or more.  I blogged about it in THIS post.

I have been studying the materials from Marti Michell that would allow me to convert the templates from the book into her perfect patchwork sets.  I have been editing out superfluous lines in case I want to foundation piece some of the blocks.  I have been drawing up more blocks in EQ from other sources to use them in my quilt.  I have tinkered with the layout incessantly and will most likely tinker some more.  I have spent a lot of time in BlockBase picking out blocks that I feel look better on point than in the original.  I have dumped the blocks that I would have no interest in making at 12 inches let alone 6 inches as the sampler calls for----too many pieces for me!   I have looking at what other bloggers have done and viewing all kinds of blocks on The Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long on Flickr.  I have joined a yahoo group to get other's input as to how THEY are proceeding with this quilt.  I have considered what fabrics I might use, over and over again.  I have my notebook set up with printouts and sheet protectors ready to go.    I am ready, mentally anyway.

Now I am NOT saying that it will look exactly like this----it is a sketch and what I will follow for the layout PROBABLY.   The quilt requires 111 blocks and I have 176 blocks in my EQ sketchbooks----some are already substitutes for the ones I didn't bother drawing up.  Some others, I like a lot better.   I see a few more that will NOT make the cut or be moved at the very least.   I love baskets and want to include some basket fabrics that my mom, Maggie and Sheila sent me so a few more of them will show up.  I DO like the distribution of color more of less, so may stick to that when actually making the blocks or closely anyway.

As much as I love 30's prints I keep coming back to scrappy.  I could go with Civil War or earlier 1800's repros but I don't think it will work for this.  I have dreams of some day doing a Dear Jane too---start at 6 inch and work down to 4.5 inch??   I do not care for the quilt on the cover----not my palette at all.  I can use my stash for the most part but will probably need some more background lights and blenders but not so dark that I can figure out what to use for sashing.  The sketch is also making it look like I don't have any sashing between the blocks until you blow it up bigger. In the drawing I had three tones of that taupey, golden brown going on.  That part is odd as well since I don't normally care for browns  I tried switching out to shades of green but there is a good bit of green in the blocks so that probably won't work either.  Blue would be out for the same reason.

So back to what my blogging friend asked----if I consider it that important to me, what is stopping me from getting started on this???  Uh, maybe that pile of pro bono quilts in my bedroom and the fact that I need to straighten up the sewing room before I can cut or press or make more of a mess by pulling out fabric bins.    For now, top of the list for me!   There are 12 quilts in there and 10 are mine, 2 are group members.  I make a promise now that once I get say 3 of thm quilted, I will at least cut out the 1st 10 blocks and get started on it anyway.  That would be a terrific reward project.   It will be on-going---many people aim for making two a week and figure on a year long journey.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Followup notes:
My New Balance 606's seem to be working out okay.  Even though I am not diabetic or circulatory impaired (thank heavens!) I got two pair of the socks to try out because they felt a bit thicker than the others.  A large bandaid to my heels is padding the still tender area so that helped too.   Still at 4 laps every other day but I think by Monday I am going to go 5 days out of 7.  It is just 1.1 miles and I don't feel taxed by the activity.  See how 3 days in a row goes first.

The binding on the Row QOV is done as yesterday afternoon.  It does not look appreciably different than it did the last time I posted it on the blog but you might check the 2012 finishes tab for a better picture of it.  I laundered it to get rid of the cat hair and it crinkled up beautifully.  I need to find out what kind of batting the quilt is using as I really like it.  It got a little fluffy around the edges of the quilt after I was done man handling it quilting it---maybe some sort of bonded cotton??

Supposedly there is some rain on the way in this evening.  We got a little over a half inch night before last but remain about 5 inches behind on our rain fall totals for the year.   We are in the 70's today with all that cloud cover and that kept it pleasant for walking.  Trust me, I am not complaining about that after the recent spell of 90's and blazing sun days.  So far the box fans and over head fans are keeping things comfortable in here.  Or at least it is until I decide to do something "stupid" like clean or dust!

I feel like a bit of a jinx today anyway----cleaning might be injurious to my health, at the rate I was going.  Mr. Fix-it told me I was just full of good news when I reported almost simultaneously that 1)  my right turn signal was going off like a hazard light does again and not working on the exterior of the car  2)  the blind I had just raised shirred off completely at the header on two of the three strings.    Fortunately it was just a bulb on the car and Cobb's didn't charge him for it.  The blind?  He bought the wrong size first and then we had to discuss whether the one other the adjacent window was alabaster or white. At my insistence, he got white and it IS a bit lighter in tone.  Why would I have approved alabaster when white was really cream and alabaster was overly tan colored??  Who names these things such weird colors anyway and why do we let them get away with it?  It is up and not going back.  I accept full responsibility for the color variance.  Now remind me what I said when the other one falls down, LOL.

Well, somehow I don't think my sewing room is going to get tidied up or bathroom any cleaner with me pecking on the keyboard.   Thanks for stopping by-------

Collinsville Rowers and rows revealed

A lot of pictures to share for the Rowers retreat. I was in such a hurry to get everything, and me, out the door that I forgot to pack my digital camera. I stopped and bought a disposable camera thinking it was better than nothing. Flash wasn't working. GRRRR. Patti spent some time last night uploading pics to an album to share so that helped. First the group shot---the quilt shop also has custom embroidery machines and did up these shirts for us! Stylin', aren't we?

I got up there about 10 and was home by 4:30 electing not to stay over this year but it sure would have been fun to stay on with group. Joy and I don't see near enough of each other since she moved home to Collinsville. We were missing two of the original rowers this time around. In fact, Patti took a picture of the rocker than Kim sets in to hand quilt, newly recovered with her shirt draped over it. They were going to put a sign on it that said "wish you were here, LOL.

Nessa has a chef cooking now so you order off a menu now. They had a few Greek entrees so I had some yummy moussaka and could have had baklava for dessert had I wanted. I had a cupcake instead as I hauled up half of the Magnolia's Chocolate Cupcakes I made the other day to share. The recipe made two dozen plus some I had to put in a muffin top pan! I would have tried the chocolate buttercream recipe but I swear that the proportion of butter to powdered sugar is not right! It needs tons more from the other recipes I have viewed--like tripled, I'm guessing. I opted for the Fluffy Chocolate Frosting in the Cake Mix Doctor instead.

I got sidetracked and had promised you some row pictures---on with the show!
First, my rows--I had sent along the Fon's and Porter booklet for "Christmas Joy" but I certainly did expect the girls to replicate the rows. I am thrilled that they did but it was not mandatory. Two people teamed up for the baskets so they are still loose. One person is a new quilter and opted out. I have not decided if I want to do all the red and white checkboard sashing shown on the pattern as I have some nice Jinny Beyer border fabric in my stash that might work out well. (I made the Poinsettia row )


Next up, Betsy's rows with Betsy telling the story behind the blocks she made---how they managed to wind up in quilters jail. The row I made was in the last post and was not attached to the body of the quilt. Betsy said it will probably be added just before the 2nd row of Elvis blocks since that will balance the quilt better.

Oh, behind the quilts you will spot some Mariner's Compass blocks that some of the group had been doing as a Block of the Month with the patterns coming from Brenda Henning's book. I'll share that picture next time probably with a link to the book as I don't know the name of it at the moment.


Teresa's Christmas rows finished a little long so the girls were having a hard time holding it and had to do it by halves. I pieced the row at the top--trees on both ends and foundation piecing out the letters for "Merry Christmas" The girl loves red, she says! Here's the top part then in pic one and the lower half follows---



Next up Joy's heart rows--she did not necessarily want just a red and pink row that screamed Valentine's Day so you see multicolored hearts. The row I did is the one that Debora is pointing to above the blocks that used heart fabric.


One of the three fall themed quilts--this one is Kim's and will be shown in two sections again. I made the turkey row in this one using an old pattern from Country Threads which I modified so I could foundation piece it. Patty, her SIL had told me this was a good choice because their husband's hunt turkey.


This one is Debora's--and it might seem like deja vu to you as three of the girls used the same center sections but each one did turn out differently. I did the Ozark Maple Leaf row. The turkey block was still in progress but the maker was intent on getting it done by retreat's end if her machine would just behave itself!



Here is Patty's--again in sections. To balance the quilt it was thought best to not attach the rows so the last four rows are shown in the 2nd shot. I did the row of pieced leaves, using a pattern from Judy Martin's Creative Pattern book and modifying it for foundation piecing. I am being too lazy to go get the book but I think it was called Autumn Whisper or some such thing.



And lastly, here is Vangie's quilt with a Mardi Gras to St. Pat's theme. I did the spiky stars using the fabrics that she had included in the pass around box.



I spent my time at the retreat tracing off the Birdbrain Designs "Here Comes Santa" (link in the previous post) and finished up the job except for the itty bitty cornerstone bits once I got home. I need another pigma pen before I attempt to finish up as I mushed down a bit too much to make a fine enough line. I would rather start stitching anyway! I did enough last night to realize that I would prefer NOT using the #8 perle cotton and removed what I put in. I love the IDEA of it but IMHO it looks too thick for what will be fine detail areas of the designs, especially the aforementioned cornerstones. I'll start over with two strands of embroidery floss in the same color DMC #498 in turkey red. I'll be happier with the end result, I know.

Other than that they are going a different format for next year: 16 inch blocks, how many you make depends on how many want to participate, no mailing or delivering blocks till next August. I am resisting for now, LOL. I am an original rower so they won't kick me out of the group if I don't want to do this. For now I am sticking to my guns about no deadline work.

I stubbed the snot out of my 5th digit left foot this morning when I banged into the quilt rack---it bruised and puffed up in to time. YEOWW! I think Skyler entered into the equation a bit as I was trying to avoid stepping on him but I am not telling DJ that part. He ( Skyler not DJ) has been getting in trouble lately for hopping up and running on the pass through plus the plant in the living room has been getting some unneeded kitty attention. Cats will be cats! Well, no getting walking shoes on to walk today though we have less humid and much welcomed cooler temps this morning. Guess I will just have to stay home and stitch a bit---oh darn!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend in whatever you chose to do---

Happy dancing! I am done with my part of the row robin and ready to mail as soon as the local post office opens today. As planned I finished piecing the three blocks that remained on Wednesday. Thursday, I concentrated on appliquing down the stems, leaves and the flower centers. I decided to buttonhole stitch around the flower centers with two strands of floss though as I thought it added a bit of texture to the Poinsettia centers.

I love the piece of pine needle fabric I found for the setting triangles. A few weeks ago Judy L mentioned an online shop that specialized in Christmas fabrics called the Christmas Cloth Store . Thanks, Judy! Because I was not sure that I had enough of what I thought I might use in my stash, I went over posthaste to check it out. The pattern showed a warm brown tone piece but I wasn't so crazy about that idea. I found some snowflake stuff that might work with my bluework snowmen blocks and this Maywood "Ho, Ho, Ho Pine Needles" in gold. It seemed to be the perfect choice with the block background fabric I had used. That is some of the yardage I got at the retreat in August, the red a piece from the yard sale earlier this month and the green, a Debbie Mumm from my stash that I probably had purchased for some fall raffle blocks. Not much stash busting there but at least some of it got used, if not used up.

My row measures 72.5 inches across so it was hard to get a good shot of it from across the room. I knew better than to ask DJ to hold it up though unless it was held sideways or something, LOL. But there it is........

So what do I want to work on today? HMMMM. I have 6 donation tops pinned but there is not a rush on any of them. I promised myself that I would work on something of my own for a change. Maybe some more 4 patch posie blocks?? Or that friendship star that I had been working on months ago and had to set aside--on my top ten list for all these months. So far back that I cannot even find it to refer back to?? No shortage of things I could sew or finish up. But you know what I really feel like doing today? Hand quilting some hearts on the Joanne BOM--at least for a little while.

I had to laugh at Pippi last night. I was working on the row so needed the pressing surface for something other than her pathway to the water bowl. She was just standing and appeared to be looking for something. Hey, there was no quilt for her to sit/lay on! As soon as I laid one down she was snuggling down and keeping me company. Is she spoiled or what?

Other than running a few errands yesterday, my morning walk and going back to the hairdresser to get the "Hooty Owl" look trimmed out from above my ears that is about it around here. It is probably too short now but DJ thought it looks better without the tufts. I was beginning to regret ever getting it cut in the first place so this IS an improvement.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend----