One week later..........

I sure didn't mean for a whole week to go by without posting.  I meant to post yesterday as a matter of fact and even had a couple picture to share but somehow it didn't happen, LOL.  Thunderstorms and having to power down the computer may have had something to do it with it.

 I have finished up the piecing on HO HO HO blog hop project 2 now and went over to the church meeting place to pin both one and two fairly early on Friday morning.  I was home in time for lunch which was all DJ was concerned about.  Rather than set up to start quilting, I finished up the binding on the remaining two sides of this Tons of Black Challenge quilt from last year.   Now it is ready to be counted for the guild obligation but I am allowed to donated it for the Bama Belles cause too.  I am thinking that this might be a good one for the Ogden House project that my friend Gene Black headed up last year provided they are doing it again this year.  You can read about the efforts HERE.

I can't show you the other stuff so this will have to do!  Pattern Source:  Quilting Assistant Mock Trip Around the World.  I would do another of these in a heart beat as the blocks can be arranged just about any way but I like this medallion style one probably the best.  The website gives you a couple of other ideas but I came up with a few others.  See my past post HERE for that.

I am also considering making a pillow case/gift bag for projects 1 and 2 but I have never done one of those roll up type deals.  I mentioned that to my friend Norma yesterday but I had a kit that I had one at guild to practice on first.   I said I would probably have to watch a video first to get through the process---or holler for Jane to help me, LOL.  She has made quite a few of them so I knew where to turn.  Norma came up with a couple of links before I had a chance to google it.

Missouri Star Quilt Company has one that she finished up the interior seams on the serger found HERE.  Robin Gallagher of Robin Quilts, Etc. also has a video for the pillow case but uses a french seam on the remaining two sides  HERE.   I recently said that I would like to have a basic serger and this would have been a good chance to use one.  I did the french seams BUT see how much off I am where this band meets?  Actually I think it is my fault for not re-cutting the strip in the kit.  The quilt shop tears their fabric.  I pressed it is half as instructed but there are spots where it is about an 1/8 of an inch off in the width.  I know because 1) I can see it is NOT even and 2) I measured it after the fact. 

Robin said to seam it on the other two sides, like an L, at first a quarter inch seam sewing with wrong sides together  and then turning it and doing a 1/2 inch seam.  to encase the raw edges.  I know how to do french seams from the old garment sewing days.  That just made for a big blob in the corner that I ended up clipping anyway.  I should have done it one seam at a time and it might have been easier to press it too.  Oh well, this was a "try it and learn" endeavor.  I know what I would do differently next time.

It is sort of cute though, isn't it?  Ballerina mice.  Who knew?   If they are still wanting these at guild I may donate it.  If not, maybe we can do a few more and send them with our quilts when we donate them down the line.   OR I might just use it myself, LOL.  Probably not. 

Other than that I did a bit of research for a hexagon idea I have for the late August hop.  I need to know how big it might finish so I  have cut something out to try my theory.  This is a case of combining a few things from a few sources to get the result I THINK I want.  It may not work but then again, it just might, LOL. 

Here we go again with the thunder bumpers and it is pouring down rain!  Same thing happened yesterday and we had two inches fall in a very short time.  Skyler has seen enough and is heading for his hiding spot under my bed!  Thankfully, I had run the grocery errands before this came blowing in.   I had planned on quilting today but that may need to wait till things calm down a bit in the weather department.  I'll swap out machines anyway.  Plus there is a whole boatload of binding to press as well. 

Hope you are having a good weekend in whatever you have chosen to do----

finished to flimsy

As planned I finished up my "Tons of Black" Challenge piece yesterday afternoon.  I'm pleased with how it turned out.  Good size.  May work for a guy as I don't think the grayish green looks girl-y though it is a vine print.

I spent part of  last evening knitting---making some progress on this latest hat, playing with the double point needles.  Ordinarily I would not worry so much about capping the tips but I am still afraid the stitches might slip off the back end of the needle.  I just move them as I knit around and around.   I've got an inch or so to go before I begin the decrease.  I'm doing to try it on the circulars next, practicing what I picked up on the video links I posted recently.  Like the blue color??  Uh, make that "shaded dusk"

Today was Bama Belles day---the weather was kind of miserable--cold and wet but thankfully the rain seemed to slow down to that misty stuff when we had to haul things in from the car.  I'll report on that later as we had a bunch of quilts turned in at the meeting.  I did a little bit of sewing on the Criss Cross  pro bono top I had been working on at the Friendship Quilters sew-in.  Initially I had planned on putting the binding on my Christmas Patience Corner but I didn't want to be hauling that around in the rain.  It was already in the car, the car is NOT the pampered princess that gets to sit in the covered car port, not worth getting it wet when I can do it here at home.

Aline will have one for me to quilt but it was short backing fabric when the girls pinned it today.  Once that is straightened out, she'll bring it by.

So stay tuned---pics in a day or two!  You know where to find me----------

Monday check in

I have to laugh at Skyler.  First he rousts me from bed anytime from 0545 to 0630 usually insisting that we go to the kitchen to get his treat bite.  The heck with the crunchies since he ate those all up before he got me up.  Pony up with the good stuff, Mom.

So I head back to the bedroom to get dressed and make the bed and look who crawls back in the sack?  (He was sleeping till I got out the camera and gave him some pets).  Bed is still not made and I'm still not dressed as I'm blogging, LOL.   Pretty chilly this morning so I am debating what to put on more than anything.

Well, how do you follow up a great week of sewing with your buds?  I don't know that you can necessarily. Yesterday I decided to not even start up the machine.   I pulled out my Halloween blackwork piece and later the hat I had started knitting while Cindy was here.  She makes hats and mittens for kids in need at the schools near her as an on-going project.  When she pulled out her knitting needles on Monday evening, I asked her how many stitches to cast on and pulled out a skein of yarn I had tucked up in the closet.  Only thing was I misunderstood---60 stitches if I used two strands which I wasn't.   I got a good bit of it done and when I got the email with written out instructions, it said 70 stitches for a single strand.  OOPS!  I ripped it all out and started over while I was watching TV on Thursday evening.  At this point I am a few rows over where I was on Monday night, LOL.

 I had sent some yarn from a project I had started and supply of knitting needles that she can use or give away as she sees fit to any knitting helpers she may have.  I only saved my double points and the sizes I had below 5 to over 13.  You see, I have a wonderful set of circular needles from Denise interchangeable knitting needles that my parents gave me back in high school.   One of the best presents, I have gotten in terms of how much it has been used over the years and enjoyed.  Oh, I have added a couple extra needle tips and more lengths of cable and buttons in recent years now that they have an online presence.  It is an interesting story of how the present owners took over the business---satisfied customers like me but could not find the product to order sets for their children.  When they did locate them, the originators were ready to retire and sell the business.  A portion of their sales goes to breast cancer research too.  I see that they even have a crochet set now---how cool is that?

I finished off the evening by typing up the minutes for Friendship Quilters.  Jackie, our newsletter gal put a bee in my bonnet and needed the materials ASAP.  I really should do the whole job within days of the meeting as the notes get cold.  Normally I type up the show and tell list because I know Beth will be posting the pictures from the meeting to a Facebook album.  I have to write the info down anyway for the minutes so I always send her THAT portion within 24 hrs of the meeting.  Minutes?  Naw, got other things to do, LOL.

Plans for the day?  Get my bed made and get dressed!  Only half kidding there.  I could happily keep knitting and/or embroidering but other things have been on the back burner this past week.

First, my Bama Belles "Tons of Black" challenge will need to be at least pieced by our December meeting.  Cindy had gone through her stash and pulled some fabrics she did not wish to work with for the Belles---for piecing or backs, however we saw fit.  I got to go through it first being as we are long time pals.  I spotted that dusty teal piece and immediately thought of the TOB challenge.

Bev had donated about 20 yards of that black---well, I call it black but actually it is more like a directional dark gray tone on tone.   That is a lot of fabric to find a use for so it became a challenge piece.  Beverly and Lois, I know have tops done already---even pinned and ready to quilt them.  Me?  I know what I want to do and have all along it was just which piece of contrast and background would make the cut.  I had raided my mom's stash, with her permission, when I was "home" in June.    That is where the black on white/cream came from.  The pattern is Mock Trip Around the World from quilting assistant.   My FAB pal Pat has made several of these and I have loved  them in the various colorways she has done up.  HERE  is a one such version showing her quilting choice.  Well done, Pat!   I almost emailed you to see what size blocks you normally chose and how many strips as my brain was a little slow to get going in the math area this morning.  I drew it up in EQ just to get things clear in my head.  Mine will finish at 7.5 inches, 48 blocks in a 6 x 8 set to get that medallion effect.  Without borders, 45 x 60 which is around the WTIL range.

 Secondly, I also want to cut these two projects out.  I have spoken of them before.  Joined at the Hip Button Up  #BU 19 Happy Halloween and the Harvest Door Banner from their book Folk Art Favorites that I will bump a tad in width so it will cover the Button Up Base.  Either of them are "reward projects".  I have completed all that quilting recently and made two more pro bono tops so I am due!!  Past due.  Of course the Halloween deal would just be ready for hanging NEXT year but the Harvest one could go most of the fall, when I didn't hang the turkey featured on the "Give Thanks"

And then there is this---Farmer's Wife Inspired Sampler though there is a whole 20 qt tote of fabric stored elsewhere.  I want to get the next batch cut out--25 more and I will be at the half way point.  If those little cuties are prepped and ready to go I am more apt to stay focused and sew a couple each week or however my heart leads at the time.  Kitted is always better, in my book, than thinking about cutting them.  Just do it!

Then too Christmas is coming.  Which of the holiday projects might capture my attention?     Maybe make more of the blocks for that long awaited Oxmoor House project?  Sash that Christmas JOY?  Make Allison a tree skirt?  HMMMM  finish the binding on my Twister wreath might be a start!

I already know that DJ wants us to go downtown to complete some papers at the tax office and has offered lunch out.  He asked me last week when I was trying to sew between the two sew-in dates and I said any day THIS week would be fine.  Maybe a stop at the library as well.  Best get off the computer and get to cutting and playing with fabric!

And sew it goes-------

quilting plans

So far I have not sewn, cut or quilted anything and may not as I am trying to get the car packed up for tomorrow's meeting. Always seems like half my house goes with me, LOL.

But I always have some thoughts about what I want to do next when it comes to sewing. The Belles will be having a sew-in day on the 4th Tuesday in April. I don't know that we are going to do a group block this time or not. Some have expressed interest in doing a Jelly Roll 1600. I also haven't decided exactly what we will do for a challenge this year but we have boatloads of a black fabric in the donation bin.

I would love to make a Mock Trip Around the World like my friend Pat of Bell Creek Quilts makes.  HERE is an example of one she has made.  Could you not see using that black with a bright color of your choice to make a quilt like this?  The blocks are strip pieced using a pattern from Quilt Assistant called Mock Trip Around the World.   Easy block really that goes together quickly once the strip sets are complete.   I would love to see what we would come up with different fabric choices! 

I said I would like to make one---well it turns out I already have in the past but used a different set.  This is on point, called Kris's Three Patch and was featured in Trudie Hughes Template-Free Quiltmaking way back when.  I don't have a decent picture of it but drew it up in EQ so I could show Pat.  I used colors very similar to this for the one I really made.  Not that she would necessarily want to try it since it is on point and all  but another set.  How different it looks!  Sheila suggested to me in a recent email that gave it more of a Boston Commons feel than a Trip Around the World.   I believe she hit the nail on the head!

I have a few things to take care of here at home, the stuff that doesn't get done when you are in the throes of a quilting, sewing blitz really.  Hope you have a good day in whatever you chose to do.