WIP Weds

Actually I am not all that sure if this will BE a WIP project today.  I am proud to announce that I did get the last 5 blocks that remained to be done quilted yesterday.  It was no easy task either since I do not free motion (rarely) and I stitch in the ditch on a domestic machine, my old trusty Viking 500.  Definitely a two ibuprofen night after wrestling this thing around.  All that might get done is to quilt a line under the little flap of red.

Still, I am happy that I got this moved forward.  The borders still need to be done, of course.  I would dearly love to hand quilt it but I DO want this thing finished and off the UFO "list".  I have used one of the Quilter's Dream poly in low loft in this thing and I honestly do not recall if it recommended for hand quilting.  That is a definite consideration before I put the time into it.

If I am going to do this on the machine then I need a cable with a fairly gentle curve.  The braid will work better than the egg and dart.   The dark fabric will make it harder to mark and then to see the marks.   I am debating about marking it on tissue paper or seeing if they have this made up in Borders Made Easy.   I have used  it in the past on smaller projects. I know you don't want the adhesive on the quilt for long. It is messy to get the paper off no matter which paper stuff you use too.  Then too, you have to be very careful about the safety pins underneath.  Ask me how I know?  Will the standard blue wash out markers "Mark Be Gone" work?  Looks like but I will need a couple more as the one I have is a bit dry and the tip blunter than it should be.  I see a Hobby Lobby run on the horizon after lunch.  I need a couple yards of white on white for another project too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah---I know you are supposed to mark these before you pin then.  The batting is pretty flat so I will probably be okay.

And sew it goes at my house-------marking, not quilting for today.

Another one done! edited

GORDIAN KNOT 1
Designed by Mary Whitehead but piecing instructions written up and class given by Nancy Allain
Completed the top on March 1, 2011 and officially finished November 28, 2011.

It just fits the rod above my bed!  So far Skyler has not noticed the change out of the quilts and tried to climb in behind it, LOL.

Today I quilt on that big monster so wish me luck. 

Edited note:  This was later donated to WTIL in the fall of 2012.  Sometimes you just made quilts to try a technique but that doesn't mean they have to continue to live at your house.

checking in Monday

 I have another finish to report.  Woohoo!  Merry Christmas BU #21 is ready to hang when I am ready to decorate---another week away anyway.

I've been binding like crazy this past weekend.  I thought that I would get at those 5 blocks in the long lagging bed sized Pioneer Plus Sampler today but I am backing off that.  I only have one more quilt to bind (Gordian Knot 1) and I want that decked cleared rather than having it hanging over my head.  It needs to be  done by the Friendship Quilter's Christmas luncheon on Dec. 9th.  I would have plenty of time except for the other things I would like to have done first, LOL.  What's another day at this juncture?

DJ has been scouring the ads for months now in an effort to replace our microwave.  Our old one had a  light that no longer worked and the 1 button had given up the ghost.  You can live with some of that but not if you need a power level 1 or want to stand there and baby sit the thing to avoid overheating whatever it was you stuck in there.

My criteria was a 15 inch diameter turntable and a digital dial.  I didn't really want stainless steel either.  I had other errands of my own to run.  Also I had to be home by a certain time since someone was dropping by.  He could either wait for me or go check it out himself.   He got home 5 minutes after me.  This was marked down 50 bucks and he got an additional amount knocked off with a rewards card sign up.  Of course, I will need to read up before I can operate it!  Apparently you can code in frozen convenience foods in some manner and it automatically sets or some such thing?  Not that it applies much to us.

It is a gloomy, damp day---still raining too.  We have about 3.5 inches in our gauge since yesterday. I was awake a good bit of the night and it sounded like it was pouring and windy.  Today I see that a good many of the trees have lost their leaves but not necessarily the underbrush.  Dismal, dismal day with some remote snow possibilities in our area tonight.  The temps will have to drop from the mid to mid 40s for that to happen though.

So here we have Skyler snug as bug in his little kitty cube.  He will pay attention to this for a few days and then I'll have to put it up once the novelty wears off.  He will run past it, not through it when we play.  I don't suppose that we people are much different in that regard.   Things become part of the landscape if they sit long enough.

About time to feed the boys so off I go.  I'll hopefully have another finish to share in the next day or so.  The Closer is back tonight so I know I won't be working past 8 CST, LOL.

a finish

Woohoo!  A finish this morning.  Pattern source:  Nancy Halvorsen "In Seasons".  This officially completes the series of 4 quilt-lets.

I was determined to get this done so it could hang at least a few days until I get the urge to do the Christmas decorating.  Normally I wait till we are about a week into December and then take then down after New Year's Day.

My plan for the day is to quilt the Merry Christmas "Charley Brown looking tree"  Button  Up next.  It's all marked and ready to roll.  Hanging loops, binding, label are all ready too.  Hopefully THAT hand finishing will be done when I decide to hang the Christmas pieces. But for now I will re-hang and enjoy the "I Love My Cat" that Pat made for my bday----too cute!

And speaking of cats,  I have one patiently sitting on the desk next to the keyboard and waiting for me to walk out with him to the kitchen for a taste of Fancy Feast.  Real turkey, he wouldn't touch but give him some foul smelling salmon stuff and he's in!  LOL.

Have a great day in whatever you chose to do.  You know where to find me--------

Plans for 2012

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to my USA readers! And Happy Birthday to my dear friend Norma! We FABS will celebrate it together down the line---once the holiday hubbub passes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was just updating my UFO tab this morning as I knew that I had not included 3 half started row quilts.  I knew that my languishing Oxmoor House quilt has GOT to go on the top of the list.  I have re-designed this thing twice,  3 times if you count the version I finished up for Betsy.   I have been talking about it for years!

I came close in late 2010 when I printed off the small log cabin blocks to foundation piece.  I've even got a small basket with fabrics pulled for it!



While I want to continue to work on the Button Up pieces in the coming year, I also want this quilt moved forward.  Put up or shut up, right?

I've got plenty of other tops to finish, to quilt, to start even for this that and the other thing---and those will or won't get done right away.  I've got all year.  You know me, I am all over the place sometimes but when I have a deadline or a clear goal I  usually get it done.   Now it is in writing and I am holding myself accountable.  It may not be quilted but it will be pieced by this time next year if I have to trip over the Christmas fabric bin for months..

Oops, just thought of another row thing to add to the tab but it is QOV from donated strips so no wonder it did not spring to mind.  Off I go to edit.

WIP Weds

Yesterday was essentially prepping and pinning day though I did take apart a small wall hanging to re-stitch it and prep it as well.

That gives me three small pieces to quilt---Autumn and Merry Christmas included in that count.

Also in this stack is my Gordian Knot that needs the binding finished.  Quilt up those small ones and the binding stack will get even bigger, LOL.  The black "cosmetic" case is what I keep my hand work/quilting supplies in for quick and easy retrieval.

Then there is the blue backed piece on the bottom, the quilt that keeps me from ever being caught up.  Yeah, I know it is only an illusion even if it were finished as I still have umpteen flimsies to deal with.  It is my Pioneer Sampler and this post is probably the last time it was seen on this blog opened full out.  Oh there might be one with Pippi sitting on it while I was trying to quilt it but hard to be sure.  The posts before that show the blocks close up.  The quilt was started back in 2005 (probably) when I did a Block of the Month of the blocks in an old Eleanor Burns book at the long gone quilt shop in Pell City.  The book only had 12 blocks and I made 30.  More than 30 actually, as some were rejects.  I am quilting this one in the ditch on the DSM which wasn't too much trouble till I got to the quilt's dead center.  I am bound and determined I will NOT start off with that one still on my list.  Not if I can help it.  I do have Cher's challenge and Norma's FAB present to do and that will take some time but I think it is possible.

I believe I need to make a UFO tab on the blog that will serve as a prompt this next year to get some of these long standing things dealt with.  Call it a visual reminder.

Let me wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.  It will be a quiet one for DJ and I.  We aren't going anywhere and we are not sharing a meal with anyone.  Low key.  Preparations today were minor.  I still had some homemade cranberry relish in the freezer from the last time I made it.  I made a butternut squash pie that I pulled from the oven at lunch time.  I had just a hair less than the 2 cups of pulp that I needed in the freezer so augmented it with a tad of pumpkin.  I'll put the turkey breast in the crockpot first thing in the morning and the side dishes won't be anything major.   Just another day with more food than usual, LOL. 

Now I am off to set up to quilt---see how far I get on something on top of the armoire. 

Not a design wall but about a quilt

Normally this would be a Design Wall Monday post. My Autumn In Seasons wall hanging is up there---and you just saw it although perhaps without its border. I also showed you my very recent finish on the Joined at the Hip Merry Christmas tree.

I did NOTHING on my creative to do list from yesterday. Instead I traded one machine for another---computer for the sewing machine or hand work. I took a note out my pal Norma's book and added tabbed pages to my blog for 2011 finishes, 2011 flimsies and 2008-2010 quilt files. The captions and quilt descriptions were a bit time consuming and I just gave up on the old files, LOL.  I figure you don't really want to see all the pro bono quilts from 1999-2007 if indeed, I could even find the files since the computer crashed along about 08.

So what am I going to blog about today?   Well, I would like to follow up on a post from back in September found HERE.   I had been to a sew-in date with the Friendship Quilters group in Pell City.  Betsy, Jane, Aline and I went from Calhoun County.     I was sewing so I picked a spot at a table with a lady named Mary.  I will include a portion of the note I had posted as background and it will explain what you are looking at here.

"Recently I had sent a good sized box of abandoned blocks to a guild member in response to a need for quilts in the Shoal Creek area of Alabama where there was significant tornado damage this spring. The lady I sent them to was my table mate today---in fact, Mary was quilting on her half of the table one.that will go to a young person."

"Mary pointed out a member of her small quilt group who had put a good many of those abandoned blocks into a top at the sew-in. She was preparing to put on the outer border when I arrived. The woman wondered if I had any information about who made the blocks. She knew she or her sister had made some of them. (  See the amended note below) I could point out the ones my mom or I had made fairly easily. ...............I went off without my camera--dang it! I'll ask Mary to have the other gal take a picture of it if she can. It made a pretty quilt for someone and will find a good use NOT hiding in my closet waiting for a "some day" to come along. "

I know now that the woman who was putting the quilt together is named Jill.  She joined the Friendship Quilters after the sew-in---or at least that is my understanding.  I asked her at the last meeting if she had any pictures of the quilt . Jill obliged by emailing them to me. and  The two previous shots showed some of the closeups. At left is the long range view.

I can identify that some of these are some from my mom and others are from me.  I thought a few might be Aline's but they were hand pieced and she would have used the machine-------

• Top row last block--me or mom.  Here and There is an usual pattern and we both have made quilts using that block.  
•  2nd row, 1st block was my mom's and the 4th one, mine.  
• 3rd row, 1st block mom and the 5th one a duplicate from Betsy B--the last one might be mom's as well.  
• 4th row,  4th one is mom's and the 5th  one is mine (old Pell City BOM) and the 6th one is mom's. 
•  5th row, 1st one is mine (I think, LOL) while the 3rd is one of  mom's, 5th one mom's (or mine) 
•  6th row, 5th block is mom's and the 6th is mine.  
• Last row, 3rd and 6th are mine--and the other butterfly is mom's.   

AMENDED NOTE:  Jill has told me that some of the random blocks in the quilt were made by quilters from t he Northwest Quilters Guild of Portland, Oregon and her sister Becky Ray.  

BUT regardless of who made what didn't it make a wonderful quilt for someone?  Again, I am glad that they found a  use for them as they were not going anywhere tucked away in my closet.

Jill announced at our last meeting that there had been an article in the St. Clair County (AL) paper about this.  Their small group had given 70 quilts to the County Baptist Association for the relief efforts.  The quilts went to people in the Shoal Creek area that was hit so hard (with fatalities) and in the Ragland area as well.  Jill, if you are reading this please tell me if I have not gotten the story straight in some manner.  You guys might take my upcoming office as secretary away if I can't keep my facts in order!!  This last picture is one that Beth took and included in the Friendship Quilter album when Jill (L), Mary (R) and I were consulting.  I "borrowed" it complete my story.

It has gotten too warm again and overnight lows just in the 50's.  We may well be in for storms again tomorrow, like last week.  This is the secondary tornado season in Dixie Alley so anything is possible.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me tell you as Paul Harvey would say "the rest of the story."