more cutting, no sewing

Pippi this morning on her most recent "favorite spot". DJ tried like anything to get the cat hair off it and changed out the towel but that was an exercise in futility.

I had spent the better part of the day either trimming up the fused t-shirt blocks and working out a design in EQ. The sizes roughly fell into into several width---some square, some rectangular. Workable--with some spacers of various sizes around them but roughly arranged in rows at this point. I've got them separated out by size, by row in the order I want them and clipped with binder clips. When the sashing fabric comes, I will be ready.

By 4:30 I knew that I am going to need 3 more shirts. I called the future owner's dad to see if he can dig a few more to fill that last approx 36-40 inches. I was just sure when I picked up a few more earlier in the week that I would have too many and the quilt would be huge! As it is I will be around 92 x 108 with borders. It was a little surprising for me to make that call. He had some other shirts ordered that will be used to represent Vanderbilt in the SEC quilts--I've got to pick them up as well a few other errands to run while I am it.

Look who is sitting on the t-shirts this evening and keeping me company as I write this. She has not been up on the table for months--occasionally on the two WTIL quilts I have pinned atop the basket but NOT on this table. LOL, you would think that I put them up there just for her! That little kitty face looks like "what! you mean you didn't?"

I totally forgot that this was Thursday---that's is what happens when you do not work outside the home and there is nothing distinguishable about the day to day activities. Oh, oh-- tonight was the round robin pass off. Here I was leisurely starting supper about a half hour later than usual. I knew that I needed an hour of cooking time for our meal but getting up to Jacksonville by 6:30 was going to be a little iffy. I ate quick, left DJ to clear and deal with the dishes and got up there about 10 minutes late but fortunately I was not the only one who was lagging a bit behind. I'll share the "before" picture with you soon as I need some suggestions. The "rules" for the round, as usual, are leaving me cold---last round. Commit me if I say I am doing another one, other than my own ostrich one??

Is blogger behaving tonight? I tried to leave a comment on someone's post this morning and "could not find the server" and a bunch of computer gobbledygook. Bet I wasn't the only one either. Hope you all have had a good day doing what makes you happy............... 

still dreaming of quilts

This is another quilt going through my head--"Road to St. Louis" from Trudie Hughes' Even More book. I have a stack of 16 patches started, possibly for another "Whatever"/Chiclet type but this one also appeals to me. We have some cut 2 1/2 inch squares around with more coming and a 2 days sew-in next week. One of the girls called to see if we were working on a "community" block this time and was hoping she could pair up with a buddy---sure, make me some blocks and I'll take it from there!! So basic really---4-four patches and hour glass blocks in between them.

I found this from an internet search of images for this quilt-- from the Fernie (BC, Canada) Quilt Show 2000 where there are many nice quilts to view. It does look like they all took the same class with several of the same quilt popping up. (Like one I recall in Macomb, IL with tons of "Around the Twists"--also by Trudie.)

BUT I see that Bonnie of Quiltville fame had a "Road to St. Louis" that went for Katrina relief and our own Evelyn showed one last month in mid September. Subliminal messages again.

So what have I been up to since I last posted?? Monday was errand day and by afternoon, I had made my Hancock's run. 5 yards of interfacing for the t-shirt quilt, no khaki colored fabric that would work for the sashing though except one piece that I thought looked a little girlie that did not "do" for me BUT I did find the black tone on tone and a white on white for the two SEC quilts. Oh, and some more Bling Kitties for the back of my kitty quilt since I didn't purchase enough on the first go round--this time it had to be the reverse coloration though. I came home and ordered some Moda Marble in mushroom that should work---I am using it anyway, regardless. Looks as close to the requested "khaki" as I am going to get. Forget the yellow undertones, Mom.

Purchasing was as far as it got Monday though. Yesterday I finished cutting up the last 10 t-shirts pairing them with interfacing. Still not enough! This time I got smart, measured up the rough cut pieces remaining and then based on that number I went back for 6 more yards of interfacing. With what I already had on hand for another project, I think I went through about 14 yards of the stuff for a queen/king. File that factoid for future reference, Linda. Here I had not darkened the door of Hancock's for about a month and a half and BAM, twice in two days.

A count shows that I have already stuck down 15 pieces of shirt--with 36 more slated for today and beyond. Once that's done, I can start the design work in EQ to make it fit together. In most cases there is some wiggle room for trimming. Oh the creative process, LOL.

So how do I remember every quilt, block etc, some of you asked?? Obviously I don't but I have had a reputation for a good memory for some time--not a "photographic" one but maybe a little above average. Selective perhaps. Also I am the record keeper almost from the beginning for the donation quilts. I photograph them, log them into the document, match the picture with the description so I guess that reinforces the information. Plus, I truly love the subject of quilt history and quilt blocks. Couple that with the curiosity to know more about the blocks name or the patterns origin and I suppose some of it sticks. When looking for a photo as I did the other day, start searching my own computer for the correct logging document or whatever.

I am going to be asked if I am ready to walk any second now--and of course, I'm not, LOL. Yep, there it is--right on cue. That's it for now..............

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Amended note
Okay, back from our stroll and I remembered what else I was going to post today. One of the quilting blogs (maybe Juliann?) was looking for crockpot recipes the other day. This time of year with the weather turning colder I think our thoughts might turn more to hearty stews and soups--mine does, I know. I have a suggestion that you might want to consider for a slew of recipes--crockpot, WW, diabetic, lots from the cooks on Food Network etc are posted on Mad's Recipe Emporium. They are zipped files formatted for Mastercook software (which I do own) but you don't HAVE to have that to view the recipes. They also have a free (and small) utility viewer (scroll down the left menu bar) that works with notepad so you can still access the recipes. Literally 100's (1000's) of recipes at your disposal.

I should probably add that I collect cookbooks and have far more than I will ever use for the space allowed. There is already have one tall bookcase in the kitchen and another bookcase that used to hold my stereo equipment years ago and books years ago. It still holds my old, can't ditch albums, LOL. My grandmother gave me a bunch more cookbooks as well before she died so those are stored in my bedroom entertainment center for now. My favorite one to look at is the clippings one that belonged to my great-grandmom.

Okay that is really it for today----I promise, LOL.

So many quilts....never enough time

Yesterday as I was cutting up t-shirts and fusing interfacing to the backs in preparation for the commissioned quilt I have been asked to do, my mind wanders to quilts that I would like to make and haven't yet. The Tile quilt at left is one of them and the one shown is one of my Mom's quilts from 2002. This is just so happened to go to Paraguay when my niece/godchild Allison went there with a mission group from her hometown. Pretty, huh?

I have also heard this same resultant quilt called "Cubic Turtle" in Marti Michell's Quilting for People Who Still Don't Have Time to Quilt but I think where I first saw it was from Bonnie Domeny at Thread Love. The directions for her version are given as I found when I went looking for the website. My surprise was that my pal Cher has one shown on the same page!! Actually she approaches it a little differently than Michell does but it sure looks the same to me! From a distance, the backside of my perpetual calendar atop the computer "March 24 Rocky Road" sorta reminds me of it---that might be where the subliminal message snuck in, LOL.

Bonnie also has other patterns listed including one for a Blockade quilt, foundation pieced. The link is HERE or HERE if you want to take a look. Now that one I HAVE made but did it using traditional piecing methods. The pattern is an old KC Star pattern from 1938. I saw it my Sew Precise 1-2 software years ago and made one up clear back in 2000. It was donated WTIL, as I do a lot of my quilts. Finding the picture of it was a challenge though as I think some of my pictures are missing or are on that CD that I just cannot open. I should have just left some of that stuff on floppy discs or kept the discs just in case when I burned the CD.

BUT, I am not without resources, LOL. Knowing about what year it was made, I could look back on the documents I keep for the Bama Belles. Definitely early 2000. Off to the Wrap Them In Love gallery pages and about 13 pages in, there it was. Joy made one as well with a piece of navy blue with red strawberries print. While looking through the gallery pages, I could spot quite a few of our old favorites--things made at our first sew-in's and so forth. My husband doesn't call me "Mrs. Columbo" for nothing.

I forgot that today was Columbus Day (observed) so that post office is NOT open. A package I had hoped to mail out today won't go after all. We walked this morning. DJ gets atta boy points for doing all the laundry. My grocery errands are done and a few more t-shirts picked up from the Dad's office. Now I need to make a run for some more interfacing. I had some on hand but with this many shirts and a queen/king in mind, not near enough to finish the job. I need to look for sashing fabric while over at Hancock's. It may still take a run to Birmingham or an online order to get what I need---so best to get that question answered.

I was going to add one more picture but will need to publish and try to put it in on editing---or knowing, blogger skip it, LOL. (just as I thought :-(--no go!)
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Post note: Hanne commented in regards to my last post about the Tessellated Leaves from my previous post. She found them in BlockBase #1440 called by various names but let's go with "Maple Leaf Design" for the fall season. Brackman attributes it Ladies Home Journal and the year 1900. She also mentioned that she had seen the block in "Foundation Factory" software which amazingly, I don't own, LOL. Thanks, Hanne!

Saturday sewing

I started off my day by mopping the kitchen floor--the only cleaning that I didn't get done yesterday. DJ helped by dragging the chairs out, sweeping and vacuuming. Then we did our morning walk. The next thing I knew, it was lunch time, LOL.

Tomorrow I will be starting on the commissioned t-shirt quilt so today I just wanted a little "do in a day" project and decided to just make one of these tessellated leaf blocks. Stitched up, quilted and bound while I watched the Cardinal game (and then the nerves got to me and off to watch something on the DirecTV Showtime preview)

I first saw this pattern on Victoriana Quilt Designs as a block of the month last year. I looked for site to direct you to there but I guess something you need to be a member to access.

A Google search came up with a smaller one HERE on the old PC Piecers site. Obviously it has been around a bit but had not crossed my horizon. Like the PC Piecers site, I had foundation pieced my version for a fall insert to my calendar quilt to use before the ghostie one I showed you in this post .

UPDATE: ed note. A couple of you have wondered what size I made my block--I printed it off to foundation piece it at 8 inch finished but it looked a little big so while I had the paper still on it I trimmed of all the seam allowance since it did not affect the overall design.

Also Julie asked if this was an "Ozark Maple Leaf"---a google search found a block titled that at Quilter's Cache. Marcia designed hers with all over squares. Personally I cannot see sewing two or three squares together to make a rectangular strip but that's just me, LOL. Just makes me wonder who really came up with the pattern when I see all these variations. She called it a "traditional block" but I do not see it listed in BlockBase but perhaps like anything else, it has a different name. lchj

Below is a full sized one that I drew up in EQ. Recently though the Belles and I tried one called "Whispering Leaves" from the August 1997 issue that eliminated a lot of the pieces using cut squares and then little prairie point type things for the triangle units so it had a dimensional appearance rather than all the strips and "Exquisite" blocks. I got one block of 4 together at the meeting but have not touched it since.

So I believe that I will get the straight foot back on the sewing machine and get the backing for my cat quilt together. Pam has been anxious for me to get that quilt done, LOL, especially after I told her other things are going to intervene this month. Once that's done, who knows?

Hope you all are having a great weekend------

done, done, done

Join me in a happy dancing---my round robin obligation is completed one week before the due date. 92 foundation pieced half square rectangle units later, I'm done. As stated in my previous posts, no pictures since the owner might see it so you get to see one of Pippi instead, LOL.

Other than steadily working on the round robin for the past two days there is not much going on around my house. Other than our usual walking routine, a few errands, out for lunch with DJ today I have hardly been out of the house. That may make for a boring post today but I'll take boring about any day.

Tomorrow I believe it is time to clean up this house rather than hit the high spots. The kitchen floor is in dire need of mopping. With paper piecing, I've tracked bits all over every where. Vacuuming is definitely needed. No stitching, cutting, piecing or quilting till this is tended to.

Off to see what you all are up to-----

Tuesday--already?

Nothing I can show you today but one that I made some years back that I would like to revisit. It is called "Kris' Three Patch" and was featured in Template Free Quiltmaking by Trudie Hughes, published by That Patchwork Place in 1986. It was a fun quilt to sew and looks a whole lot more complicated to make than it was.

Today was a walking morning for DJ and I. Just before lunch I had an appointment to meet with the fellow that wants a queen/king t-shirt quilt made for his son along with two wallhanging sized SEC (football, Jan, not financial, LOL) quilts for two of his clients. In between I had four other stops to make in and around Anniston--combine those errands when you can, right?

Vaughn had a pile of t-shirts laying on his conference room table when I got there and the SEC stuff all sacked up for me. The design will change to something more like THIS and cut to accomodate an SEC logo t-shirt so I wont have to piece the lettering this time. So he and I and then Mom has a little confab about which sides of the shirts to use and what color neutral to use for the sashing bits. (like khaki pants though I don't know how good that will look with the gray shirts) Oh, and it will probably be closer to king sized. I don't have to quilt it, thank goodness. A long armer is lined up for that job. I may well be asked to make one to raffle for the school come spring--forewarned, I guess. The SEC ones, I can handle on my own home machine.

But first, finish up the round robin. I have one side done and on the quilt. Somehow I had to add one more square to what I thought was needed--a slightly smaller one. It is only a 1/4 inch difference so I doubt it will be noticeable. (DJ couldn't tell which one it was when I showed him.) How did I mess up the math that much?? I was pretty sure that this thing was square this time but 2 1/2 inches off? It also occured to me yesterday that the horizontal sides were NOT supposed to be mirrored. I may have overcut some of the half square rectangle pieces. I don't care so much about my own fabric wastage but I DO about hers since there was not a lot of it leftover. I really don't want to go to Birmingham this week for more fabric--now, next week may be another story if I ever get this thing finished.

I am behind in reading and commenting on your blogs right now---bear with me, I'll be back. Supper is already made--pasta salad using some of the Bernstein Cheese and Garlic Italian dressing that Pam sent me--so except for eating dinner and stretching breaks I have a good stretch of time to get back to foundation piecing. But, first I have to tape them together and cut them out--what DJ calls cutting out "paper dolls" TTYL

new month

Another month passes. New goals and new challenges lay ahead with more tops to be quilted, more blocks to be made. I got a couple of little wallhangings done that were NOT on my list and a few things completed that WERE on the list. As usual there will be carry overs and additions. Who knew I would be having to list some commissioned work for October?

I have finished cutting my way through a 15 quart container of homespuns and plaids and have about a 3 inch pile of bricks cut to finish 3 x 6. The pattern (link in a previous post) will make a nice boys quilt and knowing how I overcut, more than one!! The larger yardage went unscathed in the cutting department because it may be pressed into service for borders and binding. One quilt cut out for the Belles' 7th Annual Fall Sew-In anyway. Leftovers might be recut for a bowtie--wouldn't that look cool in what looks like a bunch of flannel shirts???

My mind flashed to some 12 Triangles squares I had made from some of these same fabrics--the reason I own this stuff in the first place, LOL. Where in the world are those things because I should stick them in the bin with the fabrics?? Off on a treasure hunt. The two likely spots failed to turn them up. AH, hiding in the closet along with a couple barely started things. The hunt led to locating some nice bright race car fabric along with some brights for sashing and some checkboard that could be used for binding. Pat had left this for the group for boys quilts but the concentration on the Girls Ranch I had put it back for now. I could use something like my kitty quilt or Norma and Judy's BQ might be just the thing. I also unearthed some schoolbus fabric that I think Finn or my Mom had sent too. Boy Treasure trove!! Bug Jar stuff and a pinwheel kit in boy colors from my Mom. Okay, I'm set for awhile for the donation quilts with things that can be shared with the group.

Okay, since I don't have anything of my own to show you-----this is Aline's Christmas block sampler. The JOY quilt group had a block swap last year and Aline has her top assembled. They are doing the same swap again this year but there are two groups of 12 or you get 24 blocks or some such thing. The girls pinned this at the meeting as I believe she hopes to enter it in the quilt show later in the month.

I spent part of the day yesterday trying to draw a mockup in EQ of what Aline's round robin looks like. This way I could audition various border options for my required "two inch border of your choice of techiques". Ah, that's a bit narrow to do much of anything........wait till I tell you what our choices are for the final round. It makes the hair of the back of my neck stand up, LOL.

One good thing: this one is square and that has not happened thus far with the ones passed to me. No slight triming or re-assembling required. That is a big relief! I finally decided on a design that I can foundation piece, have it drawn up and printed out. A little initial cutting is done so I'm heading to the machine to get started soon. While it is not the design that I liked the most, techique-wise it will be the one more easily accomplished. Since it is due on the 12th, I'll go with that. Cher and Pam got the preview versions last night---divided opinions, LOL. That always happens, doesn't it? There is a chance that Aline reads my blog so no pictures here!

Hope you all are having a wonderful day---