The best laid plans...

This is what I get for washing the bathroom floor -- a broken toe snagged on the door jamb, ten days with my foot up, and everybody gets circle cowls for Christmas.

There wasn't much sewing this December, as it was the little toe on my pedal foot, so I dug into my chunky yarn stash, fired up Netflix, and went to town. And apparently couldn't stop.

The foot is finally feeling good in hard shoes, just in time to make the trek over the river and across I-94 into Michigan to my parents' house. I haven't been home since this summer, so I'm looking forward to the visit. Archie, however, isn't too crazy about hanging out with Sugar, who rules the roost and doesn't take kindly to interlopers, even if it's temporary.

Sugar showed up three summers ago and started following my father around the garden. She belonged two blocks over, to a family with four cats. At the bottom of the hierarchy and picked on quite a bit, she had had enough and was scouting for a better life. She found two elderly folks in obvious need of her company, darted through the side door when the weather turned cold, and wouldn't leave. Her people tooke her home but she was back the next day, and the next, and the next, until they stopped coming to retrieve her and forwarded her vet records. She is the Queen of the House, the apple of my father's eye (not so sure how I feel about being overthrown from my seat as Dad's favorite), and my mother's "Sweet, Sweet Sugar." She glowers at me and ambushes poor Archie at every possible opportunity. He retaliates by using her litter box, but spends most of his time locked upstairs -- or hiding in the basement.

So that's what we have to look forward to this week. I need to find boxes and wrap all these scarves, and hit the road before the snow moves in.

Happy Holidays to all, and Happy Quilting in the New Year!

December already?

I feel woefully unprepared for Christmas. One big present is off my list, but there's still an awful lot to do.

This top is on its way, though, to getting done.  At least I plan to have it done by Christmas -- "plan" being the operative word.

It was about time to do a HST quilt, and they look so good hanging in the window!

Plenty of sunshine these days here in Chicago, and also plenty of cold. Good for staying inside, making soup...and sewing!

Yellow & blue...

I seem to have yellow -- or maize, as they call it where I come from -- and blue on the brain.

But that's OK. I can live with it.

And another...

There are times when my scrap bin totally surprises me. Like a couple weeks ago, when I found about a strip set and about dozen pieces cut and ready to go. Why I never did anything with them is anybody's guess.

When I laid the pieces out, I did some quick calculating and figured I didn't have to do much more to turn them into a baby quilt. I still had plenty of all three marble fabrics, so I sewed up a couple more strip sets and made this:

All in the name of stash busting, of course.

(Not the best photo with questionable indoor lighting, sorry)

I kind of wish I'd lined up the back better with the quilting on the front, but that's a lesson learned. I suppose using coordinating thread in the bobbin would have made it less obvious. Lesson #2.

All in all, a good quick little quilt. And now more room in the scrap bin.

Yellow...

The sashing dispute has been settled. I went with yellow.

I also took Wanda's advice and took the stripes out all together, but it was just as I'd thought -- too skinny to finish it off without a border. I auditioned every color that appeared in the blocks, and the yellow just made it shine. Five inches of border on either side and three on the ends, it looked too symmetrical and predictable -- so I lopped a few inches off two of the sides to unbalance it a bit. Much better!

So happy to have this one finished! It's not any less bright than the original (especially with the addition of the wacky backing -- which I love), but at least it's not making my eyes hurt.

My entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival...

I'm entering "Split Infinitive" in the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side in the Small Quilts category.

Made from a pack of Kona charm-let polka dots, Kona Snow and a few other dotted scraps, these 210 2" (1.5" finished) half-square triangles went through quite a bit of rearranging before I ended up with this design. It's a little improv, a little traditional...kind of like me. The backing is a yellow dotted flannel to keep with the theme.

For all that work, it only measures 31" x 27" -- those triangles are tiny!

The house that Kate built...

I was going through some bins a couple weekends ago and found a pattern/kit for a Cat Cave that I'd bought several years ago -- and, of course, hadn't done anything with it. I know, it's an ongoing theme with me:  Things I Intended to Make but For Unknown Reasons Never Got Around To.

During the same scrounging session, I also found a leftover piece of orange minkee dot and some home dec fabric from Ikea that I bought to make curtains for my spare bedroom. I ended up using something not as heavy for the curtains, and kept the fabric because a) I loved it, and b) figured I could make something cool out of it someday.

Turns out, it was just the right weight for a Cat Cave.

I probably should iron those seams, huh? They're looking a little unfinished.

I used three layers of high-loft polyester batting + the minkee + a cotton backing for the bottom to make it nice and soft. It wasn't easy getting it all under the walking foot. I also added a layer of batting in addition to the fusible interfacing around the opening for more stability, then satin-stitched the edges.

Archie wasn't quite sure what to make of it. There was a lot of sitting next to it, and a lot of peering inside, but no venturing in for quite a while.

It took two weeks, but now it's his favorite place to nap while I'm sewing.

That's one happy cat.

Done!

Well, almost. I have a few threads to knot and hide, and it still needs to be washed. But Sister #3's 60th birthday quilt is 99.5% finished!

It measures 65" x 80", which should be perfect for the twin bed in her guest room. It's totally her colors, and I had enough of the calico-y blue print to complete the back, another great choice for her.

Wary of her allergies, I decided to use poly batting, and even found a roll up in the closet so I didn't have to buy any. But lessons are always learned the hard way, aren't they? The batting had probably been there for ten years, and over time, there were places where the fusible formed these weird, hard stringy globs that I had to pick off before I could even use it. Unfortunately I missed a couple of them, and after steaming they left small dark waxy spots (almost unnoticeable, but I know they're there) that I tried to pick up with a paper bag and the iron, with no luck. I'm hoping they will wash out -- the package label said it's water soluble, but who knows after this long?

I'm just glad it's finished and I can move closer to another deadline. Christmas is coming!

Time for binding...

Continuing the momentum, I'm on to binding this week.

I don't know if this is a unique approach or not, but I roll my binding up on an empty cardboard spool after it's ironed. It keeps it nice and tidy, and besides, I like taking pictures of it all wound up like that.

(By the way, this is the backing I found in my stash for the Wiggly Horror top. I have no idea where or when I bought this, or why. But it's PERFECT. No spitup stains here! Or at least none you can see!)

Anyway, while it's a great way to keep the binding neat and wrinkle-free, it can be a challenge to keep it from running away. I got really tired of the roll dropping off my lap or the sewing table and having to chase it across the kitchen floor, so came up with a couple different ways to contain it. This was by far the best solution:

I put the spool on my machine's knee lift, and put a pin in it to keep it from unfurling. Feed a comfortable length out, put the pin back, and keep going until it's done.

Works like a charm!

Step 5: An illustration...

This is what happens when I leave the lids off my fabric bins.  Every time.

 

For love of Photoshop...

I made this quilt top eons ago -- 2003 or 2004, maybe?

Bright, isn't it? And this picture doesn't really do it justice. If I look at it from the right angle in full sun, the orange and the green do a little dance. Really. 

Very early in my quilting career I was enamored with loud kid prints. This was made from a bunch of "Wiggly Garden" fat quarters (Cheri Strole, Moda). It made me dizzy to look at it, so it never made it to fruition; it went into the famed "Duffle of Doom," the bag in my closet from which flimsies rarely return.

Fast-forward to yesterday, and the announcement that my step-nephew and his wife are expecting a boy in a few months. Rather than start something completely new (which is TOTALLY my preference, but I'm fighting it), I dug first into the UFO Ziploc pile (yes, I know I'm still procrastinating, but in a good, productive kind of way). Finding nothing too terribly inspirational, I went for the Doom Duffle and rediscovered the Wiggly Horror.

It has potential, but not in its current state. I won't be held responsible for blinding the infant with offensive color choices!

The orange stripes were initially added to make it wider, I think, and obviously have to go. I'm just not sure if I want to replace the orange, or take those strips out all together. Before I reach for the seam ripper, I thought I'd best weigh my options first. And for that, there's Photoshop.

A little messing with some adjustment layers, and I have a few alternatives:

Meh. The light blue, even if I match it to what's in there, doesn't do anything for me.

Neither does dark green, though it's a slight improvement.

This one's the front runner so far.  I like how the purple pops, and if I get it dark enough, it won't do the tango with the other colors like the orange did.

Or I could remove the strips all together, which changes the proportions a little. I'm not sure I like it skinnier -- this option may take some other adjustments, like removing a column and adding it as a row, which would mean a hunt for scraps, as it's shy one 9-patch block.

So Step 1: Rip out the orange strips.

Step 2:  Audition new strip fabrics, or decide if it looks OK without any.

Step 3:  (maybe) Look for some scraps to make up a new 9-patch block.

Step 4:  Find three or four fabrics I'd forgotten about while I'm searching for scraps and (Oh! Don't these look good together!) pull them out just to look at. Pile them on the sewing table and make a cup of coffee. Drink it while looking at the pretty pile and think about what I could make with them. Get excited about the possibilities for a new project, and find sketchbook and colored pencils. After ten minutes or so of sketching, decide the design would look so much better if I did it on the computer. Fire up the desktop; read some new quilty blog posts before getting started, check in with Fresh Modern Quilts for some inspiration, answer a couple work-related e-mails, and consult Facebook to catch up on the day's happenings. Play with quilt designs in Illustrator, decide PowerPoint is easier for what I'm trying to do and start over. Realize my coffee is cold, and when I walk back into the kitchen to warm it up, find the floor littered with fabric I hadn't put away two...no, three hours ago.

Step 5:  Remove sleeping cat from open bin of fat quarters.

Step 6:  Regretfully return pretty pile of forgotten fabrics to their respective bins.

Step 7:  Resume scrap search.

On my kitchen floor this morning...

This quilt has been a looooong time in the making.

I won this jelly roll of Moda Clermont Farms from Glenn way back in 2010. When I received it, I knew that whatever I made was going to go Sister #3 -- these were her colors, and very traditional prints. To say Sister #3 is traditional would be an understatement, so it was a perfect fit. She also had a milestone birthday coming up in a couple years, worthy of a quilt. Finishing something with that much lead time shouldn't be a problem...right?

Hah!

I don't remember when I finished the blocks, but I do remember coming up short for a twin size and readily shelving it, moving on to the next project...and another project after that, and one after that...you know the drill.

It doesn't take much for me to abandon a project, believe me.

Sister's milestone birthday came and went. Those blocks in the Ziploc got ignored until I felt the need to procrastinate further on Theo's graduation quilt and scrounged through the UFO pile.

Well, hello, Clermont Farms! Long time no see! Are you interesting enough to distract me from what I'm really supposed to be finishing? Yes? Then let's do this!

I pulled enough from my stash to make a dozen more blocks and got to work. What's pathetic is that the stash fabrics I pulled? They were here four years ago. I don't know if it's ADD, or if I'm just lazy. Either way, it's shameful. And now I feel guilty that Theo's quilt is late.

Quilt + floor = a place to nap

The initial diagonal quilting wasn't enough, so I'm going back in between the lines to add more. It's 75% done as of this morning, and close enough to finished that abandonment is out of the question.

So it's a Christmas/birthday/retirement gift. Three birds with one quilt!

Take two...

My former co-worker welcomed her first grandbaby last November. I made a quilt for him, and it sat in a gift box, patiently awaiting our next lunch, which, due to her taking a new job in the suburbs far, far away and my pretty much never leaving the city limits, didn't happen.

The box -- complete with its reminder to mail it to her stuck to the front -- got shuffled around, then put away, then forgotten...until I was invited to a baby shower for another friend this summer. Instead of breaking my neck to create another quilt in a tight time frame (because you know I love to wait until the last minute), I dug out the gift boxed quilt and wrapped it up (and yes, I remembered to take the sticky note off the front...but forgot to take a picture of it, sorry). It was a change of pace for me, not trying to stitch the binding down and dry my hair at the same time so I wouldn't be late for the event. Quite liberating, actually, though I did feel a tiny bit guilty about giving it away to someone else.

Anyway...Friday, I got an e-mail:  "Coming into the city next week! Can we still get lunch?"

Uh-oh.

I made this on Saturday from some fun half-yards, fat quarters and marbles I've had since my early days of quilting. It felt good to use them up (stash busting!), good to get something else done (in an afternoon, no less!), and even better not to be panicked about it.

"Take Two,"  40" x 48"

Miscellaneous prints + marbles + Jan Mullen handwoven backing

So "Take Two" is all wrapped up and ready to go. I just hope lunch doesn't get cancelled!

Navy and lime...

"I need another baby quilt for a shower." It was my sister on the phone. With a good many of her co-workers expecting babies, she's turning into my best customer.

"Her nursery color scheme is navy and lime. Can you do that?"

I was excited when I hung up the phone. Navy and green -- especially bright green -- is one of my favorite color combinations. But here's the issue: navy? Not much of a problem. But the lime in my stash runs the gamut from real yellowy green to just shy of kelly.

Just a few of the greens that could be called "lime."

Not knowing specifically which shade of lime we were talking about, I did the only thing that made sense:  I used them all.

 Navy & Lime, 40" x 50"

 

I also used a variegated lime thread, which really popped on the marbled navy. The wavy quilting gives it a lot of movement.

The backing was a fun, bright stripe that I've had for probably ten years. It was a perfect counterpoint to the much quieter front. It should also serve to wake the baby up if need be.

Another one that's been Archie tested, and Archie approved!

And another one...

This is the project I've been avoiding -- a twin-sized quilt for my godson, who graduated this summer from the iSchool in NYC and moved into his dorm at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute this week. 

I was hoping at some point (like, last summer, when I first conceived of the basic design) to have it ready for him to take along, but I struggled with this design, which went through quite a few iterations. On top of that, I used more of the navy railroad pinstripe on the front than originally planned, so didn't have enough to complete the back, and, well, finishing things on time really isn't like me, is it? At least he knows that, and he'll probably be able to take it back to school with him at Christmas.

I do like the way it turned out -- asymmetrical, and very linear. The plaid handwovens are leftovers from this quilt -- made for my nephew/first godson's high school graduation in 2010. I have a tiny bit left over still, which is lucky because my third godson just turned 12 -- if I start on his quilt now, maybe it'll be done by the time he completes high school? Fat chance!

Still playing with the backing for this, though. I have some of the pinstripe left, and bought some ticking and lightweight denim; just gotta figure out how to put it all together. And then decide how to quilt it -- that could take me until November. Right on schedule!

Tiny triangles...

I don't know what's come over me, but hey, I'm not arguing with it! I'm sure it's some sort of avoidance tactic, but I've actually been finishing things over the past couple weeks, and it feels great!

"Split Infinitive," before washing.  31" x 27"

Those triangles finish at 1.5", and I think I've finally used up all the pieces from my polka dot charmlet packs (I did have to dig into my stash -- and Jacquie's, just before she moved -- to find additional big dots so I could alternate rows of big and small, but only for a handful). Playing with the layout was fun, and using random widths on the borders throws it a little more off kilter.

The name? Well, I've been on a bit of a grammar kick lately. Friends I went to school with, who learned the same lessons I did are using "it's" instead of "its," "there" instead of "they're," and "your" instead of "you're," in their Facebook posts (I'm not a Twitter person -- nobody's life is that interesting that I have to be wired in to their up-to-the-minute details) which makes me CRAZY. I realize that many of them are writing on tiny keyboards and miniscule phone screens without the aid of (at our advanced age) reading glasses, but seriously, people, if you're going to rely on Autocorrect, then you really need to edit yourself before you hit "post" so you don't look like a total moron!

I'm just saying.

But I digress.

I actually don't take offense at the occasional split infinitive, and have been prone to consciously use one when "to use one consciously" sounds a wee bit awkward. 

Anyway, the name came to me as the two sections hung on the design wall/batting-clamped-to-a-picture-frame, and stuck.

Backing continues the theme with a flannel dot, and the swirly binding mixes it up a little.

Happy to have another finish, no matter how small!

More pics...

Here's Aunt Helen's "90 Blocks for 90 Years" in its entirety.

Front...

and back, post-wash.

It crinkled up very nicely, and Aunt Helen was very pleased...and in not the least bit offended that it was four months late! Now she's ready for another Polar Vortex winter!

And just in time...

Aunt Helen is coming for a visit this weekend, and I finished her quilt just in time. It should come as a surprise to none of you that I waited until the absolute last minute...or close to it. It's still in the dryer as I type, but will be nice and crinkly and ready to wrap by the time she arrives tomorrow.

 "90 Blocks for 90 Years," Aunt Helen's Birthday Quilt:  45" x 50", flannel top and backing

When I decided not to kill myself over finishing in time for her actual birthday in April, the top sat draped over the back of my sofa as I flip-flopped over which backing to use. Originally, I didn't want an entirely flannel quilt, but in the end I decided to use some of the same fabrics I used on the front, and I'm glad I did -- with 100% cotton batting, it's a really nice weight that will do well as a lap quilt this winter. I'm not a fan of flannel bindings (too thick), so the binding is a cotton marbled brown that comes very close to matching the brown print stripe in the blocks.

More pictures later, but let's just heave a big sigh of relief that this one's complete, shall we?

A sneak peek...

This has been on my design wall (or rather, a piece of batting clamped to the frame of a large picture on my kitchen wall) since May, which is quite a long time, though not as long as I would have expected. My WIP's can stretch out for months, if not years.

I arranged and rearranged those tiny 2" HST's every time I walked by it, pulled strips off and put some back on, begged for polka dot scraps, and now it's ready for binding.

Feels like it might just be a productive week!

Never say never again...

I've been curious about fabric bowls for a while -- there are some really cool examples out in the blogosphere, and I like the looks you can achieve with different fabrics. In an effort to procrastinate on a dozen other projects, I picked this weekend to see what they were all about.

In a post-coffee mania Saturday morning, I pulled a confetti print linen blend from my stash and started slicing. Eight hours later, I was still zig-zagging, only about two-thirds of the way done. My back was killing me from tailbone to shoulders, my hands deformed into claws from incessant wrapping -- this was not the easy-peasy project I envisioned when I began.

After another couple ibuprofen-fueled hours on Sunday, I got tired of trimming a gazillion stray threads and switched to the purple cotton, which frayed far less -- however, because of the weight difference, the purple needed to be double-wrapped to keep the coil size consistent.

Lots of lessons learned (for instance, if you're going to "experiment," don't start with a project the size of a 6-quart dutch oven), but the biggest one is that I will never make another one of these again. I know I shouldn't say that, but I'm pretty sure now that I've done it, I don't need to repeat the process. Ever.

Curiosity satisfied.

For a Texas cowboy...

My friend Judy welcomed her second grandchild this spring -- and what better use for this stash fabric than a quilt for a little Texas cowboy?

I'm not exactly sure why this print was in my possession (suffice it to say it's been in there a long time), but it was a perfect backing for this quick project, and worked really well with the cowboy hat print on the front. I also had an old Alexander Henry burgundy print to piece with it, and used a little in the binding.

My Western phase, thankfully, was brief, and this fabric is where it belongs, in a baby quilt in Houston.

The quilting turned out pretty neat:  five lines a quarter-inch apart, running in a zig-zag. It didn't show up very well in any of the photos I took (except the in-progress detail here), so here's an overlay. It made it a little more interesting than just doing a grid.

Sydney, the neighbor's pup, had to supervise the nursery photo shoot. I warned her she might show up on the internet, and she didn't seem to have a problem with it.

Gifted at last...

Well, this one took way longer than expected!  I was done with the top in short order last summer, but I knew how I wanted to quilt it and, quite honestly, I wasn't up for it. But the wedding couple's first anniversary was fast approaching, I was headed to Michigan and planned to see them, so it was pull-myself-up-by-the-bootstraps time.

Made with a Comma charm pack, Kona black and a few additional Comma squares, it measures 42"x56", and this is the only picture I have without Archie sitting on it -- for some reason, that cat LOVED this quilt, in all its various stages. There was so much hair on it I had to clean the dryer vent twice.

The quilting gets a little lost in the black, but I started off-center and just did one big spiral, using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. The lines are roughly a half inch apart. The whole thing got torqued a little out of shape from quilting continually in one direction, but I was able to tug it back to square...eventually.

I am definitely not crazy about going 'round and 'round in circles, but I do like the look when it's all done. And after washing when it gets all crinkly, I love it even more!

The back is Comma fabric, too. I wanted my message to be subtle, and I also didn't want to applique their names on it, so the strip reads K+M in Morse Code. It took Katie and Mike a couple weeks to figure it out, so I think I succeeded.