New Project For Spring

Yes, I had to do it! I know that I have many things on the go, but spring flowers were calling to me. I was supposed to be doing paper pieced flowers, but I just wasn't feeling like it. My sister recommended an older book (from 2004) by Jan Bode Smiley, "focus on Batiks". It had some machine pieced flowers on the cover that just plain talked to me. They said "Make me, make me, make me!!!". So two weeks ago, in a weakened mental state, from working too many hours at work, I bought some fabric. I didn't get to start it until I managed to cut out some of the pieces last night. Here is the first nine inch (finished size) block. As you can see they are on point & I am very pleased with it. It was a little difficult to get the angles right, but after a couple of sessions with my seam ripper, I finally got it right. Here is another couple of colourways that I will be making up. And a few more. The red one isn't complete yet. I need eight flowers in all, so will be searching my stash for some variety. I already have the sashing that will go between the squares. This has me excited! It is exactly what I needed to work on as I dream of spring & the end of my busy season at work. I was good and caught up on laundry and housework before sewing today! Have a good week & I will see if I can manage to have another couple of blocks to show you next week.

Pictures!

Guess what I finally managed to do! These are the pictures that should have been with last Sundays blog! Hopefully this will still work tomorrow when I do my next post!

Still No Pictures!

I am still trying to get my pictures uploaded. Here goes! No luck! It looks like they start to load & I get up to five green bars and then it quits. It doesn't matter if I try to load from my computer or from Picasso, it gets to five green bars & quits. My daughter had me make sure to empty my web browser temporary files and make sure to delete all cookies. That didn't work either. I sent my problem in to Google Blogger, but I haven't heard back from them yet and it has been about a day & a half. I will keep trying!

Picture upload problem

It seams that I am now finding time to post once a month. I will try to do better in the future! So what have I been working on? A cross between a pot holder and an oven mitt. So why can't I load a picture of it? Oh it is the new improved blogger!!

Finally Quilting!

Let's just write January off! OK? I am healthy and quilting. I finally finished the placemats that I was working on back in December. I am sure that my youngest daughter has forgotten all about them. Next, I have a paper pieced heart to make before my guild meeting in two weeks. We are supposed to use it to make something and bring it in for show & tell. It has been several years since I did foundation paper piecing. I picked up an instruction sheet, just in case I can't remember. After that, I have two block of the month squares to do. Then, I can get back to last years block of the month. I still have to do sashing and corner stones and then a border. I will then get back to my Itty Bitty wall hanging. I am also dreaming of starting a new project, but can't make up my mind as to what I want to start. I think I will carry on with a Christmas theme, as I have two Christmas wall hangings planned. I have already booked a hotel in Houston for my girlfriend & I, for the International Quilt Festival that starts the end of October and runs until November 3rd. I can't believe it but we actually got into the Hilton Americas! It is right across the road from the convention centre and even has a skywalk to it. I can't believe it has been three years since we last went. Some promises to myself, to stick to over the next year. Lose some weight (yes I know goals should be quantitative and easy to measure - but that is for me to know & everyone else to wonder about). Make my die cut mini storm at sea that I bought in Houston three years ago. Make at least one new jacket to wear to Houston. Quilt my Stonehenge floor tile quilt. The top has been done for about two years. (I will show you a picture of it next week!) All this and many more & I have just started into my busy season at work. I think February will be a crazy busy month, with March even worse and April, well lets not talk about April. I am hosting my kindred group this Wednesday, so that should be fun. I also must finalize the agenda for the next guild meeting. (Did I mention that I took over as president in January?) I have had some really nice feedback on how my first meeting went. I hope I don't disappoint them this month. I hope you all have a good sewing week, with not too many interruptions. Enjoy!

Sick

After the busy Christmas season, I managed to come down with a rotten cold. It started with a sore throat, moved into a head cold, with a stuffy nose and finally into my chest, so I am coughing like crazy. Needless to say, I have not managed to do any sewing. Sorry about that. I had planned on finishing the two sets of placemats. Then I had planned on doing a new project, a table quilt. The pattern is called images and was in the Australian on-line quilt magazine that I get. The fabric, I picked up at the boxing day sale at Thimbles & Things. After that it will be back to last year's block of the month, as I still have sashing, corner stones and borders to sew together. Then I must finish my Itty Bitty Pinwheels that are still covering my design wall. After that I hope to get back to my one fabric quilt. Then I hope to jump into a new project. So much sewing to do and so little time!

Working Hard Or Hardly Working

I have been off work for about four weeks now and what do I have to show for it? Well how about this? I finally got the ends finished and the blocking done. Here are a couple of close ups to show some detail.

What is with this? I thought this was supposed to be a quilting blog? Well I have to show why I don't have much quilting done! OK, how about this? Four Christmas placemates! These are of the stack and wack variety. You put four fat quarters down and trim down to the size you want to finish with plus four sets of seam allowances (two inches if you use 1/4 inch seams). Then you slice out the stripes you want (plus seam allowances), then mix up the stripes by putting the top one on the bottom for the first one, 1st & 2nd on the bottom for the next one and then 1st, 2nd & 3rd on the bottom for the last one. Sew them together, pile them up again and cut the other way. Shuffle the stripes again, as you did before and then sew them back together. Then you just have to cut some backing and batting. I just sewed them right sides together, leaving a space open on one side to turn them. Then put the batting in, taking a bit of time to get them nice and flat and then quilted as desired. I also did a quilt line about 1/8 of an inch in from the edge, so that I didn't have to sew the opening shut by hand. I made one more chenille rug. They are really addictive! That makes three, which is quite enough. I have two more sets of placemates to make, one for me and one for a present, so really only one has to be done in the next few days. I also have the fabric for a seasonal wall hanging that I hope to get done before New Years, as I go back to work on January 2. Since I take over as president of my quilt guild on January 1st, I have also been spending time figuring out what we will be doing next year for 12 months. I have been concentrating on the first four months of the year, when I am very busy at work, so don't have enough spare time to figure anything out. I have also been working on an afghan that my sister had started many years ago. It is hexagons, so I couldn't resist! It makes nice work that I can do while sitting upstairs with my husband, rather than hiding away in my sewing room all the time. Now it is time to finish my baking. I have three more batches of cookie to do, as well as mincemeat tarts, so I had better get moving. I will also be sewing a few more gift bags in order to finish my wrapping. It might be a rather long day! I hope you all have your Christmas projects finished! Try to take a little time off from busy schedules to get a little quilting done. Most of all enjoy the season!

Itty Bitty Pinwheels

I finally got the squares for my "Itty Bitty Pinwheels" sewn together. The next step was to start cutting out the 1 1/2" squares to start making the pinwheels. You must use a small rotary cutter to do this. It seemed to take forever but I got the first four rows cut out and then sewn togethter. Here is a picture of my big square made up of 20 x 20 2 1/2" squares sewn together, with the first four rows of 1 1/2" itty bitty squares cut out of it. Then here is a picture showing what those 76 squares look like sewn together compared to the size of my original square. When all the squares have been cut and added to this it will make a 21" square. I must be crazy! It will be 361 squares made up of 1,444 bits of material! In my spare time I am making another chenille rug out of Stonehenge Magnolia panels. I have it about 2/3 sewn. I would have finished sewing it today, but ran out of thread. I will pick some more up in my travels tomorrow. I also managed to finish crochetting the shawl I was working on. I just have to finish working in the ends and then will get it blocked and then will take a proper picture of it to share with you. I have several Yule projects on the go and I just bought fabric for Patti Carey's "Baby Block" pattern of stacked up presents. I just hope that I have time to get it done before Christmas. I am out two evenings and one whole day this week, so I hope I get some sewing time. At least I am done work until January, so that should help. Hope your projects are progressing well! Have a good week!

Sewing & Sewing

I cut squares of the new fabric for my background & have started sewing my squares together for my Itty Bitty Pinwheels. I am much happier with it now. The following picture shows it with the new squares. You will notice a white stripe about a third of the way in from the right side. That section has groups of four squares sewn together in rows. The larger part on the left only has two squares sewn together in the rows. I will keep sewing the twos into fours and then will join the fours into eights, etc. When I have the rows finished, I will then start joining the rows together. Then I will cut the border fabric and add my borders. Then the fun will start when I start cutting this whole thing up to make my pinwheels! I have been working on the shawl I am crocheting. I finished the second set of pattern rows and am half way through the third set. I didn't bother taking a picture, but will when I finish the rows, before I start on the rounds. Not too bad for a work week, with a night out for my kindred quilters group. I also made the mistake of starting to watch the 7th season of Criminal Minds on DVDs that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Oh well, I will be finished work again in a few days and be able to get more sewing done to show you. I wish some of you would send me comments and pictures of what you are working on! Have a good week!

No Quilting

I changed my mind about the neutral colours in my Itty Bitty Pinwheels. There is not enough difference between them. I have decided to add a new one. What do you think of the one in the following picture? I think I will replace the one closest to the new fabric. I will have to cut some squares and try it out. I have found taking a picture shows up problems before I notice them when just looking at my design wall. I didn't get any actual sewing done this week. I was too busy working on a crochet project. It is going to be a shawl. It is a dusty blue, that looks nice with blue jeans. The 1st picture shows that it is longer than my bed. The 2nd shows that the ends are on an angle. The 3rd shows the main part of the pattern. I am on row 21 of about 43, so I have about half of the main part done, but after that there are still numerous rounds to add an all around border. This is a project that I picked up at the Creative Festival in Toronto last month. I went exploring Amazon books last week and decided I couldn't do without Yoko Saito's book Japanese Quilting piece by piece (2006), Libby Lehman's Threadplay (1997) and Mary Parker's Sashiko Easy & Elegant Decorative Machine Embroidery (1999). They have all arrived and I am pleased with them. They are the other part of the reason that I didn't get any quilting done this week. I think that I will only be working for another week after this, so should manage to get back to important things like quilting! Have a good week and remember to enjoy whatever you are working on!