Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. We did nothing exciting but we managed to stay up until midnight. Jack and I have both been sick so not up to doing much. Jack had his usual winter cough for couple of weeks and then came down with the flu on Christmas day. After a trip to the ED he spent the next 3 days being miserable. He is much better now but still has his cough. I did not get the flu but have a sinus infection that is resolving.

Yesterday I felt restless after being house bound and not feeling up to doing much. I dragged out the "made fabric" kitty blocks I started in November.  I finished 9 blocks and put them together and finished a little wall hanging. This is not going to be for the cat to sit on. I am going to hang it on the sewing room wall above my sewing machine. Kitty has enough quilts to sit on and I need the color and whimsy on my sewing room wall.

Since our move I have not done a lot of quilting and have had occasional thoughts of packing up all my quilting paraphernalia and putting my sewing room to better use.

However....... I think I need to get things organized better so that I do not get discouraged before I even start. I had done a good job of packing for the move in order to get things set up easily. But my stuff took a back seat to getting other things done and I brought out things that I needed and then put them away in temporary places. Well you can guess how well that has worked out. I can't find a lot of things.
After the Christmas decorations are packed up again and put away, I will be going through everything and purging and rearranging. I have a Diva challenge to think about and a memory quilt and a wedding quilt to make. There is a retreat coming up with the group from church and the annual Jelly Roll Race in February. I really need to connect with real live quilting friends. In the meantime I will continue check out all the blogs I have found inspirational and when the obstacles are gone I hope I will be back to feeling creative again..

Tree Skirt - Getting There

I am slowly making progress on the tree skirt. I had all the wedges laid out in the order I wanted to sew them in pairs. after all the pairs are sewed together there is always some adjusting to be done when something shows up that didn't before sewing. I kept everything in order pretty well but then when I sewed the pairs into 4's I got the order mixed up and I had to lay everything out again on my bed (no design wall yet). Every time I sewed a few more seams I checked to see how it looked and made some more adjustments. I finally sewed the last seam and I see that there are a couple of places that have two patches of the same color next to each other. They are not the same prints so it will stay the way it is.  After all "Random is Random" and after all my arranging and rearranging and getting things out of order it sure is random.

This is half of it pinned to a design board. Behind it is one of my bulletin boards, foam core covered with gray flannel. I covered my boards with gray because a couple bloggers, who seem knowledgeable about photography, said that if you have some gray pinned to the design wall or photographing area the colors are more true. My photos with the gray behind the tree skirt look more like the real thing than the photos without the gray.

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MEH Tribute/Challenge

The Wildwood Quilt guild in Mentor, Ohio had their annual quilt show on Sunday. It has always been a very nice show and it was again this year. Several of the Basement Diva group are members of the guild and though not all of the Divas are members of Wildwood, our tribute to Mary Ellen Hopkins was hung at the show. Mary Huey, the owner of the quilt shop where we all took the "It's OK if You Sit on my Quilt" classes and continued with the "It's OK Neighborhood meetings, was also invited to hang her Mary Ellen quilts with the rest of the challenge.





This was the first chance I had to get a photo of my quilt after it was quilted.








Below is a collage of the rest of the MEH quilts. I think we all learned a lot from Mary Ellen and probably there are a large number of us who would not be quilting today it it were not for her. We also owe a lot to Mary Huey.

Here is a collage of the rest of the MEH tribute quilts; I think I got them all.

Retreat

Six of us from the quilt group at church went to our annual retreat at a YMCA camp in NW Pa. We met there on Friday and got settled in our rooms in a nice lodge just across the lawn from our work area. We had a lovely big room to work in,with big windows on 3 sides and enough space for triple the number of people who attended.

 This was the view from the windows at the end of the room.

Most of our meals are in the dining hall right across from our sewing/quilting room.
We have our meals with whoever is camping there that week end. It has usually been the Father/Daughter week end for the the Y Indian Guides and it was again this year. It is nice to just walk across the hall and have our meals without having to cook or go out somewhere. The food is not gourmet but it is adequate and we have no complaints. Friday there is no dinner served so we bring something for a pot luck meal.

Everyone was productive. Betty, Dorine and Cathy are show their with their projects below each of them.




























Betty and Cathy each worked pretty steadily on one project, a double 4 patch for Betty and a Judy Neidemier paper piece project for Cathy. Dorine had 4 projects,  2 that were finishes and 2 that she started. This is a T shirt quilt that she started Saturday from her fathers Bald Eagle T shirts. Her Dad passed away this past year and she is making this for her mother.

Elaine, on the left, had more than one project too. She made a baby quilt from a kit and applied binding to another quilt and made these "Take 4" batik placemats.
Kim worked on one project all weekend. She had a lot more blocks in more colors that she finished after I put my camera away.
































I layered up my Mary Ellen Hopkins Basement Diva challenge; it was great to have 4 tables pushed together to work on. I made "Take 4" placemats too; I didn't finish them at the retreat but I did finish them today. Somehow, I managed to make one of them 1/2 inch wider even though I trimmed them all very carefully. I know how I did it. I decided they all needed to be just a bit smaller and I was interrupted after the first one and I had not written down the measurement. So..... when I got back to to trimming, I just went ahead and cut without checking.

There is no photo of me but if you look closely I am reflected in the window behind Betty while shooting her photo.

A Finish

I wasn't sure I would get this finished this month but I kept the room set up to quilt and did it a little at a time. It should have gone faster but I had other things taking up my time.

I can't get near my design wall to hang this up to get a full picture but you can see the way it is quilted. I have used the #4 stitch on the Bernina for years to quilt across a plain square or rectangle, sometimes with variegated thread to add a little interest. I have also used it for the binding on juvenile or whimsical  quilts. I never thought of using it for parallel lines until I saw Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter use it that way on a Churn dash quilt. I was really at a loss over how to quilt this. I did not want to free motion quilt it or quilt in the ditch. I thought free motion would be too busy and in the ditch would be physically intensive. For several reasons, I wasn't sure I wanted to quilt parallel rows of straight lines either. When I saw Amy's quilt I thought "why not". At about 1/3 of the way I was sure I hated it but I kept going and now that it is finished I like it. My rows could be straighter but this is a very forgiving technique.






This is the back and there really is no hint of green in the backing fabric. It is a nice cheerful  yellow with orange lines. I had to improvise when I pieced the back because I did not buy enough fabric (Same old story, different quilt). Now I am happy that I didn't have enough fabric. Necessity is the mother of more interesting quilts.
Below are a couple of close up shots. I thought at first that the quilting was too scribbly and overshadowed the blocks but I don't think so after all. You can see in the close up on the right how I quilted the HST border.

 I have to mention one of the best tools I have found in a long time.

Saturday I went to a NEORQC (North East Ohio Regional Quilt Council)  meeting. I won a small bucket of goodies. I can always use more basting pins and another little snipping scissors. I have wanted to try piping hot binding and now I have a tool and an instruction booklet and some cord. There is fabric with instructions for a 10 minute table runner that I am sure the little great grandsons will like. Best of all is the "Seam Fix" Seam ripper. The instructions say to use the seam ripper to cut the threads and then with the tip on the cap rub over the seam and it will pick up all the stray thread. IT WORKS! I am not a gadget person but this is one that I am in love with. Picking out all those threads is the worst part of ripping a seam.

More finishes and a repair

I haven't accomplished much organizing and purging in the last few days. For one thing, we were pet sitting from early Tuesday afternoon until late Wednesday afternoon. We stayed with my daughter's dog and cat at their house while they took a short get away trip. My son dropped off his dog too as they will be away until Sunday. The dogs are well behaved and the cat is no trouble; we all enjoyed being outside while I raked a ton of Oak leaves out of the flower beds.
Before we went out to pet sit I finished another 2 things that I came across as I was sorting through my boxes. I had cut out a Grab Bag purse (click on link for tutorial from All People Quilt) about 3 years ago and never finished it so I whipped that together in a short time.


 I made one for myself about 3 years ago for a summer purse and it was great to have something that I didn't have to fuss with to keep the strap on my shoulder. I don't load it down with anything really heavy because it is small so it just hangs on my wrist and I can use my hands without having to hold on to it. I put pockets inside this one with a little button flap to keep a phone and billfold from falling out. I'm not sure what I will do with this one, maybe give it to one of my granddaughters.

The other thing I finished was a pair of  Square Oven Mitts  from a Bolt Neighborhood blog tutorial. I made these for all the ladies in the family 2 years ago and I had some extra ones that I had started but never finished. My granddaughter said she set hers down on what she thought was a cold burner and burned holes in hers; these will go to her. I also set one of mine down on the stove so I will finish the other extra pair I have for myself.


The only thing I accomplished today was to repair some worn areas on this quilt. That plaid square next to the red patch on the bottom row is appliqued over a worn patch. there were only a few places that needed repair this time but I repaired a lot of the squares 2 years ago. They were all plaid fabric that I won at a Roberta Horton lecture about 20 years ago. All of the worn squares were in the corners of the quilt where Jack  puts his foot on the outside of the bed covers. He has rough dry feet that have been hard on the corners of the quilt. This photo below is the only one that I can find of the quilt. It is hand quilted, 108 inches square and  symmetrical; the blocks are 12 inches. That light area is just glare from the flash and the color in the photo above is closer to the true color. It is not so light and bright; this was made in 1996 and the fabric at that time was kind of gray and dull. I named this Jack's quilt because, with some prompting from me, he said it was wonderful so I told him it was his quilt. It is the only large quilt we sleep under as it has poly batting and it is light weight. Now that it had been repaired again it will go back on our bed in the cold weather. I think that will make Jack happy and it will make me happy because he uses Gold Bond foot cream at night and wears socks to bed in the winter. (That was his own decision not something I told him to do Honest!)

Jellyroll Finish

I finished my 2014 Jellyroll quilt a few days ago. the top shot has it on the floor and below is over the back of the couch where it will live from Memorial Day until Labor day. Well at least until sometime in July or August when we will be moving and then I'm not sure where it will live for the summer months when I usually put out all my red, white and blue quilts because all the summer holidays are patriotic.



These next 4 photos show some of the steps for attaching my binding by machine. Not shown are the first 2 steps where I press from the front first, pressing away from the body of the quilt and then I turn it over and fold the binding down to cover the stitches and press again. Shown below, I trim away the ravelings on the edge and clean it up with a lint roller , then I insert a 1/4 inch strip of Wonder-under or  Stitch Witchery and press the binding over the fusible strip making sure the stitches are covered. I either stitch in the ditch from the front with a straight stitch or use the Bernina #4 stitch right on the inside edge of the binding; that is what I did here. I quilted with red, white and blue thread using the wavy lines in both directions.

A Finish

I finished the "Take Four" placemats and I really like them. I like the nice soft colors and the pretty floral prints and enjoyed working with them.
I used to work with floral prints all the time and  then I  decided that I wanted to do  something different and made up my mind to use up all my floral prints. I even gave away my whole collection of mostly floral colorwash 2 inch squares. I am not sorry about the 2 inch squares but I miss  floral fabrics in my stash.
Actually I don't have much of a stash anymore. I have been trying to use it all up and I am making progress.  I have been fairly successful at sticking to my resolution to only buy what I am going to use for something I am working on or plan to start as soon as I get home with my fabric.

Lately, I have been feeling as though I am in a rut 

 and I think I am ready to switch gears.

I wonder where this will lead,

 if anywhere.

A Finish

I finished my little 24 inch square table topper today. I had the  machine quilting and the binding done a few days ago but I couldn't decide how to quilt the four 4 inch plain light squares.  In the end I "big stitch"  hand quilted it with 2 stands of hot pink and 1 strand of yellow embroidery floss. After I decided to hand quilt it I agonized over how to mark it (I always have to agonize over something). I wanted my petals to be even and when I practiced drawing them on paper they looked pretty bad. I used EQ to draw one petal and used the  EQ Wreathmaker  tool to get the 5 petals even. I printed it and cut it out and traced it onto a piece of pressure sensitive label paper and cut that out for a tracing template that would stick in place while I traced. I used a "Sewline" water erasable marking pen to trace around the template. I love that pen and am so happy someone told me about it. I had tested it to make sure the marks would come out and then pressed the test area with a hot iron and no marks came back.


I Quilted in the ditch around the blocks and around the squares in the blocks  centers and also in the  ditch around all the patches in the made fabric center squares. I used 2 rows of stitching with the #4 Bernina stitch in the all of the sashings.
I had cut some  striped fabric for the binding but it just didn't look right. With no border on a small piece it seemed to need a fabric that was already there. So, I pieced together some  strips of the yellow for the binding and it looks just right to me.

I think that this little piece has a 30's look although there is no 30's fabric in it anywhere.

Signs of Spring and a Finish

It started snowing Saturday afternoon and it came down continuously until sometime after we went to bed. this is what we awakened to Sunday morning. There was at least 6 inches of snow on top of the car, so much for spring. But wait, look at that nice blue sky and in the photo on the right I can see that the leaf buds getting larger every day.



 As for the snow on the car, the sun was out and the heavy snow slid right off with little effort and the streets were all clear as they had been plowed during the early hours. Today the snow around our building has diminished to the point of showing big areas of lawn.

 I finished the binding on the auction quilt from Quilt Camp 2013 and I went over it to make sure all the threads were trimmed and buried and I went over it again with the lint roller. I didn't want to put it on the design wall which is covered with threads and lint and I didn't want to lay it out on the floor so here is just one corner on the dining room table . I used the Kona Bone binding and I hope it will appeal to someone besides me.

These shots are of the  machine finished binding; the color of the border is correct in the photo on the left.

The lower photo shows 2 of the corners on the back. It looks like there is net or tulle over the fabric but that must be from the angle that I held the camera. I am pretty satisfied with my new method of sewing the binding to the front and then using Stitch Witchery to  fuse it down on the back before stitching in the ditch right next to the binding on the front. There was a 2 inch area, on one side, where the binding did not get caught on the back.  I stitched it down by hand rather than go over it with the machine. Maybe next time I will get it perfect, maybe not.

 I sewed my nine blocks of made fabric together this morning. I had auditioned several fabrics for the border and settled on a stripe that has all the colors used in the body of the piece. When I put it on the table to check for the size I want for the borders I could see that if I put any borders on at all it will be a rather awkward size to use on the table at a 90 degree angle. The two side corners would stick out a few inches but not enough to hang down. So, I am just going to bind it with the stripe. The colors remind me of Easter egg colors so I think I will finish this up and use it for a couple of weeks. It is nice and spring like so I might use it until I put out my patriotic quilts for the summer.

A Finish and an Experiment

I  finished a little 24 inch table topper (I guess that is what it will be) this weekend. I saw the tutorial  for these blocks at Film in the Fridge about 2 years ago. I cut a lot of strips from Kona Bone and from my bright fabrics and I made 4 blocks. I really like the blocks and I loved the quilt Ashley made but I did not like the process. I am not fast anyway but with these blocks I was really slow. There were the extra steps sewing the Kona strips to the colored strips and all the decisions about what width to use next. I was not so red hot sewing straight seams either as my blocks were kind of bowed out on the sides. However I liked the blocks too much to not finish something. I went to the quilt show at Lake Farmpark on Friday and I was going to get a lime green fabric for the binding but I got side tracked and didn't get any so I used Kona Bone, which was my alternate choice. I use that often on bright quilts; I like the nice clean look of the off white with the bright colors.

While at the Farmpark and checking out all the vendors I came across some yarn that caught my interest. The woman in the booth had a black knotted scarf made from the yarn and I bought some black for me and some beige for my daughter.  You can see here the steps I took to the finished scarf.

  At home, I went to the Bernat website and looked at the instructions for the knotted scarf and then I looked up thread scarfs make with Sulky Solvy and decided to go in a that direction. The skein of yarn had about 5 different types of yarn that were tied together. They were not as easy to take apart as I thought they would be and I ended up with a tangled mess that I finally got separated. I cut about 50+ inches of Sulky Solvy and taped it down and proceeded to lay out stands of  yarns, one strand at a time. When  they were all used up I covered them with another layer of Solvy and pinned them and started stitching in crosswise rows; that was beyond boring. When I finished with all the stitching I washed out the Solvy and rolled it in a towel and hung it on a hanger to dry. I am not in love with it but I don't hate it and I learned something, so I am calling this an experiment. I wish I had left out the white treads they were sparkly and pretty in the knotted scarf but not so much in this one. Next time I will tape the ends of the yarn so they stay straighter and I think I might not stitch my rows so close together.

Will I wear it?

 Maybe!

Maybe I will wear it Tuesday

If it doesn't snow.

A finish

The weather cooperated on Monday and I was able to pick up my Bernina. It is running well and it seems that all of the issues have been taken care of. After dinner Monday I started quilting this little quilt that was all  layered up and I almost finished quilting it on Monday. It is so nice to have the knee lift on the Bernina again. I set it aside yesterday and got back to it this morning to finished it up.









 I used this orange fabric for the backing and binding. I bought this last year for backing for another quilt and I didn't like it. I didn't like it for the quilt for which I bought it but I also didn't like it at all. I had 6 yards of it and I used a little bit of it for scrappy Many Trips Around quilt and didn't like it there either and only used a couple of strips. I gave  away half of what I had left and when I was looking for a back for this quilt I thought it was a good way to get rid of  use up the rest of it. I still have a piece 14" by WOF and now guess what. I like it A LOT. I guess it just needed the right quilt to show up it's bright cheerfulness.

These shots show how I quilted it with the Bernina #4 stitch which I also used on the binding.
I had planned to use a variegated thread in primary colors but ran across this bright citrus colored thread and with the orange  binding and backing it was a better fit.
I  finish all of my binding by machine any more. It is easier on my old hands. I used to sew it on the back and turn to the front but lately I sew it on the front and turn it to the back and fuse it down with 1/4 inch Stitch Witchery. Then I stitch it on the machine from the front. I either stitch in the ditch, for a more serious quilt, or for something more whimsical I use the #4 Bernina stitch. I am very pleased with the results. Today I ran out of 1/4 inch Stitch Witchery and I cut 1/4 inch strips of Wonder Under and peeled away the paper before I tucked it under the binding and it worked well too.