Netbooking!

I'm happy to report that I now have a netbook and a WiFi hotspot. This means that I can finally be connected in my quilting area. I will no longer have to print out directions for one block - I can just view on the computer as I go along. More importantly, I can do step-by-step videos close to where I am working and in lighting that allows me to see my stitches.

I have a 160 meg Acer Aspire One. The only complaints I have is that the keyboard is a tad awkward (just a teeny bit smaller keyboard) and it just sucks, and I means sucks, fingerprints, lint and cat fur to every single place with black. In other words, the whole thing except the screen. So, this poor thing already looks likes it's been heavily used for several months and I've only had it a day and a half.

I also have a used serger, given to me by an employee of Hancock's who no longer used it. I had to buy a new foot pedal and bring it in for a once over since it was in a garage for 15 years, but now I'm ready to serge. It is a SergeMate Companion 5040. You've probably never heard of it. I hadn't. Not so easy to thread, but hey, the goal was to discover if I was really going to USE a serger. If so, I can upgrade.

I haven't done much sewing for a couple of days while I prepare to do a couple of projects. In addition to a few clothing projects, I also bought Bambi fabric for a quilt for my Mom (Bambi is her favorite Disney movie) and another yard of another green to let Mom decide which to use for her Spring quilt so I can get that binding attached! For the Bambi quilt, I already know what pattern to use, but need to do the fussy cutting to determine if I need anymore to complete the quilt. The fabric won't be there long.

That's it for now. Typed to you using the new Netbook.

Quilt Came Home!!

I am happy to report that the Garden Party quilt came home today. Julie Ann did a great job of quilting it. It's a custom job and has lots of little details. Looks very whimsical. Now, on to making binding. It usually takes me a week to make binding, attach binding, sew to back, so possible photo soon. I also have a Friendship Star quilt that is getting quilted by another quilter. I expect that to arrive before the end of the month.

I am continuing my NO BUY for quilt fabric for yet another month or two. The next two or three quilts that I may send in to be quilted already have backing fabric, so other than binding, I really don't NEED any fabric. The real tough part is to not join any swaps. I just can't buy any fabric. There is one swap that is going on with flying geese that doesn't require me to buy any fabric at all, but I've fallen behind in my goals for stuff I already have, so am trying to resist.

I have 9 hearts left for the Hearts quilt. That project is in a bit on a slowdown, but I'm still hoping to finish the applique process this month. Have another 2 hour plus appointment to bring relative to on Friday, so no matter what, there will be progress. I still have the tennis elbow, so after I complete the hearts appliques I will move on to continue to piece an apple core quilt for my take-a-long project. Hopefully, I will be again able to knit or crochet in April sometime.

Completed Quilt Tops remaining to be quilted:

Barbie Quilt - to be sent out
Star Wall quilt
Pyramid quilt - dithering whether to send out or not
Courthouse steps
Small Halloween wallhanging - it's in a safe place. I just don't know where.
Pine Tree Quilt - in progress
Witch quilt

Expected tops to be finished this year:
Road To Ahs
2 Halloween Wedding Ring quilts
Japanese quilt (to be tied)

Electronic Cozies

I had a need and made something using STASH!! I got a Kindle and am concerned about scratching the screen when I toss it into my purse. I also have needed a custom armband for my Ipod for ages. I've had this cow fabric since the early 90s. Too thin for a quilt but didn't know what to use it for (it's darn cute). I decided to make a cover for my Kindle and an arm band for my Ipod Nano. Not perfect, but very cute. Less than 1/2 yard of fabric for both with enough left over to make perhaps one more small cozy.



You can see the insides below. Let me tell you my mistake so that you don't repeat it. I made the Kindle Cozy with 2 layers of cow fabric using leftover batting (Warm & Natural). Sewed into a nice rectangle. Folded it up and sewed down. Did not take into consideration that no matter how slim the case is, you still need to allow for that depth. At least I figured this out before I sewed it down, so sewed about 1/8 inch further in on either side. It still looks good, but if you want it perfect, that last fold should be a little wider, say about 1/4 inch.

As for the Ipod Nano holder, I did not line the holder and I think I think I will do that next time. Just gives it a more finished feel. I made a loop on the back to thread the armband through and to make adjustment easier. First time I took it off, the case fell right through and on to the floor. So, I need to tack the band to the case. Lesson learned. Now I can wash dishes and work on projects without the Ipod falling or getting all tangled up in the earphone cords. I want to make one more case, large enough to fold the headphones into a pocket for taking along in my purse.

Slow Getting It Done

Still suffering from that evil tennis elbow issue (and I haven't played in years). So, no knitting or crocheting yet, and a lot of quilting is on hold. However, most every day I have been appliqueing away on Hearts. I have 15 hearts left to applique before I can start assembling this quilt. This will end up being roughly a full sized quilt. Obviously going well. My points...well, that's another story. However, I decided I can live with rounded points rather than redo. They look pretty good from 10 feet away.

I have decided on the patterns for the next two Hawaiian blocks and hope to get them cut out and basted down this week. Since the tennis elbow continues, I also need to cut out the background panels for the Dresden Plate quilt - some piecing, mostly applique. I can manage a few cuts before the elbow screams 'Not Happening!" That will be my next appointment project when the hearts are done. The Hawaiian blocks are just a little too complex for wonky lighting at a medical office and besides, I have several audio books to get listening to.

OK.. that's about it. There will be some updated photos next posting!

New Year's Resolutions

Last year, my resolutions worked pretty good until around September. No complaints there - I accomplished a lot until then. So, here's the 2011 resolutions.

1. Do something quilty every day for at least a few minutes.
2. Complete 6 Halloween tops.
3. Sell or trade 60 craft books and patterns (part of library reduction)
4. Yarn NO BUY for crocheting (need to finish projects!)
5. Complete all sock UFOs
6. NO BUY on fabric except BOM, backgrounds and backing or to finish a project.

Quite honestly, number 6 is clearly my biggest problem, but I plan to pay someone else to quilt 2 or 3 of my quilts and the money has to come from somewhere. By not buying fabic, I can afford it. I would like to do something knitty every day, but due to the tennis elbow (both elbows!), I can't even knit now.

This year, I am also making a goal of getting rid of 2011 items. I have way too much stuff and need to cut back. I'm making a blog of it just to keep me going.

A Finish!

Finished a project!! In the nick of time!! Here's the Take-a-Long Granny square afghan that I've been working on. It's about 45x65 inches (standard afghan size) and based on a photo of a kit that I saw in the Mary Maxim catalog. I used Red Heart yarn in white, sage, time and dusty rose. Yep, it's a scrap afghan. I plan to gift it sometime in January.


Bad photo- it's just been dim and dark outside. I'll replace this with a better photo when I can.

Another Top Done!

Finished the Garden Party top last night. The blocks are from a swap at QATW. I made the bee, dragonflies, ladybug and bunny. It's roughly 75x85 inches. I'm going to have someone quilt it in January, so this will get done early! I'm now going to work on finishing the 2009 BOM. The final 6 blocks have been cut out, but it is putzy piecing, but I still am hoping to get it done before the end of the year. I plan to send both Garden Party and the 2009 BOM out to be quilted. Quilting is not really my favorite part of the project, and I just want to get some of these done.

Snow, snow, snow!

Finally got our puffy winter snow last night. It was a shame I had to drive through it, but not too bad. So today is mostly going to be shoveling out.

Yesterday, I brought my Dad for an all day appointment and got quite a bit done on the granny afghan. I'm on the final row, which of course takes the longest. I'm doing a 9 triple crochet scalloped border. Nearly done with 2 sides, so for certain will have this project done within the next week. I did about half of sewing in ends already, so that won't take as long as usual.

In between, I need to spend some time doing mending. Yes, non-hobby stuff, darn it. ;)

Garden Party Almost

A UFO project is progressing! I've been working on finishing this swap top called Garden Party from Spring 2009. That pieced sashing takes FOREVER. I think I went through 5 short audio books to finish it. Still to do are the borders (and a better photo). I'm definitely thinking of tying this quilt, since the idea is to use it in the Spring (in March, we still have snow, usually). On the other hand, the quilting on this would be pretty simple - just another large quilt to mostly meander on.

Crocheting Near Finish!

Just thought I'd show you some progress on the crochet front. Here's a photo of the Granny Square afghan. I've completed the body. I still need to work in ends and then do the edging. I plan to make some crocheted kitties to attach and personalize this afghan. This is just brainless crochet for someone as experienced as I am, but it sure looks nice. I still have a LOT of leftover green and pink, so yes, I'll be making another one. I cannot BELIEVE how many skeins I bought thinking I wouldn't have enough and of course, Mom then wanted a change of green. I don't know who the final afghan will go to, but it will be my main project in December. I still cannot knit due to my arm pain, so a good time to work on the project.

I use a BASIC GRANNY SQUARE pattern and change colors every row. I'll include more instruction when I finish the afghan. Right now, I'm thinking of going with my favorite scall0ped edging. I'm going to first consider some of the edging options in 50 Crocheted Afghan Borders. I was hoping for something more like a flat braid, but using an H hook, that doesn't always work in a larger size. We'll see. I'll experiment tonight.

Disarming

Well, injured arm anyway. Last week, I fell on the patio rushing around so that I could get to the fabric store before it closed. Didn't seem like a problem in the hour after I fell. It has been a big problem all week. I still can't use a rotary cutter. Picking up a 6x24 inch ruler with the right hand -nuh uh...not happening. Today was the first day I could crochet, and it hurt some, but I got quite a bit done.

So, I decided to focus on applique and machine sewing things already cut out for the weekend. I hope to post some finished blocks tomorrow and Sunday. Lots of snow expected. I'm staying in with my cocoa.

Halloween Cut Outs

As mentioned yesterday, I'm hard at work cutting out two Halloween Wedding Ring quilts. I've finished 82 insides and between 250 and 300 melons. I need 96, so I'm almost done. I hope to finish cutting those tonight and then will move on to cutting the semi-solid arcs to make two samples. I'm not sure if I will be using yellow or orange for the arcs. I have no shortage of both. I'm thinking red for the 4 patches (appear when you assemble blocks). I'm using the Double Wedding Ring template set from Shar Jorgenson (now sold by Omnigrid) and it really makes cutting this out quick, easy and accurate! If you get this set, consider getting something that applies to one side to prevent movement of fabric or your melons will shift as you cut.

Surprisingly, there was a lot less fabric waste than I'm accustomed to when doing fussy cutting for a large quilt. The melons don't have to be spot on like the center piece. After cutting out pieces for my Halloween version of Lucky Stars (Atkinson Designs), the remainder will go into a string quilt. I really thought I would have TONS of leftovers with this project given how much Halloween fabric I do have, but honestly, I'm not going to have any of the quilt shop fabric left and much of the Debbie Mumm will also be used up. So, it is looking like 5 quilts will use up all 96 yards plus I may have to buy backing for one quilt. The 5 quilts are: Witch quilt (top done), Spider quilt (top 50% done), 2 Wedding Ring quilts, 1 Lucky Stars quilt and MAYBE a sampler lap quilt depending on the remainders. My biggest concern right now is that because I have none of these quilts done, and all the nicer fabrics already cut, what am I going to use to cover the table where we give out treats this year?


I want you to know how tough it was to cut a lot of these can't-cut-it-fabrics! I may need beer to get through the next one.

Cutting, Cutting, Cutting

My hand is starting to get a tad sore from cutting for 2-3 hours every day. The big moment finally arrived and I have started cutting into my can't-cut-it Halloween fabric! I'm cutting for 3 quilts - 2 Wedding Rings and 1 Lucky Stars. I need 96 inner rings and have cut about 72. Most also have 4 matching melons to complete the circle, but I know I'll have to use some random fill-in for that. Katier825 over at the Quilting Board provided me the cutting dimensions for Lucky Stars after I misplaced my pattern. It's here somewhere, but at least I can cut.

I had a lot of advance on the crochet project last week due to chauffeuring my Dad to the ER and then his subsequent appointments. Several appointments next week as well, so this project is going along pretty fast. I do want to gift it before the end of the year, so that works for me.

My sock knitting for the annual Sock Scarefest came to a sudden stop, alas. I'm having a little trouble with hand control. Temporary problem, but sometimes it's just best to set stuff down and ignore it for a couple of weeks and then pick it up again. I won't win any prizes, but I have the patterns and the finished sock will be a prize. Speaking of socks, while I am so-so on the LOOK of these socks, they are OH so comfortable and warm. I speak of Baba's Bed Socks made with Woolease. I have large feet (10W), and with my somewhat loose knitting, the size is perfect. They stay on. They don't wrinkle. They fit snugly. Try them! I finished these last April so only wore them a couple of times, but I really appreciate them now that it's getting cold. I plan to make another pair using more leftovers from a completed afghan. The only disadvantage is that two of my cats love the Woolease afghan and love these socks. I often find them in the hallway at night. Cat toys. Who would have thought?

Crocheting and Cat Beds

A 3-4 hour appointment turned into 5.5 hours of solid crocheting. As a result, I was able to get nearly 3 of the large squares done last week. Each large square is about 14 inches and the entire length is roughly 43 inches. Once all the rows are done, I think I'll finish the edging in scallops. I love scallops.



I have a lot of cat help at most times. But what they really do is sleep. Everywhere. All day long unless you are working on something and then they help. Their current favorite sleeping bed are the 2 boxes from the grocery store.
It's not like they don't have other beds. Its there. It's a cardboard box. I'm going to sleep in it.

Cleo-Claudine and Bart (he's the all black one). Cleo and Bart tend to sleep together. Bart is very much a mama's boy. See that ugly chair in the back? I'm hoping to refinish it before it snows. Gotta buy some paint stripper this week.


Polly in grocery cardboard boxes. Too tired to even look up.



Here's the cat bunk bed. I think this photo was taken last Spring. From top to bottom is Bart, Cleo-Claudine, and Sylvester.


Here's Polly sleeping in a chair. Too funny.


We bought these beds for about $6 at Walgreens. Polly was in it so quick, I didn't even have the tag off! This is their winter livingroom bed.

Crocheting Afghan Again

Well, today I'll show you progress on the crocheting project. This is the my take-a-long project granny afghan. It's based on a photo for a kit sold at Mary Maxim. After getting my leftovers from the rose afghans together, I realized that I had only 3 skeins of white and 5 or more of rose and green, so my color arrangement had to vary.



Here's a closeup. Threading in the ends is always such a pain in the neck. So, I just stick in DVDs and watch movies or series while threading in. Star Trek Next Generation is good for this since I've already seen most episodes before, although some were so long ago, I've forgotten them. I'll have to start crocheting the larger blocks now. I do want to finish this afghan (as well as the Ladybug afghan that continues to linger) before the end of the year.

After I finish these two projects, I have 5 more afghan projects for which I have yarn. Planned projects include a dragonfly afghan, an Irish Rose pillowghan, Winnie the Pooh, and an animal afghan.

2009 BOM progress

Yes, you read that right. I'm working on the 2009 Block of the Month from QATW board. I got behind when first the printer failed and then the computer. Since the pattern information for the blocks will likely disappear in January, I thought it was time to get a move on. I have completed all the flying geese parts. Here is the first panel. That first block may get replaced. I couldn't figure out why I had two of them, and now that I can see that the white edging just disappears, I remember why I had made a second one. Oh well. I have six blocks still to make and then complete assembly.



The quilting on the Pine Grove quilt has halted temporarily while I take some bad stitching out.

Template Free Applique

Usually, when I post a new technique, it's because I tried it. I haven't yet, but I am so awed by this applique technique that I wanted to post a link so that you can see this wonderful step-by-step tutorial on it. This is template free applique and the method is just ingenious. I am definitely going to try this on one of my Hawaiian applique blocks that have multicolors.

Template Free Applique

Puff - A Sad Day

My sister's cat Puff died yesterday. He was about 10 years old. He was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months ago and we knew he didn't have a long time. He was finally losing his battle and it was just time to go. Puff the Cat God, also known as the Guardian of the Water Bowl and Keeper of the White Rump Spot was a dedicated quilt inspector whenever I housesat. He and his catmates always made sure that no block went unnoticed.

Here is the Cat God preventing the Barbie Quilt from moving in 2006.


Here's my sister's other 3 cats. That cat in the front is Huff, Puff's brother, followed by Ptolomy and the all black spot in the back is Spitty.

A Loss To the Quilting World

Bonnie Lehmann passed away on the 5th of September. It is because of Bonnie and one of the cover quilts she designed for her magazine Quiltmaker that inspired me to take up quilting in the first place.

Here's a link to additional information on Bonnie.

This photo is the finished quilt of the inspiring cover. My first quilt. The instructions were so clear for someone who had nobody else to ask. As I recall, this pattern came out before rotary cutters became available in my area (1992). I really need to take a better photo of this quilt - it predates my digital camera.

This was my second finished bed quilt - Also from the cover of a Quiltmaker Magazine. I believe both patterns were designed by Bonnie. Both of these quilts were done by me while still a beginner.

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Tropical Quilting?

My chances of returning to a tropical paradise are slim to none, but I've decided to try Hawaiian quilting finally. I actually started a Hawaiian Style Quilt-a-long over at Quilting Around the World (secretly it is so I can get tips) for encouragement while I work on all these large blocks. Anyway, here is my first block all basted and ready to start appliqueing. Elizabeth Root's instructions were very good and this first one came out correct the first time. Well, pretty close anyway. It's all basted and I'll start doing some of the needleturn tomorrow. The final block will be around 18 inches square - these are based on designs for pillows, but I plan to put them in a quilt, so just a lot of large blocks. I definitely need to make my backgrounds smaller. Didn't think of that when I cut it out.



I've also been completing swaps. I've finished the Goose In the Pond swap, round 1. I also completed the Spooky Attic Windows swap. Here are my participant block! I figured nobody else would have these fabrics as all but one or two are pretty old. Remember, I mentioned before that I had like 97 yards of Halloween fabric? You don't get that over night. Takes several years of collecting! See those orange and black ghosts? I think that fabric must be at least 12 years old (Bernatex). Couple of Debbie Mumm plus a 1930s repro-like fabric. This was my style of the Attic Windows pattern. Two strips of black. Easy. Not sure if I will participate in the Goose In The Pond Round 2 - I've hit that time of year where everything is a struggle, so I think I will focus on things that don't require a deadline. I can meet that.