Clue #1 Done

It's 10:06 p.m. and I am finally done with Clue #1 of the NYE Mystery!! I'm sure you will notice in the photo that I have a different fabric. I discovered that I hadn't bought a border for this quilt. Visiting another quilt shop to pick up something, I saw the perfect green to go with the red, so the poinsettia fabric will be used in my border. Makes sense. Turns out clue one cut pieces into 2.5 inch squares and this print is better used in a larger element.

Why so late? My Mom's replacement Ipod showed up yesterday and she wanted to fill it. It's an 8 Gb Nano, not the paltry 4 GB one I bought her (used 1st gen nano). Did a pretty good job. I have 5.4 Gb on it now, but it took from about 4 until nearly 9 p.m. to do so. I know she has more music, but that will probably have to wait until I buy a new, larger drive. This hard drive isn't big enough for the both of us (said in a Clint Eastwood mutter). We have 2 large music/audiobook libraries. I plan to buy the new hard drive later this month. Then, I get to reload all her CDs.


This is a lovely emerald green. Sorry, the 'daylight' fluorescent makes this look weird.

New Year's Eve Mystery

I'm participating in the New Year's Eve Mystery quilt-a-long done by Ann and Cal. Yes, I'm a little behind, so it is more like the NYE Weekend mystery. I have my fabrics, photo below. The requirements were a background,2 medium colors and one pop color. Since I didn't get to the precutting during the week, I've opted to do a lap size instead of a full/queen size. I'm primarily using Hoffmann fabrics (half off at the quilt store!). I will post as I get clues done. I know that the rest are already done with clue #2 and are awaiting clue #3, but that's ok. I didn't even have my sewing machine back from getting an adjustment until last night!


L to R: goldish marble, red w/quitlers gold, gold w/quilter's gold, poinsettas on black

If you are interested in participating, the quilt-a-long is at Yahoo Groups. Search for the group at QTMysteryQuilts. There are several other New Year's Day mysteries - I usually enjoy the one at the quilt group at About.com, but won't be doing that this year.

In addition, completely unrelated to quilting, if you know anyone with a 1st generation Ipod Nano, they should know that if they have a metal back, those Ipods are being recalled. In many places, you will be getting an 8 GB 6th generation Ipod (current model) as a replacement as they've run out of 1st generation refurbushed. The recall is ONLY for the Nano due to batteries that potentially catch fire as they get older.

A House A Day

A gal in Scandinavia is spearheading an international quilt-a-long for all of 2012 featuring a little paperpieced house - one for every day of the year and a larger one at the end of the year (to account for the extra day in 2012). She asks that we don't share photos on our blogs until the end of the year, but you can discuss your progress. At my group at QATW, we are going to do a modified block with options for other sizes. For one thing, some of us (me) are terribly paper-piecing challenged. No matter what size you do, be part of a 2012 quilt-a-long and well, quilt-a-long. A free paperpiecing pattern in .pdf form is provided at the link. I've also included it in my buttons at the bottom of the right panel.

Peek-a-boo Bag

Peek-a-boo bag front

Made this bag at a quilting shop class last night. The pattern features a vinyl window so that you can see what it contains. It also has a zippered top and box bottom. I plan to make several more of these to contain my sock projects in safety from my cat.

The bag took 2-3 hours to make the first time out. Now that I know what I'm doing, it can easily be done faster. If you do this bag, a GREAT tip from the instructor is to use a teflon foot for the vinyl. Really helps as the other feet tend to grab on the vinyl and not let go. I'm going to also try it with leather rolling foot. Maybe I'll make a few to sell to help buy the new foot.

Anyway, I really needed this project to get myself going on making bags. Have another class tonight for another bag. Maybe I should join that group that makes a bag every month. How soon would I be overloaded with bags? Hmmm...

Happy Birthday Sis!!

Yes, my sis is now another year older than me. How does that happen you wonder? Well, I stopped advancing in years at 39. So, she's getting up there a little faster than me. I'm also late with her birthday card (again), but that seems to be me these days. I just can't manage deadlines very well. On the plus side, she will be getting a gift this year, but I can't post it until I give it to her.

With that in mind, I am doing the Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt this year. Yes, I'm behind on that, but I dithered over whether to participate because I didn't want to buy a bunch of fabric. My Orca Bay is going to be in holiday colors - red/green and cream with black highlights (I did buy the black since I have none on hand).

I'm making a lot of progress on my 2 HST quilts - Zig Zag and Lady of the Lake (LoTL). I want to get all the rest of the cutting done this weekend and then sew, sew, sew. I might even have one top done by next weekend.

On the knitting front, I'm going to try to do a pair of socks every month. While I love, love, love patterns in socks, you don't really see if unless you are wearing it. So, I'll give the patterns a break for awhile and just get 4 or 5 done.

Grumpy Witch Quilt is DONE!

I always seem to be apologizing for my photos and today is no different. However, I will update these with better photos when the sun comes out.

I finished the Grumpy Witch quilt a couple of days ago. I've been waiting for the sun to come out so that I could take good photos, but, alas, not only is it not out, but the ground is pretty wet as well. So, here it is! I entirely machine stitched the binding using a type of zig zag. Yes, I prefer the hand stitched look, but with bursitis issues, I thought it was time to start learning to do it with the machine. My corners are horrible. I can live with that, but I need to practice on smaller projects so that the next quilt will have better corners. The only thing I regret on this quilt is using a solid black border. Just not something to do when you have cats with white fur. I'll live with it though. The bats came out pretty good. Quilt is about 76x96 inches.


Cat help as always.


Closeup of the quilting. I did modified feathers in sashing and spiderweb in the center witch blocks with a filler stitch in the rest of the block. Thanks again to Leah Day and her wonderful videos for doing filler stitches.

Here's a closeup of the bats that I quilted around the whole border.

I Won!! I Won!! I Won!!

One of my local quilt shops had a drawing to celebrate their 7th anniversary. I won one of the quilts!!! It's called Autumn Braid. The leaf fabric that surrounds the braids is very sumptuous color with quilter's gold. Just makes this quilt sing. This quilt will be going on Mom's bed, at least until Christmas season, which obviously is not far off. I'd really like to find a good place to hang it though. So exciting!! I couldn't believe it. Sometimes my impulse buying of quilting stuff pays off. (he he he )

Quilting Guild Photos

Here's a visit to my quilt shop quilting guild. They are so fast with that camera!! Most of the photos here are either things I admire or plan to make in future (at least one is already in progress).

Recognize this?


Beautiful use of Asian fabrics


One color!!


On my UFO list


Perfect for scrap asian or themed fabrics


How's this for the BACK of a quilt?


This quilter always has the greatest miniature quilts.


A great way for me to use some of those fabulous christmas FQs I haven't used.


This is just to remind me that I bought this pattern just to use up halloween fabric


I am progressing on the Witch quilt. The first row is entirely quilted, the 2nd and 3rd rows partially done. It's going pretty smoothly. I expect the Apple Core Quilt to progress a lot this week - it is part of the QATW UFO project this month as well as having 2 appointments this week (it is, after all, the take-a-long project).

Fall Quilting

I have been progressing steadily since August, sewing 2 7/8 inch squares into Half Square Triangles (HSTs). My container had been so full, that not another scrap of fabric would fit and still close the cover. Here is what is left! Still enough to make a twin sized quilt.



Enjoyed some of the pleasant Fall weather today with a backyard french fry and marshmallow char. Yes, that is the Christmas train in the back.



Leftover bunnies from Easter marshmallows can char nicely.

Here's an example of the crummy meander quilting I did on the Witch quilt. I have now taken all of it out and am in the process of requilting. If I had used orange thread, it would have looked pretty good, but the purple was just awful.

Finished 2009 Block of the Month

Takes me forever, but I can finish a block-of-the-month. This is the 2009 BOM from QuiltingAroundTheWorld.com. I got behind because of computer problems and then once behind, I just didn't get to it.  As part of this month's UFO challenge, I finished the remaining blocks and then the borders and it all looks spiffy now!  Yes, one block is wrong - but I would bet you wouldn't guess which one, so I'm not saying.   I totally loved that turquoise fabric, so paired it with purple.  This is a pretty large quilt roughly 85x101, so quilting will be a challenge. I do plan to put feathers into all those side triangles. Haven't yet decided on the blocks though.  Should I do stitch-in-the-ditch or plan on even more feathers?  Not sure.  Plenty of time to decide.  I hope to finish the binding today and then can put it in the To-Be-Quilted box. Yes, I now have a BOX of flimsies to quilt!  It's not that I have a lot (6?), but I am also making the binding as well as backing (when it gets made in advance) so needed somewhere to contain these parts.

New BOM

Not a lot on the crafting front to report. I decided that I hated the purple meandering on the witch quilt, so I'm taking it all out.  Since I had done about half the blocks, it's taking some time, but I still hope to finish the quilt before Halloween.  I hope to finish the assembly of the QATW 2009 BOM today. 

I just found out about a "There and Back Again" Block of the month.  I totally do not like paperpiecing because I can't get my head around it, but my interest in this BOM is so great, I will TRY my hardest to figure it out.  The BOM just started Oct 5 and the first block is Gandulf.  So, give it a whirl!  I'll be posting any finished blocks here.

Progress on QATW 2009 BOM

Posting during a break while sewing.  It's hot and humid today, so I'm not getting a lot done. Here's a photo of what's was done last night on the QATW 2009 BOM.  I changed the layout slightly (just switching two blocks).  All the flying geese were done long ago and those rows are in partial assembly.  I've sewn a row of flying geese to the first row and have started attaching triangles on the 2nd row.  I need to cut more, but have to wait for Polly to wake from her nap since her napping box is on top of the cutting table. This quilt is also large, so I'm going to be quilting it in several pieces.  Just trying to decide whether two pieces  is going to be too big to manipulate the fabric. Mrs. Trish, the original designer listed that this quilt is 83x101, so you can see why I don't want to do it all in one piece! I still have hopes of completing this today, although I admit, I always underestimate how long it takes to do rows.   The humidity seems to be going down a bit, so I'm hopeful that I might still get some quilting on the Witch quilt yet tonight.

Still Chugging On Old Quilt Projects

This is primarily a month to work on old projects.  I'm happy to report that I finally finished the last block for the 2009 Quilting Around the World Block-of-the-month (QATW BOM).  Happy dance, happy dance!  Still ahead is row assembly, but I should be able to get that done fairly quickly.  The goal is to have a completed top and binding before the end of the month. The quilting on this isn't planned until January.

The Witch quilt is pinned and I plan to start meander quilting on that tomorrow.  I still do a lot of HSTs when I get around to them, but I did start some assembly on the Zig Zag quilt.  All leftovers go into the Lady of the Lake Quilt. Yay! The Apple Core quilt (hand piecing) is chugging right along.  I have 5 rows now complete. I've decided to finish this top before the end of the year, so will start hand piecing while watching TV. I just have to find something I watch that is less action, more dialog oriented. 

Other than that, I've attended a couple of Masters classes for my Bernina.  Trying out more stitches and of course, there are those dozen feet I want (all expensive).  But, I am THRILLED with my machine. Tonight, I decided that the cats were finally over the new machine, so stuck the slide on table on. Sewing is even easier with this wide table.  The cats have a tendency to bite my new toys, such as the corner of my Netbook (the day I bought it).  My stitch card is still a little threatened, but I keep it down so as not to tempt the little creatures.

I have a tip for all of you Kindle owners. I adore my Kindle, but that screen is really delicate!  I was fortunate that Amazon decided to replace my damaged Kindle under warranty (almost a year old).  I tripped (over cat) and grabbed the edge of the Kindle so as not to drop it and it damaged the screen (sob!). It was in the nifty case I had made. Due to this, I am coming up with a new Kindle case design that includes handles.  For now, I will just add a short handle to the cow case because I do love my cows.

I have to mention that I think many of us will feel the loss of Steve Jobs. His visions have changed the world and I for one have benefited from that.  I bought my first Mac, a Mac Plus in 1987.   I still have my Mac Performa 6200CD. Yep, it still works, but I have no mouse now and don't play games any longer, so it's time for it to be recycled (sob).  I had planned to get an Ipad2 this month, but with the Bernina buy, that is on hold. I will just continue with my little Netbook.  (sigh)

Bat Placemats & Recycled Batting

I finished my bat placemats.  Yay!!  I had a fire under me on this because the Guild challenge was to do something 'for the table' and this qualifies and my meeting is tomorrow. So, for once I'm not finishing a holiday thing the last day it is to be used!  I've had this pattern since about 1991 and just knew I HAD to make it.  Cute, cute cute.  I did one with pumpkins on the back because my sister wanted something more 'harvest' like for use in November.  I don't know. Reversed, it still looks like a bat to me. Mine, intended for my teapot, has scarecrows on the back.

Here is one bat.



So, what did I use for the batting in my bat placemats?  Leftover Warm and Natural!  When I have leftovers, I like to use them in Quilt-as-You-Go preplanned projects.  How you connect them depends on the type of batting and the depth.  With Warm and Natural,  I first cut out 7 inch squares and 5 inch hexagons. So, what is left over are narrow batting strips that are usually about 3-4 inches wide.  I even up the strips and zig zag them together.  I take the opportunity to use up bobbins and nearly empty spools of thread with this projec.t  This particular group was mostly leftover from a wallhanging, so I added a couple of pieces to make it large enough to cut out two batts of bats. As nice as it is to use up narrow batting this way, there are limitations on how to use it.  The zig zags do not hold the batting together all that well with any weight even after quilting, so you would want your project to either lay on the table or be hung lengthwise.   All these narrow strips would be very irritating in a quilt and they likely would separate with regular use.

Sometimes you get a little wave in your batting unless you are very precise in your cutting. I'm not that picky, so this often happens on the edges.  You can't leave it this way or your project will never lay flat, even with quilting. Yes, quilting fixes a lot of evils, but not all of them!

Easy to fix.  First, cut where the wave is the highest and fold the edges over each other until your piece is laying flat. Sometimes you can eliminate several waves with just one cut, as I did here.

Next, use your scissors and cut through. You will have a leftover piece on top and on the bottom and your cut edges will match straight.

Finally, zig zag over the cut edges and you are done.

All Fixed now!

My Bernina is Here!!

Ah, yes, joy oh joy!  I love, love, love my Bernina.  I received my Bernina 440 QE earlier this month and WOW, it is so worth every darn dollar.  My favorite feature is the stitch regulator, which I used to finish off the trees in the Pine Grove Quilt, but I was surprised that the little needle up/down button makes sewing so much more pleasant. You press it and the needle goes up or down - one stitch is all you want sometimes and this does it. Another feature I have used a lot is the speed regulator.  Doing applique or really curvy things, I can slow the speed significantly reducing the need to redo sections.

As always, anything new requires special kitty investigation.  Polly just wouldn't quit, so I finally set the box up higher so that she could be ON the box AND look out the window.  I still have parts to get out of the box, such as the wider table piece, but so far, just did without to let her have the darn box.  Yes, Yes, I know, I need to start putting more photos up of the OTHER kitties, but she is far more dedicated to quilting than the other 4.   Sylvester, for instance, only comes in to get a pet and go into the window to look for chipmunks. He does make an excellent quilt inspector - just not so much into the sewing part.

Pine Grove Quilt is DONE!

Finished the Pine Grove quilt last night.  It's about 86x108 inches, so a large queen size.  It was done with mostly Thimbleberries fabrics and Quilter's Dream batting.  This quilt was originally intended as a 50th wedding anniversary quilt for my parents, but quilting such a large quilt was impossible for me at the time.  I was also frustrated to discover that the person who helped me pin it, insisted it was straight, when it was not, so I had to piece one corner on the back to have enough fabric to quilt it.  Grr.  Most of this was quilted using my Brother, but I did all the trees using my new Bernina with the stitch regulator. That alone was worth the price of this machine. Oh my gosh, the results are SO nice.  The original pattern is by Lynette Jensen in the book Thimbleberries Book of Quilts. 

That bright spot in the middle shouldn't be there. It was the sun peaking through tree leaves, I think.  I need to do an additional photograph to show the quilting since it never shows up in the patterned fabric.  Oh, and this is possibly the only quilt that I bought all the fabric for this single project at the same time.  I just knew what had to go together. 

Sadly, my Dad passed away 2 days before their 56th anniversary.  He did see the quilt though I think he preferred the boat wallhanging and train quilt.

New Bernina!!

I have been meaning to post, but I misplaced my SD reader. As a result, I have no photos (sob).

On Monday (a mere 6 days ago), I got a Bernina Aurora 440QE.  Totally love it.  Love it, love it, love it! My first computerized machine and worth every penny.  The only problem I've had is not threading it right, but I'm getting there.  I think it's actually the bobbin going in backwards that is the problem.  The BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) is so worth it.  It made finishing the Pine Grove quilt such a treat!  Also, one little thing it does that I totally love. If you leave the presser foot up, it beeps at you.  Saves a LOT of effort. Unfortunately, this feature doesn't work with the BSR, but you can't get everything.

As for the Brother machine, I will fix the tension and it will be my sewing machine to use for quilter's nights out.  It works fine for piecing. It was quilting that it was horrible at (and which messed with the tension so bad). 

Today, I finished the Pine Grove quilt, but the sun had already gone down so photo and more details tomorrow.  I have made more HSTs done.  I have plenty for the first HST for the first two quilts now. Tomorrow, I'll start cutting the black fabric and assembling blocks. Finally, I now have 3 rows of apple cores sewn together, so this take-a-long project is coming along nicely.

On the knitting front, I am starting a pair of socks called Croakers, as part of the Scarefest Sockfest on Ravelry.  I am confident that I will eventually be able to read a regular knitting diagrams, but if not, there will be plenty of folks to explain it to me. That's it for now. Photos as soon as I find or replace the SD card reader.

Day 13 - The Last Day!

Sis and BIL are home! However, I'm holding off on going home until tomorrow morning so that I can time it right to visit a quilt shop. Also, so that she can harvest stuff like cucumbers in less heat (it was pretty hot by the time they got here).

So, what did I do today? I did the continuous binding for the Pirate Quilt. My sister's counter is so much easier to do the layout and cutting on, that I couldn't miss that opportunity. I wrapped it on a toilet paper roll so that it feeds out nicely when I am sewing. While visiting a blog, one blogger suggested NOT pressing the binding, but folding as you go. This is because one side needs more fabric than the other because of the 'edge'. Make sense. So, I'm going to try it.

My sister found my other sister an old Kenmore for $5 at a sale. While she took it apart, cleaned and oiled it and adjusted the settings, I worked on more HSTs. Hundreds of HST's and the box still looks pretty full, so plenty more to be sewn.

On the left are sewn, but not pressed HSTs that I made this evening. On the right are pressed and dog ear trimmed HSTs. In the center is about 12 yards of bias binding on a roll.

Day 7 - A Trip To Sortof Local Quilt Shops

Today was a change of pace. Picked up my bro and went to Brainerd to visit quilt shops. That's about 45 miles away from where I'm housesitting. You will be impressed on how much I limited my purchases, but it was hard. I still got a few things not on the list with the excuse that I could use it in this quilt or that quilt, but really, I just bought it cuz I wanted it.

So, what did I get? Well, the first 3 pieces are for the kitty cat wallhangings I'm doing. The two marbles are 1/8 inch cuts for inner borders. The polka dot is for the border of one wallhanging. Then we have the popcorn and Dr. Suess pieces. Largest is 1/2 yard, so reasonable. Didn't need them, but they will go into the quilt "My Favorite Things". The kitty cats at a scary movie - No idea what I will use that for. On the bottom is a rooflike fabric for my planned wonky house quilt. Ok.. go ahead and laugh. Get that out of your system. EVERY quilter should one day try to do at least a single house quilt block. If you don't get to it, you don't, but the thought should be there. The last 3 pieces (one doesn't show in the photo) are fat quarters from the new Stonehenge collection from Northcott fabrics. WONDERFUL stuff. I can see buying yards of this stuff for several projects, but I promise - not until I have the project planned out.


Here is my helper Huff. He keeps the chair warm if I get up. Even if all I'm doing is threading the machine and need to get up to move something. Yep. Right there, keeping it warm. He knows he's not allowed in the kitchen chairs. My sister and BIL put stuff in the chairs deliberately to keep him out of them, so that they can sit down without getting their rumps covered in fur. However, he was recovering from a thunderstorm last night, so after taking this photo, I gave him the other chair to sit in. He was much happier. When there isn't a chair for him to sit in, he scoots over and lies on my foot. Yes, the foot that is operating the sewing machine pedal. Huff excels at hampering.

Day 5 - Pirate Quilt Top Done

Yeppers, I finished it. :) I tried to get a closer photo, but had to do everything quick because of the skeeters. They love me. This is my version of what to do with a can't cut it fabric. The size is about 74x96 inches including those 2 inch borders.

Closeup of Fabrics - I bought them at Hancock Fabrics maybe 2 years ago. All 3 were part of the same line and as close to Pirates of the Caribbean as they could get without getting into trouble for licensing. It's called Doom of the Sea by Fabri-Quilt. I still have to make binding. Leftovers? Maybe a pillow? Maybe a tote bag? Knitting needle bag? Pincushion. We'll know soon.



Totally unrelated to my quilting vacation, here's your chance to see the little Vikings pincushion I made with leftovers from the Vikings/Tree quilt I made for sis and BIL a couple years back. Just a simple box pincushion. It lives here at my sister's house. :)

Ok.. so now I'm back to making HSTs. The plan is to work on Bambi quilt all tomorrow. Maybe I'll get that done before it becomes a UFO?