Mostly Monday

Some Mondays, I get to quilt with some good friends, the kind who like me even when I'm grumpy and cranky and crabby.

Which I sort of was today, for reasons that will become apparent all too soon. However, first here's some good cheerful eye candy for you!

This is a quilt that Anne had taught back in the old Bearly Stitchin' days. The pattern is Buggy Barn Quilts' Heart Crazies. Louise had made the blocks and was hoping to get it completed, so Anne brought hers for reference.

Okay, are you ready for this? The reason I was a little--shall we say--frazzled--today?

What you are looking at in this picture (besides my ubiquitous water bottle and telephone) are the foundation papers for my Asilomar project. Louise is taking the same class--Judy Niemeyer's--and we're both making the same pattern, the Celebration Tree Skirt. (Although neither of us plans to actually use it as a tree skirt--more likely as a throw.) When you first open the envelope, it's a bit daunting. Okay, a lot daunting. We decided (after having a few minor freakouts of our own today) that the reason they have us do so much pre-cutting is to get the freaking out over and done with. I have to say that after cutting and trimming all the foundations, I am much calmer and much more certain that I can, in fact, do this.

Of course, I haven't actually picked out any fabric yet, so we'll see what happens with that.



One feature of quilting at Sandy's is that it's doggy heaven. Here are three of the "babies"--two of the pugs and Nora, the Italian greyhound. She really does think she's a pug too.

For perspective, my chair is "below" this picture and Sandy's is to the left. They're curled up right in the middle of the action.

Or, in the case of two ladies cutting out paper dolls  foundation papers, very little action.

So on to some more colorful things, which I alluded to in yesterday's post. Remember I said I thought I would cut up my remaining stash of flannels and just go ahead and make more ragg quilts?

Well, here's Exhibit A. There's a yard of each of these, and if I cut the squares 9" instead of 10", I can get 8 blockes out of each one. That will work!

 Then there's this array. If it looks vaguely familiar, it's because it's the same fabrics I used for Debby's quilt, with the addition of some solid pink and green. I will most likely not use the solids unless I run short of a block or two to fill out a row.

Then there's the next set. These little cuties feature folk art motifs: pears, wispy flowers, houses and trees and cats.

 Lots and lots of cats.

 See?

More cats.

 

Then there's this allover set of squares. These would most emphatically not look very good cut into blocks and sewn into a ragg quilt.

But there's more. Check out t he last picture. By the way, if you want to see these larger, just click on any of  the pictures and it will bring up a slide show of all the pics in the post.

Or click on my Flickr badge up there on the top right, and that will take you to my Flickr page, where I have put close-ups of all of these squares.

Which range from folksy, to charming, to downright adorable. (See: Krazy Kat Lady.)


Now, these are really unsuitable for cutting into ragg squares, since most of them aren't even square!
The largest ones measure about 10 x 11 or so.

These last two fabrics are also not very "flannely"--they have almost no nap to them. So I'm thinking they would probably work in a series of small wall hangings, using some of the other fabrics in the series to make borders and lattices and cornerstones and such. The allover squares would make a good backing for at least one of these proposed wall quilts.

But, I am on a finishing binge, and the only reason I "allowed" myself to be distracted was the allure of using up lots more fabric. So I really don't want to sidetrack my UFO project just now by planning a series of new quilts.

I think I'll promise myself that when I get a few more finishes taken care of--and some of them are S O  C L O S E--then I'll go ahead and do the two simple ragg quilts, and set  the folk art cats aside for later. Another little "reward" when I get some more things done?

Weekend Wrapup

It was one of "those" weekends, and I am  honestly not complaining. I happen to love cool overcast days, even though the house never seems to warm up. The joys of living in an old house with thick plaster (as in, actual lath-and-plaster) walls.

I generally feel a lot more energetic and motivated when the sky is grey and especially if there is rain failling...

which there was plenty of on Friday night.

It did not stop the Quilknittys from getting together, though... far from it. Nothing like a rainy night and lots of good company to make for a cozy evening of fun!

Deb showed off her lace capelet. It's gorgeous! (But then, so is she!)

She wants to make another one--this one is cotton yarn, great for our SoCal climate except in the winter.  She's thinking maybe alpaca.

Back view of her capelet. So pretty!

One effect of the rain was that Anne didn't bring her machine inside, not wanting to trundle it in through the wet. We'd been joking earlier about how many projects we were bringing, and I'd told her that if she ran out, she could help me bind quilts.

So when I walked in, she immediately started sewing binding on one of my quilts!

Got it finished, too... now that's a friend! (It's also kind of the way we are--doesn't matter so much what we're working on, it's fun to get together and as long as the hands are busy, it's all good!)



Saturday's project was the continuation of the ragg quilt for my daughter Debby.

Well, that was the plan. The Quilt Supervisor appears to have  had other ideas.

However, after some energetic ear skritches and petting, he strolled off and let me get to it.

72 squares. Yup. Cut 10" with 8" batting squares inside.

I did get them X'd and then started assembling them.

With, of course, more help from the supervisor.

It has been brought to my attention that there are an awful lot of cat pictures on this blog, and that I may be straying into Krazy Kat Lady territory.

I think that's not quite right. After all, I only have 2 cats, the fewest I've had in many many years. Besides, they are beautiful sweet cats, and I don't really call them my babies or anything sickening like that.

At least not often, and not where anyone else might hear me.

So. back to the quilt...

The first few rows got the Supervisor's seal of approval.

and here we are as an almost-finished quilt!

Front view showing the seam allowances, which need to be snipped before it gets its wash-and-dry treatment.

Back view will give you a better idea of the color layout.

I did a totally random placement, because I had at most 4 blocks of any one fabric, and that just doesn't lend itself to any kind of pattern.

So there are a couple of places where the colors could have been more distinct, but for the most part I think it's pleasant and harmonious.

And Debby will love it!

Abigail

To round out the weekend, I managed to get out to brunch with a friend to do some catching  up with her life and times. We went to Mimi's and had the yummiest Eggs Florentine Benedict, with really well-toasted potatoes, lots of coffee, and good chat.

Then I had to have a nap. The pollen count out here has been crazy high, even with the rain, and my allergies have been going nuts. I took a Claritin and even 4 cups of coffee weren't enough to keep me awake.

My evening was spent on a "dinner date" with these two  young ladies, while their parents had a dinner date of their own.  Abby is our little Valentine baby--she'll be 3 on Valentine's Day. Her preschool teacher was a little concerned, because every time she'd bring up Valentine's Day, Abby would announce that her birthday is on Valentine's Day.  Teacher was glad to be reassured that it actually is, and Abby wasn't trying to fool her.

Audrey

Audrey's pensive look is because she's watching the fish in the little tank just on the edge of the picture. It's the neighbors' and they were "fishy-sitting" while the family went on vacation.

Audrey is 5. Her favorite part of tonight's dinner was the capers in the lemon-caper chicken. (Abby's was the curlicue pasta--she had 3 helpings!)  They even both ate (most of) their broccoli.

So, another weekend in the books. Finished it off by getting out all of my remaining flannels, with the intention of cutting it all up into more ragg quilts. However...

I'll leave this here. It's going to require pictures, and I'm very much afraid that there will be another BIG project in the works once I get everything organized. So that's tomorrow's topic.

Thursday UFO Sightings

Let's start at the end, shall we? Here's a nice little stack of 5, count 'em, 5, quilts with binding sewn down on one side, just waiting to have the second side sewn.

By hand.

Can you say, hours and hours of work? I knew you could.

But Friday night is Quilknittys, a monthly gathering of assorted quilters and knitters (and many of us do both) at Casa de Pugs. So  these will come with me, and with any luck I'll get at least a couple of them done. This is kind of a motley crew of projects:

The little Christmas tree, for instance, is one of the Tub UFOs. Not sure how else to refer to them! This one, once the binding is sewn down, could be considered finished. However, the quilting on it is pretty sparse and it definitely looks right now like, well, a poor little waif of a quilt.

I was thinking some gold thread quilting, maybe in loops and curlicues to look like a garland and perhaps some lights on the tree.

Maybe a few buttons or beads too. The green print is old-fashioned children and it's quite charming. (The back is pastel-ish old-fashioned Santas and trees and very Victorian-woodcut feeling. You can see a bit of it in the stack of quilts.)

Whatever I  ultimately decide to do with it, it will be much more pleasant to work on it with a neat finished edge, rather than raggedy batting and knotted threads.

Same goes for the quilt I'm calling Peacock Feathers and Tulips--because that's what the two prints in it are. I can tell from the wispies around t he outside that it's got some good old Mountain Mist poly batting--kind of thin, but it does make for a nice hand to the quilt.

I'm currently planning quite a bit more quilting on it. The main pattern doesn't really show up, and of course I can't remember if that was the original plan or not.

I'm liking it a lot, though, and I think the wide border will be really fun to doodle in. Right now I'm thinking something vaguely tulip-y and/or peacock feather-y. Have to see what inspiration strikes!

Now, the Trip Around the World baby quilt will be completely finished once the binding's sewn down. I was able to get the whole thing cross-hatched between last night and today.

So this calls for a tea break, right? A nice hot cuppa and a couple of macarons.

Yum.

 

 

The challenge is not to eat up the entire package in the first sitting. So far, so good.

Back to the quilts. Here's a little wall hanging that was made in Sylvia Einstein's class at Asilomar a few years back. You can't really tell from the picture, especially from this angle, but they're supposed to be trees. The washed-out looking picture is its back--has some doodled leaves and hearts, from my class last year with Sue Rasmussen. I really enjoyed doing this and am looking forward to doing some more quilting in the tree blocks as well.

By the way, I don't know if you know this, but if  you click on one of the pictures, it will link you to a full-sized slideshow of all the pictures in the post.

So this has been my Thursday. While I was doing these projects, I was also wrangling laundry, which is nearly done. I'll finish that up tomorrow.

So naturally I needed to start a new project. Bet  you can guess what it is! Another one of those kind of quick and relatively easy ones, and just look at the stack of fabrics it will use up! Not to mention that whole stack of batting squares!

This one's going to be a surprise for Debby, aka D2 (Daughter #2 if you don't remember my quaint little numbering system for the kidlets...). It's perfectly safe mentioning it here, because for one t hing she doesn't read the blog, and for another thing, she asked me to make it for her. I had made a smaller one which I sent to her granddaughter Paige, and that was a big success. (I also sent smaller ragg quilts to her other two grandchildren, who seem to like them as well! So far,  though, no requests from their mommies. Good thing...although I do have quite a bit more flannel...)

So that's my Thursday. Now relaxing with a nice glass of white zin, Project Runway on the TV, and some knitting. On sleeve #3 of the 8 I need to finish the 4 little sweaters...

Something Going On Here

Eye Candy

Judy's Baby Quilt

Ethel's appliqued quilt

Took a couple of pictures at quilt class on Tuesday night at New Moon.  Didn't manage to get pictures of everyone's projects, partly because several of them were in that amorphous, not-ready-for-prime-time state.

First up is a baby quilt that Judy is making for a friend. The bright colors are a bit of a departure for her: she mostly prefers working in soft pastels and 30's repros are her favorites. She's been finishing up several quilt tops from the grandmother and great-aunt, for her own kids and her nieces and nephews, all by hand. I'll see if I can cajole her into bringing one or two by for photo purposes!

Shyla

Fascinated by the patterns and t he noise

Ethel's been working on this one for a couple of weeks now. Last week, she appliqued the flower blocks and then t his week assembled the top. By the end of class, it had acquired a mitered piano-key border. Hopefully I can get a picture of that next week!

Anne was putting a border on a quilt covered in pink hearts, a request from one of the residents in her community. Again, no picture yet.

Sigh. Don't they know that they are supposed to let me take lots of pictures?

When I came home from knitting group today, this is what I saw in the guest room:


Shyla. Out in the open, giving me that "Whaaat?" look.

My little hidey-cat is getting a lot braver and spending more and more time out in the open. Good progress. She really does want to be a pet!


So tonight (because I was tired after knitting and took a nap) I was uploading pictures and listening to a CD on the laptop.

HiHi was immediately attracted to the noise and the flashing colors, and sat there mesmerized. Which was a good thing, because I was working on the "other" sewing machine.


This is one of the quilts that I found in that tub I mentioned a while back. Again, this is one I thought just needed binding, so tonight's project was just going to be a quick stitching around the edge so I can trim off the backing and cut it into binding strips.

Not quite sure of the vintage on this quilt--or any of the ones in the tub, really. Probably early 90's is my best guess.

However, the green fabric in this quilt is a match to a blue one that I am using for one of the quilts that I just sent off to be quilted, so there's not telling. The florals are definitely 90's though.


I wish I could remember more of this quilt's history.

It's obviously had kind of a  hard life--the batting on the edges is pretty ratty.


It was partially quilted, with invisible thread, but there was a lot left unquilted. So I pulled out the pins and decided that the thread I had on the Brother would do just fine for finishing this little t hing.

It's a very awkward size--I think it's pretty small for a baby quilt, too big and clunky for a wall quilt. Most likely was going to be a shop sample, but at this point? Who knows?


So I started working on quilting it--just some simple cross-hatching through the middle of the blocks. Went right over the old quilting.

Looking much better already.

Of course, The Cat was trying to help, and didn't like that I kept twisting and turning this out from under him. I got the Cat Back of Disapproval.

The Cat Back of Disapproval

Sorry, HiHi!


I'd originally thought I'd get it finished tonight, but after running through two bobbins I decided the Universe was telling me to pack it in.

Tomorrow is another day. I'm planning to spend the day working on quilts and doing laundry--so exciting!

I might even knit.

Progress

So far...

Progress Report

Today was rather a productive day. For one  thing, I got the last border on this quilt. Then I did a little digging around and found a perfect back for it--pink, with white "lace" butterflies on it. The pink is almost a perfect match.

Pictures when it gets back home.

Yes, this quilt got packed up into a box today, and sent off to the long-arm quilters I've used before.

They do good work and are (relatively) inexpensive.

I love this quilt! The fabrics are fun and it has a nice "hand." I requested a soft batting for it, too, so we'll see how it comes out.

Also, the Tumbler quilt has joined it on a journey north to the longarmer's!  I gave it a good press then laid it out on the guest bed. Partly, this was to make sure it was good and dry before boxing it up, but I also wanted to see how it would fit on a real bed.

The guest bed is a queen, and while I didn't want to move all t he pillows on it, I figured I could get a good idea of how it would work.

So on one side it comes down about as far as the quilt that's on there...

but on the other side it's much longer. That's because I put it on sideways.

Hey, it's hard to juggle a large quilt top when you don't want to spoil all the hard work that went into ironing it.

Have I mentioned that pressing isn't my favorite part of quilting?

Pressing isn't my favorite part of quilting. But it sure makes a difference in how the quilt looks!

So this one has a 108" wide backing in a 30's red and white small floral print. I asked for a butterflies-and-lace motif for the quilting. We'll see how it comes out!

Also off to the longarmers are four more quilts--check out the sidebar! Might not be 6 FOs, but there are now 6 quilts that are going to be another step closer to DONE.

I had fun assigning backings to the tops--having to keep in mind that the backs need to be 4-6" bigger all the way around than the quilt top. That was a challenge.  But, I was able to find backs for all of them, and only one has 2 different fabrics for the backing.

That's the Chicopee quilt. The two fabrics I chose are pretty compatible--one is a peachy-greeny sorta-stripey print, and the other is a light olivey green tone-on-tone. I asked them to use a variegated thread with peach and green, hoping to unify the two halves. Should be interesting. I have to admit that my favorite part of the Chicopee fabrics is... their name. The two colorways are called Fairview and Waterfall. Chicopee is my home town; I'm from the Aldenville section, and my cousin still lives in the Fairview section. The Chicopee River runs through town and Chicopee Falls is where the--wait for it--waterfall is!

The other quilts that went off are the Yo Gabba Gabba one (found it a royal blue solid back and asked for variegated thread to perk it up); the one with the busy Lily of the Valley print (green butterflies to match the Art Nouveau quilt); and the blue and pink Twisted Sister quilt (blue and white wavy print).

There will be more pictures when they come home! In the meantime, if you click on any of the links, they'll take you to my Flickr set with more pictures of the quilts and my furry helper!

And not that I'm counting or anything, but I believe that all together today some 34-36 yards of backing fabric went out of here. But who's counting?