Back at it!

I'm back at work. Yay.

(was that convincing?)

The problem with working is that it keeps me from doing other things.  I put together another quilt top this weekend, but I have so many more to go!

The 4th top I've assembled so far.

4 more blocks arrived on Saturday - thanks Marlene from New Zealand and Robin from CA!  Aren't they pretty?

And I finished one open block on my Scrappy String Star quilt, but there are 3 more of those to fill up.

I'm loving the look, even if I did orient it sideways.  Looks very folk artsy to me. 

Close up of my big stitches with embroidery floss

I made 4 freehand mugs for November's Block Lotto, but I'd love to make the maximum 9 blocks so I have more chances to win.

Instead, I'm at work.

Better get back to it.

Happy Monday, everyone. (in my best Eeyore voice)

Lowering expectations

That sweatshop I thought I'd be running for the last few days never materialized.  What was I thinking?  I don't SEW at Thanksgiving!  I EAT!  And play games with my family!

Luckily, I did get right to work on Wednesday, and finished a top which is now winging its way to Char for quilting.  Thanks, Char!

And I spent some time admiring the package that arrived on Wednesday - a quilted disappearing 4-patch top that I had sent to Anita in MI, along with 10 blocks of her own making.  I plan to get this to a local binding volunteer this weekend and hopefully get it up north sometime next week.

Thanks, Anita!

All done except for the binding.  Thanks, Anita!

Lovely meander quilting

Bright pieced backing, with a piece of that beautiful turquoise fabric thrown in the package to make a coordinated binding! 

Sue also finished two quilts with the blocks I sent to her!  They are on their way to their final destination, but she was kind enough to send photos for me to share here.  Do you see any of your blocks?

Completed quilt number one - quilted by Sue R

Completed quilt number 2 - quilted by Sue R

The blue back and binding of quilt number one with meander quilting 

The two tone purple backing and binding of quilt number two 

This makes 4 completed disappearing 4-patch quilts, with many more in various stages of completion, including 3 at or on their way to quilters. (Thanks, Marilyn, Mary Ann and Char!)

Then came Thanksgiving.  We spent it at my brother's house, about an hour away.  There was so much food that not everything could be made on the stove - here he is making the gravy on the woodstove!

A highlight was meeting my new 4-month old cousin (or second cousin once removed, if we are being specific - I finally learned what all that means).  My kids, who have been begging me to have another baby for years now, were thrilled.  Don't I look good with a baby?  :)

Another highlight was all the games we played, although I'll be honest, I lose nearly everything I play.  We played Kick the Can in the dark on Thanksgiving night - lots of shrieking and running and laughing.  I feel like I was "it" forever!  Then, on Friday, we played the longest, but most fun, game of two-hand-touch football EVER (final score was 105 - 77), played the Settlers of Cataan (I love that game!), and played a couple games of Bid Whist (I need to learn to keep my mouth shut and not bid unless I KNOW I can make bid!).  I ran and laughed and had more fun than I've had in quite some time, but this morning, I am typing this blog post in bed - I am tired and sore and feeling twice my age!

Luckily, there are lots of things you can do from bed.  Open Friday's mail: 81 blocks, a cone of thread, $30 for batting and postage, and lots of BINDING!

Lots and lots of pre-made binding!  Thanks, Andrea!

Beautiful blocks!  Thanks, Celine, Sharon, Donna, Diane, Debbie, Leila and the Lake Monticello Piecemakers, Andrea, and (no first name) Backmeier!

EDITED - thanks, Jaye! 

Something else I plan to do from bed today is do some hand quilting.  I took my Let's Bee Together String Star Block quilt with me to my brother's to work on a bit.  I made progress, choosing this design to put in the large white squares,

I'm doing Big Stitch quilting with colorful embroidery floss, and instead of marking my quilt, I marked the design on Press and Seal and am quilting through that.  I've done that with regular quilting before, we'll see how easily it comes away with big stitch quilting.

but I noticed this morning that the design is facing sideways, instead of up as I had envisioned.  Ugh!  Do I take out the stitches?  Do I just put all 4 of these designs in sideways and act like I meant it that way?  Do I leave this one sideways and make the others with the correct orientation and leave that mistake in there? Decisions, decisions, decisions!  What would YOU do?

And my husband's team has another basketball game today, which I plan to listen to on the radio.  During that time, I should at least be able to complete another top to send out for quilting (Anita has graciously offered to quilt another one or two for us).  I always think I can get so much more done than I actually do.  I think I need to lower my expectations a bit.  No matter - the slower I work, the longer I get to admire everyone else's blocks.

There are many things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving season, and one of them is belonging to such a special, generous, talented, creative community of quilters!  Thank you for all you have done to help make this project work!  Just so you know, we've received 962 quilt blocks to date - that's enough for more than 20 quilts!

What's a gal to do?

I've covered a lot of ground since my last post.  I flew to Guayaquil, Ecuador by way of Panama, spent two nights there, and now I'm in Quito.  I spent Sunday in Guayaquil, and of course, schools are closed on Sunday, so I had a ME day. 

• I slept in. (aaaahhhhh!)
• I worked out in the gym.  (ugh!)
• I ate 4 pieces of bacon at breakfast. (yum!!!)
• I visited a museum. (and just my luck, free on Sundays!)
• I took a river cruise on a pirate ship. (I'm not even joking)
• I visited the Mercado Artesenal. (gotta get trinkets for the people back home, you know)
• I climbed 444 stairs to the top of a neat neighborhood built on a hill, Las Penas. (pretend there's a tilde over the n)
• I had dinner with a friend who was stranded in Guayaquil after a cancelled flight (and is STILL stranded, poor thing!)
• And I quilted. (of course, I could have just spent the entire day quilting, and it would have been a GOOD day)

What a day!  Here are some photos:





There was a rail fence quilt in the museum!!!



 

Close up so you can read it - if you read spanish, that is.

Isn't this tree awesome?  I wanted to climb it, but thought that might really mark me as a tourist...

That's A LOT of steps!  Going up wasn't so bad, but coming down, I thought my legs were going to give out!

The view from the top of Las Penas, looking out over the river (and prepared to shoot canonballs at pirates, is my guess)

Wait!  Is that a pirate right there?

I can't help but buy earrings.  This is just the start - I'm sure I'll have 10 new pair before my trip is done.

And the women in my office always seem to like my bag that I bought in Ecuador two years ago, so I bought some more, in case anyone wants one.

Then, after a day of school visits, I hopped a plane here to Quito.  Lovely upgrade in the room, including access to the Executive Lounge (my second hotel in a row with FREE FOOD!  I'm so spoiled!  Loyalty has its privileges!).  I was tired and feeling grimy.  There was a plush robe, a tub over two feet deep, Sandalwood Bath Salts, and a solicitous young woman delivered a rose to my door while she asked if everything was to my likely.  What's a gal to do, but settle in for a SOAK!

JW Marriott in Quito - I highly recommend it if you are ever here.  They know how to treat a gal like a queen!

Three more days of school visits, and then I get to go home.  Since I've been to Quito about 7 years running now, I'm not feeling too much pressure to go out and explore, although I'm sure I'll find something new to do.  I'm hoping to get most, if not all of the white quilted in the Scrappy String Star quilt.  And with all the time I'll have in the plane and in airports flying home on Thursday night/Friday morning, I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish quilting the Orange Creamsicle quilt on this trip, too.  Woo hoo!

The "vintage" pillowcases and sheets in this quilt are SO SOFT!

Actually, how can you tell if a sheet or pillowcase is vintage, do you know?  Is there an "age limit" for vintage?  Or are we just saying "used"?

Quilting on the road

I may get discouraged by how long it takes me to quilt something by hand, but I am always so thankful that I am a handquilter when I travel and have something to work on.  On this two week trip (Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica to Guayaquil, Ecuador to Quito, Ecuador), I actually brought two quilts to work on: my Orange Creamsicle quilt to quilt in airports and on the plane (since the needles are use are so tiny), and my Scrappy Strings Star quilt to sleep under as I work on it.  I am using lots of different colored embroidery floss to quilt it, so I am using embroidery needles, and they, of course, are too big and dangerous to bring on airplanes, so that quilt lives in my checked luggage.


Here's a peek at my hotel room with my quilts out, helping it seem more like home.

view one from my balcony

view two from my balcony

Right now I am in the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica after spending 4 days here visiting high schools and making new friends.  It turns out that my sister's sister-in-law used to live here and still has friends here, so she connected me with them.  I actually had a slumber party in my hotel room last night with one of them - what fun!  We stayed up super late talking, but today is just a travel day for me, so it is OK if I am tired.

And I've got a question for you - on my scrappy string star quilt, I'm not sure what I want to do in my big white squares, continue making concentric squares, or quilt some other type of design in the center of the 4 concentric squares that are already there?  You can see what I've got so far.  In the triangles, since they are smaller, that will just be 3 concentric triangles in there.  Ideas, anyone?

Anyone who leaves an opinion will be entered into a drawing for some goodies from my travels.  I can't guarantee that they'll include anything quilting related, but I can guarantee that it will include at least some chocolate covered coffee beans - YUMMY!!!

I'll holler at you again from Ecuador.  Sew some for me, y'all!

The Art of Making Do

I received my last two blocks in the mail for my Scrappy String Star (Let's Bee Together) quilt this past weekend, so I was super motivated to get the top completed.  Initially, I had purchased a couple yards of white on white fabric to be the background, but I was determined to have that be the only fabric purchase for the quilt - the rest was to come from my stash of scraps.

Great in theory, but I once I got the top together, it was 64" square, and I didn't want a square quilt.  I wanted a twin sized quilt, so it needed more length.  Unfortunately, I didn't have much of the background fabric left, and it was already cut into smallish pieces smaller than my blocks.  What to do, what to do??

First, I already had two left over scrappy HST blocks made, so I made two more with the biggest piece of background fabric, and put two pairs together to be the center of the top and bottom row.  Then, I pieced the rest of the background fabric together to finish out a top and a bottom row.

Can you see the two seams, trying to make the pieces I had fit the space I had left?

Of course, there wasn't quite enough.  Into the stash I went, and pulled out a piece of white on white that was close enough.

Swirls, leaves - what's the difference, anyway?

Voila!  It is a quilt top! 

I have to admit, it is a little hard for me to leave it like this - doesn't it seem unfinished on the sides?  But I didn't want a square quilt, so this will have to do.

64" x 85.5" - big enough to cover a twin bed with 10" of drape on both sides and the bottom of the bed.

Donald got excited and said, "Wait!  I get to have TWO quilts on my bed??"  I didn't have the heart to tell him I just put it there to make sure it was big enough and to take a photo...

Definitely big enough to cuddle up in on the porch as I look out on the morning rain.

I kinda wanted to just stay on the porch this morning, enjoying the cool and the wet, but alas, duty calls.

Hopefully, whoever is enjoying the quilt won't notice the way I had to improvise to complete the top and bottom rows.  If someone does notice, hopefully she will see it as part of the charm of a scrappy quilt.  After all, my favorite quilt book of all time and the one who got me started along this delightful, fabric-filled journey, is Roberta Horton's Scrap Quilts - The Art of Making Do!

Biased

Bias.  The thought of working with it scares me.  I have visions of unintentionally wonky blocks that won't lay flat no matter what you do to them.  So when I saw that we were making Lone Star blocks in Let's Bee Together, I was scared.  Bias AND Y-seams - yikes!  But it turns out, the method she has us using to make the blocks doesn't include any Y-seams (yay!), and the fabric behaved, bias and all.  I love the fabric she sent, Kate Spain's Central Park, and enjoyed playing with it.  There was even enough scrap for me to add a 1.5" square of each of the 4 fabrics to my scrap tins.  :)

My two blocks - they aren't squared up per her instructions.  I could perhaps see me making this block for myself one day...perhaps.  Maybe as the center of a medallion quilt.

While sewing those, I worked on getting my Scrappy Strips Star quilt sewn together, as she sent the two blocks she made for me at the same time she sent her fabrics.  My goal is to have the top assembled before Saturday so I can take it with me to quilt on my first recruiting trip.  I think it is a perfect candidate for big stitch quilting with colorful embroidery floss.

Now, to completely change the subject - last Thursday and Friday was my office retreat.  As we have for the last 4 years, we spent the night at Fort Lewis Lodge - I love that place!  Not only is it beautiful, but there are quilts on every bed!  This was my room this year.  I have made a point of sleeping in a different room every year so I can enjoy ALL the quilts.

Then, this weekend, a friend visited from Atlanta, and I had a great time showing her around south western Virginia.  I know I am biased, but it is breathtakingly beautiful here.  Seeing it through someone else's eyes helped remind me of how blessed I am to live here.  We went places I've never been, and did things I've never done.  For one thing, we bought an enormous whole trout and cooked it on the grill.  My kids were quite impressed that the head was still attached to the fish (ick!), and Jason declared that he wanted the head.  My friend's husband is from Cameroon, and she explained how the head is actually the "honor piece".  I was skeptical, but she showed him how to remove the meat from the head, and the fool even ate an EYEBALL!  If you are squeamish, look away NOW!

Too much to report!

I'll finish this post the same way I started my last one - I LOVE VACATION!  I had a marvelous 2+ weeks, cavorting around the Northeast, visiting family and having fun.  Too bad this is the last day of freedom for me.  There's too much to report in just one post, so I'm just going to pick out a couple of things to share for now.

Like the MOUNTAIN of mail that was awaiting me upon my return Monday night.  I spent a ridiculous amount of time on Tuesday opening mail, paying bills, and shredding paper.  The only thing that made opening all of it bearable was the squishy mail interspersed with all the bills and solicitations.  June was my month for Let's Bee Together, and I asked the other Bee Members to make 2 HST blocks from a WOW and some scrappy strips that I sent.  I have received blocks back from 5 members so far, and I love the way the quilt is coming along (with the 4 or 6 blocks I've made):

Monday itself was a long, but fun day, with the exception of the fright I suffered early on.  We started the day in Easton, PA, where the kids and I had spent the night with my MIL on our way south from New Hampshire.  Getting out of town was a challenge because I packed everything into the car, stopped for gas, cash and iced coffee, but before getting on the highway, something prompted me to double-check to make sure my quilt that I've been working on was in the car.  I couldn't find it anywhere, so back to MIL's house we went to see if I had left it there.  I thought I remembered taking it out of the car there the night before, mistakenly thinking I was going to put a few stitches in in the morning, but I was so punch-drunk tired when we arrived late the night before that I wasn't completely sure I wasn't imagining that.  We searched the house but couldn't find it anywhere.  I emptied the car again, wondering if I had overlooked it.  Nope.  Then, on a whim, I checked the garage.  There it was, in the plastic bag that I had been carrying it around in, leaning up against the trashcans.  Apparently, Granny, who just celebrated her 93rd birthday, was cleaning her room while I was in the shower, and decided it was trash.  I am SO GLAD I had that premonition to check for the quilt and to look in the garage.  Can you imagine my heartbreak if I would have lost it forever?

Needless to say, I didn't get any quilting done on that quilt on that day, but I did do a spot of quilting, and so did the kids.  We stopped at the Kutztown Folk Festival on our way south.  For years, I've been wanting to go, but the timing never worked out.  It was mostly craft vendors, and let me tell you, if I had deeper pockets and went without the kids, I'd have bought LOADS of stuff!  There are some really talented and creative people out there!

The kids weren't all that interested in the vendors, particularly when they realized that I wasn't going to buy them anything, so we sought out the interactive things.  My favorite, of course, was the Visitor Quilt, just outside the Quilt Barn (that had 2000 beautiful quilts for sale!) where visitors could quilt a square and sign his/her name.  My square:

Donald's square - he was hilarious - kept asking if there were supposed to be huge knots on the bottom part of the quilt:

And Jason's square - I'm not sure what happened here, he started off fine, but ended up making stitches ACROSS the line like a surgeon rather than along the line:

 

I think the quilters were glad when we finished because Jason and Donald talked a constant stream while quilting.

They also talked the ear off the guy giving guitar lessons:

And the gal helping them make Apple Cider:

And the guys showing them how to use an old-fashioned laundry wringer:



I had to laugh at the sign!

I know they sure talked MY ear off all day long!  But they are such great travel and adventure companions, I really can't complain.

(By the way, the Kutztown Folk Festival continues through July 8 if you live in or are passing through Pennsylvania.  Adult admission is $14, but there are $3 off coupons all over the place - that's what I used - and kids under 13 are FREE!).