Flutterby Flimsy!!

This past week was a blur - I traveled to Salt Lake City for a conference while operating in a DayQuil and NyQuil induced haze.  Storm related delays in connecting cities gave me time to complete my third POCC sock, finally giving me a matching pair,

They are the same size!  Yay!  I had already made two of these socks, but they were completely different sizes because I did the gusset wrong on Sock #2.  That's what you get when you work out of your crowded head instead of from a pattern, I guess.

but the highlight of my week was finishing my Flutterby flimsy!  I love it! 

Based on pattern by Jen Kingwell, final size 86.5" x 98.5"

It is on its way to a long arm quilter and then off to join other donated items in a silent auction to benefit Project Horizon, an organization that assists victims of domestic abuse.

It is letter writing time for me as a College Advisor, and I am woefully behind.  I'm afraid I won't have much time for sewing in the coming month, but I'm going to do my best to find moments here and there to create.

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Oh Scrap!

The Start of Summer

The end of the school year for an educator is an absolute whirlwind; the couple of minutes a day that I carved out to sew a seam or knit a few stitches literally kept me sane.  But when school let out on June 1, things didn't slow down for me.  Instead, a boarded a plane with one other adult and eleven students and headed down to the Dominican Republic to build a house with a local organization there called Cambiando Vidas.  In just 5 days, we helped the new homeowners and their community members take their house from simply a foundation to ready-to-move-in.  What a fantastically gratifying experience!

In the evening before the key ceremony

The new homeowners, Andreas (c), and his sons Leidy (l) and Francis (r)

During my seven days in the Dominican Republic, I brushed up on my Spanish speaking skills, including giving a short speech in Spanish to the entire community during the key ceremony on the last night, but also worked on knitting a sock - the perfect travel project.  This is the first of my Cambiando Vidas Socks, adapted from a recipe by my friend Catherine.

Once I returned home, I had one day of rest before heading off to Yale for a two-day office retreat.  I know it is almost blasphemous for a Harvard grad to admit this, but I love Yale's campus.  I've been there several times, usually to present at conferences, but each time I am more and more impressed.  (Longtime readers, do you remember the year I had a bit of extra time after checking out of my hotel and before my flight so I walked to the New Haven airport?  That still cracks me up!)

Therefore, this is day three of my summer vacation.  I have plenty of work to keep me busy over the summer, but I am planning to pace myself, working no more than 2 hours a day, and ideally walking over to the office to get the work done, keeping work and vacation as separate as possible.  (Of course, I already blew those plans, spending nearly 3 hours in the office yesterday.  Sigh.)

My current vacation plans have included reading (most recently The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Clammed Up by Barbara Ross, and currently Murder in Merino by Sally Goldenbaum and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead), knitting (see Cambiando Vidas Socks above), and sewing.

I'm up to date on my 2018 Temperature Quilt,

The blocks on right are awaiting a June Average Temps block before they can be sewn together and added to the quilt.

and am trying to finish up this small Sister's Choice quilt, as its size is dictated by the amount of blue and neutral material I have for the alternate blocks and borders.

I received another box of scraps from one of my quilter friends in Virginia, so I'm itching to add blocks to my Flutterby quilt, but I'm trying to be disciplined and finish the Sister's Choice top first.  We'll see how that goes...

One goal for the summer is to get some tops machine quilted, but I'm hitting a brick wall.  I've reached out to several local quilters, but they've not gotten back to me.  I may have to send them out.  I'm not looking for anything fancy, no custom work, just pantographs.  Any suggestions for some affordable and quality longarm services out there that will accept my humble quilts?

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap!

Crafting on the road

I'm on the road again, this time visiting Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  While waiting for today's programming to start, I had to wander over to see the Parthenon replica and read about why it is here.

Turns out, it was built for Tennessee's Centennial celebration.  Cool, but seems pretty random to be plopped down here in the middle of Nashville

I doubt I'll be stranded here for two extra days like I was during my trip to Washington University in St. Louis last month (knock on wood), but I'm prepared, just in case.  In addition to more hexies to stitch together,

I only brought 5 flowers worth of hexies to stitch together.  I should be able to finish that in a mere evening of watching Heartland on Netflix.

I brought my current mindless knitting project,

Based on the Dourado pattern, but I'm altering it to work with the Katia Ombre yarn that I have.

as well as three paperback books and three audiobooks.  One of them, of course, is a crafty cozy mystery:

I've read the first in this series, and was waiting to read this third installation until I had read the second, but it was the smallest paperback on my shelf that I hadn't read, perfect for travel, so the second will have to wait.

Back home, I've been plugging away at my myriad current projects - hand quilting the quilt for my new niece who arrived on Friday,

I still have a long way to go.  Not marking, just quilting organically concentric echoes to fill the white spaces.  Not sure yet what I'll do with the colored spaces.

My new niece with her older sister and brother.  Love fest!

I spent most of Saturday doing just this.

making more 3" nine patches for my 5" Sister's Choice project,

Nine patches are so simple but make me so happy!

Why, oh why, do I love tiny piecing so much???  It's going to take A LOT of blocks to make a useable quilt out of 5" blocks, but I'm not going to think of it that way, just gonna enjoy the process.

On Ringo Lake has been on the back burner, as has my Flutterby project, but I'm still up to date on my Temperature Quilt.  I do like having a choice about what I want to work on every time I sit down at my machine.

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Last days

I have 5 days left working my current job, including today.  There are a lot of "lasts" taking place.  Last weekend was my last work trip - I presented at a conference at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.  It was bittersweet - even though I miss my family when I am gone, I enjoy traveling for work.  I tried to really relish this trip - after lunch the first day, I took a 3-mile walk around the neighborhood.  I was very excited when I saw a shop sign that read "Forget Me Knot".  Doesn't that make you think of thread of yarn or something fiber related?  I rushed over.

OK, a consignment shop of women's clothing, not what I was hoping for, but not a complete loss, either.  They actually had some really neat stuff in there, and I left with a dress and a pair of shoes, but I left behind several things that the me who hadn't just quit her job and decided to start her own business would have snapped up in a heartbeat.  Gotta be more frugal now that my income isn't going to be as stable.  But if you are ever visiting Chicago and like consignment shops, this one was tops, as far as I'm concerned!

On the plane, I got nearly all the hand quilting done in the rainbow chevron baby quilt.  I bet I have less than an hour of quilting left.  I should get it done so I can get it to the baby before she gets too big!  But instead of quilting, I've been painting.  They put a new bathroom floor down in my new shop, and so they pulled out the toilet and sink.  That was the perfect time to paint, right?  So even though I had to do it after work and after karate, I spent the last two evenings first priming and then painting.  Can you say "sore"?  But no more painting until my lease starts on August 1.  At that time, I plan to have lots of help to get the store prettied up in no time.

Here's what I was covering up - I've never painted over wallpaper before, but the landlady encouraged me to try it, rather than take the wallpaper off.  That's why I really had to prime first.  No after photo yet, but I painted the room Sherwood Green, one of the colors that will be on the exterior.

I also stitched up a storm so I could present Adam with his quilt top, made from his mother's shirts, on Father's Day.  It was 11:30 PM when I finished, but it was still Sunday and he was still awake, so that counts, right?  When he realized what the material was, he brought it up to his face to inhale, to see if her scent still lingered there.  The lump that formed in my throat is still there.  I think he likes it.  Now to get it finished!

There's a lot coming down the pipe for me.  As soon as I am finished here on Sunday, we are headed north to spend time with family for 2 weeks.  As soon as I get back, I'll be teaching at the summer art camp.  I have so much prep work to do that it makes my head hurt!  But I'll get it done.  And I'll enjoy doing it.

Wild and wonderful! (giveaway)

I am on the road...

AGAIN!

But it is my last trip of the fall, and one of my favorites - Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.  The foliage in the mountains this time of year is breathtaking, the people are friendly, the air is crisp and clean - it is a nice trip.  Plus, there are lots of QUILT SHOPS on my driving routes!

I stopped at one today, and there was a sale table with $4/yard fabric.  I snapped up two that caught my eye, as well as a baggie of orange and yellow solid scraps that I thought went well with one of the prints plus a quilting stencil for quilt borders.

I think this fabric will end up being an apron and matching potholders as a Christmas gift.

Not sure what I'm going to do with this fabric yet.

Gotta support the LQS, even if it isn't MY Local Quilt Shop!

And a blog reader bought one of my fabric composition books from my ETSY shop today.  THANK YOU!

To celebrate the ETSY sale and my sale purchases, I'm going to give away half a yard of each of these fabrics, plus some of whatever I pick up from tomorrow's quilt shop stop (yeah, I plan a quilt shop stop every day of my driving trips).

To get your name in the drawing, how about you leave a comment with a suggestion for what I can be for Halloween this year.  In recent years, I have been a nun,

Halloween 2011

a cowgirl bandit,

Halloween 2009

a witch,

Halloween 2008

a basketball player and Pocahontas.  I'm looking for ideas of something easy to throw together on a budget (my disposable income goes towards FABRIC, not costumes!).  I'll draw a winner on Monday morning, October 15.

In the meantime, I have finished putting the binding on my Orange Creamsicle quilt, and now just need to finish quilting the border.

Lousy cell phone photo, so you can't see the quilting, but you can see that there is a pale yellow binding on it.

One good thing about road trips - I get lots of hand sewing done in my hotel rooms in the evening.

Calle del Algodon

Calle del Algodon - do you know what that means????

Street of COTTON!!!  I was wandering around the historic part of Quito that houses the Centro Comercial, and happened upon this street sign.  Above the sign was...

...wait for it...

A QUILT BLOCK MADE FROM TILES!  (Sorry, no photo.  When I am wandering around alone, I never bring the camera - don't want to mark myself as a tourist any more than necessary.)

I thought for sure, I had found heaven on earth.  I looked down the street to see storefront after storefront of FABRIC!

But it wasn't heaven on earth.  It was like purgatory.  A teaser for what could have been.  There were lots of beautiful fabrics, but NONE were 100% cotton.  Not a one!  I felt everything that caught my eye, and got very good at asking, "No tiene tela de cien por ciento de algodon?"  Unfortunately, they all shook their heads no, and proceeded to show me some lovely knit or shiny cotton/poly mix.  Oh well.

In between the fabric stores were tucked little stores of trim and thread and buttons.  I was drawn in and pored over the buttons for quite a while before settling on these big black ones that remind me of wheels - I can see using them to embellish a kid quilt.

The coin is a dollar coin, placed there for reference - these are big buttons!

And then I saw the perle cotton.  Lots and lots of perle cotton.  I've been wanting to buy some, but I haven't found it anywhere near me, and it seems silly to me to pay postage for it if I buy it online.  So I inquired about the price.  Sixty-five cents for a ball of 95 yards of #8 perle cotton!  I've never bought it before, but that seemed like a steal to me!  I was drawn to the variegated ones, so I picked out five to buy.

I've never heard of Rose Brand, but frankly, I don't care!

Back in my room, I looked online to price them, and I'm finding them for anywhere from $2.29 to $3.50.  Can I just say I'll be headed back to that part of town to pick up some more in solid colors!  Some for me, and some to share in my little "help me figure out how to quilt this" giveaway.  If you've not yet put your two cents in, I encourage you to visit that post and comment.  Not only will there be chocolate covered coffee beans, but now there will also be #8 perle cotton for the winner!  And I'm not done shopping yet!

I did pick up some more trinkets to share around the office at home and put into some Christmas stockings - some colorful leather change purses

I'm not sure yet which one I'll save for me.  Maybe the black and orange?  Or maybe the green and brown?

and some more earrings (I love cheap earrings!!!).  These are made from Tagua, some kind of nut or seed that is indigenous to Ecuador.

I love the ones with the trees!

OK, off to bed to do some more quilting before I sleep like the dead.  The air is thin here at 10,000 feet above sea level, so I yawn A LOT and sleep very well.  Just three more nights until I get to sleep in my own bed!

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!

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!).