Cotton Pickin'

New Home

2011-10-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

I've got a new blog! Check it out HERE.

Apology

2011-09-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just switched to the new Blogger interface, and it has cool stats! Unfortunately, I have had trouble uploading pictures for months, which makes it difficult to post. I know you all visit for the eye-candy, LOL! So, I am going on hiatus from this blog, and I will investigate other services. Meanwhile, you can find me in all the other familiar places: facebook, Ravelry, SeamedUp, and Tumblr.

As George Carlin once said, "Be excellent to each other. "

Centennial Project Detail

2011-09-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

More from the Arizona Flag Centennial Quilt. The blue in the border shows governors' names, and I used a variety of dense fillers in the yellow and red rays. I used some of the AZ Centennial commemorative fabric on the back. This quilt gets delivered next week and it will be out of my hands for over a year! Just like dropping your kids off at school, that make me kind of sad. But I am excited to see the show next spring.

Centennial Project Complete!

2011-08-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Grrrr. I'm having trouble uploading photos today. Check back later in the week!

My quilt for Arizona's Centennial is finished! This photo shows the border where I quilted each governor's name (in blue, on black fabric). Kinda like Where's Waldo...easy if you know what to look for.

Going Retro

2011-07-29T07:29:00.001-07:00

Just some random musings. My daughter goes to Kindergarten in two weeks, and the memories of her infancy are fading. So it goes for everyone, days pass slowly and the years quickly.

One year ago, I was doing pretty much the same thing as today: surfing the internet, quilting, and taking a little girl to the pool.

Five years ago, I had season tickets to the WNBA Phoenix Mercury and we were waiting for our daughter's birth.

Ten years ago, I was a newlywed and taking summer classes for my masters degree.

Fifteen years ago, I was adjusting to single life after my first husband walked out.

Twenty years ago, I saw "Terminator 2" before my senior year in college. (Funny how those random facts pop into your head!) I had a computer in my dorm room, but I went to the library to do research. I used a push-button pay phone to call home on the weekends. We watched VHS movies and Garth Brooks was a superstar.

Check out the Beloit College Mindset List for other things that today's youth don't know.

And the classic quick reference to the 20th century:

Northern AZ Shop Hop

2011-07-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

The 2nd Annual trip for a group of my quilting friends took place this last week. Last year, we were maniacs and managed to visit all seven shops in one day, the furthest being almost 200 miles from home. This year we scaled back and only visited six shops (of nine possible).

Here is some of the fabric I found: 1... fabric designed for the Arizona 2012 centennial celebration. I plan to use this on the back of my Arizona Flag quilt.
2... adorable kitty cats and a mouse companion print from Alexander Henry. If I fall in love with an animal print, chances are it is from this company!
3... gorgeous rainbow print, to make a dress for my daughter. She wants me to start sewing right away, but finding a pattern may be difficult since she has stringent requirements for clothes.

Each shop gave us a small pack of 2.5" strips, along with this block pattern.
This is my EQ6 rendering of the block called "Kansas Dugout." It should be a fun scrappy quilt to put together, and I love designs that take advantage of jelly roll fabrics.

My other treausres...a pattern called "Modern Pickle Relish" from Modern Quilt Relish. It's a cool quilt with a very graphic geometric look. And the "Lil Twister" template to make tesselating pinwheels.

Summer UFOs Part 3

2011-07-04T13:39:00.001-07:00

And a few more projects that need to be finished...

11. Wonky Trees, blocks I won from Block Lotto, need to be pieced and quilted.12. Twisted Sister. This actually a completed top, I just need to quilt it. The plan is to donate it to Quilts of Valor.
13. A process picture! I started the Glorified Nine Patch in a class with John Flynn at Quilt Camp in the Pines. I'm on the left, and my quilting budy Jeanne is on the right.
14. No photo at the moment, but the last item on my list is to quilt my Butterfly Kaleidoscope, from the 4-Patch Posies pattern.

Summer UFO List Part 2

2011-07-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

More projects from the UFO pile:

6. Rainbow charms. Squares from a Ravelry exchange, laid out in ROYGBV order, light to dark.7. Quilt of Valor, Persimmon Quilts Mystery pattern #12, just needs binding, label and a wash before mailing to a deserving soldier.
8. I-Spy...squares from a Ravelry exchange. Simple blue sashing for a quick finish (she said hopefully)
9. Turning 20 pattern in Christmas batiks. Needs to be quilted and bound.
10. Sedona Stars, a quilt along pattern from Judy LaQuidara. Needs to be quilted. I offered this to a friend's son since I have made quilts for his brother and sister, but he hasn't told me if he likes it. I want my quilt gifts to be appreciated, so I haven't decided who the actual recipient of this one will be.

Summer UFO List Part 1

2011-07-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

The Quilters on Ravelry cheer each other on to finish UFOs...the enticement is a fat quarter for completion of at least one project each session. This is my official list for the summer:

1. Gold Sash QOV. These blocks were donated by quilters around the country for Moda's Just One Star project. I have 200 blocks to work with, so there will be many many many QOV posts in the foreseeable future.
2. My second design for the Just One Star blocks. I am making alternate square-in-square blocks, named Stars-n-Squares.
3. My third design for the Just One Star blocks is a simple Log Cabin Style. I am adding red and blue strips around some of the odd size blocks.4. Quilt and Bind the Boxy Stars (pattern from Bonnie Hunter). I'd love to teach this as a class at my LQS, and ultimately donate to Quilts of Valor.

5. Arizona Flag Centennial Project. I overlapped the pieces so it looks complete in this picture, but right now, the red and yellow squares are in 8-patches, and I am going to add a black border. This needs to be quilted and bound by Sept 1, assuming it was chosen for the state traveling exhibit.Stay tuned for Part 2!

Just one more

2011-06-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

Just one more project...or two. I participated in two recent fabric exchanges, and I have ideas for two new quilts. I needed to sew at least one seam on each so they go from PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) to official WIPS (works in progress) to qualify for the next round of my UFO club.

For the I-Spy, I am going to add sashing to each square, then offset the rows.In the Rainbow swap, we traded 11 squares of each color, and everyone received two sets per color. I am taking each set, and laying them out from light to dark. The second set is a reverse (dark to light), so I will have gradients of each color: red-orange-yellow-green-blue-violet. In this picture I have sewn the blue squares together.

And just for grins, here's my little princess doing a silly dance after jumping off the diving board.

June Update

2011-06-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, summer school is over and the surface-of-the-sun-hot temperatures have arrived. In between swim sessions at the local pool, I have been in my sewing room. (The city pool is open for a few hours in the early afternoon and again from 7-9 pm...late bedtime means a quiet morning for mommy!)

I finished the Reeds quilt. I won these blocks in exchange (see the Block Lotto button to the right) and decided to do a color gradient layout based on the white-grey-black background prints.
I had a bright floral fabric in my stash that worked for the back.
And I used a simple wavy frond quilting design, somewhat following the piecing.

Of course, the major focus has to be the Arizona Centennial project. Entry forms for the "100 years, 100 Quilts" were due this week, so I mailed mine in with fingers crossed. I laid out all the squares in their final position, so it looks like a finished quilt. I plan to add a plain border when the center is done, and I have grand plans for the quilting! Stay tuned...

Flag Progress

2011-06-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

Finished the bottom blue section! The first picture is 27 rows of 50 squares which is (quick, mental math) 1350 squares - only 650 to go...So, I laid out the yellow and red rays. When you only use 3-5 squares of each fat quarter, you need LOTS of fabric. Donations are welcomed...I have lots of scraps to trade if you can help out.

As my "leader ender" project, I dug out some blocks that I won in an exchange last summer.
This was a fun wonky block called Reeds. I couldn't decide on sashing, so they are just sewn together and I have some ideas for fun quilting designs. I love summer when I can spend hours at the machine!

School's out for summer!

2011-05-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the Class of 2011! Time flies when you are getting old. I watch some of the kids walk across the stage to get their diplomas and I think "Already? You were just in my freshman Algebra class last year!" It was a wild and crazy school year and I'm sure I'm not alone in being ready to move on.

I have been adding Project Spectrum photos to my Tumblr blog (andiquilts.tumblr.com) but here are a few more reds:Yummy frosted sugar cookies (storebought) and a paper-pieced heart.

Red Hot in May

2011-05-01T11:11:00.003-07:00

I'm going to play along with Project Spectrum 5. You can read about it here. it started out in the knitting-blogosphere as a way to organize projects for a year, following the colors of the rainbow. Lolly (the organizer) has set up a blog in tumblr (new to me, but I created an account there too) as well as on Revelry and Facebook.

This year, the project will run from May - November, with the "technical" colors red, blue and green, along with their dditives, pink, aqua and yellow. Each participant interprets the project differently. For me, it will be an exercise in awareness...I read about PS5 on Friday, and all weekend I have been noticing the red things in my environment!

For instance: red scraps of fabric on my cutting table.
A red trash bucket:
And my favorite girl in a red dress:

Centennial Update

2011-04-16T19:28:00.001-07:00

Almost halfway on the Arizona Flag centennial project! 900 squares done, 1112 to go. I fashioned a design wall by using a piece of batting and some push pins so I can audition the fabrics. I am trying to do several four-patches each day. In a perfect world, the top will be done in June and I can quilt it during my summer vacation. We all know how "people plan and God laughs," so stay tuned for progress reports!

My "leader ender" project has been Bonnie Hunter's Boxy Stars. (Leader Ender: something to feed through the machine while chain piecing, hopefully to eliminate thread tails and waste when you finish a set of blocks for your main project.) I made a version of this quilt about a year ago, but this time I think I will add sashing between the blocks.
Bonnie typically makes scrappy quilts, but I like to control the color palette a bit more. I started with a rainbow selection of 2.5-inch strips. I need to work on the border design to bring it up to Quilt-of-Valor size (about 60x72), so I'm going to play in Electric Quilt.

New Toys

2011-03-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hubby didn't get me this for Christmas because he wanted me to pick out exactly what I wanted. Taxes look good so I splurged...An iPad! It's the original model, at a nice discount price. Now to figure out all the apps!
Hubby now "owns" the Kindle from under the Christmas tree, but he doesn't have a fancy cover... yet.

Stars

2011-03-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

Quilts of Valor needed some donation blocks, so these will be in the mail tomorrow, on their way to the Dallas Quilt Show for people to sign. The blocks will eventually be made into a quilt to comfort one of our returning soldiers.

Completely unrelated, Kendra has a new fascination with my camera. She's actually pretty good! First is her favorite stuffed animal, Monkey Dog:
Then Mommy...
And one of our cats...
and Daddy!

New Project!

2011-02-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

I cut some blue squares for the Centennial project, and then decided I needed some instant gratification. I pulled out a roll of 2.5" strips that I bought last summer, and started cutting for:
Boxy Stars, a Bonnie Hunter pattern. I like to make scrappy stars in rainbow colors. I need to do some quick math and then supplement from my stash because I'm planning this to eventually be a Quilt of Valor, and I want a 4 by 5 layout.

As I was sewing, I had the thought that this is one of the few times I have repeated a pattern! First, I was thinking it was the ONLY time I repeated, but then I realized I have made several Sudoku quilts. Those are such fun to plan! And, I've got plans to repeat another old favorite as a class sample...someday, when I get the sample done and have time to approach my LQS and get on their schedule, LOL. My brother's opinion comes to mind...he never re-reads a book since there are so many great books out there. What do you think - repeat a fun pattern or find something new and exciting?

String Hearts

2011-02-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the Centennial Project...700 squares put together, only 1312 more! Please contact me if you have any red, yellow or blue scraps that you are willing to donate.

February's Block Lotto Pattern is a Heart Block made from scrappy "strings." It is fun pulling random pieces together.

I goofed on the size for the first one, so I repeated the process, paying more attention to the directions!
I have a heart and a "bonus" block. This heart block is too small to enter in the lotto, so I'm working on another one. Third time's a charm, right?!? These strings would be a great leader/ender project, and there is a whole group dedicated to making string quilts for charity (google Heartstrings). They are definitely addictive.
Some things I noticed...
1. use big pieces to start the string piece, because most of it gets chopped off when making the heart.
2. I have a LOT of dotty fabric!
3. Strings should be between 1-2 inches wide.

Checking the numbers

2011-02-13T19:23:00.000-08:00

I decided to work on my Arizona Centennial Quilt. I broke out the seam ripper today and switched the lighter blue section so that it was next to the gold instead of having a few darker fabrics create a line in the blue area on the left (refer to last post). You can barely see the glint of a pin marking the spot where I have an open seam to hand-stitch.
The process I am using is to lay out pieces according to my sketch......then carry them over to my machine and sew the groups together. I have been working from the center out. The top photo shows the center star, and I have been working out to the edges from there. It was easy to get the blue sections done just by laying out the correct number of pieces and squinting to check color placement. The red and yellow rays take more concentration, and I need to shop for more fabric - or do a better job begging people to share their scraps!!
Then I started counting squares on my sketch. The design is 40x50, and I will add 12 pieces in the border so that it matches the 2012 Centennial year for Arizona statehood. The center gold star was 14 inches square, and I am almost done with taking that out to the edge, so I will have 14x50 finished, which equals 700 squares! My twisted mind initially rounded that up to "almost halfway" - why yes, I am an optimist, LOL - and then I realized it's only 35% complete. I need to get my butt in gear. I'll work on the bottom first (650 blue squares) then the rays of red and yellow. I need 330 red and 320 yellow. By the way, I am working with 1.5 inch pieces.
Very soon after starting this project, I gave up on the idea of a true charm quilt where all the fabrics are different. I do want this finished for the Centennial celebration - my deadline is an August contest entry date. I've been purchasing fat quarters, but only cutting a few pieces from each. I started with 3-5 squares of any one fabric, but considering the deadline, I may need to double or triple that number. Even at that, I will need 20-30 fabrics in each color. Like it's that difficult to talk me into a shopping trip...

Lone Star Class

2011-01-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

At Quilting in the Desert this week, I took "Lone Star Sparkler" taught by Helen Young Frost. (pictured here during her show and tell).

I showed up for class with a variety of fabric...

And chose these three for my first star:

Here are the pieces for the star points (mine on the left, a classmate's at the top is actually green with purple accent fabric, and my friend's earth tones on the right).

Jeanne and I at the end of the day! We both like to finish as much as possible in class, so we stayed in and sewed during lunch.

And my first stars! You can see I have a problem with the blue star, the red fabric is very rippled. Jeanne's solution is to rip it our and applique the star onto the background, but I think that A-word is nasty! I'm going to email the teacher and see what she suggests.

Since I had some extra time and fabric, I pieced an orange and green star, but it's just pinned to the background. I might try the background again, but I am nervous about screwing it up again! I thought I did a careful job measuring, cutting and pinning...wish me luck on the next attempt.

Sunny Day

2011-01-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

This is why people suffer through 120 degrees in the summer...to enjoy 70 degrees in January. I love living in Phoenix Arizona! And I love my variegated rose bush, lovely pinks and yellows. We had a few frosty evenings in December, so everything is looking a little ragged until the gardener (hubby) goes to work.
I was going to tease you even more with pictures of the luscious tangelos in another corner of our yard, but the battery in my camera died. oops! For anyone unfamiliar with tangelos, they are a citrus, I think a cross between oranges and tangerines, with fewer seeds. Yummy!!

Sunday Sewing

2011-01-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

While everyone was napping, I cut more 1.5 inch squares for my Centennial Postage Stamp quilt, and started work on the left half.

Here is what I have so far...I'm not liking the darker "stripe" between the star and the left-hand blue section, so there may be some ripping soon. I knew that would be a possibility when I began sewing before I had all my fabrics laid out! I tried to keep lights near the center, but I forgot that the whole section was the center of the quilt!

More quilting fun this week - I checked in today for Quilt Camp in the Desert.

I can only take one day off from work, so I decided to take a Lone Star class with Helen Frost and meet up with my camp buddy Jeanne. I hope these blue fabrics work...maybe the star will be a medallion for a future Quilt of Valor.

Fun Mail

2011-01-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

I was a lucky winner AGAIN in the Block Lotto! So, it will be a fun week or so as all my wonky trees arrive. And, the UFO Challenge group promised to send each other fat quarters to celebrate finishing things, so those are the other fabrics, some nice blue and cream small prints.

Here are the trees that I mailed to one of the other winners:

The green one is supposed to look like Charlie Brown's sparse Christmas tree :-)

I have to share a cute Christmas memory...my daughter is obsessed with the "Gloria" song. You may know it as Angels We Have Heard On High, with the chorus "Gloria, in excelsis deo." We were singing it and she was saying "Chelsea Stable" for excelsis! I love how that little mind works. And then, since the subject of stables came up, she figured that the stable Jesus was born in was pretty dusty. Probably! She also wonders why angels don't have shoes, LOL.

New Year, New Project

2011-01-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

My neighbor asked me to make her daughter a birthday quilt, so I planned a simple quilt in bright colors, made from 6 inch squares. In this picture you can see the colored pattern, so I can keep track of my pieces without a design wall. I am making a four-patch with two pink squares and one each of green and purple. This will be a very scrappy quilt, since I cut 11 different pinks, 5 greens and 5 purples.

To get random blocks, I stacked the colors and mixed them as I chain-pieced. The next step is to sew unique four patches together, then build 4x4s and 8x8s until I have the top finished.

I saw this fabric on the sale rack and thought it was perfect for the backing:

It is a fun project to work on in these grey and unusually cold winter days in the desert!

The end is a new beginning

2011-01-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

As I was at the sewing machine yesterday, I realized 2010 was a year of paper piecing for me! I started with "Sparkling Jewels" a queen size quilt that I made as a wedding gift. Completely pieced and quilted by me. It took about six months.

On New Year's Eve, I whipped up a little 6-inch-square sunflower from a kit I purchased at least a year ago. It will make a nice gift for a friend at work since I wasn't organized with my Christmas cards before we left on vacation.

UFO Challenge Final Report

2011-01-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

I officially finished 2 of my 5 projects for the Ravelry Quilters Fall Challenge...placemats and the bargello top. Status of the others: AZ Centennial is about a third done. Top priority in 2011 since I want to enter it in a traveling show in June!

QOV -

Quilted, needs binding, label and presentation pillow case. I did finish the binding on a different QOV, so if I put the two together, I could mentally give myself a third "finish," but they aren't really done until they're in the mail, so QOV carries over to the new year.

Block of the month - the center is done!

I have the fabric cut and ready for the borders, so this will be a quick finish to flimsy stage. I am envisioning feathered wreaths in the green squares, and lots of stitch-in-the-ditch in the star blocks. Sashing, probably a simple meander variation.

There are many different groups focused on UFOs, and I did make a list of about 15 projects that are in various stages of completion. Ultimately, I decided not to join any of the "completion contests." As I said earlier, the AZ Centennial quilt needs to be my focus, and I promised a friend a quilt in January. Then there are the knitting projects I want to work on...plenty of fodder for future posts!

Making Progress

2010-12-03T19:37:00.000-08:00

I've been quilting on the longarm, trying to finish a Quilt of Valor. The pattern is Mystery 12 from Persimmon Quilts. Nothing too fancy, just some loops in the background and squiggles in the gold area.

An older UFO, "Hidden Stars" a block of the month from Marti Michell, started in 2005.
The pattern originally called for alternate squares of a busy floral, fussy cutting the large roses. I am not that kind of girly-girl! My first thought was to find a light denim blue to match the light blue in the patchwork blocks, which would have been a great plan five years ago. Alas, my LQS didn't have anything suitable when I went shopping a few weeks ago. Rather than spend time searching for something to fit that perfect mental image, I settled on this forest green. I think it looks great so far - just masculine enough while still being a soft complement to the other florals.

And, TA-DA!!!! A finish! I started this bargello quilt at my first Quilt Camp in the Pines, July 2004, just 6 months after I made my first quilt. The class was taught by Louisa Smith and she actually had us turn a section of the strips to create a twist in the design. Great idea, but six years have gone by and I can't even find pictures of that layout now.
When I picked out the fabrics, I had the local quilt show theme of Mardi Gras in mind, so I went with yellow, purple and green. I am still debating adding some applique to "explain" the Mardi Gras colors, but really, who am I kidding? A much better idea is just to get it quilted and donate it to the small quilt auction, or maybe keep it as a spring display for my classroom.

Fall Update

2010-11-28T06:23:00.001-08:00

Life with an extroverted four-year-old is B-U-S-Y!! Grandma cleaned out her spice cabinet and washed some of the empty tins, so now Kendra has a collection of ingredients to play with.

Here are some of the highlights from our day at the Arizona State Fair. There was a "Kids Zone" hallway with soft building blocks and a haybale maze, but the fan was her favorite.
Every girl needs a pony...
Kendra decided to be "Sparkle Barbie" for Halloween and she had lots of fun at the school carnival with her buddy Superman.
And just yesterday we went to the Great Arizona Puppet Theater for a performance of "The Little Red Hen."

UFO Club

2010-10-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some quilty knitters on Ravelry, there is now some incentive to get moving on my UFOs. We all pledge to work on specified projects, with a reward of fat quarters if we finish at least one thing in three months. Fall is really busy with school and clubs and life, etc. but I think I can focus on these things:
#1 - Reversible placemats for a Christmas gift
#2 - Quilts of Valor. I have several tops pieced and I need to load them on the longarm then get them in the mail. If any of you have time to devote to this worthy cause, check out the QOV website. The group in Delaware needs many more quilts for the airmen/women stationed at Dover AFB, which is the point of entry for fallen soldiers. A difficult assignment for sure.

#3 Marti Michell's 2005 Block of the Month. Ha, ha, ha. Yes, this is an oldie, but goodie. You can see some of the floral fabric that is supposed to be alternate blocks. Not in my version! I will be shopping for a light denim blue instead. (hubby breathes a sigh of relief...I want this one on my bed!)#4 Bargello...even older! I started this one in 2004 at Quilt Camp in the Pines, Flagstaff AZ. I got all the strips together and laid out on a "Block Butler" portable design wall. I was worried that years of being shoved in the back of the closet on sticky stuff would damage the fabric, but it looked pretty good today as I unwrapped it! My plan is to press a couple strips at a time and pin them in front of the TV, then sew them together in between other projects.
#5 My Centennial project...the 2012 piece Arizona Flag postage stamp quilt. Here is a section of the bottom half. I need to make steady progress on this because there is a call for entries in a Centennial Quilt show due next September! June is my best month for quilting on my longarm since there are no pressures from school, so that is my self-imposed deadline for this one. Phew! The journey of a finished quilt starts with a few stitches, and I've got quite a list!

Hello out there!

2010-09-12T16:55:00.001-07:00

We're back to the school year routine, which means I only get to sew on holidays! Well, on the occasional Saturday I can squeeze in time to do things like put borders on a QOV mystery from Persimmon Quilts:
Of course, my photo skillz are horrible, and I chopped off the borders. You can see a few bits in the upper right corner! Great pattern, but I have no idea how I will quilt it. I need to do something all over (pantograph suggestions anyone?) or it will languish for at least a year.

Then I needed a quick project, so I grabbed some fabric that I bought on a whim this summer during our vacation in Minnesota and made some placemats. Left side is stack-n-slash, and the reverse is a log cabin with the Minnesota fabric in the center. They will be a Christmas present for a snowbird friend who splits her time between Arizona and Minneapolis.

It's that time again

2010-08-12T17:20:00.001-07:00

Kendra had a birthday so I had to get the annual bunny picture. (Background: each month of her first year, I posed her on the couch with the same stuffed bunny. Now that she's older, it's a birthday tradition.) As a four year old girl, she is quite the drama queen, and she doesn't always cooperate with photo requests. Today, bunny was too scratchy.

I solved that dilemma by having her wrap it in a blanket like a baby.Quilters with a sharp eye...look behind the bunny and check out the Dick and Jane quilt on the brown chair :-) Thanks to Grandma!!

Of course we had a celebration complete with cake:
And presents. ALL BARBIES. You should see the clothes and shoes, Oh My Goodness. I am the official "dresser." She has several of the Disney-themed dolls and it's funny to see Mulan in Snow White's outfit!

Quiltathon Progress

2010-08-05T18:57:00.001-07:00

Change of plans since the last post. The quilt I wanted to put on the longarm was a bit too small to be a Quilt of Valor, so I added some borders. Then, I had no batting so I set that one aside and turned to the other mystery of the summer.

I've been working on LeAnn's QOV mystery #12 (check out Persimmon Quilts).I'm almost done with Clue #5. Of course, I'm a couple months behind the rest of the world...LeAnn has already started mystery #13!!

The Quiltathon was a success, I logged 6 solid hours in my sewing room. Now THAT'S a vacation day :-)

Mystery Solved!

2010-08-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

Judy LaQuidara designed a great quilt. I left off the innermost border, since I did not have enough fabric and I could not wait for another run to the quilt shop! In my defense, I recently went on a shop hop, and the seven stores I visited did not have a match. The next question is how to quilt it...I may have to browse for some new pantographs!
I'm going to load up the longarm after lunch. Great quilting day so far!

Quiltathon Plans

2010-08-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

JudyL over at Patchwork Times is "hosting" a quiltathon today and tomorrow. What that means in blog-land is that we all try to clear our schedules and hide away in our sewing space, emerging only to eat and post our progress! Hubby's at work, daughter's at daycare and Mama's gonna play!

I have two mystery quilts that I'd really love to finish today, plus ideas for quilting on the longarm so I plan to alternate my time between those projects. I'll be back in a few hours with pictures.

Happy Stitching!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

Barbie World

2010-07-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

This summer is all about Barbie. Kendra got her first Barbie doll for Christmas, and just recently became enamored with it.
I wanted an easy project for my summer travels, so I asked Kendra if she'd like some knit dresses for her dolls. Of course the answer was yes! Luckily, I am used to working with small needles for socks, and these dresses were knit flat with a seam up the back. Easy peasy!

AND, Grandpa searched the garage and found my old dollhouse!
It is a wooden house whose walls are hinged so it folds flat to store. The furniture is wicker. The whole set was purchased in the Philipines while my dad was stationed overseas in the late 1970s. I think it held up rather well!

Friday Fill-Ins

2010-07-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

Hey Pickle...here's another theme day!! If you want to fill in your own blanks, visit Friday Fill-Ins.

1. I feel ___hopeful for rain__.

2. ___Run __ to catch up.

3. Do _you have a plan?____.

4. Snowflakes are ___ completely unique.

5. It's hard to know how much __spaghetti to cook___.

6. Card players_____ follow suit.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to ___finishing a quilt____, tomorrow my plans include ___movies_____ and Sunday, I want to _get back to church after a few weeks off____!

Thursday 13

2010-07-22T09:59:00.001-07:00

In an effort to blog on a regular basis, I will resort to "theme days." This week's list:

Thirteen places I've been this summer (in roughly chronological order)

1. Quality Inns in various cities.
2. US Airways Center for a Phoenix Mercury WNBA game.
3. Rose Chapel in Fort Worth for a lovely wedding.
4. Perini Ranch near Abilene for a dear friend's birthday.
5. Carlsbad Caverns
6. White Sands National Monument
7. A minor league baseball game: Brainerd Lunkers vs St Cloud Bats
8. Park Point beach on Lake Superior
9. Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America
10. The dentist
11. The movies
12. Gettin' my kicks on Route 66
13. Swimming

Wordless Wednesday - Dance Party

2010-07-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

Other Projects

2010-07-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

I needed an easy sock pattern for a recent road trip, so I cast on "Primavera" with some Lorna's Laces in the Franklin Habit Panopticon colorway. Fun pooling and the pattern had just enough difficulty to keep it interesting across Texas.
Our house is slowly being overrun with Barbie dolls, and most of the time they are nekkid. A quick search on Ravelry brought me to this...which will probably end up under the bed like the clothes the dolls came with!
And, my Arizona Centennial Postage Stamp quilt. 196 pieces done, only 1804 to go!! Hopefully you can see the gold star which is the center of the state flag. If you have any red, navy blue or butter yellow scraps, I can definitely put them to use!

Quilting Designs

2010-07-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

All I have left is the background meandering! Oh, and then binding, ugh. Well, I needed a project for the dog days of summer...
Front view:
I couldn't get the hopping foot over some of the points, so I just avoided them!
I used a circle design in the blue diamonds, so I brought that into the border with a "Bubble Curtain" (courtesy of Leah Day's 365 freemotion designs).My staple "Flame Flower" in the green diamonds and green border:I've used matching thread throughout the project, so the back will be as interesting as the front. The backing fabric is a navy blue tone-on-tone print and the first picture is truer to the actual color.

Mysteries

2010-06-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

I am working on two mystery quilts, destined to be Quilts of Valor.
Mystery #12 from Persimmon Quilts...traditional red, blue, cream and gold. I'm working on Clue 3.
JudyL is designing this one. Bright colors with cream background and green accents. Working on clue 3 on this one as well!On the longarm is the wedding quilt, which was paper pieced. The wedding is this Friday. I totally blew the deadline, as explained in the last post :-) So, now I can relax and enjoy the process of stitching. The jewel blocks are in purple, blue and green, and these stars appear in the corner. I am quilting a feathery pinwheel in the purple area, and I will use some concentric teardrops in the turquoise triangles.The view from the back - I am using a different design in each jewel block. I love this purple thread, it's King Tut and it is working like a dream in my machine! At the top of the photo is the over/under feather I used in the inner border.

ter

Time flies

2010-06-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

My mind is filled with quotes like "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and something about best-laid plans.
There's no way around the fact that June kicked my butt.
Over the past few years, I have dedicated my summer vacation to quilting. This year, I got a wild hair and volunteered to teach summer school. We are running a three-week math class, from 7:30 am til 12:30 pm. A little extra money, and afternoons free for quilting.
HA - another quote: Man plans, God laughs.
Mondays filled up with swim lessons. There were a few year-end parties, and a weekend church retreat. Then I got sick, and laid on the couch for a few days.
So, I have accepted the fact that the quilt I have been working on, which was planned as a gift for a wedding on June 25th, will not get done since I only have about 8 free hours between now and the time we leave. (heavy sigh) I was so optimistic when I started this project back in January! I still had hope when I was taking the paper foundations off in April! But darn this June - the fates conspired against me. Emily Post says we have four months to deliver gifts, right? (Or is that the rule for writing thank yous...I can never keep them straight.)

Quilting Time!

2010-05-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

I've started the quilting phase of my paper-pieced gift. Nothing too complicated, although I am in the process of ripping out a row since the backing puckered...what a bummer!
To reward myself after an hour with the seam ripper, I have started a mystery quilt-along with the Quilts of Valor group. This one is designed by LeAnn at Persimmon Quilts. She uses a great method for the flying geese! (Look for clue #2 on quilt 12)

I thought I'd share a tip I learned from the Yarn Harlot - a counting thread.
That is the sleeve for a raglan sweater, and I need to decrease every 4th row. So, I grabbed some contrasting yarn, and laid it between stitches in the middle of the first decrease row. It's very easy to count those four rows, then bring the red yarn forward. You can use this method to keep track of how many times you've decreased along with counting the individual stitches.

And a tip for the quilters...I was getting stuck with the corners of some blocks on the mystery quilt. My machine was eating the tips and creating a tangled mess of thread.
So, I flipped the fabric so I could start sewing on a wider edge rather than the tip.
Happy Stitching!

New Projects

2010-05-23T13:42:00.003-07:00

Thursday afternoon I had some time to kill, so I decided to go to the quilt store. I planned to get fabric for a mystery quilt that Judy is hosting. Of course, I browsed the sale rack while waiting for inspiration to strike. Great sales technique - 20% off when you take the rest of the bolt! That explains about half of those fabrics. Hey, I don't shop very often, so when I do, it's definitely a SPREE.
Then I picked out some fat quarters and fat eighths, whatever struck my fancy.

The greens here are my accent fabrics with the marbled tan/cream background for the mystery quilt. I am hoping it has somewhat of a manly look so I can put it in the QOV pile.
Then, I joined the Block Lotto group. You can find a link in my sidebar --->
Each month there is a different pattern, and when the winners are announced, you send your blocks to that person. It's a fun way to try some new patterns, and maybe I'll get lucky sometimes and win enough blocks to make a quilt.

Have you figured out that I am *not* a monogamous quilter? LOL. Time to go cut more squares for my centennial project!

No patience

2010-05-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

This is the cutting table in my sewing room. I had some very nice internet buddies who sent fabric for the Centennial Project, and I have been cutting my little pieces out. I wanted to see how the scrappy fabrics would look in the stark solid design of the Arizona flag, so I concentrated on the center star - re-drafted, counted each color...
and just couldn't wait to start sewing! Even with the darker pieces thrown in, I think I have a decent golden star for the center. My red and yellow rays start as nine-patches.At this point I am about 5% done with the cutting! I worried a bit that I should finish collecting the fabric first - if you remember from the first post, I wanted to use each fabric only twice, but in my rush to start the golden star, I included some fabric about 10 times. Of course this project should wait - I have a quilt that needs to be loaded on the longarm, but I was too excited about my postage stamps!

Centennial Project

2010-04-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

Arizona's 100th birthday will arrive in 2012. That's a nice round number, so I set myself a challenge - quilt the state flag (pictured on the left) as a postage stamp quilt. "Postage Stamp" refers to the individual pieces...I'm aiming for 1" finished. For the centennial part of the project, I decided to use 2000 pieces. I'll make up the other 12 in the border!

Kendra wanted to make a similar design, so I sketched the starburst, and she filled in the details:I've started to collect fabric, since I want a very scrappy quilt. By scrappy, I mean 1,000 different fabrics! I'd like to have pieces duplicate only once :-) If you have blue, red or yellow/gold scraps, please email me for a mailing address. It will take a major effort to collect the fabric and get this pieced and quilted in about two years!
I'll close with a random shot of fabric, ready for the washing machine and destined for quilt backs.

4 years and counting

2010-04-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my blog-iversary! WOW. Can't believe it's been that long, time flies, my baby is growing up, you know all the cliches.My other works-in-progress...

The test swatch for a lace shawl. In my dreams, I hope to have it finished to wear at a wedding in June. LOL - don't hold your breath! Counting yarn overs, k2tog and ssk takes concentration which is difficult to find when a pre-schooler is in the room.
Most of my time has been spent on this paper pieced quilt. 42 blocks, 40 pieces per block. Yeah, it took a while! Now I can have fun quilting it. And you'll have to wait for the final reveal since it's a gift and I don't want to ruin the surprise :-)
Finally, what every girl needs in Phoenix, a wool sweater. At least it's short sleeved! The pattern, Bob, comes from Knitty.com. This is much easier to work on while Kendra plays, so there is hope of seeing a finished product in a few weeks. Of course, then it will sit in the closet until the temperature drops back down to 60 degrees...perhaps this will debut for Thanksgiving dinner!

National Quilting Day

2010-03-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

I am going to miss my guild meeting because Kendra has strep throat. That kind of put a damper on my Spring Break plans to quilt while she was at daycare...and I am officially sick of all the cartoons on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. Thank goodness there is basketball this time of year!

I am working on the last six blocks of my paper pieced quilt, so that huge project is on track for its June deadline. I had most of the thread I need for the quilting stage, and managed to pick up the last two colors at the annual show last weekend.

Kendra is a budding artist herself - she is in a rainbow phase, and must cover every square inch of paper in her drawings. I've learned not to pick her up during art time at daycare, because I have to wait for her to finish. This week she colored what looked like a log cabin quilt block, so I had her dig through my scraps to find fabric pieces - TA DA!

Sunday Sewing

2010-03-07T13:47:00.001-08:00

I am working on the last dozen blocks for the secret project. What should I do with these oddball scraps that are left over? I'm thinking about a log cabin...Although this picture was taken in January, we have had a repeat of torrential rain this morning.
Perfect day to curl up on the couch!
It's not all doom and gloom, we have some lovely rose blossoms!

Knitting Update

2010-02-13T14:04:00.001-08:00

I do have to mention my blog-iversary during this Winter Olympic season. I joined the first Knitting Olympics, the brain-child of Stephanie McPhee Pearl, the Yarn Harlot. She will be knitting a gorgeous Dale of Norway fair isle sweater. Yes, from cast on to finished sweater in 17 days. She is a knitting legend. I will be plodding along on my socks:I finished the front of a sweater vest. The yellow marks show where I have to cut the steeks to make the V-neck. I'm a little nervous at the prospect of attacking my knitting with scissors, but my mom says it helps to think of it as fabric :-)
Here is a tempting little quilt project that I may use as a reward for passing the halfway mark on my paper-piecing stars. A Valentine Sudoku!

Quilt Designs

2010-01-23T10:42:00.000-08:00

I had planned a beautiful, photo-heavy post of the quilts I am working on. Tragically, I cannot find the usb cord that goes with the digital camera, so that will have to wait. Luckily, I took a picture months ago of the quilt that is currently on the longarm:It is the Boxy Stars pattern from Bonnie's Quiltville. Here is a rough idea of the quilting:
meandering around the stars, sun rays in the stars, and a wavy filler in the border.

Sunday Sewing

2010-01-10T14:10:00.001-08:00

Well, I had hoped to be a better blogger in 2010. It was a busy week back at school, and all my projects are at that middle plateau which isn't very interesting to photograph.

During vacation, I got the first phase of seaming done on my mitered square blanket:All the colors are sewn together in groups of three. Now, I need a lesson on mattress stitch along a cast-on edge, then I can get the blocks together and start the border. I wanted ALL the squares to intersect, but my layout didn't work with the number of blocks I made...you can see the pairs on the left are different than the design on the right.
I only had time to get one top quilted on the longarm during the holidays:
I used Judy's Freeze Frame pattern for the center, and added my own piano-key borders to make this Quilt of Valor. It just needs a label and then it's ready to go in the mail.
I am steadily knitting my Noro Striped Vest during TV time. Kendra is fanatical about Disney princesses, so we have the videos of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella on constant rotation. She's napping right now and I'm enjoying the AZ Cardinals domination of Green Bay this afternoon! I'm trying to get a couple blocks done each week on my paper piecing quilt but it's a gift, so no pictures to spoil the surprise.

Standing on the edge

2009-12-31T19:38:00.000-08:00

In review, here are the first sentences from the 2009 entries of this blog:

Jan = We visited the new aquarium at the Wildlife World Zoo on New Year’s Day.

Feb = I'm keeping track as Baby K grows by taking pictures with a stuffed bunny.

Mar = Phew...I finished the hanging sleeve on my show entries last night at 9:30pm.

April = Hey Blogger, why is uploading photos hit-or-miss these days?!?

May = Here is my progress on the QOV Mystery (#7 from Persimmon Quilts).

June = I spent most of Monday at my longarm.

July = It officially HOT here in the Valley of the Sun...105 and above every day for the next two weeks at least.

Aug = It's time to start on the vintage quilt.

Sep = Work is kicking my butt this year.

Oct = I finished knitting the last of the mitered squares - Hallelujah!

Nov = ...no writing!

Dec = We bought a new Christmas tree, and I'm looking forward to decorating it tonight.

I did a lot of quilting, which was fun, most of the time. (We shall not speak of the purple beast, LOL) My knitting focus was, and continues to be, my mitered square afghan. Although I vowed not to cast on any socks until it was done, I faltered on Christmas Day at my mom's house. Santa brought sock yarn, what's a girl to do???

We've looked back over the year, and it is also the close of a decade. What were the highlights of the last ten years for you? I have to say I much preferred the 00s to the 90s...thanks to my wonderful family! After a lifetime in the Air Force, as a brat and a service member, it is amazing to think I have been in the same city this whole decade, and seven years in the same house.

HAPPY NEW YEAR -- MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!

New Quilt Designs

2009-12-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

I finished Judy's "Freeze Frame" pattern...I'll post a full picture after I get the binding on. Here is the design I used in the big squares. I'm calling it "Shark Tooth." Just a few spiky arches in one direction then switch towards the other corner of the block.Here's how it looks on fabric:
I used green, gold and brown fabrics, hoping for a manly look since I will send this off to a soldier as part of the Quilts of Valor project. I wanted a simple, quick quilting design to complement the blocks. I really like how it turned out!

In the smaller squares, I used a design I learned from Linda Matteoti. She was having us practice with rulers, stitching from the midpoint to the corner of a square. I thought it made a cool star:So, I call this the half corner star, since you travel from the halfway point to the corner :-)
Here's a diagram to help you visualize the stitching line.Five days left of vacation...it always goes by much too fast. I did NOT get enough quilting time!! I have lots of things mentally lined up to work on in the New Year, but I have a project with a deadline that must take priority. It's a gift, so no pictures. If you need inspiration, visit Leah and her free motion design project.

Tis the Season

2009-12-26T08:24:00.001-08:00

For Christmas pageants, where at least we *look* like an angel...
Baking cookies with Grandma...Santa came through with a pink Barbie bike and pink Barbie helmet...
And Grandma's driveway is the perfect place to play!All the fun sure tires a girl out!
Enjoy your holidays!

New Project!

2009-12-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

We bought a new Christmas tree, and I'm looking forward to decorating it tonight. Bentley says we'll have some popcorn, too, and I always watch "The Sound of Music" when I put up my tree. Not really a classic Christmas tale, but it was always on TV during the holidays when I was little, so there's the "tradition."

I cast on for a sweater vest. It uses two colors of Noro variegated yarn. I love watching the new colors emerge! This is a testament to my increasing skill as a knitter...it is working up very quickly.
The mitered blanket is about halfway done. Yes, I *have* been working on it for years! I finished the individual blocks a few months ago, and I started the seaming process. Note my two different techniques. The right side is done with crochet, and the left is mattress stitch. I'm kicking myself because I tried to figure out mattress stitch from a book, decided it didn't look good, and went with crochet. The crochet doesn't look very good either, but it was faster than my interpretation of mattress stitch! Over Thanksgiving, my mom taught me the right way to do mattress stitch, which doesn't take very long, and makes an invisible seam. You guessed it, I will be taking out all the crochet seams. This project has taken so long that it is worth doing the best I can.

The purple beast left my house a couple weeks ago, hooray! I am taking a break from quilting for other people so I can work on a few of my own projects. I dove right into this beauty.

Paper pieced, 40 pieces per block, and I need 42 blocks. Oh, and to make things exciting, it needs to be done (pieced, quilted and bound) by mid-June. (No, I can't quit my day job)
1680 pieces to sew, plus picking off all the paper...I'll play Scarlett O'Hara and think about that tomorrow!

All Talk...

2009-11-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

...no writing! NaNoWriMo fell by the wayside very quickly. I got about 2500 words into my novel, realized it was really hard work, and promptly rationalized that I have other, more important things to do in my life. Any time I flirt with another hobby it fans the flames of my quilting desires, so that's what I've been focusing on.

Which brings us to the topic of the purple beast. Quilt from HE&L! I started out with beautiful feathery pinwheels in the background areas. Quilted down to the last row, and the bottom border had huge ripples. GRRR. Thought I could pick out a few blocks and ease in the fullness (this was back in August...school started, life got hectic, ripping was easy to ignore.) October rolled around and I started to get nervous messages from the customer, so I finished ripping and put the quilt back on the longarm. Darn, re-sewed that side and still had extra fabric in the border. Decided the only fix was to rip out everything and start over. Bentley helped, we worked every spare minute ripping stitches out for a whole week, and finally I was ready to sew again. I rotated the quilt 90 degrees, measured carefully, and started quilting with a pantograph. Yesterday, I got to the bottom edge and about lost my mind. STILL HUGE RIPPLES. The customer will just have to put up with a few puckers, because I have quilted the thing twice and can't make it flat. I have one spot left to quilt where my tension was off, and then it's done. I can't wait...better go check to see if there is any champagne in the pantry, LOL!

Sorry, no photos. Kendra is in a non-smiling mood these days when the camera comes out. Quite the little princess! She delights us everyday with snippets of songs from her music class and church choir. Just adorable.

It's a Conspiracy

2009-10-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

The universe (or my internal editor, or fear of failure, or...) is throwing obstacles in the path of my novel-writing escapade. I have a quilt that I need to finish for a friend/customer. I've had this quilt (hereafter known as the purple beast) since June - it's a Christmas present. Other projects with more immediate deadlines kept cropping up, then school started, then I noticed a big mistake and had to rip out my quilting. I thought I had fixed the problem so that I could quilt like crazy this weekend and start my novel on November 1st with the other insane NaNoWriMo folks around the world. NOPE. The purple beast reared it's ugly head, and the only solution I could see was to rip out every stitch and start over. Ripping out quilting is a huge job. Which means the few hours of free time that I had intended to use for writing over the next month, are now usurped by the purple beast. But I refuse to give in without a fight, so I will give up some precious sleep, and write anyway. Take that Universe and purple beast - I'm not quitting!

How do you eat an elephant?

2009-10-29T15:08:00.001-07:00

One bite at a time.

NaNoWriMo is code for National Novel Writing Month. I "win" if I write 50,000 words that somehow resemble a coherent story.

Yes, I know this is just more evidence that I am certifiably crazy. But, I need to stop dreaming and start doing. I was about 8 years old when I first got the idea to write a book. Then, in 6th grade, in a class for advanced students doing independent projects, I wrote a story and bound it between cardboard covers. My bookshelves are full of writers-how-to titles. Now it's time to get back in touch with my younger self who was able to put pencil to paper and end up with a finished story. That is my goal in November.

Phase 1 complete

2009-10-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

I finished knitting the last of the mitered squares - Hallelujah! Phase 2 is the seaming. After I get the squares sewn in groups of three, I will lay them out to check on color placement and size (remember, the crazy plan is to have this fit my queen size bed). Then comes the border.

It's probably insane to think I could have this done by Christmas, but with cooler evening temperatures there is an incentive! And it was so fun to cast on a pair of socks after almost six months of stockinette stitch.

Here is Kendra, all ready for a sleepover at Grandma's. Everything is packed in her Disney princess backpack.
My latest quilt project was a log cabin charity quilt. I did some meandering leaves on the dark half of the log cabin, and a spiky ferny thing on the light side.Happy Stitching!

I quilted today!

2009-09-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

Yay for me! I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I burned a whole sick day and enjoyed some quiet time in my sewing room. Judy has started another Quilt for an Hour project. I was able to finish the first two steps...instructions are only posted on weekdays so I will definitely us the weekend for catching up!Does it count as stash-busting if you use someone else's stash??? I raided my mom's fabric collection for green and browns. I'm thinking masculine colors for a potential Quilt of Valor donation. I'd better get busy at the longarm so all the QOVs I've done this summer can be put to good use!! FYI - visit qovf.org for details about a Vermont effort to collect 200+ quilts for service members.

Of course, since I did NOT buy season tickets this year, the Phoenix Mercury have advanced to the second round of the WNBA playoffs! I keep meaning to go to a game, but when it comes right down to it, I'm usually too tired, don't want to drive downtown and pay for parking, food, etc. I've been able to watch most of the games through a live feed on my computer. Some of the playoff games are on ESPN2, which makes for good knitting time.
I'm almost done with my mitered square blanket!I need to block the blue-yellow-green squares, then the blue-pink-purple will be my last color combination, for a total of 81 individual blocks. I've seamed about a third of them, so I need to finish that and then knit the border. Maybe it will be done by Christmas?!?

Of course, I need a few days for this...
I got an email coupon from Barnes&Noble, so I stopped by after my appointment today. I didn't realize it was new on the shelf today! This is #7 in the Outlander series, so you really need to start from the beginning to get the full effect of Claire traveling through time via stone circles and falling in love with Highlander Janie Fraser. I've heard rumors of a movie version, but this is definitely a case where no mere human actor will be able to live up to the millions of reader fantasies!

Labors

2009-09-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

Work is kicking my butt this year. My afternoon classes are remedial algebra...let's just say it's a tough crowd. I come home exhausted every day. I am going to try more structure than I usually impose in my classroom and hopefully the students will calm down and we can all have a little bit of fun. Enough of that! Here's some happy stuff -

I joined the I-Spy fabric swap hosted by Wendy and Meredith. I took 80 of the 200 squares and put them together as four-patches.Then I added some green sashing, next will be a blue border and then it will make some child very happy!

You'll have to click on this next photo to see my quilting. My guild's challenge this fall was "Anything Geometric" so I tried some new meandering patterns with right angles (in orange) and triangles (green).
Cool effects in my photo-editing program...
A park nearby has a small water play area. Kendra is getting brave - standing under the spouts all by herself!

Birthday Week

2009-08-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

The birthday celebrations are over and our princess is officially three years old. Here is the bunny picture...
Opening presents - Grandma Mary bought the "Calico Critters" townhouse with 5 rooms of furniture. The bathroom includes an 1/8th inch bar of soap to sit on a 1/4-inch soapdish. Thanks, Mom!
So, the photographer didn't plan the shot well...but here is the cake and candle portion of the day.
Hectic week with parties and trying to get ready for school. Bentley starts his third week of class, and my students arrive for Day One tomorrow. Kendra will be with new teachers and mostly the same kids in her daycare center. Of course, Murphy's Law struck, and she has been running a fever for the last 12 hours. I really don't want to call a sub for the first day of school, ugh!

Prep Work

2009-08-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

It's time to start on the vintage quilt. The scary one! Anytime I quilt for customers, I'm a bit nervous - what if they hate it? What if I screw up? Typical stage fright, usually solved by taking a deep breath and getting started. And, since I'm doing a new design, I decided to (gasp!) practice first!I gathered my tools...a stencil, two circle templates, and butcher paper. The smaller circle will be stitched as my reference, the larger circle and the inner section of the stencil are marked as guidelines for the edges of my feathers.
I started with the inside of the wreath.
Here you can see the whole thing. I drew about six wreaths on paper and then they started looking consistent. I switched to drawing the outer ring of feathers first, since it's easier and that got me into the flow. If you look closely, you'll see that there are twice as many feathers on the outside. Keeping track of how many loops I've done also helps keep me consistent.

Then I loaded some practice fabric on the machine, again tracing the two circles and the stencil guidelines. I only need the Gammill workstation to stitch the central, smaller circle.
And, viola! A nice looking feathered wreath.

Avoidance

2009-07-31T10:06:00.001-07:00

I waste too much time on the computer. It's one habit that I am trying to break! Of course when Kendra decides to have a tea party, the computer gets left in the dust :-)

I'm a bit intimidated by the next quilt I have to do...antique signature blocks and a request for feathers.
So, I am going to find some stencils today and tackle this one...on Monday, LOL. Hey, don't roll your eyes like that, my weekends are busy with family! Do you know how hard it is to get anything done with a three year old running around??? Luckily there are 10 days left before I have to go back to school, so the goal for next week is to JUST DO IT.

Of course, I haven't touched the seam ripper since I admitted my mistake on the other quilt. ugh. There are many hours of repair work waiting for me in the quilt room...see why I play on the computer so much?!?

Contest Link

2009-07-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

In the contemporary quilting world, two names lead the way - Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran. They have written a new book, and you can win a copy! Just click here.

Lessons Learned

2009-07-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

I pledged to knit nothing else until this blanket is done -And last night I got a lesson on crochet. It's much faster to use a single-crochet to seam the blocks together rather than mattress stitch, and I think the result is acceptable:
You can see a bit of the lighter color in the seam on the front, and I need to carefully make sure the stripes line up, but I am pleased with my first attempt. Only 18 squares left to knit and then on to seams and borders, woo-hoo!

Kendra has been working on faces...Mom and Dad are at the top,
Grandma below with her glasses on. I think the green blobs are earrings :-)

The lesson I learned today is to always measure the width of the quilt as it advances on the longarm. The corollary is that problems do not magically go away over night! I noticed some rippling in the edge of the quilt I'm working on (lovely feathers, if I do say so myself) but I just kept easing it in. Not a good strategy...when I got to the lower border I had way too much excess, so that's when I grabbed the tape measure. I had "eased" about two inches worth along the way. Now I have a date with Mr. Seam Ripper, oh joy. Lots of cliches come to mind - Haste makes waste, primarily!

Winter in July

2009-07-20T07:13:00.001-07:00

The Phoenix Zoo had a snow day this weekend. They trucked in mountains of snow and icy treats for all the animals. Ralph, a Galapogos tortoise really scrambled to get his snack of prickly pear!
Here is Kendra checking out the action at the kiddie play area.
I can't remember what species this is ,some kind of South American rodent I think:
Elephants-
And no visit is complete until we ride the carousel. We got there just as one group was starting their ride, so we were first in line, which assured Kendra of a seat on her favorite lion.
Stay cool!

Quilt Camp 2009

2009-07-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed a quick trip to Quilt Camp in the Pines this week. When I went for the first time in 2004, I won the roommate lottery and met Jeanne (on the right). She is so much fun...one of those people who you meet and feel like you've known forever. We only see each other once or twice a year and each time is a delight.
We took John Flynn's class, Glorified Nine Patch. My advice if you ever take a class with him - BUY THE KIT. He sells wonderful templates if you want to bring your own fabric, but in class it is much more fun to sew than to spend all day cutting out pieces.

Every year at camp, Jeanne plans an extra curricular craft. This year it was fat free treats:Some quilting magazines this summer have featured patterns for these "quick and easy" pincushions. Mine is on the right...lumpy and lopsided. In my own defense, I was using an unfamiliar sewing machine that didn't like the interfacing and ruffly edges. I figured for a first attempt, finished was better than perfect. Jeanne's cupcake on the left was her fourth try ;-)

The featured instructor was Esterita Austin. She gave a lecture on her quilting journey. (Esterita is the redhead on the left.) It was educational and entertaining. I learned a few tricks about color placement (highlight the contrast between light and dark to give dimension) and fell in love with her stone portal quilts.
Great mini-vacation away from the desert heat. Anyone want to join me next year??

Colors

2009-07-10T09:15:00.001-07:00

Quilts of Valor issued a new challenge - use the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern to make a quilt. I've seen this pattern before, but never tried it myself. This version uses 5" squares. My last QOV project decimated my meager stash of red, white and blue fabric so, oh darn, I will have to go shopping before I go any further with this!

Temptation from Wendy:
She organized an I-Spy swap. I have ideas for several I-spy theme quilts, so this will be a fun way to get lots of different prints. (Amy sent me such a big bag of goodies that I am sharing the love!)

Kendra has been busy for about three days now with a highlighter marker. She can even draw a recognizable face! Parents - remember the simple joys of empty boxes and colors :-)

Dog Days of Summer

2009-07-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

It officially HOT here in the Valley of the Sun...105 and above every day for the next two weeks at least. And we haven't even had a good thunderstorm yet! I've been puttering around, enjoying my summer vacation, probably like most of my students - not accomplishing much of anything!

Let me recap my holiday weekend, although the camera was not in use.
Friday - drove up to Prescott Valley to drop off a quilt and have a picnic. This was a test run of the kiddo on a road trip. She did great! (Many thanks to Disney and Dora, LOL) It was cloudy and cool during our lunch and then we hurried back to Phoenix for nap time.
Saturday, July 4 - went to a party at a friend's house. Her band, Mirror Image, played a couple sets of rock music and Kendra had a front row seat. She *loved* the drums. Groupies start young these days ;-) Home to bed for the little one. I could just see the top of the nearest fireworks show over the other houses in the neighborhood.
Sunday - ended up as a very busy day with church, lunch with one set of grandparents and dinner with the others!
Monday - one of Kendra's friends from daycare came over to play for a few hours in the morning. The parents stayed so there was lots of good conversation.
Tuesday - took Kendra to music class at Grandma's church! Quick visit and lunch with Grandma, then home since I had a doctor's appointment. Unfortunately, Kendra fell asleep in the car on the way home, which was a bummer because she woke up as soon as we got home and did not go back to sleep. On the plus side, she fell asleep early last night!

Today, we were back to our normal schedule of taking her to daycare so I could get some quilting done. There was a problem with the top that I wanted to put on the longarm, so that got put aside for Grandma to fix, and I put a binding on. It was the second quilt I did all by machine, which is so quick and easy, except for all the pins. Just follow the directions in the sidebar at Patchwork Times.

OK, I'll cave and add a photo...(or not, since it was the same one I put in my last post)
I am knitting some three-color squares for my blanket. I am determined to finish this ASAP! I put away all other knitting projects and did some calculations...only 19 more squares. It's conceivable to finish the squares before school starts, then I have to sew all 81 together and knit the borders. That phase of the project will definitely have to wait until the temperatures go down!!!

Ch-Ch-Changes

2009-06-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

I hereby resolve that I will not cast on another pair of socks until this blanket is finished! Here are some tricolor squares... I adapted the original two color pattern for three colors. This lets me use up some of my leftover colors without an obvious repeat. I have been avoiding the seaming process, but I need to get started. I'm sure by the time I've done 100 or more seams, it won't be as intimidating!!

There is a water play area near some restaurants over by Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had a fun evening watching Kendra play.

We packed away her crib, here she is in her Big Girl bed:

I think mattresses are bigger these days...the headboard sure seemed taller when I was a kid. I plan to fill the blank wall with some of the beautiful quilts that have been made for her. Daddy will need to use the power tools, I just need to attach the hanging sleeves.

Photos Today!

2009-06-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

I know I should finish something before I start a new project, but this just took a few minutes to cut out and arrange. 3 inch squares for my Halloween Sudoku. I double checked that each fabric was only used once in it's row, column and block of 9. The one thing I may change is to fussy cut one of the fabrics (fourth from the right on the bottom row) since my random cutting managed to avoid showing the monster design completely! Here is the custom longarm project from last week. The quilter used beautiful batiks.

Isn't this a pretty block? I did a simple radiant design coming off the corners of the center square.

See the rainbow fabric in the setting triangles? That's what was making me blind as I tried to quilt curly q's in it with varigated thread! Here's a view from the back:

I had a suspicious mole taken off my shoulder blade today. 3 stitches, and it kind of stings, so I am staying away from the sewing machine and trying to keep my arms down this afternoon. But I have to stay out of the swimming pool for the next 12 days until they take the stitches out. That seems like a long time, especially since the forecast is above 100 degrees for the next two weeks. I guess I'll stay inside and watch lots of movies in the cool air conditioning!

No Sewing Sunday

2009-06-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

But, I couldn't let the week pass by without another post! I did not take a picture of the quilt I mentioned last time...some days it's just too much trouble to get the camera and the quilt in the same room! I think finishing 3 quilts in 5 days was a bit too much, I mean really gals, I am on summer vacation here - the deadlines are killing me!! Just kidding, the only deadline I was under was self-imposed, thinking that if I got customer quilts out the door, then I'd have time for personal stuff. But, then I ran out of inspiration, so I took a day off and caught up on TV - season finales that I hadn't watched back in May.

I know that I should spice this post up with pictures of my adorable little girl, but for some reason Blogger doesn't like to import photos from my Firefox browser. It's almost my bedtime and I don't want to switch over to Windows Internet Explorer, wah wah wah. Anyway, cute kid story - lately when I ask her to pick up her toys she responds "No thank you." Ummm, honey, I appreciate the manners, but that is not an option in this situation! It's even sweeter with her toddler "sank you" pronunciation of "thank you." And I crack up when we are listening to her music in the car and she wants us to skip a song "I don't care for this one." Out of the mouths of babes. I hope I can remember these cute moments when she's full of teen angst and attitude!

Mish Mash

2009-06-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

I finished quilting my friend's first-ever quilt. (I showed you the sketch last time.) I was happy with the pinwheel feathers in the center.Today's project has me quilting curly q's on a black fabric with rainbow swirls. If I don't go blind, I will share a picture tomorrow!

Check out the One Million Giraffes website...here is my contribution. I have been a giraffe fanatic forever...I have at least 50 in my house! Too bad this kid only wants drawings, I could send him lots of pictures of figurines and stuffed toys.

Amy got me thinking about the 80s yesterday. Big shoulder pads, side ponytails, ripped sweatshirts, leg warmers, pegged pants, Polo shirts, Madras inter-changeable purses, Madonna, MTV, Mr. T, Ronald Reagan, Olympic boycotts...iconic decade for sure!

The process

2009-06-06T14:47:00.001-07:00

Fun at the zoo! There is a little water play area and Kendra was brave enough to go through the waterfall. She hates having water on her face, so Daddy showed her how to put her hands over her eyes and walk forward until she felt the water. Of course, the highlight of any visit is the carousel. Today she rode the "li-lon" and gave a big RAWR.The Quilt Show is having a contest in support of Drawing Day, and I decided to play along.

Here is the quilt that I will be working on next:
To preview some quilting designs, I used photo editing software to print a grayscale copy. I lowered the brightness and now I have a worksheet to sketch on. I may be doing alot of stopping and starting since it will be tricky to move between the same-colored areas. I tend to do all my stitch-in-the-ditch before I start the block designs, although I've talked to other longarmers who do it as they move between blocks. I'm afraid I'd miss a side of a square along the way. The next question, do I have thread to match those fabrics??

King Size

2009-06-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

Only a peek, since I don't have a large enough space that is not covered in cat hair to take a full size picture! I am so thrilled to finish my mom's Kaffe Fasset Nine Patch. Here is the flower design that I put in the alternate nine patch blocks: Since the cream-on-cream thread did not photograph well, I added some detail on the computer to show the spiky fern border:

And finally, all of the block designs as seen on the back:

My machine ran for about nine hours for this quilt, so I probably spent at least 25 hours when you factor in the time to pin, wind bobbins, advance the rollers, etc. I only have two other customer quilts lined up, but plenty of my own stuff to finish. I love summer vacation!

Ahh, vacation

2009-06-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

I spent most of Monday at my longarm. It was wonderful! Actually, it started out crummy because I was trying to use invisible thread and it just would not cooperate. So, there was a bit of ripping out and then I decided on the nice aqua/green Permacore that you see in the right hand block. I got into a rhythm with the curves and got that whole section done.

I am going to use a different color and design in the other nine-patch blocks. I think I can finish this one by Friday, yay!

One of Kendra's grandmas went to Disneyland last week and brought her a princess hat. It's a little big, but she loved it.

I am waiting for the repairman to show up and fix our sliding glass door, then it's off to have lunch with my mom. I packed three projects for some afternoon sewing. I wonder what will get done?!?

Current Events

2009-05-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

Quilter's ADD...I started a new project, even though I haven't finished the QOV Mystery or the May blocks for my block-of-the-month project! And I have quite a pileof UFO's tucked away that probably only need a border or something to finish. But, at least this is a stash project, so I do get credit for avoiding unnecessary spending. The pattern is Twisted Sister by Ami Simms. I am using black backgrounds and a variety of brown, gold and green batiks. Hopefully this is a masculine look, because it is destined for another returning soldier!

Friday the family went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit "The Nature of Glass." This blue and purple collection was in perhaps the most gorgeous section...right under a palo verde tree that provided lots of shade!

Here are some pink "fiddleheads" with green swirllies (yep, technical term) among some prickly pear.

At the entrance, you are greeted by glass yucca formations and agave/century plants on the terraces. The whole place is beautiful.

Just for Amy

2009-05-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

Amy is a quilt-blogging friend (aka The Calico Cat) and she's on an I-Spy kick. I promised her a picture of the one I made for Baby K last fall...here is the back. In real life, it's a dark purple from the Moda Marbles line. I used a simple crosshatch and spirals in the border.

Here's the front side. I'd take a full size picture, but I haven't gotten around to binding it yet. Bad mommy!

May Update

2009-05-27T16:13:00.001-07:00

Finished half of a pair of Shur'tugal socks in STR Alley Oop (details on Ravelry).

Almost to the end of the mystery quilt!

Baby K continues to brighten every day with her smiles.

Daddy brought home a huge flower arrangement from his school's graduation, and K "planted" on in the yard.

And then she got in touch with her inner farmer...

Yay Photos!

2009-05-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

My life over the last week or so...
I love working on this quilt since the fabrics are right up my alley. Lots of blue and wonderful prints, some batik and lots of Kaffe Fasset! I got all the blocks outlined, then I am filling in some free-hand feathers, using a multi-color thread on top and a navy blue on the back. A tip for stitching feathers that I learned from DeLoa Jones: think of curving into the spine like the curve of a freeway on-ramp. You come in at a gentle angle, not straight across! Also, imagine how a question mark curves from top to bottom. Gidget has a new favorite spot to nap in the evenings. She isn't very social, but she comes halfway down the stairs to hang out.
Here is Kendra with some of our Topsy Turvy brand tomatoes. I added them to the sausage and rice we had for dinner last night.
And here she is before swim lessons. I wanted a nice pose with the pool in the background, but she didn't cooperate! This is our first year of formal lessons. It's a parent-tot class, so I am in the pool with her. We practice kicking and blowing bubbles. She does not want to put her face in yet, but she looks forward to the Hokey Pokey and playing with the toys in the shallow beach-entry area at the end of class each day.

Text Only

2009-05-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a glimpse inside my head...

There are no pictures for this post because the camera is upstairs and I am too lazy to run up and get it. Plus, I want to take a few pictures of the QOV mystery quilt that I am working on, but I'd probably get sidetracked sewing or something and then never make it back to the blog post!

I had a good Mother's Day. I let Daddy get up at 6am with our little angel, and woke up to coffee on the patio an hour later. Their card to me was perfect - a little grumpy-faced baby with the caption "Mom, I know I'm difficult and spoiled rotten...Fortunately I'm cute enough to make up for it." Baby K is two-and-three-quarters, and we get a screeching NOOOOOO if we ask her to do something. Of course, two seconds later we ask and get a sweet "Yes, Mama." On the patio this morning, she decided to jump rope. I missed a fantastic video opportunity because all she was doing was holding a rope and jumping up and down. It made me laugh so hard!

Then we went to church and I was able to sew for a bit while K. took her nap. Then it was off to Grandma's house for dinner. Sunday afternoons are so hard to manage because we can never predict naptime. The plan is always to put her down when we get home around 12:30 and let her sleep 2 hours or so. Today we were late because we stopped for lunch, and then it took a while for her to quiet down. So, we had to wake her up, which is a slow process and she's always grumpy for about an hour. But, it worked out because Grandma has fun toys and K. got to sit on the tractor!

Tomorrow starts the last full week of school here in Arizona. I have one more unit test to give and then next week I will do a couple days of review before final exams. And what will I do with my free time over the summer? Quilt, quilt and more quilting! I have several QOVs to finish this month, then two for friends, then my own pile which I don't even dare to count. At least then I'll have pictures to share!

Guidance

2009-05-02T14:34:00.001-07:00

Here is my progress on the QOV Mystery (#7 from Persimmon Quilts). There are lots more red and white half square triangles ready, plus tons of 2 7/8 inch white squares for Clue #2. There are some people who can't stand mystery projects because they need to know what the whole thing looks like, but I enjoy the suspense. Birthday and Christmas presents can sit in my house for weeks ahead of the actual day, too! (That used to drive my college roommate crazy, ha ha.)

A few years ago, I took a class from Jackie Robinson, who told us that we were all perfectly capable of making half-square triangles WITHOUT drawing a line across one of the fabrics! I took that admonishment to heart. Here is the process I use:
Although smaller squares are easier, I am currently working with 5-inch pieces!My machine is set up with a quarter-inch foot, and the extension table has a ruler printed on it. You can see from the Purple Thang (TM) that I have markers to help me line up the fabric. If I am sewing 1/4 inch off the diagonal to get 2 half square triangels, then I line up the point right under the right-hand edge of my presser foot. Then, I watch the bottom corner of the fabric and make sure it crosses over my markers...the spot on my ruler and also the line on my bobbin case. Figure out some markers on your own machine and save some time piecing those half-square triangles.

I saw a hilarious description of the quilt binding process on this blog. (warning - adult language)

Spring has Sprung

2009-04-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

I am worried about the political divisions in our country and the potential for a flu epidemic. But, since those things are beyond my control, I will focus on the happy things in my life! I love to visit blogs and see pictures and read about everyone's life...those sneak peaks into the ordinary moments that fill our days. I have been an infrequent blogger for a while, and I realize I don't say much! For someone who dreams of being published someday, that's a sad state of affairs, which I will try to change - starting now.

I've dedicated most of my quilting time recently to Quilts of Valor. Last month, I quilted a beautiful top for a lady in California. A few weeks ago, I sent off a quilt to be presented to soldiers in Colorado (read about it here). And, I put borders on my Boxy Stars, so it's ready for quilting.As I was browsing around the QOV website, I noticed a link for a mystery pattern. (Instructions here.) I raided my stash (and my mother's stash as well!) and I'll start on that as my next project. I have piles of quilts in every room of my house, so I need an outlet for this hobby!

We're enjoying gorgeous spring weather after flirting with summer temperatures early last week. Baby K loves to have picnics, so we took some fresh strawberries outside for a snack.

3 years and counting

2009-04-19T14:10:00.001-07:00

Friday was my 3rd blogiversary! It's been a fun way to journal my crafty projects and Baby K's daily adventures...thanks for tagging along.

She had a fun Easter Egg hunt last week at church.

I finished the first half of the April assignment for the Quilt Show project:I finally loaded a new project on the longarm. I thought of you Samantha! Fun nine-patches with Kaffe Fassett fabric:

Sunday Sewing

2009-04-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

To satisfy my quilting urge, I started a scrappy project using Bonnie's Boxy Stars pattern. I personally have issues with totally random scrap quilts, so I made the main star potion of each block in similar colors...of course, once I took the picture I can see that my values (light and dark) are way off! Oh well, that helps with the scrappy feel.
I am going to add more red and blue stars and send this to Quilts of Valor. They are trying to collect over 1,000 quilts by May 31st to present to a Marine Battalion that is returning home. I have some other blocks ready to assemble into a top, so I hope to contribute several finished quilts to this effort.
Some quilters have trouble with their cats laying on their projects when they are trying to take pictures...I have an enthusiastic little girl! I asked her to help, and first she rolled among all the blocks, then started throwing them in the air.
This next photo is just proof of my insanity: When I trim the corners of the Boxy Stars, I have half-square triangles, already matched in lights and darks. They are about 1.5inches square. My mom and I have had this conversation for years. It seems like such a waste to throw all these scraps out, but really...when are we ever going to sew them into something useful??? Well, I'm making a dedicated effort to use them as leader/enders when I chain piece, and I promise blogland that I will find a pattern for HST and work on it this summer! Maybe Broken Dishes?

Linky Loo

2009-04-02T15:05:00.001-07:00

Thursday Thirteen...random thoughts

1. Hey Blogger, why is uploading photos hit-or-miss these days?!? Very irritating.

2. I started the book Emerald a couple weeks ago. Did King Edward and Wallis Simpson have a child? If so, what was her life like? It's been a great read so far.

3. I joined a sock knit-a-long with some other folks on Ravelry. I am using some Socks That Rock yarn to knit the Shur' tugal pattern.

4. The pattern inspiration came from the novel Eragon, which I checked out from the library on Monday. So now I'm reading two books at once - one at home and one during lunch at school. It feels weird, I am usually a monogamous reader!

5. This is an area where my brother and I have completely different attitudes. I will read books many, many times. The Little House on the Prairie series was in endless rotation for much of my childhood, and now I revisit Harry Potter every couple years. Ty, on the other hand, thinks there are too many books in the world to waste your time re-reading anything.

6. I am in more of a quilt piecing mood than a longarm mood. Mom brought me a king size quilt to finish, and she had very specific ideas about the quilting. Now I'm nervous to start on it!

7. I am mulling over some ideas for a challenge. The theme is "Geometry" - perfect for a high school math teacher, right?!? I'm leaning towards the Fibonacci Sequence.

8. My other idea, not necessarily for the challenge, is a Sudoku quilt. It will be fun to arrange the nine fabrics nine different ways!

9. I am continuing with the Sue Garman Block of the Month at The Quilt Show. I think my polka dotted background makes it very busy, but rather than abandon the project or buy a bunch of new fabric, I'm just going to continuing using my stash.

10. Hubby and I have been discussing gardening. He'd like to build a raised garden in our yard. I think it would be great as a family project...I've shared how baby K likes to dig in the dirt and water anything and everything! The drawback is that I know it takes almost daily upkeep to tend a vegetable garden, and with his schedule, I'd end up with those chores. I'm not too thrilled about that! Since planting season is several months away, we have time to decide.

11. Another decision that always crops up at the end of the school year is job-hunting. Hubby works at a charter school, which doesn't pay into the state retirement system or count as experience for public school seniority. For these and other reasons, I'd like him to get hired in a public school. Unfortunately, with the dire state budget we are facing, that is unlikely to happen for next year. We're hoping he can at least switch to regular school hours and get home in the early afternoon!

12. Speaking of school, several teachers and I were comiserating about the lack of motivation in our students. There is a significant percentage of my students who seem to take pride in doing nothing. They don't even bring a pencil or paper to class! So, President Obama, please don't push "merit pay" on me until you figure out a way to hold the students accountable for their actions too.

13. On a happier note, I was thinking ahead to summer vacation. One option is a trip to Minnesota to visit my new nephew, but I am leaning towards a trip to the beach and Legoland! Ever since I heard about it, I've been anxious to have a child who would enjoy it, and Baby K loves to build towers and bridges.

Growth

2009-03-29T08:52:00.002-07:00

Baby K amused herself for HOURS yesterday with a bucket of water. An old bottle brush has become her magic wand - she waves it and says "biddly boo!" Our trees are starting to bloom. I think the pomegranates are so interesting! Looks like we will have a good crop...any suggestions for juicing or other recipes?
And the Topsy Turvy (tm) tomato is starting to sprout also.
Daddy and Baby K had a picnic in the yard. Happy Spring!

Random Saturday

2009-03-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

Daddy planted a plum tree, and Baby K helped dig and find worms, which were transferred to the compost pile.Then she went shopping with Mommy. She fell asleep on the way home, so I carried her inside and laid her on the couch. She opened her eyes long enough to say "It's not naptime," then she didn't move for the next hour and a half! Here's the other Quilt of Valor that I mentioned in my last post:

Time Flies

2009-03-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

How is it the end of Spring Break already??? Hubby and I had a nice getaway to a local hotel on Monday night. We tried a new restaurant - Brazilian BBQ, where waiters carve the meat right at your table. Yummy! Baby K enjoyed her first sleepover at Grandma's house.

Yesterday, Baby K got a haircut. I was tired of all the tears when combing her hair, so we went for the classic bob.
I'm busy working on finishing some projects for Quilts of Valor. I finished this starry top several years ago, and it was waiting for a binding. I thought I had purchased some of the red sashing, but couldn't find it. Argh. So, I pieced some scrappy blues. Great project to work on while basketball is on!
I have another top for QOV, but it was a crib size pattern, so I had to improvise on some additional borders.
I finished a sock:
The multi-colored yarn, Socks that Rock colorway Flower Power, does such interesting things! I was getting spirals of color in smaller stripes along the leg and heel, then in pooled on the foot. I was tempted to break the yarn and move the colors around, but the pooling is part of the charm.

Crafty

2009-03-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

Big news first...I'm finally an aunt! My brother picked up his son this morning and they will be home this weekend. Woo-Hoo!

I've been knitting small projects. They're great for the sense of accomplishment when you finish. First is the lace cuff for a pair of socks:And a ruffled tee for Baby K. I knit this in the round, so there are no seams! Just a few ends to weave in.

My Lenten discipline of exercise is not going so well...I was busy with a quilting deadline and missed Friday, then today I came home and vegged on the couch since I had a killer headache all day at school. I guess some is better than none, and habits take time to build, yada yada yada. (can you tell I'm really good at rationalization?!?!)

Errands

2009-03-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Phew...I finished the hanging sleeve on my show entries last night at 9:30pm. Dropped them off today at 10am. As the saying goes, if it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done! The show is next weekend. I volunteered to work for my longarm chapter...we are selling raffle tickets to win free longarm quilting services. I love the show atmosphere and the thrill of seeing my own work on display.

In the meantime, I have been knitting the ruffley edge to baby K's tank top:And went a little wild for polka dots! Baby K pulled the purple fabric off the shelf, so I got that for Grandma to make a sundress. The other two will go in the Block-of-the-Month that I am working on.
We'll see how long I keep up...I made the feathered star center and the four-patch border and several of the stars for the outer border. The pattern calls for several additional scrappy borders. March is pinwheels and then we do some more stars. I'm not sure I want something that big and scrappy. Something about it is not working for me. I like what I've done so far, so I've been thinking about adding just one more border and keeping it as a wall hanging.

What I really need is focus! I have several tops ready for the longarm, a couple that need binding that I've promised to Quilts of Valor, plus several personal designs that I want to play with. Do I have an audience interested in testing some patterns?!?

Quilt Lesson

2009-02-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

I gave my friend Michelle her first quilting lesson today. Isn't it fun to share hobbies with friends?!? A few months ago we went shopping and the pattern "Reel Fine" appealed to her. She is an experienced sewer, so I assured her that while the pattern looks difficult, she could handle it step by step. She fell in love with some batiks:
(What looks like two pieces on the right is actually from a single piece of variegated fabric)
I made a sample of the pattern in EQ6 so she could see how the colors went together:

She cut everything for a queen size quilt in just a couple hours, and when she started sewing, she said, "You know, this isn't brain surgery." Yep, step by step is all it takes! She wants more lessons as she puts the blocks together. Oh wow, an excuse to quilt all day! "Sorry honey, Michelle needs my help...I'll be back in time for dinner." :-)

Here's a sneak peek of a quilt that will be entered in a show in a couple weeks. I'm about halfway done with the binding. I had fun with the meandering leaves.And I'm almost done with the body of baby K's knitted t-shirt. I love watching variegated yarn knit up. It's always a surprise.

Pay it Forward

2009-02-25T08:43:00.001-08:00

Since I was mentioned BY NAME on a friend's blog, I thought I'd rise to the challenge and join the Pay It Forward game. Here's how it works:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done in the next 12 months.
- You have no clue what it's going to be.
- I reserve the right to do something unusual.

The catch? You have to put this in your blog as well. Pass on the love!

I was intimidated at first with the pressure of creating for someone else...but I've been in lots of swaps for quilt blocks, hand-stamped art, and mini socks, so I know I can do it. And with a 12 month deadline...yeah, even with a toddler on the verge of potty training and a full time job, I think I can create a few special things. So to all my anonymous readers, now is the time to come out of the woodwork and comment!

Stages

2009-02-22T05:45:00.000-08:00

The final stage...here is the back of my sweater vest, with the center wedge added and the 2 halves grafted together. I didn't follow the instructions - I thought I knew how to do a wrap and turn! Oh well, it doesn't seem noticeable. The biggest problem is that it is HUGE. When I started this project (4 years ago) I just wanted to cast on something...don't you ever get the startitis itch?!? Well, for some silly reason I made the large, when the medium (4 inches smaller at the chest) would have been fine. And when you make the pieces seperately over many years, you don't realize that it's getting so big. Hubby was very supportive, saying a loose fit will be fine and it's only my second sweater project, etc. etc. What a sweetheart! Now I just need a hands-on seaming lesson and we'll see if a warm water bath can shrink it a tad.
The middle stage...stars for my Block of the Month project. Notice that they are only four and a half inches square. Lots of small pieces in this one. Now I'm anxious for the next step and I have to wait a whole week. That gives me time to finish the bindings, labels and hanging sleeves for my show quilts which are due soon.
And the beginning stage. When my LYS closed, there were just a few odd balls of yarn that I thought would make something cute for Baby K. I decided on a little tank top with a ruffle at the top.

Finally, a shout out to my brother. Hop over to his blog. When he recovers from jetlag, there will be cute pictures of the baby he is adopting from Russia. Of course, I enjoy his sense of humor on just about everything so the baby pictures are just a bonus. I love you, bro!

Start and Finish

2009-02-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

First, a cat. I love it when she perches in the window!

This is the start...Baby K got a set of toy golf clubs, and she has "re-purposed" the tees. Daddy asked what she was doing, and she said "Knitting." That's my girl!

And the finish...I have about 21 inches (150 stitches) of Kitchener stitch to do to seam the back of my sweater vest. This is my oldest knitting project - begun in the Fall of 2005. Amazing how long garter stitch takes when you are a beginner! I am trying to be a monogamous knitter and get this thing done, so I haven't even looked for a place online to order more yarn for the miter square blanket.