Moody Blues

This is almost a king size quilt, and I didn't have anywhere to lay it out for a picture. So, you get to see the top left corner, LOL. It's a sampler with great border details. We will donate it to a local charity and hopefully they can raffle it off for lots of money! One of the cool design features is that half the setting triangles are white and half are dark blue. It really makes your eye move across the quilt. The longarmer is thrilled with all the open space...she loves to do heavy quilting and this gives her room to play.

All baby, all the time

Look at me! I can hold my head up so high! I'm sure this means I'm brilliant ;-)

OK, so the title was a lie. I did some sewing this week. These are raffle blocks for my guild. The pattern is called "Crystals." Great stash buster, as long as you can find the 4.5 inch square for the center!

Baby K is such a cuddler! We're hoping she soon learns to sleep more than two hours at a time! I dropped in at school today to help the new sub get settled...it's going to be so chaotic when I go back in three weeks...it's best not to think about it!

Contest Winner

Lorinda is the winner! Guess number 11 (Kendra) was correct. Once she sends me an address, the goodie bag with magazines and yarn will be on its way. Thanks for playing!

Photo explanation - I plan to take a monthly picture with this bunny as a reference. This is Baby K at one month old. She weighs about 9.5 pounds, but she's very long, about 22 inches right now. All her clothes are loose in the body and straining to cover the diaper!

A stitching report...on Saturday I went to Sharon Schamber's trunk show. She does AMAZING work - as evidenced by her Best in Show wins at Houston and Paducah. You may have seen her Piece-li-que technique on Simply Quilts. I bought a DVD tutorial about feathers and stippling and I'm anxious to see how she modifies her machine. She described an extension table that her husband built for the throat of her longarm.

On Sunday, I met with my guild charity team to work on the borders of our quilt. I need to finish the borders and get the binding ready. When I get it laid out today, I will take a picture. We based our design on the bear paw variations in the book "Hidden Block Quilts" by Lerlene Navaril. I have so much fun working with a team to make these quilts. Just like an old-fashioned quilting bee!

Shades of Tomkitten

I was going to keep Baby K anonymous...but then my parents went on vacation and Grandma didn't think she could handle two weeks baby-free. So, I told her to check in here to see photos. And here is the little princess! She is five weeks old. She is a good baby and we know we are very lucky. She only gets fussy for about half an hour in the evening. We have carted her around quite a bit...restaurants, church, CostCo, etc. and she never makes a sound. As long as we feed her every two hours, she is a happy camper!

I mentioned last week that I'd have a contest to give away my extra goodie bag from the Arizona Diamondbacks Stitch-n-Pitch event. (drumroll, please) Guess Baby K's name! Your hints are that she is a girl and the name starts with K. Leave your guesses in my comments. The first correct answer will win the goodie bag (with all contents!) that was showcased in a previous post. Fine print...any of my friends and family are not eligible, since they already know the answer, and they were probably at the game and got their own goodie bag! If no one figures out the right answer, I will think of something else. (like, more hints, or a random number generator!) Grab the baby name book and start guessing!

Quilting on the longarm

In the first photo, you can see some of the shapes I have been working with today. Why yes, it IS a Christmas quilt! And yes, this is the last minute - it has to be done for a class on Saturday morning. Tomorrow is crunch time!! I use my computer's paint program to show you my quilting designs when I can't get a good picture. Drawing with the mouse is somewhat close to the motion of the longarm! But, luckily, the longarm designs come out much smoother!

The second photo is the next project to be loaded on the longarm. The local longarm guild is having a "President's Challenge." Everyone used the same pattern for the piecing (fabric choices were individual) and then it's up to us to showcase our best quilting. I entered in the custom category because I have some freehand designs planned. Plus, I'm a rookie, so I hope that works in my favor ;-) I have only been quilting on a longarm since March. The thread I'm using for most of it will be the PermaCore (tm) that you see in the picture. Those colors are for the borders, tone-on-tone. The black center will have a colorful design, which I am keeping secret on purpose. A) I like the suspense and B) if it doesn't turn out right, I can do something else and no one will know I messed up the first time!

Happy stitching to everyone!

Knitting is a sport

Saturday night I dragged B. and Baby K. with me to Chase Field (which will always be B.O.B. to me!) to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the St. Louis Cardinals, and to be a part of TNNA's Stitch-n-Pitch event. Reports are that over 1000 knitters were there!! (Probably closer to 500 when you subtract spouses) It was really cool to look around and see so many hands working on so many projects! Unfortunately, there weren't any announcements during the game...I kept a close eye on the Jumbo-tron waiting for them to highlight all these crazy knitters. But, they did find Baby K right before the game and broadcast her cute little face. My dad was holding her so his hand was across her adorable D-backs outfit...I'm sure they would have lingered if they saw that she was a true fan!

South West Trading Company was a partner for the SnP event and they donated the yarn you see in the picture. All the women got the cool pink bag, which is a great size for knitting projects! (Notice the awesome grommet handle.) Plus, if you had purchased your game ticket specifically for the SnP event, you could claim a yarn goodie bag. Of course, I redeemed B's bag as well, so now I have THREE pink bags, and two sets of yarn giveaways. (There may be a contest in the future..I'll get Chris to mention it when I work out the details!)

Photo details, from left. After the game, they gave everyone a team hat. Nice touch! I started a new pair of socks. The goodie bag contained an issue of Creative Knitting and Crochet!, plus some soysilk ribbon/ladder yarn, purple fuzzy stuff, and Skacel Fuego, a mohair/wool blend. My yarn stash is growing and I have NO IDEA what to make with these things!! Scarves, most likely, but it would be fun to work some of the funky yarns into a sweater. (No, not all in the same sweater! I like to color-coordinate!) Actually, the purple fuzzy stuff could go in Baby K's log cabin...that would make a neat border!

I'm up against a quilting deadline again...I need to get the Christmas Strip Club quilt finished for class this Saturday. Yikes! Especially since I need to order thread, which will be delivered on Thursday. I'll have to use that in the border and get the main part done with the colors I have on hand! I have a solid backing so it should be easier to take pictures.

Tony thanks all of you who have visited. He is enjoying the morning outside under the tangelo tree. He has been unsupervised for a couple hours and is behaving so well! We usually don't let the cats stay outside unless we are sitting out on the patio, and Tony has a bad habit of jumping up on the cinder block wall and exploring the neighborhood. Scary thought because you never know who has their dogs outside, and he doesn't have claws or a collar. So, we keep a close eye on him!

And in honor of the extraordinary, ordinary Americans who died five years ago, I say a prayer for their families and a huge thank you to all service men and women who are fighting terrorism and preserving the ideals of democracy and freedom throughout the world.

Tony the tagged

I'm Tony, and today is all about me! (as it should be every day) I am a two-year-old black and white cat with the longest, fluffiest tail you have ever seen. Chaos tagged me to share 5 weird things about me. I really don't think these are WEIRD...I'm just a cat, after all!

1. I love to lay in the grass. Note the relaxed pose in the photo on the bottom. My yard is wonderful, but the people don't spend enough time out there. They keep saying things like "It's too hot. We'll go out when it's less than 100 degrees."

2. My favorite playtoy is Raffie, a beanie baby giraffe (photo on the top). Mom likes to keep a small collection of stuffed animals on top of the piano or the TV. I love to climb up and capture them! Right now, Raffie is in my super-secret hiding place in the corner of Dad's closet.

3. I wait for my people to get out of the shower by sitting on the bathroom counter. One of my most adorable kitten poses was in the sink. People need supervision in the bathroom, you know.

4. A special treat is when my people put me on top of the refridgerator and I roll to the back under the cabinet. Then I attack fingers that creep up over the sides. This game is more fun with Dad, because Mom is too short to see me when I'm up there! But people must stay in the kitchen for this game...I don't like to play alone.

5. Dad taught me to climb a ladder. He keeps it under the ficus tree in the backyard. I don't have front claws, so I can't climb up the trunk of the tree, but I like to sit at the top of the ladder hoping for birds to come close.

And bonus #6 - I love knitty things, of course! Mom has learned the hard way to keep her knitting in zippered bags or shut up in the closet. She gave me a small swatch last year, but I put it away in my other super-secret hiding place...or maybe it just got lost outside.

If you have four legs and/or fur or feathers, consider yourself tagged! And please leave me a comment. I am adorable, you know ;-)

Challenge Complete!

I finished Tonya's challenge...here is my Hugs and Kisses quilt! Trying to get big borders from my meager stash is a bit difficult. I needed to make it at least 60x70 to donate to a senior center that is our longarm group charity for the year. From now on, I think I will keep the letters in the border as titles, but I definitely enjoyed the process!

Next up...more borders and bindings on two other projects!

Baby Knits

Here are some lovely hand-knit gifts that Baby K received...a Petal Bib (a One Skein project), the square bib from Mason-Dixon, Baby Bolero from One Skein and a variety of burp cloths. They are almost too pretty to use! Luckily, Baby K has not been much of a spitter-upper yet, just dribbles as she eats.

The Intarsia and Beading class yesterday was lots of fun. We were laughing so hard when we got to the differences in language! Debbie calls American football "the game with big shoulders and masks" and she had never heard of the term "bangs" to talk about hair...the British call that "fringe."

The project to reclaim my sewing space is about halfway complete, now to find the motivation to finish and drag out the machine and all the accessories! We are waiting for the baby's dresser to arrive, and then the organization process will be alot easier...right now Baby K is sleeping in a cradle in our room, so the nursery just has piles of clothes and toys all over the floor. And I need to get birth announcements and thank you notes in the mail! Sounds like a good job for - tomorrow :-) Just call me the Queen of Procrastination!!

Introduction to Intarsia

I am going to a class with Debbie Abrahams today! We are making a small beaded three-color bag. So exciting! I am feeling guilty though, because I am leaving B home with Baby K all day. She's all of 20 days old and I'm runnning off to a knitting class...what a bad mother! OK, enough of the guilt trip. B is a fabulous father and a wonderful husband and they will be fine. This is just a test for when I have to go back to work in 6 short weeks!

Log Cabin update...Mom loved her finished quilt, she said it was my best yet! The project for this weekend is to clean off the table so I can get my sewing machine out again. I need to finish the Strip Club quilt (borders and quilting). And work on some more Xs and Os!!

Quilting designs

This is my quilting sketchbook. I took a class with Gina Perkes this summer...she is an Arizona Longarm quilter, and she has won Best in Show at our state quilt show several times. She showed us this "squiggle" design for free-motion quilting...basically a question mark. (Please excuse the flash on the white paper!)

I am using this design on the infamous log cabin quilt. The quilting won't show up in a photo because it's cream thread on cream fabric! Kinda tricky to quilt in places, too! I love crawling under the machine to look at the back side...it looks like tin-punch artwork with the light shining through the needle holes and outlining the design.

If anyone has good photography tips for photographing quilts and getting the quilting to show, I'd love to hear them! I am using a Kodak digital camera.

Word of the day

Tension causes tension.

Can you say FROG?!?!?!

I told you this log cabin quilt had me intimidated!!!

Progress

We'll get to the quilts after this BREAKING NEWS ALERT - that is actual rain in Phoenix!! In the morning! In August! It was wonderful - I sat outside on my (covered) patio for about 30 minutes, and it continued for another 30 minutes after I came inside. Just what the parched desert needed: relaxing, soaking rain.

August is our monsoon season and we get lots of late afternoon thunderstorms. Watching the clouds build up all day is part of the beauty of the desert, and I always think I should grab my camera and join Saturday Sky. But this year, the storms have missed my corner of the city...until today!

We followed the recommended desert landscape plan...pink bouganvillas, a ficus tree, small patch of grass and lots of rock. B. is in charge of yardwork, and he enjoys sitting outside in the evenings. I am usually driven inside because of the bugs, and my desire to play at the sewing machine! The ladder is for our cat Tony...we taught him to climb it so he can pretend to be up in the tree (he's de-clawed) rather than getting up on the fence and carousing through the neighborhood. (It blew over in a windstorm a few days ago, and we're too lazy to pick it up so far!)

On to the quilts...that's called Good Gyrations, a Cara Gulati (sp?) pattern. I used a Linda V. Taylor pantograph called "Geometric Pinwheels"...it actually photograhed pretty well! Now I have to tackle the free-motion intimidator...which will probably be fine as soon as I get started. Darn Newton and his laws of motion! Laurie was talking about inertia today...I'm right there with you, girlfriend!

Fiber Content

Here is a preview of the September Strip Club quilt for my LQS. I used 12 fabrics, and it was a bit of a challenge to organize the blocks in a "scrappy" fashion. The overall effect works though. I have one more horizontal seam, plus borders, then quilting. Projects go much faster as you approach the deadline! I'm usually putting on the binding the day before the class! Luckily I have just one more of these Strip Club quilts and then the series is over. That is the worst part of working in a quilt store - you are always under a deadline to get samples done, and they do not always fit with what you'd really like to be working on!

Longarm update...I pinned on the pantograph quilt, and realized I didn't have the right size batting. My mom is going to drop that off today. All afternoon I debated pinning on the second one (the intimidating freehand quilt) and of course talked myself out of it. I did purchase an extra set of zippered canvas leads, so I can just unzip the first quilt and put on the second. I worry that I will pin it wrong and get the canvas in the wrong place, so I haven't used that option yet! Plus there's the whole intimidation factor that makes it easy to put off...

Kitty report...B got up early this morning and the quilt I was piecing and had left on the table was in a pile on the floor. Oops. And I found one of my corsage pins from the longarm on the floor as well! I forgot to put them away yesterday!! What is it with cats and round-topped pins??? We fell in love with the open floorplan of our house, but it makes quilting a challenge, since I can't shut the cats out of my sewing areas!

Randomnymity

So, I made up a word. In an effort to counteract the grey skies I see out my window, here is a shot from cuteoverload.com:
I have been fighting a cold the last few days. B. takes the early morning feedings, so I take NyQuil at 2am and sleep until 7. Baby K is such a sweet little thing! She doesn't fuss unless we're late with her bottle...late meaning more than 30 seconds after she opens her eyes!! She has been sleeping well, all things considered. Typical newborn schedule of 2-hour naps then awake just long enough to change the diaper and eat.

I haven't had the energy to sew. Last week, I was waiting on thread for two shop samples that need to go on the longarm. The thread has arrived so I will put on the first one that will be quilted with a pantograph. I think I can get that one done this afternoon. The second one will be freehand - yikes! My mom wants a leafy vine type pattern, which my brain is translating as the first step towards feathers, which scare me to death, so I'm playing the procrastination game. I'm also not sure about my thread color choice, so I'll have to recharge my camera and put it up for a blogosphere vote.

I have two procrastinator activities...Big Kahuna Reef from Yahoo games...version 2 has 750 levels - woo-hoo! That can keep me busy for weeks! It's a simple match-3-in-a-row elimination game, but after every four levels or so you unlock a new fish to add to your underwater landscape. And that underwater view is my new relaxing screensaver.

Number 2 on the do-anything-but-quilt activity list is travel the blogosphere on a web ring. I have a list of favorite blogs on my yahoo page, so I check in there first. Then I start at Tonya's site and travel around the Quilt Maverick ring. Then, if I still do not have the energy to climb the stairs to the longarm (which is a high probability since I *am* sick, LOL) I start at Samantha-the-Fabri-holic's page and travel the Stash Quilt ring. It's so much fun to see what everyone else is working on. Maybe one of these days I'll get back to it...let's hope the decongestants work fast!

Storm at Sea

You may remember that one of my classes at Quilt Camp in the Pines was John Flynn's Storm at Sea. This is my version in traditional blues. He offered a pre-cut kit in batiks, but I am a glutton for punishment, so I cut my own pieces from his templates. As a result, I only made this one block in class and spent the rest of the day cutting about 400 little triangles. This block will end up on the back of the quilt, because I don't like the fabric my left hand is touching. I made a run to the LQS at lunch to get a variety of blues! You can't really use mediums in this pattern, except for the center squares. The triangles need to alternate light and dark to make the interesting secondary patterns, which I will point out sometime in the future when I pull out this UFO from the back of the closet!

I took the leap!!

I have been intrigued with Tonya's freehand letters for a while. This week she issued a challenge...start with X's and O's and make a charity quilt. Her directions are really good, and since they are FREE HAND letters, you can't make a mistake!! I have ideas bouncing around my head for several quilts with titles in the borders. I'd like to do a bargello in my school colors with the name in the border. I think my high school kids would enjoy that on display in the classroom.

At loose ends

Tony loved the package of baby clothes that my aunt sent us!

I am feeling very unsettled. School started this week, but I am home on maternity leave until the middle of October. We don't have a schedule, other than jumping up and getting a bottle when Baby K starts fussing. She has been delightful so far, just a couple of hours in the evening when she cries and wants to be held and walked around. B and I both came down with minor colds this week, which contributes to the desire to lay around and do nothing but read blogs! (Especially with daytime tv...800 channels and nothing on!)

I have lots of crafty projects that I could get started on...I am working on the September Strip Club quilt (BTW, I hate deadlines!) and I need to press the seams before sewing the horizontal rows together. Unfortunately, we put the playpen where the ironing board used to sit and I haven't had the energy to re-arrange furniture yet.

I could put bindings on the two quilts I showed you last week...the shapes for charity and the RW&B. But it's too hot to sit and do bindings!

I could start my quilt guild scrapbook...I was appointed historian about 18 months ago and the photos and papers have been sitting in my cupboard ever since! But, my friend is have a crop in September, so I'll wait and use all her fancy tools then.

Knitting...nah. There has to be something good on TV for me to sit and knit, and I am not into soap operas.

I am tempted by Tonya's challenge to make Xs and Os...maybe this afternoon I will go through my fabric stash and take the leap! Part of the challenge is to donate this quilt, so the charity kind of determines the fabric selections. RW&B can go to Quilts of Valor or something similar, pastels could go to a child-centered group like Project Linus, or I could just pick colors I like and plan to give it to the senior center that my longarm group is supporting this year.

Basically, I need to come up with a schedule for my time at home these next two months or I will go batty! Sitting around in my jammies until afternoon is fun for only a few days.

Next post...quilt blocks!

A New Beginning

This is how much of a log cabin baby blanket I was able to knit during an 11-hour labor and delivery! My adopted daughter Baby K made her entrance to the world at 12:52 pm last Friday. She is absolutely beautiful (of course!) and very sweet-tempered. So far she is sleeping so much that I haven't been able to take any pictures with her eyes open!

A long time coming

I finished this quilt as a charity project for my local guild. It will go into our "reserve" pile to be given to homeless children at some time in the future. The church where the guild meets houses homeless families for a week at a time every few months. In lieu of rental fees, our guild makes quilts for the families.

Usually, these quilts are made as "round robins." However, about a year ago (maybe 2!!) a quilt came back to my mom with the green and yellow as the backing for a red, white and blue top. We made the executive decision that we could find a better back for the original, and then turn that backing into another quilt. I added the machine-applique shapes, and the border, then did some free-form meandering loops on my longarm. I still need to do the binding, which will be the purple from the border.

I think this will be a great quilt to cheer up a child!