Challenge, check!

    I finished my butterfly panel challenge yesterday and to say I’m happy with it would be an understatement. I’m thrilled!
     This started with a Christmas gift from my friend Sophie and a challenge to “do something.” We were supposed to have them done last May (I’m very late with this!), but I  couldn’t proceed with a plan. Once I finally had a plan I didn’t really have any problems finishing the piecing.
     But. Then I was afraid to begin the quilting. I took the plunge Saturday and It went very well. I quilted gentle breezes into the sky, circles on the butterfly wings, a small feather in the one border and scrolls in the other. The outer pieced border was a challenge. The piecing had bumpy intersections where eight seams met, so I didn’t feel I could do any all over design, so I stitched in the ditch and added a motif in the wings.
     This project is around 36 inches square. Now that it’s done, I’m left wondering why I was so afraid. Lesson learned: Take the plunge and do it. Give yourself permission to learn.
     Now if I can only transfer this to my next project!
     An overall view:



     I'm linking to Design Wall Monday , the Free Motion Quilting Project, and Let's Get Acquainted Monday.

Design Wall 4/1/13

 

    I've spent the last couple days piecing these strings for a quilt I'm making along with my friends, the Material Girls. We're making this as a memorial for our friend, Joe, who passed last month. He was married to one of our members, S.

   She wanted to use some of her Asian fabrics which she's been collecting for at least 20 years. We picked out this pattern from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site, and we're all going to piece strings.  When we have the strings, we'll pick out the background fabric or fabrics, and we'll decide on a border when we can see the center. Right now, I'm leaning toward a string-pieced border; I'm pretty sure we have enough fabric cut for it! S was extremely generous with the ones we picked out.

    I used my Accuquilt Go! and it really didn't take very long compared to using a rotary cutter.

I’ve done string piecing before and didn’t enjoy it, but I loved doing this! Maybe it was the variety of perhaps the ones I was using were so different from mine but it was so fun!  We have a tentative plan of getting this together later this spring. I’m not sure about the quilting. We’ll decide that later.   More about this project later. I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. Check out the cyber creativity!

Please excuse the formatting errors. I cannot get Blogger to work today!  

Fun block!

As usual, I'm in the latter part of the month posting this. I originally made these blocks when I was at Quilt Camp, but they didn't turn out the right size. That won't do for Block Lotto.

Not to be confounded by such a simple block, I decided to make a better effort and re-did them. They're good now!

The challenge was to use a white or white-on-white, a gray and another color in each block. They're to finish 6 by 9 inches. I'd REALLY like to win a bunch of these!

A Mixed Bag

Texas Braid is done and I love it!
 



Marge's socks are done and gifted
 

My to-do list for February had five items on it, and I only completed two of them. In my defense, however, I completed two additional knitting projects, so I'm not feeling too bad about my productivity.  Also, I rearranged my sewing room and had a week of vacation in Arizona and finished three books. The sewing room project took way more time than I ever imagined! Combine that with getting ready for vacation and I missed two weeks in my sewing room!

The sewing room saga began late last year when I began looking for a sturdier cutting table. The one I had was a cheap one from JoAnn's and it was pretty wobbly. The glue holding it together had dried and the top flipped up if I wasn't careful about there I stacked my fabrics. I looked at several options and decided on two sturdy work tables from a mail order catalog. I wasn't planning on this project until April because of some commitments, but DH ordered it as a surprise and I got them in early February.

 

Needless to say I had to scramble to clear out space for them. In doing so, I nearly emptied the room. The tables are assembled and in place and I love them! They measure 48 by 30 and I have them back to back so my work surface is 48 by 60 and there is absolutely no wobble now.

 

While re-assembling the room, I also decided to move my sewing machine so I could see something besides a wall while working. I think I'm really going to like this new arrangement. I've only sewn for a few minutes so far, but it's going to be nice to look up and see the trees outside my window.

 

These "cousin" socks are done!
 

While putting the room back together I've come across a whole bunch of stuff I forgot I had, including some projects! That's a bummer. Now they need to go onto the UFO list. So many projects; so little time!

All this is justification for failing once again on my to-do list. Let's see where I stand. My February commitments were: 1. finish sewing and get Christmas Diamonds to Michele for quilting. Not done, but very close. I cut the backing yesterday and will have that together as soon as I get off the computer. 2. finish Texas Braid. Done on Feb. 4th. 3. finish the blue socks I discovered while looking for something else. Done. Blogged about here. See photo above. 4. layer and quilt Sophie's Butterfly. Not done. This won't happen in March either. 5. Block Lotto blocks. Not done, I wasn't feeling the love and didn't have my room in order to sew until yesterday. That was a very low priority anyway because I wasn't feeling the love for the block in the first place.

 

The two additional projects that I knitted were a ruffle scarf and a pair of socks for the two lovely women who hosted us on our vacation. The socks are the in-progress shot above. I used two strands of Heart and Sole to make a worsted weight pair that I'm sure will keep her feet warm. The colors reminded me of the red rocks near Sedona. The ruffled scarf was from Sashay in wonderful teal colors that happened to match her jacket perfectly!

I knitted that in the car while traveling from near Phoenix to the Nike Missile Museum near Tucson. (Fascinating place! Go if you get a chance.)

 

The books I read were "Agenda 21" by Glenn Beck, "Across Many Mountains" by Yangzom Brauen and "After the Rising" by Orna Ross.

 

Beck's book is a chilling look at the future if the environmentalist agenda is taken to the nth degree. It's a world without any modern conveniences where there is no electricity, animals have more rights than man and The Authority dictates citizens' every movement.

 

"Across Many Mountains" tells the story of a devout Tibetan family and their harrowing journey across the Himalayan Mountains, their travails in India and ultimate settlement in Switzerland. This was a book club selection that I cannot say I liked, but that I'm glad I read. The narrator is the granddaughter of the parents in the trek. She shares a lot of information about the Buddhist religion which I found fascinating. It's really hard for this independent American woman to understand the Tibetan deference to authority which her parents exhibited, but that seems to be a big part of both their culture and religion.

 

One of her motive for writing the memoir is to promote Tibetan independence from China which invaded the country 50 years ago. It seems very unlikely that that could ever happen after all this time.

 

The third book, "After the Rising," I read on my iTouch. It was a freebie in the Kindle store and I had no idea what to expect. The story is of an Irish expatriate who returns from San Francisco to her hometown for her mother's funeral. In the ensuing weeks, she is given a suitcase full of papers from her mother's and grandmother's lives. While dealing with her own problems, she digs into the stash and finds out how involved her grandmother, Peg, was in the Irish struggle for independence from England. Ultimately I found the book frustrating because it's obviously the beginning of a series and the cliff-hanger ending did its job: keeping me in suspense. Do I care enough to buy the second book? I don't know.

 

This has gotten extremely long, so I think I'll post later about my goals for March. Stay tuned!

 

 



 

 

        

Design Wall Monday Feb. 11, 2013

     This is my finished flimsy for Sophie’s Butterfly Challenge. I hope to get this layered and quilted before the end of the month since it’s on my to-do list. It’s pretty small, so it shouldn’t take long, but I don’t have a place to layer it until my new cutting table arrives.

     I’m pretty excited about the new table, but a little frustrated that they’re not here yet. DH found some work tables in a catalog that he gets, and I think it’s the best answer to my wish list. I need a sturdier table than I have (one of those folding ones from JoAnn’s) I also wanted something a little wider than the 36 inches I currently have. The new one will be 48 by 60 with a sturdy metal base.

     How will I quilt this? I have no idea! I’m pretty sure I’ll outline the butterfly and the various borders, unless I decide to treat several as one. I guess I’ll decide that when I get there.

     I’m linking this to Design Wall Monday. Check out the cyber inspiration!

A good start and a finish

These are gift socks.

I’m working on some gift socks. They’ll go to my friend who is hosting my husband and me for an upcoming trip to Arizona.

I’m using Red Heart Heart & Sole, which is 70% wool and 30% nylon, doubled and 3.5mm Knit Picks interchangeable needles. I’m using Magic Loop.

I love the colors of this yarn, especially doubled. It really reminds me of the red rock canyons around Sedona. I’m hoping we’ll spend a day there.

Cousins?
 

Earlier this week I finished these blue socks, which turned out to be more cousins than twins. I got tired of the pattern I used on the first sock and switched to a beaded rib on the second one. It looks bad now, but I doubt it will be that noticeable when I’m wearing them. Either way, they’re done! I have no idea when I started these socks. I found them in a bag when I was looking for something in my sewing studio. I’ve been keeping a log of my various projects since 2009, and they’re not on any of them. I don’t know what happened, but it’s a finished project and that makes me happy!

I’m linking to Minutes for Me, Finish it Fridays and Judy's What on your Needles. Check out the creativity!

My list for February

Texas Braid
 

     The picture you see at left is my Texas Chain quilt, which will be finished the next time you see it!
       I started this in October, 2010, and Michele finished the quilting last fall. I WILL bet it bound and labeled in the next month. Why did I drop the ball when I was so close to the end? I'll never understand that!
     Anyway, that's No. 1 on my list for February. But let's look back at January first. I listed four things: 1. Quilt the Carpenter's Star from Judy's feather lessons last year. Fail
2. Finish Christmas Diamonds top, piece backing and send to Michele to quilt. 1/2 done. (I was worried about the size and afraid I couldn't get it to her requirements. She told me 120x120 for the batting would be fine, so I'll go ahead with it.)
3. Make blocks for January Block Lotto. Check! Posted here.
4. Begin cutting scraps with my new Accuquilt Go! Check! (I cut a huge amount of fabric, but it doesn't look like I've made much headway. Another goal to make, hum?)
     So January wasn't too great. I need to do better in February. I also need to be realistic about what I can get accomplished. It's not like I don't have a lot of UFOs sitting around to choose from. Some are almost done, for goodness sake!
     With that in mind, here's what I need to get finished in February:
1. Assemble backing for Christmas Diamonds and get it to Michele.
2. Bind and label the Texas Chain quilt.
3. Finish the blue socks that have been hanging around forever.
4. Layer Sophie's Butterfly Challenge and quilt it.
5. Block Lotto blocks (maybe). I'm not too wild about this month's pattern and I want to see some before I decide to make them.
    A list of five rather than four doesn't look like reality, but the first two  shouldn't take more than a couple days. Am I losing touch with reality? I guess we'll see.
     To be continued. . .