Sunny Stars

I really enjoy free motion quilting my quilts.  When it goes right.  I've had mixed luck with machines and feet and thread.  There was a time that no quilt was quilted without a lot of swearing at skipped stitches and broken thread.  Grr...

But when the planets align it is a joy and almost meditative experience to quilt.  The last quilt was wonderful.  A few weeks ago I loaded the sewing machine with the same quilting thread and expected a repeat.  So imagine my surprise when the thread refused to behave.  Eventually I worked it out.  

Starting the quilting process is always a little nerve wracking.  Some of it's the "OMG, how am I going to quilt this whole thing?" or "where do I even start?".  I find it difficult to commit myself to quilting the first square foot.  It can take me days to work up the nerve to start stitching.  Silly, isn't it?  But once I get going, the stitching takes on a life of its own and I can't wait to sit down and quilt some more.  

I Like Thursday: Summer Stuff

How has your summer been going?  Mine has been too hot.  The grass in my yard is burnt, the squash flowered but no fruit and somebody's been eating my zinnias.  Delays on my black-and-white quilt means it won't be done in time to submit to local fairs.  Bummer. 

But this is a post of likes - and there's been all sorts of good things this summer. 

No, I Did Not Forget

Behold!   Quilting.

I had this darned quilt sandwiched and basted a month ago, then cleaned the sewing machine, set it up for quilting.  I had free motion quilted my previous quilt (Birds of a Feather) with the same thread.  Easy peasy, right?  Simply load up the quilting thread, reset the tension, drop the feed dogs and away I go!

Not.

I spent a week of evenings fighting with thread tension.  It would run a straight stitch with feed dogs no problem.  Drop the feeds and try to free motion?  Nested gnarled mess.  I started to procrastinate; between gardening and a family vacation I eventually hit full-on denial.  The good news?  In an effort to find anything to do other than this quilt I finally got some work done on my car and finished several fix-it projects around the house.  

However, my sewing room is also my office.  Every day I faced that quilt and machine.  I vowed to either get the tension right or switch to a different machine.  I rewound a new bobbin and oddly enough, that seemed to do the trick.  I had to rip out a few first attempts, but after that I got in 20 minutes or so of real quilting.

Busy weekend, but I got a chance to sew some more last night.  Eleven stars so far.  Tension is a little haphazard - so I'm playing with that.  At least it's not so far off I need to rip and restitch.  Fingers crossed! 

Bye Madea!

We were out grocery shopping on Saturday morning when I got the text:  our foster guinea pig Madea had a potential adopter.  Could we come by that afternoon to drop her off?  Just like that, Madea is gone. 

She really settled in over the last couple of weeks.  I hid carrot pieces around the cage that she she spent time finding.  She loved the cozy I put on the third level and would often spend entire afternoons chilling in the bag.  Turned out she enjoyed being cuddled, so I tried to include some lap-time in the evening.  But I could tell she was bored.  A companion should really help with that.

More on Madea

Madea, our foster guinea pig from Dakin Humane, continues to entertain.  I swapped out the old bedding with clean fleece and she had to check out every corner to see what had changed.  

When I set up the cage for new foster piggy from the shelter I usually include lots of hiding spots.  I'll add extra fleece draped over sections of the second and third levels of the cage (called fleece forests).  I sometimes add extra cozies to hide in.  As the fosters settle in I'll remove the extra hiding spots so we can interact more.  Madea boldly tried out the new exposed spots like a champ!

Madea Summer Shots

Say hi to our latest guinea pig foster from Dakin Humane:  Madea.   

We've had her for about a week.  Madea loves the cage - she checked it all out in the first day.  She's great at doing laps in the evening so enthusiastically that the cage shakes.  She's a cutie!

I Like Thursday: Wait, It’s July?

Goodness.  I've done nothing but quilting posts for over a month.  I've done plenty of good things that aren't sewing that I'd like to share at I Like Thursday.

Let's start out this post with a guinea pig!  This is Madea.  She's the first foster we've had since October. 

Madea is a sweetie and is settling in quite nicely.  However, she doesn't know what to do with veggies.  What kind of silly pig is this?  She will only eat carrots.  Not cucumber or lettuce or tomatoes or peppers or corn husks.  I'm working on her.

It’s a Flimsy!

Huzzah!  Look at that!  Midnight Garden is a flimsy.  It's so hot off the presses I haven't even pressed the last seams.  It was a cloudy evening with dim lighting - so I just threw it on the bed so you at least get a glimpse of what it looks like.  It's so nice to see it other than on the wall!

I need to iron it and check for any really mangled points to repair before getting it sandwiched.  

Huzzah! 

Oh, so Close

Rolling along with the Midnight Garden quilt.  

See this?  This is the last grey block, finished and attached to it's row.  Yay! 

Whose Bright Idea Was That?

In my last post I had found two mis-matched kaleidoscope corners that needed to be ripped out and reset.  No problem.  I identified the two bad corners and where they actually belonged.  I pinned a different colored pin on each corner (one red, one white) then pinned the matching color to the block where they needed to be attached.  I figured that way I wouldn't lose track of them again.  Next step:  iron the seams flat to make it easier to rip them out.  

I didn't pay close attention where the pins were and managed to press the iron directly over the pin.  It promptly melted and adhered itself to the fabric.

Seriously.  Why make pinheads that melt at the cotton setting?

Trust the Process

I'm on a roll with the Midnight Garden quilt.  I dithered briefly about the edge blocks before plunging ahead with my original orientation.  I've panicked a few times thinking I sewed the corner to the wrong spot or cut the block the wrong way.  

 I keep telling myself:  Trust the process.   

Adding Corners

The Midnight Garden star blocks are finally getting their corners attached.  Normally I'd attach the four corners to a block and move onto the next blocks.  In this quilt, however, I'm attaching one corner to four different blocks at a time.  I attached the first handful of corners one set at a time.  This week I tried doing two at a time and briefly panicked when it appeared I sewed a corner to the wrong block.  Each kaleidoscope foursome is unique, but it turns out a few of them look really similar.

Whew.  

A Void

You wouldn't think an empty spot on my design wall would be cause for celebration but trust me, it is.  This hole indicates my first completed block in the Midnight Garden quilt.  More importantly it means I'm no longer avoiding this quilt (my shoulder and this quilt have both been a pain since mid-March).

I Like Thursday: Treasures

Not much blogging lately.  I've been busy trying to catch up on all the gardening I put off in March and April.  Then this stupid shoulder has wiped me out.  But there's progress!  And some fun stuff - so I've pulled together an entry for LeeAnna's I Like Thursday.

First up - last week I saw a deer very cautiously step out of the woods into the side yard.  I suspected she was being extra cautious because she had a fawn.  I was right!  Can you see it in that photo?  Rob and I were amazed at how TINY it was.  And it was so wobbly and unsure of itself, we figured it had to be newborn.  

We saw both of them a few days ago (I see Mama haunting the edges of the yard almost every day).  Baby has grown a lot already!

I Like Thursday: Trimmings, Trails and Trials

Thursday.  The weeks have been flying by lately.  Sharing some of the good stuff with LeeAnna and friends at I Like Thursday.  

 

I Like Thursday: Some History - Ancient and Otherwise

When am I not busy??  It's time to catch up with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday with some good things that happened recently (distract you from your doomscrolling for a bit).

My mother and I met up with some friends at the Harvard Art Museum a few weeks ago.  I was impressed with the size of the Grecian wine cups.  How full did they fill them?  I guess if you're too drunk you couldn't drink out of the flat ones?  You may have to enlarge to read the quote that was on one display - but I found it rather humorous. 

Stitching Away

I've been participating in Canuck Quilter's mystery quilt.  I was doing so well on the latest block until I started ironing the pieces.  I managed to sew one right-side to wrong-side.  D'oh!

It was a flip and stitch corner, so in addition to the required piece I also have a set of tiny 1½-inch half square triangles to use in some other project somewhere.

This will be a wall quilt when it's finished.  The steps have been quick and easy - I'm curious how it turns out.

Doomed... Yet Again

I guess visiting the Drapes of Doom (a set of sound curtains used to dampen reflected sound in a dance hall) in February wasn't enough.  I invited five of those drapes into my home this week to add jute strips to the side.  The modification will allow the 17-foot tall velvet curtains to be hung on their side.  I spent Friday afternoon working on them.  

I was still living in Rehoboth the last time I took delivery of any drapes.  Time flies! 

What We Have Here...

is a failure to communicate.  Or maybe a heated argument?  At a minimum the Midnight Garden quilt and I were not on speaking terms for most of March. 

This was an outright surprise.  I was plugging along with the black blocks and had made quite a bit of progress by the end of February.  I had envisioned finishing the flimsy by now.  I liked the design on the computer and I really liked the individual black blocks.  However, when my mom walked into the room and went "Oof", I knew she was expressing what had been niggling in the back of my head.  The black on the wall was too busy and overwhelming. 

I Like Thursday: Springing Spring

It's been a while since I've written:  good stuff, bad stuff and just plain life stuff.  A few recent photos reminded me of the things I like.  The snow has melted (and we even have a bit of green grass in our front yard!).  

Rob took me out to hike around Buffham Falls.  As you can see there's plenty of water!   (You can also see Rob is less than thrilled I'm including him in the photo.)

Project Quilting 16.6 - Swirling Spheres

The last Project Quilting challenge of the year was called Button it Up.  My first thought was a shirt or a coat.  Boring.  I have a pile of buttons I want to use up, so how to use them?  Creating a postcard or a mug rug seemed awfully lumpy (and not very useful).  Maybe a pillow or a wall hanging would work better with the texture?  After some research on button quilts I found some interesting designs featuring circles.  I was fully inspired by this and ran with it.

Both Rob and my mother thought I was crazy attempting a wall hanging in less than a week, especially since I was still cutting and ironing circles on Friday morning.  I had a final layout by Friday evening ready to fuse in place.  Saturday morning I fused, sandwiched and quilted.  I had hoped to quilt it all with one color of thread (for speed reasons), but quickly hated how it looked.  So I took the time to rip what I quilted and switch matching thread.  It was quilted and bound with corner pockets for a hanging rod by early afternoon.  It had to be!  I ran off to dance the rest of the afternoon and evening.  I brought the quilt with me to the dance and spent the dance break burying threads.  Whew!

Project Quilting 16.5 - Arrow Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge needed to include an arrow shape.  I considered making a wall hanging, but I needed this to be a quick project.  After a bit of research I ended up playing with two variations of the Arkansas Traveler block.  I made my own tiny paper-pieced template, picked out some scrap and made some arrows.  

Tried out a couple of new things with this postcard.  I cut a wider binding (1¼ inch) and also sewed the binding closer to the edge (a fat ⅛ inch).  I had to update my notes - don't need the wider binding if I stitch it so close to the edge.  But for once I had too much fabric rather than too little to work with.  I also used fusible web to tack down the back side of the binding - that worked so much better than glue.  Will certainly use that in the future. 

Sharing with:
Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting 16.5
Melva Loves Scraps - Sew & Tell
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle & Thread Thursday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday
Alycia Quilts - Finished or Not Friday
Nina-Marie - Off the Wall Friday

Project Quilting 16.4 - Birthstone Bowl Cozies

 

This week's Project Quilting challenge allowed me to pick off another backlogged project.  Yay!  

The challenge required using my birthstone color, which is peridot.  I can't tell you how much I hated that color as a kid.  I wish I had been born in any other month than August!  The color grew on me about 20 years ago when I picked out a pair of peridot and amethyst earrings (still one of my favorite pairs).  While researching this project I discovered the stone comes in quite a variety of greens.  I dug through my stash and found a few fabrics that would work (ooh!  pretty!).

Back to Black (and Grey and White)

Back to work on the Midnight Garden quilt.  

Still no complete blocks but I now have a dozen octagons.  The light set is done and I'm working diligently on the darker ones.  I really like the contrast of the black and silver.  Such a pain to press open all the seams, but I'm impressed with how flat the centers are (with eight points all jammed together).  

I spent some time brainstorming the best way to square the block and how/when to add the corners.  Each set will need to be pieced to the corners of specific blocks, so I won't start cutting and working on them until octagons are lined up and ready. 

What really excited me was setting up the design wall - swapping out the small piece of batting for a new king-sized sheet that covers the entire wall.  I had to conscript Rob's help to wrestle it in place.  Its should be just tall enough to hold the whole quilt. 

I Like Thursday: Sewing, Snow and Skiing

Wow - the last time I liked up with I Like Thursday was at Christmas.  I've been busy, I guess!  Yeah, lots of good stuff going on.

The new year means a new season of Project Quilting challenges:  three completed and three to go.  I've been squeezing in the challenges between the Midnight Garden quilt: a week for the PQ challenge, then a week of sewing triangles (and playing with layouts).  I've accomplished a lot in six weeks!

Snow!  Let's see... first was the Snow Ball at the end of January - a 12 hour contra dance event (I made it through most of the first nine hours before I tuckered out).  It was a blast!

Project Quilting 16.3 - Common Block Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge was common blocks - block designs that have been around for so long no one knows who "invented" them.  We had to have a finished project with at least three common blocks.

The challenge didn't fit with any of my backlogged projects, so I settled on another postcard.  To keep from getting bogged down with too many blocks I looked at only 4-patch block patterns.  Then I pilfered the pile of black-and-white scrap from my current Midnight Garden project and got to work. 

My original plan was six two-inch blocks in the black and grey.  I fiddled with it and got most of them stitched together... and that's when things went off the rails. 

Grey and Black Triangles

Now that I've finished the 228 black-and-silver triangles it's time to work on the grey-and-black ones!  

You may recall I decided to cut the fabric a little larger (maybe an eighth of an inch) than the pattern called for.  I then made myself a set of plexiglass templates to help cut the stitched together diamonds and larger triangles down to size.  I ended up marking my templates with various guide lines to help ensure I get all the pesky points in the right place.  Seems to be working pretty well so far... but the final test will be when I stitch together the full blocks.

One More Round

Progress!  I've got stacks of 228 dark grey and silver triangles all stitched together and trimmed for the Midnight Garden quilt.  

Ready for a laugh?  I'm still fussing about the layout.  Take a look at the next round of OMG-look-at-all-the-designs-by-just-moving-a-few-pieces.  I created eight extra light grey triangles simply to make design layout less tedious.  I also took the time on the computer visualize the full 56 blocks.  

I collaged a few layouts together so this post isn't photo-heavy, but it can still be a bit overwhelming to look at.  I think they resemble those magic eye pictures.  What do you see?

Project Quilting 16.2 - Ombre Apron

I have a handful of back-burner project just waiting for time or a reason to start them.  This week's Project Quilting Ombre challenge turned out to be an excellent opportunity to make myself an apron. 

Sunday I measured Rob's apron, looked at some patterns and dug through my stash.  I was tempted to go for a black and grey ombre... but I don't DARE touch any of the potential leftovers of my current project.  Not until it's done!  I pulled out some greens, blues, neutrals, reds.  I ended with a set of 15 pinks and reds:  several quilt leftovers, a couple of quilt rejects and a few that simply caught my eye.  

My next thought - why do plain stripes when I could do waves?  I had to laugh at how similar this was last year's second week challenge.  Really, I was going to do something different.  Oh, well.

Done With Dithering

I'm done with the dithering.  Maybe.  I hope.  We'll see.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I liked the lighter version of the Midnight Garden blocks, so I went hunting for a grey to replace the black.  It took a few hours and a couple of stops to find what I wanted, but I found something that would do the trick.

Or so I thought....

Once I laid out the fabrics I wasn't so sure.  They're all good choices.  It would be easier to decide if one was terrible.  The grey lightened up the whole quilt, which was great, but it looked a little washed out.

Fine.  

I decided no matter what, I was going with the Solid Middle layout.  Which means I could move forward with the dark diamonds and the silver background.  I have to say they make for a pretty star all by themselves. 

Project Quilting 16.1 - Djinn Postcard

Woot!  Time for a new season of Project Quilting!  Looking over my posts I realized this is my fifth year of participating.  Wow.  

This year's challenges starts out with Mythical Creatures.  So many possibilities!  I spent some time researching various myths and stories: Celtic, Indian, Norse, Greek, Native American.  I wanted to avoid reaching for a dragon or a unicorn.  Then I started thinking of some books I've read in the last year or so that featured djinn.  Of course then there's the problem of rendering and making it small enough to fit on a post card.  So I settled for wisps of smoke coming from a magic lamp.  

Cute.  Quick.  Fun to make.