Our local porcupine greeted us on our walk a few weeks ago. He was a
little camera shy - when I approached to get a better photo he ducked for
cover.
It's a small piece - a little over two feet wide. I thought I'd give it away but it ended up in our master bathroom. It turns out that replacing the shower curtain with a glass door makes for a very echoey room. Normally I would not hang a quilt in the bathroom. In this case I have a home for the quilt and it makes the room seem less cavernous. Win-win.
Sharing with:
Quilt Schmilt - To Do Tuesday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday
We had been requested to foster them because they started fighting due to the stress of being in the shelter. When we brought them home they continued to spat. However, every single day they calmed down a bit more and they'd curl up next to each other to nap. Clearly they liked each other. Within a few days Moses stopped ninja-jumping. Brownie stopped chattering his teeth so loudly and even let himself be picked up.
Progress!
Meet Moses and Brownie.
They're certainly cute. However... the reason I was asked to take them was that shelter life was stressing them out. Moses and Brownie were chasing and spatting. We had a calm ride home and the two boys settled right in, explored the cage, then took a nap.
That was the quiet before the storm.
The in-your-face chattering and ninja leap attacks started after dinner. My first impression is that Moses is getting a little too full of himself. He was right in Brownie's face. Brownie doesn't look eager to engage, but is not backing down to this pipsqueak punk.
The shelter may have triggered the stress fighting, but these two are acting like teenagers. Ugh. Teenage boys - I think that's worse.
I have been quilting away. I cannot believe how correctly setting my
bobbin tension has solved ALL my quilting issues (well, except for user
error...). Even
stitches. No weird looped or breaking threads. The bobbin doesn't rattle so much. I only need to stop
stitching when I've finished the area I'm quilting, I've run out of bobbin
thread, or I've messed up the pattern.
It's bliss.
It also means I'm nearly done quilting the Lone Star quilt. Red should be wrapped up today; only the white and pink on the edge is left.
All sorts of projects in the works. Two quilts pinned and ready to quilt. I just need to figure out what pattern I want to do.
Spent way too much time surfing Pinterest for scrappy, crumb and string ideas. Ooh, what do I want to do next??
I also got around to cutting the fabric I originally bought for the kaleidoscope blocks. Look how they turned out! (Design floor in use because I used all the batting that was on my design wall. Need to replace that soon!)
The pattern shows the guinea pig in colorful prints but I wanted more realistic colors. I pulled a bunch of browns, blacks, white, greys and tans from my stash and Rob and I picked the ones we liked best. I've been hording that brown fabric for ages - I loved it but never quite found the right project for it. The black fabric and the funky white fabric were both excellent finds at Swanson's (the amazing "no-kill shelter for your fabric stash"). I didn't have any ¾-inch buttons for the eyes, but a trip back to Swanson's yielded a pair of shiny black shank buttons. How perfect are those?!? What a score.
I dug through my stash, brought out some orphaned blocks before pulling out several sets of crumb blocks.
I started sandwiching it before I noticed a few jagged edges along the black and red Vs I had intended to address (the other missed points are more forgiving). The frustrating thing is two of them had already been ripped and restitched. Thankfully third time was the charm (and kept to my two-rip-and-restitch rule). This quilt is officially sandwiched and in need of quilting inspiration.
I participated in a mystery QAL (quilt along) last spring for the Colour Value Mystery and pieced together this wall hanging. It then sat for several months until I had a chance to quilt and bind it. I'm pleased with the result!
I started the quilting with a walking foot. My design required pivoting the quilt back and forth and that got tedious pretty quickly. I switched to free motion quilting which sacrificed straight lines and precision but the process was a lot more enjoyable. (Especially having fixed the bobbin tension issues.)
At some point I started to quilt some curves, but disliked the look. I ripped them out and continued quilting straight lines. I really like the designs over the gold and white (the black is quilted, too, but does not stand out). I extended those patterns across the border as well.
I started this mystery quilt last spring. It has been on the shelf waiting for Winter Stars to be done. I've been able to focus on it last week, plugging away on the quilting. I wrapped that up this weekend - all I need to do is square it and bind it.
At some point I tried using a ruler to quilt straighter lines. Nope. Just as bad as I remember the last time I tried that. Maybe I'll try ruler quilting when I get a nifty longarm machine. Ha.
Do you recall I had some bobbin tension issues? I spent some time on the bobbin before quilting. I don't have a tension gauge, so I tested it by filling a little canister (remember when cameras needed film?) with safety pins then clipping it onto the thread. The bobbin needed tight enough for the canister to pull the thread a bit at a time but not so loose to drop to the floor. With a bit of trial and error I discovered 22 grams is a good spot. Stitches are even no matter which direction I quilted.
When I saw this week's Project Quilting 17.4 Of Another Era challenge, the first thing that popped in my mind was art deco. Maybe it was from the quilting I was working on for my mystery quilt. Or maybe from some paper patterns I had tucked away. Rob pitched a few other ideas at me and we brainstormed for a bit. But as Thursday rolled around and nothing grabbed me, I pulled out the paper piece pattern and settled on a mug rug.
I have some teal fabric I've been wanting to use, so I settled on teal, black and gold. The paper pieced fans aren't quite art deco, but close enough to fit the bill. Each square is four inches. I knew I wanted to set it on point and nestle them next to each other... so the rest of the layout kind of grew from that.
I still have some lovely shiny rayon thread from my sister's quilt, which seemed the perfect thing to quilt it. Added a flange binding with some more teal and it's done!
Winter finally arrived in force in January between the snow and the cold. I'm happy to see the snow (but I'm also happy to see a little daylight at 5pm). I've gotten out a few times for local skiing and snowshoeing. It's been lovely. I don't like dismal grey winters.
This year the snowblower (and Rob) has gotten a workout. Check out that plume!
I struggled for a few days with this week's Project Quilting challenge: the year of the horse. I was to find inspiration from the turn of the year, in the animal, in our hopes and desires for the near future. I like horses, but not for quilting. I looked at different things to applique and did a leap sideways - how about a seahorse? That grabbed me.
I was amused to see two others post seahorse project before I finished mine. So instead of a Fire Horse, I have a Fire Seahorse. I quilted it with shiny gold and added quilted seaweed around it. I like it!
I'm currently quilting my mystery quilt that I started last
spring. I followed the clues for the rectangular baby quilt although I
intended to create a square wall hanging. So there were extra pieces
when I finished the final clue.
Single older male, seeking long term relationship. I love cuddles in front of the TV and gourmet dining (strictly vegan). I'm low maintenance, enjoying the basics in life, like hay, pellets, and a brown paper lunch bag. I'm a sucker for veggies of all kinds, except for cilantro. In return for affection (and treats) I will be steadfastly loyal and will occasionally sing you the song of my people (at full volume).
I wrapped up my mini wonky NYB which I am submitting for Small Works at Hope & Feathers. The finished work measures six inches across.
It was a challenge! Making the paper-pieced pattern wasn't difficult. However, I painted myself into the proverbial corner in a few places that did not piece together well. The small curves also proved to be challenging.
I have a rule on restitching a seam: I can rip it out twice and the third time stitching is final, even if it doesn't look right. I figure if I can't fix it in that many tries, it's not going to work (and I'll only end up ruining the fabric in that spot). As you can see, my outer circle isn't quite round and I hit my 2-to-3 rule in several places.
This week's Project Quilting challenge is plaid - plaid needs to be featured in the project. I don't have any plaid fabric, so I made some... or at least I tried. A few years ago I made a mug rug from trimmings by weaving them together and quilting over it. I decided to make a plaid postcard with the same idea. I cut a bunch of eighth-inch strips of black, red and white, then wove them together.
Picking colors for NYB is a challenge - I'm never sure how it will look until it's all put together. I bet this design would look great in seasonal colors. But after getting this one totally together I am not prepared to do another one in its place. Ideas for next year, though!
Now I need to figure out how to quilt this one so I can submit it!
Doesn't Orion look cute all bundled up for winter? Dakin Humane was looking for photos of our foster guinea pig, so we pulled together a quick photo shoot on the one day all week that had sunshine.
I swear he's smiling in that photo.
I'm working on my Small Works submission. What could I do in a six inch square? I started with a NYB block, but then moved to a wonky NYB circles. I'm nuts. I've picked fabrics and cut out my paper pieces. We'll see how it goes!
The full-on creative process gets messy. Stuff everywhere! Two sewing machines out and in use. I am free motion quilting some small stuff I had sandwiched a couple of months ago as well as piecing the Small Works project.
Our kitchen window is a great place to put plants in the winter but I found
some of the planters left marks on the paint. I've added a variety of
coasters under them, then we thought a single runner might be a good
solution.
Oh, boy! A quick post before a busy weekend. First up - I have a flimsy for the lone star quilt. I pushed through the last few seams so I could start working on my Project Quilting quilt (due on Sunday!). I did pretty well with the points, but the middle does not lay flat - obviously something is wonky. I'm not confident it will hang straight on the wall. I'll have to take a better look at it next week.
