I cannot sew at night

I often read about people who are up all night sewing and have tons of magical finished goodies in the morning. Kind of like the elf and the shoes fairytale.

Not! me!

I am a morning person and need to face the fact and sew early in the day. What happens at night are mistakes and frustration and mistakes and anxiety. Sewing should not create anxiety.

So last night I did get a couple blocks done. The simple block 6 - the Big Dipper. It uses quarter square triangles and I can handle those.

But block 1 - Attic Windows - was a different story. Thought I could just look at it and basically figure my measurements but something was off. So I dismantled a bit, drew it on graph paper, cut it apart, stitched it together, and something was off. Comes down to my seam for the triangles are 1/8" instead of 1/4". Grrr. The scrap one is done but I don't like the corner fabric. Another downfall from sewing at night? Maybe. Funny thing is the templates I drew matched up with what I had cut so it was my sewing that was off. It might be adjusted to change the corner fabric or redone after I do the aqua/red one. Maybe.

When do you sew?

Block 6 Big Dipper

Block 6, Big Dipper

Block 1, Attic Windows

I'm catching up! Only just over 100 more to go.



Farmer's Wife - 5 more blocks!

These blocks are addicting! Finished up 5 more yesterday. The Flickr group just started week 6 so I should have 12 blocks (24 since I'm doing two quilts) done. Feeling pretty good getting 8 done in just a few days. Picking out the simpler ones for now.

The down side of the book is there are no measurements for the templates. There is a disk to print out templates and I've read that the author is coming out with an updated book this Fall that will include rotary cutting instructions. At this time (since my printer is out of ink and I forget to buy it when I'm out) I'm just drawing them out myself or just using the pictures as a guide. If mine come out a wee bit different than everyone else's then I'm okay with that. I actually like drafting them.

A few of the blocks are the same pattern with different names so I might try to replace them with other 6" blocks.

Trying to find more aqua/red fabrics and spent way too much time on the computer yesterday tracking down possibilities. Thought I would be able to use a very contained selection of fabrics but just can't. I'm a scrapaholic and have to go that route.

Friendship, block 39                                                .

Friendship, block 39                                                 .

Basket Weave, block 4. I did a variation.

Basket Weave, block 4 as in the book.

Flock, block 34 See previous post for scrap version.



Farmer's Wife

I completed two, well 3, blocks in the Farmer's Wife book. One in a controlled color way of aqua and red and two from bits and pieces of my scrap bag. I'm determined to get the smaller scraps down and out of the scrap bag.  I've decided that when I pull a scrap out and use it once that it will not go back in the bag. I'll use it in combination with another scrap in the next block. This way it will really go away and it will add a bit of continuity to the blocks. The only exception is if I can get a 1 1/2" square out of it as I'm working on a postage stamp quilt as a leader/ender project. The itsy bitsy slivers will get thrown outside for the birds to use to decorate their nests.

Here are the few I've finished so far. They are on week five so I should have 10 but I'll  catch up soon. Take a peek at the Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1678802@N20/ to see the variety of blocks and fabric choices. I love both the modern brights and the traditional fabrics.

Block 55 -  Linoleum. Did a little fussy cutting on this one to get the plaids more centered.

Block 55 - Linoleum   Fussy cut to center a flower. Ironed it differently too. You can tell. Totally different feel using bright moderns.

Block 34 - Flock  Traditional fabrics. Note I used a bit of the brown from the previous block. Gotta use those scraps up!

Til tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

A whole year? !!

Yikes! Has it been that long? Sure makes for a cranky human being when you don't allow yourself time to do what you love. Thankfully, I don't have to relearn how to sew but it may take a bit to relearn the blogging ropes.

This has been a busy get-back-into-sewing week and it feels sooooo good!

To kick it off I joined two Flickr groups last week - Doll Quilt Swap and The Farmer's Wife Quilt-A-Long.

The first group is (rather obviously) a group for making small, miniature sized quilts. My gosh but people are talented in the group. I'd been seeing posts for this group for quite a while but could never seem to catch where to go to join so I was thrilled to have finally found them. I only hope I get a place in the next round!

With that in mind I worked up a miniature 9 Patch and Snowballs quilt in just 2 days, July 1st and 2nd. No one was fed and the dishes piled up but did I ever enjoy just sewing. Still needs another border, a very dark brown, I think. The blocks are 1.5" each and were surprisingly easy to make. Just lots of exact cutting, sewing, and trimming. It's from a pattern in an older Miniature Quilts magazine. Isn't it so darn cute!

The Farmer's Wife group is a "support" group to help motivate and inspire you to finish all of the 111 six inch blocks from The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird. I think I'll need that motivation (or at least a good kick in the butt now and then). The goal is to complete two blocks per week. I'm late joining so have a bit of catching up to do. Tomorrow I'll share my first blocks and maybe even get another done before I post.

Feels good to be back!

Spoons

I've been enjoying tutorials posted by various mixed media artists the past few days. I plan on making several of the projects and this is the first one. I happened to have everything I needed to do it! My spoon reads "Such is the nature of maternal understanding." Having a pre-teen daughter I need LOTS of maternal understanding. :)

The tutorial is by Kelli Nina Perkins. The video tutorial can be found here.  (Click on the "here")

If you have not checked out her book Stitch Alchemy, you should! I'll post a piece I did with guidance from her book. The instructions in it are just as wonderful as the instructions in her spoon tutorial.

Thanks Kelli!

 

Painted lady #1

My sewing machine was in the shop for 3 months, my camera broke, my printer/scanner was dying. The machine is now fixed, I'm borrowing dd's camera when needed, and I have a new scanner/printer (they are really getting cheap).

What I have been doing is painting, collaging, stamping, layering, generally just messing around. Here's a painted and collaged piece I did in April. More vibrant in real life, it started out as a page meant to be folded into a journal book but turned into a piece in itself. The back, now forgotten, was painted and collaged too.

 

Santa... finished!

 
 

Did you guess what it was going to be? It's a shelf scarf. It was intended by the designer, Nancy Halvorsen, to be used on your fireplace mantle. I had a long 60"x6" shelf that I hang quilts and linens on that needed something for Christmas. I cut it to fit my shelf width and had to add one extra Santa. It was relatively fast. The part that took too much time was sewing on the buttons for eyes, between the blocks, and on the holly. And you can see that not all Santas have holly leaves on their hat. They will... eventually.

I couldn't take a pic on the shelf because my light was right in the way so I had to put it on the sofa. (It really is straight across the back.) Really! Now to place it on the shelf with a few of my Christmas cutesies and the kitchen area is dressed up.

Oh, and everything was from my fabric stash. The best kind of project!

Santa what?

I have a semi-quickie project underway that is almost finished.
This is a portion of it.
It's a decorating item.
Can you guess what it will be? 

Now off to see if I can find some velcro, 12 buttons for eyes, and to blush up some cheeks. I'd like to finish it up tonight or tomorrow.

Why the heck did I do this?

Have you ever gone to the store for just one quick item and come out with something you didn't plan to buy? Hah! What a nutty question. I KNOW you have.

Yesterday, I ran to the quilt shop for just a couple of quarter yard pieces to use for  Santa faces. I was supposed to be at Mom's for dinner in less than one hour so I knew I'd only have 15 or 20 minutes to get in and out. I did it on purpose so I wouldn't look... much. Didn't help. Didn't work. Should have gone straight to the section I needed. In my defense what I needed was way back in the corner. But I erred in my quest and took the long way round past the holiday fabrics.

And what to my wondering eye should appear? A fun retro style holiday fabric I'd been drooling over online right there in non-online reality. How could I resist. I tried. I really did. I hesitated. Then I looked up and saw that holiday fabrics were 25% off.  Then I looked at that sweet little reindeer, the fabulous colors, and felt the flood of memories it conjured up of Christmas's past. It teased me, taunted me, I picked up a fat quarter "just to look a bit closer", then another, and another, and... well you can see where this is headed. Just a few fat quarters I thought.

Then YIKES there wasn't a fat quarter for that sweet little reindeer so I had to grab the bolt. Then I thought what if I don't make something holidayish and these fabrics could be non-holidayish so I had to grab the floral bolt. I wanted this so badly that I didn't even want to set it on the table and put a don't touch my stash card on it for fear someone would. I carried it with me to try to talk myself out of it. Then an employee saw me and said why don't you set them down and put a card on it. They will be okay. Well! Once they were on that table how could I back out? So.....

It's by Sheri Berry Designs.

Now, what to make? What to make? I have time to decide because I'm going to wrap it and put from Santa and stash it under the tree Christmas eve in a paper I use for no other gifts. Then I can keep (innocently) asking who got it for me? Bwaaa ha ha ha. I'll never tell.

Hmmm, think that would work with quilt store gift cards?

p.s. i got this too, but, hey, it was 25% off! and I love Mary Engelbreit too.

 

Not quilt related but I haven't posted in ages. So, I thought I'd put a picture I painted in my journal of my daughter. Well, she really came out looking like an older version of my daughter.

Getting back in the swing and will be back blogging regularly soon I think.