Snow sculpture

Brian opened the back door from the garage to get to the patio to shovel that big snow drift against the family room door (I posted that photo a few days ago). This is what greeted him when he opened the door.

The indentations in the door made a lovely mold for the snow!

More pieces!

Remember the green and yellow checkerboard I posted a week ago? This goes with it! Next week I should join everything and you'll see what it is.

PublishThese are photographed on the spiffy table-top gridded ironing board I have. It's wonderful!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Blizzard!

Snow! Last I measured, the drift against the patio door was 43" higher than our carpet (don't be ridiculous, I didn't go OUTSIDE to measure it!). And that was about 5:30 this evening, and it's now 10:15 and it's still snowing.
It's a very odd storm -- bitterly cold and windy, with very dry snow. So the tree branches are all bare and forlorn looking, part of the grass is visible, and then there are drifts that measure several feet. The University was closed today and will be again tomorrow. Incredible!

Lost & Found

When I organized all my I Spy paraphernalia, I put the magazine with the pattern in the big Rubbermaid tub along with everything else. Somehow it crawled out all by itself to play hide and go seek. I was not amused. I finished Teresa's I Spy without it, but the top had already been pieced. It became more critical when I started to work on Laurel's recently. Just how many hexagons??? Finally this evening I sat down with a huge pile of quilting magazines and went through them until at last I came upon the right one. I guess the magazine knew that the best place to hide a needle is in a haystack. But I am so glad to have found it!

How do you like my temporary design wall? I felt pretty clever with this one. It's batting stuck to the wall with painter's tape, which doesn't harm the wall and peels off easily. (I just wish that painter's tape wasn't so blue.) I stuck up all the hexagons I had put triangles on and they came to 70. I need ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SEVEN! But seeing what I had made it easier to avoid duplicates as I rummaged through my stash. I'm now up to 95. This time I'm cutting the hexagons with a rotary cutter around the template rather than tracing and using scissors. My accuracy should be much better, making piecing easier this time. I'm on my way!

What's this?

Well might you ask! It looks mighty daffodil-ish if you ask me. While I would definitely like to see a daffodil outside (what a relief from the vast expanses of white that will only get whiter when it snows again on Tuesday), I am not such a daffodilish quilt person. I must say I was surprised when I made this border for my Pressing Basics class at Quilt University. I trust that when the quilt is complete, you will not be thinking of daffodils. I will say no more, but continue to post the other parts as they are made. (If it looks weird, one strip is right side up and the other is upside down so you can admire the pressing.)


This block was another extra project for the Pressing Basics class. I madeit with Linus fabric and will work it into a Linus quilt. We have several extra blocks, and I'm making them all with the same fabrics. Then I'll do some applique apples and make a quilt.

'Twas the night before Christmas

Well, no, it was February 10, but if it had been the night before Christmas, someone would have been using this pillowcase!I bought this kit in November 2005 because I wanted to learn to make a pillowcase with a cuff and no raw edges inside. In my effort to finish up UFOs, I stitched this up. It's a really clever construction method in which the cuff, edging and body of the pillowcase are joined in one seam that leaves no raw edge. Then the side and bottom are stitched twice, once to join and once to enclose the raw edges. Now that I know how to make these, I'll make many for gifts. I think kids will love them. This one is my contribution to the guild bazaar (everyone needs to contribute for the quilt show).

I've been doing lots of stitching recently -- sent Teresa's I Spy once I figured out how to make a decent label (I printed it up in a fancy font, then traced over it onto fabric using a Pigma pen), am working on Laurel's I Spy, and of course have been doing lots of Linus stuff. Check out the Hearts for Linus blog if you haven't been!

UFOs and other strange sightings

We see way too many UFOs around my guild -- and no, we are not in Roswell, New Mexico. A UFO is the quilting term for Un-Finished Object. It is so easy to get excited, start a project, and then ... somehow ... never finish. The guild has a challenge this year to finish up some of our UFO's -- I put down several projects on my list.

Just for fun, here's a list someone shared from a Yahoo quilting group:

UFO Un-Finished Object. A project which is started but not yet finished.

WIP Work In Progress. A project on which you actually do work. (The dividing-line between UFOs and WIPs is highly personal.)

PIG Project In Grocery-bag

prozag PROject in Zip-lock-bAG

PIGs and Prozags are those bags / shelves / boxes / whatever, where you have all fabrics and a pattern. Thread and batting is not necessarily included. Numerous PIGs have been known to be called my herd of swine.

BOB Bag (Box / whatever) Of Blocks. Often swap-blocks that are put aside for "later". Also the odd "test-blocks" where you have tried out colour-combinations, or a new technique, or the blocks of projects that were started, and is now stopped without any intention of every doing more about that project ... but there are anything from 1 to 100 blocks that are finished.
BOB-projects usually need serious executive decisions ... such as setting, use, size etc.

The 3 above categories can be DOA, Dead On Arrival. Something you know you will never finish anything from. If that is the case, get rid of it! Donate, toss, sell or recycle into stash.

Quillow

I love containers. It's hard for me to get rid of boxes and I keep far more storage containers for the kitchen than I need. There's just something about things fitting nicely inside that really appeals to me. (This must be some ancient genetic thing because it makes no sense otherwise.) It's not surprising, then, that I've wanted to make a quillow -- a quilt that can be folded up and stored inside it's own pocket to make a pillow -- ever since I first heard of them. When Fons & Porter printed instructions in their December 2006 issue, I had to make one.

Fortunately one of Brian's colleagues cooperated and had a baby shortly after the magazine came out. I made a minky for the baby and decided to make a quillow for her older brother. Here it is as a pillow.

And here it is partly folded out. When completely open (drat, I didn't take a photo!), the pocket (the exterior of the pillow) is attached at the base of the blue side. The red dotted side is a soft flannel. I think these are fun for keeping in the car or just having for whenever. The recipient seemed very happy with his.

I was thinking I would make a whole bunch of these for gifts for kids, but I'm not sure now. They are easy to sew, but I really don't like working with big pieces of cloth -- it's cumbersome and tricky to get them exactly the same size. Most of the time is spent on that, not on the fun parts of construction. Fons & Porter's instructions were not the best, either. They say to purchase 2 yards of fabric for front and back, but the measurements when you are cutting are for pieces wider than standard widths of fabric! They do give instructions on how to make a quillow of any size, but still their purchasing directions should have indicated that standard quilting fabrics are narrower than they suggest using.

Design fun

Project Linus has been taking most of my quilting time the last few weeks -- most of time in general, in fact! But I do enjoy it. Putting together kits from donated fabric really pushes me to be creative. While I'm making quilts for those who need them, I'm also improving my skills. Today I had a great time with this panel:

(Sorry about the angle of the photos, but I didn't have a way to hang this.) I think it's adorable, and it was donated along with a fabric panel of a world map that I planned to put as the back of this quilt. But the map is bigger than the panel, so I had to add to the panel to make it large enough. I rooted around our donated stash and found some fabulous fabric that really picked up the colors of the quilt:

The problem was that there wasn't a lot of this fabric, and I wasn't sure I could get enough to make big enough borders. Plus, if that was all I used, the borders at the top and bottom would end up much bigger than at the sides in order to make the panel fit with the map backing. So clearly I needed something else, but what? I finally hit on adding a row of 4 patches out of blue and yellow to the top and bottom. Alas, the width didn't come out evenly for a simple measure, and I didn't want to futz with odd measurements, so I decided to put green strips between the four patches and then put larger green blocks on the ends:

Well, OK, but it made the top and bottom a little heavy on the greens and blues. So why not add a strip of the red border fabric?
Yes! That worked! And the measurements were good enough that all four borders would be the same size and I would have enough fabric -- hoorah! Looks pretty cute, no?

So this "kit" ended up being a pieced top. I can't let myself get that involved with all the quilts, but every now and then it is very rewarding to come up with a quilt from the fabric on hand. This is hardly a great design feat, but it was fun, and I'm learning!

Inspiring photos

Liz Plummer posts some wonderful photos on her blog, Dreaming Spirals. She draws inspiration from things we often see but don't notice. Her spider webs are fabulous! Most recently I got a big kick out of her salad collage. (Scroll down the salad page to see the spider webs, both the fake and the real ones.) It made me realize that I have started to take photos of things just because they are aesthetically pleasing to me. Of course, artists and "real" photographers do that, but I always took photos so I could remember people and places. Having a digital camera freed me to take pictures just because I wanted the image. Here's one I took of the roasted vegetables I made for dinner awhile back. It's yummy visually as well as gastronomically.

I will probably never make a quilt out of this photo, but thinking about what I see has definitely sharpened my sensibilities.

Quilt Droppings

What was I thinking, wearing black? Brian calls these tiny, clinging threads by the too descriptive "quilt droppings," though others use the more elegant term "quilter's jewelry." (If you can't see it, click on the photo to enlarge.)

Something that occurred to me as I looked at this photo is how much like Cruella DeVille I look -- I hope not in expression (or action!), but definitely in the hair!

Yellow I Spy DONE!

Hoorah! The yellow I Spy quilt I started last summer is finally finished. I had finished piecing the top in July, but was terrified to cut off half the outer hexagons to add the border, then when I finally did that, I was afraid I would ruin it by quilting it. But I figured if I never tried, it would sit there forever. It's done and I love it!

I put a big US map on the back and borders around it. I tried to center it when I based the quilt, but was afraid it would be lopsided. Didn't turn out too bad. Sorry about the photo -- the light on the right (sun reflecting off today's snowfall) has washed out that side of the quilt, and you can see the front hexagons shadowing through.

This quilt is for Teresa's kids. I'll get it in the mail this week!

When it's cold in California

There's no cold like California cold, because those warm-weather types are totally unprepared for it. That's when the savvy student warms her minkee in the dryer for a few minutes before going to bed. Just ask Valerie, who came up with this idea.

Stay warm!

Linus Quilting Blog!

You know all those Project Linus quilts I keep talking about? Well, now you can see them! I started a blog called Hearts for Linus for the guild. Right now we only have 5 quilts posted, but I'll keep adding as they come in. I also hope to post easy patterns.

Enjoy!

What a mess! ("Before" Pictures)

Sewing spaces become messy of necessity -- quilting just requires a lot of stuff. They stay messy (at least mine does) because there is not a good place to put all the stuff. (The old word for fabric was "stuff", and I sometimes wonder whether there's a connection.) I have the luxury of a huge L-shaped room with an open, under-the-stairs nook in the basement. But I still don't have a good place to put things. Right now most of the space is taken up with the donated stash and partially completed quilt kits for the guild's Project Linus committee. We've just started to buy plastic bins for holding sorted fabric, but you can see we still have some boxes. Big rolls of batting are on the right, and partially completed kits are in Harry & David boxes on the opened out futon.


Here's another view of the futon with boxes I've just been going through for binding fabric. The green bins hold fabrics large enough to use as backing, but some of those were donated on bolts and don't really fit. It's not a good use of the stacker for this reason, and because the fabric in the lower two bins is not easily accessible. As you can see by the futon and the forlorn TV in the corner, this used to be a guest room.


Directly across from the futon is a large cutting table. Right now it's piled with completed tops that have been measured against the cutting mat so I can find backing, batting, and binding to fit. Of course, I'll need to pile up the tops to get to the cutting mat!

And here's a tub of quilts ready to be quilted. There are ten pieced tops here, each in a bag with batting and binding and backing. I'm taking these to the guild meeting tonight in hopes that members will take them and finish them!

So why is this a "before" post? Because things are about to change! I hate the clutter but it is a real pain to put things away. After working with the Linus stash for awhile, I have a pretty good idea what we need, so this weekend it's off to Sam's Club (a fellow quilter is a member) to get some fabulous shelves like the ones we had at work. They are very sturdy metal, they roll, and the shelves are adjustable. I can put the backing fabric on them, put many tubs on them, and stack the kits-in-progress. Hoorah! Stay tuned -- with luck, I'll get them this weekend.

California Dreamin'

It's Christmas at last, so I can finally post this quilt! This will be a long one. It all started with a photo of Brian that I took at Ano Nuevo State Park (just south of Half Moon Bay), which we visited in the winter/spring of 2005. It's one of my favorite photos of him:


Time passes. One morning I watch an episode of Simply Quilts in which the guest (sorry, I can't remember her name -- just that she lives in San Jose) showed her Andy Warhol style quilts of the same person done several times, each time with changing colors in the style of Warhol's Marilyn Monroe images. Then one day it occurred to me that Brian's photo would lend itself to that kind of stylization. Could I do it? The first step was to print the photo and see if I could reduce it to clear lines. After a couple attempts, this is what emerged:


More time passes -- not sure where to go from here. What kind of fabrics? How big? How many images? Would Brian like it? How would I do the applique? Summer passes. We are into autumn and I decide it would be a great Christmas present for Brian, or at least I hope it would be. I decide to fuse the fabrics and then do satin stitch, but my one attempt at satin stitch (on a Linus applique) was pretty dismal. Harumph. But after practicing on the word purple, I think it might happen. Meanwhile, Jocelyn has come to visit and we picked out fabrics (also posted earlier this month). So the plan is to make the quilt while Brian is in New York visiting his family. The good people at Sew Sassy have already told me to use a fusible interfacing on the lame (pretend there's an accent on the "e" -- it's not 'lame' as in limping) sunglasses, and I am ready to proceed. It's not as straightforward as simply switching the fabrics out -- the border fabric can't be a background, the shirt fabric touches not only its own background, but others, etc. -- it's a bit like solving Rubik's cube. Eventually I get it so the fabrics are never in the same place twice and never touch each other. Then I fuse and cut and lay out, and this is what I get:


I hate it. I think Brian will hate it. It's not that the fabrics don't work together, but I wouldn't want to look at them again and again. And it doesn't mean anything. It's an exercise -- what does this have to do with Brian???? I moan and groan. Finally, inspiration strikes! The photo was taken on the coast. Brian loves the California coast -- he sometimes visits Half Moon Bay before driving down to see the kids! Why not have Brian and the coast intertwined in this quilt? The design morphs from "Cool Brian" into "California Dreamin'" -- I just need landscape fabrics. So it's back to Sew Sassy.


I love these! There's ocean, sky (see the shining suns?), trees, sand, dry earth, and -- already in my stash -- pebbles. I need only 5 of the 6 fabrics and finally push aside the pebbles. I liked the idea of them, but I needed the warm color of the dry earth fabric to give the quilt a little zing, a little golden glow of the California hills basking in the sun.

There are problems, of course. I learn how hard it is to do a really smooth satin stitch around curves. I find that metallic thread can be temperamental. I become acutely aware that only an idiot or a masochist would ever choose to work with lame -- I won't go there again! But it gets done, and I like it. I really like it. I realize it's maybe even an art quilt. Brian may even like it. Except for the binding, it's done!



Doesn't it look like Brian?

Have yourself a fuzzy little Christmas

Val has her minkee blanket! I tried to make her one a few weeks ago (when I made Jocelyn's), but I made some mistakes... ask me how I know you need to pin with safety pins and not straight pins to be sure everything lies flat together. So we went to the new quilt shop in Mahomet and picked out flannel and minkee. Val knows her own mind -- we were in and out in nothing flat because she immediately knew what she wanted. I stitched it up a couple nights ago when she was with her old friends from high school and put it under the tree for her to open this morning.

Val is no longer on Italian time, so waking up for Christmas morning was a little harder than it would have been a few days ago. So she cuddled with minkee and our Merry Christmoose (push his stomach and he plays Christmas carols). Merry Christmas!

Frances' Quilt

Finally, now that I have sent Frances her quilt, I can put up a post about it! Here's the quilt after the quilter returned it but before I put on the binding. (The photos of the bound quilt did not come out so well. The binding is the same color as the dark purple border - just pretend the white batting around the edges isn't there.)



You may remember seeing the pattern in an earlier post. The fabrics here are different, though also with a somewhat Asian flair, and so the quilting is different. I sent this out to be quilted and what a beautiful job Connie Lightle did again! She did the quilting on Val's quilt, too. Look at the details:



Connie does such a fabulous job, but I do feel like I'm cheating. I do all the fabric selection, all the cutting and piecing, and then the quilt is transformed by her quilting!

Seeing purple

Chris Lynn Kirsch, author of Replique Quilts gave a workshop at our guild. Alas, I was out of town (well, don't be too sorry for me -- I was on vacation in British Columbia). But the chair of the Project Linus committee talked to her about making some of her cute quilts for Linus. She gave us permission to work on one of her cuddle and learn quilts (to be published in a forthcoming book, possibly with photos of the quilts we make!). Here's the purple block I made for a quilt that will have lots of color names. It looks like applique, but uses her technique instead. You'll have to get the details from her book, but basically you stitch from a pattern on the back of the block through two layers, then cut away some fabric and satin stitch around the edge. Fun!

Sock it to me!

A present! For ME! Yay! It's a beautiful sock that Jocelyn knit with self-striping yarn. I love the colors and it fits perfectly. I was afraid that hand knit socks would not be comfortable, but in fact this felt wonderful on my foot. I have been promised that sock number 2 will be forthcoming after Joss's very long plane rides to and from India. I can't wait!

Fun Fabric

Such fun colors! Wonder what these are for?
You'll have to wait and see...

Jocelyn's minkee blanket

Soft indeed! Jocelyn was just home for a visit, ostensibly to see her parents but I think it was really just to check out her minkee blanket. Definitely soft!


And apparently also good for hiding.












But not quite big enough to cover disrespect!

Christmas minkee quilt

Most of the quilts I make are not for me, often for readers of my blog. So how do I post my activities when I want them to be a surprise? At least this quilt is meant to be enjoyed during the holiday season, so I sent it early and now I can put it on my blog!


Jay's Christmas quilt - The Story: A couple months ago I went to an estate sale. It was my first one ever! The quilt guild sent a notice that the homeowners, one of whom was a quilter, were moving into a retirement home and were getting rid of quilting items. I went to see if there was any fabric for Project Linus, and indeed there was -- I bought 3 boxes of fabric for a total of $12! Some had to be discarded and a couple things were not appropriate for Linus, but the rest was a real boon. The holiday panel was in the box and we don't do Linus holiday quilts, so I pulled it out to use. I thought it would be good to practice my quilting on a big panel. And it would be nice to have a holiday quilt. Then I thought it would be a nice holiday quilt for my mother, who likes holiday decorations but doesn't have a lot of space. A quilt over a chair would be festive without taking up table or shelf space, and could be easily stored in the closet. So I decided to use it as a gift for her, probably lined with flannel to make it warm and cozy.

Then I discovered minkee! It's wonderously soft and cuddly (see my previous posts) and washes like a dream. Alas, I had no red minkee and was regretting it, when a new quilt shop in Mahomet opened and they carry lots of minkee. So I bought red for the panel. I didn't have the panel measurements with me so I guesstimated how much I would need and added extra for insurance -- and ended up with only 1/2" more than I needed! I pinned it to the panel with safety pins, lots of them, then quilted the printed red sashing with wavy free motion lines. Finally I put on a binding made of holiday cotton print, and that was it! It was fun and fast.

Here is a closeup of the pictures on the panel. They are holiday scenes in subtle tones -- but don't worry, I compensated for the subtlety with the red backing! Merry Christmas!

Let's see if this works

I'd like to add a photo and the url to grab mine from gmail is too long for blogger's taste, so I'm posting it here and will grab it.

Minkee!

I had heard of minkee, and when I finally felt it, it was beyond what I had imagined. Soft -- so soft! -- that you just want to keep touching it. I had also heard it was hard to stitch, so I hesitated to buy any.

But when I saw the fabulous blankets my nieces' Aunt Barb made for their new babies, I just had to try it. (Here's a photo of the one she made for Andrew.) Only one place in town carries Minkee, and they had a limited selection, but I bought some to make a small blanket for a newborn daughter of one of Brian's colleagues. Not hard to do! And quick.

Here's what I learned:
(I like this feature on Jocelyn's blog, so I'm doing it, too.)

1. Buy a lint roller and keep a vacuum or two handy when you work with minkee. There is amazing fuzz everywhere! Did I say everywhere? I meant EVERYWHERE!

2. Minkee is a cheap high. I don't care how bad you feel, working with that amazingly soft fabric makes you feel better. It does slip and slide, but somehow it just didn't bother me, because I was trying to hold that cushy-soft minkee in place.

3. Minkee is almost as good as bubblewrap. It doesn't have that satisfying sound, but button pushers and bubblewrap poppers (Val, are you listening?) will love the dotted minkee. Those little dots can be pushed down and popped up forever. You can get a closer look at the bubble dots in the photo to the left (they look a lot like what are called popcorn stitches in knitting).

Happy Challah-day and A Mystery Solved

L'shana tovah! (Or "happy new year" for those of you who don't speak Hebrew -- of course, I don't speak Hebrew either, but I know a phrase or two.) Today is Rosh Hoshannah, the Jewish New Year, which is celebrated by eating apples dipped in honey to ensure a sweet new year. A circular, raisin-studded challah flavored with honey and spices usually is on the table, too. The challah must be covered and blessed before it is eaten. And that's what the mystery block of a few posts ago has become -- a challah cover:



After Val described a meal she had at Jocelyn's, marvelous in most ways but pitiful in that they resorted to using a paper towel to cover the challah, I knew I had to get busy and make something a little more elegant. I found the pattern in Q is for Quilt by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes. It's a block from a larger quilt. The blocks are made in such a clever way -- each basic block (as in the mystery block) is cut in half diagonally to make the basket, then setting triangles are added and a plain rectangle is stitched to the top. The apples are appliqued.

I completely loved the machine quilting in the book, but of course, I have no skills in that area. But what the heck -- a challah cover is small and each block makes two, so if I totally blew it ... But it came out pretty well! I added the bee to symbolize the honey. I wrote apples and honey in one of the v's of the basket, but it doesn't really show up. (To make the rest of the quilting easier to see, click on the photo to enlarge it.)

Val, I sent this one to Jocelyn (care of Laurel, since Jocelyn currently has no address -- though she will soon! -- and Jocelyn got to play a little with Julia and Andrew as a bonus when she picked up the cover), but yours is underway!

Teatime

Happy Mother's Day to me! Val made that very cute tea caddy you can see among all those tea boxes. It's a Mother's Day gift that just got finished. I love it! I'll put several different tea bags in it and keep it in my purse. I wish I had had it this past week in Denver. The hotel I stayed in had only Earl Grey tea in the room, one of the few teas I just don't like. Rather an odd choice for a hotel, but I suspect that they used to have several varieties and this is just what was left. I don't think very many people are that fond of Earl Grey (nothing against the Earl himself, please, but the tea...).

'Tis a mystery!

Ah, yes, a nice boring square- in-a-square block. What's mysterious about that? It won't stay that way! I can't tell you more than that (it would spoil the surprise), but I will post the finished product. I promise. It's already getting close.