Basketballs & Peacocks

Hello, there friends.  Long time no type at.  Man, I tell you, back to school really got the best of me.  They didn't want to go back and I didn't want the drama/ trauma to start up again.  It sunk me into a little bit of an artistic dry spell.  Okay, fine, I was depressed and stressed.  Not to mention people were quitting at work left and right.  Which, for me, means losing friends and gaining work.  Not a stressfree combo, just as the fall wedding season is underway.  Ok, boo hoo, I've had my moment.  Time to get on with the good stuff.

My co-worker Michelle asked me to make a quilt out of her daughters old basketball jerseys.  Now, this is my least favorite thing to do.  Mostly, because it's hard and I'm lazy.  I turn people down fairly regularly when they ask me to do t-shirt quilts but I like Michelle and we see a lot of each other at work.  She asked me back in the spring, if I remember right.  Maybe early summer.  I just got to it this last month.  Like I said, lazy.

Not to mention, it's sports.  I can't really get into it.  And, it's hard.  The stabilizer didn't want to stick to the jersey fabric very well.  I was worried about melting the rubberized numbers and logos.  That was also a problem when it came to quilting.  Then, the fact that Jessica is tiny.  I mean, tiny.  How this girl was good at basketball is beyond me.  Now she's doing volleyball.  She must be fierce.  Tiny and fierce.  The quilt started out to be super basic because that's all they asked for.  I couldn't leave it at basic.



I appliqued her name on the top.  Still pretty basic but at least it was something.  At first, I was going to use black metallic thread around the letters but I couldn't find black.  They had bronze which was the same color as the basketball fabric.  I thought it was going to be brilliant.  No.  It was NOT brilliant.  It was, in fact, super tacky.  So, I ended up with 10 billion tiny metallic threads all over my life.  Plain old black ended up being a better option.  I also cut out a little star in the A to match the Hoopstar logo.

Yes, this is laying on top of my car.  I happened to be waiting for Ethan at swimming class when I finished the binding.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you got.

I gave it to them yesterday and she seemed really happy.  I hope so.

Another thing that I've been putting off is my Taking Flight challenge quilt.  Our Guild President challenged us to make something with that theme.  I've been obsessed with peacocks lately.  I found a gorgeous stained glass peacock that I decided to make into a quilt.  Honestly, I'm going to be so pissed when this ends up being a mess.

I've just got a few basic layers started.  I'm very sceptical at this point.  I keep telling myself it'll get there but I'm not totally convinced.  There's going to be more feather detail, magnolia blossoms and at the very end, I'm going to bead and embellish the crap out of it.

There you have it.  Hopefully the beginning of a creative fall and winter.

Diamonds & Tiaras

I have been completely obsessed with pink and red as a color combo.  I realize this is unusual.  It's a bit much for the average person on daily basis.  But, it's so cute.  How can you not love it?  I seriously want to do a huge scrap quilt in pink and red.  Pink and red, everywhere.   It'll be fabulous.  But, for now, I settled for a table runner.

When, I was done, I felt like it needed a little something more.  What better than a crown?  Am I right?  Then, I topped it off with sparkly metallic thread.  Seriously channeling my inner princess that day.

 The diamonds were made using Edita Sitar's diamond templates and her strip piecing method.  Awhile back, I took a few days and sewed blocks of strips together to make her house quilt and with the left overs, I cut out some diamonds and triangles for "someday" projects.  I love the look of the strips but I don't think I'd do it the same way again.  There was a lot of seam on seam action going on.  Then, the solid fabric didn't like the seams being pressed to them.  Very uncooperative.

I finished another Vintage Christmas block.  I really ended up stitching and unstitching a whole bunch on this one.  The background got all crunchy when I put the buildings on.  My doors and windows are all crooked and it irritates me.  The roof on the bell tower is crooked, too.  I think I'm going to have to fix that.  Ugh.  Maybe, all together, the whole thing will be so cute that no one will notice how cock-eyed everything is.

Naturally, I was late getting my guild applique block of the month done.  Last month was the Morning Glory.  Next, is the Carnation.  It's going to be pink.  And, cute.

And now, to watch The Family Stone.  One of the best movies ever.

One night during vacation I couldn't sleep.  Rich had been working on our landscaping and drinking beer.  Working, drinking, working, drinking.  When it came time for bed the snoring was loud enough to scare the neighbors.  At the same time, I had 18 bug bites burning my legs so bad that I was ready to tear my flesh off.  So, I got up and cut a bunch of green thimbles.  150 to be exact.  Incidentally, no 2 are the same.  I even managed #151 on the back that had too much purple in it to make the front.  I know.  You're impressed.  I can't say that I blame you, I love it too.  Thimble blocks are amazingly easy to piece.  The seams just butt right up against each other.  Hehehe, butt.  And, they press out straight as can be.  I thought the edge was interesting so I didn't use any borders.

I finally finished Quilty Stitches!  Yippee!  I almost said "Hip Hip Horray" but watching the history channel this week told me that phrase was originally used when white people would "round up" the black people during some conflict.  Or, just being assholes.  It was  hep, hep back then, like they were cattle.  So, I'll not be using Hip Hip Horray any longer.  Let's just take a moment and reflect on how many mother lovin' stitches that went into this bad boy.  Okay, now guess what happened.  I went to start on the last block when I noticed pink splotches in several spots!  Apparently, my hot pink bag got wet and bled on my project!  You're right, I WAS super pissed!  My head exploded.  It doesn't really show in the photo, and some of it will be cut out when I frame it, but still.

Now that Quilty Stitches is done, I needed another hand work project.  I started back on my Vintage Christmas quilt.  I'm so close to being done on this one as well.  I have a church, a sheep and the borders left.  Favorite Christmas Balls isn't my favorite but it does look cute with everything else around it.  Also, it has the word balls in it and I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy.  So, that gets awkward when I start mentioning my favorite Christmas Balls...

Seems Like It's Been Awhile

It has been such a crazy few weeks!  I'm not used to so much activity!  The second weekend of August, I took the girls up to Chicago to meet my cousin Denise.  My kids don't really know my family at all.  My dad and I weren't close and he died 11 or 12 years ago already.  Sadly, when I came to Illinois, I didn't insist on going to Wisconsin to visit any of the Purdy side of my family.  Could never convince them that Wisconsin was a fabulous vacation destination.

Anyway, Denise and I were the best of buddies during the summer when I was growing up and it was SO great to spend some time with her!  The girls and I loved hanging out with her!  Now to make sure I don't wait another 10 years to visit again!  My August gift from Rich was a super posh hotel room that we all shared.  It was amazing!  If you have the chance to stay at the Monaco, I highly recommend it.

We also spent time with my nephew Gib and his lovely family!  They had just had an new baby boy so I got to cuddle and love on him.  He was the recipient of the Puppy & Kitty quilt done recently.  They really seemed to like it.  You know how that goes, do they really like it or are the being nice?  I thought it was great, so I'm going with that!

Before our trip, I did that retreat in Mascoutah, which was also fun.  I started this bag there but finished it the day after getting back from Chicago.  We walked 5 miles the first day and another 7 on the second.  You know me, not exactly a fitness freak.  Needless to say, Monday I could barely move and it was wonderful to sit at my machine all day.

Lots more happened on vacation.  I posted everything on Facebook, if you want to take a look.

Slow Progress

I'm falling behind on my Quilty Stitches.  This one is from several weeks ago.  I have one that I haven't started and then I think the newest gets posted tomorrow.  And, I believe there is only one left after that.  It's been fun but I'm always bored with a project by the end and I think I've hit that point with this one.  It may be because I chose to do the white filler, that's been fairly tedious.  Not to mention, I'm tired of doing half stitches.

 Pretty cute so far.

I was finally able to present Hunter with his graduation gift and only 2 years late.  He loved it.  I put a faux piping on the binding and then sewed it by machine.  I told him it was totally bad-assed and he pretended to be properly impressed.

Last weekend I went to a quilting retreat with some more friends.  I quilted this medallion quilt.  I meant to take a better picture of the actual quilting.  I did an all over orange peel pattern using my walking foot.  It turned out pretty well.  It was interesting enough that our guild president asked me to teach the technique at our Quilt Club meeting in October.

 I completely broke retreat protocol by tring to be productive.  I'm new to retreats and didn't realize that no one goes to get things done.  They go to socialize.  If you happen to get something done, then good for you.  But, it's nobody's focus.  Now I know.  Come October, I'll be ready.  Looks like that'll be a busy month.

I worked on the 2 round robins that I had this month.  I'm so done with this, as well.  I don't like anything I've done.  It's really, really hard to work on things this far out in the process.  The one above was okay but not very interesting.  It's the square in a square round but I decided to do pinwheels in a square.  

 

The yellow and blue one was three strips.  It was supposed to be basket weave but I think I would have had to make a second row to make it successful and I wasn't prepared to work on it any longer or buy any more fabric for it.

I also started a bag and worked on the applique baby quilt.  I didn't make much progress but I had a great time visiting with the ladies.  I'll post pictures of those later.

I'm so excited to find this fabric.  I've been looking for it for 10 years or so.  I've made pin-up quilts for Rich and his grandfather with cars.  Then Hunter got his with the Woody Wagons.  Now Rich's dad is going to get his with cowgirls.  Now to think of an interesting pattern to put them in before Christmas!

Todd Hall Quilt Retreat

Recently, I met with friends at Todd Hall Retreat Center and sewed all day.  What a lovely day that was!  It was fabulous to have no one to answer to for a whole day.  The stuff really hit the fan when I got home, but while I was there, it was magical.  Let's just say that the adolescent brain just doesn't work at full capacity all the time and leave it at that...  Someday, I'll be able to leave my house for an overnight retreat.  Now is not that time.  I think I've got another 5 years before I'm all clear.

Any who, I was finally able to quilt Hunter's graduation quilt!  And, only 2 years late.  My friends are so supportive.  I got a lot of  "Hey, it's still the same decade" and "If he isn't married yet, you're still good."  Quilters are good people, I tell ya.  One of my favorites was "Oh, I like the hoochie girl."  To which my neighbor replied, "Oh, you haven't met Heather yet?"  Haha!

I started at a center point and spiraled out at about  2" inch intervals.  I don't have a guide on my Walking Foot.  So, I jerry rigged a paper clip to be my guide.  I'm pretty happy with the outcome.  It's not bad for something his momma made him. 

Do you remember this project?  I did the second border a few months ago as part of the Round Robin.  (The pink and purple 4 squares)  One of the Cindy Hagen was working on her border (the last 3 strips) and I thought it was fun to see what everybody else had done so far.  The fish are hand appliqued, broiderie perse style.  No one stuck with the pink and purple like I had hoped but you win some and you lose some.  Know what I'm saying?  Now, I'm looking forward to seeing mine.  And, for the whole thing to be over.  It's stressing me out some.

So, then I decided I would show Cindy the work I did on her Round Robin from a few months ago.  You know how people don't want to insult you, so they just nod their head and make non-committal noises?  Yep.  That happened.  Very humbling.

I almost forgot to mention this one or maybe at this point I'm just afraid to admit it was me...  I decided I just HAD to piece these posies.  The border had to have Ohio Stars so, I put them in the baskets.  I wish I'd taken a close up of them because it's defineatly the best part.  The posy pattern was originally 2x4" so, first I had do the math to get it 6x12".  That took a week.  Then, making all the posies...  phew.  I was so done with it!  I'm not that impressed with them after all that trouble.  The flying geese were left overs from the previous person.  And, did I mention nothing was square to begin with?  It was SO hard to fit everything in properly.  Done. With. It.

Right before driving down to Todd Hall, Vicki and I went to Jackman's Fabrics.  We had coupons burning holes in our pockets.  Naturally, we ran into several friends with the same problem.  It was a mini Hearts n' Hands reunion.  I settled on some fabrics to finish off the Strawberry Social quilt from a year ago and was pretty excited.  At the retreat, I had a thicker green border on it but was disappointed with my choices.  Joan suggested making it smaller.  I cut an inch off and it made all the difference!  Good people, I tell ya!

Look what else I worked on!  It's been forever.  I had all of the plates done and the centers needed to be sewn down.  Last time I worked on it, I melted my center template, and there it sat.  Forever.  I just could not make myself do them again.  So glad I got to it, though.  I'm liking the end results so far.  I think I'll be setting them with black.  Linda suggested a black and white piano key border that would look amazing.  But, then I was like, "dang, that's a lot more piecing."  So, we'll have to see what happens in the end.  Maybe, I can find a black and white striped border...

I have the next 2 days off and then another retreat next weekend.  So, looking forward to it!  I love clearing things off my to do list.  You know how it ends up going.  Finish one, start two.  I just have to figure out what's next.

A New Project, A New Due Date

I did start a new project even though I was waiting to finish a few others first.  There's a new baby coming in less than a month and I want have this done when I go visit.  There's nothing like a due date to get the lead out.

This will be baby #3 for them and so far, I've kept with an animal theme.  I'm doing machine applique because I wanted it to be somewhat sturdy if they ever decide to use it.  They haven't on the others but I think they're running out of space on the nursery walls, so you never know.

The original pattern shows regular colored cats and dogs.  I kept channeling Blue's Clues and decided my pets would be rainbow.  They're first baby quilt was rainbow zoo animals.  It seemed fitting.  I'm pretty happy with them so far, just imagine them with eyes, it'll be less creepy.  I also need to shop for some thread colors.  Oh, darn.  I hate shopping.

Well, I was able to enlarge the photos when I started but it stopped working.  ***heavy sigh***  Thank goodness, I just complained about that.  It's working again.  I'm not taking this paragraph out, just to make sure I don' ruin the mojo...

This is the latest Guild Challenge block.  I'm loving the 20's feel of it.  I had to go with an intense, patterned yellow or it would have drown on the beige background.  Kinda love the funk it's got going on.

These are the companion/ inspiration fabrics that are going with the project.  Don't confuse this with an actual plan.  I have no idea how I'm going to fit the chevrons and rainbow thingies together to make something pretty.  I got a sneak peak of the next one and it's equally as cute.  The next flowers are going to be blue.