Just a few squares left to go

I didn't make great progress today (it was way too nice outside this afternoon).  On the plus side, I don't have all that many more of these squares to go.  Probably 6-8 more of the square on the right, and 6 more of the square on the right.  If we get all the snow that they are saying we might tomorrow, I should have all the squares done tomorrow. 

I plan to put strips of the center fabric along the sides of each of these squares, which should give me a good idea of the size of my center squares that the appliqued frogs will go on.  Yes, mathematically, I could have figured the size out by now, but where is the fun in that?

Yes, this is going to be one very bright quilt

I decided today that it would be wise to buy a bit more fabric.  I'm not sure if I really need the fabric yet, but a trip to JoAnn's is always tempting.  And, another fabric into the mix would make the ultimate design a lot easier to carry out.

It didn't take me very long to find a nice paisley with all the right colors.   I'm surprised that I missed it the other day.

I'm also realizing that this color combination is definitely "in" right now--the scrapbooking section of the store also had papers in these colors.

I made really good progress today, which is probably a good thing as once vacation is over I won't have as much time to work on this.  And, I still have a long way to go.  As I said in the last post, this quilt will have a theme of frogs.  And yet, there are obviously no frog prints going in.  Once I get all of these very simple squares done, I need to start on the center panels, which will be white with appliqued frogs.  I have some ideas for what the frogs should look like, but while I'm working on the last two stacks of squares, I really need to get thinking about the center panels and planning them out better than the simple drawing I did that has "applique frogs here."

Tonight, though, it is time to take a break from it.  Although, I do have to thank Charlie for keeping me company tonight:

I enjoyed the company, even if it did make cutting and trimming the fabric a bit more difficult than usual.

Designing a charity quilt

Earlier this year, I volunteered to make a quilt which will be raffled off in July.  At the time, I was thinking "July? Plenty of time!!  I have all of the Thanksgiving holiday and all of the Christmas holiday to design and create it."

Now?  I'm thinking "July!!  Really?  What was I thinking?"  I have been thinking about it for about a month.  I wanted to come up with the right theme.  Since it will be in a booth with frogs as a theme, I decided I would do something with frogs, too.

With the theme in hand and the clock beginning to count down, I headed out to look for fabric yesterday.  The first place I went to really didn't have what I was looking for.  I was picking up bolts of fabric, but when I looked down at my cart, all I could think of was "old."  It really wasn't the type of fabric that I could have fun with...or that I thought really went with the frog theme--other than I had picked up a selection of green fabric.

The fabric really wasn't speaking to me.

I put everything back and headed off to a second store--JoAnn's.

There, I found fabric that spoke to me.  I bought what I hope will be enough fabric and came home and pre-washed it.

Today, I started working on the quilt.  I ironed up the various fabrics, and then cut into the first two fabrics.  As I did, I began to wonder what exactly the fabric was saying to me yesterday.  I definitely still think that the fabric is really fun, and it actually fits the charity.  But, for a full size quilt, it is rather bright.

I think that it will still work, though.

I have several squares now done.  And, it is growing on me again.

This is definitely going to be one bright quilt!

Getting back into it...

It has been a while since my last entry.  Between work, getting ready for the holidays, working on the quilted Christmas cards (which I will get around doing an entry on just as soon as I get the Christmas cards in the mail), and writing out Christmas cards, this blog needed to take a back seat.

It is, however, time to jump back into it.

Christmas was really good.  And, Santa was very good to me.  One of my gifts was something every crafter needs:  a toolbox on wheels!

Yes, a toolbox.  However, only crafting tools will be stored in it.  I haven't filled it up just yet.  But, with a tri-level house, having an easy way to move my craft supplies from one level to another is pure luxury.

And, this one toolbox has a lot of storage.  The bottom portion is currently storing three plastic containers (also a Christmas present) that will be filled with buttons and beads.  Another pull out tray will also contain small, easily lost items like buttons and beads.

The top portion contains a removable tray.

And, a healthy storage area lies beneath it.

All in all, a much appreciated new toy!

Getting the color right...

Last weekend I had to go get some more thread for the machine quilting.  I decided to pick up some satin binding for the quilt.  Normally, I don't use the satin binding, but it just seemed like the right choice for this quilt.  Unfortunately, the color selection at Hancock Fabrics was a bit limited due to their sale on it.  I picked up a rust color that I thought would work.

Throughout the week, it kept nagging at me.  It just didn't seem like quite the right color.  After I finished the machine quilting Tuesday night, I folded up the quilt so that I could see both the front and back with the binding laying across the top.  Tonight, I went out and bought some green binding.  It is much better.

And, it led to another project finished!

The quilt is already in use:

It also turns out to be reversible:

Progress on the split rail Christmas quilt...

Yesterday, after I took the photo of the quilt that I'd unearthed in the craft room, I left it on the loft railing along with the flannel backing fabric instead of risking putting it back in the craft room.  Apparently, it worked.  While the first football game of the day was on, I assembled the front, batting, and backing fabric, and during ads, Geff helped me get everything down smoothly.

Then, it was time to start machine quilting.  Since I'm still relatively new to machine quilting, this is the first time that I've tried to quilt a flannel quilt.  Between the size of the quilt, the weight of the flannel, and the aching arms (from working out), I definitely am stopping for the night.  But, I'd say that I'm about a third of the way done. 

Not quite what I had planned for the day...

I planned to work on the Christmas cards today.  After all, the holidays are swiftly approaching.

Unfortunately, when I get into one of these creative streaks, I develop a vision issue.  I seem to be completely incapable of seeing clutter.  I see the supplies I need for the current project and perhaps a few future projects, but I no longer see the growing piles of craft supplies.  How long this issue lasts seems to be fairly unpredictable.  Typically, impending visitors or the holidays will help my vision to clear up.

This time, it was walking into the craft room and seeing this:

Granted, when I saw it, it was still in the closet.  Long ago, at least 15 years ago, but probably closer to 20, I bought this plastic vertical storage unit.  It had hangers to hang over the clothes rod in the closet.  Almost a year ago, I heard a thump one evening and tracked it down to the craft room.  After a bit of searching, I realized that the plastic had finally given out, and the thump I heard was this hitting the back wall of the closet.

For some reason, this was the sight I needed to suddenly see the craft clutter in a lot of clarity.  I have been using the kitchen table as a sewing table, and some time during the past two weeks, the clutter spilled from the kitchen table to the kitchen island to the dining room table.

Tonight, it isn't quite all contained, but it is getting much closer.

During a trip to Target for dog treats, I splurged and bought myself a new vertical storage unit.   And, instead of leaving it sit on the sewing table along with a half a dozen other unfinished projects, it is now installed in the craft room closet.  Success!  A project started, and a project finished.

And, then, I turned around.  Yikes!

That is the corner of my real sewing table (the one in the craft room) and my cutting table.  Unfortunately for my Christmas cards, the vision issue really has cleared, and so rather than sew, I cleaned.

The every day sewing machine is now on the table as well, and I'm working on re-folding fabric and carrying it back up to the craft room.

The good news is that I'm already ahead of schedule now on the cleaning effort for Thanksgiving dinner.

The bad news is that the Christmas cards will likely sit idle for a while.  While making room for the sewing machine and fabric, I uncovered another unfinished project:

Yes, this is a fully finished quilt top.  I finished it in 2003 or maybe 2004.  It is flannel and will be perfect for watching TV on these cooler evenings.  I already had the flannel for the backing and the batting.  I purchased some thread this afternoon, and I think as soon as I have the kitchen table cleared off, I'll put the machine I use for machine quilting on it and finish up another project.

Quilters Corner

This weekend, we went to Grand Junction.  As always, I found the first opportunity to head to Quilters' Corner, one of my absolute favorite quilt shops (www.quilterscornergj.com for anyone interested).  This is the same place that I got the gingerbread table topper from.  The staff is always friendly and helpful and the ideas are always plentiful.

And, as always, I came home dreaming of quilts.  I fell in love with two different quilt projects, although I wound up not buying the kits.  The first is a lap quilt of a variety of minkee fabrics.  They have a good selection of minkee (although, not in the colors I was hoping for on the bolt), and a fantastic array of quilt kits.  Red, black, & white. Pink & brown.  Lime green & brown.  And on and on.  The second project I fell in love with was a block of the month quilt.  It has the look and feel of a Baltimore quilt, but with wool felt on flannel.  I loved the way the flowers looked with the wool felt.  While I didn't break down and buy the kit, I did buy some wool felt to play with.

I also bought some fat quarters (I found some batiks that will work really well for backgrounds of cards) and a booklet of patterns ("Motif" by Jeri Kelly) that I fell in love with.  Motif has 14 designs in a 12"x16" size.  I first noticed the elk that I know will wind up in at least one wall hanging, and then noticed the snowman, pumpkin, star, and dragonfly patterns that are also begging to be done.

So, now it is back to the Christmas cards while I dream of working with wool felt and following the patterns (or knowing me, modifying the patterns) from the booklet.

Quilted Photos

I needed another break from making the Christmas cards (which are still coming along--18 completely finished, with another 15 or so in progress).

A while back, I saw a really cool idea--quilted photographs embellished with beads.  The photographs were printed on fabric, and then "matted" and "framed" with fabric.  It gave the photo added dimension and called attention to areas that otherwise might have gone unnoticed in the photograph.

I fell in love with the idea, which of course led me to trying it out myself.  The photo to the right is my attempt at it.  The image is of a waterfall in northern Michigan (Bond Falls).  I quilted around some of the trees with hand-dyed embroidery floss, and I quilted areas of the waterfall itself.  I also added some white beads in the falls and some yellow beads where there were clusters of yellow flowers in the picture.

Why bring this up?  I've started working on my second image:  a close up of a cone flower.  I also printed a third image on fabric.  And, now I want to add my own touches--both in terms of quilting and in framing.  I've purchased a black frame that I want to use for the cone flower and a plain wood frame that I haven't quite decided yet how to decorate for the third image.

More on this later, I'm sure.

Gingerbread Table Topper Part 2

One more project finished!  And the best part?  No projects were spawned from the completion of this project.

All the little gingerbread men have their bow ties and two buttons firmly attached, and the backing has been added.  It still amazes me that this project has been tucked away in a canvas bag for a couple of years when it really didn't take that much effort to finish it.

Gingerbread Table Topper

I needed another break from working on the quilted Christmas cards, so I wandered through the craft room again.  I started sorting through one of the fabric piles on the floor, but I quickly became distracted by two canvas bags.  The first one had a cross stitch project in it that I didn't feel like tackling tonight.  The second one had another almost finished project:  a wool table topper with 16 little gingerbread men.  I purchased the kit 2-3 years ago during our annual fall trip to Grand Junction.  One of my favorite quilt stores is there, and I quickly fell in love with it.  I thought that it would be a nice, fast project.  Here it is a few years later, and the project isn't quite finished.

What's left?  I need to sew on 2 more little red bow ties, 30 little buttons, and sewing the front to the back.  The plan now is to have it finished by the end of this weekend.  These little guys are just too cute to keep in a canvas bag in the depths of the craft room... 

Punch Embroidery Part 2

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but the punch embroidery project is now complete.  Well, almost complete.  The kit recommends framing the penguin.  I'm not sure just yet what I want to do with it, but I don't think framing is in the future for this little guy.  I'm thinking more along the lines of the front of a pillow.  So, once again, I'm finishing up one project, but it is adding another project to the list.

And, while there are definitely things about this one that I now wish I would have done differently, it was the first punch embroidery project that I've tackled...but somehow I don't think it will be the last. 

After starting the penguin the first time, I picked up some weavers cloth to do more.  There may be another penguin (of a different variety) in the future...

Punch Embroidery

One of the bad things about having a lot of unfinished projects is that it is sometimes difficult to keep all the pieces of the project together long enough to finish the project.  One of the good things about having a lot of unfinished projects is that when I need a change of pace, I can usually find something in the craft room that I feel like working on.

I was having one of those evenings tonight where I just didn't feel like sitting down at the sewing machine.  I still felt like crafting, though.  So, I wandered into my craft room.  On the floor, mixed in with a pile of fabric, was a Debbie Mumm punch embroidery project I started a couple of years ago.  Tonight, it seemed to suit my mood.  And, amazingly enough, all of the pieces were in the ziplock bag!  Well, except scissors, but that really wasn't a problem.

I pulled everything out to look at.  The pattern is of a penguin on skates.  I like penguins, which means this is a theme that will crop up over and over.

It probably has been a good 18 months since I last worked on this project.  I'd actually made fairly good progress before I put it away the last time.  It shouldn't take me too long to finish it.  What a concept:  a finished project!

It took me a minute to remember how to thread the needle punch.  But, I was soon working away on the penguin's right arm.  I quickly finished the right arm and moved on to the left skate.  And, then it was on to the mittens.  Or, so I thought.  I realized that I was having problems with the needle punch.  Every time I put the needle onto the fabric and started to punch through, the needle folded itself back up into its holder.  After trying several times to fix it myself, I handed it over to my husband.  He had glue within arms reach, and after verifying where I wanted the needle, he glued the needle to the tool and I was back to work on the mittens.  Yes, this does mean that I now only have one loop length available, but it was better than putting it all back into the ziplock bag and putting it back in the craft room.

It is, however, time to stop for the night.  I'm leaving the project out.  It'll be a good project to work on during the week...

Quilted Christmas Cards Part 2

Tonight, it is back to the quilted Christmas cards.  I've been working on the detailed stitching.  With my fabric addition, I've found a number of fun Christmas prints this year.  So, I have about 10 different designs that I'm working with.  And, with approximately 60 to make, this is probably a good thing since it means that I shouldn't get bored with any one design.  Unfortunately, 2 of the prints have a lot of detailed stitching.  I've been tackling those prints to get them out of the way early.  It is definitely fun and satisfying, but doesn't really lend itself to photos (since they will get sent out) just yet.

Two books were my initial inspiration for these cards.  "Make and Mail Post Cards" by Cheryl Haynes, Barbara Cooley, and Beth Davis first caught my attention, since I collect post cards.  This book provided a lot of the basics.  The cards in this book are great.  The cards have almost a folk art style, with no fussy cut prints.  A lot of the cards lend themselves to working in felt.  It was a great starting point.

And, then I found "Positively Postcards" by Bonnie Sabel and Louis-Philippe O'Donnell.  The cards in this book are varied, rely on the prints of the fabric, and are really artistic.  I fell in love with the cards in this book, especially the ones where fussy cut prints.  Fussy cut refers to cutting around an image close to the border, like the fussy cut prints shown here.  I might have gone a little crazy with fussy cutting prints.  Okay, I definitely let things get out of hand.  Typically, I'll cut a wide path around an image, put Steam-A-Seam2 on the back, and then cut really close to the image.  Then, when I get the chance to assemble, I'm ready to go.  Using more of the Monopoly print fabric, like the Water Works rectangle in the above photo, a card like the one here is rather quick and easy to make in an evening:

Quilted Christmas Cards

Christmas?  But, it is only October...

In 2008, I got the bright idea to make quilted Christmas post cards (I'll look for the book that I got my inspiration from and post the information for it in my next entry).  Those cards rode around in the backseat of my jeep for several months.  They never did make it to the post office.

In 2009, however, I got an earlier start.  I turned the post cards into quilted Christmas cards by attaching them to cards that I could actually write on.  In 2009, the cards actually made it to the post office. The picture to the right shows some of the left over cards from last year.

I love making the cards.  And, not just for Christmas.  I look at fabric differently when I'm thinking about cards: the focal images are usually easy to spot, the right background fabric is often the more difficult fabric to spot.  But, I digress.

Yes, it is October, but with about 60 cards to make, I needed to get started so that I repeat 2009 and not 2008.  So, yesterday and tonight I've assembled about 15 cards.  Assembly consists of taking focal fabrics (like the Christmas ornaments or penguins in the first photo) that I've already applied Steam-a-Seam2 to and fussy cut around, choosing a background fabric, and making "the sandwich."  The sandwich is the backing, the batting, and the background fabric.  While I enjoy using up the leftover batting from larger quilt projects, this time, I'm using a double sided fusible interfacing.  I picked up multiple packages of the stuff yesterday while it was on a "Buy One Get One" sale at JoAnn's.  With this many cards to do in a relatively short time, it definitely already saved time.  Also to save time, I pre-cut 24 backs (out of white muslin) and 24 middles (normally, the batting, but this time the interfacing).

Tonight, I finished zigzagging around the outside of each of the first 15 cards, and now I get to do the detail stitching.  More postings to follow on this topic, I'm sure.

Project 1: Front Door Curtains

Back in July, we replaced three windows, which led to replacing the curtains in the kitchen and dining room.  Amazingly enough, we quickly and easily found curtains that we both liked.  And, the best part?   Only $8 from Target.  With us, I was expecting that when we found curtains we could agree on, they'd be four times that much.

So, why is this a project from the depth of the craft room?  The curtains came in two lengths.  The longer panels worked great for the front window, the sliding door, and the kitchen window.  The only other windows in that area of the house are in the front door. 

But, the new curtains were a little too long...

So, here it is October and the two panels on the front door windows were still green, not red like the rest of the curtains.  And, the new panels?  Well, they were collecting dust on the kitchen table, which often doubles as my sewing table since there is no room to set up the sewing machine in the craft room.

Tonight, I decided to tackle the curtains.  After deciding that I wanted the new (red) curtains to be about an inch longer than the old curtains had been, I cut off 22.5" from the bottom of both red panels.  And then ironed a 1" hem (folded under of course to hide the raw edge).  After deciding that I was too lazy to change to the correct sewing foot, I changed the thread from black to red and sewed up the two hems.  The whole project took less than 45 minutes.  And yet, it had taken me almost four full months to finish.

One project finished.

Now comes the question:  what should I do with the two 22.5" pieces that I cut off from the bottom?  The thought briefly flashed through my mind:  "Walk to the garbage can and throw them out."  But, it was quickly replaced with:  Pillows!!!  We have a window bench that could use two red pillows, and I think there is just enough fabric leftover to make them.  

So, one project finished, but another one now to trip over.

And, then I had another thought.  They look great from the inside...but how do they look from the outside?

Yep, red curtains on green doors.  So, it now looks like we're decorating for Christmas in October.  Since the door no longer matches the outside trim, project number three just became:  Paint the front door.  Project number 3 may need to wait for spring.

So, one project finished, but now I have two more projects to do.

I think I'm beginning to realize what part of the problem is...

Where to Begin?

I'm not really sure when my craft room officially went from being "cluttered" to clearly "out of control."  Periodically, I've tried to organize the room.  After all, I am fortunate enough to have a room that can be dedicated to crafts and craft supplies.  The photo on the right shows one of my attempts:  I bought three metal bins from Hobby Lobby in an attempt to corral my supplies.  The three bins are three different sizes, with this being the middle size.  What I'm wondering now is:  who was I trying to kid?  Three bins?  On the plus side, the contents of each bin are well organized and corralled--a mini-oasis in a sea of chaos. 

Earlier this year I decided that the best way to actually clean and organize the craft room was to start finishing projects.  It seems to be working.  Slowly.  Very, very slowly. 

Getting Started

I used to catalog all my unfinished projects.  I'd take the time to add them to a hand-written list that specified the name of the project along with what supplies I needed for each one.  I remember stopping when I hit 65 projects.  And, that was over 10 years ago.  At work, I start and finish projects all the time.  At home, I start projects all the time.  Finishing home projects is a different story.

This blog is simply my journey to clean up my craft room by finishing projects.  The ultimate goal is to have some fun (at my own expense) while trying to bring order to the chaos.  And, hopefully, have a smaller projects list at the end of the journey.