The quilt is finished!

I took some time to put the binding on the quilt today:

Another Finished Quilt!

It is a huge relief to have this one finished.  In a lot of ways, this quilt is one of the reasons that I have a fabric addiction.  I saw this pattern in a magazine in 1998 or 1999.  It was a scrappy quilt--each square had a lot of different fabrics in it.  For some reason, I fell in love with it and decided to make one for me.  I really hadn't made a pieced top before.  The first square was pretty pathetic.  I had used a .5 inch sewing allowance instead of .25 inch, and I hadn't been careful enough with my cutting. 

The next square was better.  Pretty soon, I had enough to make the quilt top.  And, I got them all sewn together.  But, there it sat.  For years. 

Now, it is finished, washed, and ready to put on the bed tonight.

It is more than time!

Working out the machine quilting woes

I am still not sure what the problem really was with the machine quilting problems I kept running into.  I have my suspicions, though.  I tried re-threading the bobbin and re-threading the top thread numerous times with little to no success.  At one point, I thought I had solved the problem and sewed merrily along for about 15 minutes.  I was really pleased, until I turned it over.  The tension was way off, and I had to rip out 15 minutes worth of sewing.

Machine Quilting Was Not Smooth

Let's just say I wasn't overly happy about having to rip out that much sewing.

When I finished, though, I realized that I needed to put the second spool of thread on the machine because there was very little left to the first spool.

I now think that the problem was the spool of thread.  Once I put the second spool of thread on, progress was quick.  I have now finished the machine quilting, and just need to stop and pick up a couple of packs of binding:

Finished with the Machine Quilting

As an added bonus, tonight I managed to completely finish the first two lap quilts for the veterans' project:

Two Finished Lap Quilts

Fortunately, all that was left was to hand sew the hearts to the back of the quilts and complete the corner seams for the corners containing the hearts.  I have three more lap quilts ready to finish...

So, the question becomes:

1) Finish the full size quilt
2) Finish the three lap quilts
3) Work on products for the upcoming craft show season

Decisions, decisions...

Machine quilting woes

Over the past few weeks, I haven't really felt much like sewing.  I've worked on a couple of small projects, but nothing interesting.

I have, however, still been thinking about sewing.  There has been an unfinished project weighing on me lately.  I started this quilt back in 1998, shortly after moving to Colorado.  I finished the top, but it has just been taking up space in my sewing room. 

Over the past few weeks, though, I bought some batting and found some backing fabric.  Yesterday, I went to one of my favorite local quilt stores and bought some white machine quilting thread. Last night, my wonderful husband helped me maneuver the fabric to complete the backing, batting, top sandwich.

Today, I started quilting.  It has not gone so well.  While I invested in the good, heavy machine quilting thread, the thread keeps breaking after I get 6-8 inches sewn.  The front looks fine:

The back, though, is showing all the stops and starts:

I can feel where the thread is catching.  I just have to figure out how to fix it.

On the plus side, though, working on this quilt is a good thing.

And Yet More Fun With Scraps

I've been too busy lately sewing to post.  Here are photos of the first two quilts after quilting:

Quilt 1

Quilt 2

There is a quilt 3--another log cabin quilt.  I'll post a photo of it once I finish quilting it.

Quilt 4 is from a concept that I saw on the All People Quilt (allpeoplequilt.com) site.  It involved a lot of little squares:

Quilt 4--So Many Little 2.5 inch Squares!

But, tonight, I finally finished sewing the top together (well, except for the 3 inch plain black border that I have yet to add).  Here is how it is looking now:

Quilt 4

Some of the corners are a little off, but I like the over all way that it turned out!

Still Having Fun with Scraps

Tonight I finished the top of the patriotic scrap quilt:

Finished Lap Quilt Top

Next up will be a very similar quilt.  I'm planning on using scraps of dark fabrics:  greens, maroons, blues, browns, and scraps of light fabrics.

In the meantime, I am finishing off some other squares for the project.  A woman who has passed away had started making some "stack and whack" squares and were in with the donated fabrics for this project:

Square 1

Square 2

Square 3

Now, I need to figure out how to turn this into one of these squares:

Already Cut Out Pieces

Digging Through the Scrap Pile

I was excited to hear about a project that one of the Lodges closest to where I live is doing:  making lap quilts for wounded veterans who attend the winter sports clinic in Aspen.  Fortunately, they were willing to have another volunteer to help them out.

Rather than use some of the fabric that has been donated, I decided to first go through some of my stash and see what I could come up with.  From the 2011 charity quilt, I had 11 left over blocks, and enough left over fabric to make 25 more blocks:

Left Over Squares for the 2011 Charity Quilt

This was a quick lap quilt top to create:

First Completed Lap Quilt Top

After I finished this lap quilt top, I wasn't sure what to start on next.    Last night, I finally had an idea.  Whenever I work on a project, I wind up with extra fabric, including small scraps.  I have a tough time throwing out fabric, especially since I frequently need just a small bit of this color or that color.  So, I tend to keep any piece of fabric more than 2 inches square.  I keep them in a plastic container.  And, the container has been over filled for a while:

Scraps in the Scrap Container

In honor of the Fourth of July and in consideration that this project is for people who served our country, I decided to go with patriotic flair.  I picked out the red and blue scraps.  With a couple of extra strips that I took from larger pieces of fabric in my stash, I decided that I'd have enough fabric for a patriotic log cabin lap quilt top:

Strips of Fabric Ready to be Sewn

I now have four squares finished:

First Four Six Inch Blocks...

Only 32 more to go...

The 2012 Charity Quilt Is Finished!

2012 Charity Quilt

I finished putting the binding on the quilt tonight.  I have a few threads to snip, but for the most part, this one is finished.  There ar a couple of places that I'm not happy with, but in general, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Becoming One with my Sewing Machine

Every once in a while, I get in a zone when I'm machine quilting.  Tonight was one of those times.  With any kind of luck, this quilt will be finished by Sunday night.

Update on the charity quilt

The first week in July is quickly approaching.  Fortunately, though, the quilting is moving along nicely....now.

I was having a lot of issues with the tension of the bobbin.  And, it was being compounded by the weight of the full size quilt. Tonight, though, I made great progress.

Quilting in progress...

The center is finished for the most part.  Now, I just need to tackle the edges...

Learning a new stitch...

Yesterday, I saw something and went, "wow, that would look really cool in a quilt."  And, common sense abandoned me.  As if I don't have enough UFOs (unfinished objects, not the flying saucer) around the house, I now have another quilt in progress.  In case you are keeping track, that means that I have the 2012 charity quilt, the elk quilt, the Coca-Cola quilt, the purple quilt, the peacemakers quilt, and I think one other quilt in progress already, and here comes quilt number 7.

The good news is that I can make this one largely with scraps.  While I'm not ready yet to show the overall design, I will say that it involves embroidery.  I've been embroidering for years, but tonight I learned a new stitch: the open chain stitch.  I like it...

An example of the open chain embroidery stitch

And now, it is time to get some sleep.  I started a new contract on Friday and after having five weeks off, getting up early has me tired out.

Spring flowers...

This morning, while Geff was raking leaves down in the horse shoe pit, I cleaned out around the roses and and fertilized them.  I really should have cleaned out around them earlier.  I was amazed at how many buds are already on the roses.  We did lose one rose over the winter, but the others appear to be healthy.

After cleaning out around the roses, I decided to get some close ups of some of the flowers that are already blooming.

There are the irises.  The previous owners had planted them, and while I initially didn't really care for them, I've come to enjoy how beautiful they are.  I think that there are just yellow and purple plants now, but I am going to keep my eyes out for some white iris plants like our neighbors have.

Purple iris

A couple of yellow iris flowers

And, while I've forgotten the name, this little xeriscopic flower always makes me smile because it reminds me of a daisy...a very short, small daisy.

The only other plants blooming right now are the dianthus.

A lacy pink and white...

And, a beautiful red...

Another Finished Product

Yesterday I was finally able to deliver a project that I had finished a while back but have not yet posted about:  a baby quilt.  It was started back around the time that I did the penguin quilt.

When I asked about a theme, I was told that she likes giraffes and he likes frogs. And, I knew it was going to be a baby girl.  Giraffes, frogs, and pink.  I wasn't sure initially what I was going to come up with, until the day that I saw the perfect fabric.  First, there was the giraffe print:

The perfect giraffe print for a little girl's baby quilt

While I couldn't find the same type of print for the frog portion, I did find a fabric that had the right colors with frogs...

And, the frog print...

Together, it became the following quilt (which is admittedly upside down in this photo--oops!):

The finished quilt...

Backing Fabric

Today I purchased the backing fabric for the charity quilt.  The more I look at it, the more I like it:

It is now pre-washed and ready to go.  All I am missing now is good thread for the machine quilting.  Maybe tomorrow...

Assembly almost complete

I didn't have as much time today to work on the quilt, but I did make some progress.

All it needs now is the border

I'm happy with the way that this quilt is turning out.  I need to add a 5.5" top and bottom border and then either a 2 or 3" side border, and I'll be ready for the machine quilting stage.  Although I still need to buy the backing fabric. 

I found the perfect backing--a queen size flat sheet with white diamonds outlined in the same shade of green that is in the sashing fabric.  Unfortunately, it was part of a sheet set, and I just couldn't justify the cost.  I did find a blue backing fabric that will work well.  Okay, I found the backing fabric section and a green that was close, but not quite right, and then Geff found the blue print.

Once I get a final measurement on the quilt, I'll go back and buy it.  The batting was on sale at JoAnn's--for 40% off, so we did get that tonight.

Getting back to the charity quilt...finally!

This morning, I finished applying for the jobs that have been posted since last night.  Rather than doing what I have been doing lately--going back through each of the career sites multiple times, I decided to do something productive.  I just wasn't quite sure what that was going to be until I headed down to the kitchen.  My sewing area was entirely too clean.

And, since the deadline for me finishing the charity quilt is quickly approaching, I decided to start assembling the top.

I actually have spent many hours on it since my last post.  I decided to embroider  a few squares so that the person who ultimately receives the quilt will have a reminder of the charity that he or she helped to support.  I had originally decided to embroider five squares, but I settled for three.  Shhh...no one else will ever notice that the other two are missing!

Anyway, the first task was to figure out how to lay out the finished blocks.  Fortunately, I had a large patch of clean floor, and the dogs were very cooperative in that they were both too busy catching up on their beauty sleep to decide to rearrange the squares for me (as they have done in the past).

After moving blocks around for a while, I finally settled on the following arrangement:

Preliminary Layout

Then, it was time to cut and sew.  After four hours, I had assembled all the horizontal strips:

In progress...

Now, it is time to get back to checking the career sites to see if any new jobs have been posted.  While my phone interview yesterday went well, I need to keep looking until I have a signed offer or contract.

Tomorrow, though, I should be able to finish sewing the top.

Watching seedlings grow

The job hunt is still on-going.  I thought that I would have more time for sewing, cleaning, and gardening, but searching for my next job takes a lot of time and energy.  The good thing is that I am still getting a lot of leads.  It is only a matter of time.

When I'm not job hunting, I am trying to bring order to the house.  I've been so busy the past few years that some areas of the house have gotten a little out of hand.  Throw in visiting with friends, yard work, and some crocheting, and my days are going by rather quickly.  I didn't realize just how quickly until I was hauling my seedlings in for the night.  The squash plants have really grown.  I am going to have to start transferring them to larger containers in the next few days.

The seedlings are growing up!

Relaxing with the tulips

Last night I decided that today was going to be a creative day. Unfortunately, I wound up doing a mixture of answering questions at work and doing yard work.

Our front yard is in danger of being overrun by dandelions.  I hate using chemicals on them, and last year, I didn't have a chance to keep up with them.  So, I spent some time today trying to dig up dandelion plants in the front yard.

I also spent some time working in the front flower beds again.  I've probably spent twice as much time with the front flower beds already this summer as I did all of last year.  And, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

The tulips are in full bloom right now (the daffodils are already finished blooming).  The previous owners of this house had planted the tulips, daffodils, and iris plants.  I've been watching the tulips for the past 6 years.  I'm amazed by the mutations that I am seeing over the years.

For example, the first tulip picture shows a red tulip with a fun yellow swoosh in one of the petals.

I'm guessing that it is a cross between the two other tulip pictures.

And, then, there is the white tulip.  I haven't seen a white tulip in this bed since the first year.  I'm glad it is back.

Happy Belated Easter!

The past few months have been rather crazy, which is why I haven't added any new posts in a while.  The short version is that as of last Wednesday, I am officially unemployed.  The good news is that while I am looking for my next venture, I will have more time and energy to be creative.  The position that I was in was definitely sapping my energy and creativity.  For now, though, it is definitely time to move forward.

Easter weekend was a time of yard work.  While my wonderful husband spent time raking leaves, I decided to attack the bushes with the trimmer.  I have to figure out what kind of bushes these are (they were planted before we bought the house).  As I was gathering up the branches, I realized that they would make a great centerpiece.  And, they did (just ignore the fact that I still have a St. Patrick's Day table runner out).

When not searching for jobs and sending out resumes, I am currently focused on cleaning and organizing.  I have definitely uncovered several other unfinished projects that I had long since forgotten about, which will definitely give me more fodder for this blog.

And, there are several new projects in the works.  In the background of the photo above, you may be able to see a couple of containers of little seedlings.  I have started several flowers and vegetables indoors that I can't wait to plant outside!  I will be doing my second year of container gardening,  This year, I plan to be a bit more adventurous.  One of the seedlings starts is a container of squash plants--both summer (zucchini) and winter (a blend of acorn, spaghetti, and two other kinds that I have already forgotten).  I hope to get the first round of carrots and lettuce planted (in containers) tomorrow.

Start of the Flannel Elk Quilt

Item 19 on the list to the right is the Flannel Elk Quilt.  This has been a vague concept since I found the following flannel in what was one of my favorite quilt shops (The Great American Quilt Factory--which has unfortunately since closed) over two years ago:

I fell in love with it.  Unfortunately, The Great American Quilt Factory didn't have any of the fabric left on the bolt.  The only fabric left was in a pack of 6 fat quarters.  I bought it.  I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do with it, but I bought it anyway.

I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with the fabric when I finally found a yard of the fabric in a quilt store in Kansas on the way to a family reunion.  But, it has been in the back of my mind.

Last November, I bought cream fuzzy fabric and a chocolate brown fuzzy fabric for the quilt.

Finally, a few weeks ago in Colorado Springs, I found the last piece of fabric.

There was still the question of design.  This question was answered Sunday night when I was looking at the fabric.  Because it is mainly flannel, I didn't want to do too complicated of a design--flannel is thicker than regular quilting cotton and therefore, can be a bit more bulky at the seams.  I settled on alternating a diamond pattern with a plain square of the last flannel that I purchased.  I decided to start on the diamond squares.

Using my new handy-dandy Accuquilt GO fabric cutter, I cut out triangles of two different fabrics (placing right sides together on the cutter).  After carefully pealing a pair of triangles from the mat, I sewed the triangles together, and repeated 4 times.  After ironing the seams, I had the following:

By flipping the top squares over the lower squares (keeping the right sides together) and sewing along one side, I wound up with two halves of the final square:

Then, it was just putting the right sides together and sewing one more seam to get the first square:

Several more squares were soon to follow:

I now have 9 squares complete.  But, as you can see by the second to the last photo, it is messy working with the brown fuzzy fabric...