WIP(#14) - Done and Almost Done

They say time flies when you're having fun, so I guess I must be having a blast.  Actually, I think I am.  I love this time of year.  The weather is great.  The yard is bright and green and vibrant.  And there is always something to do.

I put the sewing machine away for a while, but not before finishing a few projects.  The gray fleece jacket turned out fairly well.  I had gotten partway through sewing it, then put it aside to work on the baby quilt.  And then it took me a while to get back to it.  Somehow I had convinced myself that the remaining sewing that I had to do on it was going to be difficult.  You know how long it took me to finish it?  Twenty minutes.  I don't know why I do that to myself.  Make something seem harder than it actually is.  Weird.

The fun project was the baby quilt below.  Once I figured out what I wanted to do and found just the right fabrics, it came together rather nicely.  The teddy bear print is a Boyd's Bear print and is just as sweet as can be.  I sent it off to the mom-to-be about a month ago, hopefully long before baby arrives.

The current in progress project is, of course, mulching the gardens.  This year I only had four yards delivered instead of the usual five.  I started it with great gusto and then got side-tracked.  As of yesterday, though, I probably have less than a yard of it to go.

Working in the gardens, weeding and mulching, has been therapeutic.  I don't deal with "stupid" very well, and lately I have been encountering a lot of it, both at work and on the roads.  I suppose the good  Lord is trying to teach me patience or some other profound lesson, but I'm having none of it.  Yanking weeks lets me work out my frustrations!

"Only" four yards

Mulched - Done on the left, Almost Done on the right!

AMDG

WIP(#13) - Baby Steps

First day of spring?  Yeah right!  Not even close.  Six inches of snow, overnight.

If you couldn't tell from my last post, I am so done with winter.  But apparently it isn't done with us. 

If schools are closed, I figure the roads aren't good enough to drive on.  Usually, since I have the option, I just work from home.  But, for whatever, not very good reason, I left my laptop at work last night.  It almost always comes home with me every day.  

So what's a girl to do? Play hooky from work and have a jammy day.

And it was good!  

We did a bunch of odds and ends and a bunch of just plain relaxing.  

We hung pictures and took apart a television.  I read, made Irish Soda bread, sewed, read some more, and went out to lunch once the roads were cleared.  All-in-all, a perfect day.

We "reframed" some paintings that we bought in Italy.  And by we, I mean Himself.  We got the pictures from street artists as souvenirs during the trip in which we got engaged. (20 years ago, today!)   The frames were kind of a gold painted wood with light teal matts and they didn't quite go any more with our décor.  I was going to buy new matts, but a little bit of spray paint, both on the matts and frames brought the paintings back to life.  I'm so lucky to have such a handy husband!

Back in January, I mentioned that I wanted to make a fleece jacket to wear around the house in the colder months.  I started it and have been making progress ever so slowly.  After cutting it and doing one seam on my regular machine, I decided that the serger would work better for that.  So, the next challenge was getting the machine out of the basement and set up.  If you know anything about sergers, they are a royal pain to thread.  I'm happy to say that although it was challenging, and took multiple attempts, I didn't say any bad words in the process.  Yeah for me!

As close as the jacket is to being done, I started a project that is much more fun and has me really enjoying sewing once again.  But I can't show you it yet.  It's a baby quilt.  The mom knows about it, but she just might see it here, so no pictures.  Sorry.

AMDG

WIP(#12) - Fleeced!

After I finished my latest quilt, I put the sewing machine away for the holidays.  The only "crafting" I did after that was to cross stitch my cousin's name on his Christmas stocking.  He recently moved relatively close by from Florida, and it was the first Christmas he spent with us.  And you know it just wouldn't be a proper Christmas without an "named" stocking!

Now that the holidays are over and the house is back to being boring without all the decorations, the sewing machine is about to reappear.  I have a few things on my project list: a fleece jacket for me, pajama pants for Himself, and a quilt for a long awaited and prayed for baby.

I'm starting with the jacket below as it will be helpful in these cold, cold months.  I've had the fleece in my stash for almost ten years and the pattern was just a dollar at one of Joann Fabric's Christmas sales.  I have never sewn fleece clothing before, so we'll see how this goes.

AMDG

WIP(#11) - All Done!

It may have taken eight months, but the Irish Chain quilt is finally completed!  This was a fun project and I am so glad the the FB group, Catholic in Stitches, suggested it.  I have sewn nearly a dozen quilts before this one, but I certainly learned a lot on this one.  I think it just may be my favorite!

When finishing quilts in the past, I had always overlapped the ends of the binding.  It is not the best way as the join tends to be a bit bulky and obvious. Pinterest to the rescue!  I found instructions here on how to properly join the binding.  What a difference that makes!  You cannot tell where the two ends meet.

I frequently have problems getting the corners on my quilts just right.  I found a great tutorial, again via Pinterest, that was extremely helpful.  Check it out here.   

On to the next project!

AMDG

This and That

You know what they say the road to hell is paved with.  Well, when it comes to this blog, I picture that path being very long and quite nice looking!  I’ve got all sorts of posts started – on paper, in the draft folder, and floating around in my head.

I’ve read a lot of posts lately from bloggers wanting to get back at it.  Some do, some don’t.  I’m trying to figure out what works.  There was a link up last month, Write 31 Days, but if I can't write once every two weeks, how could I possible write daily?

Anyone interested in a once-a-week, jump start back to blogging link up?  I was thinking along the line of about six weeks, with some really easy topics.

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Work travel seems to come in clusters.  I've been to our home office in Washington twice in the last six weeks or so and I'm heading to Vegas for a conference this month.  For whatever reason, some of my family seems to think this traveling is interesting and exciting.  I don't know why.  I feel like I should be mooing everytime I go through airport security and getting on and off the planes.  I don't sleep well and I don't eat right.  Home is where I'd rather be.

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On the first of the two Washington trips I figured out what my "theme" song should be.  While waiting in the Chicago airport for the delayed last leg of my trip home, I bought a "protein" breakfast box  (eggs, cheese, nuts) from one of the vendors.  Of course, just as I dig in, the flight starts boarding.  I saved the almonds to eat on the plane.  As I bit into one, something felt funny.  I busted a tooth.  Unfortunately, since it was Labor Day weekend, I had to wait for Tuesday to get it fixed.  My song after that is now Crown Her With Many Crowns!

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What a great World Series!  The only way it could have been better is if the Indians would have made it in again.  After a really great regular season, they had a most disappointing post season run.  I was even prepared with two new, politically incorrect Chief Wahoo, long sleeve t-shirts.  Oh well, maybe next year!  Now that there's no baseball to watch or listen to in the evenings, I don't know what I'm going to do.  

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The quilt is so, so close to being done.  There is just a lot of hand sewing to do.  The quilt shop, once again, did a tremendous job with the quilting.

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Until recently, we have been having an unusually warm Autumn.  That has been great for the gardens.  Our pepper plants are still producing and the carrots are growing well.  We even had tomatoes up to about two weeks ago.  And to tell you just how dry this year has been, when Himself was digging out the potatoes, the steel tines of the garden fork bent almost ninety degrees!  

Because of the dryness, we didn't get many pumpkins or watermelons this year.  But the pumpkins we did get made for a tasty pie.  Pumpkin soup is on the menu this weekend.  

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I am officially hooked on Pinterest.  The soup recipe that I am going to try was found there.  And, it has been terrific for finding quilting ideas and techniques.  Hopefully, more on that later.

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The Hairy Beast thanks you for stopping by.

AMDG

WIP(#10) - On the Edge

That quilt I started back in March is getting so, so close to being done.  Between bouts of canning, I managed to get the edge sewn on.  There are four borders that are sewn on all four sides.  It's not difficult, just a bit awkward as the quilt grows larger and larger with each successive strip.

This weekend I dropped it off at a local quilt shop to have the quilting done.  Time and the lack of a long-arm machine keeps me from doing it myself.  They called yesterday afternoon, and it's done!

You know where I'll be tonight.

AMDG

WIP (#5) - Getting Organized

One of my projects this winter was to organize, and cull where appropriate, all my sewing supplies.  Everything is the basement and I would head down there for an hour or two at a time.   Lots of patterns, material, and magazines are headed to our garage sale this spring.  The rest was sorted, boxed, and labeled.  Well, everything except for the thread.  That was a big mess.

 

I needed a way to get at least some organization to it all.  We had a bunch of containers that the Hairy Beast's treats came in.  I cleaned them out, removed the labels, and covered them with some appropriate fabric - spools of thread.

 

Six tubs containing thread sorted by color now sit on the new-to-me heavy duty wire shelves I snagged from work.   We're closing down part of the office and the shelves were either going to be thrown out or given away.  So who better to give them to than me? 

 

 

To have a little fun I made  one of the cloth baskets from Faith and Fabric to hold the soon to be sorted jars of buttons.  And, yes, those are buttons on that lining material. 

 

I've been doing the Happy Dance now that this project is almost done.  Am I the only one that finds neat and organized to be calm and peaceful? 

 

AMDG

WIP (#4) - It's Coming Together

I was able to get the squares put together.  I just love how it looks.  I have a few other projects that are time sensitive, so this is going to get put away for a little while. 

AMDG

WIP (#3) - How Many Quilts?

Three.  I have three quilts in process at the moment.  That's not too many, is it? 

 

One is set to go to the shop to be quilted.  That's the one I can't show you yet. 

 

One has been pushed aside so that I can work on the other two.

 

Then, there's this one.  Boy is the Irish Chain quilt a fun pattern!  Really.  It looks complicated but it's not.  In two evenings I had almost all of the block B's done.

 

Block B - sewn strips



Block B - strips cut

 

Block B

 

preview

 Someday I may actually write about something other than quilting.  We'll see.
 

 

AMDG

WIP (#2) Irish and then some

I've been busy sewing this past week, busier than the picture below would have you think.  I finished all of block A for the Triple Irish Chain quilt, eight in total.  Once I had a system going, it came together rather quickly. 

 

 

Block B will have to wait a while.  I'm working on couple other, time sensitive, projects.  But I can't show them to you.  Not yet anyways.

 

 

AMDG

WIP (#1) Irish Triple Chain

On Wednesdays I am going to try to do a WIP - Work in Progress - post.  I have a lot of sewing projects in process and it's really been what's keeping me busy lately.  If anyone else is interested in showing what they are working on, we could turn this into a link-up.  It doesn't have to be sewing.  It could be needlework, gardening, knitting or crocheting.  Whatever keeps you busy.  Let me know.

A Facebook group of which I am a member, Catholic in Stitches, is doing it's own take on the Block of the Month club.  Instead of twelve different blocks, we are all working on Irish Chain quilts.  I decided to join in a little late after I remembered some material I had in my stash.

A couple of years before we lost my mom, she bought all the material and thread to make this quilt.  I love the fabric and color.  Well, almost all of it.  I don't like and won't use the ribbons.  Sorry.  Just can't do it.

I think most of the FB group is doing a Single Irish Chain, but I decided to do a Triple, given the fabric I am using.  I bought a white-on-white fabric to replace the ribbons and got busy this past weekend.

After looking at a number of websites for directions and guidance, I decided to use these directions. Whoever put the webpage together did a great job.  It's not too wordy and has charts and graphs - perfect for my IT, techy brain!

The sewing is pretty simple, lots of strip piecing and chain stitching.  But, with the design and number of fabrics, it's taking some effort and concentration to make sure all the fabric pieces are in the correct order.  Sticky notes to the rescue!  

WOF (width of fabric) cut into 2.5" wide strips, A is sewn, B-D are staged

2.5" wide strips cut from the sewn lengths above

Block number one done.  Only seven more to go of this style.

AMDG

Thanks, Mom!

One of the many things that my mom taught me was how to sew.  She was an incredible seamstress.  She sewed her own wedding dress as well as those of her bridesmaids.  Growing up, we always had beautiful, handmade clothes, including our First Communion dresses.  I don't have half the talent nor the precision and patience she had.  But, I'm working on it.

Since Sis doesn't sew at all, I inherited all of mom's machines and material stash when she passed.  One is a very finicky embroidery machine.  For me, it's hit or miss getting it to work properly.  Usually it take me multiple attempts to get it right.  Either the thread breaks or the bobbin runs empty or the material rips, or, or or.  You get the idea. 

I mentioned in a post that I was making a quilt for Aunt Paulette.  We had made plans to visit a couple of Fridays ago and surprise her with it.  The night before I had one thing left to finish on it - the label.

When I took a quilting class many years ago, the teacher told us that we should put a label on every quilt we made.  It is like an artist signing her work.

So, Thursday night, out came the embroidery machine.  I had a quick "chat" with mom, asking her to help me make this label go smoothly.

One time.

That's all it took.  Just one time and it looked good.

I "talk" to my mom a lot.  This is probably the first time I got such a quick answer.

Thanks, mom!

AMDG

The Daughter She Didn't Have

When we married eighteen years ago, I gained a great extended family.   My mother-in-law is one of six siblings and all but one had children.  Her youngest brother, Al, is married to wonderful woman, Paulette Rose.  They had five kids, four daughters and a son. 

 

I love all my family, but there's something special about Aunt Paulette.  She has a goofy sense of humor and is kind and generous.  She makes the best deviled eggs and has been known to bring a plate of them just for us to family gatherings.  She shares a name in common with my mom, Rose.

 

She has seen more than her share of hardship.  She and Uncle Al lost their son just a month after his  twenty-first birthday.  She's battled lymphoma several times.  And then there was the huge oak tree that crashed through the roof of her newly remodeled bedroom just has her family began to sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

 

And, on top of all that, she has four daughters that don't sew a stitch!  Not a bit. 

 

Aunt Paulette is one of the craftiest and most creative people I know.  She sews and crochets and embroiders.  For a while she had her own craft store, Colorado Rose, in which she sold all sorts of beautiful and interesting things that she made.  She worked at a quilt shop, had a machine embroidery business, and frequently sold at craft fairs.  She crochets baby blankets for a local hospital's NICU patients.

 

When we get together we can talk for hours about what we are working on and creating.  She quite kindly oohs and aahs over whatever my latest project happens to be. 

 

Remember I mentioned not one of her daughters sews?  Well, that's been lucky for me.  She has been thinning out her stash and I've been the recipient of two trunk-loads worth of material and notions and even a sewing dummy. 

 

I have already put some of the material to good use, making a baby quilt from a sweet green and yellow vintage print.  And, don't tell Aunt Paulette, but she's getting her own quilt for Christmas this year!

 

So much material, so little time!

  

D's baby quilt

 

AMDG

Material Girl

At the beginning of the month, I was in the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area for work.  Since I was traveling by myself, my evenings were my own.  Yeah!  It's not that I don't like my coworkers, but going out to eat and sitting in a bar every night is just not my cup of tea.

 

I had received the monthly newsletter from my local quilt shop.  They are participating in the Row by Row Experience.  Quilt shops in the US, Canada, and Europe create patterns for a quilt rows and make them available for free in their shops.  The idea is that when you travel you should find the local shops and stop in for their patterns.  Once you've collected a few, you stitch them and put together in a quilt reminding you of your travels.

 

I had time to kill my last night before I hopped on the red-eye home, so I checked out one of the local stores.

 

Oh my!  I was in heaven! 

 

Fiddlesticks in Vancouver, Washington is my idea of the perfect quilt shop.  The owner, Cheran Bee, made an old workout facility into a cozy, artistic, delightful place for me to spends wads and wads of money.  She uses old, antique furniture to display both bolts of fabric for sale and quilts, showcasing what can be done with it all.

 

That wall of fabrics in the first photo below is all batiks, my favorite, and that wasn't all of it.  Did I mention I was in heaven?  'Cause I was. 

 

If you saw my basement, you know I don't need fabric.  But really, I just had to have those three purple and teal batiks.  Besides,  that's all the I could fit in my suitcase.  I'll save the rest for another trip!

 

 

 

 

 

'Cause we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

 

   

AMDG

Sew What? Sara's Quilt

Sewing has been fun lately.  Really.  It is even when I have to stop and take apart the sewing machine to repair whatever is causing the clunking sound (flannel fuzz from the next quilt).  There is a feeling of accomplishment, of creating something that will last.  The creative juices are flowing.  I want to do more.  If only there was time to do more.

 

Time is what it took for my niece's quilt.  I had an idea, inspired by the material I used to sew the curtains for her bedroom.  I started collecting coordinating fabrics a little more than a year ago.   I would stop in quilt shops wherever we happened to be.  A few pieces were from my stash, either what I had inherited from my mom or leftovers from other projects.  

The inspiration fabric is the right, horizontal piece.

I cut the fabric into four inch strips and then into shorter pieces.  All of those were dumped into a basket and mixed up.  I randomly pulled out pieces and stitched them end to end into a very, very long ribbon.  That ribbon was cut into pieces to fit around some appliques I had sewn. 

The Hairy Beast supervising the piecing process

 

Appliques - in process and completed

I tried something different with this quilt.  I brought it to the local shop where they quilted it on their long arm machine.  At roughly 75" x 57", it was just too big to do on my table top machine.  And, boy I am glad I did!  The woman who did the quilting chose a heart pattern in pink thread.  Wonderful! 

backside of quilt - hearts

 

Even when it seventy plus degrees out, it's never to warm to cuddle under the quilt!

AMDG

TToT (14): A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

It's been entirely too long since I've done one of these.  There's a lot of catching up to do.

- one-

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we decided one day that we were bored and the best time to start a new project was right before the holidays and right before I was to leave town for a work trip.  We decided to paint one of the bedrooms that we use as a sitting room.  I think this falls into the category of "We've done dumber things."  Just a couple of weeks ago, we finally finished (mostly) the painting and started getting the room back in order.

- two-

We replaced the ugly ceiling fan.  Thanks to Himself's good taste, we sent back the not so pretty light fixture I had picked out and installed this one.  Holy cow!  I didn't realize just how overwhelming the fan was in the room until it was gone.  The room feels so light and airy now.

- three-

I am very, VERY thankful for drop clothes when painting.  Ask me how I know.  Go on.  Ask me.  See that corner in the left of the picture?  When I was painting there I kinda tipped the paint tray over.  Thankfully, that green sheet on the floor in the right corner was moved over to the left corner when I did it.  No carpeting was harmed in this project. (Another "dumber thing" perhaps?)

- four-

I gave the hairy beast his annual haircut.  Over the winter he gets rather matted and starts to look like a Rastafarian pooch with all his dreadlocks.  He is quite patient with me, but needed a water break halfway through. 

- five -

We have had some tremendously awesome weather here for the beginning of March.  Sunshine and temps in the sixties and seventies just revive my spirit and make me smile. 

.

- six -

I've go my sewing "mojo" back.  I started on a quilt for my niece maybe a year ago.  Nothing difficult, but somehow I just kept avoiding it.  With some inspiration from this dear blogger (check out her Irish chain quilt about halfway down the post) I got back at it.  I finished piecing the top and will be bringing it to a local shop to be quilted.  More to come on that.

- seven -

That sewing mojo?  It continues on.  I started and am making great progress on a quilt for the sitting room.  We had collected fabric with which I had intended on making a "raggedy" quilt, but decided to just do a "regular" one.  Good decision.

- eight -

 Have I ever mentioned just how much I love Amazon Prime?  I found a print I forgot I had and decided to frame it for the sitting room.  It's an odd size and I wanted a frame it without a matt, but wanted some color around it.  After looking at all the craft stores in the area for an unfinished wood frame, I searched Amazon and found just what I wanted.  Two days later it was in my hands and ready  for the dark green stain that we had leftover from another project.  It turned out better than I hoped.

- nine -

We celebrated Himself's birthday at Sis's house last weekend.  At her bedtime, my niece cannot possibly go to bed without a story or two.  Aunt Donna and Uncle Himself were more than happy to oblige.  It melts heart to see these two together!

- ten -

I took a vacation day on Monday and we celebrated the aforementioned birthday by going to the market and then out to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants.  It is in an old bank building, built when banks were grand and majestic.  Thankfully they kept all the beautiful architecture.  And, the food is as good as the ambiance!

Check out more goodness at  A Fly on Our (Chicken Coop) Wall.

AMDG