End of the Year

Since my last post, we have celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, my birthday and Christmas. The grandkids have been here twice, we had a table at a bazaar and I made it through another Advent/Christmas season at work (I am a church office administrator so there is lots to get done). At the beginning of December my good friend came home from Japan for a month long visit during which various members of the family have spent nights at my house, we put on a wedding shower and got her daughter married last weekend. We have just a few more days before she heads back to Japan so we have been trying to spend as much time as we can together. Here is a picture of my two best friends and me. I am on the right, the mother of the bride is in the middle and on the left is our third musketeer!

I have not done much sewing but I can post a couple of pictures of completed projects! Here is the table topper I made for my neighbor in our 'small project' exchange. I used the One Block Wonder method but didn't like the blocks right next to each other so I added the red triangles. I had some more blocks leftover so I put together a table runner that just needs quilting. When it is done I will have a nice Christmas gift waiting for someone! 

I got that Harry Potter quilt finished. I made it for my friend's daughter's wedding gift. She is a little bit Harry Potter obsessed so it seemed appropriate to make a Harry Potter Monet's Wedding Ring quilt. Their invitations were based on the Marauder's Map, the ring bearer carried the rings up on a wand, their cake topper was HP themed, and the list goes on.

 Here are some close-ups to show the individual blocks a little better...

I even downloaded a Harry Potter font to do the label.

I got to be there when they opened the package and I think it was a hit.


This quilt will be heading to a new home this week, too. 

It is a Christmas gift but needed its label and I have not had much time to spend in the sewing room. The quilt's name is now "It Needs A Squirrel..." and will be going to my boss and her husband who gave it it's name when he saw it at the quilt show.

I started physical therapy for my ankle about a week ago. I am not so sure it is going to make a difference but I am doing my exercises in hopes that it will. 

We are starting a new year tomorrow and I am hoping the New Year brings more time for sewing (and posting) and healing for my foot!

Starts, Finished and Progress

Just read over my last post and can't believe that I haven't written a post in a month and a half and how much has been happening since then. 

My foot/ankle is improving, if not fast enough for my tastes! My doctor had me taking massive doses of anti-inflammatories for 10 days and the swelling and inflammation went down at least temporarily. I was on my feet this past Friday and Saturday at the Guild Quilt Show on cement floors and Sunday was a hard day but both legs and feet were unhappy. Monday when I went to work I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could walk at close to normal speed without limping and even the stairs weren't bad. 

I got my two quilts finished for the quilt show and I was really happy with how they both turned out. I will do another post soon showing the quilting on this first one. The small tag hanging under the label says "A GUY likes this quilt." Every man who came in received one of these tags to put on a quilt he like. This quilt eventually received two of these tags and the other received on.

 This one is my 2004 Shop Hop Quilt. I had it in the Relay for Life Quilt Show in March but I added some more quilting in the block 'shadows' so the blocks would stand out a little more. 

Tonight I plan to take the hanging sleeve off so it can be put on our new bed. 

Fall is definitely here in Western Washington. We had about a week of fog that just didn't lift and now the sun has been out for a few days and it is gorgeous! Our son has been helping get the leaves picked up from the yard. Today we got 4 loads of leaves hauled away and yesterday and today I got most of the mowing done and let SIL finish it off. I can sure feel it in the muscles that I was out working in the yard!

I have gotten quite a few Harry Potter blocks done for the quilt I am working on but with other things going on I realized I would not have it done for the quilt show. I did finish the hand quilting on my 2002 Shop Hop quilt but I don't have any pictures of that yet. I will try to get that done soon. 

I finished a border on one round robin project and have one more I hope to get to tomorrow so I can pass them off to my niece and get some others from her. We need to get them moving along again. She and I have both have had crazy summers.

Our daughter and son-in-law got their little house on wheels moved out to its 'new' home and are pretty much settled in. Our son is settled into our Argosy until he finds a 'real' job. For now he is doing some math tutoring and helping around the house some.

There are rumors we will have grandkids here for Halloween so might have to do some quick planning for a fun family party. We are thinking decorating gingerbread haunted houses or maybe Halloween sugar cookies.

I need to pull some things together next week for a quilt retreat too. 

And the summer is nearly gone...

...and it didn't go at all as I thought it might.

Two months later and I am still hobbling around on my bum foot. I ended up in a walking boot for 6 weeks and now I just have to strengthen up my ankle. I bought myself a pair of Chaco sandals last week so I have some shoes that support my feet and can be adjusted depending on how much swelling there is.

Lots has happened but not what I had hoped. We had the grandkids here for 4 weeks of fun. They were great about helping Grammy because "your foot is hurt". They fetched crutches and glasses of water and the phone and various other things. They had lots of special things happening like spending the night at cousin Katie's house, fun Lego projects,

a Strawberry Festival, two new kitties at Grammy's

crafts,

two weeks of swimming lessons,

'working at Grammy's office,

rides on a little steam train ("we get to sit on it - while its moving?!?!?!), helping Papa prune the cedar tree

(they loaded the trailer at least 15 times for the trip to the burn pile - the little smarties figured out a way to load it and leave a 'hole' for them to ride in back and forth), Vacation Bible School, playing on Steve's slot machine, and a BBQ 

just to name a few! They had a great time and were so good. They are now back at home and started school - Kindergarten and 2nd grade!

Time in the sewing room was rather lacking over the summer but I did get the Bluegrass Festival Auction Quilt finished on time (but only barely). 

Since we had a booth for our crafts at the Festival I was able to listen as it was auctioned off for over $300. I also got it's twin quilted and it is almost finished. I also spent a couple days at my sister's and with her and my two nieces we sewed the top of a wedding quilt for our brother's son and his bride. Today my sister was here visiting and we got the quilt sandwiched and basted so I might get started on the quilting this week.

Once things started settling down from the kids and other things I started working on finishing up some quilts for the October Quilt Guild Show. I pulled out this UFO of leftover HST's. The lighter triangles were from one quilt and the rest were from two others. I had it to this point in February and then it got put away...

I had decided I wanted to put this on point using the dark read of the outer triangles and some form of sunflowers since I had found a border print with sunflowers and pinecones. I got a pattern for a sunflower with 3D petals but I just wasn't feeling it so I went with my original thought of New York Beauty type sunflowers. Since I wanted the sunflower to be about 8-10" I had to shrink the NYB blocks down to 4" finished. Then I made 4 each of 4 different patterns using the same fabrics as the darker HSTs. I used one of each of the 4 different patterns in each of the sunflowers. I was really happy with those other than I would not recommend 4" NYB blocks to anyone. Then I needed something else for those corners and found a paper pieced pinecone pattern that I again shrunk to 4" and reversed for half of the blocks. I then created the triangles to set this on point using the NYBs and pine cones and then added mitered border print and here it is:

It ended up about 60" square. I am thinking it would make a really great fall tablecloth. I am putting it aside for a bit but I can now fill out the registration form for the quilt show for it. 

I am now moving on to another Harry Potter quilt that I want to have done for the show also. I found that doing paper piecing is easy on my foot. I lower my ironing board and pull it a little closer to the sewing table and I can sew and then turn my chair to press and trim the piece and if I need to do any rotary cutting I have a small cutting mat on the sewing table. Hopefully my foot will improve quickly so I can get back to my normal sewing routines.

The garden has suffered from my lack of attention but my beets, onions, beans and Taxi tomatoes have flourished in spite of it. I am working on getting rid of all the weeds now that I can do some work down there.

Catching Up

Things have been happening around here and elsewhere! The morning of Relay as I was getting things together to pack in the car they roofers came and got the garden shed covered. It was raining quite a bit and I felt bad that they had to be out there on that steep roof but they had it done in about 6 hours. Here you can see one of the guys up there - this was my view from the deck - I wasn't going out in the rain!

Relay was amazing as always, in spite of rain during the luminary ceremony. The Harry Potter quilt was a hit. I raised nearly $750 with it! Our team raised over $4000 this year and our community raised close to $150,000 to help fight cancer! 


I managed to get about one hour of sleep during the event so I crashed when I got home but after a 3 hour nap I was able to stay away a couple more hours until bed! 


Sunday I was pretty lazy but on Monday I got two adorable aprons made for the grandkids. At craft night a few weeks ago, Nadine gave me the pieces for the pink one all cut out and loaned me the pattern for the directions to put it together for my granddaughter. 

I couldn't make one for the little princess and not for her 'bruver' so I found some fun map fabric and put this one together for him.  

We will be putting them to good use on their next visit. We have plans to make a cake with roses on it!


On Tuesday I headed across the state for some quality time with my two favorite little ones (and their parents). We had a great time. The main reason for my visit though was to go to a doctor visit with our son who is going to have to have knee surgery to take care of a torn meniscus. Unfortunately, he seems to have inherited his father's knees. He still has to meet with the surgeon on Monday to schedule the surgery and then I will be able to plan my summer a little more since I will be spending several days helping with his recuperation.


Before I headed home on Thursday afternoon I decorated my grandson's half-birthday cake. I didn't bring my decorating supplies with me so I bought a few items and, after talking the boy out of a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter, I used my 'awesome cake skills' to make a cool spider cake. 


It was good to be home and yesterday and today I got a few things done around the house and got the 3rd blue and green comfort quilt top finished. My goal next week is to get the two comfort quilts basted along with a Christmas quilt and then I will have 4 quilts to get quilted. I have two of the three graduation quilts all done and hope to get the third all finished tomorrow.


I am also hoping for the rain to let up a bit so I can get some yard work in too!

Retreat Recap, part 1

Home again! What a great weekend! Not rested, but happy. 

My drive across the state to the retreat was uneventful, though I did get to have lunch with my sister, Karla, and our friend, Teena, as they were returning home from some meetings. Great meal and fun conversation. I had been worried about snow on my drive but I didn't have to drive in any until I turned down the drive to my daughter, Becky's, house. Had to climb into the back of the car to find my boots so I could even get out of the car. We had a fun visit talking a lot about their upcoming move back to our house so she can work on finishing their tiny house on wheels while her hubby is out on the road. 

Headed over to the retreat in the morning and got set up and started sewing. My first project was getting all the quilting threads on the HP quilt taken care of. As I was working on it I realized that the last 4 or 5 blocks I had quilted had poor tension so I ripped those out and will redo them today. Everyone loved the quilt and I was able to sell quite a few drawing tickets at the retreat. I also ended up selling one owl hat and getting an order for 5 more so I will be working on those in the coming weeks.

I saw a tutorial last week online for a folded bag and just had to try it so that was one of my early projects. (Lynn T, if you are reading this I am supposed to tell you that you are not allowed to try this yourself, Jill is making you one!) It is made from 2 squares of fabric, sewn together and turned right sides out, top-stitched and then folded and turned and fluffed and you get these. 

Mine is the second from the left on the bottom row. I really liked it as a thread catcher while sewing. Karla and I were going to make some scrap catchers like this but these folded bags are so much easier and practical that we went with these. Karla made 4 of the bags in the above picture and a couple of other quilters in our group each made one for themselves. These were all made from 17-18" squares.

Others came up and saw the bags and wanted to make some for themselves so I said I would do a little 'thing' downstairs and teach them too so they all started getting their squares cut in preparation for the next morning. I wanted to have some samples of a couple of the steps ready for the morning so I started a couple bags to give to my grandkids when they arrived the next day. I only had 10" squares of fabrics they would like so I went for it. I was so tempted to finish them to see how they would turn out but instead I cut another couple of fabrics up and made two little bags out of 8" and 9" squares. They are the cute little strawberry bags in the front of this next picture.

When I got up the next morning I dug out all the extra fabric I had in my piles and cut out whatever I could for bags and made the above baskets. We had much discussion about all their uses and determined that the 8" would make adorable little egg holders for Easter and the 9" could hold sugar packets at your table. The 18" ones are great for small potted plants and a 20-21" will hold a square box of tissues as you can see in the above picture. The biggest one there is a 20" and has a tissue box in it. One of the best  things about these bags is that they fold flat so are easy to store when not in use. I am hoping these will be a big seller at the quilt show and at Relay for Life. I have lots more fabrics I can use for them.

When I headed downstairs to the other quilting room there were at least 10 people who learned to make the bags. One person used corduroy which I think could be great for a larger bag made from maybe a 36-45" square to be used for dog toys or baby toys on the floor. Someone else used flannel which is so nice and soft and would be great in a baby's room for holding socks in a drawer or cotton balls or pacifiers or almost anything!

One of the ladies is an amazing quilter and embellisher and she had fun with her bag. You can see the front and back here:

I think that many of the bags will be made in the coming weeks by a lot of the quilters for selling at bazaars, using in their own homes, giving as gifts, etc. I know I am going to get more done in the coming days and weeks.


Well, I have much to do before Saturday's quilt show so I had better save the rest of the retreat recap for later!

Almost Done!

I worked hard in the sewing room yesterday and got almost all the rest of the quilting done on Harry Potter. I still have the border to do but I haven't decided if I am going to write something in the border or not so I will hold off on that. It can be done after the binding is on so I packed up the quilt and it is ready for the drive to the quilt retreat. 


I am mostly packed (the important stuff) and just need to add a suitcase and clothes to the pile and I got the kitchen cleaned up and all the laundry done so I should be able to head out fairly early this morning, especially since I woke up at 5 thinking it was 6!


Yesterday afternoon hubby and I were there to hang out and measure things as the inspection was done on the house that our niece is hoping to buy. Everything looked pretty good, no big problems. Brought the quilt along to show her and the realtor and looks like I might be selling some tickets to the realtor and maybe some of her co-workers and I will probably hang out for lunch one day at the school my niece teaches at and see if any of her co-workers are interested in buying tickets.

Well, it is time to get moving and get the rest of my packing done. See you on Monday!

Some roofing, landscaping, glazing and stonework

I started my day doing a little cuddling with one of my favorite little babies. Mommy had a Dr. appointment so I tried to keep my buddy happy. Not an easy task, shall we say!


I had a quick lunch and then got started with the quilt. I started with the roofs making lots of little clamshells.

 Moved to the windows next

 Put in a few stones on the steps

Then I tidied up the grassy area and added some breezes in the sky.


The center is done except for a couple of spots so there is a good chance I can finish the quilting tomorrow and maybe even get the binding on. There were a few tension issues so I had to take out a bit so I will definitely have to wash this one when it is done to help close up the needle holes.

Brickwork

I got the Harry Potter quilt basted today and started with the quilting. I started with the castle because I had a plan for it. I wanted to try making bricks/stones and it worked perfectly with the batik I chose for the castle.

It's really quite easy and looks great! Well, it is easy to make it happen but my shoulders and arms were very tensed up when I was done with all those bricks.


I can't wait to see what I do with the rest of the quilt!

Shopping and Dropping

Dropping off quilt show posters, that is. I decided today would be a great day to get some errands taken care of. 


I got the date changes made for the quilt show signs and took them to get them laminated. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get them done while I waited!


Then I headed to the first LQS to look for back fabric and to drop off quilt show information. The person working today was so helpful and friendly. She even offered to take a copy of the information to her quilt guild and gave me her email address so I could send the information to her in an email so she could pass it on to the newsletter editor. She also suggested I take the drawing quilt to the local farmer's markets to sell tickets. I think I might just try to do that as well as maybe spending a day at each of the local quilt shops. 


I didn't find a back there so headed to the next shop and found a nice black tonal that will work. I even had a full punch card so got almost 40% off the cost! The owner there is also willing to have me spend a day selling tickets at her shop.


After dropping a bag of discards at the thrift shop I headed to the next shop. They were not as friendly - I have found that shop to be rather hit and miss in the customer service department - but they did take a quilt show flyer to post. That shop wasn't far from a sewing machine place so I dropped a flyer off there also. 


The sewing machine place was right by the Amish furniture place and I stopped in and bought a nice sturdy drying rack which will be great for hanging quilts for sale at the quilt show and other events.


Headed off to the next shop where the ladies were very friendly and, as I perused the clearance fabrics, I came upon this piece of Christmas fabric (the scissors and seam ripper are for scale).

I saw it and thought how great it would be for a back for this quilt...

...which I would love to have done before the quilt show. If things go well with the HP quilt and I get a lot done at the retreat next week I think I should be able to quilt this one and the last of the 5 other Christmas quilts I made last fall. 


Anyway, after I got home I got my new fabrics in the washer and got busy finishing the cutting of the girl baby quilt so it is all kitted up and ready for the retreat. 


Right now, I am ready to relax for the rest of the evening but I am hoping tomorrow I will have it in me to get the HP quilt basted and ready for quilting.

So what do you think?

Yep, the top is done and waiting for backing. Though I haven't gotten an email saying the backing has shipped so I might just have to go do some shopping to get a different backing fabric so I can get this thing quilted and finished! I am planning to make another Harry Potter quilt so when the backing does come I will just use it for that.


I ended up with a black tonal for a border. I had enough of the fabric to cut 4" strips to go around so that is what it got!


Yesterday I also did another coat of mud on the drywall so it is looking better though still not great - definitely not one of my favorite jobs. 


Other jobs for yesterday included folding the 3 loads of laundry that have been languishing in the laundry room while I sewed, going to my neighbors to cut numbers on her Cricut to put a new date on the quilt show sandwich boards so they can get put out today or tomorrow, and doing a little cuddling with an adorable little baby boy. The little guy is almost 3 months old and was not impressed with my skills - he wanted Mommy! When his daddy came home he said that it is the same way for him so I shouldn't feel too bad! I didn't because we did have a little while when he was happy!


Oh, and I also had a little time to get started with cutting the pieces for the girl baby quilt. I would love to have the cutting done today so it is ready to take to the quilt retreat but my first job is to get the sign amendments done so they can be laminated so they last for 2 weeks in our lovely wet February/March weather!

Blocks Around

I was on a roll today! I headed to the sewing room to work on the Harry Potter quilt but glanced over at the quilting machine and saw the last comfort quilt waiting to be quilted and decided that was the first order of business. Got the quilting done and set it aside to take to the quilt retreat to get the binding on (unless I get to it before I leave).

Then after a phone call from my son, I decided I had better get started on taping and texturing the drywall in the bathroom or it will never get done. We really want that project done before the beginning of April when our second daughter comes home for a few months to work on her tiny house. So I did the first coat. Not sure I did a great job but it is what it is. I am sure it will all turn out okay.

After I got those two jobs done I laid out the blocks around the quilt and started to add the frames around them. I had taken a picture of where the blocks went around the quilt and planned for the red, green, yellow and blue frames to repeat around the quilt. When I laid them out again according to my picture I realized I had picked up some incorrectly and the colors weren't in the right order. I resigned myself to them being in the wrong order and then suddenly realized I could just rearrange them so the colors were right - the order of the blocks wasn't that important. So funny how we get hung up on something like that and almost end up being disappointed in the finished product. Once I got over that, I got the blocks all attached to the center of the quilt by about 5 this evening and had it hanging up to admire!

After a quick trip to the grocery store I made breakfast for dinner and then took the quilt down to audition an option for borders. A narrow border of black and then a wider border of the castle fabric. What do you think?

Not sure I like this, it is kind of drab. I am kind of wondering if I would have enough of the backing fabric to use it as a border and if that would look nice. I guess I will just have to wait and see!

Done with the blocks

Yesterday evening was craft night next door. I was so tired from getting the center of the quilt done but just can't miss craft night. I brought the quilt center and all the blocks so I could put it on the design wall. I was so happy to discover that I only needed 6 blocks to finish the border!

It is coming together! So today, I sat down and made those 6 blocks. 

Somehow, even after all these blocks I still manage to mess up at least once per block!


So the goal tomorrow is to get the blocks added to the center and maybe get the top totally finished! In the event that doesn't actually happen there is still Friday! I ordered backing fabric today so I hope it comes on Saturday at the latest so I can get this thing finished.

This Just In!

Here is the center panel of the Harry Potter quilt! I worked hard on it all day and just finished the grass area. Pretty happy with the results though when I make the next one I will make some changes. Now I need to make a few more blocks for around the edges. If I am counting right I should need 5 more blocks so that is my goal for tomorrow! Then maybe Thursday I can get the blocks around the edge and add a border and I am done with the top!