Stitchin' away

The next two borders: STARS

2012-01-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

For each color combination, four 6-inch blocks, and eight 4-inch ones, are made. The half square triangles are created by using paper patterns, then cut apart and put together into a variety of star designs. These stars will be laid out on point, then, to make the next two borders. It's fascinating to me to see the effects of combining the colors in different combinations.

There are 17 colors altogether in this quilt, and they are ones I chose to replace the colors designated by the quilt designer. This means my teeth chattered when I chose them, from fear that the colors are not going to work in the whole design. I'm a real beginner here, but I tend to jump into complex things early in learning a craft, just because it's more interesting. I'm too impatient.

One of the challenges is that the printed out half square sewing paper patterns are just about 1/32 off on one direction, so every six inch block had to be sewn with that in mind. Next time watch me use the professionally printed grid sheets instead of my own printed out ones.

Favorite Christmas gifts

2011-12-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

In the foreground are the three sets of measuring cups and spoons from Williams Sonoma. This was a gift I'd asked for, and our son Sean bought these for me. I just needed a new set; Sean picked them out. They're substantial, beautiful, and (I'm sure) accurate. My husband gave me my favorite Chanel No. 5 perfume, packaged in that gorgeous red box. To the left is a bottle of olive oil with garlic. The spatula in front of everything is heat resistant, great for making and turning out omelets. Hmmmm! There seems to be a food theme this year, do you think?To the right is a 48-count box of holiday-flavored Keurig cups from Jay, who knows I love specialty coffees.

Our Christmas was relatively quiet, with just three people, but the gifts were just right--not too many but appropriate and appreciated.

Getting Ready for Christmas

2011-12-13T07:42:00.000-08:00

I get lazier each year, it seems. This is the 13th of December, and I’ve accomplished almost nothing: a few presents purchased for parties (thus “required”), a few decorations placed, but no serious work done yet. There seems to be an internal shift to doing just what makes me feel good, and less of doing what other people might think I need to do; that’s not my family expectations – we all enjoy the very simplest things. It’s more the perceived expectations of those “out there.” I suppose I’m thinking of the magazine articles and all the beautiful decorations everywhere that made me feel in the past that I should be doing MORE!!!! Maybe I’m finally learning some balance between what I think I should be doing and those things we deeply enjoy.

Just who am I, anyway?

2011-12-08T04:33:00.001-08:00

Today it's literally been an entire year since I've posted here. As I've just joined Sharon Boggin's TAST for 2012 (that's "Take a Stitch Tuesday), I've renewed interest in this Blog. I first "met" Sharon when I received squishies from her in the USA/Australian squishie exchange conducted by her and Willa. One year, many of the Australian squishies were lost in transit, and Sharon heroically filled in for the missing pieces. I think I got three from her that year, all of them lovely. I subsequently took an online class from her on crazy quilting. I seem to be a perpetual student in that area.

Here's what I've been working most on lately: my daughter's quilt. I see from a previous post that I started this quilt in 2009 (February ), so I'm not what you'd call a speedy quilter. In my defense, this quilt is by far the most intricate I've ever tackled. Here's a picture of its progress:

It's actually gone far beyond that, but the next "layer" is a bunch of 6" star blocks (32 of them), pieced out of 1" pieces, to be laid out on point for the next border. I'm having a lot of fun with it, but am struggling with giving myself permission to work on it. Even though it's now a "have-to" project, it's so much fun that I tend to try to have my day's work done before I allow myself to work on it.

And.... I also struggle with whether I'm a sane quilter, a crazy one, or a knitter. I love all three crafts. One of the reason I joined TAST is to be forced to work more on crazy quilting.

2010-11-08T11:57:00.001-08:00

I’ve been experimenting with Windows Live Writer for my blogs, at the recommendation of my sister Cheryl. It does seem to be much easier to edit from this platform (is that the right word?). Easier to add pictures…..

I’m posting this picture, because I cannot find this table runner; have no idea where it is! Was fun to make, but I WOULD like to use it, too! LOL!

Is it appropriate to say “LOL” in a blog?

2009-12-29T08:57:00.001-08:00

This is another book I've recently purchased, and it's exquisite. The author, Di van Niekerk, took five pictures (first published in 1923) by the artist Cicely Mary Barker and created ribbon embroidery and stumpwork pictures from them.

The pictures are available in the book to be copied, and includes stitch diagrams and complete descriptions of how to do duplicate her work, but the book is useful for creating your own pictures as well. I don't know how I'm going to use this book yet, but as a book lover, I just enjoy looking at it. Well worth being in my "collection."

Below is a sample of one of the full-size illustrations of her rendition of the fairy pictures, designed to be copied and used as a pattern. This one's my favorite.

2009-12-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

I'm copying an idea from Karen South and showing some recently purchased books.

Judith Baker Montano's latest is her best yet. I recently attended a Victoria Stitchery retreat in Wichita, Kansas. I took a two-day class from Ms. Montano and her supply of books sold out.

One of the new features in this book is a discussion of using a computer to manipulate images that you then can use to create a picture with fabric. I was impressed not only with Judith's willingness to overcome computer-phobia and learn this difficult program, but to pass her knowledge on to us.

I'm accustomed to Judith's needle skills, but was totally "wowed" by the chapter division pages, which are her own personal photographs. She told us that photography is really her "first love," and these photos prove it.

Gorgeous pictures to look at, and useful not only as eye candy, but motivating for using our own photography skills as a beginning point for our work. (She has a chapter on good photography as well.)

I highly recommend this book. Not only is it full of information on moving ahead in fiber art, it's beautifully produced, and like all of her books, designed to lie flat for easy use. No pinning the book down with one hand or your elbow while you try to work. This is a classy book.

2009-08-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

My husband fixes things and saves us tons of money, thanks to his carpenter dad's training. Last week, I opened the cupboard below the sink and discovered the pressed-wood flooring in there was completely soaked through, and smelling terrible. Our water filter had a slow leak and had been silently flooding the floor for a long time!

Jay spent 2 days hacking the cabinet floor out, chunk by chunk. The above picture shows him figuring out how to make a replacement floor. I love pictures of him like this (of course, I love HIM!). He is methodical and accurate, and approaches things like the engineer he is. He suggested we leave it open to the concrete sub-flooring, giving us several more inches of height for storage. It looked like a good idea.

This is what it looked like when he got it cleaned out:

Then he painted the floor and put a shelf in (to the left):

Here's the new water filter -- the old one lasted more than 25 years, so we got our money out of it, and this one was purchased several years ago, so it was ready to install. Note we now have an aluminum pie tin underneath it, to monitor for leaks this time.

At my request, he also added a shelf for storage of things used infrequently. We checked the height to make sure our normal LOC quarts would go on there, and it turned out to be the perfect height for paper towels as well.

The last things to go in were the Container Store "buckets" to store all the other stuff we needed down there. Voila!

Fixing mundane household break-downs... seemingly minor .... but such a valuable skill my husband possesses. Our kitchen was in a mess for almost a week as we waited for things under the sink to be completely dry. Washing dishes and preparing meals complicated the days, not to mention coping with the mental clutter that messy kitchens give me, but the sense of accomplishment triumphed.

Oh, did you think I was going to show it with ALL the junk back in there? Mwah ha ha ha ha!

2009-03-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was Ginger's first birthday. I got her from my sister, who's recently adopted female cat escaped the house and came back pregnant. We know where all of Ginger's siblings are, so it's fun to keep track of them all.

She is true to her name, harassing my two older cats, and "full of ginger" and mischief in the mornings. She has discovered my table where I keep my crazy quilting supplies, and delights in shoving them off to the floor so she can play with them. When corrected, her ears point backward, her tail whips and she looks exactly like a willful child! On the other hand, she always stops when corrected, so I think there's hope for her.

Pardon me, those of you who are not animal lovers. Once you've had children in the house, it's very easy to have a "family" that includes animals. They are so much fun.

2009-02-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

Here's the block (15") I started and finished in Anchorage. All the detailed elements of the star were paper pieced, then I stripped off all the paper and sewed the pieces together. This is the most intricate block I've ever done. Alyson chose the colors from a Jinny Beyer quilt , and I applied it to this block. I'm going to choose more colors as I go, and am hoping to make good choices.

2009-02-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

We brought this cute little bear home with us. Here he is snugged into my suitcase, and below is his original spot in the room. There were no more for sale, but Kathryn let us buy this one off her wall. We just thought he looked like a little boy clutching his favorite toy to himself.

2009-02-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

This is the other side of the little extra room, which made a terrific work area for me. You can see the table in the picture with Jay on the love seat... that was in the middle of the room till I finished the block I was working on.

2009-02-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Here's the little room heater, that the owners bought after we arrived, after which we were quite warm. The doors behind it go directly outdoors to the hot tub, which in the summer would be a big benefit. However, cold air was sweeping in here till Jay put painter's tape up around the door (He even fixes OTHER people's houses!!). It made an amazing difference. He did miss a spot, though. On Sunday morning, when it was about 6 degrees out, there was a little strip of frosted ice on the inside of the middle stripping, where there was still cold air creeping in.

2009-01-31T12:42:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of the room we're staying in, which is actually an upgrade from the one we had requested (Someone was in that room when we arrived). This room has been very nice, because there's a little ante room with a curtain divider, so that Jay can go to bed (and get up at 5 a.m.), and I can continue to work here. The owners added a room heater after we arrived and discovered the heater wasn't working. It looks like an old-fashined stove, complete with face fire and is very comforting.

I've put together the first block, a center medallion, to a BOM quilt I'm making for Alyson and Brad, and made some bead scissor fobs/zipper pulls with Kathryn's help. (Owner of the B & B). She has an enviable work corner in their living room and does very wonderful free-form bead work. I'll include some pictures when I get home, and can get some of my pictures uploaded. Well, that's all for now.... Jay is finished with all his assigned sewing machines and has gone to Willow, Alaska, and a festival there. We'd planned on both of us going, but it snowed 12 inches yesterday; there were 75 auto accidents in Anchorage last night. I didn't want to white-knuckle it for 3 hours today and drive Jay crazy, so I'm here in the warmth and comfort of our room... looking out on the beautiful snow. That's my idea of enjoying a snowfall!