Timber!

I have finished the Celtic Solstice quilt. I am not happy with it. As I readied it for quilting, I found the edges were wonky and wavy:

I did the best I could do, blessing the quilt, as I stitched, with language not quite as colorful as the quilt.

If you click on the photo, you can see more detail. I mostly meandered on this one. The batting is a flannel sheet. I should have left the backing off completely! This thing is HEAVY!!! Oh well, it still makes for a nice utility quilt.

I just started quilting the Leaf on a Log quilt. I really thought I had stretched the backing correctly, but it is already puckering too. Grrrrr!!!

 

I am afraid to start quilting the My Tweets quilt. I do not want to ruin that one! I think I may try a quilt as you go method.

A new-to-us flower is blooming in our backyard. This is a mandevilla:

I plan to labor on Labor Day, and work on quilting the leafy quilt. Hope you are enjoying this first day of September! Happy Sewing!!!

Productive Month

I am finally back in the studio after avoiding it for over a month! I have no reason for why I avoided it, but I did. To get back in the swing of things, I started by making a new chemise for my renfaire costume. I liked how it turned out. I had a photo of it, but lost it by accidentally deleting it and since it is packed away, I was too lazy to take it out to retake the picture!

The next thing I tackled was the May BOM for my night guild. It is the purple one on the left:

The umbrella block was for April and the green hat was for March.

My design wall looked like this a few days ago:

The February block is the heart block on the right. The odd blocks below the BOM blocks are bits and pieces of orphan blocks and fabrics. I was working on making a charity quilt for a boy.

This is how it turned out:

I think Charlie Brown, Snoopy, bug jars, sailboats, dragons and sports are all good choices for a young man!

A crafty project I am working on are banks. I use liquor canisters to make specialized banks. This one has a quilt theme:

 

I like to think of this as a place to save up your pocket change and when it is full enough, you can go on a guilt-free shopping trip to a quilt store! There will be a slot in the top of the can that you can put your money into. It is pretty enough to sit in your studio. The top comes off for removal of your treasure. I haven't decided how much to sell these for yet.

Last, but not least, I MADE myself sit down and sew together all the blocks for the Celtic Solstice quilt top! THEN I sewed the blocks into rows and I now have the center done. Next will be a narrow border, followed by a pieced border, and the final border. This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern. What a challenge to work with all those itty bitty pieces of fabric!!!

I plan to share this posting with Nina's "Off the Wall" Friday, since I actually have stuff to show!

That's the latest. I hope I don't stay away for such a long time again! Fabric therapy really does elevate one's mood.

Until next time, Happy Sewing!

Ice Day Sew In

We are all home today due to a little icy weather. What a winter this has been! 

I have lots of projects to work on. Even if the power goes out, I have binding to sew because I finished the Jingle Belle Quilt!

I might go back and do a little more quilting on a few of the blocks that I am not quite sure of. I want this to be one of my better efforts. I took my time. My stitches are better than many I've done, but they are still sloppy in some spaces. I ripped out several areas already, and redid them. I won't take the time to rip out any more though. Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to be 'good enough' and let go!

I am still working on Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice quilt.

  I have a lot of blocks left to assemble.

 

 I made a little more progress on the Building Blocks quilt:

 That pink and blue around the left and top are for the Celtic Solstice quilt. I have more yellow sashing to add to the Building Blocks next.

And I took out the U is for Unicorn quilt again. I still am not sure how to proceed with this one.

There isn't any batting inside it, as it is already quite heavy. I am not sure if I need more sewing on the layers though, to stabilize it more. This will take more study time.

With the icy weather today, I can choose from any of these, or go crochet, or applique one or two other works in progress. Decisions, decisions!!!

Hope you are all warm and safe and well, and sewing happily along!

It's About Time!

I shouldn't always think I need to apologize for not posting more, but I always do anyway. The biggest reason is because I seem to have a lot of issues with getting pictures uploaded. This morning I made myself load photos though. I hope you enjoy!

You can find projects at every machine in my studio!

By the Pfaff you can find "Building Blocks" by Jackie Berdych of Sew Excited Quilts (& More) blog.

 I know, it isn't very impressive at the moment, but I am just getting started with it.

At the Juki, you'll see the Jingle Belle quilt being quilted.

I have the center medallion done so far.

At the Featherweight you can see the Celtic Solstice blocks.

The quilt is challenging but very doable! There are several folks that are just getting started on this quilt in the group. It isn't too late to join in the fun! All the directions are on Bonnie Hunter's blog until June.

I have a few blocks done and am playing around with layout ideas.

Do you see the circle starting to appear?

I joined a second quilt guild this year. They are doing a block of the month. This will end up being a calendar quilt. The first block is a snowflake. I will be appliqueing this down, turning the edges under as I go, so it won't look quite like this when it is done:

 January has been a strange month. We've been up and down and up and down, over and over again, with crazy temperatures! On the morning of the 9th I took a few pictures of the ice that formed on the trees.

 This is a two foot green baby ceder tree...all decked out for Christmas...except it isn't Christmas any more!
Here are two more photos of ice on the branches of a few other trees around our place:

On January 16th we had the first full moon of the year...the Wolf Moon. I've been enjoying moon-shine for four nights now! NO! That is not right! I meant that I have been enjoying the moon shining in through the patio door. The angle is just right for me to see it from the chair I sit and sew in, in the evenings.

 That's it for my first post of the year! I think I will try to link up to Nina's Off the Wall Friday postings. Hope you are all staying warm and sewing for the joy of sewing! Bye for now.

Solstice Baby

Not really…my husband is a Solstice baby though. He just had a birthday on the 21st. However, I AM working on the Celtic Solstice quilt. I just finished step four. Step five came out today. The picture below shows all the pinwheels from step three and all the four-squares from step four:

And this is the meager start to step five:

That's it for today! Hope everyone is warm and safe and sound and looking forward to a wonderful new year!
Happy Sewing!!!

Merry Christmas!

We are having a very quiet Christmas with just The Mister, The Child, and Myself. This is sad, in one way, because I miss my older three kids even more during the holidays! This is not sad, because I can spend more time in the studio!

A month or so ago, I went for a walk with my faithful companion, Ziva:

Nearby is a park called "Old Mill". It is very picturesque!

 I finished step two in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt; the dreaded chevrons:

Last, but not least, our simple Christmas tree this year:

I wish all our friends and family, a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a wonderful New Year!  Happy Sewing!

I don't call all this stuff, WORK!!!

A week ago schools were closed because of the ice and snow we had. Today it is over 60°. Since last week was so cold and yucky, I stayed indoors and sang "Let it SEW, let it SEW, let it SEW!" I also got a lot of stuff done.

The little black dog is my Bitsy (a Rat Terrier) and the cat, hogging the air vent, is Maddie. No wonder it gets cold in my studio sometimes. They've blocked the air vents!

I've been working on Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery quilt. It has been challenging for me, as I hate working with diagonal anything, in quilting. I've been getting lots of hints and ideas though, from the wonderful group that is working on this quilt too. I feel like I am getting a free class on techniques!

 The humble beginning of step one:

A pile on the ironing board:

Half the ironing done:

All the neutrals and all the colors are now made into their little 3 1/2" blocks

Next: step two...chevrons! 

 They will look something like this:

In my spare time, I am starting a quilt from the pattern called "Building Blocks"
The pattern is by Jackie of Sew Excited Quilts.

 These are some of the strips I will be using in it:

Jingle Belle is pin-basted and ready for quilting:

I had intentions of making mug-rugs for friends this year. 

I might get them done in time for gift giving... next year.

I did get one ornament made and might gift this to someone…if I can find where I put it!

Do you think I need new slippers?

What does a quilter do when her slippers wear out? Why... she experiments with putting new soles on the bottom!!! (Good luck with that!) I hope Santa has a pair on his list from me…just in case!

Today I told The Mister that I was going to the quilt shop tomorrow to get a couple fat quarters for the scrappy mystery quilt. I only had a little of one shade of yellow for the next step. If I use just that one color-way of yellow, the quilt won't be as scrappy. He said, "Don't you find it odd that you need to buy MORE fabric to make the quilt scrappier?"
Silly man.

Happy Sewing Everyone!