Jingling Along

I finished set four of the Jingle Belle quilt. One block is appliqued and one is pieced. I am glad I am keeping up, so far, with this project!

Then I had the crazy idea of starting another hexagon quilt. They are so easy to tote along and work on when out and about. I think Jaye, over on her artquiltmaker blog is doing a version of this. I have three colorways of the spotted fabric below that I thought would work for the outside parts. I am thinking about using a yellow for the center.

I played around in photoshop with different center colors:

I still am not sure which way I want to go with that center color. I actually sewed one set together. It was a pain in the butt to do!!! I don't think I will be doing this project any time soon. I am not sure what I did wrong, but it sure went together badly. I will put this idea on the back burner for now.

I also worked on making a quilted case for my husband's small traveling harp. I don't have a pattern so it is slow going, but I think I know where I am headed with it. Photos will follow when done.

Speaking of photos...my computer recently crashed. When I reloaded the programs onto to the new hard drive we had to get, I loaded the newest version of photoshop that I own. I am slowly learning how to use it. The best news though, is that it isn't as much of a pain to get photos from my camera to the computer and edited for use! I am not only a happy sewer tonight, but a happier photo transfer-er.

That's it for tonight!
Happy Sewing!

Don't Look NOW!!!

Tonight I will be sitting down and working on the binding for the House Medallion Quilt. What an ordeal this has turned out to be! It started out as a round robin. I did the center medallion with the fan blades and my friend Snap put on the next border. She sent it back to me with extra fabric for me to finish it. This was all fine and good.

I agonized over how to finish it for WEEKS! I did some more simple borders, carefully measuring each one to make it increase in size at the same rate. Mistake #1 was the last border should have been about a half inch wider to take into account the binding covering it. That isn't such a big deal because I have done this many times before on other quilts. I need to learn my lesson and remember to take into account that final border measurement on future quilts!

The added fan borders are not pretty though. They are not even or equal and have a huge bump where the points all meet.

Then the quilting fiasco started. You can see some good and some (very) bad stitching. I had SO many tension issues with this quilt!!! It wasn't the quilt's fault though. It was my setup. I still have not worked out all the bugs.

Here you can see where the bottom thread (black) came up to the top:

This is much prettier if you don't notice the pale green thread that joined those two vertical seams:

This is ok (but not great) stitching, however, MOST of the fan blades are not too bad:

WELL into quilting this, I discovered the wrinkles on the back:

If it wasn't wrinkles, it was loopies:

I don't know why the fabric looks so brown here, but this may show the loopies better:

I have the binding clips started:

I am considering taking this shameful thing to the quilt guild to show all the mistakes. I want to also tell them what I have learned from my mistakes! Perhaps it will make others keep trying and realize that they don't have to give up just because their quilt isn't perfect at home. I will use this as an everyday quilt or perhaps as a pet bed if it falls apart. lol

In MUCH better news, the hexagon quilt is now mounted on the machine frame and I am using this setup to thread-baste it. Then I will take it off the machine frame and hand quilt it.
The Juki is working fine on the frame. The Pfaff Grand-Quilter that was giving me fits on the frame is working like a champ on the table. I am still not sure why. I am trying several things out though, to see if I can get an idea of where the tension issues are coming from when the Pfaff is on the frame vs the Juki that has had no tension issues.

I would love input from you, dear readers, on whether or not taking the House Medallion Quilt to the guild and sharing how bad it really is with others, would be a good thing? Your thoughts?

What a Halloween!!!

It was quite a day, considering we were not going out trick or treating this year. It was Tommy's choice. He didn't want to go. He DID want to carve a pumpkin though. He did over half the work on this, including scooping out the guts! We had 28 kids stop by. Most of them were older kids and several were bordering on either side of age 20! I guess when you need a candy fix, you get it on Halloween!

Later, as hubby and I watched last week's episode of Amazing Race, I was sewing on the hexagon quilt. All of a sudden, I realized I was sewing the last hexagon on it!!!! The monster top is DONE DONE DONE!!! Photos will be up later today or tomorrow. :)

If you read this blog much, you will see I have been on a streak of creativity with the Creative Prompts. I am all caught up now. This week's prompt was "Spirit".

Rah, Rah, sis-boom-ba! lol I hope you can see the letters on their shirts! Remember if you click on the photo, you can see a larger version of it for more details.

Today started with donuts, still warm from the bakery. Hubby goes there about once a month or so, to sabotage my (pretend) diet. I am not sure what I will do today. I could sandwich the hexagon quilt and start basting it. It will be quilted by hand though, and I should wait till after the holidays to set up the big floor frame.

I could have a go at the House Medallion quilt. Next on is a narrow black border, followed by all those fan blocks. There is a Griffin waiting to be done on the U is for Unicorn quilt. I have Christmas gifts to make, but I am not sure what they will be yet. I have three or four charity quilts coming in to be quilted, on the ninth of November, so I don't want to load anything up on the short-arm frame till they are done.

There is a spring-time wall hanging, hanging around in my head. I might do that up and teach a class for it. I have my "Inchies" to mail out to my swap person too. Maybe I will just straighten the studio a titch and rest more? My knee is screaming in protest from all the stair climbing I am doing, with the puppy, when taking her in and out of the house. lol

I could make a BIG announcement, but that won't happen until tomorrow. Need a hint? I am coming up on my 250th blog posting. I think it should be a cause for celebration, don't you? Maybe a contest? hmmmmmmmmmmm :D

Enjoy your Sunday's everyone! Toodle-loo!

Did I do That???

On Monday I went the Quest Quilt Guild here in North Little Rock, AR. I met Linda Poole for the first time. I have known her forever but we've never met in person. She gave a nice presentation and her trunk show was soooooo neat! I loved seeing the other Fairy Quilts.

I didn't realize how busy I've been until I went to load all the photos today! I have been playing with the layout of the fan blades for the House Medallion quilt:
Here is a stack of these fan blocks, ready for the fan blades to be sewn together. There are 28 blocks/fans to be made. I need to finish the Dragon Quilt so I can use the Juki for piecing these together.

Next to the Pfaff are the last two alphabet blocks for the U is for Unicorn quilt, waiting to be done. Then there are several filler blocks and the applique work for the border blocks left. I ordered more red material today, to make sashing for these blocks too.
The Altoids box in the photo has a magnetic business card in it. I put pins in there and the magnet holds them in place better than a pin cushion, when working in the family room with the cat's 'helping' me. :)

I have the sky done on the Dragon Quilt. The clouds puffed up so nicely!


I have almost got the landscaping quilted on it now. There is sits next to the Juki, waiting for me to finish it today.
Finally my Post Spooky for today is the mess on the dining room table. Those are all the Halloween decorations that I need to put up this weekend. Of course I will finish quilting that Dragon Quilt first!

I also cleaned up my cutting table and put stuff away. I can't believe I let it get so messy. No, wait, I CAN believe it! After all, I AM a quilter. lol The hexagon quilt top is so very close to being done. Today I ordered the batting and backing for it. I will be quilting it by hand. I hope to finish it sometime next year. Hubby asked me to not set up the frame for hand quilting until after the holidays. I would have to agree. A king size quilt on a hand quilting frame WOULD take up a LOT of room!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. We have sunshine and hubby will be planting the fifty iris bulbs today, that we got from our neighbor. Toodle-lou!

What to do, what to do???

I've been busy these past few days. The Post Spooky for today involves trying to figure out how to quilt my hexagon quilt top! It is VERY close to being done. I have to decide on stitch in the ditch, or just inside each hexagon, or some other pattern of quilting to use.

I have to keep in mind what I will get for the backing as well. Do I use two different colors of thread? The hexagon quilt has black around many colored hexagons. What have I gotten myself into???? lol I will have to think about it tomorrow though, as it has gotten quite late here tonight. :)

Boo! ya'll :D

Quick shot

This is the hexagon quilt from the backside. It is laying over the quilting frame. It is about 100" wide now!

Fabric Therapy

I have been working on the hexagons for the hexagon quilt a lot. Here are a bunch that have just been basted and ironed to crease the edges.

It seems to be the only fabric therapy that is working for me right now. I did manage to sell off the wedding ring quilt strips and am working on thoughts for replacing that project, using some of the retro fabric that I still have left. Perhaps this time, it will all work out better AND will inspire me to get back into the studio for some more serious crafting!

A friend (thanks Jaye) suggested buying some Moda charms and playing with them. Great idea Jaye but I think my lack of inspiration is a symptom of chaos in other areas of my life right now. Getting rid of the wedding ring project was a great move in the right direction. I wasn't really selling off my stash as I have thought of doing, but was getting rid of a huge road block.

As I mentioned above, I found a pattern that has a good chance to not only inspire me back into the studio but may even lead into combining two stale projects into one new cool one!!! I have an inkling of possible inspiration pulling me up out of the doldrums and creating again. woohoo!!!

Mother's Day Rambling

Mother's Day...the day when many of us moms wait and wonder if our kids will remember to take time to call or write to us so that we feel like we are loved and not forgotten. I wish my mom were still alive so I could send her flowers and give her a quick phone call. She was a pretty good mom. :) I feel bad for anyone who doesn't have a mom in their lives that they want to honor today....whether by choice or by circumstances.

I am having a very nice Mother's Day weekend. It started Friday night with an outing to a seafood place for supper. I love seafood and my family does not. When I found a coupon for a free meal for me for Mother's Day, I suggested we go so I could get my fix of fish and shrimp. :D

Saturday we went to the local farmer's market. Again, this is just for me as the family also does not like fruits and vegetables. I bought some delicious tomatoes there.

Next we drove to a quilt shop that I really like. I have only been there once before though, as it is a bit of a distance from the house. I bought some elastic thread for a project I have in mind, a bodkin for threading strings through the bags I plan to make, some gray cotton quilting thread for hand sewing the hexagon quilt, and of course some fabric!
When we got home there was a box on the porch. My daughter had sent me a bouquet of flowers...in PURPLE which is one of my most favorite colors. :) You can see the flowers and quilt shop purchases in the photo above. The fabrics were three Christmas ones that were on sale for 60% off and one retro fabric. Oh, and I splurged on a set of templates too!

There is a story behind the retro fabrics. As you know I have been struggling with that Wedding Ring quilt. One of the fabrics in that quilt was this exact same retro fabric! I might have even purchased it at that very same store last year, but I can't remember for sure. lol I have since decided to sell off the book and the started quilt. (see sidebar if you are interested in it) I am going to do something else with all the retro fabrics I still have and this purchase yesterday will be the main fabric in the project.

Here is a closeup of the floral bouquet my daughter sent me:

Today hubby bought doughnuts for breakfast and will cook something special for supper. I am to have a totally lazy day...mostly in the studio, to enjoy some much needed fabric therapy. I might not even get out of my pajamas! :)

HEXAGON QUILT
When I work on the hexagon quilt, I often have leftover hexes that won't work into the flowers. I attach them to each other and WILL eventually have a scrappy table cloth or table runner...depending on how big it gets.
MOJO
As you know my mojo has been lacking lately. On one of my email lists today, there was a quote that addressed this very thing! I would like to leave you with this quote that might get your mojo working again, if it has taken a leave of absence in your lives:

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
Frank Tibolt

Creative Prompt: LIGHT

I really had lots of ideas with this word! If you click on the picture you can see details better. From left to right the words are: bubbles are light, fabric; dark, medium light, rainbows, light hearted, light shimmers from my diamond ring, cotton candy, light hearted spirit, light bulb, light at the end of the tunnel, and at the bottom center it says light as a cloud and sun.

Several themes were going through my head with this prompt. The light at the end of the tunnel was the first thing I thought of. As I started this prompt, I was having major issues at work at the retail store. I purposely tried to think of more positive things to get through a rough week of emotional lows. Again, this creative prompt stuff has proved to be quite therapeutic! I shared my book of drawings with my sister-in-law last week and she enjoyed looking at all the pictures. I have always had an artistic flair. This book of sketching will be an interesting legacy to share and later to pass down to my children as well!

I still haven't found my mojo in my studio yet. Instead I have escaped to my hexagon quilting. I made three half flowers and two flowers over the past 24 hours!

We've had LOTS of rain this week. Today is overcast and very muggy. The photo below shows what it looked like about 48 hours ago here:

I am going to try to find that mojo in the studio again today. Wish me luck!!!

Finished: Summer 2008 Pickle Mystery Quilt

I finished this quilt a few days ago. I have not been able to get my creative juices flowing since before this quilt was done. Anyway, though I have hit a creative roadblock for the time being, at least I can share the completion of this huge quilt!

The bed it is on, is a California King sized bed. I quilted it with my new-to-me table top frame and short-arm machine. I learned so much with this project!

I am actually surprised that the colors worked out as well as they did. I was afraid I had too much contrast or too many medium colors for the "lights" in this quilt. I am glad I was wrong about that!

Here it is turned the other way on the bed. I sure used up a lot of fabric scraps on this project!

I hope my creative juices start up again soon. I have so many things I would like to start, but just haven't been feeling in the mood. And fabric therapy has always been good for me. I wish I knew what was wrong? It could be a number of different things. Maybe when I have those two days off over Easter Sunday, I will have time to work in the studio and have the fabric therapy do its magic to me. :)

In the mean time, I do continue to work on the hexagon flowers. They are such a tiny part of my life right now, but oh so easy to pickup and do a few stitches at a time!!! For now, I think the hexagons are the only fabric therapy that works! Thank goodness for hexagons! lol :)

"Beginnings"

As you may have noticed, I am participating in a creative prompt project with Jaye leading the way! (see Clara the cow on your right) The idea is to commit to once a week, entering something in your personal creative journal. A creative journal can be anything you want it to be. A word is posted once a week and you draw, write, or create whatever you want to in your journal. It can be quilt related or not. You can even write about the word using more words. You can make a collage. You can just doodle. You don't even have to address the actual word that is given for that week!

The whole idea is to get you to do something, anything, once per week to see how this project develops and how it affects you to use your personal journal to express things.

I did my response to "Beginnings" last night. I have just found out that work is going to promote me to one of the management positions. This means going full time and managing other employees. It is quite appropriate that "Beginnings" is the first word for my creative art journal, as this is a whole new beginning phase of my life!
This drawing depicts many of the emotions of the moment. I am scared that I won't be "good enough" at this new position at work. There is a lot of new things to learn and a lot of pressure to perform 'right' in the job. I also have a lot of things to fix that have not been addressed in months. I know I can do it, I just hope I can do it good enough for my own personal standards of achievement.

On the other hand, I am sad. I am making a change in my life that I have never wanted to make. I am mourning the loss of my free time and of my 'old job' of being a full time homemaker and quilter. At age 54 I am having to work at a full time job in order to make ends meet. I have a lot of personal 'mind-work' to do in order to make this all work without going bonkers in the process. I was so spoiled in my "past" life!!!

Having the journal to draw a picture of the thoughts, rather than to write the words of those thoughts, has been liberating in a way. I can't explain it. I just feel it.

QUILTING UPDATES:
I am continuing to work on the hexagon quilt. I have 11 more flowers done. I need a total of 173 flowers and 14 half-flowers. I have 98 flowers and one half-flower done. I have 13 half-flowers and 75 full flowers to make before I have enough to finish the quilt top.

Progress is flying along on the Pickle Summer Mystery quilt. I am now joining larger pieces into larger blocks. This is the point I like best in quilting as it feels like I might actually get this thing done someday soon! lol
Here are just a few of the blocks up on the design wall:

And here is a closeup of the ones on the left:

I have today off before beginning the new job tomorrow. I hope to sew more on the pickle quilt, practice music for an upcoming performance this summer, and relax later tonight watching TV while hand sewing on the hexy quilt.

I hope everyone has a smurfy Sunday!!!

Plugging away at 'stuff'

Here is a fleece shirt that I plan to remake. I want to lengthen the sleeves and put a matching collar on it:

I am ironing out hexagon papers to make more hexagons with. I have a whole bin of used papers. I need 84 more hexagon flowers to complete my quilt!

Here is the 2008 Summer Pickle Mystery quilt progress. I have two layout ideas for it, this one is the first:

And this second one is probably the one I will go with:

We are expecting to be iced in tomorrow here in Arkansas. Brrrrrrrrrr, it is cold outside!!!

Over halfway should be a good thing, right?

NOT!!! I have been procrastinating and not doing much in the studio these days. Work has improved though, and I can feel my creative juices waking up! In this spirit I made the mistake of finally calculating just how many more flowers I need to make for this hexagon quilt. I need a total of 173 flowers and 14 half-flowers. I have 87 done. I have 86 MORE to do, not counting the half-flowers!!!Ok, ok, think positive Sherri. I AM over halfway done...by one flower. (whimpering yippee???)

By the way, each flower consists of 19 hexagons, not counting the black borders between each. That means I have done over 1,700 individual hexagons in this quilt! I am not sure if that makes me feel better or worse? lolol

Thimble talk and more!

I recently talked to a fellow blogger about hand-sewing. I shared my thimble experiences with her. This is a photo of my favorite thimble:


There are several types of this style thimble on the market. However most are lighter weight than mine are. I like the heavier ones. The light ones are probably just as nice but for some reason the 'feel' of the heavier ones suits my brain better. :) I love the ridge around the top. I wish I knew the maker of these! If I were to see it again I would recognize it by the packaging. It was a simple small zip-lock baggie with a cardboard insert, IF I remember correctly, that is! I purchased it at a quilt show several years ago. I have seen them in quilt shops in CA too. I need to find some again and buy myself a spare one!

I've tried many different thimbles with the exception of the Roxanne ones. Someday I hope to try one of them, but truly this thimble, that I already have, makes me so happy, I don't feel the need to buy anything else. Heaven help me if I were to lose it! I have one in size nine and one in size ten as I find my finger changes sizes with weather and health. :)

One quick project, I just tried, is this coaster:

It was made from the selvage edges of a quilt I recently finished. I just crocheted the selvage strips into a simple circle pattern.


I continue to work on the hex-quilt. I am making dozens of only black hexagons now, as I near the end of this project.

December 18th progress:

Back:

Close-up of the back:

A sewing machine will never touch this quilt. IF I ever finish the top, I will be hand quilting it too. All the hexagons are joined by hand. The back shows some of the hexagon papers still in place. I have a pretty good sized bin of hexy papers I have taken out of it. I reuse many of them as I keep adding to this quilt. It will be king sized when done.

Off to sew more on a few projects that don't have deadlines. Fabric therapy makes me very happy! :D

This will be a busy week! We have nine for Thanksgiving this year. All are family members and this will be the biggest all-family-only gathering I have had in eleven years! They are all from my husband's side of the family and I haven't met several of them in the ten years I have known my husband! I am excited about cooking for everyone in our new house :)

I have been working hard in the studio and have a commission quilt in.

I finished the coffee quilt,

a table runner,

four autumn themed place mats,

four Christmas themed place mats,

several potholders,

and a coiled rug from my retro-scrapes,

Of course I have added to the Hexy Quilt as well.

I have two more quilts to quilt and the binding left to do on the commissioned quilt. I plan to shut the studio down after that, until after Christmas.

The weather is warm and raining here today. I expect it will turn very cold soon. The Hexy Quilt is a welcome layer of warmth as I work on it by hand, while watching TV at night.

I wish everyone a very nice Thanksgiving Day!