Finally Finished

I finished adding the binding to the final baby clothes quilt.  This ended up being the 3rd of 3 that I kept for DD.  The others are a twin, a double, and this one a very generous full/queen.  I made so many others with her baby clothes many of them completely reversible such as this one is.  This feels like an end.  I'm actually glad to see it too.  Knits are such a picky fabric to use in quilts.  While it might be an end to the endless baby clothes quilts it's the beginning of the next chapter and I can finally close the book on everything I started three years ago.  I refused to part with any of DD's baby clothes and stored them away like a squirrel jealously guarding a winter's hoard.

Then my Dear Friend Heather told me about the conception of her son; we didn't know yet that she was having a boy.  That was a great day and I was so happy for her.  I still didn't want to share any of DD's old clothes but I thought, maybe if she was having a boy, which is ironic since some of DD's clothes came from her!  Lucky enough for my heartstrings she was indeed having a boy (who is now in Pre-K!) and that's when I first started allowing myself to pick things out of storage.  In fact Heather got every last stitch of neutral to boy I had.  Oh I did hold one back, you can see it in the heart in the bottom left corner of the above picture.  See the blue with darker blue stripes?  That was a footed sleeper, I bought it because my DH told me he was sure we were having a boy and I believed him.  We have a picture of me with that sleeper draped over my belly laughing.

And all of this got me to thinking.  My mother had quilted, my grandmother had sewn, why couldn't I make a quilt of these clothes?  So I did.  I took what the storage containers claimed to be dear goodness 52 gallons of clothes.  I spent at least two months first cutting out the seams and then stabilizing the knits.  Oh yes that's what I said.  I started with interfacing but that was a real ironing nightmare with all those clothes so I switched to the stabilizer and spray adhesive and then after piecing ripped it out of each quilt before quilting.  It was a real mess.  Yet that's where I started.  By that point I didn't know I'd found a passion that would allow me to explore every pent up bit of myself I'd ever boxed away.

My blog changed as I did.  Instead of just the odd mother who talked about her daughter and only sometimes mentioned any physical limitations.  I found this entirely new quilting world online.  Which is good because I've long since worn out the ear of any loved one that doesn't live with me.  Lucky for me DH and DD are still happy to listen most of the time.  Aren't you glad I still talk about my cats too?

Since I knew how hard it was to part with those darling baby clothes both of my larger baby clothes quilts bear a label proudly honoring the three moms who shared their beloved baby's clothes with me.  The quilting is feathers moving through sashing of the front between every block.  Mostly because I knew I had DD's quilts already tucked safely away, I knew I couldn't ruin anything and I thought it would make good practice.  Then the blocks are quilted with mostly double hearts, though there are some singles and a few triples to represent our family and the three wonderful women who shared more than just clothes.

Do you See What I see?

Today I worked on the final baby clothes quilt.  This is a near twin of one I made the first year I was quilting.  I accidently made nearly twice as many blocks as I needed so I called it serendipity and made another top.  This one is bigger than the original and measures 90" square.  It has a pieced back as well, which I will show you after I get the binding attached.  For now I've finished the quilting.  Praised be!  And delt with all the threads and trust me there were a lot.

This was my first BIG quilt to quilt on the mid arm frame.  I will say there is theory which I picked up as much as I could reading everything I could get my hands on.  This is real tangible data, but it has no true meaning until reality combines and the key clicks.

Keys to making the key click:

1. There are such a thing as defective needles.  It might look great but if you've changed the thread, adjusted the tension, checked your needle plate for burrs, called in some else who knows more than you, clearly rethreaded the machine a zillion times, and checked the manual...  Guess what?  It might just be that brand new needle.  This one in particular I felt the burr as soon as I removed it from the sewing machine.  Wish I'd thought of that before loosing hours and hours.

2.  When quilting on a quilt frame needle size should be two sizes bigger.  So if you've always done freemotion quilting with a side 90/14  you need an 18.  Don't try to bull you're way past that needle size.  My home machine doesn't care, but the Janome 1600P, goes so fast it cares and will shred your thread.

3.  Thread does matter.  I read somewhere that Janome 1600's likes overlock thread, you know the two strand serger thread?  I'm still trying to figure out if that's true.  But currently I have everything set perfectly for the quilt I just quilted using So Fine Thread.

4.  In a the span of half of a 12" block you should not have any thread breakages.  Certainly not the 3-5+ I was experiencing for the past month.

When everything comes together it's like the best homemade gravy you've ever had smothering the best pot roast you've ever tastes.  I'm sure there are more keys to unlock and mid arm frame tricks to learn.  But I can't tell you how happy I am that after 5 amazing passes last night I stopped at half way and went to bed.  Today I finished the quilt!  Okay I still have the binding - let me know when you find a quilting frame that will sew that on too, I'm sure everyone will want one.

Do you know what that means?  Another quilt from the quilt list will be gracing my living room.  I wonder which one it will be?  Actually I already know, but you'll find that out soon enough.

Back Flimsy Finished for Scatty Stars

After much deliberation and should have checked twice math ordeals, such as counting the number of pink monkey squares in the purple and monkey border, and then saying but half is one color and half is another so I only need to cut 15 of each, instead of 30 of each.  Or how the quilt oddly grew a single inch in both directions after I figured out that border and had it all pieced.  I'm glad to say the Scatty Stars quilt back is all finished.  I do like the way the gradient of pink tones show through the borders of color.  The dark pink on the outside will also be the binding for this as well as the baby clothes memory quilt I have in the quilt frame right now.

So here it is a detail of the borders as well as both the top and bottom flimsies folded together.  This is sure to be one cuddly quilt when I've quilted it.  As I was thinking about the quilting last night when DD and I shared dinner together, DD told me I should quilt Zinnia's on it.  DD and DH planted some Zinnias last week and they have come up with a passion.  I'm not sure how to freemotion Zinnias in a way that will give me the all over panto feel I was wanting for this quilt.  I did think that I could quilt Zinnias into the rail fence blocks as though they are blooms, but I'm concerned to much quilting dense quilting such as the Zinnia flowers would cause the quilt to loose some of it's cuddle factor.  I always worry about that a little, and of course I love the finished project but standing here I'm just not sure how to proceed.  I have some time to think about it as I need to finish the Baby Clothes Quilt before anything else can go on the frame.

It's the last day of the weekend but it feels like the first.  Constant bursts of heat lightning kept me awake past when I would have normally gone to sleep.  Heat lightning is wonderful amazing even, when you're 20 and on a date, but when you're trying to sleep and keep seeing flashes through your eye lids it's less than desirable.

Hurricane Irene has made landfall and as her feeder bands have been splashing rain on and off I'm inclined to say the heat lightning is a byproduct of her mess.  I am very grateful that all my loved ones are safe and sound while my heart goes out to those others who have lost theirs in this awful time of need.  Those of us that have lived through Hurricanes and come out the other side a bit more broken than we would have liked - our thoughts and prayers are with you.

With Needle and Thread: Little Quilts

I went to my very first quilt show every, presented by The West Pasco Quilters' Guild, and before you ask as I told the lady at the gallery I'm just a silent fan.  Much to far to pay a taxi to get to their meetings.  This was the With Needle and Thread: Little Quilts, at the Progress Energy Art Gallery and will be there until the 27th of August.  I have a great many pictures of these delightful minis, so why not sit back and enjoy my reviewing.  There are many pictures, so you'd better get a glass of tea, or a something before you sit down with me.  I will go in order as I saw them and add comments as I see fit.  Please feel free to click on anything you want to see closer.

This is as you first walk in, and I found it perfect to set the scene. 

This is a dream catcher, the roughness around the edges only added to the quilt. 

This art quilt was detailed with so many different fibers it grew more beautiful the longer you looked at it.

This crab quilt is extremely noteworthy for the crab is actually part of the hand dyed fabric.  All of the quilting serves to enrich this quilt. 

 Hand embroidered.

 This is a 3-D quilt that comes right out and pulls you in.  The background is hand detailed fabric and I loved how some of the butterflies were truly in a net.

 This was an interesting piece hand applique of which you will see another one of in a bit.

 Teeny Tiny Sunbonnet Sues, I added my thumb to give you perspective of size.

This is a personal favorite of many of the visitors to the gallery according the volunteer who was working there.  I think it's cute myself. 

Handmade matching bias tape gave this piece a nice touch. 

I believe the center of this a print, but the beautiful beading and quilting really set it above.  The bead work is all those lovely flags as well as the mainlines for the sail.  Then the quilting gave real depth. 

 Maybe I'm a nut but I always like to see how quilters constantly come up with new ways to use rickrack and this mini was no exception.

This is another piece that really sprang up off the wall.  The depth of the workmanship here can really be seen in the details. 

I thought these were just lovely, and I was delighted by this point to discover that we were alone in the gallery and the flash wasn't effected by the glass. 

 This is a swing kit, complete with the little felt swatches where you would store your needles.

I didn't notice this one right away, and thought it was two pieces but no, a quilt as a box of candies! 

 You're entering another room, see all the quilts on the wall?  I told you it was a real show.

This quilt is called 20 tiny bubbles.  I liked the real seashells and coral at the bottom but as I looked back at it I noticed all the little graduated pearls coming from the fish. 

This quilt is called the Green Eyed Monster.  The eyes were all done with seed beads that riveted me.  This quilt reminds me of like my brother would draw.  He's 11 now.  The quilting, theme, and the movement of this quilt reminds me of him and I would guess it was either done by a young artist or inspired by one. 

This one is called Remembering Guam. 

This dragon caught my eye from across the room.  It is applique but actually relief cut to show the wings.  Real talent went into this quilt. 

Here is our second medallion that I mentioned above.  The lighting washed out the purple a bit and I was certainly wishing for full spectrum lighting by the time we were here.  I think it would have been nice to have both pieces next to each other allowing a direct compare and contrast of the two artists. 

Now the curator asked me which one was my favorite and oddly it is this one.  Normally I do get into landscape quilts, but this one is different.  They are not the colors I would have selected but yet it pulls me in. There is a use of glittered fabric here that really grabs the eye.  The far lilly of the valley are seed beads but in the foreground they are tufts of rough cut fabric.   

This is a hand appliqued and hand quilted quilt.  The humming bird is especially nice along the top edge of the feathers as the hand stitching bites into the wings giving them a real nice depth.  I wondered about this clean quilt, clearly so painstakingly made.  The binding is machine stitched on, and I wondered if perhaps the quilter ran out of time. 

Now this quilt.  My friend and neighbor who was with me thought this looked like a stained glass quilt and I agree but the methodology is so different from the traditional stained glass.  The rocks - I will call them that are appliqued on with a straight stitch between 1/8" and a scant 1/4" from the edge.  The butterfly details are reverse applique with the fabric being cut away to revel the color under neath. I liked the metal and glass butterfly in the corner as well.

What do you see when you look at this quilt?  I see lots and lots of thread.  This is certainly one to see closer.  What I loved about this quilt is that while it is an abstract it all of the thread painting make it so real.  So often I would look at a quilt like this online and be completely flabbergasted at the ability and skill, but seeing it up close touched me in that I feel like it wouldn't be so far fetched to try something like this (in teeny tiny can't regret the loss of fabric someday in a year or two) kind of way. 

I believe this was started on an embroidery machine because while the beautifully satin stitched leaves could have been done on a sewing machine the "LOVE" gives it away.  The flowers though those are nice, I believe they are all ribbon embroidery.  Lovely.

This piece was nice how the binding changed through the setting sun. 

This quilt called me back, it actually has dime sized - okay maybe a bit smaller lady bugs.  See them?  They give this quilt just the right final touch. 

 This green bracelet was for sale in the display case.  I didn't ask how much it was, I'm not good about keeping things seed beads that on their string.  The artist made the box underneath for it to come in, but what really drew my eye is that it looked like little dragonflies.  For a person that loves dragonflies, this would have made a great gift.

Swatch Day = My Custom Meerkat Fabric

I don't know how many of you have ordered custom fabric before.  I have and it's one of those things that seems to have it's good with the bad.  I'm not going to bother listing them but I did want to show you the delightful swatch that showed up on my doorstep on Monday.  I could not be happier with this print.  See below the original picture I used in my Meerkat post the other day?  Now look at the scan of my wonderfully new Meerkat Fabric on the left.  I scanned the fabric this time instead of taking a picture so the lighting in the room wouldn't adversely effect the colors.  If you wondered the lines in the picture that you see is actually the weave of the fabric itself, the scanner didn't quite know what to make of it.  For the fabric I went with something they were calling a light canvas linen, which should hold up nicely to all of my happy gazes.  I think it might become a pillow for the couch.  Aren't those designers always telling us to fill our home with things we love?

From this printing the things that stand out most to me are that I didn't doctor the print much, I just went with the original photograph (pictures posted to blogger have a lower resolution automatically than the original) and tweaked that for size.  I just love the way his markings printed out so wonderfully rich and right on.  The shrub and green plant life are rather out of place from a Meerkat's natural environment, but for a vacation picture, not to mention fabric for a vacation memento, it's marvelous.

The Beginnings of Scatty Star's Backing

The backing for Scatty Stars is all the flannels that I used on the front.  So lots of happy novelty prints in pinks and then some of the solid blue and pink from the front.  I made the center of the back proportional to the finished size of the front, that way I can just keep bordering this out until it grows to the size I need it to be.

Currently the center is puppy dogs with rubber duckies, hearts, and bones, followed by a blue border, and next kitty cats in various states of sleep and dress.

When I was taken the picture of this I thought you might like to see these cats and dogs in better detail, so I took a second picture just for you to see.  I think my next border will be one of the solid pink, but I'll have to sleep on it.

A Morning Border Finishes Scatty Stars Flimsy

This morning I finished the top of Scatty Stars.  I know let's dance a jig and be merry!  Here it is laid out with the two borders I added.  I really like the finish that the folded border and the pink give it.  I think a dark pink or purple border will be in order.  The dark pink I have whereas the purple would mean I'd bust my "stash only" efforts on this quilt.  So we'll see.

Now I just wanted to post the next picture for those of you whose eyebrows found your hairline over my 1/8" seam.  This seam really it just a bit of stay stitching to hold the folded border to the quilt top while you sew on the next border with a traditional quilter's 1/4" seam.  See how that looks on the backside with the first seam and then the second sewn next to it.  For a full set of directions, complete with pictures, of this folded border you can click on the link and visit where my friend Vicki for a full tutorial.

Currently I'm off to go play with EQ over the back for this quilt.  I'm thinking I'd like to stick with the 9.5" blocks if only because that's what those four extra rail fence blocks are.

Until next time Sew Happy!

Sunny Love

I've been at war with myself all afternoon.  Do I send friends to SewCalGal's site and beg them to shamelessly vote for Sunny as crowd favorite best of cats on quilts?  Then I saw a post from Sue reminding everyone that voting is open to everyone even those that did not participate in the Pet's on Quilts show.  So that means if you want to share the love for my handsome boy and possibly win us some quilt stuff - not to mention have my undying happiness forever, you'll head over there right now polls are open until Midnight Pacific Standard tonight.

I know I'm shameless, but can't you see how tired Sunny is?  We went to every single entry, okay I did - he mostly laid around the hallway sleeping.  But I didn't vote for myself and I thought that was quite upstanding.

To vote click this link which will take you directly to the proper post on SewCalGal's site. Sunny is #71 for those wishing to vote for him leave a comment saying I vote for # 71, or whichever one you'd like.  There is a category for dogs, cats, other pets, Art Quilt, and EQ Quilt so you can vote selecting your own choices one per category.  And while my DH might claim Sunny is mostly dog...  I'm certain he's a cat.  There are over 400 posted comments there, so don't worry you're going to the right place.  Thanks!

The Quilter's book of Age

What do you do when it's raining so hard that you need to have the computer unplugged?  Well DH and DD curled up and watched Back to the Future II, I know I got a kick out of DD's enjoyment of the movie, surely a good one for all generations.  But rather than settle down and watch with them I snuck off to the sewing room.  Turned on my good 'ole Little mechanical Elna and the iron and set to work creating the folded border for Scatty Stars.

Now I knew when I saw the quilt of Scatty Stars, that I would most likely deviate at the borders, though this is a little earlier than I'd planned.  Currently I have the folded border attached, but it's only 1/8th seam so I'm not going to unfold and spread it out for you.  Next I'm thinking I will add a 2.5" border of the pink flannel and then the front should be done.  I did find my tape measure, DD seems to be whisking it away at odd moments and the quilt is currently 67x52.5.  A 2" sewn in border would bring me up to 71"x56.5" and that seems plenty big enough for this quilt.

I'm really looking forward to getting started on the back for this quilt.  I'm thinking good sized blocks of the novelty flannel from the front.  Not sure what size though.  12" seems a bit big but 3" is much to small.  Any thoughts?  I'm wondering if I should let the size of the blocks on the back let the math work itself out to work with the front size measurements.  Time will tell.

I've really been enjoying visiting all the blogs in the pet's on quilts show.  Yesterday I was doing pretty good when all of the sudden an awful headache hit me.  Later when it started raining - aka pouring I knew the headache was from that and would leave soon.  I am much to young to be feeling the weather like that.  So it says here in my quilter's book of age.

Pets On Quilts Entry

This post has a second title and that is:

Sunny's Bad Day

FYI, Sunny is safe and as sound as he ever is now.  The morning of August 11th I was sleeping in, happily curled up under a quilt of my own making I pepped open one eye when my 6 year old daughter came running in.  "Daddy Lost Sunny and now he's outside!"

Say what?  Most of that went right into and out of my sleep fogged brain.  But I heard the words; lost, Sunny, outside and that was more than enough to have me pushing myself up from the bed. I tried to think clearly while convincing DD to explain it to me.

Eventually I got the whole story.  It was pouring down rain that morning and as our yard had just been mowed my DH went to check the neighborhood drains to make sure the rainwater was draining away instead of clogging up.  He came in and closed the door behind him.  As DH went into the kitchen to make another cup of coffee he heard our infamous Sunny digging in the litter box.  After a bit of early morning putzing DH went to the mud room and was alarmed to find the front door wide open.    Seems the door hadn't quite latched.  DH went outside and looked around - no sign of anything.  So he closed the door (for real this time) and started a systematical search of the entire house.

Some of you already know Sunny is a special needs cat.  He had two operations before he was a month old due to an upper respiratory infection that went to his eye, which sadly is somewhat common in feral neonatal kittens.  Sunny is not all there at least part of the time.  He has spent at least part of his past 7 years trying to get back under our house where we found him.  Back to his mother (who was hit by a car and died a handful of years ago) and his mute brother (who died while Sunny himself was undergoing medical treatment for his eye).

I adore my Sunny, he lights up my days and makes me laugh so I was quick to become the crazy woman standing at the door in my pj's yelling "Sunny, Sunny!" out the back door.  I spent the day looking out the windows for my red fur ball, and DH was out searching whenever the rain would let up.  

Thankfully he was found around 3 that very afternoon, rolling around in my neighbor's driveway.  DH brought him to me and placed him in my arms.  He is a Maine Coon Mix so he was completely dry except for some very dirty wet feet.  But Sunny seemed inclined to stay in my arms and I'm not the type to wash a cat that has only just found his way home.

You'd think that would be the end of the story.  Cat returns home, everyone's happy.  But instead the tale goes on.  Sunny seemed to be more sort circuited than ever and would leave me only to get a drink or a snack out of his food bowl.  He seemed to get lost trying to come back to me and would call out crying.  I would call back to him and unlike his normal laid back personality that only comes when called sometimes, the new Sunny would come running and sit with me for hours.  Maine Coon cats don't often speak and when they do they have a low rip your heart out sort of voice.  That's what my Sunny sounds like.  This behavior went on for about four days, he even took to sleeping with us.  Let me tell you I love him but it wore a little thin.  Especially as he would sit on the floor in the kitchen while we were eating dinner look up at one of us and cry.  When he would jump down from my lap I began to wonder how long it would be before he would start crying again.  And crying it was - long and low and sad.  Thankfully after the 3rd day it started to lessen and now he's returned to his normal self.  I can't tell you how glad I am that everything is back to normal.

My friend Vicki told me about GPS and radio pet collars that allow you to track your pets.  I think Sunny needs one.

The Quilt Sunny is laying on is Patisserie Waltz and it's my daughter's quilt which I finished this spring.  The Quilt is traditionally called a Tennessee Waltz, as it uses both snowball blocks and the fight star block.  All I know is that when I saw that pretty Patisserie fabric I knew it had to be a quilt for DD.  Then I saw Eleanor Burns making this particular quilt on her show and I knew it was the perfect answer for this fabric.  My DH is a whiz with acrylic and made the triangle templates I needed and everything went together lickity split, of course until I tried to use fusible batting but that's a different story which you can read here.

That's my entry to SewCalGal's Pet's on Quilts Show.  So often we read sad stories online and never find out how the ending resolved.  Well let me tell you what this white pawed boy is staying inside with me!