April NewFO Just had to Finish

Meerkat Kindle Cover Finished

Yes, I said it, I just had to finish the Kindle cover, so this evening when all was nice and quiet except for some strong winds outside, I finished it all up.  For now I'm going without toggles, buttons, or velcro and I'll see how that goes.

Now for confessions of a 4 year quilter.  This kind of project is exactly why I have regularly been finding myself trying to explain that I am not crafty and I am in no way a crafter.  This project was so fussy and everything needed to be just so.  Not to mention on a small scale!  I can handle fussy in a quilt (though fussy quilting and I would rather only be friends every once in a while), but something like this?  Oh no.

Kindle Cover Ready to Read

I would love to be that woman; the one with the beautiful shop on Etsy, filled with nit picky beautiful items not to mention she churns out so many perfect little crafts that everyone just has to have, so she's being interviewed to talk about how she left her almost perfect job to start and run her own business?  I'm not that gal, and unlike some I'm not even going to bother to pretend I'm that girl.

Kindle Cover Middle

Want quilts?  Want to watch them grow and chance from fabric yardage into family friendly cuddly comfort items?  If that's the case you've found the right place.

It is like cooking.  I'm a home cook.  I can and do.  But if someone said here is a sewing machine and 2,000 bolts of fabric you can have this to sew with as long as you'd like or take this designer chef's kitchen - honey I'd take the fabric!  Which begs the question what would you take?  What is your equivalent of a designer kitchen?

April New FO Posting

Kindle Cover WIP front

Today I started a new project.  This is the cover for my Kindle that I have been looking forward to making.  The meerkat fabric is a custom swatch made from a picture my DH took when we were on vacation last year.  I did a bit of hand stitching to say "Mom's Kindle" at the bottom.

The additional fabric on the back is a fusions fabric and on the inside is a delightful bit of hand dyed fabric that some of you might recall from the Mermaid Quilt I made last year.
I planned a little pocket inside which I have started as you can see below, ribbons will hold the Kindle in and gussy up the pocket.

I had hoped to finish it today, but I've decided I'm going to like the finished product more than I had previously thought, so instead of cardboard I will need to find my template plastic to give the cover some protection.

Kindle cover WIP front and back

After adding the plastic and stitching it in I will finish this with a bit of binding. As for the closure, what do you think a toggle, or velcro?  I'm currently leaning towards a toggle as I am concerned about anyone pressing against the screen.

At first I wanted to quilt reading friendly words over the back, but changed my mind before starting the quilting.  I like the texture it has this way.  As for the Meerkat print, it is echo quilted with clear mono filament, my favorite.  Not.

Kindle cover WIP inside

Today is April's NewFO show off day and in addition to this newly begun project, I did start and finish two radiant glow blocks for my Lone Star Quilt which you can see here.

Did you work on anything new this month?  Why not make a post about us and join us.  I'm sure Cat Patches would be happy to have a more quilters involved.

This month actually marks the first month that I didn't finish the project I started as my NewFO, but finishing isn't part of the rules.  All you have to do is start something new.  What a refreshing change.  The random draw is for another darling handmade quilter's pin.  This month's pin looks like a log cabin block in pink and black.

Foto Finish: Warm

DD Age 3 Warms my Heart

Today's subject for Foto Finish over at Cat Patches is warm.  I started in one folder of pictures and made my way through about 7 years of pictures.  Warm?  Should I have a picture of a sweaty person?  A Whole Family?  Would someone or a pet curled up with a quilt be "warm"?  That's when I found this one in a folder titled Family Pictures and I simply had to share.  It's date stamped August 2008, so DD would have been a solid 3 years old at the time this was taken.  Sheesh, can you imagine being cuter at three?

Person in a swim suit?  Check.
Warm?  Surely check.
Warms my heart?  Double Check.

The house even looks clean, where did that momma go and can she please come to my house and clean here too?

I find at six she's just as heart warming...

2 of 8 Radiant Glow Arcs for Lone Star

Slowly, seems to be the word that best describes the Lone Star Quilt.  Tuesday and Wednesday were good days and I got one glow arc done on each of those days.  They are taking over four hours a piece!  So steady I go.  I just started on the third arc.  With the quilt layout I'm using I'll be needing 8 of these.   Now I do have my first sample arc, before I changed the white on white fabric they are made from.  Not sure what I'll be doing with that little odd ball, a pillow perhaps?  Time will tell.

A darling neighbor, who is my one and only client for occasional alterations, asked me if this is a quilt on contract.  Wouldn't that have been nice!!!

Have you been up to anything good?  I'd love to hear of anything that doesn't involve 32+ hours of paper piecing!

Pillow for Hawaiian Ocean Quilt Completed

Yes, I made a pillow to match.  Does anyone recall me working on the beading on this pillow?  DD was very impressed with the final product so we took some time yesterday afternoon to talk about the difference between glass beads and plastic ones both of which are used on the pillow, as well as some of the other kinds out there.  

The piping is blue around the edge and the back is a wonderful watercolor teal blue with hints of other colors in it as well. 

Can anyone see my little furry helper in the bottom corner of the picture?  Feel free to click on the image to see more closely.

Hawaiian Ocean Turtle Quilt Finished!

Oh I love a good finish.  This one is especially nice for me because you see, Vicki gave me this pattern Fall of 2009! Now your eyes just flew open at it having been that long.  I started on it right away.  She told me to practice so I did, and made one quilt which was a charity quilt, I told you about it the other day.  Then I had to go and make things difficult.  I had seen a website selling both halves of the applique as two different blocks (of a completely different pattern mind you and that was die cute), the cutaway parts can be used on a second quilt which I thought was excellent, after all why waste fabric?  I asked DH to redraft the pattern so it could be used in that way.  Which he did.

Hawaiian Ocean Applique Turtle Quilt

Turtle Quilt Reversible Back

Hence Ocean Turtles, this quilt and Earth Turtles were born.  Earth turtles is awaiting a quilt back before it can be quilted, but my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Turtles are all done!  Yippie and hooray.   This is a twin/twin xl and my pictures show it on a double sized bed where it rests nicely on top.

The back is pieced as well, with the green squares within in the water sashing highlighting the colors of the back and really making the entire quilt come together.  The binding is the same green fabric that the turtles are made from.

Water lapping echos move around the turtles and the borders have small turtles swimming up and down with the lapping water echo quilting moving around the baby turtles as they swim.

Turtle Quilting Detail

This is my first finish of 2012, though with it being this big and this pretty I can only hope all the others I finish this year will be as charming.

Tiny on Ocean Turtles

Turtle Quilting Finished, Or not?

Oppsie!  I thought the quilting for the turtle quilt was all done.  Yet when I was tucking in the quilting thread ends I found this odd little spot.  Notice anything?

Turtle quilting detail

If you're stumped that roman cross should close as it makes up the side of two of the turtles heads when it does.  Good thing I can fix that on the Elna.

I'll work on that tomorrow along with the binding.

 

The Question of...

Who used Mommy's scissors and why?  

There is one really great thing about having given up machine embroidery and spray basting quilts on the floor (because they go on the mid arm frame now).  The reason is, my tools are never sticky.  Not my scissors, not my machine, not the floor, nor the cutting rulers...  Yet this afternoon when I snagged my thread scissors from their post at the quilting machine handles, I noticed they were covered in gunk.  Not toddler touches something gunk (don't have any of those, thank goodness) but sticky gunk.  Like someone was using them to cut something sticky gunk...  At least I have my DK5 so they are all clean now, but don't you worry I'll rat out who did it, and when I do...  They'll be using their own scissors from now on, and trust me everyone in this house owns at least one pair of scissors.

How many pairs of scissors do you own?  DD at age 6 has 2 pairs.  DH, oh boy, has at least four pairs that I can think of off the top of my head.  Me?  You want to know how many pairs I have...  Well let me think, four or maybe five pairs.  With three of those being really good ones, because you just can't have enough really good scissors...

Christmas Quilt-a-long April Afternoon Check-In

Okay I have all of this month's Mystery Quilt Assignment done!  Are any of you longing to know what this will look like?  Well I'm stumped.  Sue made a comment last month about seeing who would catch on first.  Well it's not going to be me.

I think I must have been on a roll when I was cutting these because I was supposed to end up with 20 of these triple sets, but I have 21, plus the little guy on the right.  Anyone want to tell me how you over cut fabric the same number of squares in both colors?  Perhaps I can make something happen on the back with those extras.
The Kindle cover will have to wait until another day because while the pattern doesn't call for the interfacing I know I'll be unhappy if I make it without it. Besides I think I hear the turtles calling me.  I wonder what that would sound like - turtles calling that is.  Blup, blup?  Bubble, Bubble?  Considering I had to rip out an hour's worth of quilting yesterday (it took two hours to rip it out mind you)  I think the Bubble, Bubble is surely right.  Yep, Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Turtle Trouble!

Christmas Quilt-a-long April Morning Check-In Year 3

Good Morning Everyone!

I'm here as bleary eyed as my computer seems to be.  But we'll fix that with the breakfast of champions Coffee and an Apple Cereal Bar and maybe a computer reboot...  I'm really looking forward to getting started on today's Mystery quilt assignment. I can hardly wait to see what's been cooked up for us to do today. 

I'm not sure what else I'll get up to today, I'm torn between starting a cover for my Kindle which I am almost certain I need interacing for, or if I will just continue quilting on the Hawaiian Ocean Turtle quilt that I worked on during last years Quilt-a-long.  Either way it's sure to be fun.

April's Hostess with the Mostest is Lesley at the Cuddle Quilter, I'll see you there!

Christmas Quilt-a-Long April

Guess what tomorrow is!  It's the Christmas Quilt-a-Long!  This month our hostess is none other than Lesley over at the Cuddle Quilter. It's 80 degrees here with 40% humidity, though the breezes are blowing in through my open window so it feels quite comfortable here.  Not precisely Christmas weather but if it gets to hot I'll just turn on the air conditioner.  Lesley is a real ball of energy so it's sure to be a fun day, not to mention she's in the UK so anyone that wants to be a really early bird will find her ready to go, I myself will sleep in just as long as I can.  Which is likely to be 8 am if I'm lucky.

What will I be working on?  Well I'm looking forward the the next installment of the Christmas Mystery Quilt, mine is actually even Christmas themed this year, unlike last years.  I don't know what else I'll be doing as the sewing room became the staging/holding area throughout our Spring Break last week, so it's a bit of a mess right now.  Hope to see you in the morning.

Happy Easter

From our home to yours we wish you a beautiful Easter Sunday.

Traditional Easter Nest Breakfast

Lone Star Quilt-a-Long Day Afternoon

Just for fun I thought I would show you the two white on white fabrics.  The woman in the fabric department told DH that they were full restocked from when they sold out.

I like my idea to have the smaller print on the small pieces of the glows and the larger print that I adore going around the top and bottom of the block.  I think it will look very nice.

The Trouble with Reprints

This is the first Saturday of the month and that means it's Lone Star Support Group Quilt-a-long Day.  Yippie!  Well, not so much.  My friend Vicki mentioned it at the beginning of the week and I thought good DH is home on some well earned vacation time, he can trace those glow patterns and I'll have something to show for my month.  But we've been busy.  I've tried to make something fun happen each day this week, and along with the Honey Do request list we've been covered up.

• We've gotten a new bed.  It is beautiful, a Mahogany poster with short posters that are only about 5' at the headboard and about 4.5' at the food board.
• Right now DH is installing a remotely recorded security system.  So the next time someone tries to steal from us we will have a nice recorded image of them.  
• DD and I have been doing craft projects.  I am not a crafter.  Not everything has turned out as nice as the pictures.  Many people think quilting and crafting go hand in hand and that if you can visualize a beautiful quilt you must be good with glue and what not.  That's not me.  I don't like the mess of crafting and I find it often costs more than you expect and you end up with something that you have to keep forever because you made it and in my tiny house...  Right.
• In addition DD and I have been baking, at the beginning of this week we made Oatmeal, chocolate chip, Almond cookies.  As in one cookie with all those things in it.  They were surprisingly very good and I only have one left.  Today we're making our traditional family Easter Nest with Hawaiian Bread and coconut.  It's an old tradition for my family, but as DH doesn't like coconut I haven't made it in the past 10 years.  No time like right now to renew old favorites.

But enough of all that Today is Lone Star Day.  I have not sewn a single thing on this project.  BUT!!!!  I have picked apart a portion of my first glow, and I spent a great deal of time thinking about the Lone Star Quilt.  Why?  Maybe you remember I didn't buy enough fabric of the white on white and that I'd be going back to the store to buy more?  They were all sold out.  I tried twice.  Finally I sent my DH with the numbers from the one I was certain was the one and sent him with a swatch.  He told me the numbers matched and brought home a fabric that was close.  Even the weave and texture was right.  But the print wasn't quite as pretty, at least not to me.

Then I started thinking.  This was a matter of buying more fabric that I liked less (btw plan for 6 yards if your making the glows) and starting from the beginning.  Or perhaps having the corner glows with the first white on white background fabric and the other four, the ones on point having the second white on white fabric.  I liked that idea, but I was afraid because of the way I'd cut the first fabric I would get to the last block and not have enough.

Thinking is good, I recommend it.  As a week past it started to come to me.  The fabrics are very close, the difference is the paisley is about half the size in the second printing as it was in the first.  My master plan is that the fabric that I love the first fabric will make up the two arcs in the glow blocks.  I know I have enough because I cut all eight of those first.  Then the fabric between the mauve rays will be small bits and for that I will use the smaller print.  This way I get the most of what I really wanted.

Now instead of having one glow done I have none done.  But that's okay.  I'd rather love, love, love this quilt than hate that I under estimated yardage on a quilt I wanted to make and make well so badly.

That's where I'm at, how about you?  I've love to hear what you've been up to on your own Lone Star Quilt this month and for anyone watching it's not to late to join us.  Sue complied free patterns along with the one I'm using here and for those that would rather have a book here is the list of books she came up with and who is recommending which ones.  I made a tutorial just for this Group on How to Avoid Y-Seams in your Lone Star Quilts which you can read here.  Oh yes and here is tutorial I made last month for scaling up your background blocks if you decide to put glows in behind your star.

Turtle Quilting

Two mornings in a row we've spilled juice.  Yesterday it was DD and then today it was my turn.  I honestly have no idea what happened, the cup just sort of slipped out of my fingertips and landed splat upside down in front of Sunny.  Mere inches from him, oh you should have see the expression on his face, sort of a bewildered where did that come from look.  He was so surprised, his front feet started slipping out from under him while I cleaned up the mess.

Reverse of Hawaiian Turtle Applique Quilt - Quilting

While on the floor I happened to look up and saw the first row of turtle quilting that I've done.  I added a bit of echoing last night in blue like ripples in the water and I really liked that.  Looking up at my work I knew I just had to show you.

This picture reminds me of Dory from Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, what do we do, we swim, swimming, swimming."

The frame is set up just right and the carriage moves even more smoothly over the center joint than it did the last time DH had it set up extra long.