MSY Quilt top done, but not quilted :-(

Well, sometimes you try your best, but the best isn't quite good enough. I did get the quilt top finished today, but then a string of homework (7th grade algebra, ugh), and a school Christmas show took up a big chunk of the rest of the day and evening, and even with all layers ironed and ready to go, I just can't see me finishing it by midnight. I did submit it, in hopes that it makes it to the picture group, but also said it wasn't done :-(. Tonight, helping kids with homework and seeing a wonderful group of elementary kids perform for us was more important.

But here's the top all done! Plus I had one of my kids hold the quilt up to the light so I could take a picture. Have you ever noticed how wonderful quilts look that way? Kind of like stained glass. When I was at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show this summer, it was sunny, and all of the quilts were hung outside. As I walked behind many of them I noticed again and again how beautiful they look when you can "see" through them. I decided to use a solid white piece of fabric for the back, and the thinnest whitest batting I had on hand. Although now that I have a bit more time, I may buy a better piece. I will also have time to quilt it properly and not be in such a rush. I may even cut the borders off to make it smaller. I originally planned it to be smaller, and only had enough of the gray fabric to make it the size that it is. I live in a rural area where I can't run out to Jo-Anns too, so I added the border to make it the required minimum size for the contest.

Anyhow..... I'm off to bed, and can't wait to see all of the other entries for the contest. And yes, I have this quilt almost done :-)

Modern quilt contest

The project on my sewing table is something I've had in the works for a few years. I recently saw the contest that The Modern Quilt Guild has going on. It challenges us to create a quilt from a picture. The deadline is TODAY! Luckily, I have, not only the pictures that I've used for my inspiration, but I also had the quilt started... all the fabric bought, and cut out since last Spring. This contest is the perfect motivation for me to finish it. Unfortunately, I've also had a lot of other quilts that I needed to get done by certain deadlines, so I'm not sure this will get done today. Wish me luck!

Here's the picture of the inspiration. It's tile work from the New Orleans International Airport. Until my dad passed away 2 1/2 years ago, my family has lived in New Orleans or Baton Rouge for 40+ years. About a year ago, my mom moved from New Orleans to Dallas to be closer to my brother and her sister. This pictures was taken on our very last visit to New Orleans, in June of 2009. The kids and I flew there to help my mom pack up all of her house. Because of Katrina, there wasn't as much of it as there would have been. My parent's house had about 2-3 feet of water sitting in it for weeks, and almost everything was ruined. But that's another story.

This last trip was very bittersweet for me. This very airport terminal was the sight of a horrendous exodus, as people fled from the storm and its aftermath. In older parts of the terminal tiles are missing, broken, and a bit neglected, kind of like the city and the people of New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast, following Katrina and the BP oil spill. But I managed to snap this picture in a newer part of the terminal right before our own final flight away from New Orleans. It makes me so sad to no longer have family there, but I do have some friends still there, and hope to some day return. Until then, I DO know what it means to miss New Orleans. This quilt will remind me of the joyous city and place that I called home for many years.... Here it is in progress. Wish me luck. I'll try to post a picture of it finished as soon as it is!

PS It's Tuesday, and I'm linking up with Quilt Story's "Fabric Tuesday"! Take a look over there at the other wonderful fabric projects others are working on!

Santa came early...

It's not the flat screen TV that we really wanted, or a new sewing machine for that matter, but we just spent all of our Christmas money, and then some on some studded tires for my 2-wheel drive car. With all the snow and ice we've been having, it quickly became a necessity. My husband had to take off work parts of 2 days this week just so that he could take the kids to and from school in our 4-wheel drive truck. Last winter, we had an old AWD Subaru, but sold it this summer. I miss her!

The snow also caused our Portland family to cancel their visit to see us. The interstate through the Columbia River Gorge was closed to non-essential traffic due to ice and freezing rain. So we've had a pretty low-key holiday here. I've been busy finishing up some quilting projects. We also got the house all nice and clean as only you do when company's coming. I finally froze all the rest of the left-over turkey after multiple dishes of turkey the last few days. I'm hoping the kids go back to school on Monday, but we're still getting snow, and the roads are still pretty bad. Here's 2 quilt tops that I finished this week:

I was reflecting on how this is our first ever pair of studded tires, and how when I moved to Oregon 20+ years ago, I'd never even heard of studs, except for the manly kind! I bought a brand new Mitsubishi Mirage for $6000 in New Orleans, La, only days before I left to drive it across the country. As I was driving through southeastern Colorado, in early Spring, the weather turned to freezing rain. I heard on the radio that the interstate was requiring chains or studs, and since I didn't know what either were, I figured I didn't have them. The plain water in my washer fluid bin was turning to ice on my windshield, and I quickly found an exit with a hotel and holed up for the night.

The next day, I heard that the interstate in Wyoming was accessible with no restrictions, so I headed that way. I had never driven in snow before, so I crept along so slow that the plows and rock trucks kept passing me. The rocks that poured out of the back of these monsters (remember I was driving a Mirage... a tiny, 2-door car) quickly put some small cracks in my windshield, and popped so many tiny holes into my new paint job that when I got to Utah, I decided to keep driving until I got to Nevada, well past the storm. This was WAY before the days of the Internet, cell phones, or any of the more modern ways we now get weather data. For years, I had nightmares about driving in the snow.

Fast forward 20+ years, and it's hard to believe that it was only 20 years ago. So much has changed. Now, after living in Northern Michigan for a few years, and after learning to drive in icy mountains when I worked for the BLM, I know a thing or 2, but this place is so much different than Southern Oregon, or Michigan. So studs it is! So far I like them. I finally have a usable car again, and my husband doesn't have to drive kids around anymore. It makes me wonder what winters were like a few generations ago, and thankful for the times we live in.

Craft fail

OMG! Too funny! I'm featured twice on the same day... One for success, one for failure! I just found out that I was featured on the "Craft Fail" blog today too!



Look! I did the button again!

I'm new to free-motion quilting, and finally remembered to take a picture of my "failure" to post there. It's one of many, believe me!

The thing I love the most about craft fail, is that, although it pokes fun of our crafty attempts, it also reminds us that mistakes are sometimes out best teachers!!!

I've been featured!!

I recently submitted my quilt story to the blog, "Quiltstory" about the quilt I made for my husband, Chris for our 18th wedding anniversary. Well, it took me 19 years to finish it, since I started it when we first started dating. They put it up on their blog today! Go have a look!

I also figured out how to post the "button" right up there! Whew hew! I'm sure you can guess that since I've been married for 18 years, that computers aren't something I grew up with, but sewing machines sure were. With Thanksgiving tomorrow, I have to give much thanks to all of the women in my life who taught me how to sew, my mom, my grandma, and my aunt (mom's sister). All of whom sat patiently with me and helped teach and guide me. I feel so lucky!

Snow days

Even though the weather has been pretty dicey, keeping me mostly indoors the last few days, I haven't' been able to do much sewing, cleaning, or anything else for that matter. We had a winter storm come through, and both today and yesterday the kids have a 2 hour delay. Tomorrow they get out 2 hours early, plus I'm helping out in 5th grade tomorrow, so the week isn't shaping up to be very productive work-wise. But it is fun to see the snow! Here's what's outside my kitchen window right now!

Enjoy!

I hate it when that happens!

Sigh... This picture sure tells a tale..... As mentioned, I'm trying to learn free-motion quilting, and I just hate it when this happens. From the front, it looks like normal stitching, maybe a bit looser than normal, then suddenly my machine starts making strange noises, and comes to a screeching halt. I usually have to dissect and cut apart the thread from the needle on the top before I can flip it over and see this mess on the back. I honestly don't know why it happens, but it does from time to time. My tension is good, and the bobbin thread's been pulled to the top. All the possible culprits have been eliminated. If you have a clue, please tell me, because I haven't. A clue that is...

I just figure it's the machine's way of telling me it needs a break. She is 20+ years old... Even if you don't sew, you can imagine just how long it takes to remove all of these crazy stitches and get everything back in order again. I usually say a few choice words, then I myself have to take a break before I pick up my seam ripper.

Today I took a break looking at these wonderful African Safari pictures and blog stories that my friend Beth has been running lately in her blog, "Notes". I "met" Beth on-line a while back when we were both on a quilt-related message board. She was living in Chicago at the time, me in Northern Michigan. We've since moved to South Africa (Beth) and Oregon (me). She's shared a lot of free-motion know-how with me in the past too. If you need a break, jump on over to her blog and look at the incredible pictures of wildlife that she's been posting lately. Besides blogging and sewing, she's a very talented photographer as well.

On the bright side, the quilt that this happened to is now all quilted and ready to bind! I have another all pinned and ready to start quilting. I was hoping to do it tomorrow while the kids are in school, but this is what I saw when I let the dog out a few minutes ago, right before bed: (notice the snow shovel in the corner). Yep, it's been snowing all day, and now is starting to stick. They're predicting 2-4 inches, and out town does not have a snow plow, and very few flat roads. Hmmmm. I did get out to the grocery store today just in case.

I hope the weather and quilting is better where you are!

Learning new things

Today I've been free-motion quilting my "bear paw quilt" that I'm making for my niece for Christmas. Free-motion quilting is a relatively new skill for me, so I've been going at it slowly and a bit anxiously, not exactly pleased at the results, but at the same time excited and proud to be slowly gaining some proficiency at it. Like any new thing, it takes practice. And as I get better and better with each quilt, I feel myself being freed of those straight walking-foot quilting lines, and freed of paying a long arm quilter (yay!). Besides the financial motivation, which is a biggie, I had the unfortunate experience of having a quilt almost ruined by a long arm quilter. I put so much work into these quilts that to send it away and have no control over what happens in that aspect is scary. My unfortunate experience made me very motivated to learn how to do it myself.

I don't' have much room, and have learned that sitting at the dining room table does horrible anti- ergonomic things to my body, so I'm trying out this new set-up in my kitchen, standing up. I like it!

Here's the quilt so far. I'm hoping to finish it tonight!

I'm also learning to cook using a pressure cooker! It's been a goal of mine for a while now. Not only can you turn cheaper, tougher (and often more flavorful) cuts of meat into delicious perfectly done meals in a fraction of the time it'd take you in an oven, but it also uses a fraction of the fuel, or gas, so it's a much "greener" way to cook. Being more and more "green" is something I'm passionate about. The beans I cooked yesterday turned out wonderful!! I don't know what took me so long to try this! I've had the pot for 4-5 years now!!

One last thing to share is that I got back my bear paws that I did for the exchange at the local quilt shop. I turned in 12 of theses:

And got back these 12! Aren't they cute? No idea what I'll do with them yet... Any ideas?

With the week-end rolling around, my husband will be with us, and I'm hoping to get him to take over the kid and household chores so that I can get a bit more sewing in. Wish me luck!!

WIP Wed

Just a quick note to post a few pictures of my current work-in-progress's, for "Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday" link party. I have many more sitting on top of dressers, tucked away on shelves and piled onto bookshelves, but right now here's my ironing board in real time....
The main quilt I've been furiously working on is a very special gift that I don't want to show until after the recipient sees it first hand. I'm so happy with the way it's turned out so far, but still have a bit of work to do. I have the top all finished, and the colorful strips in front are part of the border. I hope I don't give away too much.

I've also got back on track with the quilt along I'm participating in. I'm doing 2 of them at once, to hopefully be finished my Christmas. Considering the time crunch and how many projects I have going right now, I made the decision to skip the "wonkification" of them, as this'll add an extra step, and right now I really need the time. Maybe I'll make a wonky quilt in 2011, but for now, I have enough tops to quilt, Christmas presents to finish, and other not-so-fun-household-things-to-do that I'm simplifying them.
As I was getting a bit overwhelmed with my things-to-do list, I took a time out to figure out what's up. I'm not usually so harried. I came to the realization that due to school vacations and sick kids, I've only had 3 out of 11 days that my kids have been in school (I honestly don't know how you quilters with little ones manage), and my husband has only been home 2 out of the last 7 weeks (this week is no exception... he's gone for work). No wonder I'm a bit stressed. Oh, and yes, blogging does take time too :-). SOOOoooo. I decided that once the holiday's are gone, I'm going to slow things down a bit... With maybe one exception, I'm also not going to take on any new projects until after that too.

So hopefully this blog will read "finished projects" very soon, and I'll have some fun stuff to show you!!

Patches

Today is "Fabric Tuesday" again, over at Quilt Story. The fabric project I'm working on today is far from glamorous, and not nearly as fun as quilting, but as the days have gotten colder, my boys need their jeans. With 2 active boys who spend a lot of time playing in the dirt, on their knees, we rarely have a pair of jeans that don't get patched up before the youngest has outgrown them. I usually wait until I have a few to patch, and today's no exception. Since they're the ones who have to wear them to school, I have always let them pick out the fabrics that they want me to make the patches out of. I tried to talk my youngest into the fly fabric, but he's gotten too old for anything too colorful I guess, and wanted the "camo" pattern. In the past, I've layered a fun cotton fabric on top of a scrap of old jeans and made the patch that way. The camouflage fabric is actually denim, so no need to layer today.

I start by trimming all the strings and fuzz away from the hole, then trim up the pieces of fabric. I use "Wunder Under", a double sided fusible interfacing. It has paper on one side that peels right off once the fusible side is attached by ironing. I then iron the patch onto the jeans, covering the hole. I use the paper that I peeled off to place under the patch, inside of the jeans, to prevent attaching the patch to the back side of the leg when I iron (learned that the hard way). You can also use parchment paper.

Now all I got to do is to stitch it into place. I've learned that the Wunder Under only lasts a few washes before it'll start peeling off. You can do it by hand, but I do just about anything to avoid stitching by hand, so just do a sloppy zig-zag as best as I can. Now they're ready for more wear, and that family dollar has been stretched!!!

hunting and sewing

After being gone elk hunting for a week and a half, my husband returned yesterday, and has been busy all week-end drying out tents, putting away gear and food, and washing dirty clothes. Only one of 5 men in their group shot an elk, which is fine with me, since we still have a bunch from last year. They split up the meat, so we still have a front quarter to butcher in our extra fridge. We'll probably get to that this afternoon.

I'm not too crazy about him going hunting for a few weeks every year, but I know it makes him happy. I used to go out when he was gone, and buy a new kitchen gadget and toys for the kids back when I had a paying job, but after quitting to be a stay at home mom, I can't afford to do that anymore. Besides, after years of him hunting, I no longer need very many more kitchen gadgets (although I did attend a Pampered Chef party while he was gone, and spent a bit there). Plus my kids are getting older, and no longer really want as many toys, or rather the "toys" they want are getting to be more expensive... ipods and such...

But despite our budget crunch, we've come to a bit of an agreement when it comes to our hobbies. I try hard to bite my tongue and let him enjoy his weeks off with the guys, and he does a pretty good job at ignoring all of my fabric purchases. I may get a raised eyebrow every now and then, but we've pretty much come to a truce. He hunts, I sew. Of course we both work hard together to make sure that neither of us break the bank. Lucky for both of us, we pretty much see eye to eye when it comes to managing money.

Here's a few of the projects I worked on in the week or so that he's been gone. Both are quilt blocks that I'm making for my "quilt along" project, and both I intend on giving to my nieces for presents, hopefully for Christmas. My boys have been pretty good at letting me sew, even though they've been off of school for the last 5 days. I'm really looking forward to them going back to school tomorrow :-).

Sew.... What about you? Do you have any "deals" with your significant other when it comes to sewing? How do you find the time and money to do it, or any other hobby for that matter?

Veteran's Day

I just wanted to thank our veterans and their families. The boys and I made some gingerbread cookies and delivered them to 2 of our neighbors who are veterans. Their service is something I admit to taking for granted far more than I should. I feel incredibly lucky to live in a country that is safe and free, and I know that a lot of that is due in part to our service men and women.

As the wife of a man who also gets called into service at times to protect our forests from fire, I have had a small taste of what the military families go through. Fire fighters lose their lives, and I certainly worry about him. But at least he's not under hostile fire in another country. Cell phones and the Internet has certainly made it much easier to keep in touch with him, but as in the military, I often have no idea where he is, or how he's doing. So I really do appreciate the role that military families play, and have an inkling of just how incredibly difficult it can be for them.

Finally, as a mother of 2 boys, I have thought about the "what if''s". The realization that each "casualty" is a mother's child makes me yearn and hope above all for peace.

Work-in-progress

I'm linking up with "Freshly Pieced" work in progress Wednesday today, where she asks of to post about our own "WIP"'s.

I'm afraid I have SO many of these that it'd be down right boring to list them all. My most exciting / special quilty WIP is something that is going to be a surprise, and the recipient reads my blog, so this is all I can share.... LOL Yep, the dog ears and thread on the floor. I'll hopefully be able to share a picture soon.
My quilt along quilts are at a standstill, and they, along with others will be Christmas presents. But these are my most important WIP's... My kidos. I normally don't like to post pictures of them on the internet. They're now in the "tween" stage, so I thought it'd be fun to post a picture of them when they were still in that so-adorable-that-you-forget-how-difficult-they-can-be stage...

They're off from school this week, so I may not get much progress done on the sewing front, but on the kid/family front, we'll try to do some fun things. BUT, I just bought them both their very own copy of "Dairy of a Wimpy Kid, The Ugly Truth" that just made it's first appearance at the kids' Scholastic Book Sale that was going on at one of their schools today. We visited after attending parent teacher conferences. It was at these conferences that we learned of some... ahem, school work in progress that needs to be done over the "break". But right now my house is quiet, as they're both READING! I LOVE this series! IT GETS MY BOYS TO READ!!! So I'd better go now before they finish the books!!!

"Green" reusable gift wrap

I'm again joining in at the Quiltstory blog's "Fabric Tuesday" link party! I decided to write about using reusable fabric instead of wrapping paper.

I grew up far away from extended family, and just have one brother, so a pile of wrapping paper wasn't usually a big deal in our house. But after getting married, and living closer to extended family, I was shocked one year at the piles of wrapping paper that were throw out, some literally minutes after they had been used to wrap the present. Soon after, I made up a bunch of Christmas gift bags, using clearance Christmas fabric I bought after Christmas and started using these bags to wrap presents. My husband especially loves them, as you just pop the present in there, and pull the draw strings. I hate wrapping presents with paper, have never been very good at it, so it's a no-brainer for me as well.

As years went by, I decided it wasn't enough to give a gift bag that may only be used a few times a year, and started giving gifts away wrapped in reusable shopping bags and pillow cases that I make. This was after I had decided to be a stay at home mom and no longer worked outside of the home. It was also after my kids were a bit older and I could leave the sewing machine out without it being sabotaged by little fingers and hands.

Recently I discovered the Japanese art of Furoshiki, or fabric gift wrapping. Think origami, only with fabric instead, and around a present. Here's a fun youtube video that shows how to do it. It's a bit too much like using wrapping paper for my tastes, but it's fascinating to watch, and would be a most excellent way to wrap any gift for a quilter (using some yummy fat quarters or quilt fabric!).

So what are you waiting for? Grab some fabric now for Christmas / Hanukkah and start sewing! If I ever get my project list whittled down, I may try to sell a few on etsy soon!

MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT

I got a bit of a surprise over the week-end when I found out that a package I mailed 2 weeks ago to an eBay buyer still hasn't arrived. I've been dabbling in eBay selling for a few years now. I sell used times, mostly kids toys, video games, and household items we no longer need or want. I've had a few glitches, but mostly it's worked out well. This buyer tried to open up a case against me, but eBay didn't let them, due to the still short time frame, and encouraged them to contact me, which they did. Unfortunately, I don't' always check this email account, and hadn't for 4 or 5 days, since the last eBay transactions were 2 weeks ago. Now I'll be checking it every day.... So I'm off the the post office today to investigate.

But I know exactly what happened. This person lives in one of those "M" states (there's 8 of them!!). I know this because I used to live in one of those "M" states. During that time, I also had packages take weeks and even over a month to arrive to me through the post office. Shipping from one small town to another really doesn't help either, but I find that many of us eBay'ers are from small towns.

The name of the town I lived in was also a common name and had other towns in other "M" states. When I quizzed our local post master about the delay in receiving packages, he said that often packages mistakenly get sent to the town in the other "M" state, and either misdelivered, or caught and mailed to the correct "M" state. Sure enough, there are multiple towns in "M" states with this particular address too. It's enough to drive me batty! So I'll probably get no where at the post office, and have to refund all the money to the buyer, which will leave me in a bit of a hole.

Hmmmmm Any ideas or suggestions on how to handle these handling errors? Off to the post office!

Spare your knees (an alternative way to "sandwich" your quilt)

When we moved from Michigan to Oregon a year ago, like so many families, we had to downsize. Not a bad thing, really (less house to clean), but I no longer have much space to quilt in. I quickly adapted in all ways except one. I have no floor space big enough to sandwich together a quilt any bigger than a crib (unless I move furniture). Necessity, though, is the mother of invention, and I experimented, and asked everyone I could think of for ideas, until I developed this method. Now that I do it this way, I don't think I want to ever go back! So I thought I'd share it with you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This is what I did yesterday, as I got my niece's quilt ready to finish up.

All you need is a table and some large binding clips (thank you Colleen!). I bought the table at Jo-Anns, in Michigan a few years ago with a 50% off coupon, and it's been one of my best quilting purchases! It folds up compactly, and has wheels on it that can roll around to be moved from room to room. I also use it for cutting and all sorts of stuff. When the kids are in school, I bring it out and block all sorts of doors and hallways :-). But then I can move it back quickly.

I start by folding my quilt and quilt back into quarters and marking the center of each side with a safety pin. That way I can line these up as I layer them together. I can also use these as guides on the table to keep it pretty centered. Warning.... I am NOT a perfectionist...

I then unfold the quilt back (face down), and straighten it our and use the binder clips to secure the edges to the table. No tape, and I can WALK all around the table. No crawling on the floor, no need to vacuum first, or to keep the dog off (although the cat sometimes likes to jump up to "help").

Once the back is all smooth and tightly attached to the table, I lay the batting on top, then the quilt top. Once I make sure the centers are all lined up, and that I have all 3 layers in all spots, I start pinning the layers together.




I start at the center, and work my way out. Once the top is done, I take the clips off and work on each "corner". It's no perfect, but it works!!! Now my quilt is ready to "quilt" together!!!

Food and Friends

My good friend, Jen, is starting a new food blog! I'm so excited, and wanted to share her blog with you! It's "Cooking with Jenny Jennifer", and will highlight budget and family friendly cooking. I've known Jen for almost 20 years, and have sampled a LOT of her food over the years, and can tell you she's an excellent cook, and has a great sense of humor! So show her some love, leave her a comment, sign up to follow, and enjoy!

My own food journey has taken us into the fall, and we've been working on the very last of our garden produce, all the winter squash. Last week-end we baked, pureed, and froze several of our pumpkins. We carved up the rest, and roasted all of the seed. We still have dozens of acorn squash that keep well and will be eaten in the weeks and months to come. And we also have these monsters, "pink banana squash". Luckily, these store well too, but with so many, I'd LOVE an idea or 2 on how to cook and serve these, as they're new to us.

Last night, after a long hiatus, our deep fryer made it's first appearance for the season. With our garden potatoes long gone, I'm now buying them fresh and cheap in the grocery store. I LOVE potatoes, and my favorite way to cook and eat them is french fried! I know they're not good for you all fried an all, but gosh were they good last night with our burgers!!
We also had a house guest last night, and since my sewing work space is also the dining room table, it's all been put away, but I'm hoping to get it back out today and get busy!

Purple Party

I'm joining in at the linky party over at "Quiltstory" today. I'm very new to the whole link party aspect of blogs, but I'm quickly getting hooked! What fun!

Today I've been working on the quilt back for my niece's quilt. My SIL told me that her favorite color right now is purple, which is great, because it's one of my favorite colors too! In an effort to be frugal and to avoid buying more fabric, I decided to piece together the back with what I had in my stash. Of course this takes more work, but it saves money, and she's going to have a double-sided quilt when I'm finished! I really flew by the seat of my pants with this one. I first dug out all my purple fabrics. I had a lot of fat quarter, quarter yards and half yards, plus some larger scraps to work with. I decided to cut them into 9 inch strips, to minimize waste, then sewed some scraps of the neutral background fabric that I had left over from the front, and some co-coordinating fabric I had left over from my "BQ quilt". I'm now sewing the strips together. I hope finish tonight.

I must admit that I might like the back of this quilt better than the front once it's done. Has that happened to any of you? Hopefully I can show you the finished product soon!

On a side note, today it election day, and while the press likes to brand each of us as "red" or "blue", I think in reality we're all various shades of purple. Now, if we can only convince our politicians to think purple.....