The gray quilt

The gray quilt got finished and handed off to it's owner with only a couple of rainy days in between. So, I have only a few indoor shots of it to share.

Which is a shame because the quilting was soooo much better than my previous attempts. In fact, I wasn't even embarrassed by it!

I did a much better job of keeping my stitch lengths even and there was no eyelashing - of course, that might have been the extreme thickness of it. It has one layer of cotton batting, one layer of wool batting and is backed in flannel:

He's a long distance truck driver who sometimes sleeps in the cabin of his truck. He says he's had to seal with temperatures in the 20's before, so he wanted something extra warm. Hope this fits the bill.

So, I have to ask, does anyone else move their mouth from side to side while they free motion quilt? I've tried to stop myself, but apparently my mouth must go in whatever direction my hands are going. I'm sure it's comical to watch. I'll probably never be on TV quilting because of it - it won't be my complete lack of talent, just the mouth think keeping me from being on TV:)

And here's my daughter, shamelessly wanting to be the center of attention:

I let her.

The Ugly Quilt

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been commissioned to make two quilts, one of which was out of fabrics that just weren't my style. Even though I like the pattern, I tended to refer to this one as "the ugly quilt" while referring to the other as the gray quilt. Well, maybe Ugly Duckling is a more apt name, because check it out:

To say it exceeded my expectations is an understatement.

I'm hoping to get the back made today, the basting done tomorrow, and start quilting it this weekend. I still haven't decided, though, whether to do straight lines or some type of free motion.

The other quilt, the gray one, is also coming along well. I'll hopefully have some pics of it next week.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced for Work in progress Wednesday.

Night and Day

After taking it fairly easy for many months, my sewing life is about to really vamp up as I have two commission orders!

These two orders, were as different as night and day. The first was from an old high school friend who accepted the first pattern I showed him and the only color direction he gave me was to include some red, something rustic. I'm still waiting on some of the fabric to arrive, so I don't have anything to show yet, but I'm making it out of the same pattern I made my grandson's:

He's a long distance trucker and wants it for the sleeping area in his truck, so it's going to be a narrow twin size. After some thinking, I got to wondering if he had a heat source in his truck, and he doesn't. So I'll be adding a layer of wool batting to the standard cotton batting plus using a flannel backing. Here's hoping I can quilt all that! I figure if other people do, I should be able to.

The second order was much more typical. I think we looked at a hundred fabrics, which is not a statement of complaint at all. Let's be real, we probably look at fabric some portion of every day anyway. She had a teal and green rug that she wanted to coordinate with, plus the recipient was a nature and animal lover. We ended up with various selections from various designers within the Free Spirit design family. The pattern was slightly easier than the fabric selection, and she chose a Jacob's Ladder in the style of this one:

(from http://porchswingquilts.blogspot.com)

Isn't that lovely! I'm going to be honest here and admit that her fabric choices are different from my usual taste. Both in color and design - just not the type of fabrics to make me rush for my wallet. But I do want to show you what the backing is going to be:

How cute are they?

And finally, I'm going to leave you with my new mantra.

Have a great weekend!

I have still been sewing

Some. Not as much. But just because I haven't written anything at all doesn't mean I haven't sewn anything at all.

The biggest sewing accomplishment is that Salt Air is finally a flimsy.

You know how when you first become a mother and everyone showers you with the advice to lower your standards when it comes to housekeeping? Well, that's my advice for making this quilt. Lower your standards. No matter how much thought you put into it, or how many pins you use, you are just not going to have perfect seams. I'm not telling you to consider this good enough:

I'm telling you to consider it GOOD!

Part of the problem is having three sides to a block, rather than four, makes it impossible for seams to always alternate. If you iron to the side, you are going to have times where you have to sew pieces together that have seams ironed the same way. If I ever make this again - and I can see that happening. It's a very pretty quilt, and I can totally picture the day, 12 or so years from now, when this little girl

(Seen here modeling hats for her very victorian vampire costume)

tells me she'll go to college, but only if I make her a quilt out of the Hopscotch pattern. Then I'll make another one. And I'll give completely up on nestled seams and iron them all open.

Now that I've got my complaints out of the way, I will say that I'm very happy with the end result. I'm very glad I separated the colors the way I did. I would have an entirely different quilt if the sides of the triangles weren't limited to the cool colors and the starts limited to red. And for all my agonizing, most of my starts turned out really well:

These colors are so very pretty to me.

And I'm going to add the next shot just because I can. It wasn't my intention to make a shot like this today, but in looking for someplace to hang it for decent shooting, it just happened. Very pretty I think.

In sharp contrast to the difficulties with Hopscotch, this quilt is coming together exceptionally well.

Because finishing one quilt before starting another just doesn't make sense, does it?

I bought a jelly roll of Kensington from Riley Blake from Missouri Quilt Company. Have you ever done business with them? Because I love them. Every day they post a new special and I've gotten two beautiful jelly rolls from them for just over $20 each! They also have tons of tutorials posted, plus weekly specials. I think my favorite aspect of doing business with them is their fun attitude and sense of humor. This isn't a paid endorsement - just one quilter telling another quilter where to get fabric.

Anyway, this was strip pieced and I'm over half-way to a flimsy with it and I've only been working on it for a week! I started Salt Air in JANUARY, for crying out loud.

And finally, because working on one project at a time makes no more sense than finishing one before you start another, I have a crochet project going.

Just a simple ripple stitch. I have a friend with a daughter born with multiple birth defects. The poor girl is only 6 and she's had that many major surgeries so far, and she's about to have her 7th. And they have to go to Philadelphia for their medical treatments for her. And it's being done at Christmas. She's a very sweet girl, and despite all this, the whole family seems to be in really good spirits. One thing this girl has requested several times is a blanket like her sister's, and knowing I crochet, her mother asked me to make her one. Who could refuse that?

I'll be linking up to Freshly Pieced work-in-progress Wednesday, and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

How I'm spending my non-sewing time

Sewing has been somewhat of a back burner issue for me as we settle into a new school year and enjoy spending ALL THE TIME WE WANT with our daughter who recently moved back to this area after living in Hawaii for 9 years. She left right out of high school and while we had regular phone calls, it's just not the same as sitting in the same room with her and talking for hours. To say this is a blessing is an understatement, and I do recognize the value of the word blessing. I'm guessing, after the birth of our daughter, this is the 2nd best thing to happen to us. She's been here for 5 months now, and it still seems too good to be true. Not only are we loving having her around, and of course her husband and kids, but we're loving the fact that our daughter and her kids are playing so very well together and getting to know each other. Since the moment I found out I was pregnant, I was even more regretful of the distance between us, knowing that Mandy would be an only child and wanting her to at least have her nephew (the niece had not yet been born) to play with and consider a cousin.

Here they are playing in a blow up pool on Labor Day:

Yes, yes they are playing right next to the garbage can. And can you see the white, furry head poking out from behind? That's our husky who loves water as much as the kids and requires his own pool. Fun dog:) And the gentleman in the far back is our son-in-law, a computer genius with a great sense of humor.

Another time consuming issue for me has been food. At my age, I remember when virtually all packaged food was less appealing at best, and downright unpleasant at times. It was a last resort option when "real" food just was not available for whatever reason. But times have changed, and flavors have improved, and over the years I developed an attitude of almost inferiority, despite having perfectly acceptable cooking skills. Why should I compete with Betty Crocker and Pillsbury? They were the experts, weren't they? I heard some chatter - a friend told me one time that if I'd just watch Food, Inc., I'd never want to buy pre-packaged again. My thought process at the time was that I just wouldn't watch it then. I'd grown pretty comfortable with my quick and easy meals and wasn't eager for that to change. Even when I watched some of Jamie Oliver's shows - somehow I pigeonholed that information as relating to school lunches. That didn't mean there was anything wrong with the bag of chicken nuggets I had in my freezer. I'm not sure what made me buy the book Salt, Sugar, Fat last fall - I think it was on sale or something, but it started a revolution in our house that is still ongoing. I've learned the impact of artificial dyes on kid's behaviors, at a time when my daughter's teacher was encouraging me to get her tested since she just couldn't pay attention. I've learned not only what a GMO is, but just how prevalent they are in our food supply. I've learned more about the addictive properties of sugar, and just how much of that is in our pre-packaged foods. I knew her favorite cereal was high in sugar, but after you learn that it is 75% sugar, you just can't give it to her anymore. You would never pour a literal bowl of sugar for your child to eat, but we are doing the equivalent without even realizing it.

But the important thing, the really important thing I've learned is that we can survive without pre-packaged foods. I am a good cook, as anyone can be who cares about it, and preparing all your own food can still be done by a working mother. I'm actually quite shocked at the things I didn't think I had the time or skills for. Perhaps I just fell prey to marketing? Take pancakes for example. What is the time consuming part of making pancakes? It's the wet batter on the griddle, cook, flip, then cook some more. It is not the mixing together of about 7 ingredients. The same with cookies or biscuits. I'm not sure just how I came to the point of thinking I couldn't possibly do these things without a mix. A mix that I still have to add 2 or 3 measured ingredients to. Seems crazy to me now. And I'm just as shocked at the things I didn't even know I could make - like granola bars. Somehow, I had gotten to the grandparent stage in life not even aware that these could be made from home.

So I am spending more time in the kitchen. I don't at all mind. I am enjoying some new recipes. I feel very good about what my daughter is eating. What we're all eating. The downfall, the only negative really, is dishes. Oh my word at the dishes! I'm so sick of doing dishes that I dreamed about disposable pots & pans one night.

I'll have something sewing related to show you soon, or eventually. In the meantime, I'm loving seeing all the things you have made!

Athena's Flowers 2

During my apparent blogging hiatus, I've been working on a second version of Athena's Flowers. The comments I received on that quilt were the most complimentary group of comments I had ever received, so I decided to make one for the shop.

This time, I quilted it the way I wanted to quilt the first one, with stipples in the background, but not over the flowers. 

With this being only my second attempt at stippling, it's not exactly perfect, but it is sooo much better than my first one. I'm very happy with it. 

Poor Athena seemed to get very confused at seeing a quilt like hers at my house:)

The stats are the same - all Kona cotton, 50" x 60", Warm & White batting. 

And the shop has been updated if you're interested. 

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Friday. 

Ready for Tommy

I finished the binding on Tommy's quilt late last night. But of course, this: 

happened in about the last six inches. I think the next time I bind a quilt, I'm going to get smart and put a bandaid over that thumb before I even start. I don't think I've ever bound a quilt without jabbing my needle right there at least once. In fact, do I even see scar tissue in this picture? 

Anyway, in a very uncharacteristic move, I've completed this quilt a full week before I had to since Tommy won't be here until next weekend. I'm loving this quilt!

I love the design, I love the colors, I love the feel of it. I quilted it in an all over meandering pattern and that gives it such a different feel from my straight line quilted quilts. It feels sturdier, heavier. I love it, and can't stop touching it!

So, did you pick up on anything? Did you notice how very calmly and casually I just mentioned that I have FREE MOTION QUILTED MY VERY FIRST QUILT!!! Yeah, I couldn't remain calm forever. In my last post, Malini from My Quilting Journey suggested I check out Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project. So I did. She gives lots of helpful tips and one of the first things she says is if you want to learn how to stipple, just stipple a large quilt. You'll be good by the end. So my thought process changed from, "I have to find the time  to practice & waste a bunch of fabric and batting until I'm good enough to quilt an actual quilt" to "just do it." So I did. 

Badly. Huge variation in stitch length, lots of "eyelashes" on the back, lots of jerky movements and times when I cross over previous stitching. But I did it. And I do think I finished better than I started. And, maybe the most important part, I really, really enjoyed it. I'll show you some of it, certainly not the worst of it:

A real quilter would cringe, but I'm very, very proud. The only thing I'm disappointed in is that in my excitement, I failed to start in the center. This caused some minor puckering in the center of the quilt. It hasn't been washed yet, so I'm hoping it will be less noticeable in the final product. Such a basic rule of quilting - I'm upset with myself for failing to remember it. 

But, I'm on my way to learning a fun new skill, and I've created my first pattern as well. Overall, a success!

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for her Finish it Friday series. It seems she was also doing some late night stitching this week:)