Nashville bound!!

After I did all that whining the other day, I did buckle down and get stuff done. I don't know about you but I do believe that my whining is productive in a way. After I do all that wailing and fussing and putting into words (and sometimes writing) the myriad tasks I need to get done, I get busy. I think because I end up rolling my eyes at myself and think about what I could have been doing with the time I just wasted. Whatever works you know!

So check this out, the Nashville quilt is quilted, bound, and washed. All nice and puckered and ready for its adventure through the US postal system to its new home with my brother and his wife in Nashville. I know this picture is dark but it shows the quilting. I have to brag, I am so proud of the quilting. I did FEATHERS!!!! (at least I think they're feathers) I looked through some books, poked through the internet, practiced on some scrappy stuff, and went for it. I discovered some tricks that really helped me so I thought I would tell you how I did it. I have trouble getting pictures in the order that I want them. I wish I could click and drag them around but I guess I can't. Anyway, I will refer to this picture a little later, for now just enjoy the view,lol.

Look at this! Not perfect but awesome for me. I put a feathered circle in each of the four large corner squares. I was so nervous because there wasn't any print on the fabric to hide any sloppy stitching. I found a quick and easy way to mark it, practiced ONCE and was ready to go.

If you look close, you can see what I did. The photo below is before the quilt was washed. You can see the chalk lines of circles I made. That's the only marking I did, three circles. This center line is the 'spine' and I found it helpful to sew around that entire circle first. Then I made the feathers, first going around on one side of the spine then around on the other side. I didn't worry about size, the only rule was to reach out and try to hit but not go over the other line. Just going out that far seemed to keep the feathers about the same size. When I got close to the starting point, I tried to gauge how many and how big to make the last few feathers so they would fit. I definitely got better by the last block. And I found that I did better in some directions than others and I turned the quilt to stay that direction.

For all of the little blocks in the border, I did something a little different. You can see the chalk marks below. I marked all the halfway points then, using chalk, I just drew freeform the four petals. That's all the marking that I did. In all of the blocks, I stitched different fillers inside the petals. For feathers, I just stitched a 'spine' first, down the middle of the petal. Then I used the spine and the outside lines for my boundaries.

On this block below, you can see that the marking is the same but I used a different filler. No spine, I just zigzagged up and back.

Here is the same block after washing. I love puckers. They hide so much plus they make the quilt look so soft.

I had fun just making up fillers. Curly-q's (I'm sure that's not a legal spelling but you'll have to live with it.).

These were just wavy lines up and back. Very easy and I like how they look.

These look like pebbles but it isn't. I actually did figure 8's down the petals.

Some feathers. I think this was my first little block because I definitely got a little better.

This isn't very easy to see. I was going for flames, sort of. It probably just looks like veins in a leaf. Still works for me, though.

If you go back to the half-square triangle now. I did not mark those at all. Instead, I started by stitching a spine from one small point to the other. I tried to curve to stay somewhat central. Then I just used the outer triangle edges and the spine as my boundaries. As I got towards the center, I had to get kind of big and then gradually small again. It worked out pretty well.

This was a lot of fun and it really reinforces the truth that, with free motion quilting, you just need to practice, practice, practice. This gives me lots of confidence to quilt larger quilts. If I approach them one block at a time, it's not too intimidating. I'm not against having someone else quilt some of my tops on a longarm but I really like knowing that I did the whole thing.

And guess what? I put a major dent in my xmas shopping. The California crowd is pretty much taken care of. I'm going to hit the post office tomorrow, then I shall turn my attention to my daughter's birthday on Friday. I haven't gotten her anything yet and the poor gal sent me a text today that she's sick. There is some head cold/sinus misery that is wrecking havoc in town. Why do college students always get sick during finals?

At 11pm tonight, I get off work and will have off for FIVE days. woot woot! I plan to spread festivity all over the house. But first I'm going to sleep in. Night night everybody.

Every year it's the same.

About this time every year, I start berating myself about my lack of planning or organization. I sometimes tell my friends that I am an idea person. I can suggest all kinds of ideas for parties, events, decorating, crafting, etc etc but the organization and execution is a problem. In my little happy place I have an assistant (in addition to a cook and a handyman). My assistant could be the one to take care of the details such as gathering supplies, putting away fabric and , at this time of year, searching Amazon and other places for Christmas gifts. That's right friends, I am drowning in CHRISTMAS SHOPPING STRESS. I know I'm not alone, fess up people. I have two siblings out of town, they each have a spouse and one has two kids. These are the ones that I always vow to get done first to allow for delivery. Every year I say that and fail. The quilt headed for Nashville isn't done and so far only one gift out of four is on its way to California. It doesn't help that both my kids have birthdays during the holiday season.

So what do I do when I become paralyzed with the realization of all that needs to be done? Well, first I volunteered to host the BIG family party with dozens of people coming. I even suggested this year to have sports out front and a bonfire. Where's that #!%* assistant I need? Then I fuss at my husband about the clutter in the house, get him to bring the holiday decorations up from the basement to add to that clutter, and now I'm sitting in my PJ's at 1:30pm. I did just work 6 days straight and only have today off before going back for 3 more days. I got to bed at 1am. I did some online shopping this morning but it amounted to stocking stuffers and some little birthday stuff for my daughter. So what do you think? Less whining and more doing would be a good start wouldn't it?



Isn't this little selvage cute? I should listen to it and go work on the Nashville quilt.

I got these done a couple weeks ago. Gifts for my co-workers. They are quilted folios.

I had fun matching up fabrics and deciding what my friends would like.

Wild!

Traditional with some fussy work for my boss who likes blue.

Love these fabrics.

Ten in all. Some have little spines to make them bigger and some are more like simple folders but still have the pockets inside. If I get time, I plan to find some pretty note papers and pens to put inside. I would really like to fuse letters or words on the fronts. Maybe initials or words such as.............eh..........um............ And this is why they will probably stay plain.

Remember this? My xmas quilt from a Mackenna Ryan pattern. It is now hanging in the living room. I really intended to embellish it with some hot fix crystals or something but haven't yet. And I just realized that there is a little stocking full of silvery fish that one of the puffins in the lower right is supposed to be holding. The stocking is made and stuck up on my design wall, I'll need to go get it.

And I haven't yet done anything about the smudge of blue fabric paint on this penguin's tummy. Seriously? Why didn't that land on the black or, better yet, some blue fabric? I had planned to put something there like a snowflake sequin but to tell the truth, white out is looking better and better, lol. I also have some twine to string together the sleigh, polar bear, and penguins like a harness. Oy! Time to get dressed and get busy.

So how do you handle shopping for out of town family? I really need some help. I am bored with surfing Amazon. Got any tips?

Groovy!!!!

Remember those 30 Fat quarters I got? Here's a peak at them. It seems I was feeling the pastel candy colors! I am looking forward to cutting into these. I only have a few minutes, it's getting late and I have to get to bed. Tomorrow is a big night. Baltimore now has a Modern Quilt Guild!! Oh yeah! First meeting is tomorrow and I can't wait. I love Mod. Gettin Jiggy and Groovy in Baltimore!! Tonight I had to whip up a handmade xmas ornament to take for a swap. I played with wool. I'll snag a picture before I bag it up so I can show you.
Remember this quilt? It's a Christmas gift for one of my brothers and his wife. I gave up trying to figure out their decor and colors. I'm just gonna hope they like it. I am almost finished quilting and I can't tell you how excited I am. I was so nervous about quilting on the solid blocks. There's no forgiveness on solids is there? Well, guess what? I found my groove and had a blast. I actually did some feathers. I'll be sure to post some pictures. I matched the thread colors to the blocks (insecurity, ha ha) so it's hard to get it to show in photos but I'll work on it. Tomorrow after work, I plan to work hard on it so I can take it to the Modern Quilt Guild meeting and work on the binding.

Good night everybody! Peace out!

Madness!

Well folks, I had a fun and happy and thankful Thanksgiving! Although I worked late the night before and had to get up to cook and tidy up, dinner was lots of fun. My daughter and I decided to do a little 'pregaming' while cooking. So we had some tasty sangria and got my sister-in-law in on it when she came. It's darn good sangria I tell you! The food was awesome and we were stuffed. Here is my daughter showing off her guns. She seems to think her right arm is more muscular from carrying her camera bag and/or purse. This is her normal type of outfit, she is never cold. Madness I tell you. I sure have a thing or two to say when I catch her turning on the gas fireplace while wearing a tank top. She's cute though, dontcha think?


After dinner we played a couple hands of a nutty word game called Bananagrams. I picked it up at Barnes and Noble the other day. It was lots of fun but there sure was a lot of loud 'discussion' about what words are acceptable. I tell you, Google can find a definition for ANYTHING. That's pure Madness! My family loves us some Sweet Potato Praline casserole. This year I didn't measure anything. I bought a lot of sweet potatos and cooked and mashed all of them. Then I put them in a giant bowl and started tossing in brown sugar, milk, and eggs. I made the topping with pecans, flour, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and butter. When I went to put the potatos in two casserole dishes, I discovered how much I had made. LOTS! I had to mix up more topping and ended up with 3 casseroles, one was quite large. I like to make sure we have leftovers for the next day but, oh dear, I think we'll be eating this for weeks.
Sweet potato madness!! My son and I just talked his friend into having some. Poor guy, we talked it up so much he had no choice.

So last week I finished this top using tumbler blocks cut with my Accuquilt Go. It went together quick and easy. I probably won't do anything else with it until after the holidays but I think it will make a great baby gift. I think I'll make more with this block, try different things, maybe piece together scraps and cut blocks from them. Want a confession? I am telling you this because I feel guilty and have to show you something.
Wanna know what the biggest madness was? Wellllllll, Thursday afternoon my friend, Kathy, aka Ms. Neat and Tidy, sent me a text that
my favorite quilt shop was having a midnight madness sale. Cool, right? I didn't say LQS did I? Nope, this shop isn't local, it's over 90 minutes away in La Plata MD. Material Girls Quilt Boutique was having a midnight madness sale. If you got through the door by 12:15am you would get 30% off your entire purchase. Oh good golly, heaven help me I said 'Sure!'. So I left the house at 9:30pm, met Kathy and another friend at an Ikea parking lot, we drove to another friend's house to meet up with two others and got to the shop with 10 minutes to spare.



We were fueled with energy from tasty Swedish Fish to counteract the turkey dinner earlier. Gosh I love these fish! I like to say 'shveedish fish'. It's just fun. Or mad. Who knows, I just do it. Shveedish fish!

Okay okay, back to the quilt shop. There were lots of people there and the staff were lots and lots of fun. They had plenty of door prizes too if you could produce various odd objects they asked for. I travel light so I didn't win anything but there were quite a few winners in our car. Maybe if I had Crocs shoes, or an ankle tattoo, or a military ID, or a recipe, passport, flashlight, Qtip, liquor store receipt, Nook, Kindle or speeding ticket in my purse, I would have won some goodies and wouldn't have bought A LOT of fabric. But I didn't, and I came home with a lot of loot. Such madness. (By the way, one lady actually had her passport with her! Do I even have to say it? That's madnes.)

Well here goes. Let's see the goods!

First of all, admit it, red with white polka dots is a staple. A chef wouldn't be caught without extra virgin olive oil, right? Well, just two days ago I was tearing apart my stash looking for a red with white polka dots and found none. So now I have 2.5 yards. A sensible purchase I say. And I snagged some cute holiday fabric with lots of lettering that looks cute with the dots. Awwww.

And bolts of all these goodies ended up in my cart. These are half or one yard cuts. I love those birdies! And how cute are the zippers at the bottom? Very fun.

Every year I say I don't need any holiday fabric but look at this layer cake. And keep in mind the 30% discount.

Look at these fabrics, three colorways! Two to three squares each. Love those reindeer and trees and cute, cute dots. I love that pink has found it's way into xmas colors, it's so cheery.

But wait, there's more. hee hee Not a ginsu knife, just more fabric. Do you think this looks bland? I had this charm pack and jelly roll in and out of my cart. I pondered and thought and hemmed and hawed.......... and then bought it.

I think this does look bland, not really a color combo I'm drawn to. So why did I buy it?

BECAUSE I LOOKED INSIDE!!!! Pink, orange, red, black, lime. Pez, sparkles, starbursts, dots, and mod designs. Cmon, admit it. Don't you just want to roll around in these strips? Oops! I just drooled on my keyboard.

Aren't all these purchases fabulous? Aren't I the luckiest gal around?

Well, guess what? There's more.

Listen people, it was late, I was tired, and I wasn't thinking straight.

I also got 30 fat quarters.

What? You couldn't read that? Fine!

Thirty, okay. I also got 30 fat quarters.

They were really pretty. They looked like candy. I was suffering from sweet potato toxicity.

I don't know why I got them, I just couldn't help it.

Two were just silly. Bright cheery fruit.

Sneakers. Seriously, why not.

And then I just couldn't stop picking up these soothing, pretty, pastel delights. Now these really are drool worthy.

I took other photos of these but blogger is being naughty tonight. I can only upload one picture at a time. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Now, th th th that's all folks! I got home at 5:10 am. Madness!!

Hey Lisa, what shopping did you do on Black Friday? Ummm uh well....... I bought myself some quilt fabric. Please don't ask about my holiday shopping. I am gonna do some real soon.

I have done some gift sewing. I'll show you some stuff with the next post.

Tomorrow, I am going to finish quilting my brother's quilt. That's my goal.

Goodnight everybody!

Random Thanks!

First thing this morning I gave the first thanks of the day for my steadfast friend, Mr. Ibuprofen. That's right, I had a pain in my head. Why? Because last night I did a little taste testing from this jar. At 12:30 am, after a long shift and many hours after a dinner of yoghurt, a cheese stick, and a granola bar, I made a nice batch of sangria. I think I'll blame Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman.

ps - it's a big jar so I put it outside to stay chilled. It's nice to know the raccoons didn't get it. They have been known to pull lids off our trash cans and carry off a turkey carcass. Goodness knows what they would do after a sangria party!! If you don't have this cookbook, you should put it on your xmas list. If you don't cook, then just get it for entertainment value. She's a hoot!

So I was poking through the Pioneer cookbook this week and realized she has this recipe for sangria. I've been having a love affair with sangria after having some at a Baltimore tapas restaurant, Tapas Teatro. Mmmmm, so tasty and with a nibble of fruit too. So when I saw this recipe, I saw the perfect opportunity to try it out. Thanksgiving!

It packs a punch on an empty stomach (although I did eat some almonds while I sipped away), but I'm sure a big dinner can take this villain on.

I will also give a shout of thanks for my old standby recipes. Some from this book and some scattered on all the papers shoved in the book. I make a killer sweet potato dish with a praline topping. I make it a little different every time because I combine several recipes and can never remember which way I do it. What I do remember though, is that it's VITAL to make lots of it. SO good for breakfast the next day, and lunch, and afternoon snack......................etc etc.

My favorite part of trying to figure out how to make it each time is my little notes. My sister, Hannah, emailed me one of the recipes I use. I added some touches from another source. How big is a splash? Anybody?

And I might as well thank my ugly old tree. He lives in the back, just off our deck. When I have old fruit, like the dried up lemons I found in the fridge today, I like to give my pitching arm a workout and see if I can hit the tree. If I can, I find someone around the house to compete with. Since it's a national holiday, I guess I'll tell the truth. I don't manage to hit the tree very often. It's harder than it looks, OKAY? But I have fun trying and maybe the squirrels and birds like a nibble. And, in my little happy place, I imagine a little orchard springing up around that ol tree some spring.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it and everyone else can have a Happy Thursday!!

Lisa

Yoo hoo!! I'm here!

Where have I been!? Shame on me, ignoring my blog is not acceptable. I have actually been having lots of busy fun. Last weekend my hubby and I went out with friends and had a great time and good food (we are such homebodies that this is a big deal). I also got together with friends from the Wild Threads for a fun day of sewing. BUT, check it out! Most exciting of all is that Bonnie Hunter came to speak at my guild meeting. She is lots of fun, very inspiring, and most of all.....FULL of energy. On Tuesday, I took Bonnie's 'Crumbs' workshop. We were supposed to bring our scraps. Look at the pile that I brought.

This is probably less than half of my total scrap stash. Honestly, I can't tell you how many times I lost my rotary cutter or ruler in this pile. If you look past my mess, you will see my friend, Kathy's work space. Good grief! Does she always have to be tidy and organized. It is just baffling. Kathy is a wild, nutty, free spirit with a glut of unleashed creativity. I just never expect her to have such a tidy workspace.
This is one of Bonnie's quilts. Very scrappy. She taught us to make some letters. It was much harder than I expected. I really need to visualize what I am working on. Tricky.

This is my friend, Chris, at our little sewing marathon. Hi Chris! She is a wonderful, genuine person who is loads of fun to hang with. And check out her little sewing box on the floor. She's had it since she was a kid. I covet that box.

This is Kathy. Yup, the famous Kathy who has a tidy workspace. She came and pin-basted about 4 quilts in no time at all. I love this wonky churn dash. I really need to make one.

This is a closer view. Don't you want to make one? Mmmmmm, I keep telling myself I need to build my stash of solids. There is just something about quilts from solids. I am charging my camera battery right now. Tomorrow, I will post some pictures of what I've been working on.

Have a great night. Night night!