REALLY Early or Fantastically Late

Spring hit me pretty hard this week/end.  I'm adversely affected by low-air pressure and have been pretty lucky so far this year weather-wise but the skies unleashed the torrents of spring rain and I wasn't  particularly social. (Unless you were my nephew, who received most of my attention the last several days...) However, I have finally finished my Figgy Pudding quilt! (Cue the parade. Enter trumpets and streamers.)

It was begun in January 2010.  Yes, 2010, shortly after I received the kit for Christmas. I'm not a kit person but I absolutely loved this pattern and couldn't not do it exactly the way it was.  The trees float off the back, which is even more prominent now that it's quilted and washed.

 I finished the top in February of 2010.

I pieced a back with scraps and a mottled blue batik in August of 2010 and basted it.

It sat, folded, with the binding rolled neatly on top, waiting.
It waited until August of 2011 when I started the quilting.  And I hated what I was doing with it and decided to wait until I either learned how to make my sputtering, squealing, grinder of a sewing machine do free motion quilting OR until I saved the pennies to get a new machine.

Then I got a new machine for Christmas 2011. YAY.  I am now free motion capable, albeit somewhat challenged by the fact that I haven't done enough of it to call myself anything other than a novice.  I really need to make myself keep a constant speed/motion ratio.  If I don't, the tension gets a little *ahem* interesting...

However, this weekend, after unpicking every last stitch that I had already quilted (luckily less than a few blocks worth), I sat down and quilted it with my beloved Oscar. Friday was a one-game hockey night so I  had some free (motion) time.

These pictures did NOT turn out great.  I was in too big a hurry and borrowing a babysitting grandma... :-)

Basic stippling. The only thing original is the back.  Also, leaving a quilt for 2+years means the lint accumulation is insane.

But it's done, (un)dusted, and crossed off the works-in-progress list.  It's currently waiting for December to deck the couch.

In semi-related news, I haven't seen my quilt labels since last December.  It's distressing me greatly and I fear they may have accidentally been tossed in the Christmas chaos.  I'm hoping for just lost instead of tossed, and soon to be found, but I've been looking for two months... :-(

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Scrappy afghan is also nearing completion.  All panels knit.  Ends woven in.  Seaming and felting (though maybe just fulling) to come.

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Sourdough:  There will be an update. Oh, there will be.  In saga form. 

Hope you had a happy!

Holiday, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, New Year!  (and any other celebrations I missed.)

Hello again!

I unintentionally disappeared for  a bit.  I had intended to post the last of the gifts I'd made on Christmas Eve and then fell asleep between supper and church.  I won't lie; I slept through church.  It wasn't even at midnight.  It was 7:30.  Since then, I haven't been online. At ALL.  It's been nice but I'm feeling out of the loop.  The only news I've seen is sports-related.  It's been hockey, hockey, hockey...

ANYHOO...  This is the Borrowed Creativity Collection of gifts from this year.
I made this quilt for my mother for Christmas.  It's Allison Harris' Seville pattern.  I even bought the fat quarter bundle to make it.

Completely unoriginal on my part but I liked it so much I didn't want to change a thing.  I named it Figaro.  (Fee-ga-ro, Fee-ga-ro! You know, the Barber of Seville?  Anyone? No?)

Also, a Honey Cowl, knit in a Manos del Uruguay mulberry silk.  Also for my mother.

Seester got a shower cap (tute here), and a number of makeup bags using laminated cotton, which is much  easier to sew with that the interwebs would have be believe.  I used fantastic patterns and tutorials for all of them.

Boxbags:  Amber of One Shabby Chick has a great tutorial.  I lined the largest one with some interfaced Kona.  It added a much-needed sturdiness.

Dumplings:  Keyka Lou.  These are awesome and fun to make.

Slouchy makeup bag:  This one kicked my ass.  You can tell it went haywire because the lining is on the outside...

Makeup Roll:

She also got one of the ubiquitous Anna Maria Horner scarves... I made this one in voile about 12"wide by 70"long.  I made a couple in green for friends.

And finally, in the "saw-it-need-to-make-it" department, some pillow fight weapons for my brother-in-law.  I saw them on ManMadeDIY.

I thought they were so clever. As far as I can tell the artist doesn't have a pattern or store so I hope he doesn't mind that I made a set.

So I was a sewing maniac.  How I found time for three quilts during my internship, I don't know, but I suspect that I tend to sew as an unwind.  It doesn't require speaking or socializing, or analyzing whether someone's got the whole answer or missed the boat.  In sewing moments, my time is utterly my own.  Which is why I was so very excited about my Christmas present from Santa.

But I'll show you that next time.  :-)

Happy New Year!  I'll be catching up with you soon.

Doorjamb: 1, Carly: Zero & Two quilts down, One to go

Doorjamb vs nose.  Doorjamb will take the title every time.   I was putting my bag away in my bedroom without actually entering the bedroom, in that old-fashioned way:  you know, hand on the jamb, lean in with one foot firmly planted and the other slightly off the hall floor.  Motion catches my eye, lean forward to say hi to the now-awake cat, and set bag down.  Go to put my foot back down and exit. Instead, slip.  Face goes crashing towards jamb. WHACK!

Not broken!  But bruised.  Made for a great and scabby story to tell to my students the next day.  Of course, you're always going to have the full attention of teenagers when you start a class with, "Who wants to hear how I almost broke my nose yesterday?"

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Despite my nasal misadventures, I have another project to cross off my Christmas gift list.

I call this lap quilt for my father Square Dance, though I was tempted, albeit briefly, to call it Lap Square Dance. (heehee) Thought he'd find it funnier...  Nothing like an inappropriate joke to get you through the tediousness that is basting a quilt!

Quilted with circles, since I've decided I really like the look, and to break up the insanity of squares within squares.  Made mostly with Moda with some Hometown by Sweetwater, some red Kona, and backed with some brown Essex linen.  Approx 56" x 74".

All that fussing with the paper and super tiny strips - the red squares are 1/2" wide - was worth the effort as I don't think my piecing has ever been so precise.  You'll have to forgive the ugly clamps holding it up. I had a limited stealth-photo window and had to make do without assistance of any kind.  Where are Santa's speedy little helpers when you need them?

Another quilt top finished...

Manly, right?

One more thing to cross off the list.  Now to find the time and space to baste like a madwoman!

Sewing and Sleeping

My internship is winding down but the last few weeks have been particularly intense.  Plus, the snow has arrived and the shifts in the weather have done a number on my noggin. ( I LOVE snow; I hate low barometric pressure and dramatic temperature swings.  :-)  I fell asleep so early on Friday night that it was still Friday.  Normally, I don't retire until the wee hours of morning.  Night was still well in control of the clock when I lost consciousness.   Then I had a terror-inducing nightmare involving a dragon-zombie apocalypse.  If you wanted to know what any of that meant, (and trust me, you don't) I could describe it in a staggering amount of detail.  Apparently, my dreamscape is the latest of things available in HD.  Once I got over the disturbing bits, I was strangely fascinated by it.  Always, the bright side.

Before I crashed early once again on Saturday, I managed to get some sewing done (two weekends in a row - what the heck???).  Family - if you are reading, I once again ask that you stop here.  In fact, let's just declare the blog off-limits until Dec 25th.  Please and thank you.

So far, I have sewn twelve of the squares inside of squares ( of 24) and 24 of the square in the corner blocks.  These are destined to become a lap quilt for Father.  

I started with a sketch.  I'd bought fabric a month or so ago and just couldn't pick a block style.  I wanted something masculine but everything I saw was just too fussy...  I came up with the design above, calculated how many of each piece I'd have to cut from how many strips and when rotary-cutter crazy.  Then I realized that *I* was crazy.  My piecing has been dodgy.  I have not been able to sew a scant 1/4" since, well.... ever.  And here I have several pieces that would end up with a 1/2" width.  Yeah, this ought to go well.

Then I thought, "Hmmm, based on my success with the Winter Woolies a couple of weeks ago, maybe I should paper-piece it..."  So I made a template and that's what I did.  Because I'd already cut the fabric, I am finding that it takes a bit of pinning to make sure that it ends up in the right place when you sew it.  I can't chain-piece and it is taking me a lot longer to sew but the results are so precise, it's entirely worth the extra effort.  Plus, this block combo is very forgiving when it comes to finished size.  If I find I'm running shy of 9.5", these can trim to 9.25" without ruining them.  Yay!

This photo turned out super-saturated for some reason.  Bad lighting + tomato red =  vintage 70s look?

Total finished this weekend:

-12 fiddly paper-pieced squares ( plus 24 easy blocks from last weekend)

-two quilt backs (one for the lap quilt, one for a top finished last weekend)

-couple of metres of double-fold bias binding in a particular shade of purple to match the fabrics I chose from Seester's gifts

Migraines: 

-1

Long-suffering, patient, neglected friends seen:
-none, but in my defence, I once again fell asleep at the dinner table on Friday.  Driving is never a wise decision when you've come ever-so-close to mashed potatoes up the nose.

Percentage of body and spirit restored:
-nearly 100%, ready for another week!

A long weekend means I actually finished something....

There is something lovely about having no marking or lesson planning to do over a long weekend.  I almost didn't know what to do with myself!  Luckily, I have Christmas presents to work on.  (At this time, Mum and Seester, I ask that you stop reading this post immediately.  Unless you wish to ruin Christmas.  Yep.  I said ruin.  :-)

Nothing like a well-placed guilt trip!

My nephew is only just ten months old but when I saw Riley Blake's Pirate fabrics, I knew I wanted to make him something with it.  It was my dad who suggested a twin-size quilt for when he graduates to a big boy bed.  I had a bundle of 10" squares, a bundle of 5" charms, and a yard of the black text print.  I also had no idea of the pattern I would use.  I definitely didn't want it to look babyish or fussy.  If I could help it, I wanted it to last him a while and grow up with him a bit until he was "too cool" to have anything with pirates.  I left the back pretty plain so he could flip it when the time came.

I threw the charms on the floor, raided my Kona solids (I had just scored 6.3m of charcoal with a 40%off coupon) and came up with this.  The "X" I made from the black and white 10" squares.  I used Steam-a-Seam on the black, drew my X, cut it out, ironed in on and zigzagged around it.  If the edges get a bit raggy over the years, I'll be pleased and call it "authentic pirate weathering". During a spare hour last weekend, I managed to get it basted and then went on a complete tear this weekend getting it all finished up.

I also added my new label.  gutenTAGS.  Saw them on everyone else's blog and thought it would be a good idea.  They went from idea to reality so very fast that I was shocked when they turned up in the mailbox shortly after I'd ordered them.  I love them.

The idea for the quilting came from a photo I'd seen on Poppyprint.  I thought it looked like a drop of water in a pond and it definitely was interesting than the straight-line quilting I usually do.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out - definitely masculine.

Yes, that's my squeaky, creaky sewing machine on the floor.  My sewing space is wherever I find room at the moment.  Wednesday night was floor and bad lighting night.

And once finished with Pirates, I moved onto finishing the top for this one.  Wasn't able to take photos of it yet though.... There are prying eyes and inquiring minds afoot!

Latest Endeavour of the Sewing Variety

I have neglected my machine since the holidays. And now that I have a little bit of time on my hands, I've dived headlong into the big-girl version of Lego. :-)

I am NOT a person who does Christmas fabrics. I am NOT a person who does quilt "kits". Typically, I like to take an idea or a pattern and make it my own, choose my own fabrics, make my own mistakes and triumphs. But when I saw the Figgy Pudding quilt top hanging in my local quilt shop, I needed it. It was the prettiest, most modern, holiday-themed quilt I'd ever seen and I fell desperately in love.

And then Santa brought it for me. :-)

There are dimensional tree blocks using a one-seam method that I would not have been able to figure out just by reading the pages...

Very fuzzy photography - there may have been wine involved.

Luckily, I'd seen the technique just before Christmas or I might have gone out of my mind trying to wrap my head around these trees and resorted to something crazy like attempting paper piecing and ruining my precious fabric with an untested method. How serendipitous that Anjeanette of Roots & Wings, Co. featured the exact technique I was going to need - THANK YOU!! (and just for you, I'll tell you that I'd've been Sobbin', Sobbin' Sobbin', Fit to be tied!)

I imagine I'll have the top together in a matter of days....

Twas the day before Christmas....

Now that the surprise-spoiling danger is all but over and my family has more pressing and urgent activities than web-surfing (read: jigsaw puzzle and butter tarts, critical stuff!!), I can share projects. Some of the photos are abysmally poor due to lighting conditions and operating in stealth mode. Such is the lot when you work in darkness and have to get things wrapped before light returns again....

Treeskirt for Sister to match the birdies for her birthday.

I based it on two I've seen though I didn't really follow either. CrazyMomQuilts did a wonderful tutorial and TallGrassPrairieStudios had lovely tree blocks to inspire me (in the sidebar). I preferred my trunk running behind and made myself a little crazy matching the trunk position in the from strip to strip....

Two pairs of hand-knit socks - one for Mum and one for Sister. The herringbone pattern was slightly more time consuming but very satisfying. Free pattern on Ravelry - link is here.

Nigella Yoga bag for Sister - Amy Butler pattern (free). Turned out so well, I'm likely going to make another for me one of these days....

And there was one other project - some felted pillows for Mum that I had been working at off and on for a few months. But I was so very tired of dark photos that I will click them tomorrow after she opens them....

There are no hand-mades for the menfolk. :-( But there are snowball guns under the tree so I imagine there will be handmade fun and much merry mayhem tomorrow!!

To all that celebrate it, Merry Christmas! If you are not of the Christmas persuasion, enjoy your long weekend! I wish you goodness and warmth, health and prosperity, and the glow that comes from experiencing simple pleasures in life (or from a glass or two of wine!)

Peace and blessings!

Another friendly family competition...

Candy and cookies and icing - oh my!!

This is what happens when Sister buys gingerbread kits, sends us out for bulk candy, and we have a few hours to visit. Team M, Team H and Team Carly. We're not really competitive but there may have been some idea-defense strategies in place, serious architectural debates and some creative use of fruit leather....

Another afternoon of good clean fun.

Team M:

Note the fruit leather chimney complete with twist-tie smoke....

Team H:

Fruit leather bricks on the path.... Sister was displeased that the kit did NOT contain pieces for a three-dimensional chimney. She promptly stole Dad's chimney and dissected the gingerbread man in order to create the other two sides. (Oooohhhh nOooooo, not the gumdrop buttons!!!)

Team Carly:

A license plate (HOH OHO), taillights and a Chev logo. Inside joke here - the cookies were attached to each other and when I went to separate them, they got a bit crushed. So I made a remark about how I must have been driving. Hence the Chev logo. No winners were declared but I think it's pretty obvious, don't you?? Heehee.

Nostalgia ran amuck this weekend. And in days of yore, when one of the women in our large bunch of matriarchs was making buns, we children were given a chunk of dough in order to make a BunMan. It took us many years to learn that finer details were obscured by the final rise but we tried, time and again, to convey the true essence of our creations. This time, I skipped the raisin face.

Look like anyone you know?