Focus, Focus Part 2



Thirty-seven 2 3/4 strips of background...

One hundred seventy 2 3/4" x 7 1/4" background strips....

10 - 2 3/4" x 9 1/2" background strips....

And finally the scraps and Ta Da.... Step 1 complete!

Later!!! Focus, Focus!!!



My newest start! A exercise of focus...

This magazine has been calling my name since it appeared on the news stand or more accurately at Barnes and Noble. For what seems like forever. I have picked it up and perused the 9-patch quilt saying "I can figure that out on my own, I don't need the magazine". Then I would say to myself "self, you have dozens of  9-patch patterns, what is so special about this one?"  Well let me tell you why this  particular  9-patch quilt has been singing its siren song to me. For a long, long time I have been admiring 9-patch quilts, but wasn't inspired to move in any particular direction. Then this particular quilt caught my attention with its blue setting fabric and that adorable little zig it does, it also helps that this is particular gem is a copy of an(a) antique quilt. That my friend, is enough to draw me in, I am hooked!

It also helps that I have 4 1/2 yards of this fabric that was just screaming "use me, use me"! So off we go. Now I am hoping to follow this project, like I always hope to with all the others, start to finish in a pretty straight forward fashion.  However, I hope not to, ooh-ohh, I want to do this or that...just use it as an exercise in focus, focus. Wish me well! I will update soon...

It's just my bag!



Gathered Together by Edyta Sitar


Finished project #2 ! Isn't this a neat bag, it holds everything! To take this picture of it I had to take out a book, a magazine, a journal and still I left all my other stuff in it. Edyta Sitar is one of my new favorite designers, I just purchased her latest book and can't wait to start on one of the projects.

This bag was in the April 2011 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting and was a snap to put together. I think these will make great gifts! It even uses the selvage edge of the fabric as a tie, see it - isn't that cool?

Of course any new projects have to wait for now, because I still have so many unfinished. I have no illusions that I will finish them all before starting a new project, but a few at least. When I consider I have two projects that just need binding and labels to be complete, it seems silly to start more.

Oh, but I do love to start a new project. There is just something about finding that new project that completely captures your imagination and then there is the hunt for the fabric. The perfect fabric that makes you say "there you are, you will be absolutely perfect" and visions of the cozy Green Gables homestead come to mind. You think to yourself, when this quilt is done I will be there in that simpler time. Then there is the cutting, all the tidy piles of perfectly cut fabric, all laid out just waiting to be zipped through the machine. You envision yourself sewing happily, feeling homey, cozy, and at peace. Just working patiently until the project is complete. Oh there you go focusing on COMPLETE! It's the process, remember the process that is so satisfying. Then the moment you finish your first block and press it out and see that yes you have made it....just like the pattern and look those seams match perfectly....oh and there are only 60 more blocks to make and then just the borders and then quilt, bind, label, and be done! Oh I just can't wait! Then somewhere between block 1 and 51 you are captured by another wonderful project or the beautiful weather outside, you fall in love again. That is when the wonderful project you started with all the "I Can't wait until it is done!" enthusiasm is now a UFO, an Unfinished Object. Oh well "It's just my bag!", I will finish it sometime later, after all there are so many wonderful starts to make!

Enjoy making starts and finishes today and enjoy your authentic life.

            

              

UFO #1 Cin-a-mon Nicke Complete!

Here he is, UFO #1 Cin-a-mon Nicke complete! One down a couple dozen to go.

This fun Santa wallhanging was a gift for my best friend Molly for Christmas, last Christmas that is! In December I had nearly finished the quilting when I decided that I wasn't at all happy with what I had done and so out came the seam ripper (Argh! Monofiliment) and gone were all hopes of getting the project done in time for our Christmas get together. Then yesterday, I finially put him in the hands of his rightful owner fully quilted, bound, and labeled! Hurray! Today my daughter and I will be finishing our bags we started one rainy day last weekend and when complete we will have yet another finished project to show....but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I am slowly realizing that everything I need to get done will more likely take days to finish, rather than hours. In the past I found that I was always frustrated by my lack of finished projects and as usual had to remind myself that I am just one person and these things take time and energy. How silly to have to remind yourself of such things, one would think this a natural thought process, however, I have found that it is not. At least not for me. So off I go, merrily finishing some projects and wondering why I started others at all, yet another of life's little mysteries. 

Until next time, I'll be off finishing projects, after all in this economy it is best to use what you have rather than buy new. Of course I'm not dead yet, there are many days to come and even more things to play with and new projects to start! Bye for now!

Now on to Dresden Plates! I am Innocent!

Here it is, my latest start! I have to fess up, I love to start new projects and try new techniques! I stick to my creed "I'm not dead yet!", and so I will start more projects with no thought of the ones I have not yet finished!

So here it is, project #412, my favorite number for exaggeration (although at this rate, I may have have to pick a higher one)! Here is the new block I have just made, a Dresden Plate. I have always wanted to make this block, it is one of the first patterns to draw my attention as a young person. I say young person as I don't know when my mania for quilting began, I might well have been a teen or even a pre-teen at the time? (The womb perhaps?)

This project was inspired when I was innocently wandering through blogs of fellow quilters or some group or other on Yahoo, in any case the point is, I was innocent.

One of those clever people told me of a video on YouTube, a tutorial on a Dresden Plates by Missouri Star Quilt Co.. After watching the video (actually, truth be told, 20 seconds in) I was sold on the technique and was off to my local quilt shop to get the new tool with which I would begin my new project. Yippee!! I am inspired! Unfortunately, Roxy did not have the ruler in the store, but she was placing an order as we spoke and she would be glad to order one for me! Good ole' Roxy, I can always count on her to supply my addiction!

 Ahhh, anticipation.....

A few days later I got the email I had been waiting for, your ruler is in! Yayyyyy!  Off  to the quilt shop I go! With a new ruler and inspiration I start cutting out blades. I have decided that this quilt will be one of the many I make from my large box of scraps and fabric on hand. The plate blades themselves will be from scraps only, the center from fabric on hand (oh please don't let me need this piece of fabric for another project), and the background also a fabric on hand. I figure I can make at least 5 or 6 quilts from just scraps and dozens of quilts from my stash, but that is a story for another day.

After making a bunch of blades I confidently sew my first plate. It is wonderful, but something is off? I see that I have not been careful in selecting fabrics, I have cut up anything that fell under my blade and my block is looking, for lack of a better term,Off! I have used fabrics with too much contrast and my plate looks just, wrong. So I dismantle nearly the whole plate and decide, as I should have in the first place to use only mediums and darks with a cream background with pink flowers. The center are made with a black and gold grid, a fabric that I hope I didn't buy for another project and Viole`. I reassemble the plate to find that I am smitten!

What is the power those bits of fabric have over me, in all those wonderful colors, with all those wonderful patterns. I am smitten, powerless. I am Innocent, really I am. Have a wonderful day, I know I will. 

English Paper Piecing



Here I was at the beginning of a fun new project! I was so happy with my collection of tools and fabrics, it is always so exciting to start a new project and imagine how it will come out. Here you see a collection of my supplies to begin English Paper Piecing (EPP). There are my wonderful Jo Morton fabrics, my hexegons with holes punched in the center (a project in themselves), my favorite little scissors (a gift from a dear girl), my magnifiers, some applique pins, and thread. Oh and that tan dot you see is on the scissors is my thimble pad, the only thimble I have found that I can use. They are stuck every where in my house. I even found one on a bookcase recently, I must have had something to do in the area that required the pad's removal. One never knows?

Now there are six EPP flowers. They are all so much fun to make and so satisfying when finished.  I couldn't wait to show them off, see the needle and thread connected to the last one? The instructions I am using for this project are in Kathleen Tracy's Civil War Sewing Circle and the pattern is called Hexagon Flowers Doll Quilt. The book gives very good instructions on EPP and where to get the hexagons online. How fantastic, I really am enjoying this project!

Well here they are! I enjoyed making the flowers so much I made enough for two doll quilts, two pincushions, and with one left over! Of course there is the quilting still to be done, but we will save that for another day. I am beginning to believe that I should call myself a piecer instead of quilter, as I have sooooo many projects yet to quilt! I have the know how and the capability, but alas no desire! There are so many tops to piece and so little time! So much fabric to play with! Oh well it will be what it is, after all I'm not dead yet.

I hope you take a bash at this fun project, it very portable and can be completed anywhere! Have a Happy Easter and a Great Spring!



I'm not dead yet, it could still happen...

This is my design wall, as you can see I am working on many projects. Most of these projects are done minus the quilting, my point of hesitation. I love to piece and I love the finished projects, but when it comes to that in between step-the quilting-I falter. Now I would love to say that my design wall still looks like this January picture, but alas I am afraid that many of the projects have been layered to make room for more started projects. The JLWC quilt in the top right is in a hoop and has a little hand quilting done, but the others have been moved over to the left on top of their companions to make room for, oh three or four other projects. They are all lovely projects, but as I said "I love to piece and plan and cut"!

I promised myself that last weekend would be a finishing weekend, but it was indeed a cozy weekend. You see we had 8" of spring snow that put me in a less than Springy finishing mood, I think instead of finishing I cleaned the cellar? Oh well at least I got something accomplished. So of course I said to myself, I will have a finishing day on my next day off! Yes, yes I will! And I did, I did! I made a pillow from an applique block I found years ago at a flea market. Oh yes, and I did cut out 10 fabric shopping bags from on old shower curtain that I found the weekend before when I was cleaning out the cellar, that counts...doesn't it? Okay, I guess not, well at least I was helping the environment.

Oh, oh and I did also stop at my friends house and help her sort through her fabric. My friend is really a bastket weaver, rug hooker, and braider and has decided that quilting just doesn't fit in her tiny house. I had to help her out, right? Of course she did have three projects that were basted and partially quilted, afterall it will only take a minute to finish them and yes you guessed it! I have three more quilts to quilt! So maybe I should really stick to my finishing guns or should I just say "I'm not dead yet, it could still happen....I could get it all done...someday?"

So I promise that my next weekend off will be a finishing weekend, that is if the sun isn't to perfect to garden all day or there isn't a new technique I can not resist. I will, I will finish something!