Feels Like Hookey

Maybe I'm semi-retired. I sure haven't been working hard at my quilting. Not even 100 feet out my back door are lots of wildflowers at the edge of the woods. Distant shots don't show them very well, so here are some shown at closer range of what lures me outside every day.

First up is Hepatica.There leaves come out after they bloom. There are big patches of these. They are mostly white, but some pastel lavender and lilac. The fern-like leaves belong to the Dutchmen's britches that look like bloomers hanging upside down to me. That's the second picture. They are growing along the little brook at the east edge of our property.

 Not shown is the pale pink Spring Beauty. Lots of these in the neighbor's yard. I've moved a few over to this side of the brook.  Below is Blood Root. Their leaves fully develop after blooming too. Not so many of those.

 Also not shown is the big patches of white Cutleaf Toothwort and masses of Skunk's Cabbage. They are mostly in the woods across the street with hundreds of Marsh Marigold's (shown below).

 Now do you understand why it is so hard to stay in and quilt, especially when I have more quilts than I will ever need?  Can you guess what will be blooming next?

The Best Ever

What can I say? Spring finally arrived here in Skunk's Misery. I am outside as much as possible. There are lots of weed seedlings demanding my attention. When I am in the house I'm either too tired to quilt or I'm filling orders for my Thirtysomething Square Up tool. Stephanie Prescott of A Quilter's Dream designed a Block of the Month quilt using my Square Up tool. Perhaps you are participating or have seen it at your LQS. Her pattern is called Sample This!

Last night I joined Joy and Patty to do a little sewing. "Little" is an accurate description of what we did. More talking than usual. Must see them more often so that won't happen. It was difficult to focus on cutting and figuring out someone's pattern.

My trip to Santa Rosa was the best ever. Everything about it was Perfect. I'm still talking about it. All flights were on time. The weather was gorgeous. The meeting was well attended, everyone was friendly, sales were good, nice compliments, a fun, full workshop, and good food. To top it off, my hostess took me on a hike in the Foothills park near her home. I couldn't have asked for a better time. I noticed how much cleaner the area is than my area which is always a mess coming out of winter. Lots blooming, and the only bugs I saw were bees on the beautiful, blooming wisteria vines. I saw few birds maybe cause there weren't any bugs for them.

It's in the 80's today. Too hot for me to work outside so I am catching up on paperwork... Cooling off to normal for the rest of the week. So I will be back in the garden again. Wish me luck eliminating the weeds so I have more time to quilt. I sure hope you don't have the same problem.

Another Adjustment

I haven't done any sewing or quilting in the last two weeks. I was working on 2 quilt tops - my Flying Geese quilt and Bow Tie blocks done; these are the newest.  I'm loving it. The Flying Geese blocks are waiting to be joined. I should be able to get back to it soon now that things are settling down.

I haven't written in 2 weeks for several reasons. First, I came down with the flu. We were at the hospital with our 92 year old neighbor that we help take care of. I went to the bathroom because I felt sick to my stomach. A nurse found me there and very quickly put me in a wheelchair put a mask on my face and a pan in my lap and pushed me out the door. Mark got sick just a few hours after me so we were not at Dorothy's bedside when she died the next day. By Thursday we were better so we could attend the funeral and then helped clean her stuff out of Assisted Living.

 
Adjusting to Mark's retirement has been easier because of Dorothy. He would go visit her nearly every day, leaving me a few hours alone.With her gone we will need to make another adjustment to our lives. Preretirement  Mark was gone at work nearly 12 hours a day. Now he will be underfoot even more. One of the hardest things for me with him around all the time is that I want to retire, too. Yet I like my job. And work just started for the season. With everything going on between  my fella friend and Dorothy  it's been hard to focus. I'm anxious for a new normal to settle over us.

It's also Show Season! I enjoyed the Mukwonago Crazy Quilters Annual Quilt Show on Saturday followed by the Sun Prairie Heritage Quilters show on Sunday. I went with Judy on Sunday. We had alot of catching up to do. One thing for sure. The quilts in the shows are getting better. Lots of fancy machine quilting. The Baltimore Album customer quilt that Judy quilted won best of show in Mukwonago. Way to go Judy! I didn't do much damage to my wallet. 32 different half yards and  a pack of Bali Crackers. All very inspiring. I hope you can enjoy a few shows this spring.

She Made Do

I've been too busy helping my fella friend to do any sewing so today I am sharing photos of one of the few antique quilts in my collection. I bought this about 20 years ago when my guild took a bus trip to Kalona, Iowa. I have no history on it, but it is 130 years old or more. 

The pattern is a variation of the Union Square or Contrary Wife block. Don't you just love how we can't keep the names straight.  Isn't  it interesting how the blocks are sometimes scrappy and sometimes not. Two of the blocks have a pair of little triangles arranged wrong. Have you ever done that on purpose in one of your quilts. Nobody is perfect, so you better not try to achieve it in your quilts. Wouldn't want to insult God. Like there's a chance I'd make a "perfect" quilt. HA

This quilt came complete with a nice hole in it  in  the center square on the block on the far left in the picture below.  I hear it is typical for old quilts to have a hole like this. If not made from a mouse, than likely from bed springs. I guess I ought to repair it so handling the quilt doesn't stress the hole and make it bigger. I'll have to put it on my list. The long some-day list, of course.

I counted the different scraps in this quilt once and came up with 78 different prints used. It was easier to count than you'd think. First all the pinks, than the browns, than the oranges. . . I pull it out once in a while especially like a week or two ago when I was tempted by an antique quilt on ebay.

Things aren't likely to settle down with my fella friend real soon. It looks like he will be moving. Just how soon  or where to we don't know. Mental illness is ugly to deal with. It brings me great joy to know that I am making a difference in his life.
Time to check out the blogs linked at Judy's.

It's My Therapy

My fella friend has been needing my help so I haven't had much time to sew. At least I got 5 more blocks almost done that are a bit lighter than the others.

We had quilting at church on Tuesday. We weren't very productive but we had a good time. We got word that one of our group will no longer be able to join us but hopes to sew from home for us. Of the three quilters that joined our group in October, one decided against joining us, one will be sewing from home and the third I haven't seen yet. But Sue has decided to join us for a while. She already knows a number of the gals too, so that should just add to the fun. We worked on the string blocks from last month, and I unloaded about 10 more kits.

A friend  stopped yesterday with her husband. She started talking about gathering fabric for her next quilt and He started rolling his eyes. So I took him up to my Quilt Warehouse and gave him an education. He didn't have too much to say except "But you make money with your quilting."  And although that's true I still quilt in excess of what I need for my books and classes and lectures. I told him that quilting is my therapy and boy do I need the therapy. She can take it from there.

For the Curious

I know some of you took some Process Pledge to enlighten others as to how you work and made decisions on your quilts. In case you are a new reader, this is a glimpse of how I often work. First I make a bunch of blocks that I like. Then I try various settings. So far I have made 13 of my Flying Geese blocks.

I tried setting them on the diagonal, but it does nothing for me. At least alternating with plain blocks. I don't think I'd like this with any kind of alternate block- light, dark, pieced or appliqued. Set straight either.

  Then I tried setting them with sashing. Surprisingly, I liked this enough to try it with a dark sashing, too.  Okay, maybe this is too dark.  I just grabbed some brown strips from my 2 1/2" strip scrap box.

I guess it's back to the original plan.  Not sure how big I want this yet, but I think I need to lighten it up a bit with the next few blocks I make. As much as I like this, I'm thinking like Nann. I'd like this just fine if it were in bright colors. Please someone do it so I can see how much better great it could look either way.

 I hope your International Quilting Weekend was productive, too. To see other settings I have tried for some of the other quilts I have made, click on "variations" under Labels.

Winners Announced

 I came down with a Wicked Cold and my fella friend needed a little extra help the last few days. That meant no quilting time. The weekend is only half over and with it being International Quilting Weekend I'm feeling kinda bad  now that I haven't been quilting.  But, I will fix that as soon as this is posted.  I'm feeling it now.   Am I the only one that didn't notice that National Quilting Day changed to International Quilting Weekend?  I guess I don't stay on top of things in the quilting world like I used to.

I guess I will get back to my flying geese project. The plans for this so far is to join the blocks side-by-side, without sashing. That was the point of adding a third flying geese unit to each side then the rectangle to square up each quarter block. As I said before, I really don't like sashing and I thought modifying the block like this would separate the pinwheels enough visually and make it easier to construct cause the points won't meet at the edges of the block making it all lumpy. Well, I hope that  was clearer than mud.

Thank you to everyone that stopped to visit during the blog hop.  And thanks doubly to those of you that decided to follow me. It's always nice to know someone will read my ramblings.  I will be checking on your sites soon. If I'd known I was not going to be able to post the winners till now, I would have extended the date of the giveaway till now. Sorry to make you wait, but maybe that makes it more fun for you.

The following are WINNERS, please contact me so I can send you a package snailmail.
Quilting Babcia
Evelyn
Sandra
Nicolesender
NancySue
RhondaD

I hope We get  to do some quality quilting this weekend.

Willpower

Have you ever seen an ugly quilt?  If not, I'd guess you never checked out ebay. Occasionally I browse ebay for antique quilt tops. I had Sue here the other day and we bid on a top. About the only good thing I could say about it is that it's colorful.  Sue wanted it cause it had 1940's prints; her favorite. The prints are pastels like the 1930's, but they are larger designs. Yes, she got it. Here it is.

I'm not saying this is ugly. It's just easy to see why there are so many tops that never got quilted. We couldn't smooth this thing flat on the wall for nothing. At first she got it just to enjoy the variety of 1940's prints. Now she's thinking of taking it apart and remaking it with one color for the melons between the blocks. Knowing her, she probably will and it will be gorgeous.

I have always had pretty good willpower when it comes to spending money. I really don't care for shopping, except for fabric of course. Today I came pretty close to spending too much on an antique quilt top. I found a top on ebay the other day, made an offer today and wouldn't go any higher before the auction ended. I don't regret it yet. I just felt they wanted too much especially considering what all the others were going for.  Will I set out to copy it? Find another to bid on? Either would be easy to do, meanwhile both will stay on my "to do" list.
It's not too late for anyone to participate in the "Blog Hop with Giveaways". Check my last post.

It's Party Time

Welcome to everyone participating in this winter's quilter's blog hop going on from March 8 to the 14th. This is my first time joining the fun. For my regular readers that don't know, you can follow this link to hop to blogs hosting give-aways.  If you are new hear, allow me to show you around.
I post once or twice  a week about my quilting life. I don't host mysteries or quilt alongs and I don't post many tutorials either. I figure why repeat so much of what is out there already. This is simply my online diary of my quilting and where others can find me and my stuff, like the links in the sidebar to my web page, books and patterns etc. My web page is where you'll find my bio and info to invite me to teach for your guild, show or shop.  My favorite topic to teach is my Thirtysomething concept. I've made over 75 quilts with the Thirtysomething units though they haven't all been posted here. Two books feature half of them. And I'm currently working on a Thritysomething block book. You can see a few of those blocks below that are part of my give-away.

 My Give-Away
The cabinet where I keep my orphan blocks is kinda crowded, so I'm cleaning out. Some of the blocks will go to the comfort quilts I make. But that pile has is pretty deep too. So I am offering one to you. That means 6 lucky winners. Numbers 1 to 5 plus a mystery block. All you need to do is tell my which one of these 12 1/2" blocks you'd like. Winners will be chosen randomly. Then check back to see if you've won so I can get your address.

Tutorials
Please take a minute to check out my tutorials on Thirtysomething units and arranging Orphan blocks in a sampler quilt.

Happy Hoppers will  follow this link. Good Luck.

Blocks, Borders and Binding Oh, My!

Lots of cutting yesterday during the storm. But First I did some sewing on this Broken Dishes quilt. It's been ready to put together for a month, but I kept overlooking it. I want to put a scrappy border on this thing so then I cut  that. The blocks are all together now, but since it's getting big and harder to get on the wall, I'll wait for a picture when it is pressed and the border is on.

 

Then I cut a Binding and a few other Borders for other quilts. Then I cut some Blocks for the Flying Geese quilt, the Flying Dutchman variation I showed Monday.  I did use 3 full bobbins and was happy with how the day was going with a fresh new blade. Then I nicked the edge of the blade on the table and cussed and quit for the night.  I'm going to go iron the Broken Dishes quilt now.

Cabin Fever

Would you believe this was the start of the pink and brown quilt I planned to make? After stacking up my Civil War pinks and browns and viewing such quilts on google images I reconsidered. This is the block anyway. I've been wanting to do something with flying geese for a while. I prefer to make 'em the old fashioned way. I rotary cut individual, loose triangles, sew them together and press. Amen. It will be fun to see how big this one gets.

I was browsing through the catalog from Hancock's the other day. I was so close to placing an order when Sue came over with Cabin Fever. It's not like she gave it to me or anything, but I wanted to find some more blue to border the Delectable Mountains quilt.  So yesterday we went on a shop hop. Good thing I checked that the furthest shop of choice was closed on Sunday. Milton was first.  I only stopped once on the way there to check the map. It just didn't look familiar in winter. They had the blue I needed and I was low on greens and I had to check the clearance and yes, I was having a good time. And no, these won't all go in the same quilt. Janesville next. We walked in on a sale. Yippee. I love their Civil War prints. I think I showed pretty good restraint considering the sale. I was looking for what I saw in the catalog and I found them.

 Not far from there was Delavan. I'd never been between those two shops so I had to stop and check the map again. We stopped there and was surprised that they were to find them closed. I don't think that is usual for them. I must have missed my turn on the way back home from Delavan so stopped to look at the map one more time. Again I was heading in the right direction. In fact, I liked the route so much that I will go that way from now on. I know Walworth county better than Sue, but not as good as I thought. We passed the Elkhorn shop too but they too are closed on Sundays. Actually we already spent enough, we just weren't ready to go home. So then we stopped for a sandwich.

We were glad to get out of the house. We first thought we'd go on Tuesday but the forecast is for 6 to 8" more snow. That's fine with me. I've got quilting to  do. And I'll go check out the blogs linked up at Judy's.

Clarifying How I Handle Scraps

 Martingale posted to their site and sent a newsletter about how I sort my  scraps, but omitted some info.
They also have their scrap books on SALE this week. 

 So to clarify, I generally do not cut down my scraps to fill my boxes of specific sized strips. I do for the squares and triangles, but only if the right sized strip is about 10" or shorter. Most of the scraps are truly leftovers. I set aside in a separate drawer the chunks or other larger scraps till I know what I want from them. The shorter odd width strips are also set aside for either string quilts or odd-width log cabin quilts. Once this system is set up it takes very little time to maintain. You could sort and file your scraps as you go or throw them in a small basket on your cutting table and empty it periodically. I am ready to do it again now.

Fabric for most of my quilts are carefully chosen to color coordinate or be in the same style. I do NOT do the kitchen sink variety where any and every scrap the right size is used. I do not hesitate to cut a strip from the main stash to use in a quilt. If i don't use it all, it goes in the basket then later gets filed in the correct box of strips.

Also since I use the Easy Angle ruler for cutting triangles, I do not need one box for 2 1/2" strips/squares and one for 2 7/8" strips or squares when I only need the 2 1/2".
I am sure many quilters don't generate enough scraps to use this system, but there are many of us out there that use a similar system and find it very efficient. Hope this helps.
To view the scrap quilts I made in the last year, click on "2012 top" in the sidebar under labels.

Think Spring

Here's a few more comfort kits I got together for church quilting. I think they have enough for almost a year now. Notice the block to use the half-square triangles I worked on last week.

I've also been doing a little quilting. By little I mean I got this 4-block sampler quilted. Another top is loaded and waiting.

One of the first signs of spring to me is when the birds start coming back. Mark saw the cranes already. Yesterday the geese were honking/complaining maybe? about all the snow.The red-wing blackbird will be here in a week or two also. I always hear them before I see them. And on my walk just now I thought I spotted a small flock of robins, always back this week.
It's a cheery thought and I start singing the "Red Red Robin". I learned it from dad singing it when I was little. I always loved it when he sang. Imagine my surprise when I learned that his hunting and fishing buddies got to hear it from him every morning at camp. I tried that once and got shot down. What a way to totally ruin the start of what could be a perfectly delightful day. So maybe I won't go to quilt camp anymore, but instead stay home and sing and quilt all I want.

I'm pulling fabric for 2 more quilts. I want to tweak the designs, then I'll post what my plans are.  Glad there is no end in sight.

Loren's Legacy

My Bali Sea Star top is complete. I decided to border it simply so as not to detract from the blocks in the unique setting. Thanks again to Nann for the suggestion. I love it. I will enjoy it on my flannel wall for a while now.

We haven't had much snow this winter but that doesn't mean I don't shovel snow. I shovel whether I should or not. I can't seem to resist. I don't actually need to, but I really like to shovel.  But then when I shovel,  I pay for it for DAYS afterward. That means I've hurt toooo much from shoveling to quilt or rotary cut very much.  Oh well, so I have been doing a bit of piecing instead.

After meeting at church last Tuesday and  working with their fabric here with Lucrecia the day before I decided it was time to organize again. We left several piles for kits that weren't ready to take on Tuesday.  Several of the ladies mentioned they didn't like a kit unless it told them what to cut and make with it. Some of our kits are just bags of coordinating fabric. Other ladies prefer that. But that means the piles I have here could use patterns chosen to go along with them. Okay, no problem. Spent a while choosing patterns and tweaking the kits.

One of the bags of scraps I came across was all the triangles I'd been collecting. At least anything that would finish  3" or larger.  I knew some of the triangles were the exact size and I paired them with triangles that were over-sized and sewed them together. Now they just need to be trimmed and pressed and they are ready to go into a quilt.  I'd prefer to trim first with scissors.

If they are pressed first then a rotary cutter and ruler would be needed to square them to size. I'm trying to cut back on unnecessary cutting. I guess I could just trim the tips and leave a 1/2" or more for a seam allowance - depending on how they are sewn together. Better yet I will make a kit with 3 1/2" squares and let someone else deal with them.

Wake up Laughing

I've kept busy all week doing very little quilting. One of the things I'm doing is working on my quilt scrapbook. It's one way I document the quilts I make. It sure  comes in handy to refresh my memory for all sorts of things. I made pages where I can show 1, 2 or 3 quilts. Included are pattern name, the source of the pattern, size, when pieced and quilted Also if it sold or was donated or gifted and blank lines I can fill in with names or other info like if it was in a show or magazine. I wish I thought of indicating what batting I used. I'll  include it when I reprint the forms. I put them in page protectors back to back so I can keep together extra photos and any extra notes I want. These pages go back a few years.  I have two years worth of quilts and tops to record.  Glad I can check  back on the blog for details.

Lucrecia came over today. She brought show and tell of a top she made while she was in Panama and the top from the blocks she made from the block exchange with the church ladies. Very nice.  She then helped me with some kits so I have another big tote full to take tomorrow. We're supposed to get a little rain and snow tonight and tomorrow. That usually keeps me home cause then there's ice to drive in.Wish us luck. We are  planning on making string blocks together.

I've also had some distraction from my people. Distraction as in I'm not happy with them. When this happens I find myself writing letters. I write lots of letters especially when I am upset. Sometimes I send them. One I burned, one I left for Mark to read and most are all in my head. I've written many to the same people and I've rewritten the same letter many times. Again - all in my head. Then I feel better.

My fella friend makes me laugh too though. He's always telling jokes. Some I have probably heard over 30 times. But he has good ones too and he talks as much as he can. The other night I had a dream about him that woke me up laughing. All I remember is that he died and we had him cremated. And he still kept talking! I know this cause his voice came right out of the urn with his ashes sitting on the mantle. And we had a conversation!

Considering a Suggestion

I took it as a suggestion anyways when Nann at With Strings Attached  said that she was imagining these blocks offset. So I had to try it and while I was at it, I thought I'd throw some fabric up on the wall of something that might work for a border.

Nann's wasn't the only comment I considered. Annie at Annie' Quilt Orts commented that she didn't have many batiks in her stash to make this. I'd say that's a good excuse to go buy some more. But then, I hardly used any batiks myself. Not everyone loves them. Sew, use what you like. But her comment did suggest to me to dig into my batiks and find a few more to use. It also reminded me that for over a year now I have been wanting to mix my batiks in with the rest of the stash so I won't forget them again. Now those blocks are cut out and almost all sewed up. I will keep the border fabric up on the wall with the blocks to see how I like it tomorrow in daylight. I rarely choose a border in the evening. IS tonight the night that I move those batiks???
Thank you Ladies.