Life is Moving Fast

I don't remember the last time I posted a blog.  I suppose I could go and look, but it doesn't really matter.  Life has been busy.  In the last 2 months, our daughter graduated from college and we attended both ceremonies and went to two of her gallery shows.  She had knee surgery, we celebrated our 31st anniversary with an overnight trip to the cape and another wonderful lobster roll, celebrated Mother's day, Father's day, my husband's birthday, my daughter's birthday, moved daughter into an apartment, kept a business running and are winding down on our office remodel.  Quilting has sort of taken a back seat to the rest of life, although I have been trying to do a little stitching in the evenings for the past week or so.  We're on a push to get the office/basement updates completed before the 16th because we're having a party that day and relatives staying in the house.  Right now, the spare room/sewing room/guest room looks like an episode of Hoarders.  That is where everything from the basement and office went (well, all the small stuff) while we did the remodel.  As of today, we have new walls, new carpet, new ceiling, new lights and outlets, painted walls and stained woodwork, and new desks.  We're waiting on the delivery of some cabinetry and plugs for telephone and computer that should both arrive this week.  In the mean time, I'm struggling to try to get the house back to what used to be normal.

Having our office in the kitchen makes everything cramped, but I have a terrific view.  We have two bay windows meeting in the corner of the kitchen which gives me a wonderful view of the back yard and my cherry tree.  The birds are out in force and I've really enjoying watching all the babies being fed and taught to look for food by parents.  I've also seen more new birds this year than I have seen lately.  New to me this year are red starts, orchard oriels and red breasted nuthatches.  Today I saw a lot of a new cardinal family and seemingly dozens of titmouse.  I made sure that I picked cherries yesterday because we are getting lots of birds, squirrels and chipmunks visiting that tree for juicy treats.  I get most annoyed at the robins because they eat half a cherry and move on to the next.  (I'm sounding like a crazy bird lady!).

Happy Independence Day!

More Florabunda Block Pictures

This is a shot at the quilting retreat with all the Florabunda blocks together.  Block 12 wasn't quite complete at that time.  I've decided to change two of the blocks.  I don't like the colors of the leaves in either, and one block doesn't have any pink in it so I'm changing the color of the flower centers.  Otherwise, I'm very pleased with how they look together.

After those two blocks are finished, I can start with the 24" center block.  I think I have an idea of the flower colors, but no idea for the color of the basket.  I guess I'll have to play for a bit.



Florabunda Block 12 Completed

I've been doing a little stitching nearly every evening, but finally sat down to finish the last of the 12" Florabunda blocks last night. 

Next is the 24" center block.  I'm excited to see it all come together!

A Quilting Retreat

I went on my second quilting retreat this past weekend.  This was 48 hours of quilting, eating, sleeping and chatting.  Well, I did take a break at one point and took a walk to stretch my legs and enjoy the glorious New England spring weather, but really the rest of it was quilting, sleeping and eating in that order of the time I took.

The two things I like best about a quilting retreat is that I get a huge block of time to indulge myself in my favorite hobby, and a lot of space in which to spread out.  At home, it's a few minutes here and there or an afternoon if I'm lucky.  And right now, my sewing room is doubling as a storage area for most of the stuff that was stored in the basement while we remodel that.  So, it's not really usable for large projects. 

I went on the weekend with two quilt tops, and a few smaller projects in mind to work on.  My goal was to get both tops basted, one top quilted and make a  cover for my new Kindle.  I got that all accomplished and a little more.  I made the back, ironed, basted and machine quilted a UFO that was originally just a scrap project to keep me busy.  Then I was going to complete the top and donate it to a raffle for my troop.  But that never came to be, so I decided the quilt would be a Christmas gift for my sister.  That is not complete with the exception of a label and hand stitching the binding down.

The second project was to make the backing for and baste the maple leaf quilt top.  I had made 140-ish 4 1/2" maple leaf blocks by hand because I was looking for a hand work project to work on.  In addition, there are about 10 9" maple leaf blocks that I got as part of a box exchange project with my guild.  This project will be machine quilted and as of now, has no specific home.  But, I'm thinking I should be giving more of my quilts away, so this one will go to another relative.  I just don't know who yet.

The third project I did was a little, scrappy sleeve for my kindle.  My "table-mate" was making a lap sized quilt of bright colors and a white fabric with black swirls on it.  The method she used for the blocks made a lot of good sized scraps left over.  So, I scooped some of them up and put them together in a random fashion to make this sleeve.  It probably took me all Saturday morning to make, but it's bright and cheery and will protect my Kindle which is all the criteria I wanted for the item.

I found that Sunday morning is a perfect time for small, mindless sewing projects.  Sunday morning before lunch is a great time to gather up what I've worked on and just putter with little things.  I took some cut out applique flowers to make pot holders and sewed them to a background.  I've made a few of these before, but they aren't very heat resistant.  I have some heat resistant batting at home, so these three tiny projects will be finished up later.

Oh, and I also did some prep work for the last of my Florabunda applique blocks.  I don't enjoy using the iron, but being surrounded by other quilters makes it tolerable.  So now I just have the stitching to do on that block and it will be done.

The worst part of a weekend quilting retreat is that it ends.  I was tired because I don't sleep well in a strange place without Wayne, and I had a room mate that I didn't really know well and I didn't want to annoy her, so I was very self-conscience of  what I was doing.  So, coming home to sleep in my own bed is the good balance to coming home to real life and work.

I'll post pictures soon.

Finding Time to Quilt

I took part in a challenge posted by my on-line applique group last week.  The challenge was to spend at least 15 minutes every day doing some stitching.  That is not a lot of time.  Mostly it was a reminder to take time for yourself every day doing the things you love to do.  Considering that my current hand projet is a set of applique blocks, I almost always have something sitting by my chair to pick up and sew in the evening while relaxing and watching TV.

Yes, I did spend at least 15 minutes for every day for those 7 days doing some sort of stitching, preparing, choosing fabrics, etc.  But, it got me thinking...  I have no projects with deadlines.  I am doing these applique blocks because I thought the patterns were beautiful and wanted a portable stitching project.  There were some days that I picked up needle and thread because I had this challenge hanging over my head and I felt guilty NOT stitching.  And, I do admit that I rarely just spent 15 minutes.  Once I got going, I typically sewed for at least 30 minutes.  And, a few days I took a stitch or two and put the block down only to pick it up again and repeat this because I hadn't gotten to my 15 minues. 

So, why am I doing this?  I do this for enjoyment.  I do this because I like making things.  I enjoy being able to step back and admire something I created and I enjoy sharing them with other people.  I've never really been a selfless person who never takes time for myself.  So, why force myslef to do something on a hobby if forcing makes it seem like a chore?

I guess I have mixed feelings about this challenge.  It did focus my attention on getting the 11th block of this series done.  I had been feeling less than enthusiastic about the project and it may have gotten put away onto the pile of UFOs.  So, this challenge did get me over that hump, but I did resent HAVING to sew.  Perhaps I need a different spin on this of not necessarily having to do something every day, but having to finish a project before jumping off to the next.

Florabunda 11 finished

I finished block 11 of the Florabunda series two nights ago and started on block 12.  The last 12" block has close to 100 pieces to applique on.  When I think about it that way, I am intimidated and don't want to start.  But, thinking that it has 16 flowers seems more manageable.  I guess I am growing weary of this project.  Not that I don't love it.  But I enjoy the stitching so much more than preparing the applique, picking out colors and figuring out how to do the block - I am a process person.

Oh well, I'll get some pictures up this weekend.

Nine Patch Completed

Yes, I completed the nine patch quilt that was started in 1993 as an internet 9-patch swap.  This was in the day before stricter post office rules went into effect and you could put a 6" 9-patch block into a baggie and stuff it into an envelope with a regular stamp and send it on its way.  They were easy to make and fun to get "squishies" in the mail with beatiful patches made from fabric that you may not have been able to buy in your area of the country. 

I think there are 143 blocks in this quilt just set simply with 2" sashing.  Once I set the top together, I put it aside for quite some time because the horizontal sashing was puckered.  I made the mistake of cutting those strips mathematically rather than using a real measurement. That is, I figured that the blocks are each 6" with 2" sashing and figured out what the size SHOULD be rather than what it was ACTUALLY.  So, I had to stretch the sashing and gather some of the blocks and the top looked auful.  I really did not want to rip the whole quilt apart and resew it.  Especially since I didn't have enough of the sashing fabric to recut each of those sashings.  So, I put it aside.

Eventually, I pulled it out and ironed the beast flat and it looked just fine.  Also, I think time magnified the puckering in my mind.  When I took it out of the closet to iron, it really wasn't as bad as I had remembered.  A good lesson to remember. 

Now it's quilted, labeled, bound and complete!  And it is sitting on the huge pile accumulating in my sewing room awaiting the basement remodel to finish and the guest room to be reassembled so I can put it on that bed.  I can be patient when I want to be.