Woo-hoo! Finished stuffus!

Morning, superfriends!

I feel... accomplished.  If a little klutzy.  More about that second one in a minute.  First - the accomplished feeling. 

I've fiinally finally finally finished Little Moo.  Here's a pic of it on the floor at work, bound and everything.  The quilting that really shows up here is the sky - it makes the clouds look a very puffy!  (And the tree quilting shows a little... that's cool!)  I'll get a close-up of the fence rail in a few seconds here... hang on....    The funny thing is, now that I am completely done with Little Moo here, I don't really like it.  It's not bad, it's not hideous... I even like parts of it.  The sky quilting I like.  The fences I like.  I even do think he's relatively cute, for a cow.  But.... overall.... I just don't like it.  Which all in all is a bit of a shame.  I suspect the problem lies in that Little Moo was my first real applique, and it was a bit of a learning curve.  I could probably remake it a lot faster than the first go-round, should I ever be so inclined.  And because the top frustrated me, it took me FOREVER to quilt it.  But, it's done now, and I can step away from it for a while.  See how I feel about it later on.

So anyway, there's Little Moo, aka Texas Daycare, all done.  Hooray!  I do feel a sense of accomplishment in finishing him up.  And a close-up of the fence that surrounds him.  Copper embroidery floss and brown thread to make a barbed wire fence!

The other thing I finished was another Hexen.  I like the proportions of this one better, so I will run with it on my bed-sized project, I think.  This will definitely be an ongoing project (of course, I thought that with Crazy Diamonds, too, and that top is already done)!  The quilting on it is a simple swirl kinda thing radiating out from the center.   Now... on to the real thing!!  Time to start ploughing through my fabrics and seeing what I can make!  I should really decide if I want a common background or not.  It might look more unified if I did, but it would be much more in keeping with ME if it didn't.

As for the klutzy....  about 9 months ago, maybe a little less, I did something to my ankle.  No biggie.  It hurt, it swelled, it got over it.  In the last month or two it's been getting a little worse and aching a lot.  No clue what I did originally, since I was deep in fair, and it stopped hurting.  But I turned it recently, and I think it did something.  Because one of the things I did last night was try to set up BST for quilting.  I tweaked my ankle AGAIN whilst trying to do that.  So... fun fun.  It REALLY hurt last night.  REALLY.  So I am wearing a brace on it today and seriously considering going to a doctor about it.  I did not get BST ready, either, which annoyed me.

But tonight there is a wedding, and I will not wear the brace for that.  Nope.  Uh-uh.  Refuse.  I'm already going to look silly (from my perspective.  I don't dress up much, so when I do, I feel weird). 

And this weekend.... well, I got myself a new peg loom.  It's three feet long.  I'm either going to make a rug or a shawl.  I haven't quite decided which one, but I will make something.  And sew some more.  Hooray!!!

S

Hexen Wednesday

Good morning, superfriends!

Finished my test hexen.  I'd call it a hexie, but it's 12" across!  The quilting ALMOST shows in the picture, but either way, it's good, because this was merely the test version.  I can now make adjustments to the template - like making the outer hex a little smaller, so it takes up less room in the center.

Test Hexen #2 is in the works.  The plan, ultimately, is to have a bunch of giant hexen and zigzag stitch them together for a bedspread.  The biggest thing is what to quilt in the center.  I have many ideas... this one was just a random motif.  But oh, the ideas I have.

Little Moo is almost done.  I should be able to get the binding on him tonight and be done!  There are few words for just how happy I will be to get him done!  Once Little Moo is done, I will only have... err... 5 to quilt.  I think.  *sheesh*  I should quilt faster!

On the plus side, I have fabrics currently for only 2 more quilts.  I have lots of plans, but I've only got the stuff for two of them... 

This morning we stopped for doughnuts on the way to work.  D picked up a lot of doughnuts for her department.  I might stop for same for my department tomorrow.  Maybe.  Or maybe wait until Friday.  But the guy at the doughnut shop was amazingly nice!   He gave us LOTS of bonus doughnuts.  Yum!!!  Mind you, I already had my breakfast - mmm.... sushi for breakfast....  I found some at our local Central Market that they call Japanese Bagel Rolls.  :)  Yum.  Rice, Nori, Avocado, Cream Cheese, and Salmon.  Makes me happy! (but I did get a doughnut or two for a mid-morning snack!)

S

who should seriously consider making a doughnut quilt....

Monday. I think. Yes.... yes, it is.

Needless to say, my days are obviously a little messed up right now.  I spent the weekend down with a migraine.  Hooray.  I missed work on Friday, and that threw my whole weekend off.

But.  All is not lost, superfriends!  (*shrug*  I dunno... I just type this stuff).  I managed to get my second AAQI quilt finished.  I will send it off after Christmas, I suspect, since mailing things will be touch-and-go until then!  And that way maybe I can finish the next one I've got planned, too!

Here it is! -------->  (duh).  What doesn't show so well in this pic is the quilting.  I need to get a better up-close shot.  The quilted clouds show up pretty well, but the quilted trees do not.  Yup.  I quilted rows of trees into my city.  It seemed appropriate, for a quilt called "I Remember Trees Here." 

So, two down. 

And making more hexes recently.  Managed to get the pattern enlarged ridiculously, so I can have HUGE hexes!  I am working on a test one tonight.  We'll see how far I get with it.  I have Plans (yup, with a capital Puh).

And in even more fabulous news, my mother is improving all the time.  Talked to her today - she is doing much better - feels much better, and sees much better now.  She went to the doctor today and he was pleasantly surprised at how much better her vision was.  That's a good thing!  Of course, now my dad has the flu, so he's miserable.  They finished up their remodeling, and are taking time to relax and heal up.

As soon as I finish quilting my BST I will post it, and prob a tutorial for it, too.  It's an easy one.  VERY easy.  And hopefully I will soon get Little Moo FINALLY finished.  I'm close to being able to bind it.  I had hoped to tonight, but I am coughing a lot so I will head to bed when I am done with this post. BST is next in the rotation when Little Moo is done - so there is method in the disconnected sentences above.  Gotta finish Little Moo before I can put BST in the hoop and quilt by hand.

So that's me for the night.  I am taking my kitten and going to bed now.

Have a good night!
S

Brief update. Very brief.

Here it is... a layout for one of the blocks for the BST quilt.  :)  It's bright, ne?  That was the idea, and I think it's succeeding.  I can start piecing tonight, which will be lovely! 

And yes, I am still working on Little Moo.  :)  Just not right at this second.

I have hopes of getting home at a reasonable hour tonight, which will mean more time to sew and more time to do other stuff.  Last night was go home, eat, work a little on Texas Daycare, and then crash for the night.  I would like to have a LITTLE more time to do stuff tonight!

Friday we're going to Screams - yay for Haunted Houses!  I am looking forward to it.  I haven't been for a year or so, (duh), maybe even more.  Since it's almost an hour away, I count that as travel.  :)  Especially since it's for fun!

And this weekend might have sewing company, and a chance to work for long periods of time in the forge.  Even if it will be cold!  Brrrrr.

I PROMISE I will try to get a pic up of Texas Daycare tonight.  I was just too tired last night.
Busily yours,
Shay

Hooray Monday and finishes!!!

It was a productive weekend!  Friday left me with an inclination to crawl into a hole and pull it in after me.  So this weekend I went to the quilt forge and spent a good deal of time there, with the end result that things got done.  Yayayayayayay! (Muppet flailing arms)



I really need to get better pictures!



First up - I found some scraps of material that (gasp) went together very well, so I made a mugrug or two.  It was something I could quilt on my machine while D was setting up a quilt on Frank for her to do.  I forgot to get a picture of the one for D, so I'll have to put that up here later.  But the one for me:

I like the peacock colors, even though they aren't my normal choice, and not something I'd wear.  But for a mug rug... you bet!  I might even make another one, a little smaller, if I get my work desk adjusted.  Then I can take this one back home and use it for a placemat!

It's a little big, but I like it.  It will handle a couple of mugs or bottles (since I usually have a DP and a glass of water with me).  It's also less lop-sided than it appears in the picture, which is nice.  All in all, a success!  And pic of D's will follow this evening.

The other thing I did get finished (finally!!) is my Black and White quilt.  I'm still pondering a name for it - it's the Sea Glass pattern, but in blacks and whites (duh).   It's 72" x 72" - so a nice size. 

Some of the contrast in fabrics doesn't show up quite as well in the pictures as it does in real life.  There are 8 different fabrics in this one, and I am quite pleased with it!

So that was my weekend - setting up Frank with black and white, sewing, quilting, helping D set up Frank with her blue and green quilt (Twisted, I think....), and working on Crazy Diamonds. 

I have 14 blocks left to do on Crazy Diamonds, so this week I will pull 56 fabrics from our stash that I haven't already used and get those blocks finished up.  Then I can figure out how to quilt it, since it's going to be too big for Frank!  (Not to mention I have no clue what I am going to do as far as quilting design.  *shrug*  Burn that bridge when we get there!)

Also, I got fabric in for the nerd/geek quilt on Saturday, so I pulled the other fabrics from our stash and started measuring and cutting.  I'm halfway done with cutting the blocks.  Tonight I am going to shoot for finishing the cutting, and start the blocks.  If I can do that, I will be most pleased! (The abbreviation for the nerd quilt is going to be BST for now).

Aaaaand.... I worked more on Texas Daycare.  I am quilting the grass now.  Once I finish that, I'll do the tree trunk and the calf himself, and then lay down the barbed wire border... and then bind him and call him done!  Hooray!  (hand quilting takes me forever!)

Gosh, it HAS been a busy weekend!

Shay

More pics

So whilst sorting through the vacation pics and so forth, I found this one... the close up of a flower.  It's not too bad, considering that I am NOT a photographer.  I tend to rely more on my mind for memories instead of pictures.  *shrug*  But for whatever reason, this set of flowers stood out for me.  They were pretty, and the only color standing out from the myriad shades of green and brown.

I am considering using the colors as a quilt... but I am still hashing out the pattern.  (Naturally... too many patterns, not enough time!)  But right now... I am mostly working on the other one inspired by the trip.

While wandering across Arkansas, we drove through yet more mountains.  We came around a mountain and down (wheeeeee! like a roller coaster) and all of a sudden there was gorge and bridge.  Normally, no big deal.  Except that this bridge (and how I wish I had a picture, but I was driving, so THAT would have been a bad idea) was all patches.  It must have been old and/or well-traveled, because there were so many patches on that bridge it looked entirely unstable!  It was fine, but the crossing was a little nerve-wracking.  When we were safely over, I thought "hm... a patchwork bridge...."  So now in my head I have a picture of a quilted bridge with trees rising all around.  If I can translate that to fabric, I shall be quite happy!

But first....
1. Stained Glass pattern (in black and white) to be quilted.
2. Baby Quilt to be quilted
3. finish quilting Little Moo
4. finish quilting Boston Molasses Flood
5. finish piecing Crazy Diamonds
6. finish testing Diamond border

Gosh... there's a lot to do!

Shay

Thursday on the Anvil

Yesterday I promised pictures, so here they are!

This is Isaac's Storm - so named after the Galveston, TX hurricane of 1900 that killed approximately 10,000 people.  Yes.  10,000.  It's a matter of chaos, really... no one had ever encountered a hurricane quite like that one, and it was considered to be just another storm.  Obviously, it was not.

The title of the quilt comes from the book of the same name about the hurricane.  It's a good read, if disturbing, and I highly recommend it. 

There will be a pattern of this one for sale - along with another colorway or three....  :)  We're getting all the pesky details finalized right now.

Here is Texas Daycare.  Moo!  A little longhorn in his field, keeping company with the tree and the prickly pear.  To me, this is a good part of Texas, despite the fact that I grew up in San Antonio, where the nearest longhorns were a ways north in the Hill Country.  His pattern, too, is almost complete. 

Texas Daycare will be the first in the Texas series of quilts.  Mind, none of them are flag-waving, look-it's-the-Alamo, God-bless-Texas kinds of quilts.  They are each an aspect of Texas, a special small slice that covers PART of the Lone Star State.

Sugar Skulls is going to be second in that series, and it's to that end that I am working so hard to get all the skulls cut out and pieced back together. 




So there's the newest designs on the anvil.  For a Thursday update, not too shabby!

Yardage and Pincushions

I'm working on several quilts at once, of course: Texas Daycare, Isaac's Storm (both have completed tops and just need quilting and binding), Boston Molasses Flood (in process of quilting), Crazy Diamonds (now with 16 squares done), and the newest one: Sugar Skulls.

Sugar Skulls is a tesselated pattern I am working on: it requires 400 skulls cut out of black, white, cream, and novelty skull fabrics.  It's to be a king-sized quilt, and buy does the yardage show that!  Planning out the yardage on something like this is by FAR my least favorite part of the whole quilting process.  If I am figuring correctly, I need about 12 yards of material.  I understand that I am making a king-sized quilt, but still.... that's a decent amount of material!  (Fortunately, we have that much I can use for this quilt.  I MIGHT supplement with a few fat quarters, just to add a little more variety, but we'll see).  At any rate, the cutting process is fairly slow, but I'll get it done.  One the piecing is done, I will applique a few details, and so on....

In the meantime, Crazy Diamonds is creeping along.  We did more cutting than anything last night, and picture taking of quilt tops.  It's a shame I forgot to load them on the computer so I could post them!  (Tonight, I promise!) 

D. has two quilt tops finished as well, and might be able to start quilting one of them tonight.  There are always chores to do and things that have to take precendence.  But it's a stitch in the ditch quilting job, so it shouldn't take too long. 

We're going to build a new design board tonight, which calls for a trip to the local ReStore (and Home Depot if we can't find what we're looking for at ReStore).  Once we get it made, we'll be able to have several quilts up on the board at once, instead of taking turns!  We are both looking forward to it. 

There are a couple of estate sales we'll hit this weekend, too - a couple that say they have craft supplies and fabric.  There are usually a few pieces that we can use in quilts, and we can find interesting fabrics!  We're also getting prepped for a class in the quilt forge: a basic quilting class.

 Well, back to work on yardage calculations!

Hard at Work in the Forge

Back into the forge! 

Moo, y'all!

This time, it's to work on a couple of things - still working on the Crazy Diamonds.  I have 12 squares done - only 88 left to do! 

And on Texas Daycare... well, we'll just let it speak for itself.  I finally got the tree worked out - I was shooting for too much realistic detail.  Clashed with the rest of the quilt.  Once I realized that, I was good to go!  So here's the little longhorn, hanging out with the prickly pear and the tree.  He doesn't look bad!

The border is going to be fence posts and bluebonnets.  When I quilt it, I will run heavier lines along the fence lines to act as barbed wire to keep the little guy in his field.  The outer border is yet to be determined.  We'll just have to see when we get there!

The other pieced top that is done is one of D's.  She finished it up and is apparently quite glad to be done with it!  It's someone else's pattern, and she was going to do it for a break - something easy to burn a little time. 

So here it is!  Pieced and ready for quilting. 






And, since I promised a few pics of the outside of the studio, I took a few.  They may not be fabulous, but here's the best!  This one should give at least a taste of the area around the forge.

This is looking into the back corner.  Lots of green, lots of shade.  We're eventually going to put a bench or something back here, maybe a little table so we can sit out here when the weather isn't excruciating.  The little bit of black on the left side is the very edge of a former pond.  We're in the process of converting it into a planter - we've got some rosemary to put in it, and if that works, we'll add more stuff as we go.

We've got some lovely space around the forge, and now it's just a matter of getting it all neat and tidy and prettied up.  I look forward to sharing more pictures with you as we get more done!

Shay

Hammering Out the Kinks

Crazy diamonds from the stash!  Colorful - no measuring!

Started two new quilts this week.  One won't be any sort of problem - it's as much a way to relax from my own designs (particularly when those designs fight back!)  It's a Crazy Diamonds quilt - simple and easy.  No measuring required once I got the base squares cut out.  100 muslin 12.5" squares.  Yay for stash of muslin!

Only 96 more to go!  It's a great way of using up the smaller scraps in our scrap bin.  We have so many scraps, I needed a way to clear some out.  Now I can make smaller scraps (in some cases).  For those really small pieces, I shred them and stick them in a mesh bag outside for the birds to make nests from.  I can only assume that we have some of the most colorful bird's nests in the area, based on the fabrics that go in that bag!

The other quilt I started is the one that's fighting back.  I shouldn't be surprised (and I'm not.  Not really).  It's an applique quilt - part of a series of Texas-themed quilts I've got planned.  At any rate, it SHOULD have been simple.  Except that it's applique, and my fusible stuff didn't want to fuse, and pieces fell everywhere... which is why I started on the Crazy Diamonds.  But.  I figure a picture of the quilt in progress - or at least a small section of it - is nevertheless called for.  So here it is.

Moo?

This one is an unfinished applique - he still needs horns and his tail, and a little detail work.  Then he will need details to the field he stands in.  The quilt itself is to be called "Texas Daycare" (as a working title).  This little guy will be a longhorn baby hanging out in a field in Texas with prickly pear and mesquite, just like a lot of the cattle in the area I was born in.  (Yup, born and raised in Texas, just south of the Hill Country).  He's the first in a very diverse series of Texas-themed quilts.  None of them will be Texas flags, and none of them (at this time) are going to scream Texas, but to me, it's Texas that links them all together.  They are sights and scenes from the Texas that I know. 

 So, today I'll go back into the quilt forge and start working on this guy again, try to hammer out the kinks in the applique process.  There will be more pictures to follow!  I hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth of July, and came through it healthy and ready to head back into work.  (Yeah, right).  If I am really motivated, there might actually be pictures of the outside of the quilt forge: see the mesh bag for the birds, the bird baths, the bird feeders....  And maybe some of the stained glass-type designs we're working on for the quilt forge windows...  just to take some of the glare out of the evening sun! 

As ever, busily!

Shay