So many quilt tops....

Happy Monday moring, superfriends!

So many quilt tops, so few finished quilts!  (I SHOULD be working on Boston Molasses Flood... instead, I seem to have fallen into working on the next top... Bat Flight.)

It will be a throw sized piece... I just want to see how it will all go together.  This, by the way, is only a test piece... the fabric is not speckled.  :)  No leopard bats!  D is still piecing hers, and rather than leave her in the forge alone for hours at a time, I started piecing the next quilt.  So... Bat Flight.  There will be multiple bats, of course.  One would be silly.

Last year we went down to the Hill Country here in Texas and went to a bat emergence.  It was... impressive doesn't really cover it.  The sight of all those millions of bats zooming around the ever-darkening sky in a loose trail was amazing.  If everyone was quiet you could hear their wings fluttering.  They made elegant swirls through the air, circled a big tree, and headed out for their night of bug-eating.  I wished them the best at the time, and thought that I would love to make a bat quilt.  It has taken me a while, but now I am getting there!

Working on Bat Flight does mean that the previous quilt top is done...  yup.  Here it is...

Ninja!  The gold almost glows in the sunlight - next time I will put it more in the shade!  :)  The border will have ninja throwing stars  quilted into it, and there will be at least one ninja in the main body of the quilt.  Masters of concealment!  It'll be a "find the ninja" quilt.  :)  Mostly because I can, and because it's practice for another quilt I want to make that requires a lot more detail and a lot more effort.  So Ninja is my test piece.  If I can make a ninja appear in the quilt, I will be happy.

And yes... we had class!  It was a small class, due to illness and lots of other things going on.  We'll have a make-up day, so it will all even out.  Even with the small class, much was accomplished, and I cannot wait to see finished projects!

The weed garden is almost gone - we will finish it up this week and get the tarp over it to kill what we can.  Hopefully the Texas summer will do the rest and by fall we can get containers in there to have a nice little kitchen herb garden going!  More pictures once we finish that off...

Tonight we might get our hanging chairs up so we can lounge in comfort  - in the hot Texas summer.   (No, really...we're fine.  There's plenty of shade.  I can lounge outside and read with no problems).  And then... maybe I will get an arbor to put outside the forge... once I figure out how to anchor it to the concrete.  My goal - make the outside pretty!!  I'll do it, too!

S



Oh, Hemxas Tree, Oh, Hexmas Tree....

oh, hexmas tree....

Hanging now on the pillar outside my supervisor's cube - the Hexmas Tree,  Everyone who passes it smiles and stops to check it out.  A small project, but totally worth it.  Easy to put together, easy to trim out. I think it came out rather well!

We had a small earthquake here last night - 2.6, according to the USGS.  Now... this is Texas.  I don't expect earthquakes.  Ever.  Big or small.  So that was a bit of an experience for us!  No damage - too small a quake for damage - but it certainly freaked us right out!  A rumble, and then the house shimmied a little.  The cats ran amok briefly, their tails fluffed and backs arched.  But after confirmation of an earthquake, we settled down and went to our beds.  This morning we checked the quilt forge, and all was well there, too.  Not that we expected otherwise.

There's a company dinner tonight, and a company party tomorrow morning, so these two days will shoot by like no one's business. But that does cut into the forge time.  (Not that I've felt overly much like working out there last few nights - I'm feeling lazy).  I must get back out there soon and get back to work - too many quilts and things yammering for my attention!

I have this urge... I want to make a ridiculously detailed quilt.  Pieced in ridiculously small pieces, with all the detail I could ever want.  My big problem is what I want to use as a design - I don't have anything in mind.  I have LOTS of things in mind.  But I can't draw.  Nope.  Not a bit.  Not to save my life.  I still draw horses that look like dogs.  So... I need to figure out some geometric pattern - or attack a coloring book for a design.  I don't know...  In the meantime, I will continue on as before.  Hexes, piecing, quilting.  I am not upset, just... a little frustrated.  I am reasonably capable, but I want to be able to do so much more.  I want to be Good, with a capital "G."  I know it takes time, and I know I am improving all the time.  But grr...  Meh.  Enough of the whining. 

For now, there is plenty to do, and I will do it.  And at this moment, that involves hexes and the quilts I've already got pieced, and the other 60-odd quilts planned out.  (Boy, do I need to make more sewing time!!)

S
(frustrated, but not defeated)

P.S.  I think when I do make the uber-detailed quilt I want, I shall call it Invictus, after the poem of the same name... 

Things on the Anvil

Good morning, superfriends!

I've been busy the last few days... making alterations to a dress (almost done, hooray!!), decorating more for XMas/winter, and so on.  Nothing new on the random quilt front, except to add more ideas to my list.  At this rate, I will never have better than a 15% completion rate!!  (But most of the time I am all right with that!)

Here is my HexMas tree.  I finished the stitching together last night - this afternoon and tonight I will work on decorating it so I can hang it up.  I've pulled beads and such to decorate with.  Hopefully that won't take too long, since I am getting close to the end of decorating time!  It would be nice to have it up by tomorrow, to give me more time to enjoy it.

The HexMas tree is made with the Hickory Nut hex pattern - I changed the size a little (shrank it down) from the one in the magazine.  Now I have little ones and huge ones.  :)  I thought about a huge HexMas tree, but didn't have a place to put one.  Maybe next year.

Yesterday at work I came back from lunch to find a chicken on my desk.  A stuffed, country-looking chicken.  Now, normally I am not a country-decorating kinda girl.  However, I do have a stuffed turkey under my desk that comes out for Thanksgiving decor.  So the chicken seemed appropriate to my co-workers.  Now the chicken has a name (Cogburn) and a Santa hat, so he can stay out for XMas.  I am already planning his next costume (he'll get a party hat for New Year's, and so on....).  So... here's Cogburn, the Christmas Rooster. 

Tonight, after I finish the dress alterations, I intend to finally get BST on the hoop so I can start that one.  I am really hoping it co-operates tonight.  So many ideas that need following up on... so many things to sew.  With luck and hard work, I can get BST done pretty quick.  I will be posting a tutorial pretty quick on Sea-Glass.  All I need to do is flesh it out a little, and we'll be in fine shape.  So, tutorial to come.

On the quilting front, BST will take me a little longer than anticipated, because Frank is currently unavailable for quilting, which slows things down a little.  By Thursday, he'll be back up, but right now, not so much.  The machine is fine, but since the weather turned frigid really quick, we moved our dwarf fruit trees inside where it was warmer.  The only place to put them is right around Frank, who now is hiding in a jungle of fruit trees.  But... he'll be out of hiding soon enough, so it's all good.

And soon... soon... things begin to ramp up for Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival.  I only have to make a new bodice this year, but I may make another skirt just so I can rotate the ones I have just a little more.  A little less wear and tear on the ones I have would be good.  But there are plans... oh, yes... there are plans.... 

Secretly, I love this time of year.  (Not the incessant commercials and Christmas music, mind you).  But the snap of the air (and the pop of static electrical discharge), and the anticipation.  I look forward to another year at faire, to the quieter days at work, to all sorts of things.  I may be solar-powered, but bring it on!   Come on, Texas winter!  Show me what you've got!  (oh, look... 68 degrees by the end of the week).

So, in trucking terms (and in forge terms, too!), time to put the hammer down and get things moving!  I've got a lot to do, and a short time to do it in!  Cya later, good buddies!

S

Quick update

Life.  Sometimes it gets in the way.  Mostly it's work right now, in all honesty.  It's hectic.  Testing, end of year, beginning of year, short months because of holidays....  And long days at work.

But.  I am still managing to eke out a little sewing time, and a little time for the other things in my life.  This weekend we're running another class, teaching one of my patterns.  If it goes well, there will be another one!  (and another, and another.....).  Oh, and here's the pattern we'll be doing.  Everyone has their own fabrics, so every quilt will look different!  Hooray!  I have three examples to show them, as well as a step by step breakout of how the blocks go together.  Since it is so simple, I have high hopes!

What I have managed to get done - in addition to prep for the class....

1. finish AAQI quilt #1
2. join Quilt Block Swap
   2a. pull fabrics and make test block for swap, decide I really like it.  pull more fabrics and cut.  (to be sewn tonight).
3. plan AAQI quilt #2
4. finish design for Bat Flight and purchase fabric (to start cutting tonight)
5. work on Crazy Diamonds
6. Clean the studio! (yes, this is technically prep for the class, but sometimes it just needs doing!)

 Here is my first AAQI quilt.  As soon as I have the number for it, I will send it out.  I'm both pleased with it and disappointed in it... it's not EXACTLY what I wanted, but it's not HORRIBLE.  Everyone else seems to really like it.  So it's going.  I wasn't sure, but I'm going to bite the bullet and send it off.  It's called The Fading Forest... there are more trees quilted into it  that didn't show too well in this pic.  Hopefully it will raise at least a little money for Alzheimer's research.

I have more planned, hopefully better.  We shall see... I always seem to have more and better things planned. 

When I am not in the forge working, I work in an office.  I'm not a very good office drone, really, but I am efficient and intelligent (usually) and manage to get my job done.  It's now progressed to the point where other people (who have been here YEARS longer than I have) ask me for assistance and for information.  It's both amusing and annoying.  I'm the new girl on the block - only been here three years....  I have my little cube, usually with small scraps of fabric, thread, and at times needles.  My Thanksgiving decor this year for the office consists of a giant stuffed fabric turkey.  He's cute!  Very low-key, for a giant fabric stuffed turkey. 

Soon will come the flurry of Christmas, and decorating for the season... I am half-tempted to make a quilted runner for my cube - just to post around my wall on the inside.... might have to do some measuring....  Looks like 14" wide, and long enough to run all the way around the inside.  Hmm... and a simple block... Maybe a Christmas-themed wonky star?  Might be workable.... More on that later!

Shay
Wish me luck for the class!!!