April Fool's to you too DAD!

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago (let's not really say how long), Dad was stationed in the Philippines at Clark Air Force Base.  And on a particular day, say April 1st, he told his three kids (at the time!) that there would be no school that day because Mount Pinatubo was erupting.  Instead of the gleeful dance that he anticipated, tears flowed, wails sounded, and gnashing of teeth commenced.  "But, but, but...  All my books are there? What are we going to do about school?  What about my friends?  This is horrible!" (Note - I'm the main culprit and evidently I was am quite the nerd.)  "Um, April Fools?"

It took awhile, but eventually Dad was right.  School was closed, and the volcano did erupt.

HL - One Bound, Four to go

Considering that I picked up the pieces at Thanksgiving, and that my machine was in the shop for all of December, I'm thinking that having five quilts so very nearly done is not bad for three months of work.  And, I have the binding cut and ready for the four remaining quilts.  Since I'm not thrilled with my first solo binding, I'm holding out until I can get some hands-on help from someone I trust. (More pictures here)

Thing is, I'm visiting Mom in May (Happy Birthday by the way!), and she's got quite the agenda planned for me.  She's made a date for me with a long-arm quilter so that I can learn how to use the machine, and then set me up with three more days for on-my-own quilting.  So between now and then, I want to get four more ready to go.

First is a scrappy nine-patch - I just need to piece the backing for this and it will be ready.  I think it's a rescue quilt, as none of the fabrics seem to read "Hazel".  It's a complete lap quilt, ready to go.  It will probably be my first practice quilt for the long-arm.

Next up, 8 sampler blocks in cream and green.  They just need sashing (purchased) and a back and they will be ready to turn into either a wall hanging or table runner.  The backing will be part of the stash from Hazel as well.

Then, there is the (Tetris) Irish Chain.  Three partial quilts, each with the same print, but different solid colors to compliment it.  Not enough of any one for a full quilt, but with some juggling, perhaps I can get a decent size out of the three.  I've picked up varying polka-dots in the complimentary colors for the backing.  In my mind it's a happy thing.

And then finally, the churn dash.  Le sigh.  This one.  This one seems so close to final assembly, and yet, the blocks are all of a different size.  I've recently picked up some very cheap muslin that I think is similar to the muslin originally used in the blocks.  If it is close enough, I will sash the blocks on two sides, and then cut them down to a consistent size.  This one may not be finished when I fly up, but hopefully when I fly back home (fingers crossed). 

Oh, and PS - when two 'coons fight on your front sidewalk in the middle of the night it sounds like a pair of screaming girlies.  Just thought you'd want to know.

I'm calling it...

When the daffodils bloom, it's my official start of spring - no matter what the calendar says.

Here's hoping sunny days are headed your way.

Amazing Quilts...

Pattern Petals from Gypsy Threads

 

...and not a picture of them to share.  This weekend I ventured out and headed south towards Watsonville for the Pajaro Valley Quilt Association's 35th annual Quilt Show.  Yeah, I had no idea either.  I mean, I should have, but I didn't.  The quilt shop that I frequent was essentially closed for the weekend as they were setting up the displays as well as a small vendor booth.  Since I couldn't pick up the Lone Star, or get the assist I needed, I thought I might as well take a look.

 

It was amazing.  There were some true works of art on display - women who use fabric as a medium instead of clay or pigment or paper - along with some budding artists as well.  The local 4H had a display of their quilts, the youngest by a 6 year old child.  And they were beautiful too.  Although I probably took 200 pictures (2 of each - one with the artist names, one of the quilt - but not of every quilt!), I'm not allowed to share as I don't have the permission slips.  Sigh.  But totally understandable.

 

Along with the quilts there were assorted vendors, mostly of the quilt-y variety, but some fab button vendors as well (NO! Lorili, you do NOT need another collection!!).  I did however collect quite a few business cards and even visited one of the other fabric stores on the way home.  The photo above is of one of the decor's at a vendor's booth.  It wasn't until I was inside her booth that I realized she had used the tissue paper from old patterns to make the petals.  Now, where can I find a tutorial for that I wonder? I felt quite reasonable in my purchases, but am totally lusting for some (more) of those buttons that I don't even know how I would begin to use...

 

And then there was the auction.  Again, totally unaware.  I had viewed the quilts up for auction and there were some marvelous gems.  Since I was gabbing with one of the vendors, I was in the auction space when the action began.  It is a crying shame how very much work goes into these things and how very little was being bid.   I am sure they would take a check, and the hubster even asked me how many I brought home...  But alas, none were rescued by me - this time :)  Ask me again next year!

HL - Churn Dash, Rail Fence and something by me for me...

First off, the Rail Fence is stalled. I need help with my "creative" solution to join our (me and Hazel) disparate sized blocks together. I'll make a date at the quilt shop next weekend and see if that can push me over the edge. Also, Sue called and said the Lone Star is ready for pick up. Can't wait to see it.

Next up, the Churn Dash. You may recall that I was auditioning the wild rose muslin for spacer blocks. I've decided that's a go, but while googling layouts, I came across one that had the blocks set on point. Love! I don't know why, but that simple twist has me much happier with this quilt than before. Only problem is...I didn't get enough of the wild roses fabric to do the additional triangle blocks along the edges. If Hancock's has more of the same, I will get additional yardage to complete that setting option. If not, however, what do you think of the chocolate brown? I don't have enough of that either, but rather than trying to mis-match the wild roses, I can find something in a similar nature to the chocolate to close out the project. I like the way it frames/ borders the quilt without actually requiring a border.

Dealing with Hazel's color palette has left me longing for something to call my own. So I signed up for a Block of the Month (BOM for those of us learning the lingo) with www.pileofabric.com. It's supposed to be a skill builder quilt, and as I'm finding out, I definitely need some skills. So I've pulled together some languishing fabric, mostly from an old project I never finished, and my Jolly Rancher colored quilt is under way. It's just two blocks a month, with a quilt-as-you-go option.

And home again

It looks like the previous two entries got posted out of order once we returned to civilization. Oh well. Here are just a couple of pics of he room details. The best thing about the place was surly the location, but it was nice to stay someplace so out of synch with our home's style.

It's the edge of the world as we know it...

Taking some time out to celebrate our 26th anniversary, so we headed up the coast to Jenner. There is no cell service, no Internet, and no TV in the suite. At this point it feels odd to be so disconnected from, well, the world.

It is nice though to reconnect with the one I love, with the sounds of nature, and with the turning of the sun.

We are staying in the Camelot suite at the Jenner Inn. I have yet to try the jacuzzi tub, but everything else has been wonderful. We stepped out on the balcony last night and there were billions of stars overhead. You could see the Milky Way streaming across the sky. The pounding surf came through loud and clear. As long as the breeze hadn't kicked up, it was cool, but not cold. A toast of champagne made for a perfect ending to a relaxing day.

More soon!

On the edge of no-where

Lazy days. There aren't too many of those. Even in a stay-cation you are surrounded by the things you should be doing instead of just enjoying each other and where you are right now.

An easy start listening to the wild life, stitching, and breakfast in the sunshine. We headed just a bit north of Jenner to Fort Ross (check one off the National Historical list).

We got there about noon, and while wandering through the informative visitor center (Imagine that!), we overheard that they would be loosing the windmill at 1:00 for an interp. session. This isn't a large site, so we headed down the hill to the Fort and meandered through half the buildings, taking lots of pictures along the way. About 12:55 we hoofed it back up the hill to listen to the session and watch the release of the windmill.

The windmill was built on Russia using the tools and techniques of the 1800's, torn down and reassembled at Fort Ross in two weeks. Most of the time, the blades are tethered to the ground, but once a month they let them spin just to keep everything working. I've got a video, but well have to see if I can post it later.

After they were done with the session, we wandered back to the Fort and checked out the remaining buildings.

Back south again, this time to Goat Rock State Beach which we could see from the deck of our suite. A long walk watching the spray from the waves and a quick fall in the sand while running away from a random wave. Wet pants and its time to go back to watch the sunset from our room.

HL - Rail Fence

Love the blues and whites in this top. But right now I'm posting this as a fail. More brains required.

So to start with, there is a body of 6" squares assembled in a 8x10 patch (Let's call this "body"). I've got strips that Hazel had assembled, waiting to be cut into blocks and put back together. And I've got scads of each of the colors, all stripped up, waiting to be joined. (We will call these "New").

Problem. The finished size (on average) of the body blocks is 6" x 6". The finished size of the new blocks is 5.5" x 5.5". I can't then just keep adding rounds to the existing body as they won't come together just right and it will end up looking like a monkey put it together.

Solution. (Maybe). I've found this green cherry blossom print that will wake this quilt up. My original intent was to use it for the borders. So what if I use it to build an interior border between the body and additional rounds of new blocks? That way they won't be butting against each other and I can make this a king size rather than couch size quilt. Sounds like a plan to me.

Measure carefully, pull out some excel skills to check my math and some graph paper to check my logic. Cut carefully. Sew carefully. Attach the first strip of new blocks. Curse madly when you realize you are a quarter inch short on the first border.

Fortunately, I have more of the cherry blossom fabric and there should be some assist tonight. I'm afraid I'm going to have to do this on the fly as I don't think the body is actually true.

Fingers crossed. Wish me luck. And if you have some advice (beyond the use of an adult beverage:)), please let me know.

HL - Road to OK? and a busy weekend

Or at least I think that is what this one is.

This weekend I had a house to myself, well not including the dogs that is. So Saturday I had a "ladies who lunch" kind of day - which included a class on combining zen tangle and free motion quilting on my aging lady of a sewing machine, picking up Snowball, lunch at the Yard House, some shopping in Santana Row, and a trip to Jo-Ann's to see if they had anything workable for the quilts I'm working on. Success or near-success on all points.

Once I got home I pieced the remaining blocks for the Jacob's Ladder Road to Oklahoma (I think). There were only enough to complete nine blocks, but that was enough to turn this into a king size spread. There were many more pieces for partial blocks, and I put together a strip of them thinking I would insert them into the back of this monster.

The next day was shining bright and the coffee was fresh and hot. I sewed the blocks into strips (two of them) and then attached the strips to the main body of the quilt. "Modern" quilts these days tend to not include borders but this isn't one of those. I pieced two borders to attach and then the top was done. It took a lot longer on the machine than it does to type out in a blog post, trust me on that.

I had rescued a long piece of red toile print fabric from Hazel's stash, and felt that it would make a perfect backing. Measure (88"/100"), slice the back and where are those blocks? I *still* can't find them and I have put everything away since then. (Let me see, I sewed them together, ironed them, admired them, and then where did they go?) I've since decided that it was the quilting muse telling me it wasn't the best choice, so moving on I've extended the red toile with some navy pin-dot that will be used for the binding as well. I will piece the back some time this week and then it will be ready for drop off this weekend.

Opinion please - I'm auditioning the cream/chocolate toile for the space blocks in the churn dash. I'm thinking this is going to be low volume, the muslin in the pieced blocks is very, um, rough? It's a loose, coarse weave and all the churns are scrappy prints that look like they were printed anywhere from the 60's to the 90's - maybe even up to 2010. There's not going to be a match to anything, but I'm kinda liking this.

HL - Lone star & ???

Two more tops are ready for the quilter this weekend. I can hardly wait to see how the one I dropped off comes back.

So first - the Lone Star. As previously shown, it was quiet, shy, and almost nondescript, in spite of the bold colors Hazel used for the diamond shapes. A simple change out of the fill colors from that baby blue to teal and the whole thing has a new look. She glows! I had to do inset seams but they either weren't as bad as I expected or I didn't do them right.. It surpasses my expectations though. A modern print for the back and I'm thinking of binding in red. Let me know what you think. It's 80" x 80", so a decent bed size.

The second is ready to go as well. Hazel had assembled 14 2x2 sets of the blocks, however one was too small to be used with the others and two had been misassembled. Three of the 2x2 sets she had stripped together. My job - assemble three more strips and join them together, well after fixing one of the poor assemble jobs. A simple yellow border and I am done with this top. My question to you - what's the name of this block? I can see houses or arrows or pinwheels or ??? This one is too small for even a twin bed so it'll become a couch snuggle blanket.


And a quick p.s. Larry Bob, one of the dogs we adopted last year, definitely has allergies. The worst ones are for ragweed and oak trees, but he also has allergies for human dander, redwood trees and soybeans and about 15 other things. Looks like I get to do allergy shots. Poor doggie. (Larry Bob is the dark boy, and Sophie is the tan girlie)

HL - Snowball + 9 Patch

So I fibbed. It turns out that this beauty is actually the first one that is ready for the quilter to get her hands on.

It's a combination of scrappy nine-patch and snowball blocks that probably has an official name (let me know if you know!) that are grounded by the use of a medium blue. The body of the quilt was complete, and no extra blocks or pieces of blocks were found to add to it. Each of the blocks is 5.75" square. At 9 x 10 blocks, it's a smidge more than 4' x 4'. There are yards of the blue fabric in the stash I brought home, but she used it in so many projects that I'm afraid to cut any more than necessary in case I need it for something else.

My contribution to this top is a 5.75" border of pink polka dot fabric. The medium blue shows up in the corners in a nine-patch block, just to tie the bits together. The back will be the very happy floral print, that for some reason seems to meld with all the scrappy prints that Hazel used. A binding of a slightly darker blue will tie the two together after its quilted.

I actually consider this to be a companion piece to an existing quilt we have in the house. The pink and blue turtle quilt was made for Mark by his Granny (paternal). Granny was a prolific quilter herself. We are fortunate to have a quilt made by her hands, as after her passing there was a fire at the farm and the majority of her quilts were destroyed.

On his tenth birthday, Mark was out at the farm and his Granny brought him to the bedroom. There was the quilt laid out, made especially for him. Even then he understood what a labor of love it was. It's machine pieced & appliqued, and hand quilted, with embroidery details for the turtle faces. The binding was replaced by Hazel in 2007 as it was frayed quite badly.  The border is original to the quilt.  I'm still trying to figure out the "fencing" print that was used...

It's a good feeling to have something ready to be quilted. It's overwhelming, almost, the amount of unfinished projects that were left behind.

Progress on the Lone Star - fill pieces removed, need to iron/starch the star so it will stop fraying and be easier to reassemble. I can't find my big ruler so the hunt is on! I'll need it before I try to cut the replacement pieces.

HL - Purple Log Cabin Quilt

I think this might actually be the first one I finish. It's a purple log cabin square, consisting of two solids and two prints. Hazel has enough centers for 42 squares, or a 7 x 6 arrangement. Happily, she had finished ten of the blocks and sewn them together so I know what she intended.

It may be the first I finish as all the strips are cut, and, lucky for me, the only time I will have to match seams is when I join the blocks together. No bias, no points, just simple straight lines. Again, the prints aren't exactly my first choice, and I wouldn't be so fond of the solids as she so obviously was, but looking at the web and the books these days, she may have been ahead of her time with a modern quilt look. And note too, that even in a so very purple palette, she's still managed a touch of red.

What would you think if I removed the last two of the ten blocks and rearranged them more into a concentric light/dark pattern? I know there is a name for it, but I haven't used my google-fu yet!

The machines are still in the shop, so I've been organizing and sorting and planning and clearing. I should have them back by next weekend tho - fingers crossed...