Design Wall Monday--11/27/17

On my design floor is a Bonnie Hunter quilt.  No, I'm not talking about On Ringo Lake, her new mystery quilt that just debuted, but one with plenty of pieces, still.  This will be a brown version of her Narragansett Blues quilt from the More Adventures with Leaders and Enders book.  I made a lot of 4 patches and cut the rectangles, so a trial layout attempt seemed timely.

This is what the center looks like.  I need to cut a bunch of brown squares for this section as well as for many other rows.  I'm making a throw size for my uncle, whose favorite color is brown.  I always wonder why so many people dislike brown--it is all the primary colors mixed together, which is therefore why brown GOES with every color.  

So far the 4 patches are standing out just fine against the brown.  Naturally, as is usual for me whenever I change the size of a pattern, MATH happened.  I need about three times as many 4 patches for the layout I want.  Lots more cutting and sewing to be done, but that's not worrying me--I have plenty of scraps and am glad to have a place to use them!  I was tempted to sew up some of the vertical rows, but seeing as my sewing room is still disassembled for Thanksgiving Day furniture rearranging, back in the box they went.  Well, once I evicted Mini the cat from it--she can never resist an empty box.

See more design walls on Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. 

Slow Sunday Stitching 11/26/17--Thanksgiving Wrapup

A little late to the party, but I do have slow stitching to show.  First, progress on the Lizzie Kate cross-stitch. 

We watched the grandsons last night and after they were in bed, I finished the rest of "forever" , after pulling out most of the V and redoing it, and got a start on the S for Stitching, while watching a PBS show on the Beatles.  I put a few stitches in today before diving into the ongoing binding job, a baby quilt for my daughter's best friend. 

 I had to get creative when I didn't quite have enough of the pink solid for the binding...

 ...though it disappears on my beige carpet :)  The label is next, as baby Grace is finally here, a week overdue.  After a bath, the quilt will be on its way to the newly expanded, happy family--she's the first grandchild for both sets of parents.  Linking up to Kathy's Quilts.

Thanksgiving was a rather quiet affair, with us hosting as usual, but without the big crowd.  One could actually hear oneself and others at the table, since there were only 11 of us: two of our kids, my mom and dad, brother, sister, uncle, and nephew with his girlfriend.  

We even ate together at one long table.  I enjoyed pulling out my Grandma's Red Apple dishes I love so much.  My sister Kathy was a big help to Grant and me in the kitchen, as always.  She peeled and seeded a pomegranate while I put together the fruit salad; she toasted walnuts and almonds for dishes, and made the green bean dish, while I tried to get out all the bowls and serving pieces. Brother Kevin carved the turkey, Mom and Dad brought pies, Erica made the special potato dish we all love.  Everything came out well.  Later, two nephews stopped by, one with his expectant wife, and Kathy gifted them the quilts she made at our retreat at Sewtopia--can it be only three weeks ago? 

First was the wedding quilt.  The couple are ski boarding enthusiasts and got married 18+ months ago in Mammoth Lakes in winter, at 10,000 feet.  Kathy used a panel and coordinates for a snowy mountain themed throw. 

The wedding quilt being late, they got an additional matching quilt for their baby boy due next month!  Mama-to-be has been on bedrest and is hoping for an earlier delivery.    The marrieds also stopped by with the grandsons so we all got to play (wind them up!) with them for a little while.  We had a lovely day and clean up took way less time than normal, lol.  The men even helped empty the living room of the 15 year old couches we were giving away, in anticipation of a new set to be delivered the next day.  Grant and I ended the evening by pulling dining room chairs to the TV to watch WALL-E.  

He had to work Friday, but I had the day off and not only did I not go out and shop on Black Friday, I never left the house. Bliss!  There were a few visitors to enjoy and plenty of pottering time after the busy days before.  Back to work tomorrow, and the mad rush to Christmas.  We'll wait until Dec 1 to get the lights up and house decorated, though plenty of our neighbors took advantage of the holiday to do so. Lots to do in the next month--but there will still be stitching time :)

Design Wall Monday--Nov 20

I'm late to DWM but do have progress to report.  Over the weekend I got the Star baby quilt for my daughter's best friend pinned at last, and set to quilting it yesterday. 

I was lucky to find a match for this Kona Flesh in a door prize Aurifil thread pack.  Wavy lines randomly spaced was my plan.  I quilted a number of rows before realizing that the horizontal lines I thought I was stitching were actually vertical.  Oh well!

Some rows I sewed to overlap and make a ribbon.  Mom-to-be is a week overdue and hoping to deliver soon.  Meanwhile, binding has been made and attached and last night I started stitching it down while watching TV, a process whereby it seems I really only stitch during the commercials!

I've also been getting a few stitches in a new cross stitch project, which I started on the plane to NOLA.  

Lizzie Kate's Stitching Forever, Housework whenever design.  Love my octopus needlekeeper. 

See more design walls on Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. 

More Sewtopia NOLA

My sister joked that we flew 2000 miles to keep sweatshop hours, sewing all day and night at Sewtopia, but we enjoyed every minute of it.  Kathy, the speed sewist, made four quilt tops and completely finished two quilts!  I think she was the only one with that number, but there were many finished bags, blocks, quilt tops, and new projects going on all around us.  Our tablemates were our Guild president Tisha and her mom.  It was nice to have familiar faces but of course we met lots of other quilters.  Me, I cut and sewed, cut and sewed, and used two design walls to help me with my word quilt.  

Lots of color choices were made, plenty of switching around as well, as the quilt grew.  The letters were made from Laura Hartrich's Simple Shapes Alphabet, although I changed the dot of the "i" to a curved block instead of plain square. I used a 4" finished Drunkard's path template set from Jen Carlton Baily for my design.  The curves required a few pins but were not too difficult to sew at that size.  Many attendees were interested in my project and stopped by to ask questions and take photos.  Jen herself said she wanted to make a word quilt, and in her free moments as part of the staff, she sat down to design.  I fed her squirrel project by giving her some cat fabric:)

Lots of people signed up for a secret swap project.  The staff swapped them overnight and there were lots of squeals of delight the next morning as we found them by our sewing machines.  Too funny, my sister found her own swap item on her machine, which was quickly switched by staff.  Here's the beautiful item I received, full of goodies, made by Nela.

Gorgeous zip bag with the pineapples and polka dot lining.  The gnome fabric was made into a bag the items were in.

Tisha's mom's item came in this sewn paper wrap.  Very clever.  The girl who got my item seemed to like it; the house blocks runner I showed in progress a couple of posts ago.

 

Simple straight line quilting to keep it modern. 

I had fun with the back with this fabric from stash.  The runner looks crooked in this late-night-thrown-on-the-floor shot, but wasn't!  My word quilt grew slowly, letter by letter. I enjoyed choosing all the different colors. Many of the fabrics were from a Dimples charm stack of every color that I won at Superbuzzy a few years ago. 

In progress shot...with Tisha's intricate block project sharing the design wall.  Having the design wall was so great.  Wish I had room for one at home.  One gal the next table over couldn't wait to see what came next and helped me make decisions about the clover I designed to add. I begged additional greens from other attendees.

 It came out looking great, with her help.

By the noon witching hour on the final day, I had managed to sew all the pieces for the letters, clover and stars, and sewed over half the individual rows together.  I stacked and rolled them up for transport, pinning the loose rows and the clover pieces together in order.  They made it just fine in the luggage.  Last Sunday I sewed the rows together, then made the final decisions for the missing section.  Sew, press, sew press...

Hooray, a finished top!  The top is 60x76".  I am pleased with how it turned out and would make another word quilt with this simple alphabet.   What phrase would you make?

Sewtopia and NOLA

My sister and I had a grand time at our first quilting retreat, Sewtopia, which was in New Orleans this year.  We had our usual adventures getting to the airport and hotel, but all was well in the end.  I may have a few more gray hairs, however. We arrived the day before the event's start, and had a short rest in the hotel room before venturing out for dinner.  Kathy was mad for trying creole/Cajun food, and forced encouraged me to join her.  Over the four days I tried shrimp creole, gumbo, catfish, jambalaya, etc.  She was mostly pleased, but being a very good cook herself, a little disappointed at the tourist versions of these usually spicy dishes.  Sewtopia provided lunch daily in the hotel dining area (Embassy Suites on Julia Street), in what was once obviously the exterior of two buildings that became a huge atrium painted with Bourbon Street scenes, with life size statues scattered throughout.

Our first morning of Sewtopia included a shop hop and, to my surprise and joy, a tour of New Orleans by bus.  Our first shop was in the Lake District, Mes Amis Quilt Shop. Tiny but chock full of great fabric.  I purchased some yardage and fat quarters with fleur de lis for my word quilt project, then headed out to take photos of the neighborhood.  Along the way I met other members of the group who told me Lake Pontchartrain was a short walk away. 

The Lake Vista neighborhood was full of large houses from many eras, with these large old oaks between them. I loved this yard with multiple tree swings:

 Wouldn't you love to spend time in this one?

The lake is surrounded by a levee and not actually visible from the sidewalk by the homes.  I headed up the slope to take photos of huge Lake Pontchartrain. 

It was a very pretty day with the clouds.  We were lucky with weather and although warm, in the low 80s, it was not very humid.  Not that we didn't appreciate climbing back on the air-conditioned bus to our next destination in the Mid City area!  Morning Call was not a quilt shop, but a very old restaurant famous for beignets and chicory coffee.  It is in the middle of beautiful Audubon city park with stream, sculpture garden, museums, and surrounding older neighborhoods.  I could have spent hours there, but made the most of the time we had. 

 Beautiful Rotunda.

 Bayou scene. 

 Swans, ducks, and two egrets (ibis?) in this scene.  A great jigsaw puzzle picture, right?

I adored the oaks covered with moss, this one with branches arching nearly to the ground.

While we have many oak trees in California, few of them have Spanish moss and never to this extent, in our dry weather.  After a few minutes in the sculpture garden, we headed to our final stop, a quilt shop called Chateau Sew and Sew. 

Very cute shop with tons of Cotton and Steel and other modern fabrics, along with gifts and patterns for kids.  I did a little buying of fat quarters and then my sister and I headed out for some neighborhood shopping.  I bought a handmade tile from a craftsman and a needlework Shotgun House scene from a shop owner named Annie.  

Loved all the railings and different roof lines of this old part of the city close to the Mississippi.  After returning to the hotel and a short rest, the cutting, ironing and sewing began in earnest...

 ..in the Sewtopia Ballroom, of course!  Sewtopia provided Juki machines for those who had reserved them.  I was late to register so ended up bringing my machine, for which I received a credit in the Pop Up shop.  But more about that in the next post :)