Zig zag progress

The previously-interrupted-by-quilt-assistant project has been humming along.  The diagonally pieced rows I put together in two sections so I didn't have to wrestle with a lapful of fabric every time I sewed a new row on.

I sewed the "chunks" together to complete the top but I'm feeling it's a bit small, at 46 x 61, so I'll add a 6" border.  I have plenty of the red print.  My goal is to get this all done by the end of April. 

On other fronts, for Erica's quilt, last night I cut 186 pieces of background fabric in two different size squares, plus a small pile of setting and corner triangles...whew!  Only about 100 more pieces to cut from the silk (after I get it washed, ironed, and the stabilizer attached) before I can actually start sewing! 

An order

On my sewing room's new whiteboard, purchased to help me remember monthly goals, there is an edict for the month of April stating "Erica's quilt only--start to finish!" written by none other than herself.  Seeing as how she just picked out the last piece of fabric for the top on Sunday last, I'm pretty sure that task will be spilling over into May quite a ways.  The pattern Erica chose is from the Fall/Winter 2009 Quilt Sampler magazine, called Material Matters  (photo link from Honey Run Quilter's shop website), which included dupioni silk for the triangle squares around large four patches, and velvteen for the border and binding--very luxurious!  The magazine quilt had very modern splashy big prints from the Free Spirit line called Tree Top Fancy, with dark chcolate for the silk and velveteen.   Erica is a more traditional girl so we picked out lots of 1/3 yard pieces from designer lines including Primrose Inn and Collections for a Cause, with a couple from Eva.  Later we picked out the cream background at another quilt shop.  Still later, after a fruitless search at several more stores for the right color of dupioni and velveteen, we ended up at JoAnn's fabrics where we found an upholstery level "suede" in a pretty purple.  Erica didn't find a silk she liked so she went back to a previously visited shop where she picked up the dupioni in a coppery shade.  We played around with the layout of the squares and this was my fave:

 But my girl has her own mind and she liked this one below best:

The four-patches will have triangle squares around them as a whole, then the single squares at the compass points will have triangle squares all around.  Luxurious suede will border the center along with a row of flying geese in silk as an inner border.  I have never worked with either dupioni silk or the suede so this will be all new to me!   The instructions call for washing/drying the dupioni and then adhering a fusible woven stabilizer before cutting the pieces.  I believe there will still be lots of shedding while handling this hybrid, however.  Cutting directions were easy for the large squares we laid out, but a bit daunting for the background and silk--many many squares in two different sizes.  Yet I am looking forward to the challenge of working with these new fabrics. I haven't quite spent what the kit costs from the website, but it seems it will be close by the time the backing fabric is added...but she's worth it, I swear! 

IHAN giveaway

Have you seen this blog/website?  There are only a few days of the 30 days of giveaways left and one of the best prizes has now appeared--an AccuQuilt Fabric Cutter, the GO cutter.  I Have A Notion sells a lot of wonderful quilting aids in addition to the cutter.  Now, it's great to have extra chances to win, so that is the reason for my post.  Check out all the giveaways and enter until April 15th.   I've put my name down for quite a few!  

Trial

I made this collage of my quilts some time ago but this is sort of a trial to see if it works!


Whaddya think?

Lucky.....and jealous

Just when I thought I would never be lucky in a giveaway, I was selected for Quilt Hollow's book and fabric giveaway, by having the closest birthdate to the draw!  Yay for me, as I love books and I love fabric, so its a double dip.  Thank you so much, Mary, for having the giveaway.  Check out Quilt Hollow and her newest post on a new blog called Stash Manicure.

And now for the jealousy part...I talked to my sister tonight and she said she is going to Kentucky for the quilt show.  "You mean PADUCAH?" I exclaimed.  Yep, the very same.  J-e-a-l-o-u-s spells "I wanna go too, wah!"  Well, living in St. Louis means she's a lot closer to Kentucky than I am so I guess its alright.  But we're looking forward to another trip to the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach in late July.  Anyone else planning to be there? 

On the sewing/quilting front, I have now partially prepped two wool applique blocks for Greenpiece and cut out all the backgrounds.  Some of the pieces are so tiny I'm already getting palpitations about having to buttonhole quilt around them.  Seriously, one looks like a hole punch dot, and there are three stars no bigger than a nickel.  Maybe I'll put those pieces on at the end, after I've gotten a lot more practice with my buttonhole work.  Gulp.

In other news, the following is the last "squishy" item I got in the mail.

These are my received swap blocks for the Jewel Box swap through the Quiltbiddies Yahoo Group I belong to.  One gal who allegedly held up the swap included some fat quarters with her package, so sweet of her!

I'm thinking of setting these blocks in a barn raising style but will need to make about 12 more blocks to get the effect I want of at least three complete rounds.  I have plenty of fabric and they go together pretty quickly.  Isn't there another name for this block?  Sometimes I get it confused with Jacob's Ladder. 

Pardon me if I have shown this pic before of the finished center of the Quilts for Kids.org kit quilt.   Now to get the borders on and get it put together.  I found a perfect sized piece of batting in the leftovers pile so that's sorted.

We spent Easter having BBQ with our kids, my mom and dad and Grant's mom.  Elaine and Chris brought Scully the granddog, wearing his new flannel.  He braved Russell the dog's incessant chasing and barking at him and appeared to have a good time despite that treatment.  I was too tired to sew after our guests left so retired to the bed and read the book Elaine gave me for Christmas, Water for Elephants.  Good story and characters, but pretty graphic in several different ways (sex, violence, etc).  Gritty times and deplorable conditions they had, those circuses in the Depression Era.  All in all, I would recommend it, but only if you don't mind being a little shocked and horrified!  I am a very fast reader and also cannot stop reading once I am into a story so I was through the book in two nights.  The books I won will be welcome addition to my library.  Lucky me.

Working...

Since the weekend I have been spending time at my cutting table and sewing machine.  I have started turning this pile of parts

That's two colors of Moda Basic Grey--solids with sort of splotches of other colors here and there--and a Kona green.






The goal is to make this quilt from Crazy Mom Quilts tutorial that appeared here:

I was really sorry to have found Crazy Mom's blog just before she stopped writing it.  And the Bee Square Blog has also petered out.  Bummer.






I got as far as laying out the first row before my quilting assistant Mini carefully walked across each block and then settled.  I shooed her away and tried to lay out some more blocks.  After shooing her away five more times, this was the result:

And she was NOT moving...

....until this additional visitor arrived. 

What follows is a guest blogger tutorial.  The title of this tutorial is "How to Heckle a Cat", by EricaO

By the way, I hate when people call me "Erica O" because it reminds me of being at work and having my name read aloud to me off of my name tag. Yes, thank you, I know my name already. Anyway...more to the point.

So, here I am, during the beginning stages of cat hecklation. I first put the kitty in an extremely uncomfortable and undesirable position. You of course must be VERY EXCITED because it enchances the discomfort for said hecklee.

I then move on the most dreaded move of all: the combination face/paw scrunch. For each cat, you may have find their specific weakness. For Mini, the face touching is a no go...so obviously a thumbs up for heckling!

Here I am with my own cat whom I have long hours of heckling practice with. I like to pull the corporal cuddling move on her, which causes quite a bit of meowing!

And more cuddling, more tightly bound to ensure your cat knows JUST HOW MUCH you REALLY love them. When I do this, Amelie meows and it sounds just like "NOAW" (ie "no" for you non-kitty speakers), which clearly inspires me to hold on just a little longer :)

Finally, when they have really had enough, you set them free and they disappear into an "I hate you" place, while still keeping a good eye on you (in case you decide you haven't finished with them!)

Cosmic Rules

Do you have Cosmic Rules at your house?  You know, the suspiciously regular timing of events despite efforts to the contrary?  Here at Casa de Orts, you always have to eat barbecue at 8:00 pm, you always have to go to the store at 10:00 pm on Sunday night for milk, you always put outgoing mail in the neighborhood central mailbox AFTER the mailhuman has come, the dog never has accidents on the 2/3rds portion of the downstairs that is tile, you always forget you didn't get your gas tank filled when you are in a hurry and don't have time to stop so it's on fumes all the way to work..and, tonight's event,  it is ALWAYS 11:00 pm when you put the topping on the cooling pie.  Of course the pie cannot yet go into the refrigerator because it is too warm.  Which is why I am posting at 11:00 pm because I now have to wait at least a half hour before it can be put away.

What I'm making is actually called a Cream Cheese Pie, my one dessert I am known for (cooking is so not my hobby!), straight outta the Betty Crocker Cookbook my grandmother bought me when I got married.  I like my graham cracker crust rustic so I crush the crackers but leave a few boulders in there too.  The recipe is super simple and requires no pre-baking of the crust.  Just pop in the filling of cream cheese, vanilla, eggs, sugar and a little lemon zest, and you're golden.  The topping is spread over the still warm pie but not baked.  Cool 8 hours and you will wow everyone.  This recipe is close, however the cookbook I have calls for 2 teaspoons of vanilla in the filling, not 1/2 tsp, and the topping is 1 cup of sour cream plus 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.  I use more crackers and butter and leave out the sugar in my crust.  It always gets raves, is perfect with sweetened fresh strawberries, and is a dangerous thing to have leftover in your house...it calls to you continually to "even up" the slices.  This is why I only make it either to take somewhere or if we are having company!

Erica told me that it was cruel to her and Grant not to make two pies, since this one is destined for a co-worker's birthday tomorrow.  She said I have three days to make it up to her.  She also mentioned that she hoped the Easter Bunny knows that she prefers chocolate Bordeaux eggs from See's Candies.  I told her I'd send the Easter Bunny a memo.

It's now time to put my cream cheese pie to bed...followed by putting myself there!