I'm Back

Erica and I got back this afternoon after our quick trip to Arizona--more to follow, but here are a couple of photos from my brother and sister in law's Scottsdale front yard--humans added for scale!

Giant ocotillo which will be covered in gorgeous orange blooms in the spring. Ignore my dratted closed eyes in this pic.

And even more giant saguaro cactus!  Laura, my SIL, answered my question about its age by stating that it takes 70 years before the saguaro cactus plant develops one arm.  She thought this cactus was probably over 100 years old. 

More on this trip soon!

Tuesday's Orts--Nov 9, 2010

Tonight I'll be winging my way with Erica to Arizona to check out ASU and her new digs.  But first, a few orts to share...

• Weekend clothes shopping plus doing two weeks' worth of laundry equals a full closet and drawers.  Too bad I am sick of about half of the old stuff, even when clean.
• Curiously, there is a shortage of navy in the world just now.  I cannot find a pair of navy slacks anywhere.  Also, navy fabric is sorely lacking at my local fabric store.  Another color conspiracy?  I remember in the early 80's the inability to find brown fabric--even brown yarn was hard to find!
• The housekeepers were here a week ago and I am still straightening photos and paintings.  Sometimes I think they leave them crooked on purpose so we'll know they dusted them.
• With the recent dizzying jump from too hot to cool, my confused garden is now sporting daylilies, plumeria blossoms, camellias, margarita daisies, poinsettias, and the avocado tree is producing buds and blooms. The ornamental pear and Golden Rain trees are turning colors and losing leaves. At least the poppies have died out until spring!
• Traffic rant of the week:   Putting on your hazard lights while parking in a loading zone or red zone does not mean you're not breaking the law.  Especially if you are  parked on the wrong side of the street facing oncoming traffic--a sight actually witnessed last week in front of the building to the rear of our office!
• I read recently that the final book in the Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean Auel, called The Land of the Painted Caves, will be coming out in the spring, 31 years after the first book.   But then I read that she may still have one more book in her--at age 74.  If she keeps the same pace of writing, I'll be a grandma before it is published. 
• Speaking of grands--our granddog Scully enjoyed his Halloween costume so much he did not like to take it off.

He was nice and cozy as a shark!

Design Wall Monday--Nov 8, 2010

On my Design Desk today is the second project I'm making with the 9 patches from Julie K's swap.  I made up a few of the square-in-square blocks to see how my plan to emphasize the star in this layout is working  (quilt design from a Thimbleberries book).
 

Cinnamon star.

Cheddar star.

I am a little concerned that this is going to turn out just incredibly busy and not the scrappy look I love.  I want the stars to stand out, and they will be the only constant fabrics in the patchwork.  I'll probably have to make a lot more of the square in squares to see if I really like this.  I do love the cheddar and cinnamon Jo Morton fabrics!  Opinons, anyone?  Go to Judy's blog to see more Design Walls. 

Caramel & Cream

Finally got back to the sewing machine after taking most of the week off.  Sometimes the workweek's decision making leaves me weary of even the minor choices involved in putting scraps together in patchwork!  But tonight  I busted out the remaining rectangles and four patches.  I have a hint to share that works well for me in assembling both short rows and long:  Pin from right to left. 

These two short rows have the seams pressed in opposite directions to lock the seams when placed right sides together.

I place the first pin on the furthest right seam intersection (or furthest right edge--this is too short to need a pin there).

Then work towards the left edge.  Voila, your pinned section is ready to be placed directly under the sewing machine needle.  I find this especially helpful when sewing long pieced rows together when assembling a quilt top.  I don't have to shuffle a bunch of fabric in my lap to find the beginning of the seam because that's where my last pin goes. 

Here are all the hourglass blocks, flying geese and rectangle sections in place...

...I added the 25 yummy 9 patches and sighed happily!  I played a little bit more Switcheroo after taking this photo, then stacked the rows into labeled piles, ready for assembly.  A very satisfying end to a long week.  

Finally, a shout out to my one and only best sister, Kathy.  Happy Birthday! Love you!  

Bowties Quilt--Final Chapter

My mom sent me the photos from my brother's birthday party and the quilt presentation.  For those sick of seeing this quilt, look away!  But I promise this is the last of the posts on Tyler's Bowties.

My mom said it was hard to get a photo of just the quilt and us because there were so many people in the room!  That's Tyler's son Joey getting the first cuddle in on the end of the quilt.

Happy quilt owner.

Perusing the label.  His son Christian in the striped shirt reading the writing on the backing fabric--he immediately identified it as by Mark Twain, which was pleasing!

All smiles! 

Tuesday's Orts--Nov 2, 2010

Election Day so closely following Halloween kinda suits my mood.  But that's not the focus of this week's Orts, I have much more important things to talk about!

• Short Sock Syndrome.  It's a serious condition whereby manufacturers feel that women do not need to cover more than their ankles yet still have to pay the same price as men's trouser socks that come up to the calf.  It's a conspiracy. Being tall, I am often subject to this discrimination and I protest!(simulated dumping tea sound here)
• We had hordes of trick or treaters of all ages this year, as usual, however I was glad to see that all were in costume, including an adult Sponge Bob carrying his Lion baby.  We've had older teenagers come to the door in years past just holding out their hands.  No candy unless you're in costume, I say, or go buy your own!
• We gave out 10 bags of candy before running out at 8:30 and shutting off the porch light--with many folks still out on the street.  Only one group rang the doorbell on the dark porch and had to be turned away with "Sorry, we're out of candy!"
• We've had a very warm Fall after a cool Summer and the leaves are late to turn color.  The ginkgo across the street is finally getting golden.  Today they are predicting an 85 degree high temp for our city.  My poinsettia is totally confused!
• Traffic rant of the week:  Jaywalkers who WALK (not jog!) across four lanes of traffic holding their hand up, when there is a signal and crosswalk at each end of the short block they are on. Grrr.  Oh, and bicycle riders who ride against traffic on a four lane road, ride on the sidewalk, ride side by side instead of tandem, and ignore stop signs and red lights. Double Grrr. 
• Several hours were spent pinning a big quilt over the weekend at my parent's.  I finally got smart and we used three of their large folding tables in the studio/garage instead of clearing the living room floor to lay it out.  We'll never do it another way now!

We used some leftover pavers to raise the table even higher.

Here's the backing all taped down, Erica's initials backwards there.

And the quilt top.  The border is a polyester suede that is a purple plum color but it looks black in this photo.  It's hard to photograph purples!  It was so much easier to pin this standing rather than crawling--next time I think we'll even double up the pavers to make it taller.  I did run into some tucks on the back because I had no clamps to secure the sides, but they were easy to fix.  This was the first time I have used wool batting and it is very light, which should help counteract the already heavy quilt from the silk dupioni in the triangles and the suede in the border. 

Erica is already asking when I am going to quilt this!  I told her this is a weekends type of quilting task.  I am happy it is a sandwich now, and not a top and backing that is mocking me from the closet every time I open the door to get out the ironing board.

Design Wall Monday--Nov 1, 2010

I still don't have an actual design wall, but my new sewing desk has lots of room to play on both sides of the machine, happily!  Several evenings last week I spent completing the hourglass blocks and flying geese, as well as cutting squares for the Carefree Romance pattern from Quilt Sampler Spring 2010 that I chose to use for my 9 patch swap blocks.

These are 6 1/2" unfinished hourglass blocks.  The flying geese will be alternated with the pieced 2" squares sewn into rectangles.

Here are some of the 9 patches spread out.  I had cut out a bunch of 2" squares from other fabric scraps but really wanted to keep with the C.W. print theme.  What to do, what to do...then I recalled the stack of Bonnie Blue Basics fat quarters I had splurged on at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach back in July.  Problem solved!

Lots more C.W. yumminess.  Here are a few being auditioned for the rectangles.  I think these will play nicely with all the variety of colors in the 9 patches.  Go to Judy's blog to see all the other design walls.