Road to California

I never got around this past week to sharing some of the quilts exhibited at the Road to California 2013 show.  All photos are from that show. 

 Don't you just love this exuberant neighborhood of stately homes?

 

 

  Really cool pictorial quilt.

 

 

 Love the ghost palace in the air.

Fun zebra, right?  A whole herd of these would be a riot.

  Lots of well known quilters' work was in another large exhibit.

 

 

This lady was a featured artist.  This was one of my favorite of many "house"quilts on display.

  I'll split this up since there are so many photos. More to come in the next post!

Getting it Done January report, February goals

January's four Getting it Done challenge goals were reached, with a couple of tweaks:

1.  Finish chevron tablerunner.  The quilting was done today and the binding attached--but I'm calling it DONE.  I used Heather Mulder Peterson's tutorial for the odd angles on the runner and think they will turn out nice; I'm going to try her fast hand stitching method for sewing down the binding on the back. 

2.  Make heart block tablerunners for Shoppe sales.  I changed from tablerunners to mug mats instead, but this job is DONE.
3.  Trace at least 4 designs for Greenpiece wool applique blocks and cut out of wool. I ended up tracing 18 designs and beginning the stitching on the wool appliques, so am calling this DONE.
4.  Do unsewing on Mystery quilt back and repair to correct length. Despite a couple of missteps along the quilt backing is now the correct size, so this job is DONE.

Four for Four and feeling great about that!  

Now for February: 
1.   Complete custom quilting on Caramel Blues quilt.   (This poor quilt has been on the UFO list for two years and is 2/3 finished.)
2.  Sandwich, quilt and bind Garden Pinwheels quilt for Shoppe sale.  (I made the flannel backing last week and have the binding picked out already.)
3.  Complete 10 wool applique blocks.  ( I plan to stitch away while working my shifts at the Shoppe--it is a very slow time of year for gift shops.)
4.  Lay out Picnic blocks and assemble top.  

These four things should keep me busy but still allow plenty of other stitching to be fit in. Setting these goals down in writing gives me focus on moving these projects along.  Deadlines, even self imposed, helps a lot!

Ongoing GID

Although yesterday was supposed to include a trip to the Getty Center with my mom and visiting Cousin Florence, somehow I tweaked my back/hip and had to cancel.  I think it happened the night before, when I was simultaneously trying to lift and lower a  heavy pillow to the floor while twisting, balanced on my other elbow, and scooting back under the covers.  Bad idea.  As sitting and bending were painful and I didn't want to spend the day in bed, standing was all that was left if I wanted to get anything done.  So I set up the light box on my raised cutting table and got to tracing the wool applique blocks for the Greenpiece BOM that is on the Getting it Done challenge list.

On the GID list I wanted to get at least four designs traced, but since I was already doing the job, I finished the remaining 18 blocks' worth of tracing onto freezer paper.  Some of these pieces are tiny!  I'm doing the simpler ones first to build up my skills. 

I proceeded with the buttonhole stitching on the poor lonely butterfly block that has been prepped for awhile, followed by prep of the second block with Roxanne's glue.

I got as far last night as the background flower and two leaves on the second block.  I do enjoy this simple embroidery work! These pics were taken with my new smartphone since my dumbphone stopped working suddenly and had to be replaced.  The camera is very good and I'll enjoy using it, especially for the closeups that my regular point-and-shoot did poorly.  That will also mean one less thing to carry in my purse!  Today my back/hip is better and I plan to attack my sewing room redo.  I'm hoping for a less cluttered look and better organization at the end of the next few days. 

Design Wall Monday--Jan 28, 2013

On my design surface today is the backing for Judy's Mystery Quilt, one of the projects on my Getting it Done list.  Last week I shared the mistaken removal of the side border instead of the bottom border, which is what needed to be removed in order to add additional length to this poor, chopped up mess of a backing! Anyway, after yet another session of unsewing and resewing I have this to show:

This is the ugliest corner with all the multiple seams.  I had to add 13" in length to the previously miscut backing, and that required piecing three sections together so that the motif was the right orientation.  This fabric is "Indonesia" by April Cornell.  Thank goodness I bought plenty of extra fabric!

Seen from a galloping horse, the print is seemingly busy enough to hide all that extra seaming nonsense on this backing.

The final test was double checking that the backing is indeed longer than the front, and yes, the test was passed.  I sure cut it close on the width, however, so will have to be extra careful when pinning the layers.  Glad I can cross this repair off the list now!  See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

Ups and Downer

Flitting from project to project results in a mixed bag of things to share.  First, I got the inner borders attached to the modern pinwheel quilt.

 

Inspector Mini approved this stage of the assembly without comment.  I'll be hunting for an outer border fabric tomorrow at the Road to California show.  I'm thinking a larger print of some sort.

 

It was very slow at the Shoppe today so I got the binding all stitched down on one project.  I settled on  "Toy Sink" as the name for this wall hanging made from leftovers of my Kitchen Sink quilt.  

 

Today I also finished the buttonhole stitching on all the pieces for this wool table mat that has been making the trip to the Shoppe for several weeks.

 

I purchased the Primitive Gatherings kit while in Cincinnati at the International Quilt Festival nearly two years ago.  There were supposed to be small dark squares as a third layer to this design, but when I was working on the buttonhole stitching on the plane ride home, it was so turbulent that I put away the small squares in a baggie and quickly made these giant cross-stitches through each remaining pair of squares.  I used DMC Perle cotton in size 8 in two different greens.  At first I was removing the cross-stitch but then decided I liked how it was even more primitive looking, so let it be.

 

This homespun from the kit has been ironed on and fray-checked per the instructions, then black thread will be added in a buttonhole stitch all the way around.  Nearly done!

 

However, for the Getting it Done challenge, as another downer in the ongoing saga of mistakes with the quilt backing for Judy's Mystery Quilt, I removed the SIDE border instead of the BOTTOM border.  This is what happens when you don't unfold the quilt but instead leave it on the hanger, thinking you have it folded LENGTHWISE, when instead you have it folded CROSSWISE.  Sigh.  But, while there will be some resewing happening, I fortunately didn't cut anything! 

What I'm Working On Wednesday

Yesterday my sole errand was taking my mom to LAX airport.  Afterwards I was free to do as I pleased, and that included a trip to Homegoods and a large Joann's store in a nearby city.  Wow, those big stores have way more to look at.  I spent a pleasant near hour wandering around Homegoods, a decor store with everything you never knew you wanted to put in your home :)  There was no "have to have it now" item so I left with my wallet no lighter.  However, it was a bit of a different story at Joann's.

 Cute button knobs to replace the plain Jane brass ones on my sewing desk.  These were on sale.

Rack for my GO! cutter dies and mats, on clearance for under $10.  I also got another length of flannel for a quilt back, a couple of remnants, some adorable little embroidery kits I neglected to take a photo of, and some much needed machine needles. 

 Later I stitched together all the remaining leader-ender four patch pairs by my machine and played with a layout.

 I thought this was a bit more interesting than single square chains.  Above is a rectangular layout. 

But I think I prefer this symmetrical one.  I am short one four patch but that will easily be remedied.  This would end up about 32" square before borders, which seems a good size to start with for a square table topper.  Opinions?

Design Wall Monday-Jan 21, 2013

On my design surface today is a top in progress. These modern pinwheels came from some leftover 2 x 5 bricks I cut for this quilt in about, oh, 2005!

 Layout before sewing the rows...

...and with an option for an inner border.  This will be a lap sized quilt but needs to be a bit wider.  I played with putting the lined up little squares between the vertical rows but preferred the block to block setting of the pinwheels.  I have nothing suitable for an outer border in my stash, unfortunately, so will have to shop.  Poor me :)  I'm going to the Road to CA show this weekend so surely can find something there.

All the Picnic blocks are finished.  There are 109 blocks here; I need 108 for my desired 9x12 block quilt.  During the layout I may switch out a few of the brown blocks for more gold ones, as I wanted gold as my secondary color to the green.  Those striped blocks may have to go if they are too distracting!  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.