Packing The Projects..

I was emailing Tonya about how much I love the little fun quilting details she adds to her quilts, and how fun it is to draw things freehand as quilting designs. This is what I did for the feathers in the two corners of my wonky "The Best Things In Life Are Quilted" Quilt...this is the first quilt I did using Tonya letters, and I used lots of bits of UFOs and crumb blocks for the center, even some rejected Dear Jane blocks are in there.

Anyway...drawing the feathers was easy with a blue washout marker. I wanted it to be funky and have that 'childlike' appeal to it, so each feather plume is quilted individualy as tear drops...just as if it were a continuous line pattern. The nicest thing about drawing designs is....you can make it FIT THE SPACE! It is so hard to find a stencil sometimes that will fit what you want, but if you can draw it, you can make it fit the area you need it to.

I've quilted zig zags in the narrow borders, diagonal lines going through the letters and the shirting print background in the outer border. The borders are also all different widths, which gives the quilt a catty-wompus off centered look which I think is fun. FYI...the evening stars in the border are 3" finished! Tonya thought I was nuts when she was over and saw them, I was INTENDING to do a whole bedsized quilt from them. Insane. I'm glad they made it into the border of this quilt along with a rejected border of flying geese that didn't work for another project. This was fun to put together! I hope to do more 'orphan' quilts like this in the future.

The whole quilt is quilted with PURPLE THREAD! I've got one border side left to finish quilting, and then I just have to finish up the middle with the baptist fans. My goal is to have this one DONE by the time I come home on the 24th.

I tried to get some good detail shots for ya, but alot of them turned out blurry, or you couldn't see the quilting detail...but I hope this gives you an idea. Pardon the machine basting thread snippies everywhere! You can click the pics to get a bigger view. I know the quilt looks like it has so much WHITE on the outside, and I usually do dark borders...this light border is a new thing for me, but I am going to finish it off with red binding I think which should frame it in a bit better!


Today I'm meeting my girlfriend Sandi for lunch. I've known her about 3 years now, and how I met her is so funny. We had just moved here, I was at the post office mailing off a customer quilt, and the line was out the door..she was a few people ahead of me in line, and she had a huge tote full of envelopes she was mailing out. My first thought was "I'm glad there is more than one teller or I am going to be behind her forever!" Then I heard her talking to the gal in front of her explaining that she was mailing fabric, that she sold fabrics on Ebay! Well, I butted right in and introduced myself. I was in a new town in a new state and I didn't know any quilters yet! She does mostly brights and novelties, with rare novelties being her specialty. We hit it off and though we love different things, we have a fun friendship and we meet for lunch when we can to catch up. She made us this card that we pass back and forth, and we take turns buying lunch for eachother so every once in a while we feel like WE are being treated. The card is in my wallet so it's MY turn to buy lunch today. She will decide where we go! Then next time, She will treat ME to lunch. We have the card because we can never remember who bought last time! *LOL*

Bonnie

Leader-Ender Update...

I thought I might be close to having enough length to this leader/ender strippy I'm working on, so I trimmed it into sections. You should have seen this when it was all one length! Now, it wasn't always one length, I had it in several sections, but it still was angled at both ends. I joined them all together in one long length so I could cut the sections where I needed them cut, and not lose ALL the angled ends when I squared them up.

These segments are about 83" long and about 6" wide. I'm planning on 7 of them...that only gives me about 42" of quilt width, right? I'm planning on setting them with some fabric between them. What I can't decide is if the rows between the pieced panels should be as wide as the panels, or should they be narrower? Maybe cut the 4.5" or so?

Well, if I cut them narrower than I might need to piece more lengths of the leader/ender part. For a bed quilt I was aiming for 70 X 80 or so for the middle, giving me room to add borders and fancy it up a bit. I guess that just answered my question...if I make the alternate strips finish at 5" wide, that gives me a center that is 78X83 It will be an almost square quilt, but alot of antique quilts (that I love to replicate) WERE square.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! So now I just need enough leader/ender segments to finish that 7th strippy panel and I will be able to put this one together! Another "free" top that was nearly completely pieced while working on other projects! And that 2" bin of scrap squares that I keep by the machine doesn't seem to be dimishing by much either.

Not sure when I started this one....it was after I had enough 9 patches for the zig zag 9 patch I did earlier this year.

The other dilemma...do I use a shirting as a setting fabric? Or go for something authentically old looking that will show the quilting detail..like...a tea stain muslin color? If I use a shirting, feather quilting isn't going to show in there very well.

One thing I also like.....after studying antique quilts for years and years, I love what adding a strategic solid fabric does to the quilt. The solid receeds while the prints come forward. The solids don't upstage the prints, they give them a place to perform. Some people think you shouldn't use solids (that they will just read 'flat')...I think they are awesome places to set things off, and quilting detail shows really great in solids where it can be really hard to see in a print. Especially if you are recreating the look of authentic antique quilts. There is a place for solids!

Bonnie

Sleepless Nights

Don't you hate it when for some reason you wake up at 3am and after 5 hours of sleep you just can't lay there any longer? Not sure what woke me, whether it was a bit of discomfort still from the cryo, or the freezing rain that I could hear on the awning over the hottub on the deck outside....or cats that decided to bite my toes at 3am. I tried going back to sleep after reading through the blog rings, but then at 5am DH's alarm went off so he could get up for his workout at the YMCA before heading to work and I just said oh heck, just get up! So here I am. I'm dragging...but I figure if I get moving now, I can take a nap later :c)

Laundry will be tackled shortly. I'm starting to pile stuff in the living room (no one actually ever lives in there...it's just an out of the way room!) for taking to the cabin on saturday. I was going to take my machine, but you know what? I think I'll take all hand work. I've got two quilts that are partially hand quilted. I've got a quilt that needs applique finished in the border. I've got a hexagon medallion in christmas colors that has sat for a couple years..it used to be my 'take along' project to guild meetings before I started school and was too bleary eyed at guild meetings to be able to sit and stitch on little 1.5" hexagons. I think I'll have plenty to take. I could also crochet another scarf with some yarn I have....blue this time, little sparkly things in it. That might work if my fingers get too poked up from hand quilting and applique. So I think I'm set in that department.

Today I'm returning some books on CD to get some new ones. I'll load them up on the MP3 player and this will save my sanity if because of cold icky weather I am locked in a tiny cabin with two guys and FOOTBALL GAMES ON TV. I can drown them out, really I can! I'll just sit and smile and stitch and listen to a book instead of those games...

Oh and this is cool...I LOVE old movies. The classics. Things like old musicals, funny movies like "Don't Eat The Daisies", etc. My mom and stepdad for the past couple of years, being on a very fixed income and having 8 kids and umpteen grandchildren, have started recording old favorites of theirs onto DVD and giving us those for Christmas. It's GREAT! I admit to already peeking in the package that mom sent and in it are the folowing:

An American In Paris
Three Little Words
Showboat
Hit The Deck
The Harvey Girls
Summer Stock
Night & Day
Look For The Silver Lining
Please Don't Eat The Daisies
Support Your Local Sheriff
Call Me Madam
Merry Andrew
Singing In The Rain
Easter Parade
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (My fave when I was a kid!)
The Mating Game
Father Goose
Meet Me In St Louis
In The Good Old Summertime
The King & I
Interrupted Melody
Come September
Lover Come Back
The Court Jester
The Glass Bottom Boat

A lot of these I've never heard of! So this will be very fun. Lots of old movies to quilt to!

We can't check into the cabin until after 2pm, so we were planning on getting there a bit earlier than that and grocery shopping before we check in. We are taking both vehicles so while the guys are skiing, I can run to town if I want and not be too stranded. The other reason for this is because DH's pickup won't hold us all plus the dog....and my PT won't either. This is one time we needed a mini van and we don't own one. The cabin is only about 2 to 2 1/2 hours away so it won't be bad to drive two cars. (More book on CD time for me!)

I was looking at my calendar, and I've got two retreats coming up! One over Martin Luther King weekend in January, at Hickory Knob SC. It's a guild retreat, fun fun fun for 4 days! We start friday and come home monday. The other one is to Hilton Head, SC...it's the same weekend as the Jinney Beyer Convention there. We go and see her quilts, it's open to the public, and there is a little vendor mall they set up. Some of the gals take classes, but I like to work on my own stuff, so I'm just there to get away from it all.

I sure would love it at some point if we could have a Quilt Mavericks retreat! I know we are scattered far and wide, but if you are ever in my neck of the woods, you are welcome to come by! I'd love to meet y'all!

Bonnie

Don't Cryo For Me, Argentina.....*singing*

Pardon my spoof on songs from Evita! Andrew Lloyd Weber might consider that a very bad rendition of his song....

I had the cryo surgery this morning. It wasn't TOO bad, but still pretty uncomfortable! Though anything that happens around private body parts is not comfortable to me, even after having 3 babies it doesn't get any easier to have things stuck in me down there...

And all the while the doctor (old and bald, thank goodness, not young and handsome!) telling me to relax and let my knees fall out to the side..yeah right! I told him that we ought to freeze his prostate and see if he can "relax"?! :c)

They have to freeze your cervix for 3 to 4 minutes...and nitrus oxide is -50 degrees Celsius! I feel crampy, enough that I don't feel like doing much (I think concentrating on a customer's quilt is out of the question), but not bad enough to keep me in bed where all I do is feel it. Maybe a walk later will get my mind off the cramps. Ibuprophen has been taken, and there is this antibiotic cream that I am supposed to use at nights? Great...more goo....*LOL*

It is OVER. That is all I care about...not pleasant, but at least over! It's been almost 2 hours, and I still feel like an ice cube deep inside..*LOL*

Bonnie

Baskets For Sew Catherine

Catherine posted a couple of pics on her blog of her mini basket blocks, which are SO darling! This made me excited too because I have a quilt top of these babies all ready to hand quilt, and the drive to do so really hasn't attacked me until I finish some other hand quilting-in-progress. (hoping to make a big dent in the hand quilting department next week while being gone!)

Anyway..the story of the basket quilt is one I thought you would enjoy, because there are actually TWO basket quilts!

When Lucy and I met via email and started writing back and forth and forming a friendship, we got this idea that we would both make this tiny basket quilt....really an insane thing because there are 180 of them in the quilt. That's a BUNCH of basket blocks!

SO! We get this idea that as we are each cutting out our own baskets, that we would cut them in sets of two, save one for ourself, and send the other cut out block as a 'kit' to each other! We sent them in groups of 20 or so baskets at a time. This way we were sharing the fabrics, but each doing our own work on them. By the time Lucy arrived here last March, we both had ALL the basket blocks DONE. I had spent lunch breaks at school appliqueing handles down, and then when I had enough handles done, I'd machine piece the batch, and then move onto the next batch, etc. It took me quite a while to get 180 baskets done.

While she was here we made a pilgrimage to Mary Jo's Fabrics in Gastonia, NC...and we picked out setting and border fabrics together. We even had sewing time here at my house with both machines going on the kitchen table and we had them laid out in two separate rooms! I got mine finished, Lucy's was still in progress when she packed it up to take it back to Haarlem, I still don't know if she finished her top or not...did you Lucy??

The wind was not cooperating with me while I tried to take pics. I really don't know when this will get quilted, but it has very special memories in the making of the tops!

Bonnie

Thoughts On What Drives Me....

Is there a method to my madness? I always hear "Man, you get so much done! How do you do so much so fast?" I gave it some thought and here are my rambling reasons :c)

I tend to choose patterns that work up quickly....they hold my interest because they aren't too tedious and anyone can do them. I also like patterns where I don't have to pin every dang piece to match points. I like it when I can just oppose the seams and sew across them and they match up. (Or not match up, I'm not too stressed out about it being perfect...it is what it is!) I've been known to do whole quilt tops without pinning anything! I do pin the borders in at least 3 places to keep those straight and from waving. It's gotta be scrappy, and it's gotta have more than 3 colors in it. This is why the storm at sea dear jane has been sitting for 2 years. It's pink and brown on one shirting print background....it's torture to work on it!

I've done a few quilts with inset seams, but I really don't enjoy doing them. So I tend to find ways to work around those. I like spikey pokey looking triangles....and things that create alot of movement. I like things busy and scrappy....very seldom will you see calm and serene coming out of my machine!

Some friends about fell over backwards when I showed them a
30's Trip Around The World
that I had done. It was all pastel prints and solids, and mostly LAVENDER! 30's are not my thing...they are too sweet and cute, and everyone knows that I run from them, but this quilt I did was for a shop display and my friend the owner twisted my arm to piece it for her because she knew I'd have it done in no time. When it had finished living at the shop, she sent it back to me to keep and now I have to live with this thing? Ackkkk! (My apologies to all the lovers of 30's prints out there.....I know we each have things we love to hate :c)

I used to make mostly Queen/King quilts to fit beds, but the past year I have discovered how fun it is to make people sized quilts to fit people....a bit bigger than a lap size, but big enough to cover someone while snuggling on the couch. You get that "FINISHED FIX" alot quicker when the quilt is smaller! You can try more designs and not get bored and leave a UFO behind you when you find something else you want to do or try....And a lap/people sized quilt isn't going to have to revolve around someone's decorating scheme or colors. This is the big thing for me. Maybe Suzy has a bedroom that is moss green and pink......but I don't want to make a bed quilt for her that is moss green and pink....I can make a lap/snuggle size in whatever I want and it still won't kill her decorating (which might change to different colors after the 1st of the year, who knows!)

And basically, you can't go wrong with scrappy....whatever color their decorating is...if I go scrappy, that color is IN THERE!

Bonnie

Gotta love the bonuses!

I'm playing with all the bonus triangle squares that were left over from double-sewing the triangle corners on the Smokey Moutain Stars quilt...there were 304 little leftover 1/2 sq triangle squares...they square up to 2", and finish at 1.5".

I had to do an exchange block last night using other fabric, it was the rose bud block in 9" size, and I thought...these little triangle squares are the same sizes as my bonus squares, and my mind was off and running. I've got 9 blocks done....there are enough of those little bonus triangle squares to make 38 blocks! I'm using all plaids (yes, from good will shirts!) with the exception of the background fabric in the 1/2 sq bonus tris....that was the background of the star quilt! And I also have to cut some little 'wing' triangles to fill in one end of the pieced triangle...those are coming from light 2" strips from the 2" scrap bin.

If some of the points get chopped off, I'm not caring! I want this to look old and snuggly and like it was found in some backwoods cabin :c) Not sure how I'll set them. I do like them on point, but I'm not crazy about huge alternate plain blocks..even though I could space them that way and get a good sized quilt out of 38 to 42 blocks. Any other ideas out there? Strippy set? Zig zag set?

I have a bunch of these bonus triangle squares from the border of the crazy puss in the corner quilt too...those are all scrappy darks on one side, and a black & white shirting on the other, so they will work into something down the road too..The pain is pressing them open and squaring them..I'm doing those a handful at a time as I need them on the plaid quilt so that I can do them as needed, and it isn't so much torture!

Bonnie

Smokey Mountain Stars

I've uploaded the pattern for the stretched stars quilt to my website. I've called it Smokey Mountain Stars.
because it has that feel of the rustic cabin we will be staying in for a week.......we leave a week from tomorrow! I better get some projects gathered together to take!

Here are some pics of the finished quilt. I finished the binding last night, and waited for daylight to take the quilt outside to get some pics. I love taking pics outside. The light is just so much better and you can really tell the quilting detail...even on a cloudy day like today where it looks like rain (and I could see my breath..it's cold!) the pics just look better when I can take them in natural light.

Today I've got a little gal from my class at school coming...she wants to learn to quilt, so I thought I'd start her piecing on some puss in the corner blocks (the uneven 9 patch kind, not the crazy patch kind like I've been doing!) and work with her on keeping a 1/4" seam, some rotary cutting, how to press to oppose seams, etc. I think it will be a good easy first project for her and will look nice when it is done.


Bonnie

Paralyzed By The Stash!

To buy or not to buy, and if I do, how much?

I've been asked this question A LOT ...."If I'm just stashing, what sizes of cuts are most useable?" And the other reasoning I hear is "It was such a great price, I couldn't let this sale pass me by, but I wasn't sure how much to get......"

After 25+ years of fabric collecting and quilting, I've been pretty much "no buy" for about 20 months now! (With the exception of the plaid shirts fetish I acquired for the thrift shops!) I have SO much fabric still that I only buy when I ABSOLUTELY need something to finish a project.

Shopping the stash is the best idea. I always go there first, but sometimes you need something else. (I haven't been shirt shopping in about 8 months...I've even banned myself from THAT!) I decided that I didn't care how good the deal was, that the fabric could "live" at the store until I absolutely had to go buy it for an "immediately needed now" crisis. This has worked for me.

It helped just knowing that if I needed backing, binding, borders, sashings, background, and even some 'go-withs' that I could go to the store and get it if I absolutely could NOT find anything in my stash that would work. This is an utmost show of FAITH! *LOL* How many of us by 12 pairs of tennis shoes, just because they are on sale, at a great price, and we want enough to stock up? We might not like those outdated shoes in 5 to 10 years...do we still want them hanging around our closets?

It was hard turning down those sale prices. The first few months of NO BUYING was excruciating. I felt like I needed a 12 step program! I had to remove myself from email notifications from online stores that were exclaiming things like "NEW SALE BINS!" "FREE SHIPPING" AUUUGH! I live within 2 hours drive from the infamous Mary Jo's in Gastonia NC. It's a fabric Mecca, but I dare not go! And if I do need to go, I know the fabric, or at least some fabric that will work.....will be there (and most likely be on sale) and it can just LIVE THERE until I need it!

In the mean time, I now spend the time that I would spend shopping, actually quilting and working on my projects. In 20 months I still feel like I've barely made a dent in my stash. That is when I really realized how over whelming this stash really is! It took a long time to get over the jitters I'd get when driving past the quilt shop and not pulling into the parking lot...but it got easier. I don't miss it now.

When I was buying...if there was a fabric I liked but didn't know what I wanted it for, and the price was good, I'd buy a yard easy. 2 yards if I wanted it for a border....5 to 6 yds if I thought I might use it for a back, but really if you don't KNOW what project it is going in, how much do you know to buy? I suppose we could rationalize and think that eventually we might need EVERYTHING for a back and buy 6 to 8 yards of everything because it is a good price and we might need it some day and we don't ever want to run short because we might not find that fabric ever again. *LOL* This is how I got into the situation I'm in!

I didn't ever really become a fat quarter shopper either, because I always thought those were not going to be ENOUGH of any one fabric to do what I needed. That's where the "buy at least a yard" thing came in.

If you want to indulge, look at the projects you have going on and see if there is anything you need to complete them. I don't plan for too many "in the future some day I want to make" projects any more because my mind will change a dozen times (if not more) by then. I only buy for the "here and now" and things I am going to make immediately! That way you get the shopping fix, and the completion fix all in the same dose! And the things you use here and now have scraps that work into the scrap stash bins for later, which is good too. Sometimes running out of something and forcing yourself to make a substitution from your stash, alter your lay out a bit can break you out of the "gotta make it just like the one in the book" syndrome and you'll really be suprized at your own results, and the new interest it gives to the quilt.

If your stash is whittled down to the point where you are lacking in any certain color you can concentrate on that color. Maybe you've used quite a bit of your blues and there isn't as much of a working variety there. One thing I would do is round stuff out in a general way if I needed to. Backgrounds are something that I need to not let diminish too much because then there is nothing to work with to help use up the other fabrics that I've already got.

I guess I have had to let the fear of the world running out of fabric leave me. I felt like I was Chicken Little, but instead of "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" it was more...."if they stop making this I'll never have enough to make the quilts I want, and once it's gone it's gone, so I must hoard hoard hoard" and it got to the point where my stash had paralyzed me. You know what? Quilting is a multi-billion dollar enterprise....the fabric is NOT all of a sudden going to stop being printed and dry up! I have faith in the fabric manufacturers that they will keep printing fabrics...maybe different fabrics...so yes it's important to have what you need to finish projects you've started...but you can't buy ahead for every project you ever want to make in your life.

How many of us feel like we have stocked our quilting rooms and closets like people stocked their bomb shelters in the 50's?? Just in case we have to live in there for the next 40 years, we better have enough fabric to quilt for that long..*giggle*

So, this probably doesn't answer your questions on how much to buy of what! But no matter what you buy, it's either going to be not enough, too much, or it won't match what you need it to! (I'd still go for 1 to 2 yard cuts if the price was really good and it was something I was needing for borders...3 yards if I was going to need it for sashing and binding...)And repeat after me: "It can LIVE at the store until I really need it to finish a project I already know about!"

Bonnie
ps...the opinions stated in this blog are soley those of the author, and do not reflect the ideas of all quilters!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

I want to wish Lucy a very happy 40th birthday! She is leaving today for a weekend getaway with her handsome hubby Rene, and she deserves it!

Lucy, I hope you have a wonderful time, enjoy the pampering your hubby showers on you! It might be your birthday, but I am sure you are his greatest gift! :c)

Wishing you much happiness in the coming year!

Bonnie

Quilting Away!

I am quilting away on the stretched stars quilt! I am doing this especially to practice some designs that I have coming up on a customer quilt.....she requested pine boughs and berries for her border on her mountains quilt, and I've not done pine boughs before. I figure they couldn't be that different from feathers, but still, it helps to do a practice run before taking off on someone else's quilt! So...the stetched stars is getting pine boughs in the border as practice, and I like it! It sure uses alot of thread though! the inner border is just curling tendrils, and the inside of the quilt is an easier version of mctavishing....I don't like all the backtracking that mctavishing requires, so I just do my own thing with flames and echoed swirls for much the same effect, but no thread build up or inaccuracy that comes from backtracking over previous stitching. I think it looks like a windy swirly snow storm!

It's a frosty morning here in SC! Yesterday I did get to the forest to walk with Buddy. Man, I love those books on the mp3 player! The time flies so fast as I am hiking and listening. DH's Christmas present came a couple days ago....it's a wrist held GPS thing that also comes with a heart rate monitor...all these bells and whistles. He actually told me what he wanted, and that's great because that takes all the work out of it for me. He said we could get it for 'the both of us' but I'm not that big of a die hard in the needing to know how many miles, track my heart rate, etc....but he does this daily. So it can be his toy. I do want to borrow it just to find out how many miles this loop that I am hiking is. But once I've tracked it once...I'll know what it is and I don't see myself using that GPS thingy again unless I find another trail I want to track!

Well, that's it for me! I need to get the stretched stars finished this morning so that I can start on that one for the customer...need to deliver it to a guild mtg next monday night.....the 17th is coming quickly and there are another couple quilts I need to get finished for people before then too...because we will be GONE!

Bonnie

Color Me Mad!

Today was the day I was supposed to have the dreaded cryo thing..the freezing of the irregular cells on my cervix. I've been nervous for weeks. (And quilting madly to keep my mind off it, right?) So I go to the office this morning, they check me in...I go through the blood pressure check, the explaination and signing of "consent forms" (these always leave me feeling a bit wary!) only to find out that they are going to have to RESCHEDULE me because they don't have any 'cryo tips' in the office. They hadn't come back from sterilization yet I guess. AUUUGHH!

They were apologetic, but still.....can't they check the next day's schedule to be sure they have all the equipment they need, get what they need ready, etc?

So....the cryo-thing is put off until next tuesday. I guess I"ll keep quilting! The upside is....it stopped raining, the sun is shining. It's cool and windy, but I think it will be a great day for taking Buddy to hike in the forest this afternoon after it warms up a bit. Sounds better than spending the day crampy after some proceedure, don't you think?

I've got a customer's quilt just past the 1/2 way point, and I'd like to finish it today so I can quilt the stretched stars quickly. It's a gift, I can't spend ALOT of time quilting it, so I might do a meander in the center and something in the borders to frame it. Will post a pic when it is done and bound...I put a narrow taupe/black stripe for the inner border, and a brown/blue/black plaid for the outer border (why does inner have 2 n's but outer only has one t? I keep mis-spelling that!) to finish it off. I used scrappy corner stones for both borders...I really like how it turned out.

I've had requests for this one to be put on my website with the instructions, so I'll get to that later. It is SO easy. Everything is based on that "indian hatchet" block, it's all 4.5" squares and 2.5" squares. Some blocks have dark plaid centers, some have background light centers...some blocks have only one square sewn on the diagonal for the corner instead of 2, and some blocks are just plain light 4.5" squares...but they all come together so FUN! I've really had a good time making this one.

Oh, a funny....I posted about it on the stashbusters email list that I am on, and one lady chewed me out and said basically that by buying shirts at thrift shops to make quilts I was taking warm clothing away from those who need it, or needed to choose between warm clothes and heat! HUH? What's up with that. The shirts were for sale. I bought them. The money from the sale of the shirts gives employees a paycheck and a steady job. The money funds programs. I wasn't "taking the shirt off someone's back" so to speak. I just couldn't see where this comment came from at all and it left me bewildered!

To me I was making something beautiful, warm, and usable, out of other people's unwanted clothing that I PAID FOR. It doesn't really matter how or what I use them for does it?

Back to quilting!
Bonnie

Color Me Mad!

Today was the day I was supposed to have the dreaded cryo thing..the freezing of the irregular cells on my cervix. I've been nervous for weeks. (And quilting madly to keep my mind off it, right?) So I go to the office this morning, they check me in...I go through the blood pressure check, the explaination and signing of "consent forms" (these always leave me feeling a bit wary!) only to find out that they are going to have to RESCHEDULE me because they don't have any 'cryo tips' in the office. They hadn't come back from sterilization yet I guess. AUUUGHH!

They were apologetic, but still.....can't they check the next day's schedule to be sure they have all the equipment they need, get what they need ready, etc?

So....the cryo-thing is put off until next tuesday. I guess I"ll keep quilting! The upside is....it stopped raining, the sun is shining. It's cool and windy, but I think it will be a great day for taking Buddy to hike in the forest this afternoon after it warms up a bit. Sounds better than spending the day crampy after some proceedure, don't you think?

I've got a customer's quilt just past the 1/2 way point, and I'd like to finish it today so I can quilt the stretched stars quickly. It's a gift, I can't spend ALOT of time quilting it, so I might do a meander in the center and something in the borders to frame it. Will post a pic when it is done and bound...I put a narrow taupe/black stripe for the inner border, and a brown/blue/black plaid for the outer border (why does inner have 2 n's but outer only has one t? I keep mis-spelling that!) to finish it off. I used scrappy corner stones for both borders...I really like how it turned out.

I've had requests for this one to be put on my website with the instructions, so I'll get to that later. It is SO easy. Everything is based on that "indian hatchet" block, it's all 4.5" squares and 2.5" squares. Some blocks have dark plaid centers, some have background light centers...some blocks have only one square sewn on the diagonal for the corner instead of 2, and some blocks are just plain light 4.5" squares...but they all come together so FUN! I've really had a good time making this one.

Oh, a funny....I posted about it on the stashbusters email list that I am on, and one lady chewed me out and said basically that by buying shirts at thrift shops to make quilts I was taking warm clothing away from those who need it, or needed to choose between warm clothes and heat! HUH? What's up with that. The shirts were for sale. I bought them. The money from the sale of the shirts gives employees a paycheck and a steady job. The money funds programs. I wasn't "taking the shirt off someone's back" so to speak. I just couldn't see where this comment came from at all and it left me bewildered!

To me I was making something beautiful, warm, and usable, out of other people's unwanted clothing that I PAID FOR. It doesn't really matter how or what I use them for does it?

Back to quilting!
Bonnie

Shirt Fetish!

I have an addiction to second hand stores....not for anything for ME really, not in the sense that alot of people shop thrift shops! I haunt the men's shirts aisles and look for mark downs, bargain of the week, 100% cotton shirts in plaids and stripes!

The Good Will that is near me has a 'sale tag color' of the week sale, so any shirt with the color of the week is 1/2 price. At this price most shirts run me about $1.99. There is quite a bit of fabric for $1.99 if it is a long sleeved size XXX Long men's shirt!

It got so bad, this shirt collecting, that I've got about 3 bins full of shirts that I've taken apart. I've made a couple of quilts with them...and I love how soft the fabric is, and the look of all the plaids mixed together. I have really had to BAN myself from going to G oodWill, because I know if I go I'll come home with yet another bag of plaid shirts!

This is the latest creation from them. Just a little stretched stars quilt that I drew up in EQ5....it's on the floor, all ready to stitch everything together into the top. When did I start cutting and sewing this thing? LAST NIGHT! *LOL* Gotta love it when the push to sew kicks in and takes over!

Bonnie

Wavy Borders & All!

Today I made myself sit down and stitch the last border together and add it on. It's the top and bottom borders that are more flarey than the side borders I think. I can't figure out why, I measured measured measured, made sure seam allowance was good, etc. It is what it is. Pieced borders just have so much give to them I guess.

Right now the top measures 73X82 so it's a good size already. Do I figure this is one that is just giong to "QUILT OUT?" I could add another border to make it behave, but I don't think it needs it. Yes, the binding may chop off points on the outside diamonds when it comes time to bind it, but do I really mind? Not really, but I do mind more about the flaring because that can be a quilting nightmare.

I've got two other projects in the hand quilting stage both partially quilted already, and that is what I was thinking for this one, so I guess for now it gets relegated to the 'waiting for quilting' pile!

Bonnie

Books on CD, etc

I'm writing this post because of Obertra who leaves comments to my posts but no way to reply back other than leave another comment to the comment! One always wonders if one leaves an answer to a comment in the comments section if it will indeed be found at some point..will the person remember to come back looking for replies?

This comment was about books on CD, and how fun it is to listen to great readers narrate the books that we know and love. I really do think the right narrator can bring that book to life, and that's what's got me hooked on books on CD, whether I listen to them in the car, or upload them onto my MP3 player, it's better than TV, and no commercials!

Obertra mentioned Charles Dickens and Tom Sawyer and it made me think of a couple of my treasured volumes that I have downstairs. I don't remember where I came across these, but these are my two Charles Dickens treasures, both dated 1883. I had hoped to read from them to my boys when they were little, but they seemed to like other things instead. Classic literature? No way! I've also collected novels by Jane Austen and a few others, not so old, but I like having them around.

Now I'm thinking these would be great to get on CD...if the narrator is right...they can bring back those stories that we know and love. Next time around at the library (after I finish the 3 books I checked out yesterday!) I think I'll shoot for some classic Charles Dickens... This way we can get our books in, and still keep our fingers busy with the quilting in the process :c)

Bonnie

Crazy-Puss Border Pre-View!

I am tearing my hair out at this border trying to get it to turn the corners right. I should have just done the Maverick "whack it off wherever it ends" thing, but I really like how it does the 'partial star' thing in the corner, and at the center of the borders where the diamonds change directions :c) SO...I will press on! (and curse on and swear on and cry on and on and on...) Three sides have borders with one more to go.

But you know what? Another reason I think I need one more outside border (have found a black print that I think will work great) is to kind of re-square and ease in any wavy-ness from this pieced border. It ruffles just a bit, even though I've worked really hard with it. Sometimes pieced borders are stretchy and wobbly and have a life and a mind of their own, so adding another border to anchor that free edge can tame the whole thing back into behaving. So that's the plan so far.

I'm planning on quilting spiderwebs in the plain blue squares. Not sure about what is going to go on in the pieced blocks, but it will be a fun one! I have fabric in here from the 1980s! And you can't miss those little heart and paw prints.....those were so popular when I first really was getting into quilting. Amazing that there are still pieces in my scraps from that long ago. I gag when I see alot of them, but still, I like remembering what I made with them originally, where I bought them, who the quilt was for....and the scraps...how MANY scrap quilts have been a method to use up the leftovers from 20 years of quilting? This kind of quilt really does contain "pieces of my life."

Bonnie

More Oscar Antics!

I have this wonderful little old toy sewing machine that Lucy brought me when she came from the Netherlands last spring! Along with the machine, she made this eensy teensy little quilt, handquilted it no less....to go with the machine! This sits on my low wall that is on one side of the staircase that goes down to the laundry room from up here in my quilting room....I keep lots of

nick nacks like old tins and stuff there too, kind of a fun ledge to have "stuff.".

I caught Oscar yesterday......up on the ledge....curling his feet under him and laying on top of the edge of this eensy quilt! With all the regular sized quilts and beds in this house, you think he would choose something MORE comfy than this, but he seemed to have liked his perch mighty fine. Didn't even mind me coming up on him with the camera flashing in his face! *LOL*

Crisp sunny days in SC the past couple of days. It's been brisk, but I've still been going out and trying to hike my 5 miles a day in the forest. Yesterday I went to the library down town and checked out 3 more books on CD for loading up into the MP3 player. I don't find myself having alot of time to just sit and read a book, but it is sure fun to listen!

I'm still trudging away on piecing this border for the crazy puss-in-the-corner blocks. I did end up setting them with the blue, and I've got a double sawtooth border done on the two long sides so far, now for the two short sides. One thing with pieced borders....I don't like the feeling of chopping off the points when it comes time to put the binding on, and I don't like it with all those little seams that can pop open while quilting, especially if it's going to be a long term hand quilting project...so I'm thinking it's going to need one more solid border outside the pieced one to kind of anchor everything so I don't lose points into binding, and I don't have seams popping open. Makes sense? I guess I'll come to that decision when I get there!

I hope everyone has a wonderful warm weekend with some quilting time in there somewhere!

Bonnie

More Chocolate Indigo!

I pulled these out to take a closer up pic for Finn since she said she never heard of them. They come from South Africa...and even now after washing they still smell faintly of melted crayon (wax) from the dye process! They make them in red and blue too....I love the blues..they are wonderful!

Bonnie

Christmas Getaway Project?

I've been thinking of UFOs that would be easy to bring to the cabin for the Christmas week away....

This is a pic of a Dear Jane variation that I've had set aside for nearly a couple years now. I love it...it's just tedious as all (*&#(*$ and I think it wasn't scrappy enough for me. It's all double pinks and chocolate indigoes. I bought the indigoes at Quilt Market in Houston, fell in love with them even though they are a thicker, coarser weave. They come waxy and stiff as canvas, they soften when you wash them and get all the excess dye out. The background is a tiny pink/white shirting. It looks VERY old...and I love it..I just burned out on it.

The blocks are more than 1/2 done...I could pack all of this in a small tub and have enough sewing to last me the whole week or more...so I'm thinking this is what I'll be bringing. Maybe it will get me eager to work on it again?

Bonnie

Hot Off The Presses!

I just found this news release! It's about time they realise we aren't going to terrorize anyone with our thread snips or stork scissors! :c)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051130/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/passenger_screening

It says:

WASHINGTON - Airline passengers will be allowed to carry small scissors and tools onto planes, reversing a rule that led to confiscation of many thousands of sharp objects at airports since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a Homeland Security Department official said Wednesday.

Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley on Friday will announce changes to the list of items prohibited in carry-on luggage and to the airport screening process, according to the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the plan has yet to be announced.

With federal air marshals on planes, bulletproof cockpit doors, armed pilots and 100 percent screening of checked baggage, the threat of a terrorist taking over an airplane has lessened since the 2001 attacks, the official said. The biggest concern now is explosives.

Though the new list of prohibited items hasn't been finalized, certain sharp objects won't be on it, the official said, including scissors less than 4 inches long and wrenches and screwdrivers less than 7 inches long.

Air Transport Association spokesman David Castelveter said the industry has been briefed on the plan and supports it.

"What we believe, as does the TSA, is that we should be focusing on what poses the greatest risk," Castelveter said.

Bonnie

Rustic Smokey Mountains Christmas!

Well we found it..Maggie Valley, NC..and when DH said it was "RUSTIC" he wasn't kidding! *LOL* I asked him if there was indoor plumbing and electricity, or if we had to tramp to an outhouse?? Actually, it looks great inside, and I'm excited about a week long retreat here.

The "blurb" about the rental says:
"Alpine Height's log cabin is dedicated to making your getaway better that any other. Large, beautifully decorated, three-bedroom, two-bath cabin has everything the heart desires.This is the place for pure relaxation and/or fun and games if you should choose. The Hall's have gone out of their way to provide you with everything you need right at your fingertips - from a "places to go/things to do" directory to board games and a 100-plus video library. Not to mention miles of hiking right out the front door and only two (2) miles from the ski slopes and horseback riding. All this and more within two miles of downtown Maggie Valley. Come join the fun. "

It's pet-friendly so we are going to bring Buddy, our Golden Retriever with us. This will be better than boarding him somewhere, and then he can keep me company while I quilt....we can go on walks while the guys go do their guy things like snoboarding and skiing.

We found this on http://www.vrbo.com/ (Vacation rentals by owner) and we've had alot of luck with the previous rentals we've found.

This trip will be in lieu of excessive amounts of presents for each other that no one needs or really wants. What would you really want to have? STUFF? Or a week long trip away to a cabin in the mountains? NO CONTEST!! Jeff's presents will be his ski passes and probably some clothing that he needs (15 yrs old and chooses to dress like a homeless bum..like most teenagers!) And the real gift will be time away.

We are going the week BEFORE Christmas, so we will be going on the 17th, and returning on the 24th. We will have Christmas Day at home.

A whole WEEK there! Now the question is.....since we are bringing the dog, will there be room for a sewing machine and some projects, or do I pack just hand work and work my way through those 100+ videos they say they have? :cD

Bonnie

Monday Monday *singing Mama's & Papa's*

Busy day today! Today I had to go to Aiken to help take down the quilt show at the Aiken Historical Museum. It went really fast because there were so many people helping. Actually it took me longer to drive there than it did to get all the quilts down, and mine back into my car. It was a nice show!

I stopped by the post office on the way home to mail out an order, and ohhhhh boyyy..holiday traffic has invaded the PO already. Yucky. I'll be mailing stuff out from the little po-dunk town in the other direction just because they have less traffic than the big full-service PO...I hate crowds, I hate lines, I hate traffic, I even still hate Christmas music, even though it is past Thanksgiving and I really should just let myself give into it.

I really don't let Christmas take me over until the "Twelve Days of Christmas" Which means I give Christmas season about two weeks to run full course from the 13th to the 25th and then put it all away and be done with it and ready to start the next year.

Does this make me a Bah-Humbug? (if so, please tell me that I'm still a cute one!) I used to love Christmas and followed the tradition of putting up the tree the day after thanksgiving, if not the day of , and loving it for 6 weeks or so, but it just became over-kill and it seems that the years fly by and only build up to two things....Christmas again, or Tax Time again! I like both things to last about as short as possible.

I went this afternoon to the Forest to hike about 5 miles and listen to a book on CD that I have loaded onto the MP3 player I got for graduation. The rain was supposed to have STOPPED.....but I got about 2.5 miles or so out there and the sky opened up and I didn't have an umbrella and there WAS no shelter! Luckily it wasn't that cold, but I was soaked to the bone by the time I got to the car. Do you know how heavy a hooded sweatshirt, and a pair of demin jeans get when fully drenched? Not to mention my running shoes and sopping wet socks....I was a sight I'm sure! I was glad to get home and quickly stripped off everything right there in the laundry room (I was home alone) and dumped everything straight into the washer. I ran upstairs, threw on my swim suit, grabbed my big terry cloth robe and headed to the hottub. I was SO chilled, it felt so good.....

That just zapped me for the whole rest of the day. It's now 7:39pm and I'm too tired to do much of anything. I've been hand quilting in the evenings and that is coming along well. We are hoping to rent a cabin for the week before Christmas like we did last year. It was great. The guys went skiing and snoboarding and I stayed in and watched chick flick movies and quilted. What could be better? So that is what we are looking at for this year. Thinking of a place in Boone, NC.....I love the Blue Ridge Mountains, any time of year, but if there is snow, that would be wonderful!

Bonnie

Turkey Soup..the day after!

Turkey Soup is a holiday must for me! So this is a posted request from Nines who wanted to know more about how I do it :c)

It's not that big of a deal! I'm a throw in some of this, some of that cook and this is what I did!

Take turkey leftovers...and pull all the meat from the bones. Save what you want for sandwhiches , etc..this soup just uses the little bits that no one will snack on! Crack the remaining carcass in half and put it in the crock pot with water to cover. I also remove any turkey skin, this just adds fat to the broth. You can add any leftover meat that you want, there will be alot more that will continue to cook off the carcass....I don't add anything else to it at this point, just making the soup stock. I let it simmer until the meat falls off the bones. At this point I unplug the crock pot, pour the contents through a collander so the broth goes into a pot, and the meat/bones stays in the collander.

I put the broth in the fridge to cool so the fat raises to the top and I can remove it. After the meat/bones have cooled enough for handling, I pick through it putting the meat bits back into the crock pot, and tossing the bones, cartilage, yucky stuff....

When the broth has cooled and the fat has been skimmed off, back into the crock pot it goes, this time with the meat, and the other things I want in it...a chopped onion, chopped celery, slices of carrot, sometimes diced raw potatoes, along with some poultry seasoning, a couple bay leaves, some minced garlic, pepper, and if it needs more flavor, I add some chicken soup base. The soup base usually has enough salt, so test if it needs more. Season it to your taste.

I let the veggies cook until they are done. Along the way you might want to add rice, or stir in noodles a bit before serving, just long enough to get them done and not mushy. Be aware that rice and pasta are going to soak up ALOT of juice, so you can even cook those on the stove top and add them cooked to the soup just before serving.

I've also added any leftover gravy that I have to the broth depending if I am going to use it with the leftovers or not...it adds good flavor to the broth.

Serve with corn bread, rolls or crusty french bread and any left over salad you have from the day before. And of course, finish it off with any leftover pie, cake, brownies, whatever that you SURELY have at your house Nines, with all that food you baked up, it can't all be gone yet!

Bonnie

Rethinking again....

Here are a couple more shots auditioning solids. Some quilters don't like to use solids, and sometimes I DO...because it gives a great place to break up the busy-ness of scrap quilts, and when quilted, solids show the texture in wonderful ways that aren't seen when the top isn't quilted. What looks flat unquilted, gives alot of WOW when it is!

So here you have it...crazy puss in the corner blocks on a medium blue, or crazy puss in the corner blocks on a pumpkin rusty orange. Any Takers? Both of these are from the stash and I have enough to do the whole top from either of them.

I also have the same civil war green that I used for my string point star, but then this quilt would match it? :c/ Not sure I want that. But here is a pic of that one... http://quiltville.com/6ptstringstarclose.jpg

So what does the jury say now? And can you see sometimes why a solid is best, even if quilters aren't so excited to work with them?

Bonnie

Trying to be motivated!

These are the crazy puss in the corner blocks I've had on the back burner for a while.

With encourgement from Finn to play today (who wants to be out and about on black friday anyway?? NOT ME!) I have been playing with layouts for these. I tried straight with sashings. Didn't like it. I tried diagonal with zig-zag setting..didn't like it plus I didn't want to have to make half blocks. So I thought I'd just set them on point so they would 'chain' due to the sashings and corner stones on the blocks. BTW..the 1.5" corner stones are all precut from my 1.5" scrap square bin. 56 blocks X 4 cornerstones each is 224 squares used that I didn't have to stand there and cut, just dug them out of the bin. Weehaa...

Anyway, back to the setting. I thought I could do color rounds...had a gold as the outer edge/setting triangles, a blue the next round in, a red the next in from that, and black in the center 6 blocks. Kind of a trip around the world setting. TOO BUSY. I didn't like it at all and here I am now with all these pieces I cut. I am the kind of quilter who has to lay it out to audition it....

I DID like the black 6 center squares, because they really make the black pattern in the white shirting sashings stand out. So...I thought blacks and greys! I always wanted to do something with all these mourning prints I'd collected. Here is the layout. I still think it's too busy?

HELP! Maybe these little crazy blocks are so busy and so charming on their own that they need ONE solid background color to showcase them? Please let me know what you think and what you would like to see them set with!

Bonnie

Happy Thanksgivin' Y'all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Having a wonderful day here in SC. It's just after 3pm and dinner has been done ate! :c)

The turkey carcass is in the crockpot already beginning to simmer for tomorow's soup....it's my favorite part of cooking turkey. Warm homemade soup on cold days. Yummy!

I am working on those maverick crazy puss in the corner blocks that I had to set aside when school got nuts and I needed to hunker down and study and finish. I just counted them...there are 52! I'm trying to work out a layout for them...I'll see if I have a pic of them somewhere that I took before. I know they are WAY back in my archives....

Anyway..I was searching on Ebay just looking at crazy and string quilts, primitive quilts...trying to find something that inspired me and I found this fantastic quilt that just shouted MAVERICK to me, so I wanted to share the pics with you!

Aren't these blocks great? The only way I even KNOW it's an album block is because of the top right block in the first pic. The rest are all scrappy and the block pattern becomes indistinguishable....I LOVE THIS! This is what shouts maverick to me. Definately breaking the tradition of light must go here, dark must go there, and you can't mix this with that. Who says you can't? It's got chopped off points and all....and I love the free spirit of this quilt.

I thought it would be fun as Quilt Mavericks if we could all find a pic somewhere and do a post about "What Maverick Means To Me". I think that Maverick means different things to different people, yet put together we all make a whole. Kind of like the 5 blind men trying to describe the elephant when one had the trunk, one the leg, one the tail, one the ear, one the body....They were all describing different parts of one whole.

I hope you are all having a wonderful time with friends, family, fur-babies and fabric!

In Stitches As Always - - -
Bonnie

It's Scarf Weather!

I haven't picked up a crochet hook in years and years, but while my Dad and Stepmom were visiting, she wanted to go to the yarn shop so she could get some yarn to knit a scarf. Knit?!? I don't knit at ALL...and really no desire to start, although I do love the knitted stuff that is showing up all over the place. I did find some yummy yummy yarn and the demo scarf hanging there was crocheted, so that is what I did.

It took about 3 days to make......I don't know if I'll do anything more, but I got this done just in time for the weather here to be yucky enough to wear it! *LOL*

Life here in SC is blissfully uneventful right now. We are even having Thanksgiving dinner just the 3 of us. We haven't been invited anywhere, and I am not wanting to invite anyone here for Thanksgiving after just having relatives for a week....I bought a small turkey and will do it with a minimum of fixings, but still enough to have leftovers for a few days afterward. Gotta have that homemade turkey soup made from the carcass..that's what I look forward to most!

No word yet from the Certification Board on when I can take my exam...I know it's been only 10 days since I sent off my applications, but time is turning alot slower now that I'm not in school! :c)

Bonnie

Pineapple Blossom Directions and Stuff...

Yesterday was the first day of being HOME ALONE!! What a great feeling...I putzed around the house, I cleaned out my email inbox, I watched a movie on TV while eatting lunch, I finished a small customer quilt that was zero effort at all, so much that it didn't feel like work!

I spent most of the evening editing down pics and writing the text for the pineapple blossom quilt! You can find it at http://quiltville.com/pineappleblossom.shtml There still may be typos, but it's there! I wish I had played with more block layouts for this. I think you could do a straight furrows version without sashings..just having all the pineapple corners go the same direction diagonally down the quilt. I think it would be cool, you wouldn't get the blossom look, but it would be so different. These always come to me after the fact....after the blocks are sewn together and the quilt is quilted and bound and off to it's recipient!

I was thinking about something for the Quilt Mavericks ring members as well, something I want to explain. My website is included in the Quilt Mavericks webring so that it brings us a constant flow of ring surfers. When we started out, there were two members. Me and Tonya! We needed traffic, and since there are up to 800 hits a day on my website (sometimes more) it seemed the best way to get people here was to put a link for my blog on my website, or to click into the ring from the panel on my website. I also have a yahoogroups mailing list with now over 650 members. I email these quilters when I have a new pattern up, and they come to the website, many of them clicking into the blog ring from there. I get alot of email from people who have clicked into the blog ring because of the links. Is this okay with you, or do you feel that we can be stand alone now, and not have the ring panel on my website? I'd still have the direct link, just that my web page wouldn't be IN the ring.

Those of you that have other websites....I think it is a great idea to have a LINK to your blog on your website. That will bring people into the ring to surf around too. It also gives them a more personal view of you as a quilter, as a mother, wife, daughter, grandmother... as a person.

I'm off to shower and get this wonderful day going! Day 2 of no extended family here, and home alone! Weeehaa!

Bonnie