Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Design Wall Monday on Tuesday


[OK, I didn't remember about posting the design wall until I was already toasty in bed last night, and I didn't want to get up, go to the computer and get cold again.]

These triangles were finished and put together on the retreat, and the inner border added to control all those bias edges. When I unpacked at home it went straight to the design wall, where it has been now for three weeks while we were away.  I have some green tractor/truck fabric which came from Joey for the border/backing.  Better get right on it!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Warm bed!!
Sunny day today before storm coming in
Pre-op class today about knee replacement

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Under consideration

The second house of four that we looked at with our daughter and her husband in St. Louis.

We shopped for and prepared dinner every week night.  We packed all the pictures from the walls of the old house.

An offer was made on this house.

We packed up the whole china cabinet of plates, glasses and linens.

 Negotiations are going on about who should pay for electrical and plumbing updates  the inspector recommends for this 57 year old house.  They hope to close by March 20.

We packed all the stuff on and under DD's home desk.

We escaped to Michigan at that point, leaving them to face the on-going decisions on their own!

We found our yard covered with about 2 inches of snow, which immediately got the dog rolling.  And we found it felt good to fall into our own bed after two weeks at a motel.

This week I am preparing for left knee replacement on Friday.  Besides the various medical appointments I hope to put together some knitting and hand quilting that I can work on during the recovery.  Everyone says, "Do the exercises assigned", so I know that will have to be a first priority for the following six weeks.

[How's my character going to stand up to that painful discipline, I wonder.
Well, it IS Lent after all.
Not that I've ever done particularly well at Lent.]

At some point I hope to be back at the sewing machine since my right foot ought to be working OK.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Safe travel with French Silk pie at lunch
Jazz on the car radio
First Sunday of Lent back in our "home" parish

Monday, February 20, 2012

Design Chair Monday



I have made some progress on the Big Stitch quilting while here in St. Louis.  I'm averaging a block a day, but I'm a little behind every Monday.  That's because I spend Sunday evening watching "Downton Abbey" on TV.  However, we seem to have reached the end of the season, so more will be accomplished NEXT Sunday.

We have been house hunting with our daughter.  Yesterday she settled on the one she wants, so now we wait for a response from the seller and do more packing of the old house.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Free and convenient breakfasts at the motel
Good progress on the packing
10 AM Cathedral worship service included "sacred union" of a lesbian couple

Sunday, February 12, 2012

St. Louis stitching

No photos, but I HAVE been knitting on my pairs of socks while in the car and over at my daughter's house.  In the motel room I work at the Big Stitch quilting, getting a block done each night.

I could have done more tonight, but had to watch an elongated session of "Downton Abbey" from 8 to 10, so now my eyes are too tired!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Visiting our old church this morning
Afternoon nap
Laughter during dinner with grands

Thursday, February 9, 2012

More UFOs!

While putting away, sort of, the stuff from the retreat I found a nice plastic box that contained all the pieces from a Bonnie Hunter class, "Cathedral Stars", at our Guild two/three years ago.  It has the directions as well as more cut pieces.  There are six completed blocks of each design, in which I changed her colors a little.  There are a ton of blue and white four-patches all made.  Hmm, how come I never took a photo of this before and added it to my UFO photo album?

Next box holds these red and black wonky triangle strips.  Yes, I do remember making these some time ago, and then I couldn't find them at one point!  There they were with other black and red [and white] leftovers from other projects.  At least I was getting all the same colors into one box!

The thing is, at the beginning of the year I counted up 23-24 UFOs in my photo album.  So I thought I would try to finish two a month this year and get them all DONE.  So far I have finished and sent four to the LA quilter, so I'm on schedule.

Trouble is that I have found or put together "parts" that make SEVEN additional unfinished projects.  I sure hope that I keep my enthusiasm up for finishing a number of neonatal quilts from these before the collection date in late March.  I'm planning on getting some quilted at home after my knee surgery during the recovery period.  I will be able to sit at my sewing machine, won't I?


Today I did move one of them along.  With fabric from Joey in the World Wide Swap I added the final borders to this "Pyramids & One Teepee" quilt.  She sent just the right maroon/red fabrics to go with the flowered triangles from long ago.  Her fabrics inspired me to also sew together more of the same colors for the backing, so this is now ready for home quilting.

That won't happen until the end of the month when we return from St. Louis.  But for now it is all set.

This is the second UFO for February that I need to work on, and since it is handwork I can take it with me to St. Louis.  I now feel I was crazy to think I would hand quilt this whole big quilt, but since it is well started, I'm going to put some time in on it.  I'm using BIG stitches. but the stab, stab, stab wears my fingers out pretty quickly.

Hmm, I just went and counted how much is done: six squares out of sixty.  Let's see, if I do one a day [ that would include two side rectangles], I should have 20 done when I return.  YIKES, this is going to be a long term project.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Can go back to an arthritis pain reducer that also reduces inflammation
Leftover chicken stew [Thanks Lynne!]
Chemically induced stress test now behind me

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

LA Quilter works

Catherine, my long-arm quilter, called and said she has finished the Batik Charms quilt, so we are meeting tomorrow for an exchange.  That really lit a fire under me to find what else is ready for her.

The Red and Brown Rectangles has its back all made.

The Double Four-Patch in plaids got bordered and its back made on retreat.

So I got to work this afternoon and made a back for this neonatal quilt from the retreat.

I was greatly helped on this one by an unexpected gift from my neighbor.  She arrived on my doorstep with two boxes of quilting fabric asking if I might use them! I know never to turn that kind of offer down.  Right away I saw that the backing material I needed was right there.
I will hand on a lot of the fabric to members of my Bee or the Guild.

So I will have THREE quilts to hand over to Catherine, getting them on their way to completion.  Hip, hip, hooray!

Tomorrow I have my standing eye doctor appointment early in the AM.  I hope I will be recovered in the afternoon to start packing for our trip to visit our daughter in St, Louis for two weeks.  I am going to take along some sock knitting and some hand quilting.  No machine.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Shorter toe nails
Baked potato and tilapia
Catherine working for me!

Retreat day 2



I had a pile of four-patches made from 3" squares as leaders & enders at previous retreats.  On the second day of the retreat I pulled out some HSTs and made two stars for the centers then put these all together into two neonatal quilt tops.  As you can see, I don't worry about a few extra HSTs making their way into the checkerboard pattern.

In the afternoon we had our "Jelly Roll Race".  I was one of the last to finish, not too speedy, taking about an hour and a quarter.  Here are some of the group results laid out on the floor.

The last photo is of mine.  My strips were half as long as everyone else's and I inserted the hourglass blocks between each color in the long. long strip.




I was exhausted by the race, so I took another nap!

In the evening I started putting together another neonatal quilt from the pyramid triangles.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Easy drive home
Sunday dinner with our friend Kim
Charlie unloaded the car for me after the retreat

Monday, February 6, 2012

Retreat, Day One

The VERY first thing after unloading the car and positioning everything in the workroom was to go to my bedroom and take a nap.

Then I pulled out these blue HSTs  and randomly sewed them together for the center of this neonatal quilt top.

The group leaders had a plan for us to each make a simple applique flower block to make a quilt for Kettunen Center as a gift from us. [Not until next year, though.]

Here's the block I made and a line-up of others from the first day.


Lastly that day I got out the UFO of the month and managed to get the necessary borders attached [one quarter shown in the photo], and then I used the remainder of the plaids to make a patchwork backing large enough to exceed the top.



More on the retreat tomorrow!

As for the Monday Design wall...it is just as it was last week, a scrap bargello that needs borders.

Sara

Gratitudes:
Four days of sewing fun
Four days of no cooking
Four days of making "leaders & enders" into neonatal quilts

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

January UFO report

Judy Liquidara pulled the number 5, so everyone in the challenge was to work on their own UFO #5.

Mine is/was BATIK CHARMS.


I finished the top, and made the backing, and sent them off to my LA quilter.  So it is an finished as possible until it returns for binding.

While making the blocks for Batik Charms, I used up the scraps in a doll quilt:

This quilt is completely finished; quilted on my DSM and bound.



Now, I have so many UFOs that I made a second list,with the intention that I would work on a second UFO each month after the first one was done.

So in January I went on to my second #5, "Brown and Red Rectangles".

The blocks were already made, so I sewed them together and added two borders.  I made a backing.  This is now ready to go to my LA quilter the next time we get together.



Now Judy has drawn the number for February -- #1.

This means that my first UFO project for February is a double Four-Patch I was once making for the day bed in the den.  The brown and tan plaid blocks are mostly sewn together, but it is not quite large enough.  Needs borders?


OK.  I'll take this along to the retreat tomorrow with some additional brown plaids.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Dentist finished a permanent crown 
Get to go on a four day quilting retreat
Swap partner received box and likes it