WOW! Quilt Ribbons!

But first, another Art Prize photo ---- Charlie sitting next to Jesus. You too can have your picture taken with Jesus in the lobby of the Waters Building. Don't miss this opportunity!

[Better art further into the building, in my humble opinion.]

West Michigan Quilt Show this weekend, 250 quilts on display. I went over to do two working stints, and found a ribbon on one of my quilts! This ribbon was placed by an "Honorary Judge", not one of the Real judges, but nonetheless an art professor at the local state university. He picked my "Falling Shoo-flies" as his favorite, for the use of various sizes of blocks and for the border treatment. [Made for SpoolSpinners mystery]

Hmm, I think I like him.

And right around the corner, another judge's choice ribbon; this time from one of the "Real" judges of the show. My "Summer Sun" was his pick after all the judging was done.

I was so sure that this would not be judged as high quality that I sewed the sleeve on the back by machine, showing the stitches straight through onto the front. I mean, it's just a Rail Fence with one snowball block!

Hmm... I think I'll take this one too.

As you can probably tell, I am mostly interested in the design of a quilt, and getting the pieces together. I am not "into" the details of perfect piecing and perfect binding. So I am never going to get a ribbon in the regular judging. Therefore it is certainly nice to get some recognition from judges for my design sense.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Other quilters congratulating me

Enjoying the other quilts, quite a variety

Seeing more Art Prize entries before the symphony concert tonight

Shoo-Fly quilt DONE

I was able to finish the binding yesterday before the Bee meeting. So, it's DONE.

This is my take on the "Your Way" mystery our Bee did during 2009. Mine is larger than most of the Bee member's versions since I wanted it to cover the queen bed, not be a throw.

I'm thinking about putting this one in the Guild Show in October. Mostly because it is wonky and not many like that are shown here. But also because I am pretty proud of it!

This is my #2 UFO completion for January, so I made my goal this month.

So after that excitement, today the box with the Christmas 9-patches and Snowball blocks was still out in the sewing room--- and I thought, "Why not just get these finished off?"

This one, the LAST one, is mostly green. And now the blocks are all sewn together! It comes to 60" X 96". Pretty long.

I stalled out on the backing, until I realized that the flannel waste triangles might be just the thing. Make a reversible quilt.

Those flannel blocks are NOT completely sewn together, but they might just be the next thing I work on. I did make a diagram of my plan for them.

Meanwhile I am spending time squaring up the waste triangles from the Snowball blocks of all three Christmas quilts. Why? Well, I needed a "hand" project I could take to the Bee meeting last night. And once I was started, I again thought, "Better finish this up while it's OUT." They are coming out to 3 3/4", which is odd indeed, but I don't want to lose that 1/4 inch. Just call it my "Personal Precision/Peculiar Measurement."

There are 200 of these which will need to be thunk about.

How to put them together?

When to put them together. DARN, I think I just created another UFO!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Charlie will go with me to Elk Rapids for Gwen Marston Retreat in October

NPR news and classical music while I sew

Secret Sister gave me a Dorothy Sayers mystery she had liked

Doll Quilts 3, 4, 5

These doll quilts are rather addicting! Once I look in my boxes and find some 3.5 or 5" already-made blocks, then it is the work of only a few hours to put one together and be totally finished. A great feeling. Yes, this looks alot like the first one for this year. But THIS one has a blue border!

And this one was from already-made double four-patches.

Thirdly, simply strips and a bright orange with red polka dots backing and binding.

I also got one more "spacer" border on my Your Way Mystery quilt. Just another white one. I am waiting for the last border fabric to arrive in the mail. It's a Michael Miller black and white stripe that I couldn't find enough of in town.

At SpoolSpinners last night we saw how everyone has put their Your Way Mystery together,

including in some cases the borders.

It was wonderful!

They are SOooo different, but you can see we were all following the same recipe.

Here are a few more that I didn't see at our retreat earlier:

Sara

Gratitudes:

A quiet day with no "obligations"

Said a fond good-by to the Summer Sun quilt for the winter

Charlie removed a mouse I had stepped on in the laundry room!

Retreat Accomplishments

My first task was to finish this Baby Steps quilt by ironing it, with a pieced flannel backing, to a fusible bat.

I decided on a freeform zig-zag quilting design, with a largish meander in the border. I had the strips all cut in advance for the binding, so that was relatively quickly finished using the machine-sew-both-sides method.

I spent most of Saturday working on the borders for my "Your Way" mystery, that our Bee is enjoying.

Lots of the other women were also working on this mystery quilt: laying out their blocks or sewing on borders (or one and then the other).
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LuAnn had her blocks out on the floor.

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Sandy D. used Chistmas fabrics.

And Linda was even at the point of quilting hers.








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The quilt tops are amazingly different! Everyone really got into the "Your Way" designation.
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And Saturday was national "Talk Like a Pirate Day"--so our attempts caused laughter as the day went on.

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Sara
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Gratitudes:
DQS7 quilt on my loveseat
Women's Chorus rehearsal last night
Book Group discussion of "The Madonnas of Leningrad"

Your Way Progress + IBOL

This is the current state of the mystery for me. I put all the largest blocks on the bottom to weighit down, or look like things are "settling". Now I think that they run together and don't hold their individual shape. Maybe I'll have to put in some more coping bars.

I showed this at our SpoolSpinners bee meeting tonight. And I also got seven of them to take flat rate postal boxes to send to the Iraqi Bundles of Love project [http://ibol.wordpress.com]. Everyone agreed that it is a very small box compared to their stash! Hope any readers will look into this project too.

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I had a serious optical scare today, My opthalmologist sent me straight over to a retinologist because I had developed "wet" macular degeneration in my right eye. This expert said it was like I had had a heart attack, and there was no time to "consider" what treatment to take, just DO IT. This meant that he inserted a hypodermic needle into my eyeball and injected medicine into the back of my retina. And this will have to be done every four weeks for an indeterminate future to hopefully save my eyesight.

I was shocked and immensly aware of how precious my sight is.

Why am I not more attentive to the beauties before me?

Why should I spend any time looking at and working on frugal projects if they are ugly?

Sara

Gratitudes:

The time I still have to look at this beautiful world.

The calmness of a competent doctor and all his helpers

That I drove home safely

Last "Your Way" blocks

I did manage to finish my last "Your Way Mystery" blocks today. And I managed to get a little more WHITE space into some of them.

I made two "on point" small blocks and one slightly tilted. Does this look intentional, or just poor workmanship?

I'll have to see if this looks right when I get them ALL laid out together. Our Bee meets this Thursday, and I think that will be the time to lay our blocks out.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Didn't run out of white fabric yet
Kept mostly cool on a hot day
"Survivor" party for Larry for supper

More "Your Way" blocks

Yes, I'm still making more. Not so very many, but they are taking longer than I remembered.







We all were to make 15 big blocks for a 3 x 5 setting. I have made five more for a 4 x 5 block set. Now I am in the process of making four more so I will have a 4 x 6 set. I want to make it large enough for a twin sized quilt.









And we celebrated Charlie's 65th birthday at a downtown restaurant last evening. Here he is with our DDIL Lynne.
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Charlie says he is now participating in a large government health insurance program (Medicare), and so far, so good! Why not trust a new program as well?
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Sara

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Gratitudes:
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Reaching 65 in good health!
Leftover birthday cake after exercise class
Another beautiful afternoon at the beach

"Your Way" laid out

I finished sewing the large blocks together yesterday.
This morning I made a trial run at laying them out on my bed.

To my eye the blocks run together. I think I need some more "space" between the Shoofly blocks, at least more space in a few areas. So I am thinking about some basckground sashing/coping bars, not all around the blocks, but maybe one in each row and in each column.
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This also looks like a pretty small quilt to me. I always think "bed" when I think quilt. One more column would make it 48" X 60", which is a good size for a middle before borders.
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Charlie and I are going over to Lake Michigan this afternoon, and this time I hope I can remember to take some photos! This is a part of retirement that I really like--able to take off on a nice day and go where we want to go.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

The Church Pension Fund (Episcopal)
Sun in the garden
Planning for August birthday celebrations

Back to "Your Way" Mystery

Our bee, the SpoolSpinners, finished the instructions for making the blocks of the "Your Way" mystery last month. Above you see the four sizes of blocks we have made so far. I made a lot of mine while Charlie and I were in Florida in March.

Now we are to sew the smaller three variously together into BIGGER blocks-- 12.5". We will end with 15 of the large blocks.

The method is to place all the small pieces needed for each block onto a paper plate, stack them up, and then sew those pieces together, one plate full at a time.

Some plates have the same combination of pieces. Here are two different ways of putting together one 9.5" block, three 3.5" blocks and two spacers of background fabric. The instructions, as usual, are to do this "your way". Or your choice about how to place them to make a 12.5" block.

I chose the Shoofly block in red with a black center. And they have gotten more "wonky" or wacky the further I go.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Breakfast with Cursillo friends

Love working with black, white and RED

Sew-In Mystery progress

Our SpoolSpinners Bee had a Sew-In today. Everyone worked on their own projects, but several of us worked on our monthly blocks for the "Your Way Mystery". These are the 6.5" blocks I made today, my wonky shoofly blocks. [Everyone chose their own block and fabrics, so these are going to be quite different quilts at the end.]

Eight of us worked away in the church meeting room from 10 until about 4. Naturally there was lots of chatter and commentary on each other's projects. A good time.


And here is my stack of 9-patches and hourglass blocks growing day by day. The challenge is to make ONE a day, but I am so far making four of each since my method makes two at a time, and I am working on reducing my pile of 6" and 6.5" squares. This gets twice as many used up.

After supper I got on the mowing tractor and did the lawn around the house for the first time this season. I did not go out to the meadow and do the paths because they are running in water still from all the rain recently. At this time of the year it is fun to mow and view the landscape at the same time. Our "bocce court" is just as bumpy as always.

Sara

Gratitudes:
Chocolate
Charlie had the mower ready to go
sewing progress

Ft. Myers, FL report

But first the baseball report:  Charlie at the Tigers' field in Lakeland last Sunday.  Then he attended a Phillies' game in Clearwater, and a Yankees' game in Tampa.  We both went to a Pirates' game in Bradenton, where we were called out of game, by name, and told it is illegal to leave a dog in a closed car, even in the shade and even with the windows cracked open, so sign to accept the ticket, and move OUT.
Charlie replete with Stone crab claws looking out at the beach near St.Pete Beach.
The "pet friendly" beach along the causeway to Sanibel Island, where C walked Zeke this morning while I was sewing in the motel room in Ft. Myers.
Here I am knitting in the shade of a palm tree at Ralph Bunche Beach.  This beach was the first and only beach in this county designated (in 1949) for blacks until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  

The blocks I made today for the Spoolspinners' mystery.  Since we can't leave Zeke in the motel room alone [motels' rules], and we can't leave him in the car alone [Florida rules], I stayed home with Zeke, and Charlie gave our second ticket away at the ballpark.  I was glad to get a lot done and also watched a little of So.FL and NC basketball game as well as the poor performance of our Michigan State Spartans. 

 

Tomorrow across to the East Coast.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Race situation is better than in 1949!

Lovely visit with the Rahns on Sanibel

No longer sunburned

Working hard in Florida

The line-up for the Cardinals-Astros game. Wow, Albert Pujols actually played for the first half of the game.

So here is my motel room work station. They intend it for a desk and computer, but the Featherweight machine fits it well, and the rounded end holds a cutting mat and rotary cutter.

And above that are two of the 12" blocks I made in this set-up while Charlie was doing the laundry or going to another ball game.  I am working toward more "Wonki-ness" in the blocks as I go along.  The sample blocks, made to get the sizes right, were fairly regular until I got to the smaller sizes.  Now I am cutting more strangeness into them as I go along.  I also need to make a total of six 9" blocks before the Bee meets in March, so that is my next task--tho I'm staying in Florida and not going back to Michigan for that meeting!

Tonight I have packed everything up in preparation for another move tomorrow.  We will spend one night in Bradenton and see a Pirates game.  Then on to Ft. Myers for three nights, so I can get the machine out again there.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Pet friendly beach meant that Zeke could come with us

Dolphin was fishing just off the beach

Martha helped me with computer problems

Hot in Florida

We are so new to the laptop and motel internet connections that we are having trouble keeping "online". Tomorrow Charlie is supposed to have a class where he will learn how to put photgraphs on this computer, and then you may get some illustrations. 

But we have visited relatives and friends and so far have been to two spring training baseball games. Charlie's dear Cardinals beat the Astros, on Saturday, and our Tigers lost ignominiously to the Yankees on Sunday, in blazing sun that burned both of us despite #50 sunblock.  Guess we missed a few bare areas of skin.  

We are currently settled in a Red Roof Inn for three nights near Clearwater, so I bothered to carry the borrowed Featherweight up to the room along with sewing supplies.  Today Charlie went off by himself to see if he could get into the Phillies' park for an afternoon game, and I have been working on my 12" blocks for our Bee's mystery. So back to work now, and then out to the beach when C returns.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Safe travel all the way

Warm weather, but usually a breeze to mitigate

Pleasant company!

More Retreat results

There were a few pieces over the number I could use for the Strip Twist, so I put them together, and will have to do something with this little piece before it turns into a UFO. [How long does that take anyway?]

During the retreat I also refined my plan for the "Your Way Mystery* we are doing in the SpoolSpinner Bee. I now have black centers in my blocks, and I decided (at least for one block) how to handle the middle and corners of the 12" block so that it isn't too simple for that large size.

One the left are the 6" and 9" blocks, and on the right are the 3" and 12" blocks.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Quick insurance action on Charlie's dented car

More fun sock yarn

A quiet night at home

Fun Bed, Shoo-Fly

Here is the "fun" bed. I had ordered these linens as a way of celebrating Charlie's retirement and brightening up the dark cloudy days of winter. Then he got his terrible cold the day before retirement, and I didn't want him to get his GERMS on these joyous bubbles. So I held off until yesterday when he seemed a good deal better. In the afternoon he went in a laid down to take a nap, with no comment whatsoever about the new look!

Well, I'm enjoying seeing them every time I glance in the room. And I slept very well under/over them last night.

I changed my sample blocks for the Spoolspinners' Mystery from Nine-Patches to Shoo-Fly by adding a triangle to each corner. I hadn't thought it through thoroughly enough for cutting size, so the smallest one ended up too small, and will have to be put in the orphan box.

Going forward I will make the center sqaure black, and make the corner triangles more wonky. This will make it a combination of 1)Spoolspinners' Mystery, 2) Black & White Challenge, and 3) "project improv". At least that's the plan for now.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Charlie Ramsden fixed the lights in the den

Smell of fresh baked bread in the house

New book by Mary Balogh

Lots of squares

Last week I presented the first real step in our Bee's home grown mystery. I made these sample blocks to show them that these four sizes are quilte different from each other, and one should take that into consideration when choosing the fabric. Now everyone is to make one block of each size of whatever block they have chosen [based on a nine-patch]

Today I have done some work on a charity quilt in honor of Martin Luther King's Day, as suggested by Barack Obama. I had a pile of 2.5" squares that I was using as ;eader/enders, but now I worked on them full time until 2:00 and I have 30 of them done. I figure that is about HALF of what I need for a neonatal quilt. Our Guild collects those in March, so this is a good time to get a little ahead.

Now I need to cut some more muslin and blue fabrics!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Good farewell service at Holy Cross yesterday

Lead three last communion songs with my guitar

Came home to the beginning of a new life

Lynne made pot roast for dinner