Another year? Seriously?!

Ok, this is nuts... Well, I AM anyway...nuts that is! I constantly think, "I need to blog about this."  But do I? Hmmm, last published post 3.3.14 and this is 3.8.15. I guess the old "When I get a round Tuit" expression applies, I just need that Round Tuit!

So, we'll see how much better I do in 2015. I will say that this year I am feeling better and having less bad days, although the past 2 days have been migraine headache nightmare! I can't sleep and I can't lay still, and I don't want any bright lights, so only the phone on the darkest setting, no quilting, no sewing, no knitting.

I can however share pictures of a few projects that  I have been playing with these past 12 months. Fun gifts and goodies that I meant to blog about and never did.  Now, how to upload the pics...?

Almost finished!

I have been working on my Chantilly Jelly Roll Race Quilt and finally finished the quilting and weaving in the tails, er, I suppose that is a knitting term... hiding the miscellaneous threads. Now I just need to trim it and bind it and it will be done! I just did some simple quilting, first I stitched in the ditch and then did a line at about a 45° from one corner across, echoing the lines 2" apart across the whole thing. I decided I wanted more when that was done, so I did the same in the other direction. Turned out like little puffy diamonds. Far from perfect, I really struggled with the bulk in the small throat of my machine, but I managed.

I let Art pick the thread color for the Quilting, telling him that I really wanted it to pop. He went with the yellow, not my first choice. He usually nails the colors and is much better than I am in choosing color for embroidery. I used it for the ditch stitching and then switched to red, I really like it. I could have gone with the green or the turquoise blue and almost did on the second diagonal, but thought it would wash out with the red. Since the border, backing and binding are turquoise and red, I wanted to accent those colors. I am still contemplating additional quilting in another color, perhaps a ¼“ echo line? oh, the work! But it may just be the thing! I did turquoise in the bobbin for it all, which blends really well and, yet you still pick it up against the red flowers.

I have to find a way to stretch, or rather smooth the backing better before I pin baste. There are little folds and the back is a bit wavy. No big deal, it's just for me and I love it! I just want to do a better job next time.

I cut and pieced the blocks for Kristina's quilt. It went really fast! I cut a layer cake of Marquis by Robert Kaufman fabrics and some yardage to make it bigger than the pattern. I like the fabrics much more in person than I had online. I hope she really likes it. The colors are what she asked for. I got the pattern at the Moda Bake Shop, it's called Basic Math Quilt. I really love patterns that leave some big squares of fabrics so you really see how pretty the fabric line is. I also prefer precuts, so you get a full selection of the coordinating prints.

Now that I have played with the pallette, I kinda wish I had ordered a little extra yardage of the brown prints, there is some beautiful greens in it that I didn't realize were there. I may have to look and see. I was thinking about just a solid backing, but I think a pieced one would be cool, too. I should have enough leftovers from the extra yardage I bought to also make some pillows.

I really need to get my design wall hung! It is really difficult to lay out a quilt top and make sure you like it before sewing it without one. I just let the blocks be put together by random and a balance of light and dark. but putting it all together... Need more space!

Tomorrow.... please?

My first Candle Mat!

As I went through some pictures of the projects I am working on, I found that I have lots I can blog about! That's always good, and even better, some of them are done! Between quilting, sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet, I have enough UFO's to last a lifetime! Whatever will I do?

Start something new and exciting, of course! Duh! Isn't that what you would do? Honestly? Yeah, that's what I thought. ;-)

So, since I keep telling myself I want to blog about them, if for no other reason than to be able to look back at the accomplishments when I get old, here is one I really enjoyed making. It's a birthday gift for a very special lady and goes with the table runner I gave her for Christmas and coasters I made for her the previous Christmas. The colors are just "her"  and it's always exciting when you know that you found just the perfect fabrics (or yarn) for someone you love. After all, Gifts is one of my Love Languages... Now that I read the book, I understand the driving force behind my constant need to be making or buying gifts for other people. Of course there is a bit of self love going on, too... just look at the stash I have of fabrics, yarns and notions!

I have discovered, or rather. finally admitted that I have a propensity to make things that have no pattern and using the most difficult textile available. More on that later, but I will point out, in order to present evidence to support that claim, that there is no pattern, per se, for this and I used fabrics from a Scrap Bag, which is guaranteed to be all different lengths and widths. However, I am delighted with the results!

It all started as I played with some trimmed off corners I had in the scrap pile for this fabric line, which, BTW is Holiday Medley by Kansas Trouble Quilters for Moda. I love Moda... sigh...

So I began playing around with the scraps and making HST's and Hourglass blocks, but on a very small scale. Then, I got inspired to make a Candle Mat for MJ. Then I added a border and going Log Cabin style, just kept adding borders of contrasting colors and values and varying widths until I was satisfied. I pieced together strips for the back and added Warm and Natural batting (a large scrap I found in my batting box) sewed it right sides together, turned it and quilted it.

In hindsight, I wonder if I should have quilted it before I closed the opening, at least as much as I could have without messing up the edge? I had a little bubble of fabric that had no where to go, but it's so small she will never see it. If I had sandwiched it like a quilt is usually done, I wouldn't have had the bubble, but I thought adding binding to something so small was kind of silly, especially since I was making a last minute gift - not from lack of planning, but January birthdays are hard, especially so close to Christmas!

I echo quilted three lines ¼ inch apart, forming. inverted V's based off of the X of the hourglass center all the way to the edge, then skipped about an inch, echoing three more V 's in each quadrant, then spaced out another ¾ inch and echoed three more then skipped about ½ inch for 3 more small V' s. It was fun! I didn't have a Walking Foot but it went very well. I will have to make another candle mat or some mug rugs to practice on. I can really get into the Quilting side of this deal! I have some finished Baby Blankets also. I quilted them on Husqvarna Viking machine, one with the Walking Foot, the first without. I am excited to try FMQ, too!

So much to learn! But I am having a lot of fun!

No pattern, no problem!

I swear I wasted years of schooling in which I could have enjoyed art class, definitely should have at least tried my hand at it after those miserable attempts in grade school, but alas, I shrunk away, claiming that I would never be able to draw a stick figure that was remotely recognizable. Having both grandmothers who taught crafting professionally, everything from sewing, quilting, needlepoint, crochet, knitting, even ceramics, I should have known better. Since the talent skipped my mother, perhaps I believed it also skipped me? Or perhaps it was that horrid experience in paper mache, making a distorted blob that discouraged me? 

I admit, I am no artist, of the traditional type, anyway, but I did discover during my fun employment at Mud Bay that I can look at something and do a fairly decent job of recreating it. I think my second favorite thing about working at Mud Bay, next to playing with the puppies who shop(lifted) there (out of the cookie bins!) was getting to play with colored markers and pencils to make signs and tags. Perhaps I was too good, for they don't allow the copies of logos and such there any longer. Nah, I still don't think I am that good, but I certainly did enjoy it! 

Anyway, I have discovered that I am not without talents, having gotten really good at things like knitting, crochet, needle arts, and machine embroidery. I have dabbled in sewing, yet although I have an amazing sewing machine, I have not used it like I thought I would. I have always wanted to try quilting, as I love fabrics, and am so happy that I have started!

I just finished my second The Dog Is Hungry wall hanging & sign, this one all by myself! This is also a gift, for another Tracy, ironically, and at the moment it is proudly hanging in the Blue Collar Doghouse in Edmonds, where I teach dog classes on Saturday mornings. I love teaching there, it is a great facility, with great people and great dogs.... BTW, Thanks Karen for bathing and grooming Boomer and Dancer! They are very handsome and smell delightful again! 

So, is it confidence or craziness that makes me jump right in to these quilting projects, without a pattern, without learning and forge ahead, learning as I go? I found a charm pack on sale online and bought it because I liked the colors. It was not by Moda, who has 42 charm squares in each pack, but by Fabric Editions, in Citrus by Fabric Palette and only had 20 squares. Had I realized that, I would not have thought it such a great deal. However, I like the fabrics and decided to make a couple of throw pillow shams for a friend.. The friend who I thought of when I saw the fabrics. After an intensive search, I could find no other Citrus fabric of the same collection, but I did discover a gorgeous soft peach at Keepsake Cottage, my LQS, that looks gorgeous with it for backing. So, again, without a real pattern that I could go on, I whipped out a couple of nine square blocks.  That left two unused squares, which I thought would be cute as accent corners... Which they are, but I certainly learned a lot in figuring out how to get them there! Thank heavens for my very sharp, high quality Clover seam ripper! I could not have done it without you! As ye sew, so shall ye rip! 

Last night, I got as far as quilting the first block. I realize now that I failed to square them uploaded before adding the trim pieces, but I am learning and I hope that the fluffiness of the pillow will disguise some of the mistakes. They are not too bad, and I am proud of how well most of the corners align! I have only ever quilted once before, with my Grandma Crofoot, when I was probably ten years old and it was by hand. I started off with a simple stitch-in-the-ditch technique, but it wasn't long before I was having fun! And I was having fun! I can hardly wait to see how I do when I have a pattern to tell me what to do, the sizes to cut, what order to do it all in. Makes me appreciate You Tube and everyone who makes tutorials. I really should watch a few and learn the right way to do it. I have decided that I am going to take a quilting class. I figure that after all these years, I am long overdue and perhaps I can learn to make things that don't look like a 3 year old made! Happy stitchin'!