Labels

Friday, October 29, 2010

Picking up where I left off?

Even though I was tired from a challenging work week, I was excited to get back to my Irish chain project.  I wanted to make it bigger, and I needed to cut 6 more 10 1/2 inch blocks from the precious little bit of Timeless Treasure's 2003 fabric I had left.  So I did a little mental math and figured, if I was really careful, I would have JUST enough.
AND THEN I F***ING  CUT IT WRONG!!!!!!!!
UGH, OH, UGH
DANG!
SHOOT!
BLOODY HELL!
I don't know what I will do about it other than just stay with the size I have.
I might also cry myself to sleep.
But it is just fabric.  And my youngest son needs a root canal.  He has a way worse problem than being a bit short of fabric.
Still.
Darn.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Irish Chain

This was my WHOLE weekend.
I am exhausted, but realize I need to add another row and column.  At 50"x60," it is a little too small to be very useful.  At least that's what the voices in my head are saying.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

What's up with your Sunday?

Here's mine:  Kitten is giving her "daddy" lots of love the day before his surgery.
Me gloating over Lilac Hill, the newest line by Brannock and Patek.  Mom (Linda Brannock) says quilt shop owners will see it at Market.
 I love it, of course!


 The plaids are my most-est favorite!
RED is my favorite color though, so these get caressed alot. 
Yesterday was the last day of the Georgia Quilt Show. I didn't take any classes this year, since hubby was supposed to have surgery last week. You know I had to buy stuff though, so I bought a Whimsicals book and wool charm pack (very cleverly stacked and secured with buttons) from my favorite booth:  Auntie Ju's Quilt Shoppe. They are seriously the friendliest ladies at any quilt show.
I also enjoyed shopping with Irene's Quilts. I was stunned to see yo-yos made from these beautiful ethnic fabrics in her booth, so I went back to show her my own yo-yo projects.  I think it was Irene I spoke to, and she is a sweetheart.
I made it to the evening "lecture" with Laura Wasilowski.  The audience was small enough to be called "intimate." After hearing Laura speak, sing, and generally carry on, I am sufficiently pumped up about the Chicago School of Fusing. Who knew there was so much fun in quilting?  I bought the hand-dyed thread from Laura.
To cap off my weekend we called 911 and had handsome EMTs stick electrodes on my person in my bed with my husband watching.  Good grief.  Just good grief.  Everything is okay.  I am embarrassed and now more determined than ever to get some exercise and lose some weight.
See you on the other side of hubby's surgery and we-are-short-handed-at-work week.
Yikes. Better go to bed early tonight.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

UFO done, skip one, start something new

 I finally got the binding on the coffee filter paper pieced fan project that I started in Debby Kratovil's class last year.  Each student got a kit, so the colors were not something I usually use.  I think getting to explore new and different color combinations makes a class fun.  Debby  will be here in Duluth at the Georgia Quilt Show next weekend, so I hope to show my finished wall hanging to her.
 I used some stash fabric for the back.  I think it goes well, plus it is such a riot of color you can't see any of my quilting on the back.
 I mixed perl cotton quilting and machine quilting.  What the heck, the goal was to finish and the hand quilting had WORN me SLAP OUT.
I know, I know, I have one more UFO on my "must finish" list.  Poor little orphan star.  Thirty years of waiting for hand quilting to be finished to earn a binding.  Well, I am skipping that for now.  Remember I was doodling on graph paper?  I have been saving these fabrics for years to do a special quilt, and tonight I got started.  At first, when I was sewing the red and green together, I thought, oh NO, it is screaming "Merry Christmas" which is NOT my intention.  Once I got a block laid out, I felt better.  Excited really.
But now it is time to put away my toys in preparation for the work week.
See you on the other side.
Karmen

Sunday, October 3, 2010

UFO progress

I worked on this UFO yesterday.  I hand quilted the coffee filter paper-pieced fans with perl cotton and then machine "free-motioned" the middle with my walking foot.  Never again will I pull perl cotton through unwashed fabric by hand.  Never.
I practiced free motion today in anticipation of working on the borders, so I did a couple of practice pieces.
I didn't know where my Kitten was. So I went looking.


 She LOVES this basket!
Then she came back to my sewing room to give me the evil eye for not working on the oldest of my UFOs first.  This pink number has been dragged around for nearly 30 years.  I am going to keep hand quilting it, but I have not located pink hand-quilting thread.  The pink I used before is so pale I don't think it will matter if I switch to white.  The main thing is get it finished.  Last year I declared at least 3 UFOs, but I lost the list and never finished any of them.  This year I have one done, one nearly done and this "vintage" affliction.  When I do bind it, I will give it to Kitten, so she will stop staring at me like that. 
It unsettles me.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Lazy Saturday

I have cleaned up my sewing room so I may concentrate, one project at a time, on COMPLETION!
You would think I would dive right in to a UFO, but I did some coloring first.
And went to a garage sale where I picked up a basket Kitten bed. 
 She loves the new bed almost as much as she loves her Halloween collar.
Which matches the UFO she is lying on.