This weekend

I've spent most of this weekend sleeping off a three day migraine.  I am not sure what triggered it: perhaps tension, maybe salt or could it have been that chocolate bar?  I'll never know, but I did get some sewing done since my last post.

I chose some fabrics from my stash to finish the last round of the Lisa Bongean Vintage Nine project I'd started a couple of years ago.

Ta-da.  Finished stitching on the last row at Thimbles last Friday.

I think I will use this limey green and tan brushed cotton check for the backing.

Mary Ellen Von Holt from Little Quilts visited Thimbles; she had some charm packs of Curio by Moda's Basic Grey . Seriously yummy.  I bought all four charm packs, and, since I love the Vintage Nine pattern so much, I started a new one yesterday.

Never mind it has taken me three years to NOT finish the first one.

I just needed to stitch, and I already had a pack of coordinating wool bits for the flowers. It made sense to me at the time.

And I spied this pattern on a website (scroll down the page to see it); just had to have it.  Don't you know I cannot wait to start it.  Hey, what about my UFO list for guild?  Shoot!  I will have to make a list of priorities.

Little Jojo doesn't have a problem setting priorities.  He plays hard and just crashes whenever and wherever he needs to. That's what I call freedom.

Computer trouble

I am afraid I will be bumped off the internet at any time.  Perhaps it is time for a newer computer?  Apple this time?  Or maybe dump ATT DSL?  I am not sure what I am going to do.  Another thing taking up my time, and making typing difficult, is this little green-eyed grey flannel kitty we are calling Jojo. 

He is such a lovable little purr box!
We (Jojo and I) are working on the Vintage Nine Patch quiltlet I started a couple of years ago.  It is number one on my declared UFO list for 2011.

I may not have enough of the vintage fabric to make the final round because so many of the blocks I made at first were off, so I needed to practice making some.  The practice yielded this little project.

I was going to square it up by wacking off the yellow blocks until I realized that would make bias all the way around the edge of the top.  Oops! Darn, so that is why you cut the side and corner pieces out.  You gotta be on the straight of grain on the side.

I have been a little distracted trying to keep up with this little fur ball.  I think I am totally in love with him.  Sorry Kitten. 

We're gonna keep him.

Vintage Nine Progress

Slow but steady gets a quilt done. This Vintage Nine (pattern by Lisa Bongean) is one of those easy yet difficult quilts. Yes, I had measure/square issues with the first vine border, and now I am a little wavy-gravy. My fancy not-yet-paid-off Bernina decided to get cranky, so I have to take her in for a tonic. I got out the old machine and have fallen in love with it. I hadn't quite bonded with Ms. Bernina. I cannot free-motion with the New Home though, so I will be looking forward to Ms. Bernina's return. It's okay though. Tomorrow I have a tennis match (my second), a new quarter begins Monday at school, and there is plenty of handwork to stitch in the evenings. I don't need a machine at all for a while.
Kitten was hiding in a J Jill bag on the floor behind my sewing chair. She is so darn cute. She always finds a little niche to sleep in. I am getting worried about using flash photography on her. After all, she only has one eye, and what if it gets damaged from flashes? Is that even possible?
I wanted to show off the back side of "Lilly." Really, I love this quilt. The Lilly Pulitzer fabric was donated to the Spirited Quilters in Duluth, so I took some; I already had the backing (from a sale table at JoAnn's); the quilt was completed in 5 weeks and I was working full time, too. It was the first time I had ever machine quilted anything. Right now I can't even imagine completing something in 5 weeks.

We found a quilt that my mother-in-law sold. It was made by her grandmother, exhibited in the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, and now resides in the Ardis & Robert James Collection at the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska. My MIL is 90 years old, and she is very happy to see a picture of the quilt and know that it is in the very best of care. The museum has her grandmother's DOD wrong, but how hard would it be to get that corrected? I think I will let my husband and his mom handle looking into that. You can find the quilt's particulars at this link: Mounts Quilt and then type "Mounts" in the search box for quiltmaker. I had my husband take the picture to Kinko's to have it enlarged. I am going to attempt to make a pillow from the basket motif for MIL. I think she would love it.

AND I have lost the hand dyed thread I need for the vine embroidery on Vintage Nine. Don't know what happened to it. I hope Mom locates it somewhere in the studio.

So I am working on "Vintage Nine Patch" by Lisa Bongean

I took the "Vintage Nine Patch" class from Lisa Bongean at Primitives of the Midwest last summer, but didn't get very far. Now that I am done with "Flower Shop," I am going to go back to work on the nine patches. Man, I didn't realize how many I need: 123 in all, so to work I go.

Cut all the solid/vintage pairs down to 4 1/2 inch squares. Before and after the rotary cutter carnage.

And start stitching: Lisa's pattern is pretty easy to follow so far.

And more stitching....

And after who knows how many hours, I have about half of the nine patches I need.

What I LOVE about kits is the wonderful variety of fabrics you get to discover. This kit was especially delightful in the array of reproduction prints it contained.

Primitives of the Midwest is held every year (at least for 5, so far) at Quilter's Station in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Here is the link to my mother's patterns at Quilter's Station. I love buying fabric there. They have EVERYTHING!