Blogger's Quilt Festival

Made with love for my youngest son

This is the quilt I chose for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  It's the quilt that got my whole family tired of hearing me say "wonky log cabin."  It's the third REAL quilt I made but the first one for one of my loved ones. 

I made this quilt for my youngest son Carson to take to college with him.   He could see I was having a hard time with him leaving, and he could also see that I was really getting enthused over quilting.  One day when we were talking about college (I admit ... I may have been tearing up a little) he said that he thought an orange and purple quilt would be cool to have on his dorm room bed.

I'll never forget that he said that.

I LOVED making these squares! 

Working on this quilt gave me real purpose and was a blessed diversion after he left.  I was bound and determined to give him the coolest orange and purple quilt in the whole world.   Carson is a fun person to design a quilt for because there are so many interesting facets to his personality.  He's an awesome guitar player, a physics loving geek, a mystery science theater lover, an avid reader, a drum line member, a .... Well, I could go on and on here ....  

For the very first time I went to internet fabric shops (who knew!) and poured over the fabrics to find the perfect ones.  I even swapped for the first time when one of my new flickr friends offered to send me a fat quarter of Michael Miller guitar fabric.  I found a funky orange martian print,  some kooky birds, bright purple rings and yards and yards of kona eggplant and tangerine. 

My favorite square with the martian peeping out

I loved making the free flowing wonky log cabin blocks.  I was free to design each one individually and each one was my favorite.  Oh the excitement when I'd get the final trimming done and could see the new creation!  I felt like I had a good eye and could balance out the wonkiness perfectly.  I was trusting myself and things were coming together perfectly.  It may have been about this time I said "wonky log cabin" one too many times for a certain person.  Ahem. 

I gave this quilt to my boy during his Thanksgiving break from school.  I'm not sure how much a quilt really means to a nineteen year old boy but I know he loves that I made it for him.  When I look at it I just remember how kind it was of him to say that he wanted it. 

Ok Jada!  You can be in the back shot.   

Carson today with his adorable girlfriend Jessica.  I was making them stare into the sun. 

The Hexagon Process

Rossie recently posted a pledge for quilting bloggers to talk more about their process, delve into their thought process a little more as opposed to showing a finished quilt with one journal entry.  This works out great for me because I don't have many finished quilts to show off.  Especially this time of year when the weather is so nice and the sewing room is sooooo indoors. 

I didn't think I had a process but then I realized there are many times I have to stop working on my quilt to just think.  I have to think about what I've sewn so far and what I need to do next to get it to feel the way I want.  Sometimes I put it aside for a week or so but it's in my thoughts many times during the day.    I also like to incorporate embroidery on my quilt tops and that can be tailored to the individual who will receive the quilt.  There are always so many ways I could go but I usually feel right about it in the end.   

I'm now working on two quilts.  One is a hexagon quilt-a-long with my flickr quilt peeps and the other is a wonky star quilt that is my own creation.  Well .... I guess as much as it can be .... I mean I didn't invent the wonky star or anything, but I'm working on it with no pattern so I can say it's my own creation.  It is on the back burner at the moment just simmering, but almost ready for a breakthrough.  I'll keep you posted.

The hexagon thought process:  Since this is a quilt-a-long and I'm not sure how these are sewed together yet it's a little hard for me to plan ahead so I take it a little at a time.  I'm planning on giving this quilt to a someone in her mid-twenties, she is totally cool and hip, but still a classy girl.  I  picked out some fun, flirty fabric for the hexagons.  I got some ochre kona cotton solid and it's so beautiful, oh ... so beautiful.  It's my new favorite quilt color. 

I love the classic look of solids in a quilt, and I think she will too, but I still want something a little funky. So what I'd like end up with a quilt with some swathes of colorful, printed hexagons in various strips or partial strips.  And then some rows of hexagons with just solids to break them up.  Maybe some strips of solid in there too.   I would like to make the print hexagons kind of random so they are there ... but don't dominate the whole quilt.  I was trying to do some drawings,  but,  have you tried to draw hexagons??  It's HARD!  So, it's all kind of in my head at this point.  I'm also a little worried about my hexagons. Some are slightly curved.  I'm hoping they just end up OK after a lot of steam ironing. 

 

Quilt a longs can be fun, but they can be frustrating too when you really don't know the next step.  How WILL all these hexagons get sewn together??   

Here's a cautionary image for you.  This is what happens when your sewing area is a disorganized mess and you store your rulers on the floor.  Very sad .... very sad....

I promise I will read the book to my camera very soon and figure out why all my pictures are so dim and yellow.  Promise!

May Blatherings

Ya know how it is when you see a million of a particular item everywhere you turn, but when you want one of those items they are no where to be found??  I've recently become very disenchanted with my bathrobe.  It's just a plain, frumpy, looong, black velour robe.  Pretty generic and dull and it tangles around my legs.  I like to put my pajamas on pretty early and I feel ridiculous when I'm caught schlepping around in that thing.  So I started a quest for a fun, new bathrobe. Maybe something someone UNDER 60 would wear anyways.  Of course none to found in the United states.  The United States is TOTALLY out of cool bathrobes people!  It finally occurred to me, "Hey!  I can sew!  I can embroider! Why don't I remake my old bathrobe??"  Duh!  I shortened it about two feet and got out my sublime stitching books and embroidered a large design on the back in some bright colors.  Now I feel like old Hef slinking around the house in my smoking jacket.  (You can tell my state of mind lately by the fact the I associate myself more with creaky old Hef than one of the "girls next door")

My son took this picture so we can blame him for the fuzziness

I've knocked two things off my Spring to Finish challenge so far.  I've got my garden pretty well cleaned up and ready for the season.  I still need to buy my annuals and herbs and plant pots but still a little early for all that.  I cleaned up my sewing area and got almost all caught up on the hexagon quilt a long.  Feels so good to have my sewing area organized and it's so pleasant to have it clean!  Really reinvigorates my urges, if you know what I mean! 

I love the blue glowing light on my sewing machine at night.  It beckons me sometimes....

What will you end up to be little triangles?

This hexagon quilt-a-long is such a mystery to me!  I'm just blindly sewing each week when the new blocks get posted but I have absolutely no inkling of how all this is going to come together or how we sew it.  It's pure faith that is keeping me going and I'm going to be surprised by the end result ... and I'm hoping it's a pleasant surprise. 


The only other sewing I've done this weekend is to make a set of coasters for an old friend I've become reacquainted with on Facebook.  These are my favorite little quick gift for people and I love making them!  If anyone is interested I could attempt my first tutorial and show you how they're done.  All you need is five inch squares and an urge for a drink coaster! 

Who couldn't use a drink coaster? 

Ugly Quilt Contest

Oh my word!!  When I saw this quilt contest over at Piece and Quilt  I cracked up.   I made the most ridiculous quilt this winter when my blog was brand new and I tried so hard to sound upbeat and make it look pretty for the camera.  Now I'll post the pictures that didn't make the original post.  This is the quilt I really wish I could take back and redo or undo or just forget.  Here's the story......

It all started one snowy day when I saw this AMAZINGLY beautiful quilt on cluck cluck sew.  Wow!  That's a great quilt, isn't it!?!  Seems pretty easy when you read the tutorial, doesn't it?!?!  Well, if you start without a plan and then change the non-existing plan in the middle here is what you end up with ......

Hmmmm .....  Shouldn't have attempted sashing with that skill level

Not too much going on with the back

The worst part is I started it for my supercool 13 year old niece and told everyone I was making it for her and then I even embroidered her name on it.  I really in my heart wanted to make her a  funky fun radical quilt that a thirteen year old would love.  When it was becoming apparent that this was NOT going to be supercool and funky I just didn't know how to stop.  Stop making a quilt in the middle!!  Do people do that?! 

I feel really bad that I even gave it to her and have many times tried to think of ways to sneak in and replace it with a better one.  The funny thing is that I put the most work into this quilt and the most love.  I actually feel better about it now that I wrote about it made fun of it and I'm warming up to it.  I kinda feel sorry for it looking at the poor quilting and bedraggled scruffy edges of the fabric circles.

Awwwww  ..... poor ugly quilt.  I think I love you now.

Spring to Finish Challenge 2010

The other day Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio extended an invitation for her readers to join a Spring to Finish Challenge 2010.  The whole goal of this challenge is to work on and/or finish some projects that have been either stewing in your brain or laying around your house.  They don't even have to be sewing projects!  The best part is picking a reward for yourself upon completion of said project. 

Lately I've just been feeling like a have a million things hanging over my head.  I'm the type of person who needs to finish a project before I start a new one.  I can hardly even concentrate on fabric for an upcoming project until I've put the other one to bed and then cleaned up the house.  So lately I've been feeling lethargic and uneasy and a little overwhelmed.  I think documenting my projects and reporting on their progress is a great way to get motivated.

From afar

Up close

1.  My "garden."  This one is time sensitive.  I used to love gardening but have increasingly have lost my fervor for the weeding, weeding, weeding.  My goal is to give my flower garden a big giant cleanout,  preen the heck out of it and then just let it go for the rest of the summer.  This project should be done first because the longer you wait... the more back-breaking and heart-breaking it gets. I just want to get this over with and then ignore for the rest of the year. Reward -- Mani/Pedi and Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.  I'll need it after all that dirty work! 

2.  My sewing workstation (aka my dining room).  I used to set up my cutting board on my kitchen table at night after cleaning up from dinner and then cut there, run to another room to sew, run UPSTAIRS to my bedroom to iron a seam, run back to the kitchen to cut, etc. etc.  A while ago it occurred to me that we only use the dining room table three times a year (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas) so I could set everything up there and leave it.  I even got a little ironing board and another iron.  Due to antiquated wiring (you people with old houses will understand this one)  I can only plug my iron into the outlet behind my sewing machine.  My goal for this area is to reorganize it and get some moveable storage devices for my sewing utensils so when I sew I can grab everything I need and move seamlessly from one area to the next without leaving the station.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.

3. The wonky star quilt.   I was taken by a brown and orange quilt I saw on someone's quilting blog last fall (sorry ... I've looked and looked and can't find it again) and I bought lots of orange and brown for a quilt.  Of course it's spring now and everyone is making gorgeous colorful and bright wonky star quilts that I'm ACHING to make but I have to finish this one first.  Even if it turns into a baby sized quilt.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.

4.  The purse.  My niece knit me a cool edge for a patchwork purse that I also started last fall.  I would like to finish it.  Enough said.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.

5.  Hexagon quilt.  I started the hexagon quilt a long that Jaybird (hee hee ... we call my son Jason Jaybird too) is leading on the ORBC Flickr group.  I'm all on task with that and my goal is to stay on task and not fall behind.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream. 

I'm sensing with goal #2 of not having to move when I sew I may end up with a unintended problem from all the rewards.  Hmmmm..... may need to add some exercise to my list.  Next update on these five projects will be on May 10th.  Stop back and see how it's going.  Encouragement welcomed!!

Why I quilt, embroider, sew, crochet, etc, etc. ...

Modify Tradition posed a thoughtful question in their giveaway post today.  Why do you quilt/sew/crochet/embroider, etc?  It got me thinking about why I started and why I continue.  Seems kind of pointless sometimes when I go to Target and see all the beautiful quilts you can buy for a whole lot less money than it takes to make one.

I remember my mom buying me those little embroidery kits when I was a girl.  Do you remember the ones that had a stamped piece of fabric, floss, needle and diagrams that gave the exact stitch and color for each spot?  I loved those!  I would love to buy those for my niece but I can't find them anymore. Sigh ...  Anyways, those were my favorite things to do at night while sitting on the couch and watching TV.   I have such cozy memories of being with my mom, each of us on our own end of the couch, and each working on a project. 

Flash forward years to when I'm a stay at home mom to my three boys.  My mom had given me her old sewing machine and I was mending and making curtains when I saw a magazine article on how to make a super easy patchwork quilt.  I started making quilts like crazy.  I used puffy polyester batting and sewed around three and a half sides, turned it right side out and whip stitched it closed.  I used yarn and tied them all over.  I'm a little embarrassed now when I think of how proud I was of those quilts.  I made a special one for each of my boys and some for the house and then I moved on to something else.  I didn't know anyone who made any other kind of quilts and there was no internet then so I really didn't have a way to grow in my quilt making skills. 

A while ago I was talking to my now grown up son Russell and we were reminiscing about the good old days.  He told me that his favorite childhood memory was coming home from school one day and I told him I had a surprise for him.  I made him sit on the couch and shut his eyes and then I wrapped a Buffalo Bills quilt around him.  He said that he never forgot that feeling.  I'm tearing up a little now just thinking of that (excuse me while I go dab my eyes).  I started thinking about what a great feeling it is to have a quilt.  I felt like making one for each and every one of my loved ones to try and express my love for them in a tangible way.  I started looking around the  for ideas and discovered quilting blogs.  Then I happened upon a blog called the Old Red Barn Company that was going to start a quilt-a-long for beginners.  That got me hooked on quilting but good! 

I think I'm constantly wanting to recreate that loving feeling I got when I was a girl and I embroidered next to my mom.  And I want to make my loved ones feel special, the way my son did when I wrapped that special handmade quilt around him. 

This is the quilt I made my son Jason about 15 years ago.  He loved to draw so I bought some iron transfer crayons and had him draw lots of pictures that I transferred to white blocks.

I was thinking about picking the quilt all apart and remaking it for a surprise.  Now I'd probably embroider over the pictures and properly quilt and bind it and use nice batting. 

I decided against it though.  It's the way I made it and that's the way it should be.  It's warm and the love is still in it, even though it's kinda funky and puffy.

Hope Valley Pinwheels

My Hope Valley Pinwheel quilt is complete!  I'm very happy with it and my sewing slowly and carefully experiment seemed to be successful.  As hard as it is for me to admit ... I guess taking your time is the key to a good quilt turnout.  Bummer! 

On Sunday the ORBC group is starting our next quilt-a-long.  We're making a hexagon quilt and I just bought my very first jelly roll and layer cake.  I loved this Frolic fabric and can't wait to find out how we are using it.

This fabric makes me happy!

  

Best friends ....  

On a personal note:  Easter turned out to be a sad day for us.  We had to take my boyfriend's dog to the emergency clinic and have him put to sleep in the morning.  It was very sudden and unexpected and very, very sad for all of us .... including the assistant.  Her nubby tail hasn't wagged once since we came back without him.  He had a great life and lots of love in his twelve years but we sure wish he could have stayed with us a while longer.  He left a big old hole in our hearts.