Overdue Update

Here is my looooong overdue update. Over the holidays I took an unexpected sabbatical from blogging. I was still getting some quilting done, but was busy with traveling and shopping and Christmas preparation that blogging went by the wayside. Unfortunately, this January my schedule has made it difficult for me to pick up where I left off. Starting in the New Year, I’ve added to my work schedule by doing phlebotomy during the daytime hours. To make matters worse, during my regular x-ray shifts, we’ve been working on a HUGE file room purge. Normally I get to do a lot of internet surfing (blog reading!) at work. I’ve even done some blog posts while at work, but right now, I don’t have a spare minute. I’m super behind on reading all of my favorite blogs, but the end of our file room project is in sight and I’ll be back to my old routine soon. Plus, the longer I’ve put off posting, the bigger the hurdle has become to write this return entry. Here’s a summary of what’s transpired since I’ve last been here.

While home at Christmas, I did a bit of quilting on the longarm. I had big aspirations because I had a lot of time off from work, but I’ve found that I work best under time pressure and without a deadline, my pace slooooows wayyyy downnnn. The first thing I tackled was the wallhanging my Aunt Nancy gave me for my birthday. It turned out ok, but now that it’s done, there are things I would have done differently. Every project seems to be a learning experience! The biggest take home lesson was that I put a complicated feather pattern in four big blocks, but because there was a busy floral pattern on the fabric, you can’t see the feathers at all. =( Oh well, it was good practice.

The other project I worked on was quilting Woodpile, a twin sized top that I’ve had done for a while (1 year?). It’s cool jewel tones and white and I’m keeping it for myself to use in my spare room. I bought a stencil that fit the triangular shape of the light/dark areas, but as I was quilting, I wasn’t thrilled with the way it was looking. After about 2/3 of the way through, I thought of a way that could have improved the results. Drat. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?? I didn’t finish the borders, so I left it at my parent’s house, to finish it later. Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I realize that the quilting isn’t dense enough, so I might go back in and do some meandering around the stenciled shape. Maybe. It just needs more than what I’ve done so far.

More catching up later…

Mess-o-borders

Prior to Christmas, I put my nose to the grindstone on the scrappy blue/green/purple checkerboard borders for the Woodpile quilt. The volume of squares seemed overwhelming, but I kept chipping away at them. I don't know if I have enough yet. My next step is to lay the quilt top out on the floor and arrange what I have around it so I can keep like fabrics apart. Progress came to a standstill around Christmas. As it turns out, I think it was good to take a break from it and get some perspective. When I took a look at it this week, I felt re-energized. Now all I need is some free time in my schedule to get back to work on it. Here is the last picture taken of my border mess. It's further along right now, but my camera isn't cooperating, so I can't give you a current picture.

I'm in the blogosphere!

After lurking around the Quilt Mavericks blog ring for over a year, I've decided to join in the fun! Plus, I thought this would be good way to journal my progress on all of my quilts. Now that winter is officially in full force, I've been doing a lot of sewing. Just this week I've worked on:

Woodpile

This is a quilt that's been in the works for years. It's a group exchange that I participated in while taking a class through MATC. The exchanged strips had been sitting around for about 7 years before I had the inspiration to put them together into a twin sized quilt for the rollaway bed in my sewing room. Once I had that idea, I determined that I needed twice as many blocks as what I had. No problem! I whipped them up, laid them out and put them all together. Then it would be on to borders and the top was done. I started with a vision for the borders (scrappy 4 patches all in a row). After losing steam, I set this project down. Last week, I decided to open up the rollaway and check the size. Good thing! I need 2 more rows! What was I thinking before? So this week I added the requisite 2 rows and am back where I was before. Needing borders.

After fiddling around some, I am leaning toward making a scrappy checkerboard 4 wide (separated from the center by a 2" white strip). I like the checkerboard on it's own. I don't know if I like it with the woodpile. And I don't know if I like how much work it's going to be. =(

Leaders/Enders

Meanwhile, during all the woodpile extra 2 rows of block making, I turned my leader/enders into a center for a baby quilt. I have a baby in mind, but haven't 100% decided who the recipient is yet.

This picture isn't the most recent one. I have added white squares in between the nine patches. Again--I'm stuck at the border stage. I have a few ideas. One option is to do a piano key type rainbow. I have a bunch of strips already sewn together that I could use.

They don't look that wobbly in real life. It's gotta be the picture! =O

Benjamin Smiles Pillowcases

On Tuesday, I was able to finish a project that I started earlier this year (mid-summer?) with my friend, Amy. We have been working on making pillowcases for the Benjamin Smiles charity.

They are for travel size pillows and benefit the kids at the Ronald McDonald House. It was a lot of fun working together, picking out the fabrics and they were easy-peasy to sew. We have about 20 cases done, but only 12 pillows. They don't seem to stock these pillows in the store during this time of year. So, we'll drop the first 12 off soon and when I run across the pillows again, I'll get more and then we can deliver another shipment. I'm looking forward to taking them in and seeing the Ronald McDonald House.

Pincushions

Mixed in with all of my other sewing, I've been making pincushions. The pattern is from May Britt and I found it through Lucy's blog.

This is first one I made:

Not bad! I thought this was fun and might make a great kid's pillow, so I blew the pattern up and made a BIG one (sorry, I don't have a picture of that one right now--maybe later). Then I made one for my mom (no picture right now). I had been on a quest to find a loose wool batting to stuff it with and had no success. Instead, I experimented with cutting up the scraps from the wool batt I used for my Bear Paw Throw.

It work marvelously! The addiction is in full force now! The directions call for this to be pieced by hand, but so far, I was making them on the machine. For some reason, I felt motivated to try one out by hand. After some wonderful guidance from Dianne and the other ladies in the UFO club of Millhouse Quilts , I learned English paper piecing. This is an "in-progress" pic of it:

Right now, it's completely pieced and turned inside out. My handiwork won't be winning a blue ribbon at the fair, but I'm ready to do more English paper piecing. Maybe even start a Flower Garden Quilt??!!??

On Thursday I was going to sew with patients at the American Family Children's Hospital, but

because I was barely able to talk, I missed out. I felt well enough to go to lunch with the three other ladies that also volunteer. It was Debbie's birthday and wanted to give her a small present. Hmmmm. What could it be? A pincushion, of course! This one is my best, yet! Unfortunately, prior to this one I made a goof on one. Instead of matching the points of the top up with the points of the middle, I tucked the top points into the "innies" of the middle. It's still cute, just not star shaped. =O I'll take a pic of it soon.

Whew! I think that about wraps up my week. I got a lot done!