Working on a project that is tedious

I took on a commissioned job last April and right now, I am sorry I did.  It is a little bit of a nightmare and I almost would rather do anything else but it.    That being said it needs to get done!  So, today, with clean studio, I hauled out the wedding tree.  I completed satin stitching the trunk a month ago.  The leaves have been an issue because they were frayed and flimsey.  I ironed on a thin stabilizer then wonder under.  Then I cut them all out again rounding the ends as I went.  that removed all the fraying and gave them body.  The 2 bluebirds and the embroidery of the 2 names and date of wedding come next then I need to machine applique the 75 leaves onto the tree.  Yikes!  What the heck was I thinking?

wEDDING TREE QUILT. A great idea-all the guests signed a leaf and they will be stitched onto the tree

Bluebirds will be machine appliqued on as well as embroidered with names of bride and groom

Approximately 75 leaves now ready for attachment to tree

Lastly a few Dear Janes completed this week

I used a pampered chef scraper to clean the teflon sheet-worked beautifully!

Taking a break from some housework-needed to wash curtains and windows in the guest room as we are having an Evergreen couple and a friend stay with us next week (one after the other).  The dust did not help my asthma-so I am sitting and breathing.  Today is my 44th anniversary.  That is an amazing concept.  Doesn't seem possible.  WE were going to do something today but Greg had a funeral to go to so, we went out for a very nice breakfast, hit some garage sales and I took the car to be washed and he left in it for the funeral.  Hence, I had time to clean the guestroom, pack 2 boxes for moving and move all the fabric from the guest room into my studio where it belongs.

Finished the top half of Aiming for Accuracy Thursday.  Totally caught up and it really is close to done. Going in the guest room in Medford along with Home Sweet Home.

All material was left over from Home Sweet Home except 2 yards black fabric-a first for me

These were the pink pinwheels that I really quite dispised-so glad I redid them.  In HSH that pink was only 1 small door to a house, so it was a nice little pop-this was a pink liquid explosion:) A real pain to take apart a redo but so worth it.

PS  I went to a sewin at the Crazy 9 Patch yesterday and got 8 circles done for my Pies and Tarts quilt that I put away for awhile but now need handwork and finished prep work for 5 Dear Jane blocks that I can work on at night.  That is why I am liking the A4A quilt - it is not a 2 year project.  I seem to like complicated things:)

Back in Business-or Out of It

When I was a potter years ago-I wasn't content to just make things for myself and friends, I had to take the Potter's Clay to all the juried and non-juried venues from San Diego to Nevada. Before that my friend and I made silk screened onesies in tie dye that we took to various shops.  I started an ETSY business as soon as I retired (now closed) and thought I would do the craft show circuit again and quickly realized I just don't want to make things in bulk to sell.  Lastly, While I still worked as a counselor, my friend, Ginny and I started College Application Process Made Easy (CAPME) and had summer and fall workshops for the last four years. Today we will close the bank account and fold up our awning.  It was a lot of fun working with Ginny and we provided a good service and I am proud of what we accomplished but I am really glad to be done with ALL marketing and business.  I really just want to quilt, hopefully teach classes and inspire others to make beautiful things. Today is a milestone.

While my computer was resting, I did work on a couple of things.  The Dear Jane workshop on Saturday produced 2 paper pieced 5" squares.

These are from the outside row that are all Black and tan

This is my plan diagram showing blocks done and color coding.  This may or may not work-we'll see.  In the meantime I am enjoying the process and am learning much about accuracy.

Speaking of accuracy-I finished block 4 in the Aiming for Accuracy quilt along.  This is my favorite so far.  It has been interesting to see all the different interpretations of this pattern from all over the world. Liking it so far.

Block 4 with sashing

This is how they relate to each other in the quilt-going to have to add pink somewhere else to keep that pinwheel block from screaming"PINK" so loudly:)

Yesterday I worked on curtains for Sloanie's room.  Need to stop at JoAnn's today and get some 1"ribbon to complete the yellow shade that will hang under the pleated top-also need to complete pleated top-then start on Ava's.  I was hoping to have it all done today-again I underestimated the time it takes to complete a project:(

Sloanie's curtain

Lastly but certainly the MOST fun-we had breakfast on our back patio with Bev and Dale-our good friends and partners in the Care Ministry at our church, Calvary Chapel.  We meet every 2 weeks to discuss the needs-and we manage to have a little fun in the process-sure going to miss these guys when we move-however, they just bought a new motorhome so they can come to Medford and we can go CAMPING with them.

Hmm . . guess who like waffles. . .

Bev just can't help herself-she must have clown genes:)

Dear Jane, Kaffe Fassett and The Sloan Ranger

Yesterday we got the best news.  Our 3 month old granddaughter Sloan was moved from ICU to the regular floor.  She is getting better and they are gradually lowering her h20 levels.  She still has a feeding tube but they expect her to go home Tuesday so that should be removed soon.  Praise God for He is good.  The kids are exhausted but are hanging in there. Jason is going to have a dad and daughter day with Ava because he hasn't seen her much.  Thankfully, my DIL has 2 amazing sisters who are 2nd and 3rd moms to the kids and 2 wonderful nieces who are old enough to take care of her as well.  The nurses love our baby and have renamed Sloan and call her "The Sloan Ranger".  Thanks for the prayers-prayer changes things!

Yesterday was The Dear Jane Clinic and I got 4 blocks prepped and ready to applique down.

I have 17 more blocks printed and my goal will be to get those done by the next time we meet which will be in  May so I might get there.  They really take a long time.  While I was at The Crazy 9 Patch I bought 3 bolt ends at 20 percent off and 1 yard of a beautiful rusty quilting feathers fabric. 

I also got a small New York Beauty done which takes longer than a large block because it is in 4 pieces.

I took one block partially apart and redid it as I kept being bugged by the shade of the bright pink.

new block:

Before revision:

Then the fabric I ordered from fabric.com arrived in the mail-looks like a lot but they are mostly 1/2 yard pieces-Kaffe Fassett at 7.20 a yard.  I am building a stash for the Mary Lou Weidman class in July.

Lastly, I made a label at the embroidery class last Thursday-it isn't perfect but for a first-it will work for my Beauty and Check quilt.

That's it-got to get ready for church-have a blessed day!!!

Mug Rug Swap

I signed up for the mug rug exchange before I knew I needed to go to Seattle for 2 weeks so I thought I had plenty of time to complete them.  They took longer than I planned but they are done with the deadline looming tomorrow.  I think they are really cute-I can't wait to get mine.  I will use them for my afternoon tea.  Going to the longarm rental tomorrow to rent a few hours on the machine.  I have the Le Moyne Star table topper and my friend has a queen size quilt.  We will be there awhile:)

Winter Birdhouse Mugrug-The Patchsmith

Two Owls Rug Mug-The Patchsmith

I have made a decision to put away the pies and tarts quilt until I finish the Home Sweet Home-then I will pull it out for handwork at night.  I just have more projects going than I can stand-I want to get something completed!

I am learning a lot from the Dear Jane experience.  My tiny squares are definitely getting more accurate.  Spent 4 hours on Saturday to finish 2 squares-but they are almost perfect if I do say so myself. I used strip piecing-so much more accurate than individual blocks-faster too!

4 1/2 inch square Dear Jane Blocks-black/tan 9 block=3/4 in. and tan/cream=1/2 in

I also bought some Dear Jane material when I was in Seattle.

mostly 1880's/Civil war

And I had some favorite books spiraled so they can lay flat-under 4.00 each and so worth it for the books I use a lot!

Kinko's!!

Bits and Pieces

We are getting ready to go to the Big 3 swapmeet (a 1x per year event that my husband looks forward to and I enjoy as well) Greg restores vintage British motorcycles and sells them at this event as well as through the year.  I have been focusing on making handwork as we camp in the motorhome in the parking lot of Qualcom with no electricity.  The size of the baggy of tarts ready to be sewn for the pies and tarts quilt does not seem to relate to the work put in to making said baggy of parts.

Instead of sewing the material to the template I iron down with starch-works beautifully!

A bag-o-tarts ready to be sewed into little tart circles (enough for 18 so far)

I also redid part of this paper pieced block for Dear Jane and appliqued the center on to it as well as finishing the Le Moyne Star block (one star point needs to be restitched-I was off two threads which makes a difference in these little blocks.  These are untrimmed so it looks like I may lose a point or two.  I am actually going to be fine with that:)

Dear Jane-One block from the Turquoise and dark row and one from the turquoise and light row

I need to go to Seattle next Tuesday for two weeks.  My Beloved DIL is sleep deprived and under doctor's care for postpartum blues.  I asked if they needed me to come and she said yes-2 weeks please.  I am thrilled to be able to help them but so sorry she is having such a hard time.  I love my DIL-she is such a blessing to us. So, I need to take handwork as I won't have the time to machine piece and don't want to lug a machine anyway. Hopefully I'll get some more tarts done today but it is a really busy day. The pies and tarts are just so easy to transport.

I am signed up for another class on my return and since I am the caretaker of the teacher, I think I will do that and sew quietly in the back of the room on one of the projects I have already started.  I will take notes and pictures-but I can't start one more project or my brain will explode.

Dear Jane Clinic

Well-not much progress on Dear sweet Jane since last month but got three blocks mostly done today-none of them pictured because they are not finished yet-but mostly done.  When I laid these out I noticed that they don't have the contrast that I want-however, these are the blocks for the outside border of the quilt and is the only row that is beige and black so, all in all, this row will contrast with the one next to it.

Teacher, Susan Axelrod and student

Margaret  finishing up a block

Bella helping

15 outside row blocks and 1 inner block (lavender)

I do see things differently when I take pictures.  I will work on more contrast in the remaining blocks on the outside row-about 30 of them.  I think in about six months at least two of the quiltts will be done and I won;t feel so scattered.  I took too many classes this year-will not do that next year.

Current projects

At this moment in time I am working on several large quilts in progress.  "Home Sweet Home" is about 2/3 done.  All but one block is appliqued and I need to do the appliqued borders which will have the addresses of all my husband and my residences in San Diego, both singularly and collectively.  I bought San Diego Fabric for the backing and this will be our "San Diego Living" quilt.

I am also working on a batik quilt that has a  pattern called "Pies and Tarts".  It is an English paper piecing pattern that I am doing with an applique process using starch and a hot iron instead of sewing the material onto the pieces.  Then the pieces are stitched together in the traditional way. The border will either be appliqued vine with small English pieced tarts or piano tiles.  Just want to finish the 100 large and 100 small circles-42 finished as of today.  My goal is to have this done by June.  I have 2 circles that are off but I am leaving them!

"Dear Jane" is the third quilt that I work on regularly.  I do not expect to be done with that one until 2014.  I have approx. 20 out of 200+ blocks done-oh, my.  However, I am learning a lot and my piecing is improving tremendously working on 4.5 in. finished blocks. No current pics.

My favorite Things

Once a month I attend the Dear Jane Clinic at The Crazy 9 Patch in Ramona.  Our teacher, Susan Axelrod is excellent and I learn new things each month.  I got all my applique pieces prepped this week so I'll have some handwork to do.

Susan teaching template making

Monday, I joined my quilting buddies, Jan and Patsy, and we headed to Quilter's Paradise in Escondido to quilt 2 small quilts on the longarm machine.  We took a class together to learn how to use it-however, it seems as if we have to relearn it every time we go.  Then we went looking at sewing machines as Patsy needs a new one.

Jan and Patsy and the Longarm

I love the swirls on the back

The binding makes such a big difference!

Dear Jane progress

Yesterday I printed out 12 cutting and template patterns for Dear Jane. The day after Christmas I will prep the 12 blocks so I have some hand sewing at night. I have finished 11 blocks. Forgive the glare of the baggie. Each block is put into a baggie and attached to the pattern to protect and identify it for later assembly. The block with purple will have to be an inner block (I will have a purple row inside the quilt)as the outer perimeter is all creams, browns, golds and blacks. My goal is to have 26 done by the end of February. I could have more but I need to make a nursery ensemble for our newest granddaughter and a bedroom remake for our Ava by mid February as well as a Turtle quilt for our Kids. Yikes!!! The 1/2 square triangles in the top block are finished at 3/8" inch so I am forgiving my one wonky one.

I have decided that 2013 will be dedicated to making a few seasonally thematic quilts for moi-since I have but one of my own quilts:)

I have added 2 new buttons to this website. As I find interesting blogs I want to pass them on to you. One has a great sewing machine cover on it-beats my pillowcase cover:)