Then and Now

I began this post on Oct. 30th, but got interrupted somehow and never got back to finish it. So as you read down the post the first part of each project I discuss was written in October. I then follow up with the current status. Also I've rather fallen off keeping up on the posts of some I follow, I've done a bit of reading each day but have been away from my computer, which is the only device I have that allows me to make comments, so I've missed commenting on some interesting ideas, great work and beautiful quilts. 

Happy Birthday to me and Merry Christmas too for that matter. My birthday/Christmas gift has arrived and I'm thrilled with it. My husband ordered a new quilting frame for me sometime in August and it has arrived. It is a hand made Amish quilt hoop on a stand that tilts and rotates as needed. It's beautiful and works like a charm. I have a large Q-Snap frame that I've used for hand quilting in the past, but the new house does not really lend itself to it's use. The new frame can easily be moved around the house so I can do my hand quilting by my bedroom window, or carry it to the living room to stitch while I'm watching TV - the larger frame didn't fit through any doorway in the house and was a pain to take apart and put back together.  

My floral log cabin quilt has been waiting a very long time for my attention and I'm so excited to be able to finally really get to work on quilting it. I decided when I made it that I wanted to hand quilt it, but it got put aside while I worked on other projects and life interfered with my ability to work on it too. The new frame arrived last week and I've spent a couple of afternoons now working on my quilt. I have to limit my hand quilting time to just a couple of hours at a time because it's making my shoulder hurt. Pain in that shoulder is not new, and machine quilting makes it hurt too. Piecing doesn't bother it though. 

November update: My birthday hasn't arrived yet, but I'm sure enjoying the beauty of my new quilt frame. I've sewn on it in my bedroom by the light of the window and have brought it into the living room to sew while watching TV. It's working out beautifully, but progress is still very slow because I spend more time in the sewing room with my machines than sitting doing hand quilting. I've folded up my log cabin quilt and put a smaller piece I'm hand quilting on the frame. My log cabin is so big that most of it covers a good space of the floor around the frame and if it stays in the same place for long has the ability to attract spiders - ask me how I know.  I'll be linking up with Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

String Quilt: I've made good progress on my string quilt, though I've been slowed down over the last couple of weeks because our power has been shut off three times over that time period. My plan with getting that pieced was to do four or five blocks first thing each morning, which would have been enough for a small quilt in a short amount of time, the blocks would be complete by now if it hadn't been for the power outages. They are frustrating but better than having another wildfire blow through town on the high winds we get here. The yellow scraps in these blocks are the only yellow I've worked with this month, so my mostly pink blocks will have to do for the October Yellow RSC - I missed the pink month all together so I'm making up for that now. 

November update: I've finished piecing the string quilt. I've been dithering about whether or not to applique something on it. I wanted to put a few butterflies on the front but think I'm going to let that idea go. There are a couple of little ones pinned on but I found the solid colors boring and didn't want to use them. So I pulled out my butterfly coloring book and traced some of the butterflies onto a bit of white fabric. 

 I then colored them in with permanent markers and liked the look of them on the quilt. I knew though that I had to make sure they wouldn't run before actually attaching them - which they did when I washed them. So that idea was a fail. In the mean time I've bought some delicious delicate pink cuddle fabric for the back. I have a butterfly quilting template that I will use to get the quilting done, so there will be butterflies, just not quite as I had hoped. I'm linking up with Angela of So Scrappy, with this little gem. 

I'm pleased that I have been able to keep up with Pat Sloan's Cozy QAL. The blocks are published on Wednesdays and our power has been on during the day on Wednesdays so far. Most of the fabrics I'm using for this project are ones I purchased long ago and set aside to wait for their project to appear. I love the color combination of blue and brown. These are not my very favorite fabrics that I originally thought I would use for this project, but they are fabrics that I really like and am glad to finally be using. I've also added a few new fabrics to the mix. I didn't have enough light fabric to use for the background and wanted to add some red to pick up on the bit of red in one of the little star prints. I'm pleased with how the blocks are turning out so far. 

November update: I'm still keeping up with the QAL and enjoying the process of doing a different block each week. This was week five of nine. The challenge is keeping the colors coordinated within each block and between the blocks. I'm not sure that my addition of the red fabric was such a good idea, but I've gone with it so hope that it won't overtake some of the quieter colors. I've not begun to make any of the setting blocks yet, not sure I want to use the court house steps pattern that Pat has chosen for them. No need to hurry on that decision though. Four more blocks to go and that will take me close to Christmas. So I will set the blocks aside to work on sometime next year. I'll be linking up with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.

Machine Mess: Besides power outages tension troubles with my Brother 1500s machine stopped my work on the large Magic Stars quilt that I was so close to having finished. It made a horrible mess on the back of the quilt on the last row that I did - the whole row. The problem wasn't showing on the front so I was finished with the row before I discovered the disaster. So during the first of our three outages over the last couple of weeks I spent time ripping out the mess. I also took my machine in for repair. I have it back now but the last two power outages have kept me from getting it going again. I'm afraid the problem isn't actually fixed as I can still see the top thread on the bottom fabric - it shows on the sample that the repair person did. I had quite a conversation with the person who was checking the machine out when I went to pick it up - that what I had brought it in for hadn't been fixed. He said it was normal, the machines they fixed always came out that way. Very frustrating. However, he didn't charge me for the service, and for that I am very grateful and will support his shop in any way I can in the future - except maybe not get my machines serviced there. I'll be linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday.

November update: My machine is set up and I have yet to do the sample quilting I need to see how it's behaving. I just haven't gotten myself into the space of mind to do it just yet. I did take out the horrible mess from the back of the quilt but haven't moved on to restitching it. I will. I will also be very glad when this quilt is finally finished, it's taken way too long. It has me rather convinced though that if I ever do another quilt that size that I need to just send it out to be quilted. Someone with a long arm machine could do a big quilt like that in a fraction of the time it's taken me. 

My small Magic Stars leader/ender project is coming along nicely - making real progress while working on other things. I would never have thought of getting the piecing done that way but am glad for finding the tutorial about it on Bonnie Hunter's blog. All of the initial piecing is done now and the diagonal cuts are all done. I'm not doing the diagonal seams as leader/ender pieces due to the bias. Once all the bias seams have been sewn I will go back to using the pieces as leaders/enders. I'm trying to get eight or twelve of those bias seams done each morning. If the power outages will hold off for a while I'll be able to get that part done within another week or so. 

November update: Well I still have half a dozen blocks worth of diagonal seams to complete and have sewn most of the completed small squares together into the final blocks. Not what I had intended, but what felt right at the time, as I have been finding lots of things to do while avoiding going back to work on my quilting machine. I've been so pleased with the progress that I've made with this little quilt as a leader/ender project that I've chosen another project to get cut and organized to use as another leader/ender project. More on that below. I'll be linking up with Beth at Love, Laugh, Quilt for Monday Making.

Nine Patch Star blocks: I was making good progress on my Nine Patch Star blocks but got interrupted by one of the power outages, when I got back to the project I messed it up. I trimmed the pieces I was working on, had been trimming pieces prior to the shut off - then when I went back I started trimming again. Somehow though I trimmed too much - took off my seam allowances on the pieces I trimmed. I'm so disappointed and frustrated I'm not sure what to do. I don't have enough of the dark purple scraps to fix the problem. 

November update: After avoiding that problem for a week or so I went back and had another look at it and decided to go ahead and sew the blocks together. It worked out pretty well, not every point is perfect, but then I never get them all perfect anyway. And as they say, 'finished is better than perfect.' The pillow covering is now a quilt top but won't be quilted until after I finish quilting the large Magic Stars quilt. They are intended to go together and the large quilt is the most important part of the project so waiting on the pillow cover isn't an issue. I also have coordinating fabric for making pillow cases to use on that bed. The pillow cover is to keep the cats off the pillows themselves. 

Crochet Project: My crochet project is coming along nicely. It's a simple pattern and I manage to do a few rows every day. It's been another good project to work on while the power has been out. 

November update: I've made good progress on my little crochet project. I do a row or two most every day. It will be a slow project at that rate, but I'm perfectly okay with that. I'm enjoying the process, it's quite relaxing. 

Current new project: I mentioned above that I've chosen a pattern to use with my favorite fabrics. It's from an old book The Simple Joys of Quilting by Joan Hanson and Mary Hickey, it's called Swedish Stepping Stars. I'm dropping the Swedish bit because I'm not using the blue and yellow that makes theirs have that Swedish look. It's a two block pattern using a star block and a stepping stones block. The star block has quarter square triangles and they have a few pages at the beginning of the book detailing their method of making them. I'm not using their approach so have been doing some practice pieces to make sure I've got that bit down before I start cutting anything for the project. I made a tablecloth in fall colors some years ago for my kitchen table and have wanted a runner to go with it for the top of the china cabinet that sits in the dining area by the table. I just happened to pull scraps that will go with it nicely - did one block as a sample. I liked it so much I wanted to do some more and found that I had plenty of scraps of the same fabrics to make three more blocks as well as enough background fabric to make sashing between the blocks. I will be pulling a black fabric from my stash and making a small border for it today. I'll be linking up with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! and with Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

One other thing of note: After chasing, catching, and conquering the little squirrel that was teasing me around the time of my last post I have moved the little book shelf it was intended for out from underneath the collage that I worked so hard to make my little quilt coordinate with and moved it into the sewing room. I had discovered that I could be much more efficient if I could iron my pieces as I pieced them without getting up from the sewing desk. I was using my ironing board, but the only way it fit in the area locked me into the sewing corner and if I needed to get up for some reason I had to move it out of my way. Then last week it occurred to me that my little bookshelf was just the right size to fit into my sewing corner, as well as just the right height for my little pressing mat on top of it. It also gave me a little more storage room in that corner - now I can keep my most used rulers and rotary cutter right there within reach. A win for the sewing room. 

I moved the new quilting frame under the collage in my bedroom to keep the space where the little shelf was from feeling empty. The only bummer is now I don't know where my little squirrel will find a home. 

The quilt I have in the frame at the moment is a whole cloth quilt I started long ago, but only the center is completed. I have too many projects going at once to keep up very well with any of them. It's a wonder I ever get anything finished because I'm always starting new projects that take my attention away from my works in progress. Somehow I can't help myself, too many interesting and exciting ideas.

Comments are always welcome and I try always to respond to each of them when they come in.  Thanks for reading!