Shhhh....baby sleeping

We welcomed another grandbaby into our family a few weeks ago.  He is so precious and tiny, a perfect angelic gift from heaven.  I wanted to try something new with making his quilt.  So what started out to be an experiment and test of a pattern turned into a new baby quilt for our new little grandson.  The bright colored strips worked out perfect, I posted about the creative process of the quilt top a few months ago. 

This is where I found the pattern.  There are several more quilts I want to make from this pattern book.  Of course who knows when that will happen!  So many projects, so little time........

...sound familiar? 

The back of the quilt is the turquoise blue and white dots fabrics.  I used orange for the binding which pulled all these bright colors together.  I hope he likes his new quilt.

A Special One

I started this quilt back in 2005 and I just now finished it. There is a very tender story behind it but I will save that for another day.  The quilt is now finished and has been delivered to it's rightful owner. 

This cheery pattern is called 9 patch Snowball and a fairly easy pattern to follow. I started it at a quilter's weekend retreat and I really enjoyed how the pattern went together so nicely.  The most time consuming part was cutting out the 2 inch squares from 2.5" strips and then organizing the colors into the 9 patch blocks.  The backing is all blue and the same fabric as the stop border and the binding.

The quilt reminds me of spring, a time of new changes and renewal.   It feels good to be finishing quilts again and marking them off my list of "Quilts to Finish". I don't have many blog fans or followers but rest assured if you ever read this blog there are more finished quilts to post soon, so stay tuned.  I started a new block of the month class in September and I have two quilts just waiting in the wings to be quilted. Plus- there are 10 more quilts to finish on that crazy list of mine. 

Something New

I finished the quilt top from the 2006 blocks in my previous posts and I am so very happy with the way the quilt top worked out.  I will post another photo after it is quilted.  I have to get to my long arm sewing machine soon and get this quilted.  It is such a process for me to just get it on the frame to begin quilting.  With the summer heat, vacation and multiple visitors the past few months have been a blurr of BBQs, sleepovers and fun in the summertime activities that leaves no time to quilt.

I found a new quilt book last February and fell in love with the patterns.  I wanted to make something, almost immediately.  The evening I first read the book I could not sleep I was so excited trying out different patterns and colors in my mind.  I could tell it would be an uncomplicated pattern to do so I began my search for the special ruler.  The book was easier to find than the ruler.   It took me 6 trips to 7 different quilt shops before I found this special ruler that goes with the patterns and technique.  As I was standing in line at the quilt shop to make purchase I noticed several bundles (not a jelly roll)  of  2 1/2 inch fabric strips for sale.  So I grabbed two bundles and decided they would be the source of my experiment to see if I really did love this new pattern.  How could I feel bad buying the many strips for $6 of random fabrics? 

I could not wait to get home and play with those silly 2 inch strips of fabric.  It was like Christmas for me to untie the twine on the bundles and open them to lay them out on the floor. The best Friday night ever!!  ( I am easily ammused.) 
Over that weekend, I began to sew the strips together with a white fabric I had in my stash.  When I had the strips sewn together and then cut with the new and special ruler, I began to sew together the blocks.  It took me two Saturdays due to multiple interruptions that involve yard work and house work.  After that, the blocks sat in a basket in my sewing room while I moved on to more difficult challenges in life.  Summertime was upon us.
Early last month, it was hot and the AC was working really good in my house.  I had a cold can of coke, M & Ms and some free time.  I was itching to play with fabric.  I grabbed the basket of quilt blocks and I played on the floor to come up with this pattern for a crib size top.  I sewed the rows together and added the bright blue stop border. 

I am now "auditioning" fabric for the final border and I can't decide. I have gone from solid orange, yellow tone on tone, multi green, green on green, blue brights, pastels and various red solids and prints.  I keep coming back to this multi dots on white in this photo.  I purchased a yard of a very bright and busy print with circles that on the bolt look like the perfect fit.  But...nothing I have in my stash or at the store seems to work right.  I almost feel this piece is too much white. I know I will not use flower prints, juvenile prints or any color of pink.
 

I welcome your alternative suggestion for the 5 inch final border on this random strip quilt.  Maybe this dotted fabric does work and I am over thinking the border.  I will bind with bright blue fabric to the dotted fabric.  

There is a new grandson arriving in the fall and he will need something blue.

Don't you love the bright and cheery look of this quilt top? I wonder what I will make next.

Almost finished

Here is the quilt top I have been working on the past several months.  Sorry the color isn't very good on this photo and it doesn't show all of the blocks in the quilt. I haven't been able to work as fast on this as I first intended way back in January but there still has been some good progress. The quilt top (above) with the 12 blocks has been sewn together and two of the three final borders have been added.  It is so big that it is hard to get a photo of the full quilt top.

Just one more border to add.   I will sew on 7 inches wide of this tan fabric, see below.   Each corner will have a Rose Bud Block attached to the the borders to complete the quilt top. 

I am very excited to see this quilt finished.  (remember the 12 original blocks were done 6 years ago in 2006).   Next I will figure out what to use for the  backing and binding.   The other night I put the top on my bed to see what it will look like and I was so pleased to see the beauty of these pieces working together.
Maybe between quilting and sewing I can work on my photography skills and the correct lighting!

When Life Gets you down....

I  managed to complete this handwork in March.  It was a gift for my friends, a very special couple who at that time were enduring together one of life's most difficult challenges. I enjoy doing handwork, the piecing, the quilting and sewing, but I enjoy even more the opportunity to give these things away and make someone happy.  If I know ahead of time who will be the recipient I think of them with every stitch.

A New Season = New Beginnings

Finally, Spring is here and I am kicking my way out of the "winter blues" that have held me hostage with health problems.  I am so relieved to begin to feel like my "old" self again.  The brain fog is lifting,and my energy level is getting stronger.  What a trial the past 4 months have been with this orbital inflammatory syndrome in my left eye. (Swelling behind my eyeball).

After 7 doctors, 3 suggested diagnosis, numerous lab tests, a brain MRI, x-rays, 3 regimens of prednisone (steroids), numerous pain killers and eye drops, ultrasound of my eyes, 2 steroid eye injections, weekly doctor visits and many $$$ out of pocket expenses....I think I can be optimistically almost certain that I am cured! At least that is what the eye surgeon told me last week. 

Fingers crossed, if I can get through the next 6 months without any more headaches or symptoms the doctor said I may never have this happen again.  They still don't know what caused it or where it came from.  What we do know is there is no brain tumor and there are a whole bunch of auto immune diseases I do not have.  I also was told I have nice clear long lungs, a good looking heart and a very arthritic jaw joint. Osteoarthritis not Rheumatoid.  It was very reassuring to know my insides appear strong, normal and healthy! 

It is spring now. I feel the warm weather, the comforting sunshine and all I really want to do is sew to my healthy heart's content. 

Oh my dear sewing machines, I have missed you!!!!

What to do, what to do???

What do you do when you can't sleep at night? You probably know the feeling, when you lay in bed and want to sleep so badly because you are so very tired but the sleep will not overtake you? Or the time that you are on pain medication and you feel groggy and dopey but the sleep just will not come to you? 

Do you visualize the ocean and laying on a warm beach with your feet in the hot sand soothing away allyour  troubles while listening to the roaring of the waves? Or maybe you visualize sitting on the porch of a log cabin hearing the gentle calm breezes in the pine trees and the tinkling of Aspen leaves in the forest.  I seem to gravitate toward seasonal visions. l like the the vision of sliding on skis down a fresh powedery white blanket of snow on the mountain cutting into the powder and sometimes making a swish sound as you descend the mountain top into a deep sleep of quiet and peace. I used to love to ski when I was younger.  It is amazing to me that these visualizations can rest the soul and ease the body into deep slumber. 

But...................if your are a quilter this is not what you do!!  NOPE, not this quilter..... I have a quilt to design and the visions above do not work for me.

I  lay in bed and my mind drifts away like drift wood to my quilter's palate of fabric, texture, color, patterns, block pieces and colored  threads.   My thoughts jump from my fabric stash to the fabric pieces auditioning multiple colors using the light and dark fabrics to find their place in the quilt. 

And then I make a decidsion.......... to make these blocks work better inside the quilt, they need coping strips.  This will make the blocks all the same size and give each of the blocks a frame around their pattern.  The fabric needs to be a dark blend for all 12 blocks to wrap around the center medallion.  Two blocks on top and on the bottom of the medallion and 4 blocks on each side with one or more strips in between to fill the space. I will add small print pieces to the green strip to pull it all together to blend with the fabric in the medallion. "Something like this.

I begin to feel the deep cloud of sleep hovering over my head. As I doze away I tell myself that tomorrow I will draw it out on graph paper and then lay it out on the floor to see what it looks like...................right after I go to the quilt shop and buy the dark green fabric I need for the coping strips.

Ahhh......my sleep has arrived and the new quilt has a plan.

Quilt Pondering

In 2006 my two quilting best friends and I took a block of the month class from a local quilt shop.  We loved the Moda fabrics and we enjoyed learning new techniques.   We did not like the teaching style of the instructor and we battled every month with our reactions to her style of quilting and teaching.  In many ways it left a bad taste for quilting and I think that is why it has been so hard to get this quilt finished.  Yes, we did learn some new tricks that have been beneficial and it has even carried over into current projects.   It was just hard to set aside personal feelings for the instructor and it reflected on the way we felt about the class. (I felt like I was back in high school when I had to do an assignment and I agonized over the paper then finally stuffed it away in my locker and hoped the magic homework fairy would finish it for me.)   Well, I am not in high school anymore and the quilt fairies have yet to find my numerous unfinished projects.

Anyway, these 12 blocks were done at the end of the year.  One of my friends was very inspired and motivated by her son’s upcoming wedding so she continued on and prepared a pattern for her blocks in EQ and it was done several months later.  Her quilt turned out to be a beauty and she made it king size as a gift to her son and his bride for a wedding present.  It was inspiring but I still was road blocked on my quilt.  My other friend still has hers blocks in a container waiting for inspiration.  She had a worse case of “Quilt Block of the Month Aversion” than me.

In the last 6 years these quilts blocks have been in and out of their container.  I have laid them out, previewed fabrics around them, purchased more fabric to finish the quilt and I have drawn several designs of the proposed finish.  Nothing has clicked for me.

Finally, November 2011 I decided enough was enough and this quilt was going to be done in 2012.  I had a wall hanging pattern that I liked I thought it would work great with charms squares from the same line of Moda fabric, Kansas Troubles that I had in my stash.    I began to work to create in the center a medallion for the quilt and decided I would build the quilt with the 12 quilt blocks around the medallion.  The medallion is now complete and the next step is to add 2 or 3 inch coping strips onto the 12 blocks.  Then I can begin to lay out the design with the blocks and the borders. 

Wish me luck on the next phase!

Christmas Project 2011

I found this pattern in a magazine back in November and decided to make one of these wall hangings for my married children for Christmas this past year.  This was a fun and easy pattern.  I made 4 wall hangings and each one is different from the other.  Just a little quilted something for Christmas this year. (The tree on the top right in the photo did not have the sides turned for the binding so it look bigger in the photo.)  Isn't it great fun to see what you can do with a bunch of fat quarters and white fabric?  I love to sew and create 1/2 square triangles.

Update? I really don't have one

Well fellow bloggers, I am still around and still quilting or planning quilts is better  to say.  I just feel like I don't have the time or energy any more.  I must be getting old....sigh.....how sad is that to say?  I decided to finish 6 projects this year instead of jumping into new ones again.  No block of the month classes, no new quilts to begin until I can get at least 2 older projects finished.  That means not only pieced but quilted and bound.  I have two I want to get done just for me! Can you imagine?  I am going to give myself a quilt!!

I will try to take some photos this weekend of some of my recent projects that need more than just a "little" attention. I think you will like what you see, so stay tuned and don't give up on me.