A little bit of this...A little bit of that!

So, I haven't posted in quite a while.  I wanted to, but this past summer has been the summer from H@#$L literally and temperature wise.  I am not a lover of all things hot, especially the swamp hot days in the Washington, DC area, so...so long summer, hello autumn.  The temperatures are a perfect 75 to 80 degrees during the day and cool 50s at night.  Just perfect.  So now I am trying to get back in the swing of things. Here is a short update on a little of this and that...

The ocean waves quilt has moved up to the fore front again and I am trying to complete the top and be done.  I have been working on this way too long and everyone keeps asking for the status of the ocean waves quilt. I need one full uninterrupted day and it should be done.  You can see a photo here.

So lately I have become intrigued with English paper-piecing and Hexies.  I have been following Bonnie Hunter's progress with her hexagon quilt and Kelly Jackson over at I Have a Notion posted a tutorial on her blog on how to do hexies.  I am hooked...  Not worried about when a quilt gets made.  This is a long term project and who knows...I may tire of it, but right now, it fills in available time.  So here is a little stack of hexies and I keep everything in a ziploc baggie.  Who knew???

I am still making blocks for the Farmer's Wife Sampler in the Japanese taupes.  This is block #16.  I only have 109 more to make. 

Out of the blue, my four year old granddaughter asked me to make her an owl pillow.  I have never made anything like this ever, pillows and stuff like that, but her request was so sincere, I felt I needed to do this.  So I made Hootie for Niani.  She loves it...even got into a tussle with her Mom (my daughter) because she wanted to take it to school and mean ole Mom said "No."  I think he is kinda cute.  And my granddaughters think that GiGi can make anything:0)

My watching TV project is putting the binding on this quilt that I made over a year ago.  I think I found the pattern in one of the McCalls magazines.  It is named Architectural Gems and I used bali pops.  It was easy to put together, just big.  My friend Carrie quilted it for me.  I don't think I have ever posted a picture, but it is on my WIPs list and it will soon come off. I will post a photo when the binding is done.

And lastly, I have been kitting up a couple of quilts that will fill in the void when I get bored.  The first is a pattern from Fons and Porter magazine in all pink and brown reproduction fabrics.  I had a lot of them on hand and I even won a giveaway on Debby Kratovil's blog for a new line of pinks and browns.  It is named Rootbeer and Bubblegum. 

Then I am having a new love affair with Mary Elizabeth Kinch and her small pieces.  So with more repro fabrics I am cutting up the pieces for one of the quilts in her book "Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts," called "Leap of Faith."  Both contain lots of small pieces and HSTs.

Thanks for stopping by...

Riding an Ocean Wave...Not yet!

Needless to say, I did not make the May 1st deadline that I set for myself to complete the ocean waves quilt top.  I did get more blocks completed.  This is going to be a humongous quilt. Right now it is measuring approximately 40 x 40.  I am not putting borders on it and  I am really thinking about making it smaller.  So I am giving myself another week...because I need it.  Here is a  pic showing a few more blocks.  

Riding an Ocean Wave

I haven’t posted much in the last several weeks. I have had a lot going on…Dad having major heart surgery (he is doing much better now); work issues (our CEO resigned to take another job), totally unexpected, so my office was in an uproar and just plain ole stuff. However, because quilting is so calming to me, I made time almost every evening to do a little. I set the egg timer (quilt timer) for about an hour, sometimes 2, so that I could work and not worry about timing and to remind myself to go to bed within a reasonable time. Because once I get started, it is hard for me to stop.

I am working on the Ocean Waves quilt and it is coming together nicely. The blocks are big and take up a lot of space, so getting detailed pictures is a pill, but below is a picture of 2 completed blocks. They measure about 20" each and there are 20 blocks.  A pretty big quilt.  I hope to finish the top by the end of the month, so ring my bell if you do not see a picture of a finished top by May 1.

I am also working on the wedding quilt for Jennifer. Well she got married last October, but I couldn’t make up my mind what type of quilt I wanted to make for her. I didn't want to do another Double Wedding Ring.  I already have 2 on my WIPs list.  Then one of my blog friends decided to have a quilt along for the Trinity Celtic Knot quilt and I knew this was the one. It is a whole lot of cutting, sub-cutting, sewing and re-sewing, but I am having fun with it. It is very scrappy with lots of purples and greens.  And the entire quilt is made with 9-patch blocks.  It requires my full attention because of the many pieces, but it has been a wonderful diversion with all of the stuff going on. The quilt pattern is designed by Deborah Cohen with Arbee Designs. You can follow along on the blog set up to showcase our progress on the Trinity Knot Along here.  My deadline for completing the top and getting this quilted and delivered to Jennifer is July 1. Everything is going along smoothly with it right now after a few false starts. A picture of what the finished quilt should look like is below. Keep your fingers crossed. Thanks for stopping by and I will check in soon!

One Down…??? To Go!

The last border has been sewn on Half-Square Triangle Madness (HSTM) and it is ready to be quilted. I even had the backing fabric in my stash and I have enough yardage that I don’t have to piece the back. I may piece it anyway to make it more fun…but I am happy that I am at this point. It turned out really nice and I am anticipating getting it quilted. Probably, a feather pattern in the big blocks and stitch in the ditch around the hst’s and borders. So, the next WIP on the list is the Ocean Waves quilt. I think this WIP goes back about 2-1/2 years and like HSTM, it has a heap of half square triangles. There are 800+ in the finished quilt. I am not even going to count them, because I don’t want to develop a mental block. This quilt requires 80 – 10-1/2 inch blocks. Well, I thought I only needed 40 blocks, but each ocean waves block requires four 10-1/2 inch blocks to make one 20-1/2 inch block. So, I have to make a few more blocks, but everything is cut out. I just need to sew them together. I am shooting for completing the top by the end of the weekend. And yes, I have the backing fabric for this one too…

I feel I am on a roll, but when this top is completed, I am going to do a little work on the Farmers Wife Sampler, may be 1 or 2 more blocks. And then, may be a little time on the Orca Bay mystery quilt. With Bonnie Hunter’s quilts there is a lot of cutting, sewing and cutting again, so it takes more time. But I want to complete at least 2 blocks to see if I am going to like this quilt. If I do, then I will keep working on it however long it takes. If not, then I am going to pack up all of the pieces and donate them. Pineapple Blossom is up next…

I learned a new quilty word yesterday from a new blog friend at http://theslowquilter.blogspot.com/ . Flimsy is the word used to describe what we used to call "an un-quilted top" that has been hanging around for more than a year. You complete the top and put it away promising to get it quilted real soon. But it never happens. Just when I thought I was putting a dent in the fabric and WIPs backlog, here comes something else. So now I need to know…how many flimsies are lurking in a bag (I don’t do boxes) some where. How many flimsies do you have?  Below is a photo of the Half Square Triangle Madness quilt top.  It will not become a flimsy.  And now on to the Ocean Waves blocks.

HSTM revealed...

Following up on my previous post, I wrote that I would take pictures of a quilt that I started on about 4 years ago.  I saw it in a magazine and absolutely fell in love...knew I had to re-create it, however challenging it might become and sealed the deal on what would become my love affair with everything half-square triangles (hst's).  This quilt has a little bit of everything that I enjoy working with: taupes, batiks,  black, and of course lots of hst's.  It is a variation on the ocean waves quilt pattern and I finally counted the hst's.  There are 120 (480) in each border and approximately 1200 in the quilt top.  It will finish at about 80 x 80. They are all 2.5 inches.  I used the Tada fusible triangle product to make them and it was a breeze somewhat...I can't believe I am admitting to this, but I stopped working on this quilt because I became overwhelmed by so many of the hst's.  And then I miscalculated the border triangles and they did not fit and I had to take them apart. Sheesh... It just made me crazy.  One of my coworkers named it half-square triangle madness (HSTM). Mariah is not a quilter, but she didn't realize how right she was. The name stuck and I folded it, not so neatly, along with unsewn borders, bias edges and all and stuffed it in a tote bag.  From time to time, my friends would ask about it and I would claim ignorance on its whereabouts.  But I knew...it was thrown up in the back of the closet in the tote bag. :0)   Up until this weekend, I didn't even have a picture of it.  So feeling guilty about the number of WIPs, I moved it to the top of my to do list,  I pulled it out of the bag, my girlfriend Wendy (thanks again Wendy) pressed it a little for me and I am back to work on it.  I have one more border to construct and put on and then I will have it quilted and decide on a home for it.  I may keep it for myself, but I haven't reached that decision yet.  So, here it is ... revealed at last.   I will post a pic of the completed top very soon.



Recovering and regrouping…

Can you believe that we are in the 2nd week of the New Year? I am still recovering from all of the gift making and gift giving of the holiday season and frankly I am pooped! Now that the new grand daughter has arrived safely and is too cute; and the holiday rush is over and after much reflection, I have resolved to complete the quilts that I started on last year for myself. I gift quilts and I love that part of the craft, but I love them for myself too. So, if you look at my WIP list on the right side of this blog, I am going to work my way down the list. Maybe not in that exact order, but it is going to happen and I will keep at it until I am done. There will be a few new projects, but I just can not resist starting new stuff before I finish up the old stuff. I do that all of the time, so it will be a hard habit to break.

So for a brief update, I am continuing work on the Farmer’s Wife Sampler quilt. This is my diversion project and there is no rush here. The Ocean Waves quilt is moving back up the list. I am done with making the blocks. Just need to lay them out and create the top. I don’t want this one to continue to be a UFO, so it will definitely get done. Then, there is the Nine Patch Pineapple quilt that I started as part of an online challenge. It was definitely a challenge, required my undivided attention and I had to put it aside. I could not keep up. But it is going to be a gorgeous quilt and I do want to finish it. In 2010, I went to a retreat in Smithfield, VA where I had 2 classes with Bonnie Hunter. Lots of scraps, lots of blocks and not enough time. So the Pineapple Blossom and the Holiday Blue Ridge Beauty are moving up the list. And finally, a quilt that has become sort of my trademark for my obsession with half-square triangles. I started this quilt probably 4 years ago. I don’t think I have ever mentioned it on the blog, because, well, I worked on it for so long that I had to stop. It had started to overwhelm me and every time I looked at it, it was just too much. A co-worker  named it Half-square Triangle Madness and the name stuck. You will see what I mean when you see the photo.

So that is the short list of to do’s. Remember I wrote in a previous blog that I am going to start a Dear Jane. I intend to do that, just not until I finish something on the UFO list first. And I am also doing Bonnie Hunter’s Orca Bay Mystery quilt. It has been revealed, so I am taking my time on this – no big hurry. The Trinity Celtic Knot quilt is on the list and may move up faster than others because it will be a long overdue wedding quilt. All of the quilts on the WIP list are in various degrees of completeness, but here are photos of some of them, so that you can share in the fun. I will post a picture of Half-square Triangle Madness as soon as possible. It is a big quilt and I have to think about the best way to photograph it. I plan to do more frequent updates as I scratch them off the list, so stay tuned. Thanks for following my blog and have a great week.

       Ocean Waves

       Nine Patch Pineapple

     Farmers Wife Sampler

     Orca Bay Mystery

The Storm has Passed...

Irene has come and gone, thankfully. We are still getting earthquake aftershocks, (19 since last Tuesday) but I haven’t felt them, which is a good thing. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones.  That is the hardest thing to deal with in all of this turmoil.  But, life has pretty much returned to normal if there is such a thing.

I know in some previous post, I said that I would not be doing another challenge for a while if ever again. I find them stressful and the pace somewhat unreasonable. Some people are so prolific in their quilt making and I just find it hard to keep up. Also, I get bored easily, so the challenge may be just that, but if it does not hold my attention, it’s off to the UFO bin, which is overflowing. I do plan to complete each UFO and donate them to worthy causes; it is just taking longer than I had planned.

To compound all of this, there is just nothing new and sexy going on in the quilt world right now. Remember, when the 2-1/2 inch strips were all the rage. There were all kinds of books and patterns out. There were tons of projects just for the strips with accompanying rulers and templates. And then someone came up with Bali Pops in all of the different flavors along with the various copy cats. Then there was the strip cutter and Accuquilt Go die cutters. Just amazing stuff… But I think we are experiencing a loll right now. Well except for the automated pin dispenser. I am still trying to figure that out.

So, I have decided to do another challenge…one that I chose for myself and a few of my friends (even though they are getting cold feet). To make it more challenging, there are no rules to speak of and a very, very long time frame if we complete it by then.

This quilt has been on my mind since well…1999. I purchased the book and the software when it became available. I even attempted once to piece what I thought was one of the easier blocks. The block was never completed. I wasn’t ready. But now I am…and I am going to do it along with all of the other projects that I have going on. And to make it more challenging I am going to do another quilt simultaneously (sp?), to keep my mind and hands focused and busy. I am going to start the Dear Jane (DJ) quilt that I have wanted to make for the last 10 or more years. The other quilt that I will work on is the Farmer’s Wife Quilt sampler (FWS). No,  I am not crazy…and that is all I am going to say about that for right now. Below is a picture of the FWS blocks that I have completed, so you will know that I am serious (for right now).  The DJ blocks are taking a little longer.  Check out the website and you will understand http://www.dearjane.com/ why.   I guess I also need to mention that the DJ blocks finish at 4-1/2 inches and there are 225 blocks; the FWS blocks finish at 6-1/2 inches and there are 111 blocks.  That is the real challenge.

I am finishing up the African snowball quilt top over the long holiday weekend and then back to the ocean waves. And in between those 2 projects, I will put together a DJ or FWS block or 2.

Olivia's Quilt

I was able to finally concentrate in this awful heat and get Olivia's quilt completed.  I remembered to put a label on it and to take pictures.  That is a major accomplishment.  It has been carefully wrapped and is on its way to Olivia.  I had fun making this quilt and picking out all of the different fabrics.  I probably used about 50 to 60 different fabrics including the borders and the backing.  I can cross this one off of my never-ending list.  I think I am now going to finish my ocean waves quilt from way back when.  Let's see how far I get in a week and that will determine if I put it aside for something else.  Think Fall!!!

Ocean Waves -- Latest Update

After many starts and stops, I am still working on the blocks for the ocean waves quilt.  I have completed over half of the blocks (I need 80).  I have a ton of WIPs (works in progress), so when I complete the ocean waves quilt I will start working on an UFO.  Then I will start a new project.  I am going to create a list of all of my WIPs for the blog to help me keep track of what I am working on.  I am posting a couple of pictures of the ocean waves blocks.