Catching up; baskets, candle mats

It's been in interesting few days. I've been going a wee bit nuts trying to figure out exactly what I'm going to do for the show coming up. I had a whack of ideas; but felt like a one-eyed cat watching 10 mouseholes. ;) I think it was just a case of nerves and just needing to settle on what items I was going to start on first.

I did find some really neat patterns and ideas on Freepatterns.com - it was just a matter of settling on what to do first. I found a really neat quilted basket there called Mexican Star Basket. It's the neatest thing - it's basically a 9 patch style 12" block that is folded and tucked at the sides to create a basket. I found a neat pattern called fancy flowers that is a traditional block so i am free to use it according to her terms and conditions. I cut out enough pieces for 5 blocks and rather outsmarted myself as I was going to cut them all out at once .. I made notes in the margin and ended up cutting wayyy more than I needed .. ah well .. I gots lots of pieces now :S I put the first one together and it looked really great.. so I started on the second one ... I realized that this was a 5 patch block - bloody hell! Well I had them cut, I was going to piece them .. i had all the sections of one block ready to put together and then I took a look and wondered how would this look without the sashings??? - welp i put it together and it looked great .. and what do you know .. i got my 9 patch block back :D :D :D I have 4 others like this but in different colourways waiting to be basted and quilted.

I decided to get going on my candle mats and pot holders to meet a challenge that one of my lists is holding. I need to have my mats done by Thursday at midnite. Well since my machine is still sick, I needed to use mum's. I've asked my friends to pray for me with this. I didn't care of they prayed, danced naked in the moonlight, or waved burning feathers .. I needed all the help I could get .. well I cleaned and oiled it this AM. heh .. only jammed once and broke a needle. I'm off to a GREAT start!!! I let it sit for the rest of the day so I could finish piecing the blocks for the baskets. I pulled it out and needed to make a bobbin .. heh .. you got it .. jammed on me again .. *Hellasigh Well I redid the bobbin again, double-checked to be sure that it was all in good working order and tried again .. so far so good .. i managed to piece 6 fans and it didn't jam again. I need to use this machine for the applique part of these fans. It's going to be a pain to have to swap machines around, but I don't have a walking foot for this machine and the speed is a wee bit tetchy for me to be wanting to quilt on it.

My house isn't as odorous, but Reg is sick and managed to get me sick as well .. oh well .. I started to hack and cough this am. I've got the itchy inside of the ear and the raw-ish throat. I'm hoping he and I start to feel better soon .. it's hard to concentrate and my temper gets frazzled more quickly right now.

But starting was the key - i'm not feeling so overwhelmed right now - matter of fact I can't wait to get a few things to the point where I can quilt them so I can see actually how they will work out. I'll be quilting stuff tomorrow .. it'll be busy for me tomorrow .. I have to go pay for my table at the show, reg's quarter finals for his bball team are tomorrow nite so I'm going - not been all year - would be nice if the coaches wife showed up .. I went to a lot of games last winter. Then that will leave me tomorrow nite and Thursday to get the candle mats done :D .. I can't wait to see how they'll turn out

split 9 patch - Michigan Left

With the kitties napping for a bit, I needed something else to do :S .. I pulled out my stars from the Sunny Swap that I did measure and sort by size; I even went as far as to pull out my blues and yellows for framing them. But the oomph to do it, just wasn't there. I also have a pattern kicking around in my head for a little swap that I'm going to do, but the idea has totally gelled yet. I open QuiltPro and fuss and delete and add and fuss and delete - nope that's not ready to come to me yet - close, just not quite there.

So I started to think about the Carolina Byways Quilt (split 9 patch) on about.com. Okay, I'm in - I've been itching to try this. So I pulled almost all my fabrics out and picked and pulled and decided on my first 6 colours (darks and lights). It went together REALLY fast! I really liked the look of it too. Only thing, this came out to 6" finished :\ .. I like this pattern, but I don't really want to do 37 of these things so it fits my king size bed .. I am going to fiddle with the math so i can end up with at least an 8 or 10" block .. Each set of cuttings gives you 4 blocks. Makes up really quick this way as it's all strip piecing and cutting. If you can work the seams to marry properly (I got 1 married - 1 not), then the final seam won't be so bulky.

I orginally laid it out as as a variable star and only had 1 set of 4 left to go - so to take a break I sat on my table and started to play with my blocks .. I twisted and turned and spun, and this image started to resolve itself - I instantly thought Michigan Left (For those that aren't aware of this anamoly, as Michigan is the only state in the nation to use them, please check out the link).
So, if this stays this way (won't get bigger), that's what I'm going to call this one :D

I tried to have each block share some colour somewhere with at least 1 or 2 sets. I needed to do 24 colour choices, 6 per set (3 light & 3 dark). And I also got more string scraps out of this - naw - I don't have a method to my madness ..

Heh .. i've already figured out how I'm going to quilt this based on it's name .. I'm going to do a log cabin pattern that is tilted off canter ;)

Re(a)d all over ..

Red Scrappy swap blocks are done .. For the last block I decided to do the Squares and Diamonds from Quilt Mags Stash Blocks - both blocks turned out VERY well and I'm quite pleased with them. I still have to put frames around the cornucopia block and the disappearing 9 patch, but those blocks are staying here .. I'm not sure if I'm going to red or white framing .. we'll just have to see. I just have to package them as per swap instructions and mail them off .. I can't wait to see what I'll get back from this .. I'm soooo excited .. a new nap quilt for me :D :D :D

I'm still researching my repo quilt .. i've found a listing and some pictures of actual blocks from that time frame and the blocks that i've seen so far are all in Around the Block which is GREAT! Now I just have to decide on the size .. Altho, I think that's going to be decided more on amount of each fabric that I have and actual block count. With a king size bed as my canvas, I'm sure I can have some fun .. but I'm thinking maybe 10" .. we'll just have to see.

I've let my kitty quilt sit for a few days and I will be working on the fillers for that in the next day or two.

Kyle has a pretty busy schedule for basketball .. he made the school team and has a game tomorrow / today?? (monday) and is in a tournament on tuesday. So i might not get as much quilty time, but i'm going to enjoy watching him play!

Cornucopia - Horn Of Plenty (Trouble!!!)

Why is it that I have MORE scraps now than I did when I did the "scrappy red swap"???

This block and it's twin were ... 'interesting' to say the least ... for some silly reason after I cut it, I couldn't figure out for the life of me the best way to put it together .. quiltmags, stash buster blocks don't give directions as they've already published them in previous issues of the magazine .. So here I am looking at all these million pieces and it's just not clicking - I wrote to my lists and waited and looked at them again .. time passes .. and it clicks - LeMoyne Star!! NOW I can start (and of course after I figure it out, all these suggestions come in LOL)

These pieces gave me a devil of a time getting right; and even then, they aren't right - I had the same space on both blocks near the top - a good 1/2" .. one of them is unlikely to be squared even with framing .. I've not lost my confidence with the inset seams - i'm more puzzled than anything .. my cutting was good, and my seams were spot on 1/4" .. it could be the 1/4" isn't exact on both pieces?? I have no definite clue why it didn't work out. I'm beginning to seriously think that inset seams need to be handpieced ;) And I've thought this every time I've done them. I'm a wee bit discouraged as I really wanted to use these in the swap, but I just can't .. not these .. I'll frame them for my scrappy quilt - well one at least .. I think that I'll frame the other and send it along as an orphan block for charity quilts.

I ended up with 2 extra blocks for the scrapbuster block .. I read in the instructions that you will have extras - it didn't penetrate - so here I have 4 blocks instead of 2 LOL .. I couldn't just NOT make them .. heh .. maybe another charity block LOL .. i'll just have to see ..I do want to make one more block as I wanted to have all different blocks for the swap ..

I've been researching my next quilt project .. reg and I need a quilt for our bed .. and he likes the reproduction fabrics that i have from the civil war era and later in the same century. There's a discussion going on about Dear Jane / Dear Hannah quilts and there are a LOT of people doing them .. well - heh .. i'm more of an individualist .. so what I'm going to do is, more research for one, but make our bed quilt in the style of blocks from that era with those fabrics .. it won't be a true reproduction - if I can't find the exact block, i'll use one close to it .. I'll try for the same style, but we'll have to see how it goes .. i'm thinking maybe a sampler, altho, I've not really seen to many of those, they all seem to made with one block or medallion style. But it won't be a true repo. Hmmm .. block size??? i've seen a few where the size is from 8" - 10" ... heh .. I need to do more research :D

A sort of 'eh' day ...

Today was 'eh' day. I spent most of the day doing list mail as I didn't do it the day before. One grea thingis that the fabric to trade all has a new home now .. Judi will be using it for her charity quilts! I get to increase my 1800 repro stash :) This is going to be GREAT!!

I did cut out blocks for the scrappy red swap, but after looking at them I want to be a wee bit more rested before I sew them up. There is a LOT of inset seams, and I don't want to be doing to much frogging on these. I'm using the Cornucopia block from Quilt Mags Stash Blocks page. They have some gorgeous blocks here in various sizes.

I'll sew those up tomorrow and then cut out some more blocks. I checked to see if the blanket i was going to use for batting for kyle's quilt is big enough and it's not. I have some warm and natural batting, but the way he treats quilts, I'm not sure I want to put really good batting in it. I'll have to see what I can dig up. since there's no football this weekend, not sure when i'll be doing the binding on reg's quilt. I have to get used to the fact that it's not going to be on anymore .. there is tennis .. oh wait.. that's over now .. **sigh**

that **D**arn Cat & Sleeping Cat

20 kitty blocks done in all .. WOWOWOWOWOW .. and i'm just about done with the larger blocks. There is one more pp pattern that I want to do .. i wish I could remember where i found this one as I would LOVE to give you all the link - it's a kitty sleeping on window ledge and her tail hanging down .. i'll be doing that block tomorrow .. already have the fabric all picked out for her.

These boys almost gave me a run for my money .. for some reason I wasn't reading the instructions correctly tonite. Good thing I make it a habit to re-read instructions a few times to ensure that I've understood them correctly!! Of course I outsmarted myself as I put the body on the top of the head where the ears go and the ears where the body goes .. this was done on my 'problem child' block.

I just have to share something with you .. of course it's cat related :). I laid out my backing fabric and was going to sit on the floor and play with my kitty puzzle .. suddenly my Pix comes to life; that bloody cat decides he's going to do the kitty prix 500 across my backing fabric and the blocks .. THEN the brat decides he's going to attack my thread on my cone (@@) .. blasted cat .. when he was younger I would call him the Brat Prince as he would attack anything coming out of the printer .. I am pretty sure that ever assignment I handed in was christened with 2 teeth holes in the bottom corner .. Of course Shadow gets into the act too .. she comes and sits on my blocks and meows at me like "what are you playing wtih them for instead of me" CATS!! Those **D**arn CATS!!!!

Updated
I decided not to wait until later to do this block. I'm feeling a strong urge to get started on quilting reg's quilt and I needed / wanted to get the 'big blocks' done for my kitty quilt before I let the layout start to gel in the back of my mind. This took me a good chunk of the morning to do as there was a lot of itty bitty fussy parts. Didn't have to do as much ripping as on the other pp block, but I am only going to do one of these blocks ..anymore and my quilt wouldn't look right; this block just filled the spot i was looking at just perfectly. Maureen (Mobird) Sparrow designed this block - you can get this and other of her blocks at Paper Panache

A Quilt for ME!?!?!?

Last nite or was it early this AM .. i was chatting in email with Joy and she showed me this adorable quilt with doggy bones and fire hydrants - she had just made it up really quick on her serger (new serger) .. it was just really really cute .. She then asks me my favourite colours, and states that she wants to make one for me .. i'm like ??? for me?? why type thing? basically because she wanted to .. I think that she wanted to play with her new toy as well LOL .. So I tell her and we are chatting along, and then this email comes through with this gorgeous quilt. The colours are just fantabulous!!! Heh .. she half killed herself getting the perfect border fabric out of the closet - her batting saved her - and it is perfect .. just pulls it all together nicely! This was before the borders were on, I do have one of it finished, but her daughter is modelling it and i've not heard back that i can use it .. besides; she's so pretty you won't even see the quilt ;) She's finished the borders today and I'll have it soon .. now to figure out how to quilt it?? LOL .. Joy Thank you!!! You're awesome.


I did manage to get 2 more blocks done for my kitty quilt. I did the sampler kitties .. I had cut out 3 different ones, but miscut 2 the same so did those at the same time .. now I'm just to tired ot finish the one right now. I never quite thought about how small cutting a 1 ⁷/8" into a half square triangle would make it .. i was almost ready to use toothpicks to hold it down LOL ..no seriously it wasn't that bad .. but it was interesting. As usual, one of the blocks is my problem child. I would like to solve this so I don't have to go through it LOL. The one squared up no problem .. i think in order to square the one, I'm going to have to cut his ear off .. I'll do the other block tomorrow and maybe another set of 2. Or even start quilting reg's quilt.

Sort of Quilt Related

I did do any sewing today, but I did patch together a webpage for my kitty quilt .. this way all the blocks can be seen in once spot instead of having to sift through my blog - assuming you are interested of course LOL ;)

Sraps N Claws Enjoy!

Quiltish Day

After suffering from a funk yesterday and a lack of desire to quilt (actually cut, I had nothing cut out), I started late in the day .. I wanted to make blocks for the scrappy swap .. I noticed that with me cutting right on the line, my blocks were coming in around 12 ¹/4" and that just wasn't good enough for a swap . home use - sure .. but not a swap .. these ladies are expecting my best and accurate work and they deserve to get it. what's a few more orphan blocks .. it's not like I'll never not have them LOL. What I did was have my lines just on the fabric side of the marks and cut from there .. that took care of the problem . it was like ¹/16th", but it was enough over several seams to make a difference .. what made me think of this was during a discussion on scant seams, that came up as a method for dealing HST - so I thought - why not .. i can't send the blocks like this .. tried it and worked .. I was having my marks right at the edge of the fabric .. and they were coming up short ..

I did do 4 blocks today .. 2 will be sent and 2 will stay here .. I grabbed some patterns off mccallsquilting.com for these blocks and they turned out perfectly .. I'm tickled pink (heh) and red with how well they look! I can't post images as we've all agreed to be surprised by what shows up in the mail .. makes it more exciting that way.

I went out and got the wood trim to try Sharon's Schamber's hand basting technique. I'm pretty tired today and I'm not sure I have the energy to do this right now, but there is always tomorrow. I'm looking forward to trying this and can't wait to start .. will have to be done at my kitchen table as it is wide enough to accommodate these 8' lengths of wood trim :O

Update on my kitty quilt

I had to add another piece of flannel to my design wall as with 2 projects going, i was constantly take blocks off and on .. as I put it up there I realized that my kitty quilt might be bigger than planned. I didn't take into a account the printing size difference on a mac with pc designed templates and pp patterns. bah .. I used to be able to do that conversion in my head without thinking about it - now i have to constantly remind myself to remember it and I forget (@@). This quilt isn't designed on the traditional format so I do have a lot of flexibility - I didn't jam all the blocks next to each other as I wanted an illusion of floating kitties and would fill the spaces with yard, mice, spools, milk jugs, and blank spaces. I was just picking and choosing whatever block appealed to me .. my top row is shy 2 blocks, both out of the Cat's Meow pattern book so I'll do those next, then do all the patterns from the internet. That should give me a better idea how much room I am going to have to play with. Also what might work in my favour is the fact that there is a set of 3 blocks (12x12) that I'm not going to use now; that will likely balance the space I'm losing - paws crossed

Cursed Jinxed .. hexed???

Whatever you call it .. it’s been a day and then some.

I woke up with a sinus headache today - i have a devil of time getting rid of them when I wake up with them .. and I still have it hours later .. blech

**hellasigh**

There was the issue of the 12 1/2“ blocks turned 12” .. even with following her directions perfectly it was still small .. as i was thinking out loud in an email, it dawned on me, scant 1/4“ seam .. so I measured my seam again .. yup 1/4” .. that started an email discussion on it, that almost turned into a rant on my part .. I was reminded of the 3 strip test, but you know, this seemed like an awful lot of work to find a scant 1/4“ seam when my machines do 1/4” .. I could do the effort, but why when there are so many other beautiful blocks out there that I can do ;) .. so many blocks so little time. and if I chose to do these blocks for my own personal use, the block size won’t really matter in the long run as long as they are all consistently the same size .. but for a swap .. nope .. besides, I can always design said block in QuiltPro too ;)

Since I can't use these in the swap, I want to share them with you .. they turned out very well and I am pleased with them .. also disappointed that I can't use them for the swap .. I like how the really scrappy one turned out.

I was going to do paper piecing off her site next - no problem getting a 12 1/2“ block .. she has some GORGEOUS patterns and there are 3 or 50 that I definitely want to do .. I was about to print out a few patterns when it hits me .. I have a mac .. a mac prints bigger - and depending on the dpi of the original image, it can be anywhere from 1 - 3 inches .. i’m like ”are you kidding me!?!?!?!?“ This just is NOT fair! ah well .. I have Around the Block with Judy Hopkins and there are a ton of blocks in there that I can make .. what’s nice she offers these blocks with rotary cutting instructions on 6 different sizes .. one of my bibles that i use and swear by .. also one of the books I recommend to all new quilters .. and old quilters ;) Another quilting book I live and swear by is Quilter's Complete Guide by Fons and Porter. Okay enough of the book talk - the important thing is that I have other options with out having to jump through hoops .. am I disappointed .. you betcha .. will I live .. yup. Oodles of sites out there and i have a ton in my quilty library at home ..

Then the next ”challenge“ hits me .. my internet goes KAFLOOEY .. just upped and quit .. no clue why, did all the connection checking, machine restarting, modem restarting.. EVERYTHING .. so I call Rogers .. no problem mrs. Lambie .. we’ll get you up and running .. well first level wasn’t able to help, so off I went to 2nd level .. I got a call back from them in about 2 hours I think .. I spent the next hour or two on the phone with one guy over several phone calls .. the upshot is there is some sort of a filter on the line that runs from the pole to the house - no clue why it suddenly kicked in, but in effect, it’s blocking the signal from reaching my house. All the lines are owned by Bell Canada and Rogers uses them via sufferance (my word, not theirs). From what I was told, this is a common problem with switchers from bell .. there internet stops working after a month. Well they have scheduled a tech to come and physically remove the filter, but it’s gonna take a week .. I was like stunned ... a week .. I’m going to go without the internet for a week .. i just did that, and that’s why I switched to you guys .. My next question to him .. don’t you have some sort of a dial up for your customers that have to access their email and whatnot remotely?? sure thing .. well got that up and running and for the next week (or so), I’m on dial up .. and it is NOT fun .. but I’m connected so I can’t sneeze at it too hard ..

At any rate .. not sure what the fates have planned for me next, but I’m sure it will be interesting LOL .. I’m off to iron reg’s shirts for the tourny this weekend and to make some more blocks for my swap ..

cats n scraps

Today I managed to get 2 more kitty blocks done .. well almost done .. I won’t be able to totally finish these blocks until they get into the quilt itself .. the heads and tails overlap on neighbouring blocks .. kinda cute me thinks! These blocks have the kitties appliqued on the background fabric .. I cheated and did machine applique using a blind stitch. One of the kitties has bright novelty fabric and the other just has novelty and country fabric in it .. Out of the 6 blocks that i did, these were the least frustrating out of all of them .. matter of fact I really didn’t have that much of a problem with these at all.

After I finished these kitties, I worked on blocks for the red, pink and white scrappy swap that I’m in .. I really like the blocks! I was working on this one; All Hallows Variation and it turned out really nice .. a few issues with corners as there are half square triangles, but nothing major .. just a few adjustments in what I was doing .. but when I got the one done as the pattern calls for, then I did the next one scrappy and cutting the square first, I decided to measure them .. ended up with 12“ unfinished .. this swap calls for 12 1/2 .. I’m wondering if I’m that off .. I remeasured my seam the other day and I’m a scant 1/4” so I’m not sure what’s going on .. I’ve asked my list if they are having the same problem. I do have Around the Block by Judy Hopkins, so I know I can find a block in there ..

what i’m planning on doing is 8 blocks to swap .. I have no idea what blocks I’ll get back as you can use any block you want to .. so I was going to send out 8 different blocks .. maybe 4 and have the buddies here . not sure what i’m going to do .. but in any case, I’ll have the twin-ish for what is sent in ;)

During a discussion on our list the topic of crawling around on your hands and knees to baste a quilt came up; someone sent me a link on how to baste, with no tape, without crawling around on the floor, and no dead back .. you use trim or mouldings .. check it out .. hand basting

I did manage to get our component cabinet put together today .. only had to back up twice i think .. looks great not having all the stuff stacked .. altho poor shadow can’t sit on the satellite box now LOL .. poor kitty

Scraps & Claws - Kitty Quilt

I think that this is going to drive me nuts .. This is starting to frustrate me to no end .. I’ve done 4 blocks and each block has presented a problem with numerous ripping and redoing ..

1. The cats with the entwined tails - centerpiece of quilt - had to do the tails twice
   
2. The cat with the bowtie - templates and I HATE templates!! two of them were the wrong size; and there was no assembly diagram so chances are, I put them together wrong .. that bowtie was inset seams .. BAH
   
3. The log cabin kitty .. hard to see for one .. i might have done better with just two fabrics .. light and dark .. and for some reason the ear isn’t right
   
4. the cat looking over her shoulder - pp - normally not a problem for me, but I had to reprint it twice (and that was a nitemare in itself - long story!!) Took me almost 4 hours to do that block!
   

I honestly expected to have more blocks done than I do .. granted since this is a sampler, I’m not going to be able to speed piece, and there is a lot of sew, trim, press, sew, trim, press .. but even with that factored in, this seems to be dragging .. I’ve not given up tho .. not by a bloody long shot!

What I’m going to do is work on my kitty blocks and then work on blocks for swap .. give myself a break .. this is a scrappy swap any block long as it’s 12“ and is red, pinks, white or black background .. I’ll make 6 blocks for swap and 6 for here. I’m going to use this quilt to replace the one from my ohio star swap back from 97. That poor thing is falling apart (cheap muslin i used) and I want to be able to repair it .. so that quilt will go away for the time being - that’s my story and I’m sticking to it LOL ..

Right now I’m searching out blocks for this swap .. driving myself crazy (not that I had to far to go LOL), but I can’t seem to make up my mind .. I’ll figure it out soon - Since I’m not going to know what block i’m getting, I can’t really plan for it .. so - I’m going to pick a block that will be the alternating block and will go with just about anything .. i LOVE stars ... and I’ve found an oodle of them .. Just can’t make up my mind is all LOL

Back to my searching, do 2 swap blocks and another kitty block ..