Challenge, Inventory, health n stuff

Please click on the images to view larger versions in a new window ;)

It's been a nutty week - with Reg's basketball team season winding down, my challenge and getting sick.

Reg's team won their quarter final game on Wednesday by 15 I think .. it was a game that the ref's were absolutely HORRID and Herman led by at least 5 the whole game. It was good to see it! I had a splitting headache, was sicker n a dog, but enjoyed it. The semi's are tonite and I'll be going to this game as well. If they lose, they are out, so I want to be there to support the team.

I spent 2 days being sick and almost missed getting my candle mat in for the challenge. As it was i sent it up just before midnite and the email at midnite :\. This is the candle mat that I entered. I did the birthing method for quilting this. Made it quick to put together - I'm likely going to do this method for all the smaller items that I can; while I wish it had that pretty defining binding as a frame, i can always add an extra ¹/4" to the outside for the appearance of a border. I used green thread for the quilting and did flowers and ditch stitching.

This is the candle mat that I wished was ready. While the colours are striking in the other one, this one just speaks more to me. I used a variegated thread for the quilting and did different flowers, butterflies and ditch stitching on it.

I used mum's machine on for the decorative / applque stitches for these mats. It only jammed on me one other time and that was right at the beginning just after I did the bobbin. This machine has such a tetchy petal!! It only has one speed - SONIC - so speed control was a huge issue for me .. but all in all, no serious problems while doing it - it was just nerve wracking is all .. thank you all for the prayers, naked moonlight dancing and burning feathers ;)

This is a finished basket; I say finished like that as I still have to tack down the flaps on the inside. This was very easy to make, altho I did have to man-handle this while I was sewing down the flaps to make the basket .. I'm just so glad that my machine was able to do this :D. For this I just did ditch stitching for the sides and meandered along the bottom for stability.

I'm still not feeling 100%, maybe 55% right now .. have another headache, and am still suffering from this cold - but i'm better today than I was yesterday and specifically the day before - Thank God!

Extremes / Seascape Quilt / Kitty borders

Please click on the images to view larger pics in new window

Today was a day of extremes for me. The right side of the bed did NOT exist for me today. Might have been due to the fact that Kyle managed to wake me up after 2 hours sleep - and he wasn't watching the dog when he let her out this am. She managed to get the gate open and escaped (didn't go far, but not the point - she was after cats down the block) she's about to go into heat and he wasn't quiet about opening the doors, slamming them, yelling for the dog .. woke Reg and I both up .. Okay .. so Reg wakes up to a pin dropping on carpeting .. i DON'T!

I knew I needed to center myself, I was frustrated beyond all belief by not being able to find a rotary cutting pattern for a mouse (!) (and i started last nite). Even getting my DSL back today didn't make me feel better for long. I was ready to cheap out on my kitty quilt and just do fish. BUT .. I stepped away from it and worked on my Seascapes (Sea LIfe???) quilt that Joy gave me. I could't start it until after supper tho as my table can't come away from the wall to accomodate the boards I use. I did Sharon Schamber's basting method again and this time it worked VERy well for me. I took shorter stitches, longer thread, had the quilt on my cutting mat and really really really paid attention to the tension i was putting on my stitches .. I believe that might have also been a larger part of the problem for me the last time I tried this method.

After basting this quilttop, I felt soooo much better - Like I had actually accomplished something .. and while I was basting my mind was working away on my kitty border issue. They resolved themselves in the back of my mind. I printed out my quilting motifs, grabbed the sullivan's and started to plot. I realized that i couldn't try the appliquilt on this quilt after I had laid all the templates out as it would make it to busy i think. I have the whole quilt covered with a sea scene and I just think that that would be overkill. If you look, you can see the seaweed and fish in the bottom left corner, 2 bigger fish swimming around, shells in the corners and waves and shells for the borders. I really don't think that I want to add anything else to this .. that does disappoint me tho as I would have liked to tried that method, but there'll be other opportunities - if not, I'll create them :D

Now for the borders on my kitty quilt; I was at the point where I was just going to do all fish and be done with it. I did NOT want to do paper piecing, nor particularly applique at this point. I am so bloody close, that I want the top DONE NOW. well I almost short changed myself, but something kept me from doing so .. I have come up with what I think is going to be the perfect finish to this quilt .. All i'm going to say right now is it involves fish, meeces (appliqued) and kitties. Oh and it will involve math LOLOLOL But i'm feeling better about everything right now - borders are under control, Seascape is just about done .. I think that I'm going to see about using up the scraps that Joy sent me along with some other fabrics I have here and doing a scrappy binding.. I think that just might be the perfect finish to it

Border Dilemma / sea critters

Now the fun part .. i have decided that i want my border to be 3" wide for the fish and mice .. not going to do the other things (milk jug, yarn) as i really do NOT want to do more paper piecing. So, I have a rotary cut pattern and I can speed piece for the fish .. just need to find one for the mice .. the fish are 3x3 which is VERY good - spot on!! heh .. here's where the torture comes in .. do I want to do these with kitty fabric or other fabric .. i know i wanted JUST the kitties to be made with kittie fabric and the highlight of the quilt - The more I think of it, the more I am not inclined to use my kitty fabric for the border critters. They aren't kitties!! okay .. i'm off the rack .. sort of .. what colours :S .. heh .. just kidding, i'll likely go traditional colours for them .. but we'll just have to see what speaks to me - I guess I've resolved this now .. I love my blog .. LOL

I've also got another project brewing :D. The quilttop that Joy made for me has spoken to me. That's going to be a sea floor scene :D .. I have some really cute sea motifs that I am going to quilt on it; seaweed with a fish poking out, shells, and a larger fish, as well as appliquéing (appliquilt maybe?? see i told you i was inspired!) with various sea critters on it .. I have to decide on exactly what critters I want before I do the motif. I'm thinking of an octopus, a crab and a seahorse. I can' put them on with embroidery floss over the quilting motifs. I can't wait to get started on this, but I have to baste the quilt first. I'll be doing that tomorrow - this should do up SUPER quick! I can't wait to get going on this one

Reg's Quilt is almost done!

Well Reg's quilt is almost totally quilted. I've done almost all of the top; criss-crossed through the squares, 3 lines per section; and put in football, baseball and basketball equipment quilt motifs in the 'blank' spaces. Here's a shot of the back of the quilt, I ruffled it a bit so you could get more of an idea of with the shadows for the overall quilting patterns.

I'm not sure if you remember but when I did the logos for this quilt, I had an inspiration that made doing them a whole lot easier. I created outlines of the images, converted it to black and white then printed it on paper. I used my sullivan's to tack the paper onto the quilt for stability while zigzagging (for the logos, not the motifs) and that gave me the idea for EASY quilt marking without marking my quilt! Again I created the outlines, printed it out, and tacked it on .. then I freemotioned and put the motifs in the blank spaces.







It went VERY quickly, no shifting of my pattern and since i just did a light mist, no residual stickiness. Worked like a charm.

For the borders, i'm thinking of diamonds .. but that's not what they are called, it will be a rectangle with a triangle on top and bottom of rectangle. Then I put the binding on and voila! time to hand sew it on, wash it and reg can have his quilt :D

I decided to try my 15-91 for the quilting - the feed dogs seem to want to sleep on the odd occassion and the quilt stopped moving (!), but I was ready for it after a few times and it went well .. Freemotion quilting on this machine is a DREAM .. not once did my thread break!! It was great!! Since i didn't have a cover plate for the feed dogs nor can I lower them, I used a mccain pizza box to cover the dogs .. worked like a charm!!

This gives me all the confidence I need for the freemotioning that I am thinking about for my kitty quilt .. I'll be getting back to that one soon .. but first swap blocks, and kyle's quilt :S .. poor kid, his isn't even basted yet!

Free Motion away!!

WOOO HOOOO .. (**doing the happy kitty dance**) I can do the free motion quilting for Reg's quilt that I wanted to do. I had a few tense moments there wondering if it would work for me or not. About 5 years ago, (prolly more now) I made a quilt for my now ex-BF mother for Cmas. I wanted to freemotion the quilting motif - had a gorgeous one all picked out and everything .. i designed this quilt and was pretty proud of it .. unfortunately the bloody thing wouldn't work - I can't exactly recall what the problem was, but I seem to remember that all the stitches were loose on the bottom, and yes I had the foot down - regular quilting with my walking foot was fine which is what I ended up doing - ditch stitching. It still looked okay .. but I know it would have looked so much better with the free motion quilting that I wanted to do.

I want to do freemotion (okay .. is it free motion or freemotion!?!?!? - poll question :D :D :D) for the blank spots in reg's quilt; footballs, baseballs, basketballs, bats gloves etc etc etc etc .. but was worried that I wouldn't be able to freemotion. I really didn't want to be doing that with regular walking foot .. oh heck no!! For the other motifs, sure .. but not these ones - and I don't really want to hand quilt this one .. not with the cats and the dog ending up on it i'm sure ... So i'm happy about that! I'll maybe work on it later on tonite, or start it tomorrow. Once I get the blank spaces done, I'll decide then if I will do outline quilting, or the fields / courts of the respective sports ..

heh .. I gotta share this with you .. Not even 20 minutes after I basted reg's quilt, (I put it on the ironing board as I needed my cutting table) Pix walks into the sewing room and stops dead .. his head looks up and over his left shoulder slightly .. he sees the quilt .. yup you guessed .. up he went .. What amazes me the most is that he's not been one to go up on the ironing board .. never has been .. guess he wanted to sleep on that quilt! He's practically not moved off of it since then. I've moved it on him once and he unerringly zeroed in on it again .. how do they do that!?!?!?

Last nite I did 2 more blocks (1 set) from Quilt Magazine's stash buster free patterns. I can't tell you which ones as it's supposed to be a surprise, but this is where I'm getting a bunch of my patterns from and the Around the Block Book oh and that disappearing 9 patch is really speaking to me .. I am sooo having a blast with this swap! heheheheheh only problem is anytime I see a different pattern I keep changing my mind, so I'm trying to stay away from the pattern sites ..I can lose myself there for hours (specially with dial up :S)