Do I or Don't I??

I've a minor quandry on my hands .. The fabric on the left is a reproduction fabric - the fabric on the right .. i'm not sure about ...

I've done some research and had some ladies help me with research as well regarding calico's in the 1800's and civil war era .. well the calico of the time, is our muslin of today .. so doing a search by 'calico' wasn't going to work .. i've gotten more search terms and am hunting them down now .. if i find one that comes close the one on the right, i'll be using that :D .. might even use it for my wide border .. i think that would offset the other colours nicely .. but again .. do I or don't I???

I'm just not sure as it doesn't really have the 'look' about it as fabric of the time did .. the hunt begins .. if anyone has a link to a reproduction fabric that is similar, please shoot me the link please ;)

Underground Railroad Block with the browns

I decided to scan in the material that I was thinking for the background of the Underground Railroad block and 'play' with it as it were. I'm rather impressed with it .. the brown for the inner block looks rather darker than actual .. looks almost black .. but it's a deep chocolate brown .. I didn't adjust it - for one, I didn't think of it, and two, the blues and yellows are actually pretty spot on .. but the monochrome vines is almost actual .. doesn't look to bad .. Altho, the more I look at it .. I might just scan in a whole bunch of the fabrics so I can get a better idea instead of using the filler colours ..

I'll have to look at this for a bit before I decide totally .. but I rather do like it :D The two browns together with the bernatex background fabric work well together

Odd colour combination .. but it seems to work .. !!

And I've gotten lucky again .. it was suggested to me that I do my math with 40" as the newer fabrics aren't as wide as what I grew up with .. Since my fabrics were older, I decided to check them as this appears to be new ..

All of my yardage is 44 - 45" wide :D :D :D .. so that means my math is good and my fabrics are good to go ..

oh Lordy .. that means I have to commit to cutting this stuff out now :\ ..

trees, yard(age), I'm whacked!!

Good news on my quilt math :D :D :D .. I'm right - thankyou everyone that downloaded my pdf file and checked it for me ... it has been suggested to change the usable width to 40" as the newer fabrics aren't as wide anymore .. what's up with that .. they increase the price per yard and give us less .. BAH! .. A lot of my yardage is older, but that is great advise and I will measure my widths just to be sure.

With checking my math, I've realized that I don't have enough yardage to do the background all the same .. what I can do is have the inner blocks one background and the outer blocks a different one .. I do have more than enough for that .. And I think that it would look great too and I have enough to do the backgrounds all the same this way. For the inner ring and the Underground Railroad ring, I really want these backgrounds to be the same. The foregrounds I've already decided will be scrappy - quilts back then were made from scraps of this and that, so this would be more to the period - i have some nice yellows and reds that would be perfect for the foreground for this ring .. and ½ yards of each colour, so getting 4 - 5 blocks per piece won't be an isssue ..

I am bloody tired today! I woke up to my dad knocking on the door (the man has a cell phone, he could call (@@)), and he asked for my help with shopping for a tree for him and doing the plot at my mum's gravesite ... we spent all day it seems running around going here and there .. didn't get the plot done .. needs to have some maintenace done on the ground there first, but we did buy a hanging basket to hang on the shepards crook he had already bought at the gravesite, so that was really good .. and it looks really great too .. I think that mum will like it.

We ended up coming back here to get the dog and then go to his place to cook supper. We made a beef stir fry together that was pretty good!! .. We were missing a few things that makes it just perfect like fresh ginger and broccoli, but we made up for it in other ways with garlic and lots of other veggies ..

I got home and finally got a chance to beat the snot out of the weeds that have been growing in my backyard. In mid to late April, we dug up, leveled, raked, rolled and planted grass seed in our back yard. Well the grass was finally long enough for me to cut it. I wanted to do this earlier this week, but Monday I was busy with other stuff and it's rained just about every day since then. Well I could have done it yesterday, but Kyle broke my weedwhacker so I needed to fix it before I could use it. Didn't bother .. got a new Black & decker one today at Home Depot for like $15 :) .. so it was late when I got home, but nice and cool. Took me bout 30 - 45 mins to whack thru all the weeds in the back .. they were half my height and I'm a shorty ;) .. then to cut the grass. I went over it twice and am pretty pleased with the result. I'm happy enough with it that I finally let Orion out the backyard for the first time since we did all that work :) .. she was pretty happy too. But now I'm pretty bloody whacked .. being outdoors today in nurseries and at home depot then at the gravesite twice, THEN doing my backyard .. Yup I'm tired. I'll have Kyle rake up the weeds and grass tomorrow, then toss some more seed out there and we should be good to go .. all I need to do out there now is to hang my box planters, lay some stone next to the deck and move the old bbq off the deck - just basically rearrange some stuff.

I've gone stark raving mad (!)

I think that I've gone mad .. truly and totally mad!!

Yesterday I pulled out all my reproduction fabrics to pick the ones I wanted for my quilt. Well the background for the lighter parts is a definite - I just needed to find a darker fabric that I had enough of for the background for the Underground Railroad Blocks .. according to quilt pro I needed like 5 1/2 yds of this stuff .. i'm like .. that can't be right .. so I set it up again and redid the yardage calculations - I ended up with 2 different totals :S .. I don't expect the foreground of the railroad blocks to be the same .. I just want the background the same - the rest of it can scrappy .. I just want the backgrounds of each block to be the same. Then I decided - "Okay .. I can have the backgrounds of each 'set' of 10 blocks to be the same .. I can live with that .. so I do the math for a set .. I end up with needing ¼ for the background for the sets, but when I did another calculation I got ½ yd. I need to redo my calculations again. I've done them all the long way instead of counting on quiltpro as it doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind ..

I thought I would be slick and use excel to do the math for me quick like .. and I got another total .. I ended up with 1 5/8 yards needed for the whole background for that block .. that is 'consistent' with needed about ¼ yd per set of 10, and 2 yards for all 40 blocks .. but I'm not sure .. will do the math again and see.

As you can see, I don't have a HUGE amount of yardage - I have quite a few choices, but not yards and yards of anything but the background fabric for the lighter ring - I think that using the browns or dark blues would be GREAT for the Underground RR ring - those are the ones where I have yards of material .. just not enough to do it all one colour - I have a lot of ½ yd measures and FQs. If these numbers I did last nite are correct, then I will have enough of a brown vine pattern to do for the background - but just barely .. that means NO cutting errors .. no pressure at all .. BAH!

when i did the math by hand last nite, i was so tired that I'm sure that I made TONS of mistakes, so I'll redo it all from scratch again .. but am likely going to wait until after the kid and reg go tonite so I can have some quiet to do this in .. All I need is to get the same measurement twice and I'm good to go ;) ..

I hope ....

Math Wizardess ;)

Woot Woot .. I finally got my numbers to agree :D :D :D .. happy days!!! now .. do i have the confidence in my numbers to start cutting heheheehheheheheh .. i might do a test strip with some other material i have here just to see ..

Thank God that my numbers worked out this time .. i was really beginning to REALLY doubt math for quilting .. and while math isn't my strongest suit .. I am pretty accurate with quilt math

3 quilts done :| WOW

Here I was thought I was being slick and ready by getting bindings on the doll quilt, Seascapes, and my Spats Kitty quilt to have hand work ready so I can watch baseball or any TV. What i didn't count on was sitting down to watch a movie and being on a stitching tear that I got it all done :S .. well that's good as I have now have 3 quilts off my projects list, but I don't have hand work .. well I do, those little hex coasters that I'm doing by hand - but just not in that mode last nite. Don't get me wrong, I am sooo happy to have these little things done, but now what am I going to do when I watch tv???

This quilt is one that Joy made for me. It measures approximatly 24 x 24" and is the cutest thing. We had been talking about sea critter quilt blocks so that inspired me for the quilting on this one. I quilted in fish, seaweed, shells and waves in this one. I originally planned to a pieced binding for this, but the idea of seams in my corners had really put me off .. (I got that with the other 2 I finished yesterday), so I dove into my stash and came up with a dark blue with purple flowers and green leaves motif fabric and it accented it just right.

This is a panel that I can't even remember where I found it at or even if I bought it, I've had this in the works that long. Measures 14 x 17". What I did with this one was use a thin low loft quilt batting and hand quilted it with pink thread. Originally this was supposed to be a gift for a friends little girl for her dolls, but we fell out of touch YEARS ago .. i didn't really do anything special with this one, just outlined the 'boxes' and the borders. I did a single-fold binding on this and the binding is finished by hand. The binding and the backing are the same material; pink "stitch" lines on the diagonal, with country pastel stars with buttons sewn into the middle of them. Can't remember where I got it from, but it does match the quilt colours almost perfectly. I think that I'm going to sell this on my website - even tho it's small .. it is 100% cotton and hand quilted and finished .. so not sure on the price - maybe $15 - $20????

This is my first attempt at watercolour quilting .. I did this before I had any wc stash to speak of so the effect isn't quite what I envisioned. I had kitty fabric (shock suprise) that had a cat that looked almost like my Spats!! I cut out the kitty head and appliqued it down with roses near the bottom. I first named this quilt Kitties, Bugs, n Bears Oh My, but as I was working on it, it took the name Spats Kitty Quilt in my mind .. It's a nice memorial to him me thinks. I hand quilted this with butterflies, flowers and a cable design in the border with peach coloured thread. I used fabric that I had hand-dyed for the borders.

I almost had a serious issue with this quilt that nearly devasted me. I have kids markers that I use for quilt marking as they are all water soluable, but this quilt had been marked 8 years ago! Well yesterday my washer finally got fixed and when the guy hooked it back up, he got the hot and cold water hoses mixed up (not his fault - plumbing here is interesting to say the least), and before I realized that it was HOT water in the drum, the quilt was already soaked thru - the lines came off a bit in the first washing, but I think that can be attributed to the fact that water doesn't come out hot instantly. I washed it 3 more times and the lines had faded a LOT, but I could still see them. What I did was soak it over nite in a bucket of cold water with an oxidizer and that seemed to fade the lines a LOT more. I ran it thru the washer one more time and while I can still see the lines, they aren't near as bad as they were, and only in 2 or 3 spots, not the whole quilt.

You can see in the close up the kitty the lines I am talking about. Those are the worse lines in the whole quilt - just wished that it wasn't in the spot it was ..

Ah well .. now to figure out what to do for hand work while watching tv, but before i do that .. I'm off to pick my fabrics for our civil war quilt :D

Basket and sisters hearth variation test blocks

Cleaning the rest of my sewing room went MUCH quicker than I had originally anticipated :D - Only took about 45 mins to finish up. Amazing how wanting to get a spot to work can motivate you to do an icky task ;).

I went digging thru my scraps to find enough material to do my 2 test blocks. I needed to test these as these were originally 5 patch blocks and they didn't translate well into 10 ½" finished blocks at all .. 10", but not 10 ½". So I had some really wonky measurements on my HSTs.

The first one I did was the Sister's Hearth variation .. It dawned on me AFTER I had the pieces cut out and I had started to sew, that all I needed to do to 'test' my HST measurements, was to cut that and measure it up on the square .. bah .. ah well ..I got it all cut out and it was the wrong size .. I placed the smaller pieces as centered as I could just to see if it would finish up to 10½". I got lucky and it did finish up to that size .. then I made an adjustment .. I cut 3¹/₈", sewed the HST together and it was larger .. so I did a 3" and voila! it was perfect ;) ... now if I had down the basket block first I would have known that as my HST squres there were 3" :S

I wasn't even going to bother with the basket one, but figured better safe than sorry .. knowing me and my luck it would be off if I didn't .. this worked out like a charm and the blocks that I had to fidge measurements and directions with are now no worries and are ready to go :D

I'm going to work on the last border of my WC kitty wallhanging while watching the Tigers play tonite .. let's hope they beat Oakland tonite as they sure didn't last nite ..

Let's go Tigers!!

I started to look at my civil war quilt again and thought that it would look much better with the other background fabric creating a 'ring' around the central center block(s). If i do this as opposed to what I was planning originally, I will have more than enough fabric for my oops factor. And I like the way this flows better - makes the Sisters hearth and Ohio center blocks stand out just that much more. I'm really looking forward to getting started on this .. I have my yardage by block figured out (thank God for quilt pro) and all I have to do measure my fabrics and see what goes where :) .. I'm really looking forward to this and am happy to be quilting for ME again ..

So on my short term ToDo list I only have;

finish hand quilting the kitty wallhanging

binding for doll quilt

Michigan Left

Yard work, other needle work, quilting again ;)

Things have been interesting to say the least. There's been a lot going on, but on the other hand .. there's not been much going on .. i know .. sounds rather ambivalent doesn't it?

Shortly after my last post, we got super busy with yard work - spring clean up outside and the like - just not here, but at my dad's too .. Reg, scalped a tree for my dad, and he and Kyle did a lot of weeding and whatnot there. Then the next day, my neighbour decided to scalp his lawn as he was putting in sod and needed to remove the grass. In previous posts, I've mentioned the lake / moat / swamp that my back yard becomes when it rains - well waiting for the landlord to get us some dirt was getting irksome .. my neighbour offered the top layer of dirt from his front yard and we gladly accepted. What followed was 3 days of Reg digging up our yard by hand and me leveling the dirt after that with a rake .. then rolling it and then laying seed and rolling it again. 2 months later, I'm about ready to cut the grass .. I've more seed on hand now for the patches that will need it .. there are a few spots that didn't take so well - but that's only because I didn't water those enough .. those spots got sun most of the day and needed more water .. course you don't see that immediately .. but after the fact.

I've since gone back to my dad's to weed out my mum's herb garden . (3 years of weeds there, but not to bad) and just last Sunday I did her rose bushes .. now THAT was bad .. the grass had taken such deep root that it was waist high on me and very very thick .. my hands STILL hurt from that - that was another 3 years of weeds. My mum was to sick to do anything with her gardens before she died. But it now looks a LOT better and it'll be easier work when I'm there to keep it up for him. I did some yard work here as well ... planting some cucumber, tomato plants and some seeds for flowers. Since I don't have an actual vegetable garden set up, it was mostly hauling bags of dirt to the box planters. But after doing 4+ hours of weeding at my dad's, my plantings might as well have been a whole bloody acre LOL

I've not done much (read any) quilting until a few days ago .. I was feeling rather disenchanted by my lack of success - altho the scrunchies did do okay considering the crowd at the last table I had - I had 8 hours notice to get ready and stayed up most of the night to prepare them .. I hadn't done the dishcloths yet (I have them now) or the mini coasters. While I working on them over several weeks, I kept having in my head, "why am I bothering .. it's not like i can get a table right now and even if I had one, how much of this would sell???" so I was pretty discouraged, but I did get a stack of knitted dishcloths done - bout 14 of them .. I'm thinking of selling these $3 each or 2 for $5 ... I'll have to let you know how that works out .. altho my aunt and cousin were here the other day and they both just raved about them .. i did take a few of my earlier ones and use them in the house as i hadn't knitted in over 8 years and my tension was a wee bit wonky at first .. but that worked out in short order. I even got adventurous and 'drafted' my own patterns .. They turned out quite nicely, but by that time, I had knitted about 18 cloths and had had enough .. I was more than willing and beyond ready to move onto the coasters.

My dad picked me up the Summer 2008 issue of Quilts and More, and here are a ton of cute projects in there that look like they make up super quick .. They have these english paper piecing coasters that I just had to try .. they made up super quick and are cute. Of course I made a few changes in the directions .. the sizes they offered the templates for were either to large or to small .. so I adjusted the templates for a size that is just right .. they also wanted you to blind stitch down the hex flower to the circle base; to me, that just seemed so unnecessary when you could appliquilt it down all the same time .. so I did that instead .. what is really nice about these is that it's very quick hand work .. I did one with batting and said no more for that(!) .. with all the seams, it was just to hard on my hands to quilt thru all those layers .. I really do like the affect that doing it this way has as well as the adjusted size.

Reg has been talking about how warm it is at nite and I'm kicking myself for not getting started on our summer bed quilt .. the one I had been plotting to do with the reproduction fabrics - I've designed my quilt and have made my notes for how many pieces to cut for it - My issue is that I don't have enough of one fabric to use as the whole background; so what I've done is created a 'ring' so to speak and looks like I'll have enough to do it with that .. I've several different types of fabric in minimal yard lengths so that while I do have enough fabric to do my quilt, I don't have enough to make it all of say 2 or 3 different fabrics .. but that's alright actually .. in civil war days, quilts were made with odd bits and pieces anyways, so this will be more true to the time .. I've picked out 5 blocks from that era that I'm going to use .. Ohio Star, Simple Star, Underground Railway, Basket and a version of the weathervane .. Reg saw that block and said he liked THAT one .. so after the railroad block, this one became the 'focus' of my layout. The colours that I used in my layout were more to create the pattern and the separation of the sections .. I have a lot of blues and greens - which is great .. our favourite colours and our room has dark blue trim in it .. I need to do my test blocks and then i should be ready to go.

I've almost got my sewing room set back to rights .. it had gotten to the point where a bomb going off would have been a great improvement .. with getting ready for the shows and not having an interest due to my sense of failure . .I've not done much in here but check email .. even then .. very little of that .. so once that's done . .in the next day or two, I'll be doing the test blocks .. the basket and the weathervane block ..

Next planned steps

finish cleaning sewing room

test blocks

baste kyle's quilt; kitty quilt

finish handquilting border on small wallhanging

binding on doll quilt

finish Michigan left

etc etc etc ...