Lily on the Mat with Diamonds

I'm trying to get back to normal, but I still miss my sweet Pokey so much. Writing in my blog makes me think of her, so it's hard to do.

Working again on a string diamond project inspired by one in Gwen Marston's Liberated Strings book. I dragged my machine up into the kitchen (rather than using my still horrendously unorganized but wonderfully lit new studio down in the basement) so I felt a part of things rather than apart.

Lily worked on the quilt with me, of course.

I'm using the EZ Rulers 60 degree diamond. Love it. (Thanks for letting me keep it, Kathy!)

the classic "holding down the blocks so they don't get away" technique:

Kitchen islands (and counters) really are a fabulous place to set up a cutting station. So stable and just the right height. I'd be able to iron too if Lily would just move...

I was caught horribly off guard when I downloaded my new photos to the computer. I didn't know I'd find darling Pokey.

So frail and underweight, but still my baby. She'd just come back from the hospital so her leg was bandaged in bright pink.

I miss her so much. dammit dammit dammit.

That's why working on the diamonds is a good project for me. Stringing onto paper is soothing for me. The decisions are small and I know exactly how each piece fits. And I'm working with some of the fabrics that ya'll have gifted me over the years so those are good thoughts. I miss my blogging community even as I find it hard to participate.

Everything will be okay. just not yet.

Stupid Brain

I have the attention span of a gnat these days, jumping jumping jumping from one thing to another, not getting much accomplished. aaaghhh.  To make matters worse, I'm not liking much of what I get done. For instance, in the last few months I tried putting a bunch of my bright-era orphans and experimental blocks together to see if I could get excited and work on something.

 

Nothing. No wheee, this is the direction to go. My stupid brain is sludgy and just won't play along. I'm slogging through mud.

I tried to narrow it down and do a "cathouse" quilt of cats and houses and maybe some joy blocks. [a "cathouse" is U.S./Canadian slang for bordello, brothel, house of ill repute...]

Fun but I just couldn't figure out how to work with them. Brain wouldn't cooperate.

Okay, how about the Crown of Thorn blocks I started ages ago? That should be easier since I just had to make blocks. I made a few more of them. Kinda funny, but quilting while taking muscle relaxants and pain pills? Let's just say it's a good thing that I like wonky and liberated and utility quilts. Some of these blocks came out crazier than I meant.

Looking at this now? I like it. At the time I pushed for sashing because I was worried about how they looked all mashed together.

This was an audition. I started sewing sashing onto them and then quit, not sure I liked the direction I was going. Unsure now too. Sashing or no sashing? And yes, I know I have a block split into two there. My sweetie, Mr. Symmetry, hates it but that's one of my favorite things about the quilt. Maybe what it needs is more blocks....

That's another thing my brain has been doing. Second-guessing. I start projects then rip them apart. For instance, last July I took a class, along with Nifty, with the Gee's Bend Quilters. I had a hard time in that class for all sorts of reasons (no instructions or quilt examples) and was unhappy with the blocks and bits I came home with. I added borders to one of the blocks, auditioned here with Pokey and Habibi's help:

But wasn't happy with that either. After a few days of living with it, I ripped it apart and started over, ending up with Something Nifty, shown in the last post. Which, thankfully, I love so it gets to stay as is. I'm even hand-quilting it now, despite the second worst basting job I've ever done...

Working with the same fabrics, I pushed myself to use big chunks and work big. (I do love little pieces - I'm much better at that approach.) Anyway, came up with this medallion quilt:

Not sure it's going to stay this way.  I like column quilts better, and eek, don't like that bottom border especially. But I don't trust myself at this point, so not taking the seam ripper to it. Not yet.

On the topic of quilting, check out the Gratitude Quilt that Nifty made with orphan blocks. I helped her by choosing blocks, but that's it - all the rest of the brilliance was hers. Why is it sooo much easier to put someone else's blocks into a cohesive group? Not that she needs much help. Did you see Nifty's Santa and the Orphans quilt?

Take a peek at this Skinny String quilt group project that Karen Griska is doing over on her Selvage blog. I am in love - I want to start cutting and sewing now. Besides the fact that I don't need to start on yet one more gnat brain quilt project, I don't have much of my fabric stash here.

Why is that? Because of the Move to America. Sweetie and I bought a house (after a lot of online looking and a house hunting trip) in Maryland.  Most of our belongings and my fabric stash are there now and Sweetie is taking care of all the arranging and unpacking while the cats and I live in the sunshine, out of the way, for a few months. Sometimes I think I'd rather be there too, but eek, they got snow today.

I have been watching some tv. Some tv? Who am I kidding. Lots of tv, as always. Can't believe that my favorite new/newish program is Revenge. My husband says it's just a soap opera but HA! it moves a zillion times faster than a daytime soap, which would probably take 5,000 episodes to equal what we've already gotten in a season.

I love that show more than Once Upon a Time, which I'm enjoying but not as much. Is it possible that the folks on Revenge are doing a better job of destroying lives than the wicked queen on the latter? Hmm, I think it is. I love the story of Snow White and Charming (both versions) and wish we'd focus on that a lot more. Stop introducing new characters already - the most recent ep with Hansel and Gretel? Boring....

I wanted to love Grimm but I'm only tolerating it, and that's just barely. So dull and the main characters are leaden (hate the actors). Except for Monroe, the Big Bad Wolf. Him I love and that's why I'm hanging in there. I keep hoping that they'll bump off whats-his-name and his girlfrend and his partner and all the police side of things. But would that help? Why am I watching this?

I watched Alcatraz, but didn't even make it through the second episode. Dull and I am sooo sick of shows that jump back and forth between timelines. It's okay on Once because at least that's an alternate fairytale reality. But hated the gimmick on the now departed PanAm and on this one. Stuff going on in prison? So don't care. And I refuse to watch serial killers at work so that's another point against Alcatraz.

Speaking of alternate timelines, I'm still hanging in with Fringe, although I dislike this season.

Loving Project Runway All Stars. I'm rooting for Mondo just because I love him, but so far? Don't care for his clothes. I might actually like Rami's clothes the best. The recent dress for Miss P? Fabulously fun and that polka dot fabric was wonderful.

Feeling sorry for the chefs on Top Chef: Texas. Should only have chosen chefs who work in Texas style of cooking. And twice they've had to stay up all night to barbeque? Agh, I'd be in a coma. The most recent ep Fit for an Evil Queen was sooooo fun with all the freaky ingredients. There's definitely an evil queen vibe going on in the culture these days.

Been watching stuff on Netflix Instant too. Did a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewatching. Season Six (what can I say, I'm a fan of The Trio) was better than I remembered but Seven? bleck. Not sure I'm gonna finish it even though it does have a lot of Spike. I do love me some Spike. Just finished reading the comic books for Season Eight and oh how I wish we had more Buffy.

Finally got into Breaking Bad which I resisted for so long (a high school teacher turned meth maker? too dark!) because I kept hearing how fabulous it is. Oh yeah. Amazing, especially when you can just mainline several seasons at once. I've watched them all through season three, but not four.  Such an example of how great characters are enthralling, even when not much is going on. I wish the producers/writers of The Killing and The Walking Dead would take a few lessons.

Sigh. okay, that's enough bloggy blog blog for now. See ya!

Happy New Year!!!

Hi, guys. Happy New Year!

I finished this quilt top on the first day of 2012. It's made with a lot of the recycled clothing fabric that Nifty gave me when I was out in Seattle last summer, so right now the tentative title is Something Nifty:

So much fun to use fabrics that someone else has chosen. Nifty had a lot of orangy coral salmon colors in softer tones that I never buy much, not to mention the nifty polka dots and retro flowers. She has an inconceivable distaste for purple, so that came out of my recycled clothing stash, as did the yellows and bright pink. One of the fabrics that really helps pull all this together is a dark brown woven stripe with gold and orange in it. Really beautiful and rich, but not showing up here well.

I made this quilt with my scissors and a steam iron (and yes, the sewing machine), just sewing things together and trying not to stress too much. I didn't even use pins, although I know my machine has a tendency to sew unevenly and pull a bit.

I started by adding some of my own recycled clothing fabric to go with Nifty's - far more fabric than I ended up using. Made sure that I had dark darks and light lights - because contrast now is my big concern.

I cut a row from the fabrics I most wanted to use, just guessing at the width (roughly the length of my index finger). Cut a few pieces and threw them up on my design wall, to check I was on the right track and liked the proportions. I tossed a few fabrics out entirely and realized I needed more of the dark red.

I did all that to gain confidence, not to work on that precise composition. Would have been too hard. Instead, I just sewed bits together, making combinations that I liked. Lots of times I'd make the join just because the widths were the same. I made several rows of different lengths and found one I really loved and just used that length. Then it was a matter of joining rows to that initial one, walking off any extra length.

etc. I auditioned a row, stepped back to see how it looked. Auditioned several at a time, then sewed.

It was only at the end, the second to last strip that I added, that I ripped apart a few strips to create one with the colors I wanted. Second strip from the left in the final pic. (by the way, the picture above has the truest colors.)

Really loved working on this quilt. It went together in just two days and woohoo, I felt good. It was the first time I was able to sew without getting a migraine in months and months. I mean that literally.  I've been getting what my neurologist described as cervical migraines. That is, problems in my cervical spine are causing them. And that area of my neck is stressed when I sew.  But I'm on some new meds and doing better.

Yeah, so medical issues have been a problem this year. I have been diagnosed with Spondylitis by my rheumatologist and so far the meds I'm on for that haven't helped.

But anyway, I spent January 1st happily sewing with my good friend Kathy, who said that how you spend the first day of the new year reflects on the year you're about to have. I sure hope so, because it will be a great one. Hope it will be for all of us!

Two Steps Behind

I feel like I'm getting farther and farther behind. None of this two steps forward, one step behind. I'm one step forward and two behind these days. I've made some progress on the insane Lego quilt, finishing 49 blocks:

Still completely in love with it. Believe me when I say there are some truly ugly fabrics in here - I've been muttering and grousing about them and then when it's all put together I wonder what I was fussing about.

Julie's making progress on her lego quilt with flying geese and now Pokeytown Kim has joined us as well. Anyone else?

I've received more uglies/olds/boring/just-get-it-out-of-here fabrics in the mail. Since I just mentioned Kim, here's her contribution:
 

Next up, Beth S's fabrics, shown with a hint of Habibi.  ugh, shamrocks and teddy bears. I had fun fussy cutting the soccer players to get lots of feet!

Jill I. wrote she was excited to find the faces fabric (rather Andy Warhol-esque) and bought four yards of it - her friends that she was crazy. I understand though - I think it's awesome. Trying to convince myself to cut some of it off, cuz I'm tempted to keep it for a different ugly project in which I would leave it whole.

Sewkalico Karol-Ann sent these all the way from the UK. Yeah, kinda bland, but I love the little sheep!

Hey-Boo Lynn's group included the incredibly florescent fish and fabulous purple cabbage.

PrettyMade Nina sent these fabrics and the sweet heart all the way from Finland. I happen to love love the big bold flowers and the ?bee toys? I'm guessing those are kiwi birds in the corner and can that possibly be a kiwi-human hybrid playing football???

And for my fellow geeky quilters out there, Nina is one of us. She loves Doctor Who as well - woohoo! (Can't wait for it to start back up - not long now!)

Bumblebeans Victoria was mean to me. Aaagh. That hideous dark plaid with the roses will be awesome in a bugly quilt someday - I'm saving most of it for that.

Robert sent me two of his handmade Christmas stockings in addition to loads and loads of scraps. Love the tiny skeletons on blue. Are those turtles wearing roller skates???

Completely Cauchy Chawne is cutting up strips to make an insane quilt of her own (woohoo!) and kindly sent me some legos. There are some gorgeous fabrics in here! (Does that count as cheating?) Love the kitties and woohoo a sock monkey.

Thank you all so much!!! That's all I've received as of today. Hope I haven't forgotten anyone. Gotta run. I leave you with a pic of Pokey and a magazine that just happened to arrive yesterday:

 

Since I just got my subscriber's copy in the mail, I figure it will be two weeks before the magazine hits store. Ya'all take care.

So Much Socializing

I've been doing way too much socializing and not enough blogging, obviously. Last Thursday, sewing day at my house. That's my friend Kathy sewing at her Featherweight, and of course Pokey helping me out.

Bibi jumped up on my lap to get some attention so it was a perfect photo op.  Love Pokey's ears laid back...

Lily at least turned around, Pokey's only got one eye open, I'm making a face and have a firm grip on Bibi's head - yay, family portrait.

My friend Susan is in town from Cairo. I loved living there, but I'm glad we're not there now. We've been driving around looking at real estate for her and eating some fabulous food. Susan brought me some of the scarab beads I love so much. I want to use these in a mosaic someday.

In fact, I'm going to lunch with her in 5 minutes so I have to run. A last look at Legos.

Thanks for the uglies that have appeared in the mail. ya'all are wonderful. yes, I'll let you know more details about how I'm making this. Meanwhile, Julie is making her own version with Flying Geese and it is awesome. She also blogged about it at the UnRuly Blog, so check that out too.  Later, dudes.

Clowns?

What do I name this quilt?

With a Little Help From My Friends springs to mind but too long and unsurprising. My husband calls it the Lego Quilt, but I'm thinking that's a better name for the technique. Inch Madness? Ugly Uglies? Lost My Mind? Clowns? (Clowns??? read on, dear friends)

Rather ridiculous how much I love this quilt. I obviously must be having fun cuz I been sewing like crazy. Oh, did you figure out where my inspiration came from? Here's another clue: I've pinned the antique quilt in my Pinterest quilting board. Go and look because there are some amazing quilts to see.

On to fabric. I stole these from my friend's bin o' crumbs.  When were Dusty Pink and Williamsburg Blue so popular? Early 80's? I remember this color combination everywhere, including cutesy country kitchen stuff like geese. Or was that just my house?

Okay, I just got back from a tangent, trying to find a website with photos of popular home decor styles throughout the decades. I came up with nada. Anybody? Anybody? Buehler? (and that blast from the past was brought to you by 1986).

I've received more uglies etc in the mail. First up, I think these are from Heidi B in Germany. Am I right? hope so. The dull sickly green on the far right spreads sadness to whatever its next to.

Next, Linda D and Julie P. I haven't used these yet cuz they just got here yesterday. More blasts from the past. Look at the selvage - Northcott Silk Inc - that is old fabric. But you know what, it really does feel silky, especially compared with others I've been using. Sunflowers - gah. Always hated that trend. Don't remember when that was from either. The hideous green? One of my new favorite colors.

Lucy D sent fabrics neatly stacked. Whilst I admired all the fabulous surprises, I was interrupted. What? Pokey and Bibi couldn't possibly be interrupting.

Okay, I can't resist those blue eyes - Pokey can have a head rub. Uh oh, look out for the Clowns - one of the ugliest, funniest fabrics I have ever seen.

Agh, there's another one. (ooh, and Hershey's Kisses - mmmm)

I used the Clown fabric in a single strip. They're staring at you now

I shouldn't say that - my husband will refuse to sleep under this quilt. (Never Sleep Again as a quilt title or does that sound too Freddy Krueger?) Yes, I'm considering making this a king-sized quilt. Am I insane? Just in case though, I'm not sewing them all together yet...

Last but not least, Kat K-B sent strips, many of which can in no way be called ugly. I think that was cheating! (but I'm happy nonetheless).

Thank you so much to everyone who sent fabric - love it. I gotta wrap this post up now, even with bazillions of things left unwritten. Time to take little Pokey to the vet for her weekly saline infusion.

P.S. if you have asked, but not received, my mailing address it means you are a no-reply commenter. (or I'm an airhead. possibly both are true). Please send me an email or comment again and inc your email. Later, ya'all.

Ugly Fabrics?

Hi guys. This is just a quickie post. I wanted to show you what I've been up to with the uglies. This photo is a little misleading because there are two different projects on the wall. My blocks are the ones across the top and my friend Kathy has two Spiderweb blocks there too. I think they look amazing together. Click to biggify.

Here is a close-up. There are fabrics in here that I consider ugly or boring (as did the folks who mailed some of them to me) as well as some fun, lively and and gorgeous prints. But which are which? hee hee hee.

I'm using 1.5" strips but since I'm getting 11 rows in a 10" finished block, I know that they don't all measure 1" finished. Yes, I like little pieces. And no, I'm not strip piecing any of this. Just joining lots of little pieces and loving it.

The quilt I'm making was inspired by an antique quilt posted on a blog years ago. Any guesses? One hint: the quilt was photographed in a quilt shop in The Netherlands. I'll tell you more another time.

Thanks to those who've sent me uglies etc. Some of these fabrics I completely love.

Here are some fabrics I already had. Do you recognize some of these, Kathie B?

These came from Synthia, Carol E and Grass Roots Quilting Sharon. Synthia, I found these florals ghastly as well. eesh. Sharon, I LOVE these, but I can see how they're hard to work with.

 

Janet R and Roz sent these. I love the little cowboys on orange! and the horrible little white flowers on purple.

These were gifted by Kathy in FL, Stitching Hands Kristin, Rene (with an accent above the last e) and NiftyQuilts LeeAnn. I find the "egyptian" fabric particularly egregious - it looks greek to me and those aren't heiroglyphs.

I've gotten all of the above in the quilt already. But uh oh, I got two more packages in the mail! (that's a surprised whee oh boy! uh oh, not a bad uh oh). Viv M sent these - some are beautiful and look much better in person than in the photo.

QuiltMom Anna wins the prize for the ugliest uglies. Seriously. Check out the middle of the top row. A bilious mix of yellow, orange and green next to Raggedy Andy. eeeeek. I gotta make a block with just these.

I know I should have written a post all about the remarkable time I had in Sisters and Seattle (which I completely did) but I have to get a post done about this so everyone can see what the uglies are up to. And I know, they're not all uglies. Some are just plain grim and sad. or incredibly outdated. And sometimes you just need to use up your stash.

When I first started quilting, I cut strips off of every new fabric that I bought. and then they sat around and I never used them. So 20-some years later, these guys are finally getting used:

I just wish I hadn't gotten rid of so many fabrics (and strips) I considered ugly. I have really fallen in love with oddball, hard to use fabrics. Have I convinced any of ya'all?

I'm still taking donations of 1.5 to 2.5 inch squares to strips. and No, they don't have to be long. Just sending me bits is good. I'm up for a challenge!

I got two baby kitties on my lap, so gotta run. And so I don't get in trouble, a Lily photo: