When it rains....just move

 The other day I found myself with a free afternoon. What was I going to do?  Well, to be honest there were a couple of things that I could have done, but I chose to sew instead!  It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the temperature was finally warm enough to go out and sew in my Summer Palace ( I first talked about my Summer Palace here, and then again here, and probably a few other places sprinkled around my bog).  The weather has been unusually cold and wet so far this Spring.  I have a few flowers planted, but none in front of the Palace yet! Yikes! I have not been able to get excited about buying and planting flowers in such yucky weather. In fact, I had thought about going out today and purchasing some but we had a tornado watch this morning, and it looks like it can rain again. :( That quickly put a damper on those plans today!

Anyway, I guess I had better get back to what I am really writing about today! I got my little Featherweight sewing machine all set up in the Palace and started to sew away on a project that has to be kept a secret right now so you won't be seeing this work in progress.  You never know who is going to read your blog and this is a gift for someone. I am making the quilt top and someone else is going to do the quilting.  I will show you the finished top at a later date, but I won't be showing this work in progress as I would hate for a surprise to be ruined!

There I was...happily sewing away and listening to book on my ipod when I noticed that it had started to get cooler. Well that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Then I noticed that the wind had picked up.  That is not a good sign.  My hubby came home then and said, it is going to rain, and it looks like it could be a big storm.  Oh no!!!!!!! Not when I was having so much fun in the Palace!  As I finished up the step I was working on it started to rain. I gathered up my things and dashed inside. I could have decided to call it a day for quilting but nope, I decided to set up shop on my desk. Call me lazy but I didn't want to carry everything downstairs (where I usually sew) just to drag it out again the next time I was going to sew in the Palace (And I had plans to do it again soon!). 

My little Green Alien friend saw all of the green fabrics and decided he needed to help me out. You may not know this, but one of my favorite Disney characters is the little Green Aliens from The Toy Story movies. You might remember the Alien Cupcakes that I posted my other blog, Travel Talk With Marilyn and this one. The cupcakes were a lot of fun to make and eat of course! I have three of these little Alien guys that hang out on my desk and they always make me smile when I look at them. They make great office mates! :) 

Yesterday at guild we had a guest speaker, Caron Carlson come. In the afternoon she gave a class on hand piecing an Orange Peel quit.  Stay tuned for more on that topic soon...and I can actually show you that one too! :)

Hand Knitted Socks

Hand knitted socks! I love to knit them, I love to wear them. What I don't love is.....

making one sock on the regular double pointed needles and then having to make another sock just like the first. It is kind of like de ja vou, like a been there and done that type of feeling. If it has been any length of time between the making of the two socks then I have to remember if I made any changes to the pattern on the first sock. Yikes! I decided to try a different method, making both socks on circular needles at the same time. This way, when you are finished you are finished! I like that idea. I bought the books Knitting Circles Around Socks and Knitting More Circles Around Socks. The directions look pretty easy to follow and I have read that many have had success with these books. Why did I buy both books? Well, the second book has the knitting from the toe up method which is another thing I want to learn. The yarn just kind of flew into my virtual shopping cart when I ordered the circular knitting needles. That is my story and I am sticking to it! 

So far I have just knitted socks on the DPNs (double pointed needles) from the cuff down. In fact, I have a pair that I am working on right now on the DPNs. That is what you see in the lower left hand corner of the photo. Will I finish that pair before I start a new one? Yes, I will and this is the reason why - they aren't for me! They are a gift for a friend. I wanted to give my bff two pairs of socks for her birthday because she loves wearing them as much as I do. I didn't have the socks made in time, so I gave her the yarn. She understood and gladly gave the yarn back to me. :) I have three socks made and the last sock is on the needles. I will not allow myself to start the two at a time socks until I have that last sock made. I am afraid that if I allow myself to put the sock aside I won't get that third sock made in time for my friends birthday next year!  I guess I had better get knitting because I can't wait to make some more socks!

Toy Story Alien Cupcakes

I had some fun in the kitchen yesterday. I made some adorable Toy Story Alien cupcakes with these supplies:

Want to see what they looked like? Click here and you will travel with Galactic speed over to my other blog. Come on over....."You have been selected!"

Some more progress...

I have made some progress on the machine quilting of my New York Beauty quilt this past week. I have not had the time lately to quilt as much as I want, but I guess that is just life. I took about 30 photos of the quilt back and front tonight to try to get a good one, but the lighting wasn't in my favor. I am stitching in the ditch around each triangle and arc. Yikes! There are a lot of triangles in this baby!

I have added a little squiggle to the middle of each big triangle. Don't you like my technical term of squiggle? I don't really know what else to call it, so squiggle it is!

I am still undecided as to what I will do in the middle of the blue sections. I am thinking of adding a curving line down the middle of each section. As to the other open areas...I still don't know what I want to do. Kind of sad if you ask me! You would think by now I would know what quilting designs I want to do, but that is not the case. Oh well, I am sure something will come to me!

What you sew, so shall you rip!

This is a case of ripping out offending stitches. I decided to spend a little time yesterday working on my New York Beauty quilt. I shouldn't have.

My eyes felt tired and my contacts dry. Allergies are no fun at all. I knew that some of my stitching in the ditch wasn't totally up to par, but I thought it would be okay. After stitching along the row of triangles I moved the quilt out from under that sewing machine. I did not like what I saw at all. Now I am spending more time taking out the stitches then I did put put them in the first place. Ugh! At least I hope I have learned my lesson. Don't quilt when your eyes are tired and dry as you won't like the results!

More!

I am still doing the "basic" type of quilting on my New York Beauty quilt - stitching in the ditch. I have so far gotten most of the blocks and sashing stabilized.

 

I am debating on sewing around each little triangle in the sashing. I plan on stitching around each triangle in the blocks, but oh there are lots and lots of little triangles. I have a feeling I will...sometimes I feel like I am a sucker for punishment. :)

I feel like all of the photos I have shared lately look exactly the same. How many times do you want to see the same quilt over and over? So, to remedy this I decided to show you a few photos of a quilt from a quilt show I went to this past August at Essenhause Inn in Shipshewana, IN. It is of an antique quilt that was made by many different ladies. It is believed to have been a wedding gift. The way the display area was set up, I couldn't get back far enough to get a photo of the whole quilt. Sorry about that!

I just love the different embroidered  blocks in this quilt.

Sister Alma is the one who made this block of course, and in 1941. Isn't it great that no one has to guess as to when this quilt was lovingly made?

The quilt won the blue ribbon for the Vintage before 1959 category.

Of all the blocks, I think Sister Silvia's is my favorite!

The Pinning of the New York Beauty

The pinning of the New York Beauty is finished! I believe in using many many pins as you can see here.

In fact, if I had more I would have probably used them, but I used every pin I own. I don't want the quilt top or the backing to shift while I maneuver this baby under  my little domestic sewing machine. I still haven't come up with a design that I want to quilt in a few sections, but I need to get going on this project. I will be using a product called Golden Threads Quilting Paper because many of the larger areas are too dark for me to trace the design on with a wash out marker - even with the use of a light box. Since this is the case, there is no need for me to wait before I do some stitching in the ditch to stabilize the quilt.  Now, if you aren't a quilter and you are reading this you are going to be scratching your head saying, "What in the world is she talking about? Golden Threads quilting Paper?" Just wait...I will show you this in another future post. Until then, I had better get going. There are more blogs to read that I need to catch up with let along start maching quilting this beauty!

Minnie Mouse Is A Quilter

As promised, I am back and now to tell you what I have been up to. This past Summer I became a Disney Travel Specialist with the 3D Travel Company. Last week I went to Walt Disney World for some training...

and then went on a Disney Cruise Line training trip too!  It was a three night cruise to the Bahama's. Whooo Hoooo! It was my first cruise, and I don't believe it will be my last!

 Did you know that Minnie Mouse was a quilter????? She is!

Please go to my new blog and read all about "Minnie The Quilter" here.  I would love to help my fellow quilters out there plan their trips to Disney Destinations. Let me know if I can help...in fact, click here for a free no obligation quote. Walt Disney World has some free dining opportunities out there now but there is a limited availability. And by the way, Disney pays for my services so there is no charge to my clients!

Will I stop quilting and stop posting about my quilting now??? No way! I may not be able to quilt as much, but it will never stop! :)

The Planning Goes On

I have been working on the designs for my New York Beauty quilt. I like to take left over blocks and try out different designs, threads and battings. I think I know what I am going to do...but I reserve the right to change my mind. In the last post I talked about putting feathers in the large diamond shaped areas. I have changed my mind...I think!  What I am going to put there for sure is still undermined. The fabrics are pretty busy and I am afraid that the quilting will not be seen easily no matter what I put there.

I will not be posting for about a week but don't worry, I will be back! I have some non quilting related things going on this week that I will tell you about on my next post! See you then!

New York Beauty Quilting Decisions

I have finally finished my New York Beauty quilt top! Yes!! I am liking what I see. It is bigger then I had first envisioned, but that seems to be the usual thing for me. I get carried away in the designing process I guess. lol  This is a poor photo as it doesn't show the colors well, and it is draped over a couch, but it was the best I could do today to show you the size of the top.

Here are a few photos that show more of the details. I have used Civil War era reproductions and the colors are so rich. I wish my photos showed this, but I am better behind the sewing  machine then the camera I am afraid!

Now to decide what quilting designs to use. I have been thinking about it ever since I started to piece the blocks together. So far I believe that I want to do some type of feather design in the big diamond shape background areas.  I love feathers, but have yet to master them. I don't feel confident enough to free hand quilt them, so I will be drawing my own pattern. I am thinking of sewing in the ditch around the triangles and doing a little squiggly type of line in the middle of them. I have yet to decide what to do with the blue sashing areas or the blue squares. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Oh what to do! 

New York Beauty Quilt Continued

The  New York Beauty blocks and sashing have been sewn together, so now it is time to take the papers off the back of the sashing! It is a long tedious process, but I thing the end results are well worth it.

 I use a small pair of tweezers that I found in the cosmetics section at the drug store to help me. I would be lost without them! I can get the little corners out of the seam allowances with ease and my fingers don't become sore from the pulling and tugging of the paper.

 As I am taking the paper off the back I am thinking about what type of quilting design I want to put on the front. I will be machine quilting this piece....oh what designs to use????

Making Progress on the New York Beauty Quilt

I am excited! I have made progress on my New York Beauty quilt! As you can see, I have gotten all of my blocks finished and four small blocks have been sewn together to make twelve big blocks! I now get to start sewing the sashing and cornerstones in. Yes, I am excited! Wait until you see the sashing - there are tons on tiny triangles on them too. I am hoping that my next quilt project doesn't have triangles in it! Now, on to more sewing!

Progress!

Yes! I am making progress on my New York Beauty blocks! Eleven more to go and I can start piecing the actual quilt together! I don't think I have ever used as many pins as I have in putting these blocks together. Oh the joy of dropping pins on the floor as they slip out of my hands while manipulating the arcs. I will admit that I have a habit of putting pins in my mouth instead of back into the pin cushion. My Hubby always stops and looks if I am sitting at the sewing machine before he gives me a hello or goodbye kiss. Are there any other quilters out there with the same habit? I hope so! :)

New York Beauty Quilt

My how time seems to slip through your fingers! It has almost been a full year since my last post! I have missed blogging. I have thought many times about how I needed to get back to my quilting blog. Why did I wait so long? I am not really sure, but the time as come to change that!

The quilting project I am going to talk about today was been in the works for the past year. Yep, the past year. This has been a very complicated project to say the least. (Of course it isn't the only project I have worked on in the past year, but it has been the main one - I promise!) I fell in love with a pattern I saw at a quilt store. It was a version of a New York Beauty quilt. I could just see this quilt in my home! Every year my quilt guild sponsors a ribbon and an award at the County Fair. The quilt for 2010 was to be a New York Beauty quilt. There was my answer! I just had to make that quilt! If you aren't familiar with a New York Beauty quilt there are many small pointy triangles and curved seams in the traditional block. Never fear I thought, I can do it! I decided to make a sample block because I have learned the hard way that all patterns are not written or drafted correctly. I tried out a block using the pattern and it was a failure. I posted about it here. The arcs weren't drafted correctly and the block would not end up square no matter how hard I tried. Was I ever frustrated! I then had to decide if I wanted to scrap the whole project and do something else or redraft the pattern. I really wanted to get a quilt made and entered in the fair. I played around with the quilt program called Electric Quilt 6 and was able to redraft my own version of the New York Beauty. I ended up actually preferring it to the pattern I bought, which is a very good thing! Want to see a photo? I know you do, but I am going to make you wait a little for that. :)

I will let you see a few parts of the quilt though! This is part of the sashing. I used the paper piecing method to make all of the little triangles. Lots and lots of triangles. Boy was I tired of triangles when I finished the last sashing piece.









I am now working on piecing the actual blocks together.
Because the sections are made up of arcs you have to use many pins to hold the two layers together. I know I am breaking a rule by sewing over the little pins, but these blocks are 8" finished and the arcs start out so small. It would be very difficult to keep the edges of the arcs right where I wanted them without that number of pins. I sew very carefully and slowly. I don't want to break a machine needle by hitting a pin wrong. Would you like to see the whole block? You will have to wait a little for that too. I know, I am being mean here, but I want you to see the whole block pieced together first. Four of the 8" blocks are sewn together to make one big block. Since I have about half of the little blocks sewn together I am going to make you wait to see what they look like when they are put together. I know, I am doing a lot of teasing in this post. Sorry - kind of. :) A side note here: I timed myself as to how long it took to sew each block. It takes an average of about forty minutes to sew one block. Yikes! If there are four small blocks in each of the big blocks...that is over 2 hours for each block. There are 12 big blocks. That is worth a double Yikes!

Well, the County Fair is next week. As you can see, this quilt will not be in it. Why has this project taken me sooooo long? There is a very good reason, but you guessed it. That answer will be in another post. I think I have rambled on long enough, and put out enough teasers for one post!

Ribbons Quilts & Flowers

Before I start talking about quilt related things let me warn you not to click on pop ups that tell you that you have a virus. As I stated in my previous post I clicked on a pop up that said I had 41 viruses. Yikes! It looked so official, but it so wasn't! With the help of a friend I believe that my computer is back to normal. What a headache! My friend stresses that it is important to never click on a program that you did not start yourself. Even if your virus protection program flashes up a warning, always close out what you are doing and run your own scan. I have learned the hard way!

Now for a couple of quilt related things! I entered four of my quilts and a knitted shawl into my county fair this year. I brought home one first place, three second place and one third place ribbons. Not too bad of a showing I guess!
It is always a lot of fun to see my quilts hung up at the fair, and even more fun if there is a ribbon attached to it!

I showed you a little glimpse of this quilt here with a promise of showing you the whole quilt when it was finished. I started this quilt a long time ago (I refuse to pin point the exact time). A friend and I some bartering and in exchange I was to make her this quilt.
I am happy to say it is now finished! I don't have close up photos of the machine quilting right now, but I hopefully will have on my next post. Camera batteries always die when you don't want them too! The border is more of a burgundy color then what this photo shows. I sometimes have a hard time getting the colors to show just right in photos. This was as close to the true coloring that I could get.

I just had to share this photo of my Hollyhock. I planted this by seed in the early spring. After I planted it I read on the seed packet that this plant wouldn't flower until the second year after planting. Boy was I ever disappointed to read that. Needless to say I am thrilled that the packaging was wrong.
Look at this beauty! It shows up so well in front of the white fence. I think this is one of my prettiest flower this year!

I have been working on a guild challenge again. This time we had to use a certain fabric and make a tote bag or a hand bag with it. I am very happy with the results so far! Wish I could show you a photo of it too this time around, but that will have to wait until after the challenge is due on Sept. 22. Can you ever have enough tote bags? I don't seem to be able to!

I've Not Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth

Hello! I've not fallen off the face of the earth, but at times it feels like it. I have been getting some quilting time in here and there. This morning I did a very bad thing. While I was reading my email a box popped up that said I had a virus. I thought it was my regular McAfee program and I clicked on the box that said to erase this virus click here. Well, it looks like it was a Trogen Horse of some type. Yikes! A good friend of mine is going to help me out some time this weekend so I should be back up and running again soon. I have a quilt to show you, a new guild challenge that I am working on, but that will have to wait for now. I will leave you with this warning: Be careful of what you click on, especially if it says you have a virus!

Home Again

I am back home again! I had a wonderful time at the retreat. Susan Cleveland the author of Piping Hot Binding, Piping Hot Curves and Marvelous Miters was the guest speaker and one of the many quilting teachers there at the retreat. I took four classes with Susan and I am so happy that I did. She is a fantastic speaker/teacher. One of the classes I took with her was the Marvelous Miter class. I am a poor miter maker to say the least. In fact, I hated to make them. I decided that I should take the class because I am such a poor miter maker. Let me say I love her method! The thought of miters no longer make me shudder. This is the mitered block I made in that class and the block I made in the Piping Hot Curves class.
The art of making and applying piping isn't hard once you know the tricks. Susan is very generous in the sharing of her knowledge. I am planning on having fun with that curved piping technique.

On Friday night Susan gave a lecture. She showed many of the quilts from her books as well as some of her award winning quilts. We were able to see "up close" because of the use of a camera. That made it so much easier to see exactly what she was talking about when she referred to different areas of her quilts.
She also used the camera during her classes which made the many little details easy to understand.
There were many little quilts to look at and learn from. Susan pays quite a bit of attention to the little details, and that is what makes her work stunning.
Susan had her books and a couple of other helpful products available. Yep, I think I bought most of them. Yikes!
There were quite a few vendors at the retreat also. Look what I found! I think I bought two fat quarters for the usual $2.50 each, but the rest of the yardage was for $4.00 a yard. I didn't buy all that I would have liked, but I did find enough to make me happy.
See the four fat quarters on the right hand side? I won those in a door prize drawing. Fun!

Now the next photo will be understood by the city gals like me. When I pulled up in the parking lot at the college where the retreat was being held in Mt. Carmel, IL I looked over to the next street. There were fields of growing corn. What surprised me was that I was still in the town limits. See the stop sign and the 35 mph sign? Where I live you have to drive at least 25 - 30 min. away to see the first sign of crops growing in a field. By the time you see corn fields the speed limit is at least 55 mph. I'm not making fun of this by any means. I just think of it as small town charm!

What's Been Going On

Hello! I have been able to get in a lot of sewing/quilting time in lately, I have taken photos but I just haven't found the time to post about it. Yikes! Bad blogger Marilyn! But, first things first! Look what I received in the mail the other day!
I won a give a way from Paula, The Quilter. I love it, and boy am I a happy quilter! Thanks Paula, you made my day! I am looking forward to making this beauty.

As I said earlier I have been able to get a lot of sewing time in lately and best of all most of it has been spent in my Summer Palace. I got the "big guns' out the other day and did some machine quilting. All that is left on this wall hanging is the binding. I am going to make you wait to see it until after the binding is on. Shame on me! *G*

I went to Shipshewanna, IN with some of my quiting friends the other day. Did we ever have fun! I tried to be very very good and not buy as much as I have been know to when I visit the Shipshewanna area. This is what I bought:
I found some great buys and some fabrics that called my name. They just had to go home with me. Beautiful flowers were outside of all the shops. This was one of my favorite photos. Just lovely!

Tomorrow I am traveling down to spend a few days with my parents and to attend a Quilter's Retreat. I will tell you more about that in another. I will be taking four different classes. I am so looking forward to visiting with my family and of course the opportunity to meet other quilters and to learn more about the art of quilting! Now it is off to finish packing for my trip!

Momma Said There'll Be Days Like This

Can you sing along with me? Momma said there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this my Momma said..... The day started out well. I was going to be able to spend some time sewing in my "Summer Palace", also known as a Gazebo. I was going to work on my Gallantly Streaming quilt that I mentioned in my last post. I found out that my friends who were working on the same quilt are much farther ahead of me. In fact, one of them actually has her top finished. Well, I couldn't let that happen so this was the project I picked to work on. I just love to sew out in my gazebo. When I look up I see the beautiful flowers. When I sew in my usual place, down in the basement, I only see walls.
I thought all was going well until I realized that I was missing some of the units that I had previously sewn. Three of one type and one each of two other units. Who knows where the missing units went. I guess that is what happens when a project sits around for a while and is moved from one place to another.

At least the units weren't very complicated and I had my extra fabric strips handy. I cut up some 2 1/5" squares and pieced away. Problem solved. I moved on and sewed the red piece that you see on to the sides of the units.
I ironed all of the units and got the next piece to sew on to it ready. Then I realized that the red strips were supposed to be sewn on the other side, next to the little blue squares. I looked through my pile of 44 units. I may have four that are sewn correctly. Can you say rip it? Ugh!

I thought I would show you the little lariat that I made to go on my rotary cutter. It even has a little rotary cutter charm on the end. Cute! I will never again get confused as to which rotary cutter is mine when I quilt with friends.
This past Sunday I took a few hours to play with this Sleeping Beauty block.
I wanted to see if the pattern was correct before I cut into my fabric so I pulled out the scrap bin and got to work. After I had paper pieced the arcs I saw that the smaller one hadn't been drafted correctly. One end of the arc was smaller then the other. I decided to go ahead and piece it together to see if there were any more baubles in the pattern. As you can see this block is anything but square. It may be pretty, but not square. I bought this quilt pattern because I fell in love with a sample at a quilt store. I guess I will be either finding another New York Beauty block pattern or redraft this one to make it work. I am sooo glad I didn't cut up a lot of fabric for this quilt before trying out the block.

I guess I had better get back to ripping out all of those quilt blocks. At least I can do it out in my Summer Palace!

Blocks (Or Pieces Of Blocks) and Mail

Today I got together with a couple of my quiting friends. We worked on a quilt called Gallantly Streaming. The pattern is put out by Cozy Quilt Designs. It is from their Cozy Strip Club Pattern series. The quilt is made from 2 1/2" fabric strips. I forgot to get my camera out before my friends left so I don't have photos of their blocks. They are much farther along then I am. As you can see I have one block out of 12 made and the little unit sections to make the rest of the blocks. The next time I get together with my friends maybe I will remember to take photos. I hope so!


Look what arrived in the mail today! Let me tell you, I just love it! Debi over at Quilting With Debi

was celebrating her 300th post and this is how she celebrated - with this generous giveaway. I was so thrilled when she sent me an email telling me I had won. While I was looking through the book "Tea In The Garden" I found myself thinking ohhhhh I like that quilt quite a few times. I love this book! The little Schnibbles pattern "Plan C" is just adorable. There are two charm packs, Hemming House and Tranquility. The panel that you see coordinates with the Tranquility line. I am going to have some fun with these fabrics! Now to decide what to make...I am thinking of using the Hemming House charm pack to make Plan C. Hmmmmm what can I do with the panel and charms that go with it? I will think of something! Thank you soooo much Debi!