Works in Progress - Diagonally Speaking

A couple of weeks ago, I started an afghan with some of my skeins of Red Heart yarn that were left over from other projects.  A sort of scrap afghan.  I got it finished just this morning but now I am wondering if it is as finished as it should be...

 I am thinking it might need a border. Hmmmmm, but what as a border? Light or Dark? Lacy or Chunky?  and do I need to go buy some yarn to add a border?

Well, one way or another, it seems that it still is a work in progress, though very close to completion!

AND

A very long time Work in Progress, that I dug out of a drawer.

  

 Before the turn of the century, and probably 3 or 4 years before that my mother's other daughter sewed some blocks and gave them to me when she decided that she didn't like how they were developing. 

The sewing on these blocks was not very consistent as they were part of the early stage of learning to sew and quilt by her.   Finally about 5 or 6 years ago, I thought I would add some strips around the blocks to make them into log cabin blocks. 

 Still a problem with consistency in the sewn seams meant that all the blocks needed to be cut to a uniform size.   But they sat at the bottom of a drawer for a long time.  When I pulled them out of the drawer on the weekend, I was determined not to put them back in again in the same undone format.

So I decided to ignore the width of the strips and trimmed the blocks all down to a 12 inch square.  If you look close at the pieced top you will see that not all the seams line up quite as they should.

But.  As my friend Carolyn says, Done is better than Perfect!

And you know what? It is!

I am not sure if I am counting this as one of the 10 quilt tops in my own little Super Summer Snippy Challenge, though...  It could be called Number TWO if it is then.

OOPS!  Now as I look at this photo above, I see an error! Darn! Can you see it?  Back to the drawing board -- well not that far back, but a bit of unsewing before I think of borders for this quilt top.

Maybe next week it will be complete -- the top anyway and I can then think about where it will ultimately go...

I must say though it feels great to pull this albatross down to a level where it is getting dealt with!  I has only been about 15 years in progress! hahahaha!  That sounds quite rediculous!

I am linking up with the Needle and Thread Network of Canadian Works in Progress ( click on the button on my sidebar).

Super Summer Snippy Challenge -- ONE

A thousand squares...

Whewf!

  Would you believe it is not nearly enough? 

  Today, I decided to start on a quilt top that I want to be mostly pink and blue.  So I started to pick through the stacks of already cut squares and there was hardly any BLUE squares cut !  How is that possible?  Greens, Reds, Orange, Black and Purple, but not a one of any real BLUE...  That meant I needed to go back to my scrap box and pull out the blues. There were a few -- quite a few actually.  I just didn't get to them in my first session or two of cutting.

So a bit more cutting of blue scraps and some mixing them up with a variety of light colour or almost white scraps.  I cut from some yardage 24 - 6 and a half inch pink squares, it is actually a 50's reprint and combined with the blues should make a pretty quilt.

This past week I got the first quilt top done.  It is a fairly simple 16 patch with sashing and turned out quite nice...

This is a quick quilt top to put together and it measures about 48  inches by 60 inches.  I spent a couple of mornings sewing the pieces together and it is ALMOST a CHARM quilt, except there are a couple of the prints repeated, maybe about a half dozen, can you find the repeats?   As an  extra for this quilt top I also cut and pressed 250 inches of binding.

Number One Done -- nine more to go!

Will talk again next Monday and report on any progress on this project...

Finish One, Many still to GO!

I have a drawer in my sewing room that has a stack of quilt blocks that are waiting for something.  They are so very patient!  They think, (do quilt blocks think?) that they have been forgotten.  Not So.

This morning I opened my eyes about an hour earlier that usual -- 4 AM -- if you can believe that.  There was no falling back to sleep, though.  I had ideas percolating and they demanded doing!

So it didn't take long to get dressed, and have a bite to eat -- oatmeal porridge today -- and I was up to the sewing room.  The drawer of part done quilt blocks and "orphan" blocks were calling.   For a change I was not anxious to start something new.  I was thinking about how I could make some good use of those blocks.

One block seemed to call louder than others, and before 8 AM rolled around I had a block made into a cushion cover.   I found in my stash a nice Moda print from a few years back to add a border onto this Brown Eyed Susan dimensional applique block, then layered and machine quilted with hearts, or maybe they are heart shaped leaves all around and along the border.

I made the back, a simple fold over style -- I don't really like a zipper on a cushion, because it just seems that if you lay your head on it, the zipper pull always pokes itself into your cheek bone or other soft body part.

Now, I must admit that the actual flowers and leaves were not appliqued by me...  My cousin Linda made a variety of floral blocks some years ago and I was lucky enough to receive one as a gift, and now, finally it has become what it should have been after all this time.

Even though I do appreciate Linda's work on the applique, these gorgeous flowers just would not survive for long in a multiple pet household, so I have put the finished cushion cover into a plastic bag to protect it and I am listing it in my Etsy Shop.

 It was such an early start to the day, it is not yet lunchtime!  Maybe I can get a few more Orphan blocks made into interesting things by the end of the day...

Super Summer Snippy Challenge!

I always think of May 21 as the first day of summer, even tho that honor belongs to June 20 -- the third weekend in May is when most gardeners in Canada want to get their gardens cleaned up and planted -- fear of frost has usually ended...

The last few days have been quite full -- full of things to do - I did work on my little container garden) and full of world news that many of us have taken notice of...

Quilters were busy across the internet visiting the Quilt Bloggers Festival which was a Link-Up "party" at Amy's Creative Side (and you can still check out some links by clicking on the button on my side bar).  

Those of you who listened (and still do) to music from the 1960's and 70's are today missing and probably thinking of Robin Gibb who sang for us so many meaningful words.   And Charles and Camila arrived in Canada yesterday and fans of royalty were treated? to a rather long report of their arrival on CBC news.

As for myself, I have spent every extra minute working on a self imposed challenge for the summerand even gave it a name!

 The Super Summer Snippy Challenge.

  Lately I have really taken notice at how fabrics prints and colours have changed in the last couple of years.   I have been watching the "ideas" of the MODERN QUILT GUILD and how it has been growing across the country! 

One of the things I really noticed is that I have ALOT of older fabrics -- infact some date back to the mid nineteen eighties!   Now, I do not have "too much" fabric, at least in my mind I don't!  The concept of amount of any collection is of course relative depending upon how much you LOVE your collection!   I think I do have too much fabric when it comes to being out dated, or perhaps I could consider myself a collector of Vintage fabrics?  I think, though that the cure for outdated fabric is to become a scrap quilt expert!

So, I have pulled every fabric I have that is less than 1 meter and have started cutting!   I am mostly cutting 3.5 inch squares, but I am also cutting 3.5 x 6.5 rectangles, 3.5 x 9.5 rectangles and 3.5 x 12.5 rectangles... All cut sizes that can be combined in various ways...

When this weekend started I was aiming at cutting 1000 squares by the 21st of May -- I have reached that goal quite easily!   And I still have a rather large stack of fabrics to cut!  Today I plan to put some of those fabrics together and hopefully create a quilt top.   How long does it take to sew together squares to make a quilt? 

Well, to begin, one must first sew, 3.5 inch squares together into 2's then 4 patches, then I think into 16 patch blocks.   I have a few ideas for creating different settings and placements to make up scrap quilts or at least quilt tops over the next few months of the summer.   My CHALLENGE is that I am setting a goal of 10 quilt tops before the Autumn ( the second tuesday in September, because that is my quilt guild's meeting day).

I do not plan to make completed quilts, tho I may just get a few of the tops I make into complete quilts with batting, backing, binding and quilting.  I am aiming at 10 lap sized quilt tops all scrappy and they will be destined for donation to my guilds charity program.

My guild will help with the batting and backing for the quilts that I can finish completely, and if I only do quilt tops, the co ordinator of the charitable group will arrange to pass the top onto another member who can do the layering and quilting...

My first planned quilt top will be 12 random 16 patch blocks with sashing and cornerstones...  So as numbers go that means

12 - 16 patch blocks = 192  3.5 inch square.
sashing = 31 - 3.5 x 12.5 inch strips
cornerstones = 20 3.5 inch squares

and that should make a lap size quilt that measures about 63 x 48 inches.  I donot plan to make quilts that are much larger than that and may do some that are simply crib sized.

Considering I already have 1000 squares cut, this planned top, barely makes a dent!  1000 squares should easily make 5 quilt tops!

Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2012

Well, I thought it was time to get into the que and be part of this huge online QUILT SHOW...

This is one of my favourite quilts It was done as a group challenge with a group of 5 quilters who meet on a semi regular basis.   We decided on a  pattern that was inspired by a pattern in Quiltmaker Magazine called Heritage Squares.   The pattern called for some odd fractions in the cutting and since I was deemed the "math wiz" I recalculated all the blocks to be cut into 1/2 inch increments instead of 1/8 inch ones. 

We each made 80 blocks in our own scrappy fabrics and set a day for an exchange!  What fun to exchange blocks and see how our quilts might come together!

Now, because I wanted two twin bed size quilts, I created this version using the blocks that were in the red, brown, gold colours and after piecing the blocks added the narrow inside border of a very pale pink and then the 6" burgundy border. 
I machine quilted the quilt in a simple grid for the blocks and a straight line on the borders.   The matching quilt, not shown here is in blue green colours and was gifted to a family member and was also done by me.
This quilt was very much liked by members of my quilt guild, Abbotsford Quilters Guild that I was engaged to teach a class on putting it together.   I felt very flattered to be able to pass along some of my knowledge and things I had learned about putting quilt blocks on point.
This quilt was completed in September 2010.

To check out the other quilts in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival go to

http://amyscreativeside.com/2012/05/18/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2012/

and scroll down the page, quite a way down, and click on the thumbnails to check out the other quilts being shown in this festival...

WIP - Memories

Some years back I was given a task that included cleaning and sorting a home that had become almost like those homes you see on that TV show, Hoarders.

Ever since then I have developed a fear of things piled in corners, of brown squirmy bugs running in all directions when you pick up rugs or old clothes, of dust and spider webs so thick that the item underneath is a total surprise.

I know that not many homes get to that point but I think if you are able to find reasons not to pick up something or a reason why it is too much bother to pick up a broom, eventually a home will pile up to such a point where you just don't know where to start the clean up.   Really, the only solution is to just die and let someone else take care of the problem, or just move out and pretend you never lived there...

And I am not kidding!  Both those scenarios apply to the situation I found myself responsible for...

Anyway, I now find that I become a bit obsessive about things that either have no real use or things that do not necessarily please me when my eyes fall upon them in the course of a day at home.

I got into a sorting and cleaning mood the other day and one of the things I brought out was an old three tier sewing box that my Mother gave me years ago.  In this box I keep the memorabilia that is not paper files.   There are things even in this box that are due to be cleaned out because they just don't have that memory attached to them or they do not please my eyes. The box itself has become part of the memory, simply because of who gave it to me, so it serves a dual purpose.  Just to look at the box, I am reminded of the hours spent when my Mom was teaching me how to sew, especially the memory of her showing me how to set in sleeves on a blouse.

A bunch of costume jewellery -- in particular earrings.  Most of the things in the photo above is in the "give to the 2nd hand store" or the take apart to use in my crafty stuff...

Stamps, coins and foreign coins and even a sequence of 2 dollar bills... Well they remain in the box, because they were collected by my son and someday he may wish to have them, if not he can decide what or where they belong.  Among those coins are my Father's general service medals from WWII and a Silver Dollar from 1921.

A stack of 45's - The Beatles, Revolution, Help, She Love's You and about a dozen others.  They are my husbands.  He can't play them because the old phonograph that we have only play's 33rpm or 78 rpm records.  He has been watching at garage sales and flea markets for one of the small portable record players that closed up like a suitcase, but so far no luck.  But Someday...

And Badges and Identification cards from various places, My son wearing his soccer team uniform, a sew on badge from a Scout gathering, my id card from college, even a old EATON's credit card.  At the top of the picture is a SHUTTLE bobbin from my first sewing machine that is long gone, but I have that piece of memory.

Do you ever go through those things?  Do you find that there might be things you saved that after 10 or 20 or 30 years don't belong with the things you want to remember?  Or maybe there are things that you wish you had saved?

One thing about that box of things -- when I am ended, I hope that there is someone who will pick out some of those things and keep the memories in their own special way.

Starts

I am working on a project that I have been thinking about for a long time.  Just thinking about some things takes as long as making them!

I have been making things for a lotta years, but rarely  have I ever written down or made a record of what I create when it is something out of my head rather than from a book or magazine.

I have wanted to make myself a lacy crocheted shawl and I have seen some that too me are more than I want to do.  I was at first thinking of a repetitive lacy pattern, but then another idea entered my head and for the last two days I have been working and re working the first half dozen rows of the impending shawl pattern.  It looks like it will take some time to create...  and time to write.

In the meantime...

I  have been planting things in pots and larger containers to make my little townhouse back yard a glorious place to sit on warm summer evenings...

The usual red geraniums.   I have said it before, I plant red geraniums in memory of my Mom and since it is mother's day today was an excellent day to put them into the largest planter pot on my deck.

Petunias, white one's in gallon milk jugs on a towel bar hanging on the fence.  I saw this idea on Pinterest, except a wooden bar with brackets was used, but I only had an old towel bar, so we shall see how it works...   I am hoping that the petunias, grow enough to hide the gallon jugs...

And seedling dahlia's that were really cheap at $2.00 for 6 -- I haven't put this type of dahlia in my container garden before so on speculation I thought that 2 bucks is cheap enough to test them out, tho it takes all season to see how they mature and progress so 2 bucks and time...  I have no idea what the colour is tho,  maybe thats why they were cheap, hmmm?

Right now my whole house is quiet and most every one is having a nap, perhaps I will join them -- my dear hubby tho is out at work so really it is Me and Walter and Archie (the cats) and Pearl (the dog) and you gotta know that cats will curl up and take a nap anywhere and at any time, like wise most dogs....  So, pretending I am an old grey cat I shall follow the trend as it seems to be unfolding in this house...

Oh! and thinking of my Mom on Mother's Day.....

Work in Progress -- afghan and new thing...

Have you ever thought that something you do is TOO MUCH FUN?  Then when you think that having too much fun is not such a good thing you decide to step back and not let yourself have too much fun?  Does anybody else do that?

Well I was thinking that I was spending too much time on the computer -- facebook, twitter, pinterest, this blog, email and looking for interesting quilting stuff.   Well, it was getting to where I was looking more at quilting stuff on the computer than actually making quilting stuff.   So I tried to do other things... But I STILL didn't get any quiltmaking done!

I did manage to progress on the corner to corner afghan.  In fact I think there is less than 25% of it left to do...  I will measure 48 inches wide by about 70 inches long, and I think what is on that burgundy skein of supersaver may just be enough to complete -- but just in case I do have another small ball of that middle turquoise..  I am hoping that it will be finished up by the weekend.

And of course reading about other people's projects inspires me to test out new things.  For awhile now I have been admiring Grandma Coco's micro macrame' bracelets.   So I did a bit of reading about it and decided that the beads and cords were not going to be as neatly achievable as I would like....  So I thought about it and dreamed about it and just happened to be going through one of my books (Crochet Embellishments by Jean Leinhauser) and realized that crochet braids is much like micro macrame but I already knew how to crochet and I was already good at it!

So tho it is different, in a way my bracelets crocheted and beaded  is my own version of the fiber style bracelet.

This is my first ever bracelet done with crochet braid with rather large vintage faux pearls.   I am pleased with it.  The crochet braid is made with regular size 10 crochet cotton.

So with some more crochet cotton and another synthetic string I had in a drawer I have made a few more braids but have not yet added the beads.

At this point of experimenting with this technique I am creating the braid first and leaving extra long threads on each end, and I then thread the beads onto the crocheted braid.

So even though I thought I was having TOO MUCH FUN on the computer I have found that I am quite happily occupied with the various aspects of crochet.

I suppose the motivation to work on one of the too many in progress quilts will again strike me and I will be off on another tangent of quilting creativity.

I am so lucky to be so easily occupied, so if and when I get to feeling guilty about spending too much time on one thing, I just switch to something else.

Oh and in an attempt to be a good homemaker (hahahahahahahaha!) I spent some time today making my bedroom neat and tidy -- but I did not do dishes, even tho they did need to be done!

I am linking up with the Needle and Thread network again this week, so go check out the other canadian needle artists who have already linked their blogs.

Work in Progress - Corner to Corner Afghan

One of the least expensive yarns to buy is Red Heart's Supersaver.   I strongly suspect that it sells very well because they have been making it for a long time.  There are those knitters and crocheters who consider it a "junk" yarn, right? 

I know there are many more lovely and soft and probably easier to work with yarns out there in the marketplace -- but somehow, Red Heart's Supersaver creeps into my stash.  Mostly it finds it's way into my box of yarn because I find it in the thrift shops for even cheaper than it is in the retail stores!  How about $2 for 3 almost full skeins?

Now, as with quilts that I make through the year and donate to my quilt guilds charitable projects, I like to make up a few crocheted throws that I donate in the late fall to our city's Christmas Bureau.

I have a "go to" pattern for the afghan that I usually make for this.

It is from Red Heart's selection of free patterns.  Go to Corner to Corner Throw to get the instructions for this pattern.  I have been making this particular pattern for at least 10 years now!  I first found it via my Mother-in-Laws suggestion (she was not computer literate but had a print out and one in progress when I first saw it).

I love the way you can make this afghan look very formal with the angled strips being alternated in planned colours (see the pattern's photo on the Red Heart site, or as I make it, I pull out a ball of supersaver and start at the corner and crochet until that colour runs out, then I pull out the next colour and go for as long as that next skein lasts.  I am always pleased with these afghans!  Always bright and cheery.  Once you get started it just seems to grow itself...  This afghan doesn't have to be made in the size described in the pattern, you can make it baby size or lap size of king size if you like.  When you have figured out the increase and decrease method you become master of this project!

So this throw is destined for the Christmas Bureau, come November  hopefully I will manage to get a couple more done to donate.

I have a second Work In Progress, that is being added right here to my blog.   Look up.  Look Way Up.  See the tabs at the top of the page?  Well, I have a collection.  It is a collection that I started in 2009 and just recently decided that instead of hiding it in computer files, I would add it right here on my blog.

If you will click on the tab up there that says My Collection of Big Things you will find some of the photos I have taken of Roadside Attractions in various cities and towns between Duncan, BC and Winnipeg, MB.  These all are photos that I have taken myself, tho there are many many more BIG THINGS across Canada...  If you read back to The Worlds Largest Raspberry Plant a few days ago you can read about my most recent addition to my collection.  If you regularly visit my blog, for the next while I will be adding photos of the BIG THINGS.

I am linking up with the Needle and Thread Network today.  Remember to check out a few of the other Canadian blogs  linked up there too!