Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around....

OMG...I have spring fever!  I have been teased these past few weeks of sunny 60/70 degree weather in northern CA...so I am sporting the capris, flip flops, tank tops and tees, and spring colors of teal, orange, yellow, royal blue and green....then it turned cold again.  Ugh. My back started aching something fierce and its been raining on and off...and I have walked out to a frozen car on my way to work three days this week.  I've begrudgingly put the closed toed shoes back on, long sleeves, and the jeans.  Ugh.  Oh well.  I guess Phil was a little optimistic in his early spring projection.

I've been super busy crafting these past two months of 2013.  I was asked to make a quilt for a little boy, but with little guidance, so I made three options for the requester to choose from.  I have yet to quilt them because my new craft room doesn't allow for quilting ease since the table is up against the wall.  But I have plans this weekend to relocate to the front room to do some serious quilting.  I received a free pattern in the mail from one of my many quilting magazines that really spoke to me.  I didn't like the colors they used in their quilt, but I really enjoyed choosing my own fabrics for the pattern.  I chose some bold red, yellow, lime green and navy fabrics for this cute modified pinwheel quilt.  Dad's friend Debi asked for the quilt and loved it, so I am happy to sell her this quilt.

I couldn't stop at one pinwheel though.  I really like making pinwheel crafts.  There is something whimsical and happy about them.  I think they remind me of sitting in the yard with the family as a kid and being fascinated as they spin and the colors they produce.  Hours of entertainment for me!  A few months ago, I ordered the Modern Quilt blocks book and fell in love with over half the blocks in there.  Since I committed to doing the rainbow of quilts, I decided to honor my commitment to finish all those quilts, but I kept flipping through this book with longing.

In particular I really liked this one block called Pinwheel.  Its actually a very simple pattern with very little in the way of putting it together, but I really liked its simplicity.  So I decided to make my version simple as well.  I'm not good at copying a quilt design verbatim, but I love taking great ideas and tweaking them to make them my own.  I love the "denim" color background and the cute pinwheel fabric I ordered a while back.  I just put together the top...and I am hoping to quilt it this weekend.  I was asked to donate some quilts to auctions for some elementary schools and for a dance club so I am hoping one of those groups like this quilt...because I really like it!

Fun with Pinwheels!

One day, I just didn't feel like quilting very much, but I had been wanting to try to alter Jeni's lined drawstring bag pattern to hold a wine bottle.  I was asked to make some wine bags, so I spent an afternoon experimenting with measurements, I nailed it....thanks Jeni!  I love your bags!

New Wine bags!  Love these....

Also, I have been interested in starting to make clothing.  But, I am a little intimidated especially since mom isn't around to ask questions like I was used to doing for so many years.  So I decided to start small.....Aprons!  I downloaded about five apron patterns and found a couple I liked in my sewing books, so I tried a few.  I love how they came out...big thanks to the bloggers out there with really easy to understand directions!  I hope the people that I made these for like them.   The best part about aprons...they use a lot of fabric and don't take a long time to make...so quick results and a stash eater!  Woo Hoo!!!

Susie's Vintage half apron

I decided that after I honor my few sewing commitments I have made, I am going to spend some time quilting what I want to quilt for a little while.  I haven't lost the passion, but I really want to love the projects I work on for a little while.  This is not to say that I won't make items for other people, but I am really going to actively try to use the fabric I want to use, try new patterns that look interesting, and not worry so much about reducing the stash as much.  After all, I am doing this whole thing for me, right?  I should really love what I make.  I got to get to the sewing machine.

Happy Crafting!!!

Reflection...2012 Accomplishments

I was asked the other day how many quilts I have made this year.  I wasn't sure, so I spent some time this evening totaling them up.  Not including the ones that still need to be bound and quilted, I completed 17 quilts in 2012!  That also doesn't include the other sewing projects: Lined drawstring bags, an apron, bean bags.....That is more than I ever imagined I would do...so I am pretty stoked and proud!  Though I made many of them as gifts, I am building up a stash of quilts for donation as well as for an art show I am aiming to enter next year.  Thank you to those of you who believed in me enough to make these quilts for your loved ones.  Thank you for reading my silly rants over the last year.  Thank you for asking me about my latest creative endeavor.  I appreciate all the help, support and encouragement over the year.

I know I haven't posted much in the last month, but I put away the sewing machine to work on cleaning up the craft room.  It was long overdue for a cleaning overhaul and I have been promising the hubby for quite some time now.  This week, I managed to discover the table top in there and cleaned it off!

The Craft Room (aka "crap room")

Today, I spent three glorious hours cutting and sewing the quilt top for the "blue" quilt using my new room.  I loved staring out the window while I sewed and I am looking forward to many more hours at the machine in there.  I am hoping to finish the blue top tomorrow so I can finish piecing the "green" quilt this weekend.  I still don't know what I want to do for the "purple" quilt, but I will try to decide this weekend too.  Although I didn't finish my rainbow of quilts by the end of 2012, I still have accomplished so much and I think I will be able to finish by the end of January.  Then I can start my next set of quilts....tribute to the holidays.

Thanks again everyone...see you in 2013!!

Happy New Year and Happy Crafting!!!!

Red, Orange, Yellow Quilts all done!

Just to catch you up...I was excused from Jury Duty...thank goodness.  This case would've bugged me just based off the other folks in the jury box...not the plaintiff or the defendant.  Luck was on my side though, so I could go swim and jam and quilt some more.  I've lost 5 lbs since swimming three times a week and my clothes are getting looser and looser.....

I am pretty proud how the "red," "orange," and "yellow" quilts turned out.  The frustration with the back puckering continues, but as long as you just stare at the front, its all good!  I am going to have a hard time giving these up, as I have really fallen in love with these quilts, but alas I cannot keep them all.  I guess I need to give them to friends and family so that I can visit them often.

Without further ado, here they are!!!!

The "Red" Quilt....gotta love Dad in the background

the "red" back

The "Orange" quilt

The "orange" back

The "Yellow" Quilt---I'm going to call it "Lemon Meringue Pie"

Pretty proud of the "yellow" back....I did the circle in the middle improve style

The "red" quilt came from a pattern by Laura Nownes called "Sweet Rolls."  I loved this log cabin style modification.  It came together super easy and quickly.  Mom was a huge fan of all things red, so many of the fabrics in this quilt are hers...this may be a keeper.  Also, I was able to use up this huge pile of off white muslin she left me, so it was a great way to use some fabric from the stash.  I really liked how quickly this quilt came together and I would seriously consider making more of these.  Maybe a multicolored one next time!

The "orange" zig zag quilt came from another blogger, the Bee Square Blog.  I have seen a ton of these zig zags all over the internet and I am drawn to them for some reason.  I had been wanting to try one for a long time, so I am glad I did with these pretty orange fabrics in my stash.  I based the color palette off the orange one with the brown polka dots and the dragonflies.  I am in love with dragonflies, so this was a fun one to work with.  I wanted to branch out with this one as well so I used a natural linen color for the background instead of white....just to try something different.  I AM IN LOVE!  Linen is so fun and I really liked the natural, earthy tone.  I really think I will be using more of this in the future.  I already got some grey and an ecru colored linen for a future quilt.  I worked in the blue zig zag to provide a little contrast so it wasn't so light colored.  Since blue and orange are complementary, I thought it would look nice.  Came out ok, huh?

Sweetwater's "mama's strawberry pie" pattern was the inspiration for the "yellow" quilt.  Mom loved lemon desserts, especially lemon meringue pie, so I thought renaming this quilt "Lemon Meringue Pie" would be appropriate.  I had fun mixing many of mom's plain yellows with my more elaborate ones.    I haven't done a lot with triangles, so this piecing job intimidated me a little.  I asked a lot of questions when I bought the ruler for this.  However, once I got going, it was easy.  When the front was all put together, I still had a bunch of triangles left over, and since the top looked so good (even after worrying about the outcome), I thought I might join them together in a circle.  I had the triangles laying out on the table for three days unsewn until I got up the guts to try to join them all together.  But these pieces went just as easily in a circle as they did in lines.  I even tried out a different stitch pattern available on my sewing machine to applique it to the backing.  Even though I didn't sew it perfectly to the back and the decorative stitching could have benefitted from some stabilizer on the "wrong" side, I was pretty proud of my impromptu applique job.  In fact, I have plans to do another quilt with different sized circles on it.  I need to get over my fear of curves, so I will make a point to keep trying more designs that include curves.

I am working on the green quilt now.  The squares are all pieced, and now I need to lay them out in the order I want.  The squares make leaves and all the leaves are joined to a stem running the length of the quilt.  I am really using a lot of mom's fabrics in this one, so that is good.  I just went home to help dad clean out some of mom's stuff and discovered two more boxes of fabric.....ugh.  Since much of it is themed by holiday or events, I am thinking my next project (after the rainbow of quilts is complete) will be to make a quilt for every holiday and event celebrated by her.  A nice tribute, I think.  I will hopefully get to put together the green quilt this weekend.  And I need to update you on Super Q's battle with the Robot Vacuum.  So until then.....

Happy Crafting!!!!

Entertaining myself while in jury duty

Been taking a little hiatus from quilting and jamming.  Following a difficult visit to the doc, I was tasked with losing 40 lbs.  This is no easy feat for anyone, much less anyone who loves food as much as I do.  So, I have been getting back in the groove of swimming four times a week.  Not very motivated as the air has turned chilly and they haven't seemed to take a clue at the gym and turn on the pool heater.  But, nonetheless, I am trying.  Unfortunately, this cuts into my quilting and jamming time....the price of staying healthy.

I started my day with putting together the "red quilt".  I had it all pinned and decided on a more structured loopdy loop pattern than I have done before.  All went well until I reached the end of the quilting and I noticed that the back fabric puckered a bit....ugh.  No matter how long i spend pinning, I always manage a pucker or two in the back.  It's frustrating, but obviously not enough to utilize the seam ripper and start over.  I think this one came out much better than previous quilts, however, I would like to figure out how to keep everything laying flat.  Truth be told, if I cleaned off the end of the table, I am sure that the quilt would lay flat as I navigate those curls, but that requires way too much effort right now.  I wanted to get this quilt done so that I can begin putting the "orange quilt" together and begin piecing the yellow quilt.  The orange zig zag came out so cute with the background linen that I used...it's going to be difficult to give up.  I haven't quite decided how I am going to quilt it yet, but I am thinking about doing a meandering zig zag pattern in white thread.  I welcome any thoughts you may have.  The yellow quilt will be strips of triangles sewn together.  It's a pattern called strawberry pie, but because I am doing it in yellows, I am going to call it lemon meringue pie.  It should be sunny and cheerful.  Already making plans for the green quilt....I may actually finish this challenge before the year is over!

I have the binding mostly done on the red quilt and plan on finishing it as soon as I get out of here for the day.  The most annoying thing about jury duty today is that they called us in to be here at 11am....we watched a video and were promptly excused for lunch.  So far, unimpressed by our judicial system.

Damn...Ran out of fabric

I promised I would share the process...no matter how frustrating...so here I go:

So when I made Caroline's butterfly quilts, I accidentally read the directions wrong and made enough butterflies for three quilts instead of just one.  Fortunately, my dad's friend Debi said she needed some little girl quilts for some new girl babies, so no biggie.  I just figured when I had the time to catch up on some other projects, I would go back to these quilts and finish them.  In case you don't recall, I made the butterflies on top of a background fabric of white with small sage polka dots....sooo I know I had some to complete the other two quilts that I started.  I spent Sunday piecing together the sashing for the first butterfly quilt and managed to do so with no problem, ensuring I used all the scraps that I had strewn all over the table.  Then I started with the second quilt.  Utilizing scraps went well until I reached the last row of sashing.  I couldn't find enough of the background fabric to finish.  Panic ensues.....I start going though my stash in the back bedroom for more.  No luck.  I frantically search the kitchen table for scraps or a lucky 1/4 yard of fabric left....none were found.  Then started thinking back to where I got the fabric in the first place. I tried all the local quilting shops.....NONE...even close to my fabric.  I scoured Etsy, Ebay, and any of my typical online fabric shops....nothing.  Ugh.

I then had a dose of reality....really, I am talking about one stinkin' row that would be different.  Does it really matter?  Only I or another quilter would know the difference.  So I started thinking what to use in its place.  White muslin?  Another polka dot that is similar?  Sage solids?  Needless to say my anger and frustration was heightening.  This isn't that complicated of a fabric.  Why is it so hard to find? I called a couple of fellow quilters to explain my frustration.  All had great ideas of what to do in this situation, but then my perfectionist nature started taking over again and I wanted to make these quilts well...not half assed.  So, in a last ditch effort, I drove to JoAnn's to try to find something close that would work, or I would just use white muslin on the bottom.  When I got there, I spied a bolt from afar that seemed to be my fabric.....I started getting really excited as I ran over to grab it.....and.....FOILED.  It was the same sage polka dots (that seemed to be in the same size as my fabric) on the white background....but it was flannel.  Ugh.  I stared at it for a while in the store trying to decide if the texture in fabrics would be more glaringly obvious than using white muslin.  I wandered the aisles a bit more and found a similar fabric again but the polkadots were much larger...and it was quilter's cotton, not flannel.  Which one would look better?  I decided to purchase a 1/4 yard of each, take them home, hold them up to the squares and then decide.  This agonizing decision took two days of thinking about it.

That day I received a book

Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration: 20 New Designs with Historic Roots

While thumbing through it, she talks about quilts and their historical roots.  Quilts original purpose of using up scraps and using what you had.  Many antique quilts have mistakes in them or a fabric change because they simply didn't have enough of their primary fabric, so often you will find a row or random square of a different fabric.  This gave me the inspiration to finish my quilt rather than agonize over it not being perfect.  Isn't the saying, "its not a quilt unless there is a mistake?"

Ultimately I decided to use the flannel fabric that looks nearly identical to my original background fabric.  I showed a couple people who all agreed it blends in nicely.  Only an experienced quilter would notice...or if you could tell the texture difference when you run your hand across it.  This event has taught me something important about quilting and being a member of the modern quilting world.  Don't worry if it isn't perfect.  Sometimes our "imperfections" are what make things more beautiful.  Here is a picture of the flannel mixed in with the original background fabric...hopefully you cannot tell the difference:

I've also been holding out on showing you some quilts.  As you know, a couple of them were to be used as gifts, so I wanted to show the recipient first...how selfish of me!!  Anyways, this one is another one that I finished a while ago with the intent of giving it to my friends Steph and Darren.  They were recently married and just bought their first home in Petaluma....always deserving occasions for a new quilt!  I chose the Fig Tree and Co. pattern "Clovers" to feature some great modern fabrics that I had been itching to use.  I loved the orange lotus flowers and some of the gardening type fabrics that I chose...plus I had many coordinating fabrics that reminded me of my friend Steph, so I thought this quilt would be perfect for her.  I used this really high quality muslin as my background fabric and pieced bright blues for the border which I really think bring out the oranges in the quilt.  I had fun quilting the random organic lines across the length and width of the quilt.  It was a different style I had seen on some of the blogging sites online, and I think she will appreciate the art involved with this quilt.  Well, Steph and Darren....Enjoy!  Congrats on your marriage and your new home!

Darren and Steph's Welcome to Your New Home Quilt

Darren and Steph's Quilt--back

I enjoyed the organic lines used to quilt this fabric....It was interesting to do and I like the outcome a lot

The quilt of all "reds" is pieced and ready for quilting as soon as the three butterflies are done.  I have already decided what I will do for the "orange" quilt...I want to do a large zig zag chevron across the quilt utilizing some linen that I have as the background.  Should be a really pretty combination.  Until then, happy crafting everyone!!!!

His, Hers and a little Princess

I've been so busy.  The wedding finally came and went this past weekend in Los Angeles...you know, the one that I gave up pizza and tots so I didn't look like a whale.  I did manage to lose some weight...but not the pound a week I was hoping for.  But, quite honestly, I didn't work out as much as I should have.  So, oh well.  Back to tots and pizza.  I really enjoyed the pizza I broke the trend with.  We ordered some while doing arts and crafts for the wedding down in LA, and it was rather tasty.  However, I broke my tots fast today at breakfast, and it was a little disappointing.  I guess that is a sign that I really don't need them.  Oh well.  I think the one thing that helped the most with losing weight was this stupid bite guard that I am being made to wear 24/7 for the next three weeks.  I lost the most weight in the last week than I did over these past 5 months.  Who knew, if you would just make it impossible for me to eat, drink and talk, that I would finally drop some pounds??

Anyways, I have been so busy crafting away the past few months.  I kept it a secret from all of you (five or so) people out there, but I made "his and hers" quilts for my sis-in-law and new bro-in-law as gifts!  As they are two of the five who read this, I didn't want to give away the surprise, so I didn't blog about the journey on making those.  But to recap, the piecing went together really quickly.  I did hawaiian fabrics using the Planeterium pattern in Elizabeth Hartman's book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork.  Hers were in shades of turquoise, pinks, sages, and yellows and featured sea turtles, her favorite.  His featured prints with "woody" cars (which he loves) and colors of turquoise, royal blue, red and teal.  Even the quilting went well....a simple stipple in variegated thread.  The only bummer stitching them was that my machine decided to crap out while doing the binding.  Fortunately, we took Estelle into Meissner's Sewing Center to receive a tune up right before heading to Europe.  So while I drank beer and ate waffles, Estelle was receiving the love and care she needed to keep on going.  I also decided to pick up my mom's Bernina when I was in the bay area after the trip, so I went and had her serviced as well.  I decided mom's machine shall be named "Betty."  In case you aren't picking up on the reference, all my machines are named after actors from the "Golden Girls."

I like the outcome of both....each unique but they look very similar.  I think the couple was happy with them too.  Hopefully, they will take pictures of themselves wrapped in the quilts, but until then, let me present the His and Hers quilts!!!!

"His" Quilt....front

"His" back

Stipple technique....getting better, eh?

"Hers" quilt front

"Her" quilt back

Aren't the sea turtles cute???

I also worked diligently at finishing my first "princess" themed quilt.  I was asked my my coworker to make a Disney Princess quilt for his daughter who is enamored with the Disney Princess characters.  My lack of girly characteristics made this quilt a bit of a stretch for me since I do not own a lot of pinks and purple fabrics.  So I purchased some cute pink/purple prints with castles, crowns, and unicorns on them to go with the Disney Princess fabric I found online.  I used a cute pattern I found on Faith Jones' blog, Fresh Lemons Quilts, called Nancy's Cabot's Antique Tile.  It went together really quickly and I found the quilting to be fun too...simple loop-dee-loops across the horizontal width of the quilt.  I was told by my co-worker that his 4 year old daughter loved the quilt and hasn't put it down since.  I brought it to work to give to him, and I think I may have even gained a couple more customers from the quilt!

Sofia's Princess Quilt

I had fun with the cute Loop-dee_loop quilting style

I decided to try to whittle down some of the stash that I would start quilting a "rainbow" of quilts.  My next quilt would predominantly feature red fabrics.  The following quilt will feature oranges.  Then yellows....etc.  I would like to get the stash down to a more manageable pile so that I can start quilting what I want to quilt....and not necessarily the random fabrics from mom's stash.  I started working on the red quilt....a modified log cabin design.  So far it is coming out really cute.  And, i was able to dive into a ton of this off white muslin that mom had four or five yards of that I had no idea what I was going to do with.  It looks great with the reds and I cannot wait to see how the quilt turns out.

Back to trying to organize the craft room and quilting my way through mom's stash.  Let me know if you have any crafty requests....I would love a new challenge!

Happy Crafting!!!

A Tale of Super Q vs. The Evil Robot Vacuum

This is a story about an artisan quilter (Super Q) who was innocently learning a new quilt layout, when all of a sudden, an evil Robot Vacuum, Roomba, decided to viciously attack at her unbound quilt squares.  Thus, the squares were ruthlessly dragged all over the house, through the vacuum's wheels leaving tire tracks, and ending up inside the dirt catch mixing with dust, dirt, pet hair, and other unmentionables.....ugh.  This would be easier if I had a vertical push pin board on which to lay out quilt squares, but alas, no room for that in my tiny craft room.  Super Q meticulously extracted all squares stuck inside the vacuum, and with hope and determination, she stitched together the squares into a beautiful quilt top, scarred with tire tracks, black dog hair, and Super Q's pride.

The Evil Roomba's scars left on Super Q's Quilt

Isn't the diamond quilt design cute?

Evil Robot Vacuum, Roomba...the culprit

Currently, the quilt top is soaking in a cold washing machine as Super Q crosses her fingers in hope that her quilt top will not be further destroyed in the cleaning process.  Super Q is not exactly confident since all the colors in the quilt are prone to bleeding in the wash.  But, with all fingers and toes crossed, Super Q may triumph over Roomba.  Stay tuned for the results and the actual story......