Sister's Choice Quilts

BOM Rehab Monday

I finished six filler blocks this week for the BOM Rehab project.  My block for next week will be a basket block for this same BOM, which is several years old and called Simply Sophisticated, fabric by Blackbird Designs.  Who knows, if I get the notion, perhaps I will make a block for my 2010 Designer Myster BOM as well!

If you are interested in joining in the BOM Rehab group, go to Pink Pincushion and tell Sinta you want to play. 

I decided after seeing Paulette's Winding Ways quilt that a checkerboard border was the way to go with my blue version.  If you don't follow SweetP Quilting and Creations, you might want to do that asap.  Paulette is just so creative and prolific!  Anyway, here is her quilt-

Is this not gorgeous?  Paulette did a combination of stitch in the ditch machine quilting and hand quilting the flowers with perle cotton.  I love how those big stitches stand out.  Yes, I am considering doing that as well!  The stitching on the darker blue fabrics in my quilt will be very Sashiko looking.

Here is my copycat version--

You can see where I am going with this. Right now I am really hoping I have enough of the navy left to make the outer border outside the checkerboard.

Such a miserable rainy week here last week.  I sure hope the weather clears up and so do the dogs.  Here are Ozzie and Remy in the Observation Chair--too bored to even bother looking out.  Remind me to wash that chair cushion and tuck it under the quilt.  Ahem.

 

Winding Ways

Winding Ways is really coming along.  I think I will make 14 more blocks so the quilt will be 7 x 7 blocks square.  Most of the blocks turned out really great.  Some are a little poochy in the center where all the seams come together, but those pooches pretty much press out, and once quilted, nobody will be the wiser.  The blocks are 8 1/2 inches square.  Someone asked me the block size and I replied that they were 10 1/2 inches, which was way off!  I used the Marti Michell Winding Ways template, which actually does come in a choice of sizes.  The largest is 11" as I recall.

One of my readers told me the circular pattern makes them dizzy, and I kind of feel that way too.  Whoa Nellie, is the room spinning?  This quilt was made entirely from scraps in my stash, which makes me very happy.  A free, and guiltless quilt!  I don't think I will put a border on this.  There is enough action going on in the center of the quilt in my opinion.  If any of you want to talk me out of this idea, please have at it.  Has anyone seen a Winding Ways quilt with a border?  What did you think?  Did it add something special or is the quilt enough on its own?

This is the view off my back deck as I write this post on Thursday night.  I stood out there trying to catch a shot of lightening, but didn't have the patience to wait.  Ozzie has been barking his head off at the thunder.  Thunderstorms are a rarity in California, did you know that?  We hardly ever get thunder and lightening.  Rain yes, the lights and sound effects no. 

Grandpa Larry had his surgery Thursday and the report from the doctor was good.  When they got in there to place the pins and the plate, the break wasn't so awful as they thought at first.  He got through the surgery very well, and now has a long recovery ahead of him. 

I am going to take some of your suggestions and plant some flowers on his front and back porches and take pictures of his cottage to bring to him in the hospital.  Along with all of your cards!  You are just the dearest women on the planet to take the time and make the effort to send your good wishes to a sweet 90 year old man you don't know.  He is an absolute doll, a Navy veteran, a fine grandfather, and an accomplished man (he has a PhD in Microbiology!).  He is lonely now, and has never been so on his own like this, and your kind thoughts will mean the world to him.  And to me.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

*Note:  Robin Kirk--I tried to email you, but your email wasn't included in your comment.  Try again and I will be happy to send you an address to mail your card.  Thanks!

Update

Hi there.  I seem to be off my posting schedule this week, due to family circumstances.  Grandpa is doing ok.  He is in the hospital, but they still have not been able to do his surgery because his blood levels aren't quite right yet.  With any luck, the surgery will take place today.  My husband says the nursing staff is taking good care of him and his spirits are pretty good. 

My spirits are not so good--as one reader commented--just as we seemed to be moving forward, to have this sort of a set back is just such bad luck.

Our little family is all Grandpa has.  My husband is an only child and all of Grandpa's brothers have passed away.  His wife of nearly 70 years of marriage died in September.  If anyone would be interested in sending Grandpa a card, let me know and I will provide a mailing address.  I know a show of get well cards would really mean a lot to him!

I'm stuck up here at home, 130 miles from all the activity, so I am not much help.  This week my daughter's in laws are taking care of Baby E, so I don't even have her as a distraction.  No worries, I am holing up in my sewing studio, listening to the rain pound down outside.  I'll make a big pot of corn chowder (complete with bacon for a garnish) and comfort myself with hot soup tonight. 

The progress on the Winding Ways blocks is coming along, but I have to say I have been quite distracted by the idea of finishing up my languishing BOMs as part of Sinta's Pink Pincushion BOM Rehab program!  The picture below is of six filler blocks for the Simply Sophisticated BOM of a few years ago.  The next block I plan to complete is a darling basket block, and I do love basket blocks!

If you are interested in joining this motivating group, put the button on your sidebar and send Sinta pictures of what you are completing.

 

Mixed Bag

My Easter weekend surely was a mixed bag.  On the one hand, we had glorious weather.  On the other, everything that could go wrong seemed to do that.

This was supposed to be the big weekend to move Grandpa into a little cottage on the nearby golf course.  He got through the day just fine, but when he was getting out of the truck at the final destination, he did something to his knee and has not been able to walk since.  Today we will get him to the doctor for xrays to see what he did to himself.  This is a disaster because I cannot lift him and my husband works out of town during the week.  I have a feeling Grandpa  may be going into a rehab center until he can walk again.  What a shame!  He hasn't even set foot into his new house!  I was there for awhile yesterday afternoon, directing the movers on where to place furniture and I know he will love the place once he gets into it.  His windows and back porch look out onto the golf course where one can watch both herds of deer and golfers enjoying themselves.

What little sewing I did took place during Eva's naps on Friday.

I am pretty happy with these Winding Ways blocks!  It takes me about 20 minutes to construct one.  Just look at the secondary circular pattern.  That is just so cool!

Here is something else I am planning on joining in on.  Sinta over at Pink Pincushion is hosting a BOM Rehab group.  Do I ever need that!  The idea is that the participants pick one of their BOMs that is sitting around gathering dust and make one block per week, and post about it on Mondays.  I have several BOMs to choose from (hangs head in shame).  In fact, have I ever finished a BOM?  "Why, I can't recall", she says, not making eye contact. 

Which one to choose?

Why yes, how about that one?

My Best Ever Machine Quilting Effort

 
If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that it has been my desire to improve my machine quilting skills.  I have been practicing my squiggles and loop d' loops and stippling and my results have been well, pretty much just ok.  Make no mistake, I am improving, but it is obvious that more practice will serve me well.

Recently I discovered the Pretty By Hand blog, where Kristyne has been teaching herself to be a Free Motion Quilter.  She recently posted that she has officially given up doing cross hatch quilting, as she feels her skills have improved enough that she is proud of her free motion skills to make that her preferred method.

I figured that if I wanted to teach myself to machine quilt, I was going to follow Kristyne's example and start out with doing cross hatching by machine.  The free motion stuff can come after I master that technique.  After searching for a half an hour for my painter's tape, I got started.  I placed the tape diagonally across the quilt, right through the middle and sewed my first line of stitching right along side the right hand edge of the tape.

Then I repositioned the tape to the right after each subsequent line of stitching, working my way from the middle to the right hand corner.  Once I got to the corner, I flipped the quilt top around and stitched the other half.

 
My stitching lines were just as straight as could be!

 
When the top was completely stitched with lines running in one direction, I repeated the process so that my stitching lines went the opposite direction, creating a cross hatch design across the entire top of the quilt.

I know this isn't the most creative process, but I was so pleased with my perfectly even one inch grid of quilting!  The quilting is dense and the top will wash up beautifully and be all quilty and puckery.  It is my plan to do a few more small quilts with this cross hatch technique, then branch out with more free motion patterns.  I just need to get my skill level and my confidence level up.  In the meantime, I am 100% happy with this method.

 
This little Bennington Schnibble (from the book Schnibbles Times Two by Carrie Nelson) will go on my round kitchen table, but for now I have it over the back of one of our leather chairs.  Have you noticed that in the summer when you are wearing sleeveless or low backed clothes, sitting against the back of a leather chair is sticky uncomfortable?  What a perfect use for a small quilt!  It looks adorable and no more leaning up against hot old leather with your bare skin.

 

Vive La France

Thank you all for your encouraging and supportive comments on dealing with elderly parents.   It is so difficult to know if one is making the correct decision.  You want to do the best for them, and yet it has to be convenient and safe and affordable.  Luckily, there are lots of choices out there, and I know we will make a good one. 

Still no updates on the quilting studio, so I am joining the ranks of the majority of quilters--Using the good ol' kitchen table.

I got Baby E's Central Park quilt back from the quilter, and must get the binding on ASAP.  Baby E is due in 13 days!  I went with Sara to her doctor appointment yesterday and he says she is about to burst.  He is not willing to let her go beyond her due date, so we should have a baby in the very near future.

This photo shows the beautiful quilting off very well, I think.  Debbie at Prairie Queens did it and I love the design she chose.  And the thread color is a pale yellow, which seems to be the perfect choice.  April convinced me to go with an aqua binding, and I think it sets things off very well.

Forgive me if I am a bit distracted today.  I just learned that a very dear friend of mine passed away.  He was a better friend to me than I was to him, and my heart breaks that I won't be able to tell him how much I valued him over the years.  I hope he knew.  I saw him a couple of weeks ago, thank goodness, but our conversation consisted mainly of trivialities and promises on my part to see him more often.  My fondest memory of him, and I have many, is one July 14th evening when he was at my house for a dinner al fresco.  He burst into song, singing the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, in honor of the date.  He knew all the words.  In French.  All the gentlemen at the table joined in, amazing everyone present.  Vive La France.  He was a jewel amonst men.  My friend Debasis Sen.  I will miss you.

 

 

Rummy, All Done, and a Winner For Sure!

Lord have mercy, I adore this quilt.  My husband looked at it and said, "Well, that's a busy one".  Pie in the face for him.  This is an adorable quilt.  The "busy-ness" gives it a movement and complexity that is so interesting to my eye.

First of all, the quilt is a pattern called "Rummy" from the book Fat Quarter Winners by Monique Dillard.  The piecing was easy, but needed to be quite precise.  No room for errors (no cut off points or non aligning seam allowances) here.  Because of the sharp contrast, all the lines had to be perfectly straight.  Any wobbles or mis-matches in the seams would stand out like a sore thumb.

The aspect of this quilt that was the most fun, was selecting the fabrics, without a doubt.  I wanted the lights to be varied in tone--from tannish beige to almost white.  The tannish areas look kind of smudgy and "dirty" to my eye, which adds a lot of visual interest.  Sort of a tea-dyed effect.  I used my stash completely for this quilt.  The "reds" range from true burgundy, to rusty burgundy, to a deep rose pink.  The lighter shades of red look sun faded, which is an antiquey look I adore.

Monique's quilt in the book was done all in blues, and I think I achieved a similar effect to her blue version with my reds. I like this pattern so much, I just may have to make my own blue version sometime too!

I had a couple of border fabrics all lined up to use, and at the final moment knew in my heart that they were completely wrong for the quilt.  The outer border fabric I had chosen was large and busy, and added nothing to the overall look of the finished quilt.  Man, am I glad I passed on that.  Thanks to all of you friends who advised me it would be a grave error.

Whew.  Again, thank you for talking me out of this one.  I ended up driving up to Prairie Queens, where Debbie and Annette helped me pick out the border fabrics I ended up with.  Debbie was extremely tactful about my original choice of border fabrics.  No words, just a little shake of her head in dismissal. 

Sometimes simpler is better, and I am so happy that I ended up where I did!

Thanks again for all the kind words of encouragement and support in the past few days.  Lots of hugs to all of you!

Families, the Good and the Bad

Thanks for your kind words during my pity party.  Ack.  I appreciate it so much.  It is amazing how much it helps to put things into perspective.  Lots going on here.  Mother in law still real sick.   Husband at the end of his rope trying to deal with aged parents.  Beloved son leaving home, maybe forever.  Sigh.  Get a grip Nicole.  This too shall pass and be replaced with a whole new set of problems. That is the thing with families, things do have their ups and downs!   Take a deep breath and move on.

So, what did I do this weekend besides hold my head in my hands?  Well, I sewed.  To be more precise, I FINISHED.  I am only showing one thing per day, so I can spread it out for blogging material this week!

I actually ended up loving this quilt, even though I agonized over it.  The pattern is "Kitchen Sink" by Kim Brackett, from her wonderful book Scrap Basket Surprises.  Make this quilt.  You will not regret it.  Definitely buy the book if you don't have it.  You will be so happy that you did.  It is full of terrific scrappy patterns, many of which use jelly rolls.

The fabrics I used were Morris Garden and Morris Workshop.  I edited the colors very heavily, ending up using only the browns, peaches, blues and greens.  And a gazillion different lights from stash.  The Morris fabrics were rather challenging to work with to tell the truth.  So many choices, and so many of the prints and colors ended up not getting used. From the get go, my issues with this quilt were all about the fabrics, not about the pattern in any way!  The little buzz saw blocks were a complete kick to make, and since the quilt is smallish, it goes together fast.

The inner border and outer border are a stripe and a large floral made by Timeless Treasures about three years ago.  I got mine eons ago at Prairie Queens, along with a backing that was on sale for a song.  Even though these border fabrics are not from made by Moda to go with the Morris fabrics, they work splendidly.  I am seriously chuffed with these borders.  That quirky striped inner border adds a certain je nais se quois that is spot on to my eye.

The quilt does have a kinda sorta Deco feel to it, which I like.  Ahren loves it and thinks Mary Ann will too.  Now to have it quilted and give it to them for a housewarming gift for their first place together.  I can just see it tossed over an easy chair in their "lounge". 

As I write, I hear Ahren reeling off great lengths of packing tape in the background, as he packs his boxes to be shipped off to Dublin, to his new home.  He is whistling and humming under his breath while he works.  I think he is a mighty happy man to be finally joining his love and moving on with his future.  Forgive me if I wipe away a tear or two.  I am trying to deal with it in a mature fashion....  It is just way harder than I thought.

 

 

Blissful Blossoms Done

 
Nothing was going to stop me from finishing up this Sweet Little Blossoms quilt this weekend.  The pattern by that name is designed by Margot Languedoc of The Pattern Basket.  It is such a sweet and whimsical design, and perfect for the red, white and aqua nursery Sara is planning for Baby E. 

The quilt was super fun to piece, with so many options for making the flower blocks and different flower centers out of Bonnie and Camille's fabulous Bliss fabric collection.  The scalloped border was very easy to piece and I love the effect of it over all.  I think it really plays up and accents the flowers beautifully.

I had hoped to get it in the mail to Linda of The Quilted Pineapple for quilting, but I had a slight miscalculation with my backing.  As do most long arm quilters, Linda prefers that quilt backings be a full four inches wider/longer on each side than the quilt top, for ease in loading it onto the long arm machine.  Somehow my quilt is only two inches wider than the quilt top on the two sides.  The top and bottom are fine, it is just the sides that are short.  I don't know if Linda can work with the backing being smaller than she likes.  I may have to order more backing and redo it.  Bother.

Measure twice, cut once. 

Added later:  Linda says she will try to work with my slightly too narrow backing!!!  Woo hoo!  Off it goes to her without delay.  I am so happy!

Finally

 
Finally I got into my sewing room and got some Bliss Baby Blocks done.  I stopped trying to complete the applique center on each flower and concentrated just on getting the blocks finished.  My aim was to complete all 30 blocks this weekend and then work on appliquing the center circles before and after work this week.  I need to get this wrapped up and sent to the quilter pdq.  (Linda, that would be you!)

I stuck the blocks up on the design wall as I made them, without any real design plan in mind.  Plenty of time to rearrange things when I finish.

A couple of things helped me stream line my sewing.  One was placing an ironing board right next to me while I sewed.  It is amazing how much time hopping up and down to press the little units takes!

 
I have a number of irons that I use when I sew.  No, I don't use them all at once, I use different ones, one at a time.  I have a fancy Rowenta steam machine unit, which I am trying to make last.  I go through irons like you would not believe.  I buy two or three a year, seriously.  At least Ozzie stopped eating them, thank goodness.  Remember this?

 

And this?

 

I have stopped paying a ton of money for my irons, since I go through them just as fast if I get an expensive one or a cheap one.  I do prefer a heavy iron though, so I tend to avoid the light weight ones.

And I have one big gripe about most of the irons on the market.  Why can't the automatic shut off feature take longer than 8 minutes to shut off?  I need it to stay on for at least 20 minutes at times.  It is so annoying to have to keep turning the iron back on and adjusting the temperature setting.  Are there any heavy weight irons that cost less than $40 that do not have the automatic shut off feature, or at least have it timed to go off in more than 15 or 20 minutes?