Am I Crazy?

In just a few weeks I will be spending time in a waiting room at a hospital. My mom is scheduled to have a double knee replacement in May.  As she schedules the various appointments that are required before surgery I have been trying to come up with an idea for some blocks to hand-stitch...  Something with "not too small" pieces...

I do have something in mind...

And then I think... "Would it be completely crazy to take my "back-up" Brother machine along and set up a station in the waiting room?"  I mean, I'm going to be there for several hours while she is in surgery...  Hours!.... And I think "Just the sound of the machine will help to drown out some of my worried thoughts"... And "I could be so much more productive..." 

So, Am I crazy?  Be honest...

And then I see this...

So... **hangs head** I realize that, yes, I may just be crazy.  

I'll be in my sewing room counting and cutting pieces for my hand stitched project to work on while in the waiting room.

Happy Slow Stitching!

Paper Piecing... in a T-shirt Quilt

My latest project has been a special gift for the grand-daughter of a friend.  She will soon be graduating from the University of Dallas and will then be commissioned into the Air Force.

Her Gramma took the time to shop the internet for a few shirts featuring the University and the Air Force.  The outcome? 

Since Sarah will be graduating and going into the Air Force, the idea was to have the UD in the center of the quilt and the AF quilts on the outer portions, representing her future in the AF. Here is the quilt top ready for borders...

There were a few vacant spots that needed to be filled... the largest on each side.  I offered a few options - 1) including a few more AF shirts that I had in my inventory. 2) A personal message/photo. 3) The sunbursts (a sort of play on the contrails from the jets)  As you can see from the picture, we chose the radiating sunburst.  A good choice, I believe!

I paper pieced the sunburst blocks.  The thing I like about paper piecing is the precision that you can get with them. The thing that I dislike about paper piecing?

The tedious task of removing the paper!  

I have found that using the back side of my seam ripper works well and quickly. I simply ran it along the stitching line while holding the top on my leg.  Using a shorter stitch length when piecing helps as well.  By doing so the "perforations" of the paper are closer and makes the removal of the paper easier.

This was the first time that I have incorporated blank portions of the t-shirts in a quilt and I am quite pleased with the outcome.  I will be delivering the finished quilt to Gramma & Grampa this weekend.  They are excited to see it.  I am excited to see their reaction and look forward to hearing about Sarah's reaction to the gift.

Thanks for the opportunity to celebrate Sarah's future!  

And many thanks to Sarah for her willingness to protect our nation!

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Feeling Stuck... just for awhile.

My last post was about feeling victorious and successful as I completed the bitty blocks.

I also hinted that I was beginning a project for the Addicted to Scraps group through Quiltmaker.  All those blue and brown scraps were slated for a quilt, that in my initial idea was only going to be throw sized.

I have changed direction with the layout and plan to make a queen-sized quilt for us!  It is looking lovely!  Again, you will just have to trust me because I cannot reveal a picture at this time. But I really, really want to!

This quilt requires a total of 108 blocks. I started with gumption! I should have approached it as a marathon, not a sprint.  It seemed that after daaaaays of cutting and sewing I still have 40 blocks to complete.  Ugh... However, I think I have reached a steady pace and a plan for cutting and piecing the blocks.  I have broken down the layout and will approach the whole thing in sections. 

Yesterday I completed 20... The day before? 12. Today I hope to get 20 blocks done... well, at least 8 more... the cutting takes a looooong time!

One thing that I can say?  This project is certainly a scrap buster!  I am running low on brown "scraps", but thanks to a couple of kind and generous quilters in the group who have offered to pass on their brown scraps I know that I will make it. (Quilters have to be among the most caring and sharing people I know!  Even when it comes to sharing some of the most coveted things a quilter can have... fabric!)

But none the less, while I was indeed running low on browns, I pulled out some of the larger pieces of fabric (some fat quarters and 1/2 yard cuts) that I had from a collection that I inherited.  Success!

Now all I have to do is more cutting... :( cutting of the whites/lights... just 240 pieces and I can sit and sew... and sew and sew and sew... to my little heart's content.

I definitely see the "light" at the end of the tunnel!  Whoohoo!

For now I will take a break from piecing blocks and "piece" another scrub top for my daughter and get back at it on Monday morning.

Happy Spring!

I Stopped Whining!

I was picking through my scrap bin over the weekend finding fabric for the Bitty Blocks... you know those blocks that had tiny little pieces... and the whining that occurred while working with them.  Ugh! It seemed that I had worked for hours just to finish 3 blocks. 

You can learn more about the Bitty Blocks here... Quiltmaker Bitty Blocks

On Saturday I must have had a better attitude or more patience or something because I managed to complete the required number of blocks (12) and still had interest in moving on to the #3 Bitty Block... a cute and fun little house.

More recently I picked through my scrap bin for blues and browns... 

 

but I can't reveal what I'm doing yet... you will just have to wait and see. :)

But good golly!  I stopped whining!  Yay me!  Of course, this doesn't mean that I prefer working with tiny pieces of fabric... I will always navigate toward the larger blocks. BY NO MEANS! But working with the itty-bitty, teeny-weeny pieces has certainly improved my piecing skills.  By the time I got to the last block my bitty basket blocks were laying flatter and there were fewer points cut off and seams mis-aligned. Go Melva!

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During the Storm...

I had great plans to accomplish during the storm this weekend.

My full intention was to finish one of the quilts for the Scrap Addict group I am part of...

Scrap Addicts

I can't show you a picture of the project just yet, but trust me... It involves smaller pieces than I typically work with... kinda like those Bitty Basket blocks, but a stash/scrap buster! 

I did find myself a bit distracted and desiring to work with fabric pieces a little bigger.  Up first were some scrub tops that my daughter had asked me to make.  she had purchased the fabric and never got around to making them.  And now that she has a 6-month old daughter that is moving around, she realized that it would probably be awhile before she would have time to do so. 

 

There wasn't quite enough shamrock fabric for a regular top, so I got to be creative and make up the difference. She thinks that it turned out cute!

 

 

Next up were wine bags... made from some of the fabric I was gifted in January!  Wildlife fabric has always been popular sellers at the local liquor store where they are available.

 

I did eventually get to the scrap addict project and am nearly done with the borders!  However, I did NOT get to the Bitty Baskets... Oh well,  Another time!



This week will involve setting up for the fundraising event.  I'll catch up with everyone next week.

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Itty Bitty, Teeny Tiny Growing Pains

I've not had a lot of time to spend in my sewing room this week... and I miss it!  I have been helping the college Foundation get ready for their annual fundraising dinner - an event I have always enjoyed helping plan and feel honored to be invited back each year to offer assistance wherever they may need it.

What little time I have had I  played with some "bitty baskets"... Here is a link to their blog that explains it all.  Quiltmaker's Blog

They suggest making 14-18 blocks.  These are itty-bitty pieces, folks!   The finished block is only 4"... And I only have three done. I still feel strongly that larger pieces/blocks are so much easier... but I am trying to expand my horizons and improve as a quilter.  After all, if you can make a 4" block nice and square, the 12" blocks will be all the better. Right?

Ugh!  However, on the bright side - The weather professionals are predicting that there is supposed to be a big storm moving in tonight and through the weekend.  Which means that I may have plenty of time to work on getting them done... just in time for the next installment of "bitty blocks" in March.

Stay warm and dry!  Happy quilting!

Easy as 1, 2, 3...

I've been busily working on a few quilts... three of them.  You may recall that back in December I had written about how I disliked having multiple quilts/projects going at one time.( I have a problem )  In other areas of life I can easily multi-task, but not when it comes to my time in my studio.

So a couple weeks ago I needed to begin another t-shirt quilt featuring some Colorado Rockies T's.  I will be donating it to the TSJC Educational Foundation annual dinner/silent auction.  I pulled out all of the shirts and began cutting.  Since Todd Helton is to be the guest speaker I began a hunt for a Helton shirt to be included in the quilt...  I had a friend hunting for one in Colorado Springs and when that ended unsuccessfully I hit e-bay.  Success!  But I still needed to wait...

I had unfinished project.  Ugh.

While visiting friends in Texas in January I brought home a collection of fabric.  There were Batik dyed fabrics from Nigera and some beautiful pieces from India (I think) among a variety of other fabrics and unfinished projects.  The previous owner of the collection passed on to me that she had intended one of them for her husband. It was basically done, except for the borders.  I discovered that the border fabric was also one of the beautifully designed fabrics from India that one of her sons picked up for her while working there.

 

It appeared that the center portion was actually a printed cotton shower curtain since there were a few "blocks" that had been cut off (possibly with the intention of becoming pillows?) and one of them still had the top part with the place for inserting hooks to hang it.  Ingenious idea actually.  While visiting with our friends we learned a bit about Jack's dad, the intended recipient of this quilt, and that he loved ducks. 

 

It didn't take much to finish the top.  And then I had the brilliant idea that I would free-motion quilt it to look like ripples on the water from the ducks swimming.  Never have I done such close quilting before... It seemed to take forever! And it used so much more thread than I usually use... (but none the less, I have three more empty spools for my count of spools for 2015.)

 

Project #1 done!  And I was still waiting for the Helton shirt...

 

While this wasn't really a UFO, I knew that the quilt top would go together quickly since it was just the checker board strip that needed to be created...  In Project #2 I used one of the pieces from Nigeria in a more modern style than I typically am drawn to.  This fabric had a large print on it and it really needed to be left as complete as possible...

 

 

It simply would not have done justice to the fabric to make it into smaller pieces - the print would have simply been lost.  I hope that Jamie likes it!

 

But before #2 was done I received the Helton shirt.  I was anxious to get started since the fundraising dinner was quickly approaching, but needed to finish the binding on the Nigerian quilt.  You can bet that as soon as the last stitch was in, I moved on quickly!

 

This quilt was graced with border fabric from Nigeria!  It was the perfect color...

 

Yes?!?

 

So, while I was a bit of a nervous wreck and undecided about what to do next with three UFO's, I have come out successful and ready to move on to the next project.

 

What WILL it be???

 

 

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