Saturday Update

The quilt has been trimmed and the binding sewn on and now I'm enjoying the process of stitching it down by hand ... all 10 yards of it. I decided on a red/green/gold poinsettia print from my stash for the binding because I liked how it looked with both the front and the back of my quilt–although there's no way anyone will see poinsettias in that skinny binding ;-)

I think another night of movies and stitching and my quilt will be done, done, done ... in time for Christmas.

I also decided to use two of the leftover star blocks to make big square pillow shams.

Inspired by the leftover triangle squares, I added a pieced border around the star blocks:

 

And then a plain border to make them the size I need–24 inches

 

I am looking forward to quilting these smaller pieces--it will be so much easier and quicker.

I need another Friday Night Sew In ...

... and fortunately for me, I'm not alone.  I'm joining this Friday night's Sew In, in hopes of finishing In the (holiday) Mood, my quilt made from swap blocks. 

The quilting is essentially* done.  I plan to trim it, bind it, cross my fingers and send it through the washer and dryer ... and put it on my bed.

I'd also like to make a couple of pillow shams using the leftover star blocks (still on my design wall.

* I still need to figure out what to quilt inside the plain 6" print square centers of some of the blocks (like the one at the top of this photo). Most have interesting prints, so I'd like to keep the quilting to a minimum, which I fear may be at odds with the wonky, bendy, sometimes pretty dense feathers which cover all the white areas of the quilt. I had a little brainstorm about it yesterday, but if you have a good idea, please suggest away ...


If you have a project in mind to complete before the holiday, why not join me for the Friday Night Sew in? 

Update from the Occupation

This in-progress photo of my Occupation project will tell you a few things.

After my Singer 301 completely balked at sewing with the feed dogs lowered; after trying everything I could think of, talking to a couple of knowledgeable friends;  asking some locals for a recommendation for a good sewing machine mechanic ... I decided to see if I could quilt this large quilt (90" square) on my little Bernina 153.   After muscling through the center blocks, it got easier and seemed possible and so I decided to put diagnosing my 301 on hold and to continue quilting on my purple Bernina.

I am filling all the white areas with unmarked, bendy, wonky, feather shapes–have I used enough adjectives to let you know they are imperfect?  Whether they look like feathers or not, they are adding great texture to the quilt. 

The quilting may not be finished before Occupy your Sewing Room ends, but I am still hopeful that I will be done for Christmas.

After a big Friday Night Sew-in (FNSI) Push, I am now quilting the last round of blocks.  The end is in sight.
.
I was becoming quite obsessed with getting this done last night.  Good thing for me, someone insisted–and she really did dig in and INSIST–that it was time to take a break . . .  or my shoulders would have really been hurting this morning. 

The Occupation has Begun

I "occupied my sewing room" for a few hours over the weekend and am happy to share that my Christmas quilt, In the Mood, is now off the wall, the back has been pieced, and everything is layered and pin-basted and ready to be quilted.

I realized when I was opening up the Singer 301 that I plan to use for this project and rearranging the furniture, that it's been a long time since I've:

• sewn on the 301
• machine quilted anything this large

 The virtual table supporting my quilt is actually three pieces of furniture: the art deco vintage sewing cabinet, a modern sewing machine table and a table from IKEA.

 I'm itching to play some more with unmarked, free motion, 'liberated" feathers ... and may pass on the Austin Guild's panel of Long Armers that are presenting tonight.  Decisions, decisions.

With this work-in-progress OFF the design wall and onto the table, here's what's on the wall now: the leftover blocks and units and the quilt that inspired the 16-patches and on-point setting in my quilt.

Tasty (Veggie) Treats

There is finally enough of a chill in the air that I feel in the mood for making soups and roasting vegetables.

A couple weeks ago, when I read Julie's post about making baked kale chips, they sounded so good, I dropped what I was doing and headed to the kitchen to make some.

Today, I followed a link to Make Your Own Veggie Chips on chow.com and . . . decided to make an afternoon snack of  Carrot Chips.

(The photo is from the chow.com site–I confess that my carrot slices were not as uniform as these and a few looked more like curly fries . . . but they were tasty.)

I'm off to the farmer's market tomorrow to stock up on more veggies: for chips, for roasting and to make stock for soups.  Yum. 

I'm going to Occupy my Sewing Room

 Barbara has created an interesting event for quilters in blogland and beyond this month: Occupy Your Sewing Room.

I don't think there's any political comment . . . just a reason to spend some quality time with your quilt projects ;-)

The timing is pretty perfect for me--I have been rolled off my contract gig and I'm back in job-hunting more ... and without a reason to take a break, for me, job-hunting can become a 24/7 obsession. 

I plan to get that Christmas-y quilt top OFF the design wall, quilted and bound and onto my bed.  Since I pulled out the blocks and started working on, that project has been taunting me . . .  it even has it's own theme song now, Will I be done for Christmas (sung to the tune of I'll be Home for Christmas)

Will you be "occupying" your sewing room or just finding a few moments to finish some quilt projects for gifts or . . . too busy with the holiday social whirl to quilt at all this month?

Turkey, the Macy's Parade and Setting Triangle Math

My Thanksgiving morning was perfectly nostalgic. Up early to put the turkey on and make a nice breakfast. followed by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on TV . . .  updated a bit because as I watched, I cut setting triangles and assembled a Christmas quilt top from those old swap blocks.

With a large design wall, it was a lot easier to figure out what I meant by my mysteriously coded sketch and lay out the blocks.

It seems I always have to go look up setting triangle math, whenever I put blocks on point.  I know that the magic number is the square root of 2–1.414–but I never remember what to do with it ... so off to the computer I go.

Here's how I will remember NEXT time:

• Since I'll need MORE side triangles, I MULTIPLY the finished block size by 1.414.  Then, because I am going to cut the square into quarters, as for quarter-square-triangle units, add 1 1/4 for the seam allowances.
• For the corners, I do the opposite and DIVIDE the finished size block by 1.414.  Because I am going to cut them diagonally in half, like half-square-triangle unites, add 7/8 inch.   

For both kinds of triangles, round the measurements to the nearest 1/8 inch ... so you can easily cut them.

For the corners, I used the twelve inch star block as the starting point.  12 / 1.414 + 7/8 = 9 3/8 inches.  Because I inserted six inch 4-patches into the side setting triangles, I used 6 in the side triangle math. 6 * 1.414 + 1 1/4 = 9 3/4.

I don't like crowds

As much as I like music and live performance and the idea of the Austin City Limits Festival (ACL) that began today, the thought of attending a party for 70,000 kept me away. I'll be watching from afar on YouTube this weekend.

OK, it's not that afar. The parking lots and ramps at the office park where I work were designated as official ACL parking.  I knew this so planned ahead and went into the office extra early–at 7AM, I still had to queue in a line of traffic including two large buses to get far enough to talk to the security guys and make my case for being able to park without an ACL permit.  I was told I could be towed . . .

The performances started just after 11AM. By 2PM, no one was coming into the parking lot, and cars lined both sides of the street as far away as my apartment complex ... where some festival goers were actually sneaking in by following residents through the gate and then parking and scaling the 8' fences to get out and walk to Zilker park. I happened to be picking up a package at the office when three "dumbest criminal" types were scaling the fence right outside the office while the property manager and I watched as she opened the door for me and my big box.

Hmmm ... it just occurred to me that if I subscribed to the for-pay version of YouTube, I could watch and listen and SEW . . .  I barely sewn more than sample blocks for the September Block Lotto (so I could write directions) and I think I could really benefit from some ME (and my fabric) time ;-)

It's all Wendy's fault

After I posted the photos of my Praire Gothic chairs and wrote about making some floor cloths with simple stripes . . . my friend Wendy, who is an extraordinary rug hooker with a great sense of color,  noticed a bit of a butterfly wing visible on the arm of the chair.

"You should put some of those butterflies on your rug," she commented ... and with that simple comment,  my immediate reaction that I am not a painter, and the discussion that followed, the door opened to considering a design other than simple thick and thin stripes I had planned.

Despite my inability to wield a paint brush, I am now noticing–and seriously considering–design ideas everywhere. This morning, it was painted on the table of a café where I stopped for coffee and a breakfast taco.

Am I crazy to think that this folk art style painting is in the realm of possibilities for a non-painter like me?

Edited to add ... after I blogged about my chairs, the Etsy vendor that sold me the fabric blogged about my chairs, and Jane Sassaman (who designed the fabric) blogged about my chairs, I emailed the links to John's Upholstery so they could see how much everyone loved my chairs..  He responded by thanking me for appreciating their work. 

I can't resist sharing

Yup, another record-breaking day.   But look at what's coming ... days with temps less than a hundred are on the horizon.

My Prairie Gothic Wing Chairs

It's been a pretty lousy couple of weeks at sophie junction ... though maybe I'll whine about it later, since the week seems to be ending on a pleasant note. The upholsterer delivered these chairs this morning and I am very pleased with the result.

I bought the chairs when I moved to Dallas (after donating ALL my living room furniture in Michigan).  I found them on Craigs list.  They were in rough shape, upholstered in a pale green silk that was falling apart, but they had great bones and I could tell that they were once fine furniture.

Then I got stuck, both in making a decision about what fabric/color to cover them with and finding someone to do the work.

Earlier this year, I went on the hunt for a large scale organic print.  I remembered that some of Jane Sassaman's fabric had been printed on lightweight canvas for home deco ... and the hunt began.  I found an Etsy vendor, Imagine Fabric,  with a 15 yard bolt of this print from Prairie Gothic and I knew it was the one.

Didn't John's Upholstery do an amazing job in  wrapping that large print around the chair (and getting everything to end up symmetrical and matching)?

Next home deco project on the horizon . . . painting a floor cloth using these colors.   I'm thinking thick and thin stripes in blue, red, green and pink.

How to talk about the weather

The TV weathermen have gone from counting the days so far this year with temps at 100 or higher, to counting the consecutive "three-digit days" to counting the days with record-breaking highs . . . and now consecutive record-breaking days.

A friend kindly asked today if it wasn't better than the bitter cold of winters in Michigan–lately, I'm less sure.

This morning, my goal was to get to the Farmer's Market, run errands and get back home before the temperature made it to 100. I made it–when I got home and put everything away, it was only (only!) 94. 

I don't think I'm the only one with this mindset–the Farmer's Market near me was bustling this morning and lots of people were talking about the weather.

I Love Lucy

I love the clips in this Google-produced video to celebrate what would have been Lucille Ball's 100th birthday today. Some of my favorite episodes are here. How about you?

Settling in . . . Slowly

I wish I could say that I was so inspired by the speed of my awesome movers that I quickly unpacked . . . but after that great first night in the new apartment (with no more highway noise!) I have been moving slowly today. 

I caught up with the block lotto over coffee this morning and put togetherthe August sneak peek email, then unpacked the stuff in my car . . . with a break to cool down about midway.  I went out for some essential shopping–ˆ couldn't resist these sunflowers.  I cam home and finally started laungry and cleaning and unpacking.  The boxes in the photo are mostly filled with boooks . . . isn't it interesting that however you organize your books on the shelf, when it comes time to pack them, all that really matters is size?

Grace Hopper has found a new hiding spot–I have no idea where–and is spending most of her time curled up there. If she's out, she's very vocal, clearly expressing her discomfort with change.  Johnny is dozing on the top of the kitty jungle gym as if it and he was always here. Earlier, there was a bit of feline monkey-see, monkey do going on and I found him in the fireplace and Grace ready to join him. At the old place, I know that the sounds of the birds came into the apartment through the fireplace . . . I suspect they think now that they can get inside the fireplace, they have a better chance of actually finding a bird . . .

. . . on to some serious unpacking now . . .

My Awesome Movers

Today was moving day and everything I couldn't move myself was moved by these two awesome guys.

They were fast. They were careful. They were incredibly strong. I had a million–OK, it was twenty-some–well-backed book boxes. I couldn't have carried just one of them up the stairs outside my apartment and they were putting 4-5 boxes on a dolley and practically running up the stairs with them ... in this incredible heat.

I have a car full of lighter, more fragile or just more easily NOT packed in boxes stuff . . . soon I'll bring it all in and start finding a place for everything–one of the movers did ask if my second bedroom was going to be a "junk room" (I'm guessing he was thrown by the presence of 4 x 8 sheets of insulation ;-)

Did I mention that they were very fast?  As part of my move-in special, the apartment complex paid for three hours of movers . . . these guys finished in 2 hours 10 minutes.  A nearly free move for me–they were so awesome, I did have to tip them enough for a few rounds of the Margueritas they were talking about as we wrapped up.

After a couple pretty horrible moves, I was really grateful for these awesome guys and the good work they did for me today.

Cinderkitty

This afternoon, I packed up the rest of the kitchen, TV and computer and everything connected to them, and the cats and their stuff.  It was 107 degrees at Fort Mabry when I passed it on my way from old apartment to new.  Upon our arrival, I carried the cats in first and left them in their carriers in the living room while I brought in their stuff and set up litter box, water fountain and food.  When I unzipped their carry bags, Johnny came out and made a pretty systematic tour of the new apartment, working his way counterclockwise from room-to-room.  Grace Hopper made a beeline for the fireplace . . .  which I'm thinking need some real doors to keep her from becoming a sooty cinder-kitty on a regular basis.

They both stayed hidden in the bathroom–Johnny in the cabinet under the sink, Grace behind the door under my bathrobe hanging there–while the cable guy was here . . . for more than two hours.  While I obviously have internet, there are serious problems with the (new) cabling in every room and it seems there are a thousand and one cables in the wall.  Cable guy is blaming the apartment construction guys and I know apartment property management will blame the cable guy.  I'll admit that I probably watch too much TV, but I'm not quite ready to go from too much to none at all . . .

I can relate

From alles-ausm-kopf

Thanks, Wendy, for the chuckle today.

Signs of a Good Lunch Place

This week I've been bouncing back and forth between old apartment and new, preparing for the move, moving some of the small stuff, figuring out where/how everything will fit . . .  and I confess that I've been grabbing too many meals on the run.

Today, as I stood in line to order a mojo fish taco for lunch today, it struck me that any place with a line out the door and people willing to sit outside to eat in 100-degree heat has to be pretty good.

So far, everything I've tried from their menu has been yummy, so the signs seem correct.

Keeping Cool at a Quilt Show

Last weekend, a friend invited me to go with her to the Wildflower Quilt Guild's show in Temple. Here's a detail photo of the Best of show quilt, Anesthesia, by Janet Smith, quilted by Linda Buckner. You can see the entire quilt here: Anesthesia and all my photos from the show in my Flickr photo set, Wildflower Quilt Guild Show.

When Karen and I came across this Underground Railroad quilt, by Don and Phyllis Baker, we both confessed to having block of the month kits and decided to challenge one another to finish them.  She's already started work on hers . . . I won't be able to get to mine until after I'm moved and settled in. 

 

It was a really nice show and an impressive effort for a relatively small guild (about 100 members).  After the show, we stopped for lunch at Las Casas, a local Tex Mex restaurant.  It's well known for something called white wings–jalapeno and cheese wrapped in chicken breast meat, then wrapped with a couple strips of bacon and grilled.

 

Made smaller, I think they'd make great appetizers for a party . . .  another thing to add to the project list for AFTER the move is done.

Only a Quilter

Yesterday I was on the hunt for small moving boxes. I found some at a near-to-my-new apartment home improvement store . . . along with these sheets of Styrofoam (tm) insulation.

Maybe only another quilter will know immediately what this means and why it makes me so happy ;-)

Walking Around Campus with Friends

Barbara and Debra were in Austin last week and invited me to join them.

We sat and talked about quilting and our lives a lot and walked around a little–because it was one of those triple-digit-days which have become the norm around here.

If you have seen some of their Madonna quilts, then you know that when we walked past this building on the way to lunch, it was a photographic opportunity for a portrait of them that I couldn't pass up. 

After lunch, there was a quick stop in a vintage clothing store, then we walked through campus, where we ran into Barbara Jordan and Cesar Chavez . . . and some sunning turtles.

We finished the day with more sitting, more talking, some show and tell and then dinner. Thanks ladies.
 

Questions, Answers and Things Learned Along the Way

Isn't it interesting what we learn from quilting discussions?

These Liberated Checkboard blocks are the choice for the July block lotto.  I created them by first cutting the fabrics into a slanty 16-patch--my directions are here.

Krista ASKED why I didn't cut and assemble these in the same way as the Tic-Tac-Toe blocks we made last year.  And then Sara posted some in-progress photos of that approach.  Doh!  I'm not sure why I couldn't see it that way.  It's so much easier/faster . . .  though certainly there are skills to be learned with both liberated approaches.

Yesterday, after I posted my winter themed Liberated Round Robin piece, June ASKED if I have everything stitched together or was I keeping the components separate, to be arranged and put together later.  The simple answer is that yes, everything is sewn together, but the question prompted me to remember that I considered not sewing the "icicles" row onto the quilt in round one and how I initially had thought it would work better near the top of the quilt, but didn't want it against the top of my center block.  Guess who ripped out that seam this morning (and wished she'd remembered to lengthen her stitches after she shorted them to stitch the foundation pieced log cabin blocks?) Here's the before and after.

Moving that row resolves a design issue for the next "round" for me. I am so glad that June ASKED.

Over the weekend, when the mailing information was sent out to the fifty-some quilters who made lotto blocks in June,  Karen, in Australia, brought up a potential issue of sending cotton (and silk) to one of the nine winners, who lives in the Sultanate of Oman. I confess that when I am mailing quilt blocks to another quilter, I never before considered import/export/shipping restrictions and prohibited items.  I couldn't find anything on the USPS web site; I found a list on the FedEx site that lists items that cannot be sent to Oman (but no cotton or silk); I felt stuck.  I wondered if the prohibition was specific to some countries and not others, so I ASKED Kate, in the UK, if she could check for any prohibitions for sending cotton to Oman from England or Europe.  She found a most excellent site - The Universal Postal Union, where the mystery of the prohibited cotton was solved.  In the list of prohibited items to send to Oman was this line (emphasis mine):

Cotton or silk cloth as well as other cloth with designs representing coins, bank notes, securities of the Oman government or of other governments. 

 Isn't it interesting the things we can learn in a discussion about quilting? The questions and answers are interesting . . .  and the places that the discussion can take us are wild.

Liberated Round Robin: Round 2

The guideline for round 2 said the idea of a square is the shape to focus on for this round. 

Here's my LibRR piece with 4 borders, based on squares added.

 

It's approximately 26 inches tall and 28 inches wide (at the widest point on the bottom edge).  The smaller white log cabin blocks(above "icles" are 2".  They were made using the same foundation stamp, but pieced without the last round of logs and trimmed to size. 

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can . . . bring this quilt back to an overall rectangle shape with the next round, which is all about strings and letters.

To check out more work-in-progress, check out the links at the bottom of the WOW (WIPS on Wednesday) post on  Esther's Blog. Be sure to also check out Ether's beautiful crochet lace Tuscan Shawl ... it make me wish I knew more than the minimum when it comes to crochet.

Log Cabin Squares

For the "Squares" round of the Liberated Round Robin, I immediately though of log cabin blocks. Here are my first 8 itty bitty (3 inch finished size) wonky log cabins.

While the logs in these log cabin are liberated, I confess that the technique for making them is not. When I decided that 3 inch (more of less) blocks would work for me, I remembered a stamp that a friend designed to stamp fabric with foundations for a wonky log cabin block. I was with her when she ordered one and so I asked if I could use her design for a stamp of my own ... and then never used it until today.

 

The ink is designed for textiles and is permanent.  It worked pretty well for a morning of foundation piecing . . . without any  foundation paper to be removed later.

Here's how the blocks look with my round robin piece on the design wall. They're not the entire story for my squares round, but they are a start ... I'm hoping to catch up before the next guidelines are published.

Check out more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times blog.

Red, White and Blue (scraps)

When I read that red, white and blue was the July colorway in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I immediately thought of an old UFO, a Lone Star quilt made from red, cream and blue scraps that would be the perfect choice–it needs some red and blue applique and I still have plenty red and blue scraps.  But when I went to pull it out of cold storage, it wasn't where I expected to find it . . .  until it turns up, I'm going to work on these WIPs, which together are red, white and blue.

The red and white redwork seasons wall hanging needs a backing, quilting and binding. I haven't had the confidence to quilt around that redwork in the past, but I'm going to look at it as another excuse to practice my FMQ and have a go at it now.

The blue and white winter WIP is my project for the Liberated Round Robin. I've added the first round–triangles in the borders on the left and bottom . . . but the LibRR is already up to round 3, so I have some catching up to do.  You can read my post about Round 1- Triangles on the LibRR blog here: Sophie's Triangle Round.

Liberated Checkerboard Block

This liberated variation of the classic 16-patch block is easy to cut and sew . . . as long as you take care to keep things organized.

The blocks are made two-at-a time, beginning with 2 large squares. The finished size of your liberated checkerboard block will be 2-to-2 1/2 inches smaller than the these squares.

For the Block Lotto in July 2011 (and these examples), we used 10 inch squares to start: one white and one solid or tone-on-tone (TOT) print in a medium to dark value with high contrast.

CUT FABRICS

1. Place fabrics on the cutting mat, one on top of the other with edges aligned.  Both fabrics must be right sides up.
   
2. Vertical cuts: make 3 straight cuts from the top edge to the bottom edge.  The sections do not have to be even and the cut lines may be as slanty as you decide to make them. There should be at least one inch between the cuts and at the outside edges.  I pulled the sections apart so that you could see them--you don't need to do that and can leave them just as they are on your cutting mat.
   
3. Horizontal Cuts: Make three straight cuts from left edge to right edge. If it makes it easier for you, you can rotate the mat (or walk around the table), but avoid moving the cut fabric pieces.  The same 1-inch rule of thumb applies.  

     

PREPARE TO SEW

1. Create the checkboard by swaping top and bottom fabrics of every other piece.
   
2. Carefully move to your sewing area–because these irregular shaped pieces will only go together ONE WAY, carefully move them close to your machine.  I used a 12-inch square ruler as a platter to carefully transfer my pieces from cutting table to sewing table.

      

SEWING THE BLOCK
 
You now have the pieces for two Liberated Checkerboard blocks.  Sew them together as a 16-patch.  Here’s the approach I used to keep everything organized and correctly oriented–I’m a little dyslexic and so I need to be VERY careful or something will get turned around.

	1. Get Organized Carefully lay out the stacked pieces (for two blocks) next to your sewing machine to prepare for assembly.
	2. Begin Working Top-to-Bottom, Left-to-Right Flip each of the top fabrics in the second column, onto the first column, like turning a page in a book.
	3. Chain Sew the Pairs Sew the pairs together, from Top-to- Bottom. After you've sewn the pieces from the "top" block, repeat the process for the second block. Leave the four pairs of each block connected (by thread)—only snip the thread between blocks.
	4. Press after every set of seams I found it easiest to press after the pieces in each column are sewn. Always press toward the non-white fabric–it will make matching the seams easier later. This photo shows the BACK after the first set of seams have been sewn and pressed.
	5. Layout the Block with Sewn Pieces Put the sewn, and pressed section back in place in your block layout.
	6. Continue to Work Left-to-Right, Top-to-Bottom "Turn the pages" of the pieces in the third column and place them on top of the corresponding piece to the left. Chain sew these four seams as before. Add the third column to the second block of your pair.
	7. Press and Repeat Press the second set of seams and Repeat with the last column of squares. Your block will now consist of 4 sections (rows) that are held together at the intersections by the thread left in place from chain piecing.
	8. Sew the “rows” together Fold the top row down. If the seam intersections are connected by the thread from your chain piecing, you may find, as I did, that you do not need pins to accurately sew the seam, matching the intersections. Stitch and repeat for each row of both blocks until your checkerboard block PAIR is done.

You may decide to square-up all your blocks and trim to the same size. For the block lotto, we're sending the blocks UNTRIMMED and allowing the winner to decide how he or she will use them.

Here's a look at how 35 liberated checkerboard blocks randomly arranged  might look--with block photos from Béa, Cathy, Cheri, Ginny, Jennifer, Julie, Kate, Kathie, Linda, Linnea, Mary Jane, Michelle and Toni.

Thanks to everyone for the great block photos that made this virtual quilt possible.  If you make a quilt or other project from this liberated checkerboard block, I'd love to see it.