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.
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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 ;-)