Finish This! My Goal for a Lovely Finish in December

Remember this one?



My goal for December is to make the missing scrappy orange blocks, decide upon an arrangement and sew the 121 blocks together into a quilt top.

For those curious about my personal saga, no, I still don't have heat at my house.  A replacement heating system was delivered and installed today, but ... it doesn't work. An electrical expert came and had no more luck and, at the end of a long day, I was told, "you have a broken boiler."  Which is exactly what I had before ... but different.

As a result of having the garage door at one of the studio open all afternoon and part of the evening as they ripped out the old (broken) system and installed the new (DOA) system is that the house is cooling down even faster ... I spent the day at the other end of the studio, huddled by an electric heater and my hands and feet are more like ice cubes than physical appendages now ... can I have some cheese with this wine?

An 11th Hour Finish for the 11th Month of A Year of Lovely Finishes

When I fled the house with cats, all their stuff, all my stuff, etc., friends suggested I be sure to take some hand work.

I'm sure I sounded like a whiny baby when I explained that I couldn't stand the physical pain of carrying one more bag or the process of putting together a project to bring to the hotel.

Yesterday, I did manage to trim a quilt, make binding, sew it on, and pack up everything I needed to stitch it down in the hotel last night.  The electric heater that the heating service guy loaned me made it possible ... until I turned on the iron and blew the circuit in the studio ...

I have a bit more stitching until I'm completely done (and I'll finish today for my Slow Stitch Sunday project).  Last night I noticed that the colors of the quilt worked well with the decor of my hotel room and couldn't resist spreading it out over the king-size bed for a photo.

The lighting isn't great, but ... good enough for me to share this Lovely Finish.

I'll have more details to share later, but I couldn't wait to share my November Finish (and the first EVER Block Lotto sampler quilt I've finished in the same year as we made the blocks that are in it.)

Update - here's the finished quilt hanging in my VERY COLD studio.

This one was also long arm quilted by Lynn Horpedahl. 

Why me?

You'd think that being run down by the cell phone menace would be enough to bear ...

I woke up genuinely feeling thankful to be alive and even though my plans for the holiday weekend were anything but normal, I was prepared to make the best and enjoy it ...  and even try to work on a couple projects I had hoped to finish at the end of the month.

I really just wanted (and needed!) a couple days of rest at home.

I planned to cook a couple of my personal Thanksgiving favorites for a simple meal at home, including a black and blue berry crumble using this recipe

I knew that my real desert at the end of the day today is going to be this Mochacino Smoothie ... that is likely going to taste anything but good, but is a necessary preparation for a CT Scan tomorrow. 

While others are scurrying about shopping Black Friday sales or happily avoiding the rush and staying home and quilting or enjoying other pursuits, I will be likely sitting in another waiting room for what seems like forever until  ultimately getting scanned to make sure everything is OK inside.  Because, unfortunately,  it really doesn't feel like everything is OK and when I went to urgent care on Monday, they were concerned about my spleen. 

Still, I was looking forward to a restful weekend and enjoying the prospect of waking up slowly this morning–I still wake up too early–whenever the pain meds wear off which is usually 2 or 3AM, but I stayed in bed a while and slowly faced the challenge of getting out of bed.  I made coffee and was enjoying it upstairs while reading email and blogs and then ...

Beep beep beep beep ... I heard an alarm that I hoped was one of the smoke detectors downstairs telling me it needed a new battery, but kind of knew was the Carbon Monoxide alarm in the studio.

It was a familiar sound because I'd heard it about a month ago and the owner of house called the company that services the heating and plumbing who, a couple days later came out, replaced some parts and supposedly FIXED it.

I contacted the owner of the house, turned down all the thermostats and opened all the doors and windows to air things out.  Now it's freezing.

My plans for a restful 4 days, with some healthy meals and a little time spent in the studio are dashed.  The owner of the house suggests I spend the next 4 days–or as long as it takes the Keystone Cops of plumbing and heating to show up–in a hotel.  Because of my allergies and sensitivity to chemicals, hotel stays are always hard for me. My plans–small as they were–are ruined, my hopes for a restful weekend are ruined and now I have to face the painful prospect of packing and collecting the cats (that I haven't even been able to pick up because of my injuries) and their paraphernalia and getting everyone settled into a hotel.  I don't know if I can do it.

I could scream ... but that would hurt too much.  (So, I suppose, I am whining on my blog instead :-)

Whatever the long weekend NOW holds in store for me, I AM thankful to be alive and thankful that there is a CO alarm ... to survive the cell phone menace and be killed by carbon monoxide would have just been too sad.

I hope your Thanksgiving is so much better than mine. 

When you can't quilt ... PLAN

Over the weekend, I was shocked to find that simply pushing a rotary cutter was painful and the up and down of working on blocks on a design wall and sewing and pressing seams wore me out.  I'm frustrated that a couple of projects I hoped to plan this month ... may not happen.

In the meantime, I'm PLANNING for the future.

Just about the last thing I did before getting hit by the cell phone menace early Tuesday morning was attend the guild meeting.  Myrna (on the left) shared a variation of the slice quilt that she will be organizing in 2015. Each person in a group of six, buys a poster, slices it into 6 pieces (in any way she wants) and hands them out to the other members. This is Myrna's quilt and the poster she used for her piece (held by guild president Cindy).

I have ALWAYS wanted to work on a slice quilt.  I signed up immediately and hope that enough other members who need to meet in the evening or on the weekend will join me. 

Julie has announced that she'll be leading the Cotton Robin one more time and I can't wait. This year, she is asking us to challenge ourselves with a color theme that's new to us and ... I have an idea.  Click over to the cotton robin to check out the dates for this year (and also look at all the quilts we made last year–it was big fun and I am ready for more of the same.) 

I may start my Cotton Robin quilt with a little hand appliqué ... I'm thinking I might be able to handle that while I'm mending. 

I took paper and colored pencils to the urgent care today and sketched an idea for a modern quilter's code ... as it turned out, I waited for more than 2 hours before I was seen and spent another 2 hours mostly waiting once I made it to the back of the house, so I was glad to have something with which to entertain myself. 

For those that are following my saga, the consensus continues to be that I'm bruised but not broken, which is good news, if a little unbelievable because everything still hurts so much ... 

Life Happens

Put a cup of coffee in that guy's hand and bundle him up in a winter coat and you have a visual of me, early Tuesday morning.

I got to work early, parked in the garage and decided to go pick up a breakfast burrito and a latté.  The coffee shop is across the street and around the corner from the office.  On my way back, even though there wasn't much traffic, I waited for the pedestrian signal to turn to WALK.  It didn't matter ... a young woman came zipping around the corner so fast that I didn't see her until just before her fender crashed into me. 

A man driving on the other side of the street stopped and helped me get up off the pavement–I was hurting so much, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to move.  I watched the driver who hit me start to leave the scene, then after the witness stopped to help me, decided to stop ... and plead with me not to call the police.  She said she was illegally in the country ... though later, I realized that probably isn't true, since she works for a large Santa Fe business. There's no doubt that she turned her big puppy dog eyes on the Santa Fe policeman who made the report and gave her a ticket for nothing more than something like, "distracted driving." 

As fate would happen, she works in the same office building as I do–for the company that manages the building.  I was too dazed and in pain to recognize her at first, but I see her every day. At work she is ALWAYS talking on her cell-phone. I really do mean ALWAYS.  When she is working (she cleans the public areas), she is ALWAYS loudly talking and laughing on her phone.  When she is supposed to be working, she is often sitting on the bench in the elevator lobby, still ALWAYS talking and laughing to someone on her cell phone–loud enough that you can hear her on the other side of the wall, behind closed doors. 

As the story of my accident spread through the office, I found she has had several near misses with others (in their cars) ... and she was ALWAYS ON HER CELLPHONE.  Even if I didn't see her face before she sent me flying, I have no doubt that it wasn't the sun in her eyes as she claimed, but that SHE WAS ON HER CELLPHONE when she didn't stop and turned on red and hit me.

I was not-exactly treated by EMTs on the scene--they said something submissive, like "if you have broken ribs, there's nothing that you can do about them, " stuck a piece of gauze on my now skinless knee (without even cleaning it!) and sent me on my way.  I wanted to believe they were right and I was only feeling muscle soreness, but my ribs are so tender now that I can feel every breath and I live in fear of a cough or a sneeze.  

Getting into and out of bed, a chair or the car is an excruciating experience ... I walk at a snail's pace, because it is as fast as I can go now. Everything from the neck down hurts ... and the cell-phone twit continues to happily laugh and talk on her cell phone, completely unaffected by the havoc she's caused in my life. 

Today I looked at the blocks on my design wall and realized that I cannot raise my arm high enough to take down the blocks in the top two rows, even if I thought I could sit down and sew them together.  On Monday, I brought home a quilt that has been long-arm quilted, but I haven't done anything with it, because I can't even pick it up and carry it into the studio.   I made some sample blocks for the December Block Lotto last weekend–the sneak peek should go out on Sunday–but I don't know if I can sit at the desk long enough to put together the block directions.   I had plans to go big with holiday decorations this year, but it seems unlikely that I will be able to make that happen. 

I am glad to be alive, but so frustrated by all the pain and all the limitations ... and the knowledge that the older I am the longer it takes to recover from any injury.

More Dice-y Log Cabin Blocks

I didn't know how large this quilt would become ... so I decided I would continue to throw the dice and make as many of the randomly colored Steps blocks as I could from the package of eight fat eighths of challenge fabric. I ended with 49 blocks for a 7 by 7 arrangement.

Now, they are living on my design wall, and I am considering and reconsidering and arranging and re-arranging before putting the blocks together and thinking about how to quilt it.

At some point in time on Sunday, it looked like this:

I am sharing my design wall with others over at Judy's Patchwork Times today.

Good Morning

My cat Johnny insists it's not yet too cold to go out on the roof deck and surveil the neighborhood while the sun rises.   After he woke me up to remind me it was time to go out this morning, I joined him.

If weather forecasts are right, tomorrow morning, the mountains in the distance will be covered with snow and we may have a few inches here, too ... maybe enough for Johnny to decide he doesn't need to go outside in the morning? 

Santa Fe Plaza - Then and Now

I happened to have my camera with me when I saw this photo, captioned, "People Sitting on the Plaza, Santa Fe - 1912." It was decorating the hallway of an office building.



I love the hats that some of the ladies (and men) were wearing.

These days, it looks much the same, though it's clear that Fall is here and most of the tourists have gone home.



Along with the leaves, most of the tourists, musicians, artists and food vendors have gone ... though not all. Even on a cool day (Monday, before it was really cold), the sun was shining and some people (including me) were out and about and enjoying it.

     

     

Something Old, Something New

I've been making blocks for a new project using an idea I've had almost as long as I've been quilting.

It's one of those What if questions.  What if I made log cabin blocks with a random number of colored logs with a random placement ... determined by a throw of the dice.

I used the pattern for the rectangular log cabin variation we made for the Block Lotto last year, called Steps (you can find the block pattern on the Free Block Patterns Page.) The blocks are 6 by 9 inches (finished size).

I need to make more blocks before I decide if I can work with the result, but here are the first sixteen, parked on the design wall.

That's what's in-progress for me this Wednesday.

I'll be joining the WIP-Wednesday list on Freshly Pieced later today. What have you been up to? Starting something new or racing to finish an existing project? 

Life Goes On ...

In the past couple weeks, I've thought to blog about Halloween (and the Day of the Dead), the end of daylight savings time, voting, late fall on the Plaza and the passing of a birthday milestone in my life and whether or not 60 really is the new 40, but none of that has happened  ... yet.  In the meantime, here is my design wall, showing my efforts to catchup with the Mod-Mod Quilt-Along.

I have sewn together the 21-inch modules that are complete ... only three left to go. 

My S-T-R-E-T-C-H Goal for a Lovely Finish in November

I have fallen a couple months behind on the Mod-Mod QAL ... and it's my design and my quilt-along. Life has taken some crazy turns lately (new job, a carbon monoxide leak at my house) and slowed down my creative life, but it's still a little embarrassing.

These are the blocks for January through August for my full/queen-sized quilt.  

My goal for a Lovely Finish in November is to redeem myself and finish ALL the blogs for the year so I can share it on the Block Lotto blog on December 1.

The sad truth is that when I choose a set of block designs each year for the Block Lotto, I always have some sort of design for a sampler quilt using those block patterns and usually start a sampler project ... though most remain in the WIP stage.  I am determined to finish THIS one.

Shades of Gray and Black

On their own, these gray oak leaf blocks are maybe not so interesting ... they look as flat on my wall as they do in this photo.

I have been planning on a twin-size bed quilt made from 16 large oak leaf block: 12 monthly blocks made from the color-of-the-month for the Rainbow Scrap challenge and 4 more that I'd figure out at the end of the year.

This month's color choice of brown, gray and black gave me the opportunity to make a couple of those extra blocks. I made the scrappy brown block last weekend, and this morning, added the gray and black blocks.

And now there are 12 big leaf blocks on my wall.

The Last Four Feather Blocks

My Feather Bed quilt is home and on the bed and now I'm using the last four feather blocks to make some big, 24 inch square, pillow covers.  They're on the design wall, along with this month's lotto blocks and that sweet musical kitty tea towel that refuses to be put away because I'm still thinking about it ...

I stringed together more of the stringed pieced scraps for the narrow borders on the pillow covers and, miraculously, I still have some small scrappy leftovers ... and a plan for using them.

The Block Lotto blocks, called Woven Bars, are 7-by-14 inches; there's an A-block and a B-block and when they are alternated in a straight set, you get the illusion of an even weave of strips.

As I mentioned on the Block Lotto blog yesterday, I think a mini-version of this block will become a Rainbow Scraps Challenge project for me next year, combining the color of the month with neutrals.

You can download the block directions from my Free Quilt Block Patterns page.

It's been too long since I participated in Judy's Design Wall Monday. It feels good to be organized enough to be back ;-)

It was a dark and stormy Sunday Afternoon

Ugly overcast days are so rare here that when the wind picks up and it starts to feel a little like the big bad wolf is huffing and puffing at the door ... it makes us all feel a little under-the-weather.

And by all of us, I mean me and the cats.  Their reactions are predictable and very different.  When the thunder started, Grace went into the kitchen and let me know by meowing non-stop that I needed to open the pantry door so she could go curl up in the back of that space.  Then Johnny followed me upstairs into the bedroom when I went to grab a sweater and insisted he needed to go out into all that wind and weather onto the roof deck (it didn't happen).

On days like this all I want to do is wrap up in a quilt and do some hand-stitching ... and that's the plan for tonight.  I'll be trying the new pincushion pattern.  These are the fabrics I pulled for my first effort.

Do you have a project for Slow Sunday Stitching? Check out what everyone else is doing on Kathy's Quilts.  It looks like there's a whole lot of appliqué and hexies going on today.

Scrap-Happy Saturday Night

There's something about being around a bunch of beautiful quilts at a quilt show that makes me want to rush home and quilt.

Tonight I made a couple more scrappy Oak Leaf blocks in orange and brown–last month's and this month's colors for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Here's my set of blocks for the year so far.

I have fallen behind on a couple of my RSC projects ... but this one is current again. 

Shopping at Quilt Shows

How do you shop at quilt shows?  Do you have a plan?  I usually walk in the door with a list of things I need or short list of vendors that I know I want to be sure to visit, even if it's only in my head.  Otherwise, especially at large shows, I get overwhelmed and come home with nothing or crazy stuff that I don't need and I may or may not ever use. In any event, I'm usually not a big shopper ... as you can see from the photo of my purchases.

The Northern New Mexico Quilt Guild show is a small show with only a dozen or so vendors.  This weekend, I only had one thing in mind–a darling bird on a pedestal wool pincushion in the quilt guild's shop that had grabbed my attention during the preview Thursday night.  It turns out that I wasn't the only one that wanted it and it was grabbed up by the winner of the ribbon topper competition–her prize for winning was early shopping.


Instead I picked up another of the sweet wool pincushions made by the same  person and, from one of the vendors from Oklahoma, a pattern for making a bird on a pedestal pincushion similar to the one that got away.

At the guild shop, I also  bought a sleeve for my iPad because as much as I keep telling myself to make one ... I haven't yet done it. It's a nicely padded bag that is sized just right with a fun, glitzy zipper pull.

Along the way, I bought some crushed walnut shells for stuffing pincushions because I never seem to be able to find them around here and a few new fabrics for my stash.  Lately, I've been thinking about large scale floral prints–can you tell?

After I came home, I noticed that a couple of the fabrics were from the same collection, Andover's Celebracion, which was created by the Museum of New Mexico.  It's not a new collection ... so if I decide I want more, it might be a bit of a scavenger hunt. I'm thinking that they might become the beginning of next years block lotto sampler.

Do you think that where you live affects your color choices?  When I moved to the South of France a few decades ago, I noticed how I started decorating my apartment in a completely different-for-me, pastel palette.  I do see more turquoise and red creeping into my environment (and my quilts) since I moved to New Mexico ... but whether it's because of fabric color trends of living in Santa Fe, who knows?

Update

When I went back for my volunteer hours today, I thought of Brenda's comment and took this iPhone photo with a couple of the bird pincushions and a better view of the  cover image on the pattern.

I love the hand stitching along the seams. Now, to find an old zinc lid or a small wooden candlestick ... 

A Shocking Finish

You may be shocked because I actually finished (early!) and met my October goal for a lovely finish.

I was shocked to learn tonight at the reception before the show begins tomorrow that it had won a ribbon–second Place in the category Large Pieced Quilts made by two or more quilters.  I credit the lovely Long arm quilting by blogless Lynne Horpedal of Late Night Quilts.

At the beginning of the year, I double DARED myself to, among other things, enter a quilt in a show.  (Yep, believe it or not, this is a first for me).

I loved the punny name of Anna Maria Horner's Feather Bed Quilt Pattern and couldn't resist adding more feathers in the quilting design.

Here is a detail of both types of feather quilting.

And, below, a closer look at the piped binding–the piping was made from the scraps of fabric pieced for the feather blocks.

I'll be back with more photos from the Northern New Mexico Quilt Guild show later this weekend. It's a lovely show.


I updated this post to link to the Lovely Finishes for October.  I hope to finish a pair of Feather pillow covers by month's end, too.  In the meantime, I'm sharing this shocking finish on these lists:

Finish it Up Friday 

Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Link a Finish Friday

TGIFFF

Binding, Hanging Sleeve and a Plan ...

My plans for a Slow Sunday Stitching start with this binding and hanging sleeve.

I'll be stitching along with Carrie, watching the Homeland Marathon this afternoon ... will I finish before the new season begins tonight?

An Optimistic October Goal for A Lovely Finish

Remember these blocks, begun earlier this year at a guild retreat?

My goal for a Lovely Finish in October is to finish the quilt.  (I did say I was being optimistic, right?)

Quilters, the Musical

Have you seen the play, Quilters?  It's a musical in which each scene is named for a quilt block.  It is based on a book, first published in 1977, The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, an Oral History

I saw the play performed, probably a decade ago in Michigan, and so when a message went out to the guild asking for volunteers to make blocks, I said yes ... and then I realized just how long it's been since I made something as fussy as a lone star block.

The larger 18 inch block is used on it's own in a scene; the smaller 12 inch version becomes part of the quilt that is revealed at the end. In the performance I attended in Michigan, the finale quilt was made from huge blocks and the giant quilt on the stage made such a big impact ... but I'm guessing that, in this effort, someone wants a functional quilt for their bed when the play is done ... which makes me feel a little sad about the mis-matched seams in my little lone star. It has been too long since I made any of these and I guess I'm rusty.

Quilters opens at the end of the month at the Santa Fe Playhouse.

Update

I just learned that the reason for making smaller blocks for a bed-size quilt for the final scene is that it will then be used as a raffle quilt for the Santa Fe Playhouse.