All's Well That Ends Well

Anyone that clicked over from the FNSI group might be wondering what happened to me Friday night . . .  well, my plan for Friday kind of fell apart when this happened to me.

After a meeting with a staffing company in the morning, I was on my way to Nancie's house to meet her bee and join them for some quilting when I stopped to run a quick errand and my car stopped and wouldn't start again.

I called AAA for a tow truck and giving them all the details of where I was and to which mechanic I needed to be towed . . . then, I waited for the estimated half hour in a hot car until a man showed up with jumper cables.  Huh?  He told me I needed a tow and that he would make the call and it would be at least another half hour of waiting in the hot car.
After dealing with the logistics of dropping the car off and borrowing a friend's car for the weekend, I did catch up with the bee and, at least, got to meet everyone, but I was wiped out and I ended up scratching my Friday Night Sew-In.

But, as the title suggests, my weekend did improve and even included some quilting.  A friend was traveling from Dallas to San Antonio and planned a stop-over in Austin at a city park not far from me.

On Saturday night, we chatted while her sweet husband cooked for us and on Sunday, we quilted and chatted some more ... while the men cooked–it was pretty much a quilter's dream ;-)

I finally got back to hand-piecing Bonnie's wonderful blocks–I am still hopeful that I will finish the year on time . . .  if Bonnie will forgive my tardiness and send the rest of block patterns.  Linda worked on a pile of wonderfully scrappy 9-patch units for her next quilt. One her cats, Mr Guy, helped by holding down her fabrics.

I finished my block just as the first batch of shrimp were ready.  It's not exactly a design wall, but here's my work in progress for Design Wall Monday–something both Linda and I decided we want to get back in the habit of doing.

Yesterday, was exactly the kind of day I needed. Thank you Linda and my regards to the chefs.  Thank you for taken such good care of me and reminding me how I need to get off the beaten path more often.

I can't remember the last time I drove down on a road without street lights, watched the sun set over the water or enjoyed a perfectly toasted marshmallow.

Check out the actual design walls of other quilters on Judy Laquidera's blog, Patchwork Times.

Subtle Signs of Autumn in Austin Texas

Fall has arrived, but the changes are far more subtle than in more northern locations.

The days are still sunny and warm, with temperatures in the 80's and sometimes higher, but the nights are cooler and the humidity has, for the most part, moved on.

Although things are still really quite green, an occasional tree, like this one shows a little color.

The job market feels like it is picking up after summer and I keep hearing from recruiters in a way that finally feels like a normal job search. I continue to be hopeful that my move to Austin was the right thing to do.

I want to pull my yarn stash out of storage and knit things.  I want to pull out some quilting UFO's and unquilted tops and finish and use them.

I am planning to join Heidi and more than a hundred of her friends tonight for the October Friday Night Sew-in.  I will likely work on some scrappy liberated stars for the Block Lotto or play catch-up with Bonnie's hand-pieced blocks–she recently posted October.  Either way, it feels great to get back to doing creative things.

Yabba Dabba Doo!

The Flintstones is 50 years old.  It is a cartoon from my childhood, so it made me smile to see that Google was celebrating The Flintstones anniversary today:

I am, admittedly, a fan of those Google doodles.  Read more (and see other notable Google doodles) here--Google Celebrates 50 Years of The Flintstones.

What's catching your eye?

Lately, stitch designs seem to be catching my eye and capturing my imagination.  How about you?

I bought a red work pattern for some pillow shams at the quilt show over the weekend ... and I just fell in love with Lulu--the first of a block of the month on the blog La Cousette de Ninette.

Adorable, n'est pas?

I FINALLY Do Something Quilty in Austin

Yesterday I attended the Austin Area Quilt Guild's show, Changing Gears.   It's probably symptomatic that it's been too long since I've attended a show, a guild meeting or anything quilty because I completely forgot to take my camera along.

I did take a few photos with my phone, including this one, named Self-Explantory, made by  Martha Tsihlas ... yes, it does say "Keep Austin Weird," a slogan that celebrates Austin's unique culture. I loved the idea of creating a "postage stamp" quilt.

You can click any of the photos for a larger image–I apologize in advance for the quality–or see a slide show of my photos from the day on Flickr, here: Austin Area Quilt Show.

It made me smile to walk around a corner and see this familiar quilt, Tree Everlasting, by Nancie Voegele, alive and in person:

Kathleen McCrady's Folk Art Lillies, which is based on an antique quilt, also me smile. I just loved the oversized Lily placed in the too small pieced basked block ... here's a detail photo, you can see my photo of then whole quilt here.

Overall, I was surprised at the number of traditional quilts made from kits, but, as always, there were still many many quilts, fabric combinations, quilting designs and other details to entertain and inspire.

How to Draw a Liberated House

We're making liberated houses this month for the Block Lotto.  I know that even if you like the look of liberated or wonky houses, you might not be in love with the technique.  An alternative is to draw your house and use the drawing as a foundation for paper piecing.  Here's how.

Sophie's DON'T FORGETS:

• When drawing a PFP pattern, remember that ALL lines must be STRAIGHT and that all lines must begin and end with a "T-intersection" with a previously drawn line.
• Remember that a paper piecing template looks like the MIRROR IMAGE of the finished block.  If, for example, you draw a house with a door on the left and window on the right, your house block will have a door on the right and a window on the left.

Begin with a sheet of paper (or other foundation material) that is at least 1/2 inch larger than the finished size of the block you want to make.

1. Draw a square that represents the FINISHED size of your block–for the September Block Lotto, that would be an 8 inch square. Remember when you are making the block, you will add 1/4 inch on each side of this square for the seam allowance, making a 8 1/2 " square.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Draw the horizontal-ish line that will represent the top of the main body of the house and the bottom edge of the triangle which forms the roof.
   
   
   
3. On the bottom half of your drawing, add two vertical-ish lines that will define the left and right sides of your house.
   
   
   
4. Draw a line between the two lines in step three which will define the top edge of your door and window.
   
   
   
5. On one side of your house, create the door by drawing two lines that begin at the line in Step 4 and end at the bottom of the square.
   
   
   
6. On the other side of your house, create a window by drawing two more lines that begin at the line in Step 4 and end at the bottom of the square.  Then add the horizontal line between them to define the bottom of your window.
   
   
   
7. Define the roof by drawing two, intersecting slanted lines.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   NOTE: IF YOUR ROOF DOES NOT EXTEND TO THE SIDE EDGES OF YOUR SQUARE, YOU WILL HAVE TO CREATE TWO SECTIONS FOR YOUR PATTERN.  CUT THE DRAWING APART ALONG LINE DRAWN IN STEP 2. BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO PIECE THE BLOCK.
8. Now, number your template with the paper piecing order:
   
   1 - window
   2 - space beneath window
   3 - house section beside window
   4 - house section on the other side of window
   5 - door
   6 - house section beside door
   7 - house section above door and window
   8 - sky on one side of house
   9 - sky on the other side of house
   10 - roof
   11 - sky on the side of roof which does NOT extend to the top of block (MISNUMBERED as 12 in the drawing below)
   12 - sky on the other side (MISNUMBERED 11 in the drawing below).
   
   
   
   

Remember that the block you piece will actually EXTEND beyond the square 1/4 inch for the seam allowance. I usually cut out the paper pattern adding the 1/4 inch on each side of the square to make sure I DON'T FORGET.

Splish Splash

As I was driving home tonight, Splish Splash was the song that popped into my head.  The elevated highways on my way home had more water than I imagined could stay there without running off and when I got down to ground level . . . I felt like I was driving through a New Mexico arroyo filling with water from the downpour that is Hermine. The rain hasn't stopped for almost 24 hours and there are flood warnings in effect.

The weather forecasters predict two more days of this.  I haven't lived on the ground floor for a while and I am a little worried about flooding.  Time will tell. Stay tuned.

I am long overdue for providing my friends with an update, so since I am here:

• Since moving to Austin, I regularly hear from recruiters about the possibility of jobs.  It's still competitive and I am no where close yet to something that feels like a "me" job, but it FEELS so much more normal for me that I am optimistic.
• Unlike my move to Dallas, I haven't had a lot of time to explore (and blog about it) because I hit the ground running with a temp job soon after I arrived.  The pay is abysmal--my take home pay is a whole $20 more each week than my unemployment compensation--but it IS work.  The challenge is remembering that while it FEELS like I'm working, my expendable cash has not changed. It also IS a look inside a company that I thought could be an interesting fit for me.
• On the quilting front, for me, right now, there's not much going on beyond the Block Lotto. A friend recently commissioned me to do some work . . . she owes me a photo of the project in practice . . . I will blog about it one day.   In the meantime, she's commissioned two quilts. So I will find a way to get back to quilting soon. 
• The cats are fine, if a little changed from their stay at kitty summer camp. I'm still hoping they'll change back to the cats they were before . . .

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers and if you are in the path of Hermine yourself, be careful out there.  I nearly missed being part of an ugly accident on the way home tonight.

And Now there are TWO Curious Cats

Grace Hopper has convinced her brother Johnny that there is something VERY interesting about the fireplace behind the glass door, and so I now have TWO cats obsessed with it.

I think it's because she knows he has a talent for OPENING THINGS and will continue to investigate until he figures it out.

They are quite the team . . . when they aren't chasing each other around at full speed, or blissfully napping–each in one of the pair of wing chairs.


While Grace will loudly nag persistently plead until I open the doors for her for a supervised peek inside, Johnny has already started to work the corners to see if he can figure out how it opens . . . if he gets lucky, I may have to childproof my fireplace ;-)

(Yep, that's a box in the second photo.  I still have boxes–this one is empty, kept intact to be used for some future necessary organization . . . if I am going to fit into the limited space.)

The Yellow Rose of Texas ... and her Wonky Friends

Even though my fabric is still in boxes, while I ponder the best way to organize and store it in the new apartment, I did manage to catch up with some lotto blocks this weekend. After making four 11th hour fireworks blocks (AKA asterisks) Friday night and then making four more just before the deadline on Saturday, I started making these free-pieced roses for August.

I put together the basics on making this block here: Let's Grow Roses and the guidelines for the blocks we are making on the block lotto blog, here: Roses in Bloom for the August Block Lotto.

The guidelines and suggestions are meant to leave a lot of leeway for personal expression in these liberated blocks while having enough structure that all the blocks we make will play nicely with one another.  It's always hard to know where to draw that line.

Here are the other three rose blocks I've made so far.



The funny thing–funny to easily amused me anyway–was how, as I made the blocks, I found myself creating rules for myself that went far beyond my own suggestions and guidelines for everyone.  In the interest of sharing my process and the way I wrapped my head around this block, here are my rules.

• Begin with a five-sided center, cut so none of the corners are square
• Choose fabrics that are light, medium and dark values of the same color; include one or two that are multicolor prints, but still predominately whatever color the rose is I'm making.
• Add "logs" that are wedge shaped, increasing in width as they wrap around the center.

I'm really enjoying everyone's roses so far and analytical me wonders if the makers have their own set of personal rules for growing rose blocks, too.  Since it's Design Wall Monday over on the Patchwork Times,  here's the virtual design wall of early rose blocks made for the Block Lotto by sneak peekers, Andi, Caroline, Cathy, Ginny, Kate, Kathie, Kim, Pat and Sarah. 

For a look at what others have on their design wall, check out Judy's blog post Design Wall Monday - August 2, 2010.