I actually found some binding in my stash for Sparkling Gems! Because of that pieced border, I thought I was going to have to go shopping instead of my usual tactic of using leftover backing or whatever random scraps I could find in the right size.



I wanted dark blue, but all of my dark blue is set aside for another quilt and after hunting sales and my stash to get that stuff together I didn't want to sacrifice any of it. There's some dark blue Kona Cotton in the sewing room, but it's not enough and I don't know where it is anyway. And it was going to be at least a week before I got near a fabric store.

Then I dug into my bag of scrap binding to find something for a baby quilt and saw the green binding. One of Mom's quilting friends somehow made twice as much as she needed for her quilt and threw the rest into the trash, then Mom fished it out and passed it along to me. I'd remembered it was there, but was sure there couldn't be enough for Sparkling Gems. Turns out there was, with a yard or two left over!

It's a little narrower than I cut my own bindings, but it fell into my lap and goes well with my border, so I'm a happy quilter.

{Throwback Thursday} Sparkling Gems

I made Sparking Gems in 2010. And then I forgot about it. 

This is one of those patterns I saw in a magazine and thought I could do. There was something with plastic templates that I can't quite remember... I think it was a trick to get out of cutting actual triangles. Back then that was appealing, but today I'd just pull out the Easy Angle and skip all of the extra steps and trimming.

I dug into my scrap bags and used all sorts of wild prints for this one. There was more than one moment of panic where I was sure that it wouldn't all pull together.

At 70x82", it's one of the biggest projects I've quilted on my Janome.  The backing was a thrift store sheet, but it was too narrow so I wound up adding strips from the matching pillowcases. The pieced border is from a floral shirt I found in the Goodwill bins and the binding is some extra that a friend of my mom's was throwing away because she'd made way too much for her own quilt.

I doubt that I'd make those same fabric choices today. Or a quilt with patches this large.

With all that's going on right now, it was either work on quilts today or go absolutely nuts.

Something took a big chunk out of our favorite barn cat...I got an early-morning call that a family member was headed for the emergency room by ambulance...our home school curriculum is sitting in the dead letter office in Minnesota, and even though I've got the tracking number, they can't send it to me unless I send a letter, and no one can tell me how long it will take them to respond or if they even will...the babies are coming down with whatever I've got...

The ER visit was serious, but it looks like things are going to be okay. Kitty is all stitched up and has already been back to the vet again because her toes were swelling -- and will probably be going back tomorrow. I'm trying not to think about the books, and I've done the best I can with the rest of it.

And I've quilted. I sewed together the few blocks for the Sparkling Gems quilt and cut fabric for the pieced border. And pieced the border strips.

I think it looks much better with the border --



than without it --



I'm going to leave off the solid border that the pattern calls for because this quilt is huge enough as it is. But after months of our love/hate relationship, I definitely wound up loving it.

That border fabric, which ties the quilt together much better than my first choice would have, was a shirt I found in the Goodwill bins last week! I started cutting pieces from the sleeves and yoke and still have the entire back left for other projects. How great is that?

Hopefully I'll get time soon to assemble the top and sew those pretty borders on.

I also finished the last blocks for my Birds in the air quilt, so now I've got those 99 blocks to assemble. Doesn't sound fun, but it might make for good stress relief. And the sooner I get it together, the sooner I can start appliqueing the cute little birdies!

the excavation continues

I'm slowly sifting through the mounds of fabric and patterns and half finished projects that've accumulated in the corner of the dining room. No one else can tell by looking, but I'm making progress.

The last few blocks for the cat bed are pieced and the leftover strings are put away with the rest of my strings.

I sorted through my piles of potential Bento Box fabrics and cut what I had, then counted to see what I still need. Only two darks and seven lights, and I'm optimistic that I can pull those from my stash.

I emptied out a storage box for the pieced sections Simple Pleasures and sorted my light and dark squares into a box that's within easy reach for leaders and enders.


But my happiest accomplishment for today is redoing the quilt ladder. It's been buried in lace shawls ever since Grandpa made it for me. This morning, the lace went up to my sewing room and the quilt tops came down. THESE are the ones I'm waiting to quilt on Mom's longarm. The ones I keep almost forgetting because there's always another quilt top I've finished or want to finish.

I hope that having them right there in front of me will motivate me to schedule some time to go up and quilt them. It's not all of the tops, not by a long stretch. Sparkling Gems should be there (it's hiding behind the log cabin), but as much as I love that quilt top, it looks awful folded and hanging on the ladder and the goal here is to encourage myself.

Today, I am pushing myself. And apparently I'm making it as hard on myself as possible. Most quilters, I'm guessing, know the dimensions of their quilts. I've usually got some vague idea myself -- if I make twenty-five six inch blocks, I'll probably have a quilt that's around thirty inches square. Or I can look at the pattern and subtract the width of the borders I left off.




But it's been a very long time since I messed with the Sparkling Gems top and I have no clue where the pattern itself is. I've never made a quilt that needed more than a flat sheet to back it, so I wasn't even thinking that the full sheet I bought last week would be too small. But it was, by two or three inches. The other sheets in my stash weren't big enough, either. At least not the ones that I thought would work with this quilt. I didn't check the others. And I was going to be extremely mad at myself if I couldn't use the sheet I wanted after I spent five bucks on it. So I took the two pillow cases that came with it and pieced my sheet to make it big enough.

My batting wasn't big enough either, which is extra maddening because I'd had the right size in my hands in the store and walked from the checkout line to the back of the store to get a smaller one because I didn't need a queen size. I don't make quilts that big. Except for this one. I did have a the right size up in the sewing room, which I'd bought to cut into fourths for quilts in sizes I do actually make.

(There's still not a big enough space to lay out a queen size quilt on my floor, not even if I move furniture, but I've probably whined about that enough times already.)

The plan was to try a technique I read about on Quiltville chat and cut the batting in half, then baste and quilt half of the quilt, then add the rest of the batting and quilt that half. I don't remember making the decision to pin baste the entire thing. The quilts are making their own decisions or I'm channeling whatever housewife lived here when the house was first built in 1920, or I don't know what else, but I did not decide to try quilting a queen size quilt on my Janome.

Guess that means that I don't get the credit now that it seems to be actually working! I started in the middle and made my way out to one corner, and if I could get one quarter of it done, the other three quarters should also be possible. I've already accepted that it's probably going to have pleats and tucks, but all of my quilts seem to have a few of those, so that's not big deal.

Doess this mean I don't have to wait for longarm time to get my quilts finished -- unless I want to?

It's quilted!

It also seems to have shrunk overnight. When I took the real tape measure to it this afternoon, it came out at 70" x 82" -- not quite the biggest quilt I've made. But it's still the hugest thing I've dared tackle with the Janome -- and it came out just fine!



The meandering isn't quite as nice as I've been managing on my smaller quilts, but it's a LOT better than I usually do on the long arm. So I have my top quilted now AND got better results than I would've had if I'd waited. And now there's nothing in line in front of the cats.

I really do need to go measure the cat blocks because if it isn't going to be bigger, or much bigger, than Sparkling Gems... I might be getting giddy all over again.

Don't you love those quilting (knitting, cooking, whatever else) moments when you suddenly realize that you not only can accomplish something, but now that you've got that new skill or bit of knowledge, you're going to be able to accomplish a lot more somethings?

My other big revelation for this week has been about the muslin. It doesn't have to match! Bonnie at Quiltville says so, and if Bonnie says it's okay to use all of those different bits of muslin in one quilt, I'm gonna get my stack of mis-matched whitish pieces and start cutting two inch squares.

My house has been taken over by knitting and quilting this week.

Sunday, one friend was calling me about a too-good-to-be-true yarn clearance sale and another was calling me about the quilt she was working on. Between the two of them, the phone rang at least every half hour. Sometimes they both called at the same time. The clearance markdowns turned out to be a false rumor, but I send that friend off with a Knitpicks catalog so she'll be able to get wool almost as inexpensive as the sale yarn would have been, with a much better range of colors. The other friend got her quilt finished. And I'm sure I must've accomplished something.

Yesterday, I got up hours before the kids and managed to play with three of my scrap quilts. And knit. Alex found the pieces for a quilt we'd cut out well over a year ago and, in a flurry of 12 year old activity, she got the top pieced. It needs borders.

So today we went to Joann's to buy her some fabric. I'd planned on staying home, but the diaper supply was critical and Joann's is sorta almost next to Costco. We now have everything except for bread. They moved the bread and the diapers and after looping through the entire store three times I decided that we can do without bread. The new mixer came yesterday and Bill is going to bake some anyway.

I looked for fabric to back the Dot to Dot quilt, but if they had anything perfect, I missed it. The little guys weren't as fascinated by the choice of red or yellow or blue as Alex and I were, so by the time we got that decided, it was time to pay for our goodies and bolt for the door. I did buy myself the IK Holiday issue and the new Vogue Knitting, which saves me the stop I was going to make tomorrow. Unless I manage to find the sewing bag pattern I'm looking for. Then I'll be back to buy the novelty print I fell in love with.

I've challenged myself to see how many new quilt tops I can have finished before Mom gets back from Arizona and we get together to play show and tell. Dot to Dot was the first one. The cat quilt will not be done by then. Don't ask when the cat quilt will be done, or if I've been working on it.

Scrappy Squares



15 of 25 or 42 blocks finished

Try to picture white sashing between the blocks. This is the one that calls for two thousand and some two inch squares. I've only got three hundred or so more to cut and I'm thinking of making the quilt smaller than the 80 1/2 x 92 1/2 the pattern calls for. So I've got fifteen blocks done out of either twenty-five or forty-two or something in between.

Sparkling Gems



16 of 42 blocks finished

After I finished and laid out the first eight blocks, I was ready to ditch the whole project. Now I'm at sixteen blocks (out of forty-two) and back in love.

Rail Fence



40 of 225 blocks finished

Log Cabin



1 of 35 blocks finished

And there's the dinosaur quilt (maybe another 20 blocks)... and the spool quilt (147 blocks)...and the cats...

I've got 26 days to go. Maybe a few more or less.

And Christmas knitting.

This is fun!

How many bugs can one family have at the same time? And how long is this going to last? If Bill and I get what the kids had, and the kids and Bill get what I have... I'm not even going to think about it too hard because I'll scare myself.

After a full day of no symptoms from anyone, I was sure we were safe to head into town and run errands. I was wrong, but at least everything got done and I don't have to leave the house again anytime soon.

The tires are rotated, the wheels are aligned, the cat food is bought, and the bills are paid...now onto the important errands.

I needed a sheet to back Sparkling Gems because someone over on Quiltville Chat gave me an idea how I can quilt it on my own machine without waiting for the longarm. I don't know how it can be so hard to buy a sheet.

Kmart only sells them in sets. And doesn't believe in actually opening any of their checkout lines, so I didn't even get the sets I wanted for the boys. Kohls, the other store within walking distance of Costco, might have had a couple of sets, but I was too distracted by the boys to pay attention. Target had some nice flat sheets, but they were all solid colors and that's not what I want for this quilt.

The first thrift store didn't have any good sheets, but it did have an old apron and very cheap children's books, which were only four for a dollar if you bought them in multiples of four, otherwise they were a dollar each and why I couldn't just buy the odd two for a dollar instead of adding two more to the stack is beyond me, but maybe that's just because I'm tired and cranky.

I did finally find a sheet at the second thrift store for five bucks. How can used sheets be so expensive? The only way I can make myself pay that much for a sheet is to figure out that, with a 50% off coupon, I would've spent fifteen dollars on yardage at Joann's. There was another vintage set that I really wanted to have, but I was a good girl and decided to see if it's still there next week when a different color will be half off.

Now I've got my backing, my batting, and my thread. But no energy left to do anything with it. But when I do feel better, I'll be ready to go.

Experimenting

My more recent scrap quilts have been more and more controlled. I play it safe by sticking to greens or blues or mixing obvious lights and darks.... or in an "anything goes" quilt like Cheddar Bow Ties,  I use all of that bright background to tie the fabrics together and make them play nicely.

It's been a long time since I threw caution to the wind and did something like Sparkling Gems. I had serious doubts when I started piecing the blocks for that one, but it all came together into a quilt that I still like.

We'll see what happens with this one. It'll take a lot more blocks before I have any idea what the finished quilt might look like.

plans and more plans for 2010

Back in June, I listed all of the WIPs that came to mind while I was sitting in the van waiting for my husband to finish grocery shopping. Of those twenty-five projects, all but two are now finished. I've decided that lists can be useful, so here's a brand new one to start the new year with --

projects to finish soon
Marilyn Apron (half done)
Short Row Ribbed Scarf
Mindy's Quilt (just needs binding)
My Log Cabin (half quilted)
My Fun With Bricks (ready to pin baste and quilt)
4 baby quilts
applique flower quilt (needs binding)

other wips
scrappy cats
lover's knots
courthouse steps
2" scrappy squares

tops to quilt
Irish chain
bento box
sparkling gems
30s buzz cake
blue fun with bricks baby quilt
Chinese coins baby quilt
stained glass window

WHIMMs
bow ties
Shenandoah log cabin
Shakespeare in the park
devil's claw
pointy butterflies
yellow quilt
burgoyne surrounded
north pacific
double hourglasses
scrappy pineapple
grandma's donuts

I whipstitch my bindings, because that's been the best way I could manage it. Mom and my best friend and what seems like all of the other quilters out there do these perfectly invisible stitches that make me feel a little ill when I think about having to manage it myself. So I whip stitch.

But something clicked last night while I was hand stitching down the binding for Sparkling Gems. I think I've finally figured out how to make those absolutely invisible stitches that the other quilters can manage! Not that mine are invisible, but I've sort of figured out what I'm supposed to be doing with the needle and thread.



I'm going to finish the binding the way I started it because I think it'll look odd if I change techniques mid-stream, but I'm excited to try out my new technique on a different quilt.

What I think finally did make it click was trying a machine binding technique I found in a new magazine. I've tried sewing down the bindings by machine a couple of times, with mediocre results. This way, it actually looks pretty decent.



Now I need to figure out what I'm going to work on for today's sewing party. I'm off to a late start, but I did make the whole family pancakes and as soon as I get another load into the washing machine, I'll be ready to start picking a project.

Friday, Bill drove me up to Woodland Woolworks to get a Japanese stitch book. I spent the whole trip up there giddily fantasizing about finally having it in my very own hands. They were out of the book I wanted. They were out of every Japanese stitch book they carry, so I couldn't even settle for a different one. So now I'm waiting for my first choice to be mailed to me, which will take a couple of weeks.

I could've called them to see if they had the book first, but I wanted to look at yarn. Bill was buying me Christmas goodies, and on top of that, I've got the money from the second digital camera to spend. I was all set to splurge and couldn't find a single skein that I wanted to take home, not even in the sale room.

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm not an LYS shopper. Even if I go in with money in my hand, planning to buy yarn, I tend to leave empty-handed. So I'll stick with Knitpicks and Elann and the LYSs won't miss my business since I never shopped there much anyway.

I did pick up Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn Clark and rode home with the book open in my lap, planning to cast on for the Sand Dollar Shawl and deciding between two yarns already in my stash, and later I ordered a couple of other books I've been wanting from Amazon and put together an order form to replace the Denise cables I keep losing lately.

One of my first non-stash busting plans for 2009 is to make sure I've got enough thread and pins and darning needles and other important little things that I don't come to a screeching halt mid-project on the one morning I'm awake early and my kids aren't.

A friend came over to quilt with me this morning and while we were talking, I pieced blocks for my Sparkling Gems Quilt. I spent the first few days of the year finishing all of the corner units and cutting the 4 1/4" squares I still needed and now I've only got eight more blocks to piece -- I can handle that!



This thing is huge, and it'll be a bit huger once I get the pieced border done. I'm hoping that I can get the border done, since my sewing machine has been throwing fits all day. I've cleaned it. I've rethreaded it. The needle is new.

Guess the brat is just due for a tantrum.

Halfway Through the Year

Because I saw someone else post June totals and thought it would be a neat idea, and because I fear I'm at an actual stopping point here, I decided to scan through my blog posts and figure out my own progress for the year.

In 2009, I made twenty quilts. I gave seven of them away, but that still leaves thirteen quilts and since I hope to be quilting for many many more years...

The math concerned me a bit. Especially since I've got this bad habit of looking at a pattern in a magazine and thinking "That might be fun!" closely followed by "I think I've got scraps that would work for that." Which left me with tops I wasn't that wild about.

This year I'm saving those blocks that might be fun for the baby quilts. I've made (I think) thirty so far. They're fun, there's no pressure because I'm not going to have to live with them for the rest of my life, and because I know they're not staying here, I don't use up my last bits of some precious print in them and then decide I don't like the quilt but I can't part with the fabric.



I've made three quilts for myself so far and I'm attached to them all. Madder Snowballs used a fabric line from Connecting Threads that I absolutely loved. Sawtooth Chain was my birthday present to myself. And Courthouse Steps was a pattern I'd wanted to try ever since I finished the log cabin twins.



I worked up my courage and started quilting bigger quilts on my own machine. Sparkling Gems, Fun With Bricks, and my log cabin twin all got finished without a trip up to use the long arm.



Not sure what's next -- I think I'll try to finish the blocks for Grandma's Donuts and the nine patches for By the Lake. And there are those Jelly Roll wanna-bes and Quinn's green quilt, but I've got to work up a lot more energy before I tackle anything new.