Over the Tops - Moving Along

My intention was to update more often than I have been of late, but I've been so busy that it's been easy to put it off. Fortunately, even among the busy-ness, I've been able to spend some time on my challenge projects.

I'm also thrilled to have finished the purple paper pieced quilt, I put the last stitches into the binding yesterday afternoon.

Here is a closeup of some of the quilting.

With this one finished, my sister-in-law's quilt is next to quilt. I had to mark the blocks and border and then baste the quilt. The basting gave me fits this time. I try to be frugal with my batting and backing because scraps of each can be used for other projects. Sometimes that comes back to bite me as I get far enough to shift the quilt on my table only to find that either the batting or backing doesn't reach as far as I thought. This happened TWICE this time. I was NOT a happy camper, but knew that I really wanted to get it basted that night so kept at it. Of course, once I've finally got the basting done, I'm not happy until those first stitches go in. I've been quilting on it for a couple of days now.

It seems as if this one is going to go pretty quickly and I love the border design so am anxious to get to it.

Sometime in the next week or two I'll be marking the flying geese quilt, it will go into the hoop next. I'll also be having a few small Christmas gift projectsto do along the way, but I'm determined to keep a big project in a hoop as much as possible.

The challenge project that has gotten quite a bit of attention in the last few weeks is the posy and celtic quilt. I'm really, really happy with how this is coming out. Here are the last of the flowers and leaves to be added along with the yo-yo maker I've been using and the stack of fabrics that are being used for the yo-yos.

I'm anxious to get back to this one, but want to pace myself. I have a lot of hand quilting to do before the challenge is over and I don't want to end up with all the tops done and waiting for quilting. I'm enjoying this one so much that it's hard to put it down. Here you can see a bit of the vine border up against the sashing and a block.

I hope to spend quite a bit of time quilting this week and plan to get a good bit of Debbie's quilt done and I would like to also get a fair portion of the vine/leaf/posy part of the border done. I should also do something on another challenge project, I haven't decided which it will be, yet.

I came out of the kitchen one day to find Ruthie laying on her belly watching the TV downstairs, which is a half flight down.

She is talking more and more, which we are really loving. She still has a long way to go, but is making good progress. She'll be 5 next month but is very small for her age. Combined with the speech delay it's easy to forget how old she is, but she really is more like a little girl than a toddler these days. I think that's it for this update. I'm watching playoff baseball and quilting, but took a break to write this post. The current game is nearly over and there is another yet to come, I've stoked up on coffee so I can stay up late and sew and will enjoy sleeping in tomorrow. We're keeping our heat at about 60, so the house is chilly in the morning. It's so nice to be snuggled under a few quilts while I lazily wake up in the morning.

My family is pretty busy tomorrow, so I should have a lot of sewing time. I'm making one of our favorite meals for dinner, boiled spareribs with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and rolls cooked on top of the boiling pot. They will all be outside for a good part of the day and this is a perfect cold weather meal. Thankfully it's also a rather low maintenance meal while cooking, so it should leave me plenty of down time.
Happy Quilting!
Sue

Musings, Updates, and Ruthie

I saw the movie "Julie & Julia" yesterday. My husband surprised me the night before, asking what was going on the next day. He often asks, to find out what's up with all of the kids for the weekend, but I could tell there was something different. When I finished the rundown of who would be where, I asked why. He said he wanted to take me to a movie. We haven't been to a movie together since "Sleepless in Seattle" came out. Generally, if we have the time and money to go out, we go out to dinner so we can talk, but he knew I really wanted to see this movie.

It will be on my Christmas list if it's out on video by then, I LOVED it. I also plan to get Julia's first book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I love to cook nearly as much as I love to quilt and was completely mesmerized by some of the dishes made, and some of the exerpts read in the movie.

I was enthralled in the movie theater, I think perhaps because I see some of each Julie and Julia in myself.

Quilting is to me as cooking is to Julia. Julia tried several things before learning to cook, because she needed something to fill her time. I learned to knit at 10 years old, and have done some form or other of needlework since then. I knitted in study halls at school, at home in front of the TV, I added stamped cross stitch, needlepoint, crewel, and counted cross stitch to my repertoire as the years went on. I can remember bringing cross stitch projects to stitch during my break time at work.

Then one day, I got an advertisement in the mail for a quilting book. I was intrigued. I was intimidated. I WANTED that book. Eventually I bought a quilting book. Little by little, I read my way through, studying it, learning the steps, daring myself to try it. Pregnant with Rachel, baby number 3, I decided it was time to try. What better trial project than a baby quilt? I bought supplies, carefully made my templates, and spent afternoons hand sewing those attic window blocks with the fussy cut inset squares. I made a baby quilt and changing table pad, hand pieced and hand quilted, in just 3 weeks. I WAS HOOKED and I was off and running. Much like Julia was with her cooking.

Julie, on the other hand, was trying to find her way. She took on a big project, something to keep her busy, something to focus on, and something to finish. She was obssessed.

I understand that obssession. I feel that way often because quilting is so much more to me than just making a blanket. Along with being a creative outlet, time spent quilting is also spent praying, meditating on God, and thinking through problems. I reminisce and daydream, plot and plan, all the while the machine humming while I piece, or the needle gently gliding in and out while hand quilting or appliquing. It brings me peace and it's such a gift.

I'm planning a "Julie" project. I haven't decided what it is, yet. Maybe it will be multiple things, a list of techniques I want to try, and projects I want to finish, a list that hold me accountable for the rambling "someday" things that run through my mind.

In the meantime, I've got quite a few projects in the works!

Debbie's quilt remains on my design board.The main reason is that I got on a roll with the purple paper pieced quilt and decided I wanted to finish it before moving on. Often in the past, I've needed to set aside quilts to take on deadline projects, or have put projects aside because they were tedious to work on, only to have them sit for a very long time before getting picked up again. I'm attempting to break that habit.

I've also learned how to play mind games with myself to make less enjoyable parts of things more palatable. I decided to quilt all the purple blocks first, because those were more difficult. I had two different motifs in the alternating blocks, and one of those was much easier than the other.

The little heart wreath is adorable, but there is LOTS of turning the hoop involved. I decided all these needed to be finished first. I then moved onto the other motif and those worked up quite quickly. I'm now doing the white border (also being quilted in purple thread) and it won't be long at all now until this quilt is finished. Though I really wanted to finish it before moving on, in the back of my mind I was pretty sure it would get set aside yet again. The fact that I've plowed through the most difficult part and now find myself just a week or so away from finishing this has given my motivation a big push. I've been more diligent about using my time wisely, and hope that I'm setting myself up for good habits come fall.

I also spent some time on the triangle paper project.

I still have quite a few sheets of triangle paper left to find fabric for, and I may work on this some tomorrow. The 1/2 square triangle units in the box are all sewn together and waiting for pressing, which will be done a few at a time. Quite a few of these will be made into Pinwheel blocks, the rest are left as 1/2 square triangle units.

Soon to be in the forefront is the posies and celtic quilt. I spent a couple of days last week making more bias tape for the outer border.

I still haven't decided for sure what will go into that outer border. I'm pretty sure there will be a vine, leaves and posies. I might also need to do a smaller braid type thing between the blocks and the vine border to finish it out properly since there is so much applique in the sashing. I plan to concentrate on this more as soon as the purple quilt is finished.

I'm pretty sure I've decided on a project for the fabric I got for my birthday, and it might be part of my Julie project. While typing this post, I already thought of a few things I'd LOVE to finish as part of this challenge. I guess part of the challenge will be naming it!

And now for Miss Ruthie. She's been in rare form of late. Because of her limited vocabulary, it's easy to forget how much she really understands. She still catches us off guard sometimes when she answers questions. Today, Rachel was asking her a bunch of questions, all to which she said "no." Rachel asked if no was her favorite word and Ruthie paused and looked at her and said "Yes!" Rachel was quite amused, "most little kids would say 'no' again!" she said.

She was playing in the kitchen one day and called me to take her picture.

She had some rearranging to do.

She then smiled big and said "picture" in her own inimitable way.
I can't get away with pretending anymore, she demands to see the picture in the back of the camera once it's taken.

She likes to dress up. She will often find a hat, then find me and ask for a picture. Really, though, who wouldn't want to capture this for posterity?

Or this? This is her current "shopping" getup, she'll put on shoes, the hat, and the purse and push her little cart around the house. The other day, she stopped, reached into the purse, pretended to put something in her mouth, grinned and said "gum!"
And now, believe it or not, my update is finished. I hope to post more often now that we're starting our school work and, in general, things are less busy here. In the meantime, I'll be thinking about the currently nameless self challenge and what it will entail.

Until then,

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Flying Along

Much to my surprise, Emma's quilt is done! I really didn't expect it to go quite this quickly, though I did get an inkling early on. I'm really happy with the results and hope she will be, too.Debbie's is not anymore ready for the hoop than it was last time I mentioned it as I've been solely working on Emma's quilt. I hope to rectify this in short order but first I have one more project that needs to be finished.

It's a sobering thought when your children's friends start getting married. Our daughters went to a bridal shower yesterday and only had a week notice so I pitched in for the gift. Our 4 older kids will all be going to the wedding and are all chipping in and buying them something off of their registry. I told them I would add a table runner to the gift if they wanted me to, and they did.

Interestingly, I had pulled this project so I had something to quilt on between Emma's and Debbie's, if need be, and we decided last week it would make a perfect gift for their friends. As it turns out, the dishes they got are brown and green, so this should be a really nice compliment to them. This pattern was designed by my friend, Tyanne, you can find this pattern and many others on her website. This is also quilting up much more quickly than I thought, I started last night and everything to the right of the hoop (except the border) is already quilted. The printed section at right edge of the hoop is the center point, so I'm more than half done. I expect to be working on the border this evening and hopefully binding (it's already made) in the next couple of days.

Keeping to my promise to myself to have something in the hoop at all times, I pulled out another basted, unfinished quilt. These blocks were made as part of an internet swap several years back. A few of the blocks are quilted, but at the time I started the quilting it seemed really tedious and I probably had to set it aside for a gift project. On this one, I'm quilting in the ditch on the paper pieced blocks to give the blocks texture. Since with paper piecing the pieces are often small (these are 6 inch blocks) this seemed the best way to quilt this one. The alternating blocks have continuous line motifs in them, which are fast and fun to quilt. I'm not sure how much of this will get done before Debbie's top is finished. I suspect that knowing this is what it is in the hoop will have me appliquing more, LOL, but we'll see. I really love to hand quilt and I'm more determined than ever to finish up some of the tops I have waiting around here. With the hangers of made binding on them, I have a visual reminder of the work that is waiting for me. I'll feel much better about working on new things if those hangers start to empty out a bit.

I have a few projects that are really starting to call my name, but I'm trying to not get too involved in anything else until these "must do" projects are finished.

Of course, any time the camera is out, Miss Ruthie insists that her picture be taken, too. And now it's time to wrap this up and get to work.

Happy Quilting!

Sue