Birthdays Past and Future, Those Little "Houses"

Bear with me; this is going to be a long post. That's what happens when I don't post for days weeks on end! I celebrated yet another birthday this past week. It was a perfectly wonderful day; Mr. Goodneedle took me out to breakfast and then on to an athletic shoe store that generates a 3-D model of your feet for superior fitting. I tried on three different pairs of walking shoes from there and settled on these new ones. They're probably the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn right out of the box!


We had dinner out for the next two nights, too; the celebration lasted for a full forty-eight hours. Our son and his family had a special birthday dinner in my honor on the second night, complete with a beautiful handmade birthday banner and a very special strawberry cupcake!

Yesterday we made a quick trip to the Capital City to celebrate Lucy Ann's upcoming birthday this week. She'll be nine years old. We brought a furry beanbag chair for her room, I believe it was a hit! Our daughter called to tell us that long after we had left and returned back home she was still in the chair!

We had a fun birthday lunch with her (and her family who were sitting on the other side of the table).

She was delighted with a piece of birthday cake that easily fed our entire table (with some to spare)!

So, those "Little Houses" that I teased earlier weren't actually houses under construction at all. But, rather, square-in-a-square blocks. I made fifty-four of these 2" block units. Why?

To border "Frank"! Isn't he handsome? He is a door banner measuring 17" X 44". "

Frank is a Country Threads pattern that can be ordered through the hyper link here until 10/31. 

I got carried away  consumed with details on this small quilt. The name tag was created from a downloaded name tag photo which I printed out onto Printed Treasures* and fused onto his jacket. The pieced border was my own idea too. I was auditioning solid color outer borders and couldn't quite come up with anything that got me excited until I decided to piece a border using colors from the shirt and jacket, I felt it pulled the whole thing together. Yes, I can turn even the simplest thing into a career move! All in all, it was so worth it; I absolutely love the final result! As you can tell, these are LOUD colors, perfect for Halloween and October decorating; almost time to bid September good-bye. And sew it goes. 

Life is Good!

* Printed Treasures are printable, paper-backed fabric sheets. This is the product that I use to make all of my quilt labels; I buy the sew-in sheets. I heat-set mine, face down, with the iron after printing and have never had trouble with them not being permanent after washing. They may fade a bit, over time, depending on how many times they're laundered with the quilt. 

Up next: the perfect, quiet, antitdote to all that garish color overload; a low volume remedy. 

Quilt Block Bible Study

Geese Squared

Beginner's Delight

I have been posting for a while now about the monthly meetings that Quiltkeemosabe and I have been having where we exchange the directions we've been writing for each and every quilt block in Rosemary Youngs' Quilt Block Bible. Yesterday was one of those days. I told her ahead of time that I thought "Geese Squared", one of my assigned blocks for last month, might just be my favorite so far. But, that was before I did "Beginner's Delight"; I don't know if I can decide. But then, we've amassed quite a collection since the beginning, it's increasingly difficult to choose. My own body of work, so far, is shown below; 121 out of 202. I just love looking at them!

Can you choose a favorite? I have a question: should I sash this with dark sashing or keep it in the lighter range as it appears on the design wall? I have been thinking dark all along but I'm open to thoughts and opinions.

Life is Good!

Off The Wall

I've been suffering with "piecer's block" lately; the projects on the design wall have been stalled there for the longest time and aren't currently inspiring me to move off the mark and get back to them. What to do? In an effort to jumpstart the creative sewing juices I have taken them off the wall, albeit temporarily, and have launched into something new. Using Sujata Shah's Cultural Fusion Quilts book as a springboard I have taken off on a free-form Rail Fence quilt, a pattern in her book. This type of  piecing has been both liberating and disciplining for me at the same time. Liberating in the sense that there's a freedom in slashing gentle curves without a ruler that combine into these rather crude, rough shapes. The exercise in putting together the blocks has been disciplining in the sense that I have stayed on task adding the blocks with regularity to the wall, I've learned that there's definitely a right and wrong direction to make these rails "work" together and that there needs to be enough visual contrast between the chosen fabrics for impact (my original inclination was to use this pattern with low-volume prints, NOPE, that doesn't work efffectively at all!).

"Rustic Rails" might have booted those other projects off the wall for the time being, but it's been just the kick I needed to get things moving again. I hope to add eight more blocks to this wall by the weekend, bringing this quilt top to approximately 64" X 80"; the blocks measure 16" and will be set four across by five down. Thanks, Quiltdivajulie, for bringing this great pattern to my attention; the not-too-distant-future flimsy status of Jackstones, Hexie Garden and Metro Rings thanks you too! Welcome back, mojo, I have missed you.

Life is Good!

Changing My Mind

I can't stand to be left out... even when it's been by my own design, I didn't have the time to start the Summer Sampler sew-along from Temecula Quilt Company this time. I had done the Alphabet Sampler last fall and enjoyed it, but I just didn't need to start one more project. Quiltkeemosabe showed me her 4" blocks on Wednesday when I was at her house, hers were wonderful. I was still resistant, but wearing down. On the drive back home I kept thinking about those cute little blocks. My mother had bestowed upon me her leftover black and white scraps from a recently finished quilt. "I wonder"... I thought, "how would those blocks look in all black prints with a controlled background fabric"?  You can see for yourself. I've finished week #1. I'm late to this party (they're already on week #7) but the blocks are small and I am eager, I'll catch up. I believe I'll set mine alternately with the flax linen blend shown behind the blocks, this looks classy to me. Do you ever decide that you're too busy to participate in "this", "that" or "the other thing" and then wish later that you could have joined in the fun? I do it all the time. I've tried to learn to loosen up a little and refocus, I know that if I don't I'll miss out on a lot. Like all this cuteness!

I've been saving all of my own leftover scraps from past projects into a designated laundry-sized basket for a few years. I had intended to take a day each month to press them and cut them into usable sizes. These scraps were (in my estimation) too small to shelve but too large to toss. The appointed "cutting days" never quite made it to my calendar and the days filled up with other activities... however, that basket filled up too. This week I dragged it out and sighed, the idea of spending time and energy on these scraps was daunting and, frankly, a little draining. I wanted to change my mind about ever holding onto them in the first place but somehow I felt committed to seeing the task through. My husband walked through the room while I was deliberating this decision. He asked me why I felt obligated to a basketful of scraps, I really couldn't answer. "Throw them out", he advised, "and don't look back, it's not like you're going to run out of fabric anytime soon".  I took his advice, the scraps went straight to the trash can (he volunteered to do it for me, I didn't have the heart). He was right, I was liberated from something I thought I ought to do and am rejoicing once again after having changed my mind! Lesson learned, I'm not going to beat myself up over altering courses either, I'm blessed that I have that prerogative.

And sew, here I go... 

(quite contentedly using someone else's scraps!)

Life is Good!

More Challenges!

Just when I felt as though I was finding my way through the "Head For The Border" challenge I am confronted with another set of challenges in these blocks-of-the-month. These "only squares and rectangles" blocks are three quarters of the way complete, nine out of twelve in each of two colorways are pictured here. I have absolutely no idea how I will set them together. I find this side-by-side comparison interesting, the blocks look entirely different. I'll attend the next session at my LQS for block #10 tomorrow; my mind is racing with setting possibilities, it's not to early to start planning. What would you do if these blocks were yours?

Life is Good! 

Frosty Fingers?

What's an ever-mounting stack of mitten blocks to do without a setting to aspire to? Nothing more than grow taller and eventually topple over. I came up with this layout as a way to corral these hand warmers and turn my idea into something a wee bit more organized. Now, I have a goal: a pair a day for the next forty days and I'll have enough for this quilt top/ matching game. Wish me luck.

Life is Good!

Mitten Match-Up ~ 79.5" X 94.5"