It's Getting There

Progress is slow, but this was never meant to be a race to get it done kind of project. More so, it's been something that I've savored along the way, enjoying the process of handstitching...of sitting around the campfire chatting and sewing...of sitting in the car, listening to the radio on a roadtrip when the scenery is boring and the conversation has begun to dwindle (or when they are talking boy-stuff) I've developed quite the callus on my middle needle-pushing finger too and my fingers fall asleep more than I would like them to, but I'm enjoying the whole process.  It's getting there, I can just about see the finish, I'm working on the borders now, so my thoughts wander to what kind of flowers I'm going to applique on the final border and should I machine or hand quilt this one? There was a kind lady at the quilt show over the weekend who was handquilting  with a hoop on a vintage GFG, it was fun to pick her brain, asking what kind of batting she used, how slack or taught the quilt should be in the hoop, how she knotted the thread when she reached the end of a length. The kind of questions that (for me anyway) that can only be answered by watching someone do it instead of trying to figure it out for myself with pictures and/or instructions on paper...in fact it inspired me to finish up the left-hand border that night and though it's not quite a "ta-da!" moment, I think that you'll agree that I've made quite a bit of progress...in fact, I think that I'm in love with this one!

My Saturday Inspiration

The area where I live in Washington state has two local quilting guilds that every March co-host a show and vendor's market at the Three Rivers Convention Center.  I've attended the last four or five years where I spend an hour or three happily wandering  the aisles of quilts, contented to snap pictures at my little heart's content. This year was no exception, except that my DH accompanied me (bless his heart) instead of a dear co-worker who is my usual companion...alas, poor Kim went on vacation to Southern California for the Christmas holidays, injured her foot badly while there, is still hobbling around on crutches and hasn't returned to work since!

There were many lovely quilts, wonderfully made and to-die-for quilted (it is on my bucket list to actually enter a quilt in this or any show for that matter) but the quilters here don't seem to embrace the "modern" quilting designs which really excite my eye. Still, I had a wonderful day, gazing at them, snapping pictures for inspiration and dodging everyone else there who was doing exactly the same as I...which is probably at this point in my happy tale that I should apologize...that while dodging said peeps, my photo angles and the composition of those photos suffered along with my patience in getting a nice photo for you to view!

The first two that you see above, are right up my alley colorwise,vibrant and exciting. I'm loving orange at the moment as a new favorite color, but pink,pink and pink will ALWAYS be my go-to color of choice! Last year, Judy Niemeyer was the featured artist, I soooo admire her work, would die and go to heaven to take a class of hers (as intimidating as that might be...) and so, that remains on my to-do list of quilts yet to be made as is the lonestar quilt, like the one above!!  I love the fussy-cut flowers that circle the inner star...yummy!

I have yet to attempt much of anything with black as a focal color, but love the way that the blue green and purple just pop!

I love this one with retro prints, appliqueed and embroidered...it reminds me of Grandma's house. 

Since I have a house full of hunters, myself included (hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I always say...and if it means that I am out hiking and enjoying the beauty of God's splendor, well then it's a lot more enjoyable than sitting in camp and doing the breakfast dishes!) I (and my DH) admired this one...

Not exactly my color scheme, but the design is wonderfully geometric and I have to admire someone who would cut all those tiny pieces of fabric, on purpose!

Hexagons...need I say more?! I can't seem to get over my love of them  :  )

And polka dots....love, love, love them too!!!

Things are beginning to come together

I have a couple of projects in progress at the moment as I'm sure many of you are familiar with and in the same boat. I am quite happy to report that all 36 qayg squares are now finished and a row is assembled. Originally, this endeavor was begun with the intention of making a quilt for the double bed in the bungalow (the affectionate term for our camp trailer). Upon auditioning it upon the bed in my room (which is a queen) it occurred to me that a quilt in the camper would only be used a few months out of the year, why not make it big enough to be used in the master bedroom? I am super excited to get it put together, it looks amazing and I am mostly happy with the way the squares have turned out.  There will be a bit of tweaking to be done when assembling the rows, some of the last rounds of the squares are a bit skinnier than is pleasing to my eye, but we shall see how it looks as I go along, I am being totally flexible on this one and am not opposed to ripping anything out if things don't look quite right. 

Here are just a few of the 36...I absolutely LOVE the bright colors and I think that I've mentioned before that my hubby picked out the center motif fabric on Equilter.com. He has been kind of cute, allowing me extra sewing time by making dinner and doing the dishes and clean-up after the meal...I truly am a VERY lucky girl in that department! With salmon fishing and the first official camping trip of the season closing in quickly, I do need to get busy getting this put together. I have yet to find appropriate backing fabric and have found some fun western and camping fabrics on Equilter, but I really do prefer backing my quilts with flannel...we shall see.

On another front, here is a preview of the handquilting on my Modern Bento Block Swap quilt. I am trying large stitch, without a hoop, perle cotton, quilt it in sections quilting...something totally new and hopefully easier than trying to hand quilt the completed top assembled method...hey, whats the worst that can happen? If things don't work out to my liking, it can always be modified, I do have a large hoop to slip it into if need be...don't you just love an adventure into the unknown?!

Give me the internet

Or give me death...well it feels like death...dang but I miss the net! I can live without the phone (it would be heaven actually) I think I could even live without the tv (I really only listen to it anyway)my iPod is a different story by the way...but since we have been experiencing "difficulties" with an un-named cable company (ahem Charter)who in my opinion is incapable of simple accounting...finding an economical replacement has been a bit of a challenge! In the meantime, I've been jonesing for my Blogspot, Ebay, iTunes, even Webmd! Thank goodness for my Blackberry b/c amazingly enough the public Library doesn't allow access to Blogspot (adult content). The good mews is that Frontier shipped the motem via 2 day UPS today so we shoul be back in business by Tuesday...the lack of net access has afforded a bit of a silver lining though an I have been rocking my qayg squares with only 7 more to complete before I can assemble the rows...AND show you more pictures!!! Which brings me to the following announcement...further pictorial enhancement will again resume upon the arrival of my soon-to-be favorite man in brown whom we shall aptly name (feel free to fill in the blank since I can't come up with a catchy starts with a U and rhymes with UPS male surname...until Tuesday boys and girls toodles!

With Limited Time on My Hands

And some batting scraps, the beginnings of a quilt as you go project began. This is the tutorial that I am using, it's well-written, fun, but time consuming, though the lovely part is that most of the process is done, only the backing remains and I think that can be accomplished in sections

Camping season is fast approaching and the bungalow is in need of a quilt.  While perusing Equilter.com, I found camper themed fabric, much to my DH's delight! He loves anything vintage (vehicle-wise) and somewhere in the back of his mind has aspirations of restoring an airstream in his spare time. Here are closeups of the two blocks that I have finished, each one will have a camper/trailer as the center...aren't they fun?! I would love to make matching curtains, but one thing at a time I think...

While I am stitching and blogging away, the boys are having a craft time of their own. Salmon season on the Columbia River begins in April, when the Chinooks return from the ocean. They are tying up hook rigs and spinners to be used with bait, in hopes that we will be using the right combination that will entice the fish to bite. It's all a very closely guarded secret and when a lucky person lands a fish, those along the banks pull out the binoculars to try to catch a glimpse of what was used, passing boats pull in close in hopes of grabbing a straggler...it's all very competitive! Last year, the wind blew like nobody's business, I froze my tootsies off but managed to reel in a nice 12 pounder...my first salmon.  I found it a bit tedious and boring, we didn't bring a tv with us, because the year before the guys had no time for viewing, the fish were biting that often and I was assured that it would be just as exciting...not so much, but we did come home with four so at least we weren't skunked. My nephew and I entertained ourselves by throwing beach rocks at each other...he nailed me in the shin with a boulder the size of a basketball (huge exaggeration on my part) and I alternated between screaming at the top of my lungs (yes, people were craning their necks to see what all the comotion was about) and writhing in mock agony on the ground and giggling at the same time until tears came...I guess you had to be there! Even more fun were the superstitious rituals that were performed in order to please the fish gods. I won't even begin to describe the blessing of the rods, what happens in fish camp....



I Have This New Gadget

On my sidebar, it's called MapLoco and it places a pindot for every visitor that has viewed your blog.  It's the coolest thing! I know, it's nothing new, but I just discovered it and find myself checking back a few times a day, just to see where everybody's from. I had a visitor from Austria today, how wicked is that?! Interestingly enough, I've had 69 out of some 140 hits from Medford, Oregon...curious....

In other news, not much quilty-ness is happening during the week lately in my house, though the weekends finds my sewing machine chugging along. I'm just itching for payday (YS has discovered the virtues of playing hockey...it's an expensive obsession, so we've come to find out, but in retrospect, it does keep him busy AND out of trouble) so that I can purchase some backing for the bento quilt, a medium blue polka dot flannel currently has my eye. I am excited to try the quilt as you go method, everything is ready to go...except the checkbook, but then, patience is a virtue (that I tend to lack) isn't it? The other bad news is that my walking foot seems to be on the fritz, which leaves me to improvise the straight line quilting...perhaps my lines will have a bit of wonkyness to them...hmmmm, not such a bad thing.

Aaaaannnnnddddd...I found this recipe for baked mac & cheese here.  All I have to say is YUMMMMMM!!! I even experimented by making it a slightly lower fat version by cutting the whole milk, cream and butter, replacing it with 1% milk and 1/2 stick of butter and it still turned out fantastic!!! In fact, the OS & YS have informed me that boxed mac & cheese will never touch their lips again, I have to giggle...they don't  know it, but I am slowly turning them into foodies! Go on over to Janelle's blog and while you are there, check out the recipe for cheesy potatoes too (I made those for Christmas dinner), oh heck, she has a plethora of recipes that I'd like to try....mmmmmmmmm!!!!! Her awesome blog can be found at...Comfy in the Kitchen, just don't be hungry when you do!

Look What I Found!

My modern bento box swap squares! They were waiting patiently in a cupboard, knowing that someday I would get to them. Upon review the second round of swap blocks were received sometime in October, so that's not too bad, somehow it felt like they had been loitering for almost a year. Oh my, but it's busy! I'm thinking it's gonna hang on the design wall for a day or so, perhaps it will grow on me.  Not that I don't like it, mind you, but it is a riot of color dontcha think? This one is going to be a test candidate for quilt as you go, I just need to decide if it will be in two or three or more sections...still pondering where the sashing in back will go and if the quilting will be straight line, circles or meandering.  This would be a good time to experiment...Interestingly enough, the DH loves it, not just likes, but loves...never would have imagined that, he's not always big on the bright colors sometimes, but I do love it when he gives an unsolicited opinion on these things.

Also in progress is another baby quilt for a friend of the family who recently gave birth to twin boys, which of course means that I have to make another after I;ve figured out the borders for the first. The twins also have a big brother and I do have this quilt top (pictured below) finished and with no recipient in mind.....hmmmmmmm, perhaps, ok it's really pretty definite that I will quilt that one up for him.  After all, he has to compete with not one but two new objects in the house to steal his Mom's time and energy! And who doesn't need a big brother quilt after all?
Sounds like I need to quit typing and get back to sewing, good thing it's a long weekend, Toodles!