Sneezin' and Wheezin'

I've been trying to fight it to no avail. I am lying low, blowing and hacking.
Send me no flowers, as this too shall pass. But I doubt I'll be doing anything more interesting than tossing tissues into the wastecan and fighting the dog for more of the bed, for a couple of days.
O the dreaded daytime television...


PS:One more thing...Today my sister's husband Terry starts his REAL  job and we are all so happy for the family, and especially for him and wish him oodles of success and lots of interesting challenges. He deserves it. He will be the fix-it man for I.T. stuff which is right up his alley, at a large insurance company in downtown Chattanooga. Yay Terry!

Trunk Show at Three Black Sheep

Friday night I gave a little trunk show of all my modular knitting projects, in preparation for the Mitered Square workshop I am giving on Sunday. It was a gala affair, with lots of fun, interested knitters in attendance. I really like doing things like this, where all my homework has been done way ahead of time. Like years in some cases. I brought ten of my own sweaters and many scarves, hats, socks, mittens and neckwarmers, many of which have never been seen outside my closet. ha!

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On the home front, it was a Honey-do day and I *helped* Dave install my hanging devices so I could fill my empty wall with stuff.



I searched my quilt closet for something pink and found my Topiaries fit the bill, at least until I make something specific for this space. And then for Dave I hung the guitar quilt, Mi Amiga Laura, since he removed all his guitars from this wall so I could have it for my stuff. I couldn't find my small hanging rods for this quilt, so shame on me, I used bulldog clips for the interim. I will search again today.
The suns and moon souvenirs from Mexico fill the rest of the space.
We have always used shelf standards as our hanging devices. This photo is from our old house, but it is the same idea. In this picture the standard is screwed to the ceiling but in my room we just attached it to the wall. S hooks or picture hanging hooks and nylon fishing line hang the artwork. For me, known to be a mind-changer, I like the flexibility of being able to hang different work without having to nail holes in the wall for each one.

I Started With A Plan. . .

Working LOOSELY from this drawing and making use of leftovers from previous work, I started a new stripey piece. Most of it is my hand dyed cottons, but there are some Kona and Classic Cottons from Joann's mixed in. Whatever works.
At this point it measures about 75" long and about 19" wide, and of course I will be adding more to the width.

Here's a closer look at the top half and then the bottom half. I may have left out a bit of the middle. It's hard to photograph a long skinny piece.
I am entertaining names, like Jelly Beans, Cotton Candy, Juicy Fruits or some such title. Maybe I am just hungry?

PS. And the name is:   My Favorite Crayons

( Thanks Brita aka Bluzbrod)

Signs of Spring

Hyacinth and daffodils making an enthusiastic effort to end Winter. I am so ready, how about you?

Our flowering Magnolia has buds, more than the one we had last year, and the Lamb's Ear looks like it will be bigger than ever.

Bleeding hearts in red and white in two of the sheltered garden boxes next to the house. There are also buds on the clematis, but are not so visible in these pictures.

The daffodills next to the house can be counted on to bloom early, in this protected warmer spot. Chumley is wearing his new collar and rabies tag. He hates them of course. But we think he looks all dressed up. He should run for a few hours a day to work off that Winter fat. What a tub o'lard.

For all the participants in this year's QAWM, there is less than one week left and the QAWM Flickr site is where I hope to see your projects, in progress or finished. I have prizes to send you, so please post so you can be in the drawing for all the goodies. Even if you didn't sign up at the beginning, if you made something that was a Someday I will make this project, please post it and tells us what your inspiration was. Good Luck to all!

Simply Stripes

This was FUN! I love the colors and the way some parts line up to make horizontal bands, It was neat to make up the combinations of the 12 fabrics.

 It should be fun and easy to quilt too. Stitch in the ditch first and then more straight line stitching to finish it. The finished top size now is 52.5x72" which is big enough for a nap quilt.
I put it on the floor to see if it squared up  with my floor tiles, and it does. Some of these fabrics are from my earliest days of dyeing. Like 1990.

I Chose. . .

 Big Stretch!

While it's not a big stretch for me to work in strips, it kinda is since these are sewn, not fused. I made all the strip sets first (boring) and then started putting them together, trying to follow the pattern in the quilt above. I got lost so quickly that I gave up and just let things happen. That's when the fun started.

So far the length is right at 6 feet but the width is way too narrow at 24" to call it done. I will make more strip sets and add to the width. I am really liking this because it is so instant. And all my colors!

Trying to Decide

To review: The theme of this year's QAWM is Someday quilts, or quilts I mean to make someday and that day is now. So I am standing at the crossroads here trying to decide which of these fabulous (and all of them so easy) quilts to make next. Will it be prints or solids?

Here we have a Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran strip sweetie and then Robin Ferrier's gorgeous hand dyed solid masterpiece. Love them both. I already have oodles of strips ready to go, but also have a zillion hand dyes in my fave colors too. O the choices.


And then I have been looking at this disappearing four-patch from Beth of LoveLaughQuilt which looks like I would love making it, plus I have been collecting stripes, so there's that too. But the last one here is so me-likey in it's simplicity. It is from Anne Parker and while it is delicious in her colors, I can also see it in mine, all pastel-ly, as that is my mindset at the moment.  It's one of those simple ideas that can go on forever in multiples and always hold up.
I am going into the studio and see what happens. I never can decide until I get out the fabric and see what's what.

I've been busy sewing

Curtains, headboard and two pillows for the loft bedroom. Believe me when I say I dawdled through the whole process. And I never did use the lime with white dots that I had to have when I ordered this pink dot. I'll think of something to use it for.

If you are thinking that I am reliving my childhood with these last two pink bedrooms, you would be correct, except for the fact that I never had a nice pink bedroom EVER.  In fact I can remember as a kid sleeping on surplus Army beds ( with the wire webbing instead of springs, and a ticking mattress) with khaki Army blankets for such a long time that one Christmas I asked Santa for a comforter and when I got it, I thought I had gone to heaven. It didn't itch!
Later my cousins came to live with us for several months and so my brother and I had to share a bed. He was 7 and I was 9. It was awful and there was no chance of having a girly room(s) as I am having now. It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

Chumley has been feeling neglected because I am busy sewing and so he sought comfort in his own bed. Never underestimate the importance of a place of one's own to snuggle into.

Pink Spidey is finished!

I must say that I am so happy with the result, and it was a DREAM to quilt. I will defend hand basting from now on. No pins to stick me and no big holes to repair from safety pins either. It was so easy to quilt in the ditch in all directions and if and when I felt a bubble, I did unsew and fix it right at that moment so I have no lingering repairs. Sigh. I used my regular open-toe foot, not the walking foot,  and did no free motion at all. To accomplish this I lower the pressure on the presser foot to zero. It just slides right along on the feed dogs, keeping the stitch length even. Also I use a 3.0 stitch length which makes fixing boo-boos much easier. #30 weight cotton thread in the needle and #50 weight in the bobbin.
I found the one block where it looks like all the points worked just for this picture. Ha!

 
Several commentors were anticipating how I would quilt this, and to me it would always be stitch in the ditch first and then decide if it needed any more. After having just quilted the sections, and not every single strip (ugh) and then slept under it, I am satisfied that it doesn't require any fancy pattern stitching.
I don't like allover-ignoring-the piecing-pattern quilting, certainly don't like stipple quilting, and think too many quilts are quilted to death. And I have victimized far too many myself. I have a zillion examples in my closet. But now I am allowing open spaces and having the less is more point of view. I'll save the fancy quilting for less utilitarian quilts.
And I am from the machine sewn binding school too. Neat and secure. Here's my binding tutorial from last year.
I did serge the edges before I applied the binding, so all the layers were neatly in place with no pleating. I think the word NEAT got a real workout as I made this quilt. I am returning NEAT to the bottom drawer again soon.

  The headboard and curtain fabric arrived and the pink coordinates with the quilt so well. I'll be getting to these projects this weekend.

In the meantime, our weather has been in the high 60's and Dave and Chum have been working in the yard all day. It makes a puppy happy to come in for lunch and an afternoon nap.