Tangled Threads and Seaweed

Bonus Quilt

Remember the overflowing box of leftover strips from the spiderweb quilt? Like a kid with a quarter, those red ones were burning a hole in my proverbial pocket. I sure do like red. When I was a little girl (first grade) red was my very favorite color. Anyway, I pulled out some of my "oldie but goodie" quilt books - from the heyday of Martingale books, when they were "That Patchwork Place" and Nancy Martin, Judy Hopkins, and Marsha McCloskey were writing the patterns.

    I found one that was easy (the initial construction was almost mindless - constructing strip sets)

    designed by Judy Hopkins!

    Of course, the layout became somewhat tricky. Thank goodness for my design wall!

  Since my quilt isn't the size of the one in the book, and I'm not a math genius, I had to figure out how many blocks got 4 corners, how many got 2, and how many got 1 corner, and what color.  I laid it out on the wall and added the black and white corners starting with the outer blocks - its kind of a "floating" set.

The original instructions called for trimming the corners of the blocks and sewing half-square triangles onto the corners. Um, I'm all for "easy" so the flip-n-sew corner was my friend today.

  Here's my other friend, Goofy, doing what he does best on good-weather sewing days. I like to leave the studio door open so the dogs can run in and out, but Goofy likes to guard the threshold.  This is one of his favorite places.

  Here are the finished blocks - I'll sew them together tomorrow. It came together pretty easily, and I'm quite pleased with the results. The finished specs - 48 7.5" blocks (7 inches finished), with 2.5" connector corners.

And here's the strip box -

  Next, a wonky log cabin???

I've Been Quilting

It seems like the only time I talk about quilting is after a sewing day with my girlfriends. Saturday was National Quilting Day, and we worked on a great group project. Several months ago we decided to make a Valentine's Day quilt, using red and pink fabrics. We picked the Spiderweb pattern from Eleanor Burns' series of books from the 1990's.

We love to do group projects where we either sew blocks for each other or swap fabrics - on this quilt we did both! We all cut tons of red and pink strips, and then one girl wanted some lavender in hers, then another wanted some lime green, so we cut those colors too. Then one girl wanted just pink and lime green... I chose pink and red but asked one girl to throw in a few green strips for a zinger. Before we met, we cut our background/foundations and sewed the first strip on each side. On our sewing day, we passed ours around and sewed our strips on each others' foundations.

   Isn't it fun to see how the foundations go together? You have to be careful of the long bias edge, but its a cool pattern. Here's my finished top, waiting for a border (which I've ordered from equilter.com)

Doesn't this make you smile? Everyone's turned out really cute. This will be a nice lap-sized throw. We didn't get these done for Valentine's day, but they will be ready for next year. One of the girls in our group works at the LQS, so we might let her hang these in the shop if she decides to offer this quilt as a class.    

Um, I have some leftover strips...!! Maybe a log cabin? Or two?

I've been quilting a long time, you know, more than 25 years. Here's one of the first bed sized quilts I ever made - a 9-Patch Snowball. Does anyone remember the Trudie Hughes quilt pattern books? This quilt is from one of her books.   

     Actually I think this one is from around 1989-1990. I made my 2 baby quilts in 1980 and took a break for a few years, until the kids were older. This one's pretty tattered - its on our bed a lot of the time - and I don't mind the dogs being on it. Obviously some fabrics were better than others, as the worn pieces are a couple particular fabrics that didn't wear so well. This quilt was machine-quilted in a leaf design pantograph.

How many of y'all were quilting when this fabric from VIP/Cranston was a quilting staple? I saw many quilts with this brown floral in them; it was also available in a blue/pink colorway. This fabric was so popular in the 80's and 90's - back when fabric companies printed their popular designs for several years' run.

This was a really popular pattern in the 90's too - it was easy to make using rotary cutting and strip sewing techniques, which were fairly new back in those days. I haven't seen many of these being made lately, except for baby quilts. The snowball blocks are a perfect place to use those cute kid print fabrics. Perhaps I'll give it another try sometime soon - I found a couple of really darling kid fabrics in my mom's stash the other day - when I was looking for pink and red fabrics for the Spiderweb quilt. Don't we all need to keep some baby quilts on hand for gifting?

Sunday Update

Sunday - the 20th of January! That came fast.

I did return to work on Thursday the 10th. It wasn't too bad for the first couple of days - I didn't get worn out. Last week got pretty rough - Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I worked 11-12 hours each day. That *sucked* (I hate using that word, but it fits) . I basically came in from work, ate supper, and hit the sack. Thursday the 17th I got off work on time, but I was hosting Bunko so I had to get the food and get everything set up, and didn't get home until after 9:00 pm. I went to bed pretty soon after getting home, as I was pretty tired. Friday was ok - I worked a little bit of overtime and I also had to get my sewing stuff packed up to go to quilt group on Saturday. Today (Sunday) I've done laundry and finally got a chance to check my e-mail and blogs. Time flies!

I finished setting a quilt top on Saturday at my quilt group's sewing day. Its a pattern called "Sand Castles" by Teri Christopherson, published in her book called "Mad About Plaid" from Black Mountain Quilts.   
   Its done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics - one of my favorites. This top is about 51" x 62" without borders.
This is the fabric I plan to use for the border. Its in a couple of the blocks of the quilt also. Any thoughts on the border? My group was divided - some like it and some don't - and I think it depends on whether you like Kaffe Fassett fabric to begin with. If for some reason I don't use the green gazania fabric, the quilt might not even get a border - I like it without a border almost as much.  The quilt will be quilted in a dense pantograph with light yellow thread, and will likely end up on the sofa. (that seems to be where a lot of my quilts get used!)

We went to see "Charlie Wilson's War" (Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts) this afternoon. It was a good movie - there was a lot of the f-word (in case anyone objects) but it was really interesting. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know much about the US-Afghanistan relations during the 1980s, so it was somewhat educational as well!

Speaking of Tom Hanks, we saw "The Terminal" on TV last night. I know it was released several years ago, but I'd never seen it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Its the one where he's visiting from a foreign country, which has fallen into a civil war as he arrives in the US and he cannot leave the airport because his country is no longer recognized by the US. He spends several months living in the terminal until the war in his country ends and he gets his visa back from the authorities.

OK - what else is going on? I'm having a hard time getting to Curves - they changed their hours and I can't get there before work anymore. They open at 7:00 and I have to be at work by 7:30 am so I can't get a 30-minute workout. When I work late, I can't get there by 6:30 in the evening either, and I only have a 30-minute lunch hour. Grrr. Its frustrating. I hate to quit going, but I think its unfortunate that their hours and mine don't jive better.

I've updated my book list (in my sidebar). I've been reading a lot lately - since I've been feeling better and can focus again - and I read really fast. Joe reads alot too - about as much as I do - and once we've both read a book, we pass it on to someone else that might enjoy it. He likes non-fiction more than I do, but we have similar tastes. So far, we agree that "Marley and Me" is the best book we've read this year. Its a wonderful story of a couple and their wayward labrador retriever. This book was published a couple years ago.

That's about it for now. I'm looking forward to a pleasant week - and I'm wishing you the same!   

Signs of Progress

I started quilting the Ribbon Candy quilt - its coming along ok.
 

  I'm using Superior's Bottom Line in dark green. I started by trying a meandering thing on the pie wedges. Well, you know that didn't look good OR work well - the raw edges kept folding back. Fortunately I only did a very little bit of that before changing my mind.

Can you tell? I am quilting a squiggly line through each curve of the pie wedges. Its easy to do this by traveling back and forth through each section.
I'm happy with the way the thread just melts into the piecing, but it looks like I need to slightly adjust the tension. I'm going to stipple in tan thread in the light sections.

Here's a shot of the back side of the quilt - the stitching looks just about perfect.

I'm quilting a 4-petaled curvy design in the border - its freehand (and I could do a lot better with more practice)
Its not terribly obvious, hope you can see the pattern. Anyway, I'm pleased with how it looks and how its blending with the fabric. I expect to finish quilting the pie wedges tomorrow and get started on the light sections.

Gosh, isn't that border fabric LOUD?!?!?

I HATE When That Happens!

I finally loaded the backing for the Christmas Bullseye quilt today. When I started layering the batting and the top, I discovered that the backing is an inch narrower than the quilt top... SNAP!!!! I'm totally bummed out. I quit in frustration, came in to check e-mail and pay a few bills online, and wait till I get over this latest snag. (insert imaginative swearing here!)

I know the thing to do is unpin the backing and add a 14" strip down one side of the piece. Yeah, it will take about 5 minutes to get the backing off the rollers, 10 minutes to cut and piece the additional fabric into the backing, and about 30 minutes to re-load the backing. I'm just too mad to do it right now! I knew it was all going together too easily... Cripes!!!!

First Flimsy of 2008

I spent a good part of the day working in the studio today... I had read somewhere that what you do on the first day of the year, you'll do all year long... so I wanted to be sure I got some quilting accomplished! I need all the good mojo I can get! We had worked on Christmas Bullseye Quilts in my stitch group at our December meeting, but I didn't finish setting my blocks into a top. Today I got the top put together and the borders added.
Here's my first "flimsy" (quilt top) for the year - its draped on the longarm rails and I've got the batting laid out to relax so I can quilt it.
This isn't the usual bullseye setting - one of the girls in our group thought this layout looked like ribbon candy, and I knew this was how I would set this quilt. My border fabric is an OLD, OLD candy print from V.I.P. and has some glitter on it. I may not have made the best choice in fabric for the narrow border - the quilt blocks do have some pink in them, and the pink really pops next to the border fabric, but yeah, its kind of loud. Oh well. The quilt top was so busy that I didn't want to put the candy border right next to it. I tried some green fabrics (instead of the pink) and didn't like any of them. So, pink it is...
I truly intended to fold the top up and put it on a shelf (with other "finished" tops) to be quilted someday. I've been on a mission to use up my Christmas fabrics for some time now, so I checked the shelf to see what I had that could be used for backing. I found 4 yards of this fabric - is it Christmas cookies, or buttons, or what?? Anyway, I did some quick measuring and this is the perfect amount to back this quilt top. I cut it in half, tore the selvedges off, and seamed it on the selvedge edges... so now I had a backing ready for the Christmas Bullseye... what would you do in this situation? I figure that it must be the fates working in my favor, and I better go ahead and quilt this one. I'll load this one tomorrow and start quilting it - it'll be nice to have a quilt finished up so quickly! (I still need to make some binding - it will probably be black)

I'm thinking of using a green thread in the bobbin - it will vanish against that busy print - and either green or red thread in the top for part of the quilting. I'll do some simple meandering in the border and in the "ribbons" made by the bullseye wedges. I'll do all the quilting with the colored thread first, then re-roll the quilt and use a tan/beige thread to quilt the block backgrounds. It looks like my first "flimsy" of 2008 might quickly become my first finished quilt of 2008!

Back to the knitting - here's how the Mistake Rib scarf is looking.
yeah, its a scarf! *grin* but this pattern has more dimension than the Seed Stitch, and I like how its turning out much better.

I'm not much of a "New Year's Resolutions" type of person... I've noticed quite a few bloggers have traded in the New Year's Resolutions for a list of things to accomplish in the coming year. Its a more positive outlook, isn't it, to focus on a "to-do" list rather than a list of things to quit doing. I admire those of you who are organized with spreadsheets and itemized inventories of what's in your stash, and I'm looking forward to cheering for you as you use up old fabrics and yarn, and your lists of finished objects begin to grow. I'd like to be that organized and committed... but I know myself better than that! I'm really bad at sticking with long-term plans. I did give it some thought, though. I realize that I could make a LOT of headway if I completed a UFO every week or two... and if I quilted a completed top every week or two, I'd have a BIG stack of quilts at the end of the year! But I'm not going to set goals like that, because I can't be sure that's how I'll spend my time this year. How about logging my finished projects in a photo album on this blog - I can do that - but no lists of UFOs to send me on a guilt trip. And maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised when the end of 2008 rolls around!

Miscellania

I tinked around with my blog layout last night.  I didn't like how narrow it appeared on my screen; let me know if you like it or not. (or if it shows up weird on your computer screens)  I use both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and it looks ok to me. (although somewhat plain) I tried to find my old banner with the boats and beaches but I don't know which file I stuck it in; I'll try making a new one and see what happens. Just let me know if something looks screwed up when you pass through...

I've gotten most of the fabric I ordered last week. The fat quarter bundle from Virginia Quilter should arrive today. Its silly - I haven't opened the other two packages yet - I'm going to do it all at once. Maybe I should just hand it all over to Mr. Scooba to wrap up for Christmas, hmm?  :)  I don't know if I'll start my project in the next two weeks anyway. I did peek at the pattern - slightly dismayed, I realized the quilt is small - 48" x 55" - and made with 8" blocks. That won't cover my king sized bed, and it won't use all that fabric, so I think I'll have to make a few more blocks, eh? Or do the math and make the blocks bigger. (which kind-of makes the purchase of the pattern wasteful to begin with, as I could have done the math first and come up with block sizes on my own) Oh well, I'll just make more blocks and follow the formula - my original reason for buying this simple pattern was to eliminate the need to think about it, as in, do an easy project!  (now my head is tired and I need a nap)

If I could work up some energy, I've got plenty of other things I should work on. Christmas blocks for my sewing group workday/swap; cut and sew borders onto at least 3 quilts; I could even load a quilt top and get it quilted. All I want to do is sleep! Its the after-effects of the treatment. My body is trying to absorb and eliminate the dead thyroid cells. Sounds icky, right?

When I do wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble sleeping, or if I have trouble falling asleep, I do something really weird. I "mentally" machine quilt my quilt tops. I've been "working on" the design for the Autumn Bullseye quilt I made this summer. I've been thinking through the steps of quilting different types of meanders on the background part - I've tried doing meandering loops, meanders with a leaf thrown in here and there, just a plain puzzle piece meander, leaves with a cluster of 3 circles (berries), and medium-sized pebbles (continuous circles) - trying to decide which to use. I've got a border pantograph of leaves that I'm going to use for the borders (naturally); that fabric is a dark brown and gold leaf print so I might use some variegated autumn colors thread there. I think I'll use a tan thread on the background area of the quilt.(the part I've been mentally practicing)  I don't know if it means anything, but I sleep well if I do this "mental quilting" as I'm going to sleep....

Another Delay

You will see that its Wednesday and I'm not in the hospital.  My treatment was postponed until Friday, because the remodel on the oncology floor wasn't finished as of yesterday. (I think its because they realized there was a holiday this week... and didn't want to staff for it, but I tend to think in paranoia at times...)

I still had a doctor's appointment and labs at 8:00 am on Tuesday, because he needed to see me and discuss the treatment before I go in.  After all the rigamarole about home treatment  vs. inpatient treatment, they are actually giving me a dosage that is for inpatient-only (150 millicuries).  So all the discussions with the nurses etc. were wasted breath and worry for naught.  See, that is the frustrating part of this thing, or maybe its just me.  It seems like since I started going to the cancer center and getting ready for treatment, its been a big run-around.  I know its probably my attitude more than any lack of knowledge on their part, because I'm frustrated about the waiting and testing and can't do anything about it. And that breaks my own personal rule, which is "if you can't do something to change it right now, then it is not your problem to fix". So there you have it, I've been letting it get to me, even though I know better.

Did I mention that I will be in the hospital until Monday? And that I can't take anything with me? Actually, what the nurse told me was that "everything that goes into the treatment room will have to stay when you're discharged" because it becomes radioactive and must be disposed of accordingly.  I can bring paperback books and magazines, travel-sized personal grooming items, and old clothing like socks and undies that I would not mind throwing away.  I can wear the hospital gowns and footcovers.  So I guess I'll pack an old toothbrush and socks and take a pile of magazines and a couple of paperback books. I'm glad I hadn't downloaded the games I play from the internet!  (Yahoo games - Bookworm and Bejeweled) I had also thought I might organize my embroidery design files and work on digital pictures, but that won't happen since the laptop isn't going with me on this trip.

I did something yesterday that I haven't done in a LONG time.  I bought fabric.  Back in the summer, Moda introduced a line called "Chez Moi" that was so yummy and beautiful I could barely stand to not buy it. Since I couldn't think of something to make from that collection, I held off, knowing that if I changed my mind I'd probably have difficulty finding it.  (why is that? used to be, you'd see fabrics from a collection for a year or so, and now - poof! - they are gone within a couple of months. I think the manufacturers don't print the quantities of yardage as in the past, and when its gone, its history.)  Anyway, I did find a couple patterns a few days ago that were screaming "Chez Moi!" so I got on the internet and started searching.  Yay! I found some at several different places, including one that still had the FQ bundles. I also found yardage of the brown tone-on-tone that worked so well with the collection for sashing.  And I found some yardage on sale at another site!  So I think I've ordered enough to make a quilt and a pair of matching pillowcases, and possibly have enough left for a third project, such as a neckroll pillow or a bag.

Do you ever face that dilemma? You fall in love with a fabric collection and regret not snapping it up when its widely available? I don't often want to make a quilt from a coordinated collection, as I really prefer scrappy quilts, but once in awhile a collection does speak to me. And its not just the decision to buy a FQ bundle - you have to commit to yardage for borders and/or sashing for an unknown project (or decide that you will use Moda Marbles or muslin or Amish Black for needed yardage when you actually get around to making something...) So, what do y'all do? 

And of course, the weather.... our beautiful warm sunny days are over for awhile. We had our first major cold front move in this morning; its in the 40s and windy, with snow predicted Thursday and Friday. (I might as well be in the hospital - its going to be a crappy weekend) How come the 40s were refreshing in Alaska in September and are just darned cold now? Partly, its the wind. And partly, its the record-setting 80's from yesterday that make it seem so wrong.

I want to thank y'all for the continuing posts and e-mails of encouragement. It really makes my day when I hear from y'all.  (((hugs))) Thank you, and happy Thanksgiving. 

A Post Without A Title

I got word today that I'll have the diagnostic body scan next Tuesday (13th).  They use a different radioactive isotope than what they'll do the treatment with; it has a much shorter half-life and will be out of my body in a matter of hours.  The reason they do this is to identify how much thyroid tissue is still in my body, theoretically to determine how much radioactive iodine to use in the treatment.  They really have already decided to use a big dose, similar to carpet bombing (LOL) but they have to do the body scan first.  And I'll be having annual body scans for the next few years, so... anyway. At least we're doing something, finally. 

Here's my "scrappy mountain majesties" quilt top:

I need to find some border fabric.  There is obviously potential for this to be a seam-matching nightmare; if you make one of these, follow the pressing instructions and PIN the rows on every seam.

And on November 8, Joe's birthday (he's 52 today!) here is one of the roses on a bush I planted this year:

Its a climber called "Crimson Sky".  I planted two of them next to the sewing barn.  *smile*  Roses in November!!!

Miscellaneous Musings

Y'all have no idea how much I appreciate all the comments and encouragement... thank you so much.  ((hugs))

I had an appointment at the regional cancer center yesterday, to meet the doctor who will handle my radioactive iodine treatment.  It was nice, though I didn't hear anything new.  Dr. Sharp explained the process of staging the cancer, went over the pathology reports, and talked about the treatment.  My TSH level was 19 on Monday, up from 10 the week before. (my pre-surgery TSH was 0.1)  It needs to be around 30 before they can do the body scan, so we're hoping that next week's bloodwork will hit the magic number.  The body scan will show any remaining thyroid cells in the body, and then we will schedule the radioactive iodine treatment which will blast those cells and kill them.  Hopefully, I'll be getting that treatment in a couple of weeks.

A couple of weekends ago, we went over to a little town nearby for their "fall foliage festival".  Its an annual event, with a lot of activities.  Unfortunately the foliage hadn't changed yet, as the daily temps were still in the high 80s. We still had a great time. We walked across the old bridge over the river, went out to the nearby lake and walked on the nature trails, went to the quilt show and the craft show, visited the museum, and ate at one of the local sandwich shops. 

The old bridge:

on the nature trail:

As my TSH level rises, I've started feeling some fatigue and lack of focus.  (common symptoms of hypothyroid)  I've been doing a little bit of sewing and a lot of reading and napping. I recently saw a quick and easy quilt pattern on Bonnie Hunter's website, called Scrappy Mountain Majesties, and decided to give it a try:

its a really easy pattern using 32 light 8" squares and 32 dark 8" squares.  I've got my blocks made and ready to set into a quilt top.

Last weekend I sewed with my girlfriends and we were discussing old UFOs.  Two of us had been in a log cabin class several (10+) years ago and neither of us finished our quilts.  We all decided to bring an old UFO to work on next month, so I'm bringing this:

 

I had so forgotten about this quilt project.  It was a very nice surprise to find that everything is cut, and the blocks are ready for the last round of strips. All I have to do is take the strips that have the gold star triangles on them and sew them to the blocks.  There will be gold stars at the block intersections when its all set in the quilt top.  Its a variation of the "Colorado Log Cabin", the original design is by Judy Martin.  I'm thinking these two projects are simple enough to call  "mindless sewing" and not mess them up... I hope I'm right!