Archive for March, 2008
Another dishcloth
I think I’m being counterproductive here. This was all sorted and cleaned in preparation for the move but now it’s a disaster again thanks to the string log cabin blocks. Only 10 more to make and then I’ll have to clean this up again.
Can you tell what this is a picture of? Click on the photo to enlarge if you need to.
Working on my list!
Phone calls, errands and some knitting today. I started a new knit dishcloth and maybe later I’ll make some more blocks for my string Log Cabin quilt.
Someone gets very demanding around dinnertime!
Log Cabin quilts
Log cabin quilts were my favorite the first couple years I was quilting and while I’ll still love them, they’ve been replaced somewhat by string quilts. I was looking through my old quilt photos and scanned these in to share. All of these were made and quilted before I got my longarm.
Adam’s first quilt, Log Cabin quilts are also a favorite of his and HE designed the layout for these blocks.
This was donated as a raffle quilt for a local Senior Center, Adam has yet to forgive me for not giving this quilt to him!
This was made for Keith’s Aunt Trudy. (It was also a favorite of Adam’s)
Quiltathon progress
I’ve been busy making log cabin blocks today. I’m going to use 35 of them for this quilt – no border (I LOVE quilts without borders) and after a couple more rounds I should have 25 of them done by the time I finish working tonight.
Deb posted a photo of my top that she’s going to quilt for me. I fell in love with this pattern and Mom pieced the top as a gift for me. I’ve been afraid of messing it up so I sent it to Deb to quilt for me. She does great with large open white space.
Email me
Quiltathon
Judy’s having another Quiltathon today. I have some things other than quilting that need my attention but I’m working on my log cabin blocks in between.
These blocks will go faster now that I’ve figured out what I’m doing with them. The idea for this quilt came when I was working on the crumb/string blocks for my last quilt. Those weren’t *built* exactly like a log cabin but almost. Just a couple things to note:
- All the blocks start with a red square or rectangle
- I call these strings but in my string bins I also toss ALL my leftover strips so you’ll see a lot of strips of different widths in addition to wonky strings being used.
- I wanted to end with a dark round so the block size ended up at 11.5 inches unfinished.
A new quilt
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
We attended the Minneapolis St. Patrick’s Day parade and then went out to dinner. Hope you all celebrated too.
Quilt show
Deb posted a couple photos on her blog from the Venice, FL show. She won several ribbons but only posted photos of the two *big* winners. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating, it’s a good thing I don’t *try* to quilt for show or I’d get my butt whipped by her.
I’m typically a very competitive person but since I don’t enter quilts in shows or quilt for customers that do, I can just be happy for Deb without feeling like a loser!
She does such beautiful custom quilting that I sent her a top that Mom had pieced for me a few years ago. It’s the quilt she refers to in the link I posted above and I can’t WAIT to see what she does with it.
PS: It’s snowing! They’re calling for 3-6 inches and I love seeing it come down. I don’t think we had near enough snow this year.
A new list
Since I don’t accomplish much without a list – here are my goals for this week.
- Bind the 2nd Stashbuster/HeartStrings quilt
- Quilt 1 top
- Start a string log cabin quilt (this one wasn’t next on the list but there’s no cutting involved since I’ll use my strings and I can get right to work)
- Knit another dishcloth
- Set up start and stop dates for all the utilities for the move
- Pick paint colors for the new townhouse
- Write and send out change of address notices
My Stashbusting efforts and accomplishments were rather lame this week.
- 1/2 yard from stash used for the binding on this HeartStrings quilt which was bound and mailed out.
- 1 dishcloth knit
- 2.5 yards in fat quarters purchased while I was at Mom’s.
I love Amazon.com
I’m reading the BEST book on my Kindle right now – The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs. I love his writing and really enjoyed his book The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World which I read a year or so ago. Take a look at these two – I highly recommend both of them.
Thanks for the comments on the dishcloth – I found another couple books from Amazon with some cute ones including this one with washcloths to knit for babies. I like quick projects and I think they’ll help me hone my knitting skills which at this point are pretty basic (and rusty).
By the way, I’m home again. The flights were fine but I’m exhausted from a lack of sleep the last few weeks. I’d love to stay in bed a solid week!
It’s been a short visit
Another gift
I arrived safely at Mom’s yesterday but extremely tired after not sleeping at all. With my cab coming at 3:30AM it wasn’t worth going to bed.
My mom’s sister and her husband came to visit today. He’s a talented woodworker (carpenter? wood artist?) and had made these 3 quilt blocks. My aunt let Mom and I choose one and she kept the 3rd one for herself. Aren’t they beautiful? I can’t wait to find a spot in the new townhouse for it.
Not a stitch sewn today
Not a single stitch but lots of laundry, packing, phone calls, and some errands. Chesty also had a visit to the vet and poor thing, they had to stick him 3 times to get blood.
The HeartStrings quilt was mailed out – thanks for all the compliments on the quilting. I linked to the pantograph the first time I showed a photo of this one in case you are interested.
My flight is so early tomorrow that my alarm is set for 2:45AM. That’s just 2 hours and 45 minutes from now and I don’t even plan to try and get any sleep at this point. I did get upgraded on the first leg of my trip so I’ll try to sleep some on the plane.
I don’t know if Mom and I will do much quilting but just in case I packed fabric for a couple of my quick strippie quilts – I don’t have the energy to plan anything more complex.
Another HeartStrings finish
This is UFO # 13, the 2nd of 2 tops donated by Annie. I finished the quilting a week or so ago but rushed to do the binding tonight in order to send it off to a teenage boy with cancer.
And because I love the texture the clamshells give this quilt – here’s a close-up.
Most of my afternoon was spent waiting for Chesty to be groomed. I had some errands to run but they were running really late and he ended up being there for 4 hours. Tomorrow he has a Vet visit and we pick up refills of his meds. It’s like having a child at home.
I head to Virginia early on Wednesday morning (a 5:30AM flight!) so I don’t expect to get much else done before leaving as I have laundry and packing to do in addition to getting this quilt shipped out and taking Chesty to the Vet.
Want to have some fun?
Tonya has a new class for Summer 2008 and the theme is repetition. I followed her Winter Class and although I didn’t officially participate, I was inspired to make my Holiday House.
I’ve signed up for the Summer class and my project will be trees.
Stashbusting
It’s Sunday again, where did this week go? At least I have a little progress to report on my stashbusting efforts. I finished two tops – both completely from stash. I don’t count stash used in yards until the quilt is completely done so for now my stashbusting stat on the sidebar stays the same.
Hearts and Strings came mostly from my string bins and this one I stitched together in an hour
tonight. I had the strips already cut but it had to wait until I finished the other top. It’s made from my Quick Strippie Instructions and when I quilt it, I’ll add the lizard as a dimensional applique as show on the Pajama Quilter DVD. The first one I did turned out well and this little lizard will be really cute too.
In addition – no fabric purchases this week!
Photography
Make no mistake…..
I am very excited about the move and everything we give up will be replaced with something new or even better. PLUS we’re just moving down the road a bit so we’ll still be able to visit Loring Park it just won’t be steps outside our door and we won’t have the gorgeous views from our windows.
We move frequently and it’s always a compromise between things we give up and things we gain. As we prepare for moving – once the initial excitement wears off, we do start to see and savor the things we’ll be giving up soon.
While we can NOT see the river from the new townhouse, we’re just a very short block away. Remember these photos from a couple weeks ago? We’ll be even closer to other parks, walkways and bike paths along the Mississippi and that’s VERY exciting to me – as is being back in my own place.
My last post is just my look back before we move ahead!
