Voting on the Contest Quilts has started

Voting has started for the finished quilts in the Modern Quilts Unlimited Design Contest. Voting will run from today, the 15th, through the 30th of November. The grand prize is worth over $4000 and that includes several different things including a really nice sewing machine. I would love to win.

Please consider voting for my quilt. I would greatly appreciate it! To do so, click on the link below and then click in the Vote box on the page that will open up. You will need to be logged into FB to vote. 

http://a.pgtb.me/MfCtTr/h5Cj1?w=36927840&e=140979881

And please consider forwarding/sharing this. The one who has the most votes at the end of voting will be the winner.

Thank you  in advance for your consideration.  Your votes are appreciated!

Gratitudes:
1. I was able to finish the quilt and submit it on time in spite of all the challenges in making the blocks and the quilt.

2. Friends who rave about my quilting even when I'm not liking the job that I did.

Finishes...........finally!

I finally have a couple of finishes to report.   And a third almost finish.

The first major finish is the contest quilt.   It will be entered (picture submitted for the contest) today.   Final name of the quilt is "It's Quilting, Jim, But Not As We Know It".  Suggestion came from an online friend, Kate, and it captures not only the Star Trek reference that I wanted but also the theme of the entire contest which was taking traditional blocks and redesigning them in a modern way.

If you're wondering about the Star Trek reference, for those of you old enough to remember the original shows.....(and yes I do 'cause I watched them!), look at the sashing sectons and what do they remind you of?

Finished the Modern Quilts contest quilt has been finished....after what seemed like "forever" with all the quilting that I did on it.  Best estimate of thread is that I have more than 800 yards in just the quilting alone.  That means 2400 feet of thread, or almost 1/2 mile of thread.   And yes, I'm a numbers geek here.....lol.  Final size is 48" by 60".

I also finished the little t-shirt dress I made for my shoe box of gifts for Operation Christmas Child this year.

 Also have almost finished off a snack mat using a piece of cross-stitch featuring an owl.   This will be a Christmas gift.   I will also be making a tea cozy to match using more of the owl fabric on the right and the batik.

Gratitudes:
1. Vacation in 4 days.  =)

2. Weather should be good for my drive to Phx.

On the downhill slide......and a name......

....with the quilting of the contest quilt that is.

I've now finished 8 blocks and have started on block #9 (the 2nd from the bottom in the middle column) as of this morning before work.   Have also finished all of the border stars and the full stars.   Have sorta gelled plans for quilting two of the other blocks.   But the dratted orange and yellow one (next to the top at the far right) is giving me fits and refusing to tell me what it wants for quilting.  Sigh......  Will deal with that recalcitrant block when I get to it.  Binding is still to come as well.   I'm hoping to have enough time to add more quilting to the sashing before the pic has to be uploaded to enter the contest.    i'm just not happy with it as is.

This pic show the fabrics I used for the back of the quilt.  All fabrics are from Michael Miller per contest specs.  Love that the colors in this print were all ones that were in the fabrics I used in the blocks on the front.

And the quilt name/title that I'm going to be using for this quilt is "It's quilting, Jim, but not as we know it".   That came thanks to an online friend that I'm in a swap with right now.  And it is perfect for the theme of this year-long contest which was to take traditional quilt blocks and re-imagine them in a modern way.   And yes, the name is a nod to Star Trek since the sashing stars ended up being similar in look to the Star Trek communicators.  =)

As a side note....one of my coworkers gave me the blankest look when I told him what they looked like......sigh, at only 24 yrs old, he has no idea of what Star Trek is other than some of the newest movies.   Boy am I feeling old since I remember watching the original series on tv!

The last pic shows how I left my sewing room/desk this morning when I left work work.   And yes, when I can't sleep in the morning I'll get up and sew.  =)

Gratitudes:
1. One more week till vacation....Woohoo........

2. Cool fall weather is here.  =)

Name Thoughts for the Contest Quilt

Since the sashing units I designed for this quilt unintentionally ended up with a Star Trek look to them, I've wanted to go with a trekkie inspired name for the quilt.   And I must admit this is always that hardest part of finishing a quilt for me, and one I most of the time don't bother with.

The names I've come up with (or that others may have suggested) so far are (in order of my preferences at the moment):

• Make It Sew
• To Boldly Quilt Where No Man Has Quilted Before
• Live Long and Quilt
• Quilt Tribbles

I'd love to play off of "Highly Illogical" but for the life of me can't figure anything out for that one.

What do you guys think of the name possbilities....anyone have any other ideas?

Gratitudes:
1. The rain has stopped.....at least for the moment.

2. Have my reservations for the Phx part of my Thanksgiving trip.

Contest Quilt Progress....

Making progress here....slowly.  Of course the slowly is happening because what the blocks have said they wanted so far is lots of echo quilting in the negative spaces............and that seems to take forever and a day....lol.  You can click on the pics to see more indepth pics.

At any rate, status at this point is:

Blocks - 4 out of 12 complete
Full Stars - 1 of 6 complete
Border Stars - 5 of 10 complete
Sashing strips - all complete
     (for the moment at any rate)

Still debating on a name for the quilt as well.....guess I need to make a decision soon on that....lol.

Gratitudes:
1. Today's heavy rain eased up long enough for me to drive home, stop quickly by the grocery store and get gas!

2. Swelling is better behaved today.

To-Do List Progress

What I started the week needing to do -

1. Quilt the Modern Quilt contest quilt - Made progress here, have finished quilting the sashing in both directions, 3 1/2 blocks, 1 full star and 2 border stars.    Still to be done - 8 1/2 blocks (know what I'm going to do for the one you see to the right), 5 full stars, and 8 border stars.

Didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped because I had to take time to find something to cover the ends of the pins.  I'm happy to say that the foam door hangers blanks that "sacrificed" themselves work wonderfully in covering the tips of the pins and in protecting my hands and arms from getting scratched to ribbons.

I'm aiming to get the quilting done by end of day on Saturday so that I've got Sunday & Monday to get the binding and label onto the quilt.

2. Make t-shirt dress for shoebox for Operation Christmas Child - Getting the fabric for the dress is as far as I've gotten.   To be done this week 'cause the shoebox has to be turned in on the 13th.

3. Make final F2F block for Nov - Finished and all three were mailed out on Friday.

4. Iron Interfacing onto tie sections and cut sashing squares - Didn't even touch these....looked at them tho....lol......

5. Put together commissioned quilt top - Looked at enough to stack the blocks so I didn't walk on them..but that's it.

6. Finish pillow cover for Commission - Quilted the top of the pillow cover, still needs to have the  back made and sewn on.


On the back burner:
1. Drawing up the pattern for my Stretching Art challenge quilt
2. Make the Stretching Art challenge quilt
3. Put together the first of my F2F quilt tops from this year.


Not on the list but done - was making a quilted case for my kindle after the cheapo one that I'd been using decided to vanish overnite Thursday.  Hopefully the leprechaun, gremlin, or ghostie who decided they needed it enjoys it.....sigh.    I know where I left it when I went to bed.....but it had vanished by the time I got up Friday morning.  And yes, I live alone.....well I thought I did anyway.  =P


So I dug into my scraps, and came up with this piece of home dec fabric that was a scrap from a commissioned project I did back in Indiana.    Used a grey and cream on the inside of it.   Did it in a hurry so the zipper isn't done as well as I'd like, but it works.   Will make a better one at a later date.

Gratitudes:
1. Will get to see good friends in Phx at Thanksgiving!  So excited.

2. Fall weather is here  - cooler and rainy.  =)

Contest quilt top finished

I finished sewing all of the top together that uses all of my blocks from the Modern Quilts block design contest.   Next step is to get it layered and pin-basted so that I can quilt it.   It has to be totally finished before Nov.14th and a pic uploaded by the 15th for the final contest.  Voting will run the 16th through 30th of November.   Even with the coming travels, that is a doable time line.

This won't be the final shape, but I will quilt it like this before trimming the corners back.  I plan on binding it in the same fabric as the background and sashing.

Final size of the top is 45" wide by 58" long.   All good 'cause the rules said it had to be 60" by 60" or smaller.  =)

Now to think about how I want to quilt it for a few days while I get some other projects caught up and done.

Gratitudes:

1. The edema in my feet and legs is much better after my walk around the neighborhood yesterday evening....now to find a way to deal with the aggravation that the heat causes the ezcema!

2. Storage room door has a new door handle/lock on it and has been rekeyed.   I can now put all the stuff in it that I need to get out of the downstairs!  Woohoo.....

2 rows forward.....1 row back

Oh wait that was steps in the original.....lol.   Altho in this case I'm feeling like it is very apt.

Putting together the top for my contest quilt has meant very carefully putting together the alternating rows of sashing and blocks so that everything goes together ok.....well it didn't work quite like I'd thought it would yesterday.....I still ended up with a boo-boo and frog-stitching on the horizon to fix it.   Can you find the oops?

Planning on finding some fairy frost when I'm out row-hopping this coming weekend so I can get this finished and then get it quilted.   As I look at it, I need to also replace the light green at the bottom because those sashing sections can hardly be seen, which won't work for inline voting in October.   So I need two colors of the fabric yet.....if only I could get my fabric room excavated!

Gratitudes:

1.  Swelling is down

2. Budget is looking better as I get closer to getting bills paid off.  =)

Getting Ready To Quilt Again

Things are finally getting together enough that I can start to think about sewing again.

First thing tho that needs to be worked on is my quilt for the Modern Quilts design contest.  Last night I laid out the blocks and sashing sections.   And confirmed what I'd been thinking - at least the yellow set (far right, bottom) has to be remade because you can't even tell what color was used.  Now to figure out where the tote with the fairy frost fabrics is.......

Still working on a name for the quilt and thinking I want something that gives a hint of Star Trek since the PP'd sashing units unintentionally came out very similar to the communicator badges on the show.  Maybe something like "Quilting.....the Last Frontier".    Any other ideas for a name?

Gratitudes:

1. I have multiple ways to get to work - a good thing when traffic on the freeway is at a standstill like this morning.

2. There was no rain yesterday!

Passing Time.....

For the first time in all of my moves, and that's a lot of them over the years. Umm, wondering how many moves - '95 - Phoenix to Boston, '97 - Boston to Phoenix, 2006 - from an apt to a house in Phoenix, 2006 - 3 months later Phoenix to Boston, 2007 - Boston to Rowlett and Phoenix to Rowlett, 2009 - Rowlett to Garland, 2010 - Garland to Lafayette, 2012 - Lafayette to Fort Wayne, 2015 - Fort Wayne to Rawlins, and now 2016 Rawlins back to the Garland area.  Gee, I wonder why I've been told I've got to have Gypsy blood in me?

I'm actually almost totally packed and several days early for a change.   A little more in the sewing room area here, about a boxful in the kitchen and pantry and I should be about done except for getting together the stuff that needs to go into my car and finishing getting the makings for picnic lunches for the days we'll be driving.

And being almost done this early, means that I can sew without feeling guilty about it.  =)     So I've been working on the PP'd units that I need for the setting I've designed to use in putting together the blocks that I made for the Modern Quilts Block Design Contest the past year.  I need 54 of these units in multiple colors and groups of either 4 or 3 per color.   I now have 15 done, so i'm making progress on them.  =)

I also put together a snack mat earlier in the day with one of my finished cross stitch pieces.  I couldn't resist the little fox and actually counted the stitches from a picture.  The fabric on the right was one that I found while out shopping one day and thought the two would go together nicely.

Gratitudes:
1. The lease application for a rental townhouse that I've turned in has been processed and should be submitted to the owner as of today.   Hopefully, I'll hear back tomorrow with a decision on whether I get it or not.

2. Found a company to load my truck here in Rawlins, and am hoping friends from church will be able to help unload it in TX.

Winnings from May Design Contest

In the last couple of weeks I've finally received the prizes I won in the May block contest.  

Four new books - I'm planning on exploring the Patchwork Quilt Blocks book to see if there is anything interesting for the F2F swap blocks that I need to get made for August.

And then there is a really nice set of FQ's.   Haven't explored the Michael Miller website to see which line it is, but I'll do that one of these days.

Gratitudes:

1. Progress is being made on packing things up here.

2. My key for school has been turned in and I've nothing else to do there.

Voting is open for the final Round of the Modern Quilt Block Contest

Voting is now open for the final round of the Modern Quilt Block Contest that I've been participating in.  I would love it if you voted for my block.   If you have a Facebook account and are logged into it, you can vote here - http://a.pgtb.me/MfCtTr/h5Cj1?w=36927840&e=130289515 .

This month's block was to be based on the traditional Jacob's Ladder Block.    I had fun playing with division of the traditional units into smaller ones.   5 colors of Fairy Frost were used in the block.

When I was uploading it, I forgot to put in a block name and the site used the name of the town where I live as it's name.....lol......

thanks in advance for voting for me if you do!

Gratitudes:
1. Setting for the contest quilt using all 12 blocks is already designed

2. It's summertime.  =)

Contest voting and road trip!

Almost one week into my 3 wk road trip.   Had made some serendipitous travel plans as I've been able to make a couple of unplanned quilt shops including the Missouri Quilt Star Company thanks to driving right by the exits for the stores.   Gotta love the quilt stores that can afford to advertise on billboards and that aren't very far of the US Highway/Interstate systems.     So far the fabric I've bought in the quilt shops has all had a plan for it so that is a good thing.   (We won't talk about the remnants I bought at the one quilt store or Joann's....).   Today I'm headed to TN where I'll be visiting with a quilting buddy and friend for a couple of days.   Am looking forward to fun and relaxation with her.  =)

I did behave myself because I'll be visiting a number of the shops participating in the Row-by-Row shop hop on the way home so I have to be good.  =)   There are enough shops that I'll be visiting that I can put together a quilt with them and then hopefully be the first to turn it in at a shop and when the prize for being the first there with a finished quilt.   =)  

Meanwhile, voting for this months blocks has started.   Voting goes thru tomorrow and my block is tied with the other gal that has won 6 months out of the 10 that have happened so far.  


If you would like to vote for my block (has to be done thru Facebook and you have to be logged into your account) then click here, then (after signing into FB) click on the vote button for the block that is titled "Path to the Stars".  Voting goes through the 14th.

The squares in the background that are pieced were made with the scraps of the other blocks.  I free-form pieced them from cut off triangles, shading the colors from dark to light blue and silver.  The quarter square circles were machine appliqued down.

Gratitudes:
1. Safe travels so far on my trip.

2. For the job interview that I have scheduled for Tuesday the 21st in the Dallas area.

Finishes for the first week of June

School is coming to a finish and I'm still going crazy with everything going on.

Did tho manage to finish off a few things this week.

First up is the three leather knife sheaths that had been commissioned, including a hanging loop that can be switched between sheaths.

Next were two more mug rugs/snack mats.

And finally was the block for March in the layout that I finally decided to make.


 Gratitudes:

1. Brakes checked out ok on the car, a good thing before my road trip.

2. I've managed to just about make it through my list of to-do's for this weekend - a very good thing!

3. Only three more projects to grade and all of my grading for this semester will be over!

Sewing on a long weekend

Lots going on around here these days - Last 5 days of school start today for me, just finished the long Memorial Day weekend and I'm going nuts trying to get everything finished up on my list of to-do's before heading out on a 3 wk road trip.  Making progress in some areas, others not so much (that vacuum cleaner is still not out of the box....lol).   One thing that did happen was to actually put a couple of quilts for myself on to my list of projects that need to be completed this year.   Been a while since I've actually made something for me.

Finished off two commissions - the tub liner and one of the leather knife sheaths, this one is for one of my coworkers for school.   Three more knife sheaths to go and they will be done.












 

Embellished a t-shirt for my mom with some kitty fabric for her BD.  Gift is running late.....oops












I also played with my design for the May Block design contest this weekend.   The traditional block is the Drunkard's Path and curved piecing is not something I enjoy.  To get any sort of a design in the final 12" block I ended up with 3" finished sections.  the pieced sections are all made from scraps that I've had leftover from prior blocks.   I free-pieced the the spiky sections based on the size and shape of what I had in my scraps.

I did not keep the itty-bitty trimmings from these blocks!  the block shades from a navy blue down to a bluish-silver.   The quarter circles will be appliqued onto the appropriate square before they are all sewn together.  Block has to be finished and photographed by next weekend so that I can get it uploaded before the contest deadline.

And then there was the 'fun' of getting my old Singer model 66 out to use to sew the leather sheaths and find out that it had been too long since I last opened it up 'cause the belt had broken......Argh.    Thankfully if I go real slow, as in turn the wheel by hand, on my Kenmore I can get the sheaths sewn.   Now comes the fun of trying to find another belt for it while living out here in the middle of nowhere.

Gratitudes:
1. Sewing machine belts are possible to find for my antique machine....even if they are hard to come by here in the wilds of WY

2. Only 5 more days for me left in school!!!!

Drats and double drats..........

Drat it.....I really hate when I come to a point in working a quilt block that I'm stuck and don't know what to do. Am actually working on my May contest block early for a change because I need it finished early instead of at the last minute.

But the colors are giving me fits at the moment..... The pic here shows what I've improv-pieced for the background of the block. I was going to shade to a super light blue in the bottom right corner.....but guess what I don't have.

So the options that I can see at the moment is (1) to shift everything down towards the bottom right corner and then bring in a different color up at the top left of the block (purple?) or (2) bring in the tan background color at the bottom left and leave everything else as it is.........

The tan will also be in there as an appliqued 'qtr circle on the solid color blocks. What do you guys think?

Gratitudes:

1. Even tho my platelets dropped this week, they didn't drop below what they were two weeks ago...dare I hope they are starting to stabilize?

2. Beautiful spring weather is here. =)

Found Fabric......Or When To Get Rid Of Scraps

I admit it......I'm a scrapaholic......I like using every little bit of fabrics that I like.    Now I can get rid of scraps when it is something I'm not fond of, but something that I really, really like - that is a total different story all together.

My fairy frost (FF) fab's fall into the really, really, really like category of my fabrics.   And while I've been collecting them for a long time, it's been hard to use them (batiks seem to be the other major set of fab's in this category....lol).   However, the FF's are what I'm using for the contest blocks because they are made by the fabric company sponsoring the contest and what I had in the stash.

Yes, I've saved the tiny scraps I've been trimming off as I've been piecing.   Some of them down to 1 inch at the widest point by 4 or 6 inches long.  I know most people would toss these, and I do on most fabrics.   But these are FF's.....I know I can do something with the scraps....LOL.

In thinking about the May block for the Modern Quilts block design contest I decided I wanted to use these itty-bitty scraps in some way.  So I've started improv-piecing 3 1/2 inch squares using the scraps from previous blocks.  In total, I'll need 6 of these pieced blocks for what I've got pictured in my mind for this block.

And yes, I am actually tossing stuff after piecing the little blocks.....just not letting a lot go to waste.  =)














And here is how they are starting to layout for the background of the blocks.   Still more piecing to come (3 more pieced blocks to make),

This May block is to be based on the traditional Drunkards Path block and the quarter circles of the background fabric (the tan FF) to.  

So how small of scraps do you save and use?

Gratitudes:

1. Grading is almost done at school and before the end of the semester!

2. Only one final Exam left to think about and write.....maybe......lol.

Decision Time.....

Finished off all four sections of the March contest block last night and played with the possible layouts.  Now it's time to make a decision on how I'm going to sew these together.  Which do you like best?

Gratitudes:
1. The "1-day" trial I was called for should be over today (day 2)

2. There is a beautiful flowering tree right outside the court room and that means spring is here.  =)

Catching up....

...........with the Modern Quilt Block contest blocks....finally came up with a design for the March block which had me stumped in March.   The traditional block to use was either a sailboat block or a plane block.  

I finally chose the sailboat block and now have the block half made.   Haven't finalized the layout yet, but will do that after I get all 4 sections of the block made.  

The fabric used in the sail is all scraps from previous blocks and each sail will be different from the others.   Now to get the remaining two sections made so that I can start playing with layouts for the block.   I'll get this finished up this week.





Next up on my plate to do over the coming long weekend -
* finish the commissionedknife sheaths
* finish the commissioned tub liner
* hopefully finish two more scrub tops
* baste and start quilting the tornado quilt

Gratitudes:
1. Spring weather is finally here
2. 9 more days of school for me  =)

Voting in the Modern Quilt Design Challenge has started

Voting for your favorite block in the Modern Quilts Design Challenge has started.   And I'd love it if you'd vote for my block.

To vote, go to the following link and click on the vote button to vote for my block, or another if you like it better.  

http://a.pgtb.me/MfCtTr/h5Cj1?w=36927840&e=125377493


You will need a Facebook Account and need to be logged into it in order to vote.


Gratitudes:
1. I was able to make a big difference in one of my bills thanks to the stipend.

2. Beautiful, sunny day outside!