I don't take good pictures

I take lovely vacation pictures. I am even a Iowa State Fair blue ribbon winner, but I can't take quilt pictures to save my life. I think it is because I have to stage them. With monuments or people in action, they are already staged.
Well, a friend of mine went into the hospital last weekend. It was a very serious situation and a scary time. I didn't have a lot of time, so I made up a pillow to give her while she was in. I made a Turning Twenty block and I think it turned out well. I stitched in the ditch to hold the fusible batting in place. I used three fat quarters from Dena Designs. I like the way they coordinate, but not matchy matchy. I needed one pillow, but I had enough fabric for two more so I am going to do that and mail it to my niece.

I also finished up the blocks for the Toes in the Sand Block of the Month. Only 2 months behind. Go me! I have to finish it, but that shouldn't take long. Famous last words, I know.

I like the red and yellow added into the prescribed blue blocks. It makes it brighter and more fun. I went to a crochet class Thursday which is quite the story, but I will post that later. 

While I was not blogging

I have been doing a good amount of cross stitch while I wasn't blogging. I have really enjoyed coming back to cross stitch. I love the rhythm of the craft. Not sure if that makes sense. There has been a revival of cross stitch and I am glad it is cool again. New designers have come up with modern designs and I've discovered a whole new set of tools- needle minders, overdyed floss and hand dyed fabric.

Anyway, here is my Halloween Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I finished the border up at the beginning of September but it took me a full month to finish out the actual pattern. It is done though! I switched out a few things and like how it showed up. The full moon shows the variegated floss the best. In large chunks it really is pretty.

So the next project is the '12 Days of Christmas'. I love the series. I have 12 Waterford flutes that I collected over 6 years. So adding cross stitch to my collection. I am using opalescent fabric. It is sparkly. I really do like it. It is 16 count and I usually work with 14 count. I am hoping it turns out well. There have been a couple sneak peeks that show a good pattern.

Snow. Ice. What else is new?

Last night was the Holiday Swap at the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild. We had our first bad weather event so I bailed out. I made this pillow for the swap, but a tiny part of me is happy that it stayed with me. I LOVE this pillow. I used a pattern I found on Etsy. I liked this pattern so much I bought another one of a pig. I used regular 14 count white aida, but I have since discovered hand dyed fabrics and opalescent fabric. I used Essex Linen for the border and it looks fantastic. It reminds me of denim but works like regular cotton. I picked it up at Stitch, the new fabric/yarn store in the East Village. They have the Essex in Flax and Indigo. The bolts are pretty slim right now though. It has moved fast. I totally understand why. If you go down there, look for a Flax napkin with a red reindeer cross stitched on it. I made that! I am pretty proud of myself. The store really is great. I enjoy just going down there, hanging out and stitching. There is an infinite supply of coffee and a very comfy couch. Tami, Jessica and Madie are very welcoming and if they are willing to let me hang out there, they will welcome anybody. 

I mitered the corners of the border and I am getting better doing that. There was one slight awkward tuck, but it is barely noticeable. The pillow is just very much my style. So Merry Christmas to me! 

Never following instructions!

My wreath turned out fantastic! I LOVE IT. It is 90 degrees outside, but fall is on my door.

I used one of those straw wreaths. I took off the plastic. I am not sure if I was supposed to because I now have straw all over my house. I didn't cover the base but I think it works out ok. I guess I could have and that would have kept the straw from scattering. The tutorial called for an 12 inch wreath but when I saw it in the store I knew it would be too small. I went with 18 inches. It is large, but it looks good.

As I keep looking at the picture, I may adjust the ribbon. I like using the ribbon over, but it is smooshing the felt. Hhmm. . . need to think about this.

"Balanced negative space was achieved"

First irritation about that statement- passive voice. Second irritation- who makes a statement like that about a modern quilt?!

Let me back up. The Iowa State Fair had a modern division for the first time. I decided to enter because I figured if there were many entrants then they would keep the division. I had no delusions of winning. I knew that several of the ladies from the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild were entering so there would be some really nice quilts. Well, the division didn't turn out exactly how I expected. There were a couple quilts that I thought were robbed of ribbons, but that's ok; judges' prerogative. What I am irritated about is that they didn't seem to understand the category and went through a checklist of what they thought the category was. Hence the comment, "Balanced negative space achieved".

Anyway, I LOVE this quilt. The pattern is from Modern Quilt Relish and the fabric is Dear Stella. I love the pattern. I love the fabric. I love the colours. Jenny did a fantastic job quilting it and again was able to interpret my chicken scratch on a piece of paper.

Ugh!

Another friend of mine found out she has cancer. Two friends in less than a year. Healthy, going about their daily lives, young women. This time I made a pillow instead of a quilt. It is summer and she has to go in for both chemo and radiation. I thought something serviceable would be good.

I like the way it turned out. I used heavy duty top stitching thread to stitch in the ditch. It turned out ok, but it wasn't what I had expected. I lengthened my stitch length, but the effect wasn't what I imagined. I think I was hoping for more a shashiko effect. I want one of those so badly. I wish one of my LQS would rent that out as well like a long arm. The pillow needs to be sat on so it fills out the corners and the back doesn't bulge. I hope with use it all falls into place.

Snow in May

Des Moines received 7 inches of snow over two days. Two days in May. This is what I awoke to this morning.

I had picked up a silk and wool blend at the yarn show in March and figured I would get a head start on next winter. Little did I know that I could use what I made with this extended winter. I love my cowl. I turned into a mobius strip so it is all twisty and interesting. I used a pattern from Fiber Flux that is essentially blocks of single, double and treble crochets. It was a good pattern to jump back into crochet. I have enough length to be able to wear it long or wrap it twice so it is tighter around my neck.

So here are a couple pictures my friend Emily took. It was windy and I was cold but they get the point across. 

Remember when Kona Ash was all the rage?

That is one thing I don't care for with the blog/instagram/flickr world; there is a bit of herd mentality. We say modern quilting is about being unique, but there should be a statement about following trends.

Now let me show you my following with my 'so 2 years ago' cross cushion :) I stuffed it last night and did a wretched job of whip stitching the opening. I need to go back and fix it after the filling has settled a bit. I have a couch to watch TV, but I end up sitting on the floor with my back against the couch most of the time. I used the cushion watching the Call the Midwife marathon and season 2 premiere. If you haven't watched it you really should.

So my statement about Kona Ash comes from a cross stitch project. I signed up for the Springtime Sampler from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. My Woodland Sampler is going along well even though I refuse to put eyes on things that do not have eyes on them in real life. I decided to branch out and picked up very pretty gray 14 count aida for the Spring Sampler. I thought that the gray would represent the dullness of winter going away with the bright colours of spring. I had forgotten how much of a colour suck gray can be. I need to get some white. The floss colours are very pretty and very spring! I am getting together with church friends to sew tomorrow night so I will blog after that with pictures. 

Making a demo does work

I made a second baby height chart. This one turned out SO MUCH better than the first. I feel really badly for my friend who received the first one. There are a few wobbles, but it isn't like the last one. I did bias binding and my machine binding corners turned out fantastically. I even put a legit hanger on the back for this one, with corner pockets (not sure if that is the correct word for them). Here are some pictures. SO MUCH BETTER!

Lots to tell

I have several different things to share, so I am going to break them up into different posts.
First story- I went to Indiana for a few days. I took my guild challenge project with me, but I cut my pieces ahead of time so I could take less stuff. I went with the plus blocks and was feeling pretty proud of myself for doing the math correctly. Wanted to use all the pieces, but I couldn't get a complete final row because I didn't have one last square. I used fusible fleece for the backing, quilted it, cutting the back and it looked good. I even showed it at the guild meeting, but something seemed off. It wasn't square. How that slipped by me I have no idea. so even though I had shown it, I ripped it apart, sewed on an extra row by salvaging a scrap and made it square. I did some franken-fleecing to make it work, but it did. If you look closely you can kind of tell that the bottom row is off.

Since I had already cutting the back, I had to do a pieced back. Again I salvaged the scraps to make it work. It totally did and I am feeling pretty pleased with myself. I need to stuff it and use it!

Kind of a bad picture, but here is the final result.

Machine binding?!

I'd promised Emily a Nook holder for years now, but finally got around to it this week. She loves camo and pink. The sequins are because I like shiny things.  I used the Moda Bake Shop 'Bookkeeper' tutorial, but rotated it so that it was longer than wider and added the sequined elastic.

I used flannel on the inside so the screen wouldn't scratch. I even used my machine to sew on the sequined elastic. Everything went great till it was time to put on the 'binding'. I decided to machine bind it. I should have hand stitched; it wasn't a lot and I should have sucked it up. NIGHTMARE! I have a tendency to have wider binding on one side; I pull further over one side to hide the sew-on-the-binding stitching. That doesn't work for machine binding. I ended up using a zig-zag and turning it into kind of a flange by stitching in the middle of the front binding so it stayed on the edge of the back binding. This is my second time with machine binding and my corners turned out a bit better than last time. I used a suggestion from a blog that said when you stop a quarter inch from the corner, sew off the edge. That helped get beautiful mitered corners on the back which means it would work great when hand sewing. The other problem I ran into is since the binding didn't run all the way around, I had to start at the end of one strip. I couldn't get it started. I kept getting caught and stitching in place. There was also differences in bulk through the project so my zig-zag is of inconsistent length. Any suggestions on what to do? 

Seems like I didn't enjoy the process, but I did. Again, it is because it is going to a friend. I hope she likes it. 

Gifted and well received

I ended up widening my seams so the pillow would look more stuffed. It worked . . .sorta. It is fuller, but the corners are still a bit loose. I did try punching in the insert so it would spread out more towards the corners. I didn't try it because I can barely sew a straight line, but Linda suggested a slightly rounded corner. "Use a small drinking glass to draw the arc around each corner. Place the edge of the glass so they align with your sewing line. Follow your straight sewing line on the sides and continue 'round the bend' following the drawn curve, picking up the straight line again on the side". Next time I will give it a shot. 

I am still pleased with how it turned out. I gave it last night and it was well received. The family I gave it to have been so very, very good to me. 

I started working on my Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Monthly Sampler. It wasn't as easy as I expected. The mark of a good pattern is having to unpick if you mess up. I unpicked twice! If you look closely you can see the larger holes from where I'd already stitched. This month is a deer couple. I had joked with Emily that we should do a side by side comparison of our deer, but at the rate I'm going, I not so sure. Hopefully I get done before February's arrives. I can't get behind on this. I still have 11 blocks of the 2011 Fat Quarter Shop Block of the Month to do. 

Pleased and proud

I am so pleased with the way the pillow turned out. Two wonderful ladies made great suggestions on what to do with the quilt and I had two other wonderful friends who gave in person advice.

I added a flange as suggested by Linda.

I used a textured type fabric as suggested by Doris. I wanted something that was more furnishing like and ended up with micro-suede. I did research on how to sew it and it ended up being a breeze. No different than cotton. No special needle either.

I mitered my corners and using the micro-suede was very helpful. It was very forgiving and being a pillow it doesn't have to be ironed. It took some figuring out though on how to negotiate the 45 degree angle and get the corners sewn together. I even did a flap back. So pleased with myself. I see more pillows in my future.

It has turned out super well, but as I type this and look at it at it I don't like how the corners seem baggy. I made it exactly to the pillow size (18x18), but it just seems kind of limp. Any suggestions? I think I am going to sew in another quarter inch on each side to bring it down to 17.5 inches.

Make a demo

If you are making a gift for someone, make a demo. I found out the hard way. There was much unpicking and redoing for this project.

It is a baby height chart. I picked up the idea from this post. The link to the tutorial had been broken. Anyway, here are some pictures of my version. There is a wonk to it and  my first attempt at machine binding did not go well. Now the whole world sees my mis-mitered corners. The back though looks fantastic! I used the Frixon pens for the straight lines at inch increments and really like them. I would make this again. . . now that I've done it once.

Mug Rug Madness

I LOVE my mug rug! Janora pegged me perfectly.

This side is technically the 'reverse', but it coordinates with my coffee mug.

This the correct side. A pinwheel, stacked rectangles. It is perfect. The blue looks like denim and the stitching is in the goldy type of thread that you see on jeans. It really is very me.

Janora and I ended up swapping. This is what I made for her. Just to be clear- It is supposed to be wonky. It isn't bad stitching. She was very gracious in her acceptance. I hope she gets to use it.

Here are more pictures from the swap. This has been a great experience for my first time swap and I think I may do another one. If anybody is in the central Iowa area, please come to the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild. It is very fun and the group is super creative.

Merry Christmas!

"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"

"Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights please?"

"And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. And the glory of the Lord shall round about them. And they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord, and this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes laying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men."

"That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."

Care package

A couple days ago my mum sent an email requesting I send my 10 year old niece a card or a little something to cheer her up. Pre-teen drama. Well, I knew the perfect gift. Remember this quilt from back in May?! I went ahead and tied the top instead of quilting. I like the way it turned out. A mix of the current with the past- a tied wonky log cabin. I finished up the binding a few minutes ago and took a couple pictures while I was trying it out. I will make it to the post office tomorrow and send it out. I hope she likes it.

Martinique quilt

I don't have a name for this quilt. I want to come up with some beachy name. I love the backing fabric. And of course, Jenny's quilting.