Perspective

Three things to be happy about (compliments of my friend Pat):
(1) filet mignon
(2) poinsettias that last
(3) waking up to sunshine

Did you ever want to know how to do something, but didn't want to take the time to learn it?

I want to do a perspective drawing for a quilt - I found tutorials on the internet, but I'm too impatient to sit down and do the exercises!

One thing I learned off the bat is you start with a horizontal line and place a dot somewhere on that line representing the farthest, or vanishing, point.

So I learned that much, anyway!

This is a silhouette that I found among my bits and pieces a few weeks ago. I want to use it - it already has fusible on the back and besides, it's a really kewl silhouette!

I've pieced a few more of the hourglass blocks that will surround the central block, I think it will look nice.

My idea is to have the couple dancing in the street, with buildings on one side of them.  The challenge is, in order to be realistic the buildings closest to the couple need to be larger than their 11" height.  So, rather than drawing buildings and inserting figures that fit, I need to draw the buildings to fit the figures.  BUT I want a wall hanging, not a full sized quilt!

More on that later, I'll keep practicing and see what I come up with.

I needed something to give me a break from my EP which is about half done.  I say "about" because I made a second quadrant but when I went to sew the two pieces together - I discovered I'd left off the top sashing for that quadrant!

Now how'd that happen??  Back to the sewing board; I'll keep plugging away at it, but doing other things in between, just for variety.

That's it for now, sew forth and sew on...

Top's done!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Thanksgiving leftovers
(2) finishing up
(3) Black Friday sales

I just threw that last one in for those of us who indulge!

I finished piecing the black and white passion top, then moved on to the border decisions...

The fabric on the left is what I did not use, I don't have enough left of that one.  You gotta love the 3 Stooges!

My next thought was to use up odd strips of black and white, just to move them out of my stash... but I didn't want to go that way.  

Pulling and matching and measuring and piecing - I'll save that idea for another quilt!

Here's the fabric I went with, I had a pretty large piece in my stash and it goes well with the quilt.

BUT it didn't stop there...

I had made four patches for the corners!

I tried them out, but they didn't add anything to the design no matter how I turned them, so I tossed them into the parts department.

So here's the top, with the borders added - ready to be quilted.

And just in time - the first Quiltville mystery clue came out today!

That's it for now, got some running around to do!  Have a great day, grab those bargains, sew forth and sew on...

A little hitch in the big web

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Getting on with it
(2) Coffee pods
(3) James Lee Burke novels

Right now I'm listening to "A Morning for Flamingoes" by James Lee Burke - you gotta love Dave Robicheaux, he's so laid back!

I was tooling right along with webbing the Passion quilt, but then my bobbin thread ran out and I air-sewed through three pairs without knowing it - monkey wrench!!!

I changed the bobbin and resumed sewing without realizing a pair had dropped behind my sewing machine, throwing the pattern off.  yeeeeeech!

Had to spread my stuff back out on the floor and figure out where I went wrong, thank goodness I took that photo of the right-side half!

Okay ... so I fumbled and stumbled til I figured out where the problem was, and had to unsew a few blocks... well, it was quite a few blocks!

Then I thought it would be smart to make sets of foursies and sew them together...

It was working til I spread it out again and saw a 9-patch that got turned.

Sheesh!  How'd I do that???  I was so frustrated that I put it aside for two days...

So now I'm ready to tackle it again.  The sideways block has been removed, I'll continue sewing my foursies and hook it all up together.

Borders will probably be black and white fabrics, no big deal; my goal is to get the flimsey out of the way before Bonnie releases her first mystery clue!

That's it for now, just wanted to show some progress, sew forth and sew on til later...

Webbing the top

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Monday mornings
(2) a new Costco sales flyer
(3) Listening to Old School music

Do you ever listen to music on your TV?  I don't mean Pandora... most carriers probably carry the music stations, on Direct TV they're at channels 800 and higher.  I like channel 844 - Old School Funk - it takes me back, back, even waaaay back!

I'm at the sewing stage for my Passion quilt!

I've been webbing the top and it has gotten a bit unweildy? unwieldy? - awkward! after sewing a few vertical rows...

But before I got to that point I played with a couple layouts.

I sorta liked the boxy effect of the blacks in this layout but I couldn't figure out how to make consistent boxes and also allow the reds to stand out.

My whole point was to let them step across in order, and shine!

On the other hand I didn't want a plain slanted stripe as this would have done...

so I twisted it a bit!

To the right...

... then back to the left.

I think this will do the trick!

Half the rows are done at this point.

Because I didn't stack the blocks at my sewing machine (afraid of getting them out of order) I've been gathering one column at a time - up and down the stairs!

Great exercise, but sheesh!

At this point it's getting awkward to handle as I mentioned above, so I'll put aside the left half, web the right half, then combine the two.

Looks like a plan!

Time for breffus, sew forth and sew on til later...

Progress, in black and white

Three things to be happy about:
(1) designer eyeglasses
(2) morning sunshine
(3) books that make you laugh

I'm listening to an audible book (The Bone Tree); part of the setting is in the 60's, and they mentioned someone flying from one place to another on Eastern Airlines.  Man, that takes me back!  My first ever ever ever airline flight was on Eastern Airlines, from New Jersey all the way to North Carolina.  I remember when my sister told me I would get a meal and didn't have to pay, I was totally amazed!   Ahh, nostalgia.

I'm making progress on my Passa-whatever quilt!

I decided to concentrate on piecing one unit first, rather than piecing both at the same time.

Since the black and white strips are so boring, I thought I'd go ahead and get those out of the way!

I found a whole bunch of black and white scraps that I had bagged when I was sorting my scraps by color.

It turns out to be a good thing!  Now all I have to do is cut them into 4" pieces at different widths.

Done!

Ready to be pieced for the center of the alternate unit.  Did I mention this is the boring part??

For the size quilt I want to make, I figure I need 84 of each unit.  Eighty-four!

Well, I take it back, it's not really that boring, I just take one piece and add to another til I get a strip that's 9" long. a wider piece on each end.

That little pile doesn't look like much, but there are 50 in there, so combined with the ones already pieced and a few in progress on my sewing machine, I have 24 yet to piece!

They do go kinda fast - one strip at a time... steady as she goes...

Sew forth and sew on...

Quilt doodles February BOM

Three things to be happy about:
(1) winter squash
(2) quilted hangers
(3) Burt's Bees honey lip balm

I'm a bit late doing the Quilt Doodles BOM this month because I wanted to print out the pdf to take to my sewing room, and I hadn't installed my printer - my bad!  It was so unbelievably easy to install I wonder why I procrastinated in the first place.  Of course before the new install I went in and deleted each and every HP program on my PC.  I knew some of it was useless, and I didn't want to be confused later on about what I really needed or what could be deleted to free up space - so I wiped it all out!  I figured the new install would give me everything I needed.

So ... Cindy has named this month's block the Garden Pinwheel, another pretty one!  The central motif is a flower (hence the "garden" in the name, I think).  I'm sticking with my black-and-white theme, but I chose to use a heart in a third color for the central motif.

When I finished putting it together, I didn't like the results - that middle square needs some serious work! 



I'm going to run upstairs and make another center... 'scuse me a sec while I doodle around with it!

Okay, I'm back with a new center! 

I considered using blue or red, and I even went with a gold color because I thought it would look good.  But as you can see I used the same black-and-white that I used for the spokes in the pinwheel, and I also used her flower - I think it looks great!  It's sorta iffy to choose a third color, not knowing what the other blocks will look like, but that's the nature of a BOM... sometimes it's also a mystery!

I've added this one to the 2013 BOM flickr group.
Have a great Wednesday, sew forth and sew on...

Starting the year with a BOM

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a TV show worth watching
(2) romaine salad with caeser parmigiano yogurt dressing
(3) barbequed ribs

 As I was working on a quilt block yesterday, my neighbor Mike popped in with some ribs he'd just barbecued.  He has a smoker and a drum-type bbq out back, and he uses a dry rub on his ribs - yum!


It's been awhile since I've participated in any bloggy stuff because I needed to back off and minimize, but now I'm at a point where I can get back into the swing of things. I'm getting in on the Quilt Doodles 2013 BOM, it sounds like fun!  You can click the button on the right hand side to get to her site; she has a page tab for the 2013 BOM.

I thought I'd dig into my black and white stash for this BOM, since I'm not sure what each months' block will be... white-and-black for the background, and black-and-white for the foreground.  If I need a third color I always have the option of using a solid or textured black.

January's BOM is the Monkey Wrench; for some reason I've never made one before - hmmm...  First you have to pay attention, though - I cut my units 1/8" too small the first time but luckily I caught it before I started sewing!  Not used to that 7/8" deal.

It's an easy block to put together, I think another name for it is the Snail's Trail.  So here's the finished block...

black and white is always a classic combination!  I'm adding it to the 2013 BOM Flickr group here

Have a great Monday, sew forth and sew on til later...

A sham and a shazam!

Here's the sham:

I wanted to make pillow shams to go along with my Christmas quilt, using regular sized bed pillows rather than the small ones I toss on the sofa.  I found a very very  easy pattern on You Tube that I made with a piece of batik-y fabric, that I can use now.  It turned out really pretty!

Next I'll make a couple using Christmas fabrics, inserting a small ruffle around the edges.

And now for the shazam!

I picked up my Black, White and a Shot of Red quilt from the LA yesterday - I love it love it!   I started piecing this one just over a month ago when my sister was visiting, and it was a real pleasure to make.  I blogged about it here.  Unfortunately the reds look a bit orange-y, but they really are red.

Bernerdette did a great job as usual, and she likes the quilt enough to make one of her own.

I don't usually piece my backs but this time I used odd pieces of black and white fabric (with a shot of red!) and it really added some zing to the quilt! 

I sewed the binding on yesterday; I just have to finish sewing it down on the back, and she's ready to roll out!

As an extra bonus for the weekend, today I go to pick up my Stars and Stripes quilt, Bern finished it a couple days ahead of schedule because she wants to get out of town ahead of Sandy.  I look forward to seeing that one finished, I still remember how the bright stars sparkled among the string blocks!  I've pieced other tops using string blocks, but this will be the first one that I've had long-arm quilted.

Well have a great Friday, sew forth and sew on!

Moving right along

Three things to be happy about:
(1) pumpkins in a pile
(2) loading your stapler
(3) cool breezes

Cool breezes?  This morning seems more like frigid breezes, it's in the 40's right now brrrrr!  But thank goodness the weather is turning towards fall, when you start to see fall-ish things... like punkins in a pile and halloween candy!

This is a great morning to have crumpets for breakfast - I found these crumpets at Wegman's and I've fallen in love with them!  They're totally fat-free, with only 80 calories and 18 carbs each.  Before I found these I'd only heard of "tea and crumpets" in British novels and hadn't the faintest idea what they were talking about... la-de-dah. The taste and texture sort of remind me of pancakes; I smear on just a dab of butter and some Polaner sugar-free jelly, and now I can honestly say la-de-yum!!!

I finished my black and white quilt top, I just have to give it a good press and take it to the LA on Thursday, yaaaay!  Meanwhile I've been working on my solid quilt, making great progress, especially since it'll only be set 3 x 3 plus borders - child size.

3" and 2-1/2" pieces



pieced strips measuring 6-1/2 x 12-1/2"

Well, today I get my flu shot, wish me luck - I hate needles! I understand they will have the "short" needle, but to me ... a needle is a needle.  It's a lead-pipe cinch I'd make a poor junkie (thank goodness!)

Keep sewing, slash that stash, have a great day ... sew forth and sew on!