I'm baaaack ...

But just barely - I feel sorta hung over right now!

I arrived home this morning around 3:15 - my connecting flight out of Las Vegas was delayed a half hour AND it was overbooked.  The "gate-keeper" asked if two people would give up their seats in exchange for a rescheduled flight next day (today), a $300 voucher, and the cost of your ticket to be used at any time...hmmmmm.  Almost kinda tempting, but not doable for me!

When I left on my cruise, my brother in law had been in hospital with multiple symptoms for about 2 weeks; my sister didn't want to say the "C" word but it was understood he would more than likely have to go through chemo.

I was planning to finish this quilt for him, with fleece on the back to use during the chemo treatments because fleece feels really good.   Well, I called my sister soon as we docked in Seattle to check on his condition; sadly, he passed away on Friday.

Soooo.... I have to get myself rested up and prepare for a trip to New Jersey, probably leaving on Tuesday.  So you probably won't hear from me for awhile, see you when I get back again.  Have a great Sunday everyone, sew forth and sew on til later.

My wild goose chase

Three things to be happy about:
(1) being alert
(2) delighting in the details
(3) Lucky Charms cereal

Actually I never liked Lucky Charms cereal, even when I was a kid, all those bitter tasting marshmallows.  No matter how many times the cute little leprechaun pranced about and declared "they're charmingly delicious!"... it didn't convince me, no ma'am.

I'm pleased to say that I finished the flying geese/goose quilt I made, based on Bonnie Hunter's antique find!  I'm naming this one Wild Goose Chase because oh man did I have a wild time piecing these homespuns!  I didn't know I had so many homespuns until I started using them ... I didn't know I didn't really like homespuns that much until I started using them!  They're pretty to look at but I'm not too keen on that loose weave... maybe next time I want that look I'll go with shirting.

Notice the difference between the two pictures?  The first strips I put in looked way too skinny, so I made them 2" wider; I like the difference!  It's the same fabric, I think time of day makes a difference in the way the color shows. 

I found a large piece of deep brown fabric in my stash that's perfect for the back; it has a farm moif... horses pulling hay-laden wagons, workers sitting on the fence.  It's a perfect back, and there's just a little less than 1/4 yard left - scrap!

At guild meeting Saturday I taught a workshop on my cobblestone quilt, it was very well received. I think they liked the technique, it's a very easy and fuss-free pattern...

Azalia finished one first!



Deb is going with bright colors; isn't it amazing how different the blocks look?



Rosa is using black, white and a touch of green!



I liked Deborah's fabric, I wonder if JoAnn still has it?  I need some for my colorwash quilt!

That's it for now, enjoy your Monday.  I have a podiatrist appointment then perhaps a manicure... need to kill some time til 11:30 so I can park on my side of the street - there's street cleaning Mondays and Tuesdays.  Sew forth and sew on til later!

On a wild goose chase!

"December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers. But there were cats. Patient, cold and callous, our hands wrapped in socks, we waited to snowball the cats."
- Dylan Thomas, "A Child's Christmas in Wales"

When Bonnie at Quiltville showed us her latest antique quilt, I was goosed by inspiration! Sometimes she'd show us an antique quilt and I'd think "wow, look at that piecing!" or "oh man, how'd she have the patience to do all that" or "how pretty!"  But the one with the scrappy-stringy pieced geese?  It  talked to me - it called out and said "MAKE ME!!"

My first thought was to replicate the quilt as it was made by the quilter, but I'm changing the colors a bit so it won't look exactly  like the original - I think it's only fair that Bonnie gets dibs on replicating it exactly, after all it was her find!  I have a sort of mottled brown that I'll substitute for the alternating solid green strips, and I'm using a sort of off-pink-cantaloupe-y solid for the goose wings.

I went to my stash of unused (and under-appreciated!) homespuns and started cutting strips for the goose body. I didn't have any already cut because I haven't been using the homespuns, just hoarding - uh stashing - em! I'm also using recycled shirts, but I have just a handful of those.

Because I'm a creature of get-er-done and instant gratification, I'll be paper piecing my geese from start to finish! 

I found a flying geese pattern in EQ called "Flying Geese V" and printed it at 6 x 12, this gave me 4 geese stacked in a row; it'll cut down on the number of seams.

All my strings have been pieced on 5" squares of phone book paper - each square will give me the body for two geese.

So here's the first group I did, not bad!

Homespuns by their very nature are loosely woven, so I hit each block with a little spray starch before I cut them apart.  Some will be cut crosswise, just for variety!

I think this is a very pretty quilt, and I thank Bonnie for her generosity in sharing it with us!  It also seems to be a very quick quilt to make, owing to the paper foundation piecing ... I wonder if the original quilter did hers on foundations?? 

Well, it's the podiatrist today, my last medical appointment of 2012 .. sew forth and sew on, have a great Tuesday!

Trees, glorious trees

I wanted to create tree blocks to go with the houses I got in the Wonky House Swap in March even though I wasn't involved in that part of the swap.  In keeping with the guidelines for the tree swap I decided to stick with the 5x8 finished size, using my paper pieced crooked geese.

The good thing about using these crooked geese for tree tops is that you don't have to think, just sew blocks together!  To make it even easier and minimize seams at the end, I taped the geese together at their flat bottoms before I paper pieced them.  The tree trunks were all made by sewing background fabric to either side of the brown trunks, easy peasy!  What will I do different on the next ones?  I'll use narrower size geese for the tops; as you can see from the one immediately above on the left, there's not much background fabric on that one side.  (I'll redo that one.) 

The first three blocks were made with 4" geese; the last one was 2".  So, my next batch will be made from 3" geese.

Here's one I appliqued onto the background:

It's a cute tree but I'm not sure if I'll make more of those or not, we'll see.

After I made a few I decided to see what they looked like with the wonky houses, so I pulled out my box that's clearly marked "Houses"...

 

But when I opened it up... yikes, where are my houses???

I'll have to go on a hunt in my sewing room... I know they're in there someplace, I just have to find them!  Which might mean actually cleaning it up again.  Oh well...

Have a great Tuesday, sew forth and sew on

The geese are flying all crooked

Little flower baskets with crooked geese border

... over at Sew We Quilt/Stash Manicure, and I flung em!  Go over and see my clever geese, and good luck on the draw!  (I still want to say Stash Manicure - it's just like saying "People's Drug" instead of "CVS Drugs" - I'm a creature of habit).

The quilt pictured above is one I made with the technique I'm showing on Sew We Quilt today, you won't believe your eyes!  You might remember that I was trying to make border decisions in July, on this post.  As you can see on my Sew We Quilt post, I flew with the geese.

If (I say "IF") you're already one of my followers, it would be nice to have my blog listed on your active blogroll - share the wealth so to speak  :o)

Sew forth and sew on...

Border decisions revisited

I made the border decision for my little baskets - flying geese!

Is that a large pile or what?!  Thanks everyone, for your input. 

The intriguing thing about geese is that they can be scrappy or color-controlled... in this case I managed to do both.  I won't make an inner border to separate them from the main quilt, I don't think the cornerstones will make them stumble.  I have to make a few more and pair them up, then I can call it a UFO ready for quilting.  Also, these are not "ordinary" geese - more about that, with a tutorial, later!

I did make another wonky house, this time I actually like how it turned out...

There are cave men living inside and they seem happy with their home!  My next house will definitely have a chimney on the roof... you know how it is when a bunch of cave men get together! 

Well, today is car wash day, the birds won't leave me alone - they either like me a lot or hate me, I can't figure out which one it is.  The results seem to be the same so it probably doesn't matter anyway.  Nadine at  The Fabric Peddler is having an open house today - good food, door prizes, a mini-quilt show - I'm looking forward to that, it will be a lot of fun!  

And after that, because I'll be so close, I'll probably make a stop at Costco and you-know-where...

... you gotta like that store!

Sew forth and sew on til later