It is always easy the first week...

I started the Diamonds are Forever pattern from the String Quilt Revival book last year. I would make blocks intermittently between working on other projects. But laying out the blocks I had done so far (first picture) was a big motivator to keep making progress on this project. I am loving how this is turning out. It makes use of scrap strings of fabric. Like I said in my last post I like having goals - so the goal for this is to get all the blocks made before the start of the semester on Jan. 26th. I had  46 blocks done, and the pattern calls for 120. So 74 more blocks to go. I broke that down to 24.6 blocks per week or 3.36 blocks per day. Happy to report that the first week went very well and as of today I only have 50 blocks to go (down to 2.9 blocks per day). I have been pacing this out doing 4 or 8 blocks a day, I am getting more done on weekends than on weekdays. 

I also wrapped the nieces birthday gifts this weekend and decided instead of buying birthday cards or putting gift tags on the presents I made fabric postcards. Each has their initials and an embellishment.

I also tried a new recipe yesterday. The Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup came out really well. Although I though it could use a bit more flavor so I added a few dashes of garlic powder.  

Happy New Year

The playing with scraps in Dec. resulted in this nifty wall hanging. The center applique design is from the book: Elegant Quilts, Country Charm by Leonie Bateman and Deidre Bond-Abel. I modified the design by adding a second flower and an extra leaf. The border is a bunch of crumb (small scrap) blocks.
After all the machine quilting this fall my machine quilting gloves had actually got rubbed smooth, so Damon got me a new pair of Machingers for Christmas and I used them to quilt this.
I also used the new camera I got for Christmas to take the picture and this was the opportunity to make sure the memory card would work with my computer - and it did so I am all set.
At the end of Dec. I took at two-day quilt shop road trip and hit five different quilt shops in eastern VT and in NH. I visited Barnyard Quilting, Country Treasures, Waterwheel House Quilt Shop, Keepsake Quilting, and Quilted Threads. I also made a brief stop at the Vermont Country store. It was a great trip - bought a bit too much (but that was expected). I have new books, patterns, and fabrics to keep me busy for a while. Which is good as I will be putting myself on a fabric no-buy for this year (2015). Also the guild quilt show is this coming fall so I really should focus on finishing things to put in the show. 
I haven't committed to any resolutions so far, but I like the idea of having some goals to aim for so I am still thinking about what I would like to accomplish this year.

Merry Christmas!

Another great Christmas. This is the warmest we have had since we moved to the Adirondacks. Today it is about 45 degrees and partly sunny and very windy. Damon, Ivan and I all took a nice long walk this afternoon.

Multiple Days of Turkey and Scraps

OK, the scraps got started a few days before the turkey but basically for the last week its been all about both. Pictured first is my 'crumb' bag - these are the smaller scraps from my quilting. Or at least that is what should be there - apparently I got lazy a few time as I did find a few bigger pieces mixed in. The bag itself is about a foot high and about a foot and a half long. So it looks like a lot of scraps.

But as you can see in the second photo it looks a bit more manageable once you pull them out and start ironing them and laying them flat and grouping them by general shape and size - in the photo this is only about the first third of all the scraps.

Since they were all laid out so nicely I took the opportunity to start making 'crumb' blocks again. I already have a quilt top made from them but it is a great way to use up scraps and I love they way they look. Just play some Jazz and do some improvisational piecing.

I also had been using 2 1/2 inch squares to baste into 1 inch English paper-pieced hexagons. As I found plenty of 2 1/2 inch scrap squares in the crumbs I also did some more basting and then started to sew some of them together.

I think the plan at this point is to do a few other scrap blocks. I found a foundation paper pieced star that would likely work well with scraps I want to try. Once I have a good variety of different scrap blocks I will make one good sized top with all of them mixed together. 

Not tired of the scraps yet, but after five days of eating turkey I am done with that for a while.

Lyon Mountain

Dad, Damon and I climbed Lyon Mountain this past weekend. It was pretty cool (in the 40s) when we started, but you warm up quick going up a mountain. We took the new trail. It took us about five hours and on the way back down there was hail and some light rain. As it was a holiday weekend there were lots of people, dogs and a parrot on the mountain. As you can see from this view from the top of Chazy Lake it was pretty cloudy and hazy.

A productive run of quilting and finishing

Since I set up the quilting room to accommodate machine quilting on my domestic sewing machine I have officially quilted and finished five quilts. Three were community service quilts - two were previously posted on the blog - the tree and star quilt and the multi-color disappearing 9-patch. I also volunteered to quilt a top that was donated to the guild's community service committee - that was a crib sized Cat in the Hat quilt that I also finished.
Also finished two personal UFOs. The first was the House quilt and finally this one which is from the Sparkle Plenty pattern that I bought down at the City Quilter a couple of years ago. The original pattern is for a square quilt, but I added an extra row of blocks to the top and bottom to make it rectangular.
I have to say that quilting and finishing (including putting on the binding) of 5 quilts in roughly 2 months is pretty extraordinary for me. Especially if you consider that late August and all of September is crazy busy at work for me. This puts my UFO list back into single digits - yeah! So I have broken down the machine quilting set up and as soon as the Christmas presents are shipped off next week I will be back to working on other earlier-stage UFOs and using up some scraps.
  

Fall has fallen

 The first picture is one of the maples in the front of the yard from this past weekend. And the second picture is the ground beneath that tree just a couple of days latter. The weather has been very warm and very dry so I am wondering if that is contributing to the leaves changing and dropping so rapidly. It is now officially leaf season - break out the rakes and the leaf blower!  Of course this is only the first tree (it always loses its leave first) we still have three more to go - and that's just the maples.