Donation Block

Actually got a block constructed this weekend - I know, I am as shocked as you are. It seems like forever since I sat down and sewed, let along finished something.

This is what I would consider a mega-block that is actually made up of 4 smaller individual blocks. These were paper-pieced. I need to do one other block for this project. Both blocks will be going to a quilt to be raffled off. Our small quilting group is all putting in a couple of blocks to make the quilt. The blocks will all be color coordinated using a variety of the teals, beiges, and browns.

From Mess to Disaster and Back Again

I usually like to include a picture with my blog posts, but as you can see from this week's title it wouldn't be a pretty picture. Officially I am "organizing" things, but the process of organizing involves first taking everything out and apart and only putting back what really should be there. I have been organizing since the week of Christmas and have completed the pantry, the built-in in the dining room and the upstairs storage closet. I Freecycled a few things but still need to do a few more.

The real disaster is the office/sewing room. I have been using it as the temporary storage place for everything that got displaced from all the other organizing projects. On top of that Damon bought me some new storage cubes/shelves for the sewing room and I finally got around to putting them together today. But of course I needed to figure out where to put them. So the room is in shambles, file cabinets have been moved. All the stuff stuffed in the corners need new places to be. For about half the day the upstairs hallway was impassable with chairs and boxes to make room for all the re-arranging in the room.

Things are still a mess. But as of right now the mess is back to being contained in the sewing room.

Getting Back in the Groove

The 'girls' were over on Saturday for our monthly quilting get together. And even though I was pretty busy playing hostess I did manage to start experimenting with English Paper Piecing. I used pre-made card-stock templates and fabric from my scrap pile. The fabric is pressed around the template, then baste stitched, then hand sewn together. This first attempt was successful! While I have seen quilts made entirely from these blocks, my intention is to make a few of these flower shapes and hand-applique them onto a quilt or wall hanging.

For a variety of reasons the sewing room has accumulated all the shifting 'stuff' around the house that I am working on sorting and organizing. And at this point all the actual sewing areas are not accessible. Since I set up a table in the living room for the Saturday of sewing with the girls I figured I would see if my old back-up machine was still in working order and try to get one of the New York Beauty blocks done. (I am waiting to see how long it takes Damon to say something about the quiting stuff taking over the house). The block was about 1/3 done and was all laid out on a cutting board so it was taking up a bit of room itself. Now that the block is done I was able to pack it away with its siblings. I did a quick count - I am up to 35 NYB blocks.

Post-Christmas Cold

By 'cold' I mean it in both senses of the word. Our high temperature yesterday as 3 degrees Fahrenheit.

My lofty goals for the winter break of cleaning and organizing all the closets (one per day) and quilting a full-size quilt was waylaid by a head cold. I am back on track today. I did manage to spray-baste the quilt the other day and started quilting today. I am using 3 sizes of star shaped cookie cutters and tracing them onto the quilt as part of the free-motion pattern and joining them with swirls and loops.

Damon's mom Pat creates an original Christmas ornament every year for everyone in the family. This is this year's ornament - a hand-sewn felted wool dove.

Holiday Decorating with Quilts

I don't usually keep many of the quilts I make but I do tend to keep those I can decorate with during the holidays. Here is the hand-applique Hawaiian quilt hanging in the dining room.


There is also the compass star piece on the dining room table.

The first thing I made that was a holiday decoration was the wool holly wreath. It was hand-sewn with blanket and running stitches using pearl cotton. The red 'berries' are buttons.

NYC during the Holidays

Survived a trip to NYC during the holiday season. Here is a picture of the tree in Rockefeller Center. It is a bit blurry because I needed to use the night setting on the camera. The crowds were incredible!

Across from the plaza is Sak's 5th Ave. There light display is also impressive. You can see all the snowflake lights on the side of their building. But what you cannot see is that every now and again they play Christmas music and the lights blink along in time with the music.

Just to assure you that this was not just a holiday trip into the city I am including a picture of myself with the poster that Holly and I presented at the ACRL/NY conference on Friday.

600 Half-Square Triangles

Its Done!!!!

This quilt started as a bunch of fat-quarters I bought the 2nd year I started quilting (2004?). I bought a variety of prints in 4 colors - black, pink, beige, and green. The fabrics sat in a box for a few years but about a year and a half ago I made the half-square triangles using the Thangles method and ended up with a box of 600 of them. I had the top pieced together by May 2009, but I just machine quilted it in Nov. 2009 and put the binding on.

The front of the quilt actually has only 576 (24 x 24) of the HSTs but I plan on using the last 24 on the back as part of the hanging sleeve and the label.