Crafty Girls Night

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I had been thinking last week about how much fun I have when my friends that quilt or knit meet up and do our things together. Maybe it was part inspiration from the Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation book that Ben gave me for Christmas, and maybe it’s a little of just wanting to see my friends more often, but starting tonight we have a crafty girls group. We decided that it wasn’t going to be just a quilt or knit-specific group, since most of us do more than one of them. I’m excited though for everyone to get here–it should be a lot of fun.
I am finding it frustrating though, that it never seems that I’m able to get a project done lately. I guess it’s that I’ve started things that all take more than just a couple of days to finish (and in some cases, no less than months). But I have been busy. I started knitting a poncho (not really because I wanted a poncho, but more because I’m trying to learn how to actually use patterns to knit… it’s not going extremely well right now). I doubt I’ll use it for much more than around the house wear when I finish it.

Puke Color Poncho

I’ve also been trying to get through as much the wedding quilt for our friends Laura and Steve. The blocks are getting bigger, and when you lay them out, you can start to see what the pattern is going to look like:
It's Starting To Look Like A Quilt!

It’s making me itchy to finish the rest of the blocks so that I can sew the whole thing together. But hand piecing 30 blocks with 81 squares in each takes up a lot of time. It’ll be worth it in the end though. Here’s still what’s left to be sewn together:
I've Still Got That Much To Sew???

And with all of that going on, I finally got some pictures from the Wedding Spectacularrr quilt printed up, and I’m working on scrapbooking them in my quilt book. I’m not a huge fan of scrapbooking, and it kinda drives me crazy since it takes so long to make one page nice, but I figure that I worked so hard on the quilt, I might as well take the time to make a history of it.
Wedding Spectacularrr.... On Paper

Catch Up Time

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Happy New Year! I figured it’s about time to update, or people are going to think that I’ve either vanished or stopped quilting. It’s neither actually.
**New development #1! I finally gave my Granny her quilt! We finally made it up to see her late last week. I couldn’t believe how nervous I was about giving it away though. I think I’m intimidated by the fact that she’s been quilting for longer than I, and my work isn’t up to her quality. That’s just me being a nutcase though. She loved it, and said she can’t wait to take it to her quilting group this spring. I was just happy to finally give it to her. It felt like I waited so long for it.

Here, have a quilt!

**New development #2! I’m a tard. I didn’t take any pictures of the scarves I knit for my sister, my sister-in-law, and the student that I work with. I was in such a rush at the end to get them finished and wrapped, that I completly forgot to take pictures. That’s half the reason why I haven’t had anything to write about for the past several weeks. That was all I was doing, and then I didn’t have anything to show for it. I felt stupid on that one.
**New development #3! As for my crappy Christmas cards, I only sent out 10 of them. The rest of them looked like worse crap than the less crappy ones did. I’m not making cards next year.
**New development #4! I’m finally making headway with Laura and Steve’s wedding quilt. The end result will be this:
Jinny Beyer's Cross Walk Quilt

It’s a Jinny Beyer pattern, called “Cross Walk.” I’m pretty much sticking to the colors that are used in that photo, but in mine, there’s more contrast between the green, blue, teal and purple. Now that I’m done with Christmas presents, I’ve been working on it every chance I get. As soon as I get a few more blocks together, I’ll post a new picture.
I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday! Here’s to many new and completed projects in 2005!

The Sicky Gets Stressed

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I’m currently on Day 2 of Sicky Week, and I’ve finally mustered up the energy to come sit down and do something semi-productive at the computer. (I stayed home from work yesterday and today with a pretty nasty earache.) Being sick is so frustrating. You’ve got time on your hands, since you can’t go to work, but you feel so lousy that working on projects is like the worst thing you could possibly make yourself do. I’m feeling so bogged down on Christmas projects right now too (and whose fault is that…. SARAH???) and I’ve got to get moving on things. None of it’s been quilting related either.
I think the worst thing that I’ve gotten myself into latley is that I decided that I’d make my own Christmas cards. Let’s talk about how stupid of an idea this has been. There are several large problems going along with this task:
1. I should have started this project last March. I doubt I’ll ever have enough time to finish all that I need to do.
2. It’s not fun at all. Maybe if I were making 10 of them it would be fun, but I have a lot more than 10 people on our Christmas cards list.
3. They look like crap, and I have no idea how to make them look better.
4. I’ve already bought the materials, and if I give up now and go buy store bought cards I’ll feel defeated and lousy that I gave up after buying the supplies.
It’s not just the cards either. I have four more gifts to finish making, including two that go to people at the school, so I’ll have to have them finished by two weeks from tomorrow. That’s really soon! Then there’s the decorations that I’d like to make for my own house, including a pretty good idea for a snowflake garland type thing that I’d really like to get done soon, so that I’m able to use it before the first of the year. It’s stupid that I’m stressed out about projects that I’m making myself do–it’s not like I should have to have any of these things done.
Oh yeah, and there’s a big quilt whose due date is approching closer and closer, and it’s not getting any closer to being finished.
I need to chill out.

Traveling Today? How About A Crapload Of Snow?

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I’m glad we’re not driving up north tomorrow. It’s nasty out here. I’m trying to debate if I should even make a 20 minute drive to my Weight Watchers meeting tonight (yes, that’s right, I’m a fatty-fatty-boom-ba-lattie) or stay on the couch and curl up under a blanket and watch tv and sew. Two very tempting options, I know!
The other night I finally updated my quilting links with some new blogs that I’ve been reading lately. Brit, (who often posts comments here–yay! A regular reader! You’re awsome!) has a really good quilt blog called Terrapin Textiles and posts far more frequently than I have recently. Plus she’s far better at organizing her quilting supplies than I am. Either way, it’s always nice to find a good quilt blog, since there really are so few of them.
I so heard thunder! It’s “thundersnowing” right now. I’m going to kick myself if I don’t go to my meeting.
If you’re traveling, stay safe. Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Gobble Gobble! 🙂

Bummin…

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My mom called this afternoon after work to tell me that my Granny’s in the hospital, and isn’t going to be feeling up to having the fam up for Thanksgiving. Both sides of the situation are disappointing: having her be in the hospital, and not being able to give her the quilt. Hopefully she’ll be feeling up to having company again in the near future, and I’ll be able to deliver the quilt then. Bummer.
But let’s not be sad, people! I’ve got more project news to report!
I’m halfway done with a Christmas gift that I’m making for the teacher that I work with. I had all the kids in the class sign a canvas bag (one was sick, and I still have to have her sign it, but she’s a bit of a loudmouth tattle-tale, and I’m waiting until the last possible moment for her to sign it so that she doesn’t give the surprise away) and I’m embroidering over their signatures. (There’s nothing cuter than a bunch of first-grade signatures written in bright colored floss.) The first side is finished, and I hope the backside goes as fast as the front did.

Look Mom! My Name Took Up Almost The Whole Freakin Bag!

Signed, Sealed, and Waiting To Be Delivered

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With only days to spare, I have finally finished the quilt. Today it took a trip through the washer and dryer to get its new quilt smell, and remove the majority of dog hair trapped in the stiches. It came out looking perfect–it’s got that crisp look, but at the same time, looks like it could have been made 50 years ago because of the wrinkles. I love the wrinkles. That’s the best part of taking it out of the dryer for the first time. Ahhh!

Yay! It's Done!

I really am pleased with how the quilting turned out on this bad boy. For all of the frustration I had with picking out the design, it was so worth waiting for to start. The pictures don’t show how nice it looks–I wish I could show it to everyone in person.
Showin Off The Backside

But overall, I really am excited to give this one away. I think part of the reason why I don’t have as much stress and tension about giving this one as a gift, is that it’s actually going to another quilter. My Granny does beautiful work, also all by hand, and I know she’ll appreciate all the work that went into it. Although this quilt (which, I should add is called “Celebration”) is smaller than the Wedding Spectacularrr quilt, it doesn’t mean that I worked on it any less than I did the big one. I just know that it’s going to someone who really will see the value in all my work. That makes a big difference to me.
Yay! Another quilt finished!
Looks Done To Me

It’s DONE!

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Okay, so it’s “virtually” finished (when I worked in the news business I was never allowed to write with that word, since it’s a crappy word and in this case means that the quilt is only slightly finished, but not really). I still have to take it to my mom to help me dot the “i” in the embrodery that I’m using to sign my name on the back. I’m French Knot uneducated. So after it goes into the wash after work tomorrow, I’ll have Ben help me take pictures to show it off.
I’ve been contemplating my next project though (like I have time to start a new project). I took some time the other night to draw it out here:

New Quilt.... Again.

I made one block to see how it would turn out, and I think I really like it. If it turns out the way I hope it will, I think it’ll be a really good project.
Purple Burple Block

But the best thing (or it could be worst in this case, since it’ll probably take me around three years to make) is that I already found the perfect backing fabric for it. We have a great Hallmark/giftshop/fabric store in town called Kean’s, and the other day I spotted this fabric. I don’t think the picture does it much justice. It’s much cooler looking in person. Either way, I think that means that I have to make the quilt soon, so that I can at least figure out how much of the backing fabric I’ll need to make it. I have to justify these things to myself.
Pictures will soon follow of the finished product!

Crappy Weather = Quality Quilting Time

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October and Halloween has come and gone. I carved my pumpkins,

Pumpkin Carving Central

dressed up like the tooth fairy for a class full of first graders,
Tooth Fairy Wand

(that’s my tooth fairy wand. Thanks for the great costume idea Becka!) and now it’s November. November sucks. No really, it does. I hate the snow that will be coming soon, I hate the cold, and I hate the way it gets dark at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon now. But the one good thing about late fall is that it’s finally the right season to quilt. I’m so close to finishing up Granny’s quilt, that I’m hardly able to control myself. I need to finish it! I think that if I work everyday, I’ll be able to have it done by the end of the week.
Almost Finished

And to prove just how far my nose has been buried in my quilting lately, I didn’t even happen to notice that Craftster has added a new section for people to post just about quilts. I didn’t have a lot of time to look at all the posts, but there were some good quilts posted. I may have to show off this quilt there when I’m finished with it. (I’m such a show off! Is that a bad thing??)

Finally!

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It’s taken weeks to get there, but I finally figured out how to finish quilting the Granny Quilt. I started a pinwheel sort of design in the four corner spot that I was having so much trouble with. The template is just the same as the lemon shaped pieces in the quilt, cut in half and rotated on the same side of each square, like this:

Pinwheel Pattern

So the cool thing with this is when several of the blocks are done this way, it gives it a distorted Apple Core pattern feeling to it, like this:
Looks Neat, Doesn't It?

(Sorry about the crappy picture)
I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it at first, but I think it’s going to look a lot better once the whole thing is done. Either way, it looks better to me than having nothing in that space. Without it, it just looked like I had forgotten to finish that section. Now I just have to worry about actually getting it done!
Oh, and here’s my new kitchen door:
New Door

It’s nice now, but I freaked out pretty bad when this was the sight in my kitchen:
Holy Crap, There's A Six Foot Hole In My Kitchen!

Needless to say, I was pretty happy when I had a wall again.