So I’m back to work on Granny’s quilt, but I’m still not sure what the final quilting pattern is going to be. I’m trying not to think about it while I just try to finish the basic pattern that I’ve already started. I’m getting the pre-gift jitters again though, with concerns about if I’m going to be able to finish it on time or not. I have one other gift that I’m working on too, that I’m not able to show or speak about, since the person that it’s going to visits here. That one isn’t nearly as exciting as Granny’s quilt though, so you all aren’t really missing out on too much.
I have been knitting scarves like a crazy woman though. You’d think by the time I made three scarves that I’d probably want another knitting project to start on. I bought a book the other night with a hat pattern in it, but I’m just so content to knit scarves right now in a boring old garter stich, that I’m not sure that I could try making one any time soon. I’m in a knit rut, but I seem to be pretty happy where I’m at right now.
I did happen to stumble across a fun quilting link, found at the blog Wee Wonderfuls. She mentioned an article about a company called Fun Quilts that’s in the current issue of Country Living magazine. They’ve got some really great modern quilt patterns, but unlike quilters like Denyse Schmidt, the quilts are all machine pieced and quilted. I just guess that’s the traditional quilter in me, that thinks a quilt is of higher quality when made completly by hand. Fun Quilts prices are a bit more reasonable than Denyse Schmidts though, and they do have some really great looking designs. It’s fun to check out either way.
We have another hole in the wall of our house. This time it’s to put in a patio door. It’s a going to be a bigggg hole. I’ll post pictures later!
The computer is finally back to normal again, and I have pictures to prove that I have actually been working! The current wedding quilt is coming along so nicely right now. I got a ton of piecing done this weekend when Ben and I were stuck in the house being sickies (which I still am). I keep looking at my bag of squares to sew and thinking just how much I have to go, even with all of the fabric not cut yet. It took me over a year to do the Wedding Spectacularrrr quilt, and this one’s got a lot more piecing and quilting than that one did. As of this Friday, the 8th, I have exactly one year.
There’s a lot more to do, isn’t there?
But during the time when I’m not working on that, I’ve been keeping myself busy with the knitting. I finally finished the blue scarf that I ripped out and started again, and I’ve also started a fuzzy orange one. I love the color orange, and have no idea when I’ll ever use an orange scarf, but it’s fun anyway.
and….
If nothing else, I’ll be able to wear that one for Halloween.
And finally, after several weeks of stress, I finally recieved my new quilt rack. Finally! I’m really happy with it too, but I found out, that there really wasn’t a good place to put it in my house. Its location is still somewhat to be determined, but for now its sitting at the end of the hallway, just inside our office.
The green quilt on the front is the first I ever made, for my now husband as a high school graduation present. It took me a year and a half into his time at college to actually finish it. The one behind it is a quilt titled “Bloom,” made by my Granny. She’s the recipient of the blue, yellow and green quilt I’m working on. Which, by the way, is still causing me major stress and headaches, since I still haven’t decided how to finish quilting it. I figured some time away from it would help me.
Whew! That was a long post!
I’ve been working on projects a lot the last couple of days (along with having a cold to slow me down pretty badly) that’s been keeping me from posting anything new. So this afternoon, after work, I decided that I’d update everything that’s been new in the last week, and I went around and shot some pictures to show what’s been up. But what I didn’t know, is that Ben changed around our computer last week, and the program I use to load pictures to our website is no longer installed. So while I wait for that, let me just say, that Wedding Quilt #2 is coming along nicely. Also, the blue scarf I started awile ago is finally finished, and a new fuzzy orange scarf is newly started. I also got my new quilt rack (which is lovely, despite the rage I experienced while ordering it) and it’s looking very cool. I’d show you all of these things, but I guess I’m going to have to wait until I’m able to put them on our website. Hopefully that’s no later than tomorrow!
I hate being stressed out over a hobby. I don’t even think it’s that I’m so worked up over my quilting, it’s that stupid quilt rack that I ordered from Crate & Barrel several weeks ago. Turns out that I have to be home for a four hour block for them to drop it off. Since I don’t get home until 4pm, there’s no way that’s possible. I’ve yelled at the shipping company, and Crate & Barrel, and they sugessted that I pay for after hours shipping, or drive the hour and a half drive to Grand Rapids to pick it up at the shipping hub. Which to that I say absolutly not! So hopefully I’ll be able to have them drop it off at my parents house, which is still in my mind, wrong, since I paid to have it delivered to my house. So just a word to anyone out there that’s considereding having Crate & Barrel furniture shipped to their house–they’re not nice to deal with, and I personally won’t deal with them again.
Now on to my quilting dillema. I’ve started the quilting on Granny’s Quilt, and although I like it so far, I don’t know how to complete it. Each block has two sqaures on opposite points, where I’ve quilted a square with an “X” through. On its opposite corners, the four points of each quilt square meet together. It looks a little bland to me there, and I’m not quite sure how to quilt it. I thought about outlining a simple circle, but I’m not sure if that will look right. Either way, here’s a picture of the quiltwork so far. If anyone has any ideas for ways to quilt the blank spaces (Look to the previous post if you need a reminder of what the front looks like) please leave me some comments. I’m taking any and all ideas–even silly ones. Those sometimes turn out to work really well.
*note: I’m sorry if my description made no sense. Hopefully the picture is self explanitory.
**note2: It is a lot larger of a blank space than it looks like in this picture. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!
No, I’m not ignoring the world of blogs, I’m actually working on projects! We’ve just about finished the room renovation–I’ve got curtains to make and Ben is finishing some trim up. It’s so nice to have a sewing room that I actually enjoy being in from time to time.
See? It’s pretty nice now, compared to earlier!
And yes, I do collect and have a slight obsession with yellow rubber ducks. That’s a small number of ducks on display compared to what my college apartment looked like.
And more good project news! I’ve finished piecing together Granny’s Quilt, and I’ve started quilting it. It’s very approprate, since a lot of the prints are the 1930’s repoduction fabric (I love that stuff). I even used one of the repo prints for the back fabric. It took me a while to figure out how I would quilt the bad boy, but I think I’ve come up with an interesting, and not too over the top way to do it. Now if I can just finish it up by the time Christmas rolls around.
The number of projects for Christmas is growing, but I’m not allowed to share them all here. I know who reads this blog! You people don’t fool me!
I really, really wanted to get my latest quilt project pieced by now. I had been moving along on it really well, when we had to start a new project. The difference? This one’s house related.
To describe the condition of my house, one must think back to the days when pressed wood panneling looked nice in homes. Oh wait, that was never. This winter we pulled down the gray panneling in our office (what an awful job, since it was glued to the walls and pulled the drywall down with it) and now we’re doing our guestroom/sewing room. Lucky for us, the panneling wasn’t glued on in this room, but we still have to patch plaster all the holes in the walls and ceiling from nails and screws, before we’re able to paint and move back in. It also means that the only other woody room in my house is the kitchen. Oh, how I long for the day that we’re able to afford new cabinets that aren’t panneled.
Here’s a recent scene from the work in my soon to be nice looking sewing room:
But on the other hand, I still have more done with this quilt than I had planned to by this time. The first four rows have been pieced together completely, and it has only taken me about an hour to sew each row on. I’m hoping the room will be finished in a few more days, so I’ll be able to work on this again for more than five minutes at a time. I’d really like to have this finished by Christmas though, since I’d like to give it to Granny for a Christmas/January birthday gift for her. I never seem to be able to hit my deadlines lately though. I need to get better at it by the time my next wedding quilt is due next year.
I really had hoped to have this done by now:
I’m still waiting for my quilt rack. I’ll be sure to post a picture of it when it gets here.
So after several days of obsessively knitting, I have finished my first scarf. I used the pink yarn that felt like a fluffy bunny to me, to make a long thin scarf that I can wrap around my neck a few times but still be long enough. (I had been working on the blue scarf but I’m starting over on that. There were just too many mistakes in that one.) But I’m happy with this one, especially since it’s my first finished knit project.
I made an awsome purchase at Crate & Barrel this week too. The quilt rack that I’ve been keeping my eye on since about May has finally gone on sale. I ordered it last night, so hopefully we’ll get it in the next week. I’m very excited. It’s just what I wanted, and couldn’t find one like it anywhere else.
And finally tonight, I just wanted to mention, despite getting an offer to join in on all the benifits the AARP has to offer me this week (that’s right folks, I’m 23) doesn’t mean that I’m too old to go to concerts. My sister Claudia and I had an awsome time seeing Jimmy Eat World at Michigan State University tonight. See? I do have other non-old lady type hobbies, like rocking out on certain occasions.
It’s offical–I can’t keep a secret. My friend Laura saw the block for her wedding quilt last week, since I can’t keep my mouth shut or things hidden in my house. On the plus side of this, it does mean that I can post pictures of its progress though.
Laura was pretty excited about it though. She thought the colors were pretty much just what she had wanted. I’m more excited about these colors to start with than I was with Wedding Spectacularrrr. It took awhile before that one really grew on me.
Either way, this is just one of the 30 blocks in the quilt. The squares in the block are about 2 inches each, so it’ll probably take me a while to put together. I’ve been taking a bit of time off from it though, since my two scarves have been getting a lot of my attention, along with the quilt I’m working on for my Granny. I’ll post a picture of that when I get the whole top pieced. That should hopefully be by the end of the week.
And on a quick sidenote: The new job’s great.
I started a new scarf out of the pink fuzzy yarn I bought, but I’m still not done with the blue one yet. Oh wait… I’m not done with those, plus the new Wedding quilt, the Apple Core quilt, there’s that antique quilt I’m working on, I’ve got one that I started when I made Wedding Spectacularrrr that’s the same pattern, only in bold colors, I still haven’t finished the one that I’m making for my Granny, and yeah… there’s a Trip Around The World quilt that I’m doing by machine that I started in 2000. Just what I need to be doing–starting new projects, that probably won’t get finished.
Hopefully I’ll have some extra time after the stress of the last three days at Fox are through. Here’s me having some fun at the teleprompter during a commercial break tonight. Let me tell you how glad I’ll be to never, ever, ever run a teleprompter again after Sunday night.
I’ve got to stop starting new projects.
I know it’s been mentioned time and time again, but I love the Quilt Index. It’s a slow night here at work, so I’ve been scanning through it. It’s such a great place to go to get inspired for color or pattern ideas.
I’ve been thinking about pieces of the antique Grandmother’s Fan quilt that my Granny gave me. Right now, I’m using yellow quarter circles, but I found this verson of a similar quilt, and I’m thinking about possibly using the red instead. It’s so much more vibrant than the yellow.
I’ve also been thinking recently about how important it is for me to be a good, consistant quilter. I had been working on the quilt for Laura and Steve at work the other weekend, and someone mentioned to me that it’s unbelieveable that I’d want to do all that small work by hand. I think it’s hard for people outside of this art to understand that quilting is, in fact, an art. No one would ever go up to a painter and ask why they put small details into to their paintings. I think it’s why I was so worried that my Wedding Spectacularrrr quilt would be appreciated, after countless hours of hand piecing and quilting were put into it. But it makes me want to work harder as a quilter; to become exceptional in my work.
Oh, and by the way, I got a job. It’s temporary for the time being, but it’s a start. My last day at Fox is this Sunday, and Monday morning, I’m an aid for a special education boy in a first grade classroom–at least for a little while. It’s quite a career change, but I’m feeling good about it. Yay, for somewhat steady work!