Binding Marathon and actual quilting photos!

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Suzanne

I just took a picture of the pile of quilts that I’ve attached bindings to in the last 2 days, but I just realized that on this computer I have no way to download the pictures and the other computer is off, so…how about pictures of a quilt that I found on this computer, that I apparently never shared?

(Oh, first, the binding marathon: the pile of quilts that were waiting to be bound had become EPIC. Especially after I added the quilts from the shop that had gotten pieced/quilted/hung on the wall unbound…). Between last night and today, I sewed the binding on to FIVE quilts. That includes making binding for 4 of them. That doesn’t include the TWO quilts that got bindings on Monday.)

It turns out I shared this quilt on MQResource, but many of you aren’t forum members, and maybe those of you that are will have conveniently forgotten this quilt.

It’s called Anniversary Stars, and is from the book 40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts by Evelyn Sloppy. The customer wanted something special for this one, and I had fun doing it.

I did not have an optimal picture taking location, and am showing this horrible full(ish) shot just for completeness:

Those of you that have taken my feather class will note that the outer border feathers flow one direction, while the inner border feathers flow the other direction. Usually I advocate feathers all flowing one direction, because if they always flow one way (and I always do them the same direction…) then it’s impossible for me to mess up and have some feathers going one direction and other feathers (in the side borders) going a different direction.

Here, though, I thought it would be interesting to have the movement of feathers in both directions, and so I was just REALLY REALLY careful to make sure I didn’t mess up.

On this particular quilt, everything was freehand. No IQ involved (that’s my computerized system), and minimal marking. In fact, while I would normally mark the spine for the feathers, I didn’t even do that for the border or for the body of the quilt, I just winged it.

This shot is terribly lit, but maybe you can see the feather detail a bit better??

This quilt was finished way back in February. Most of the quilting I’ve done since then has been allovers and has been minimal, what with all of the moving and clearance selling and everything. I like having the IQ stay busy while I’m doing other stuff, but I’m starting to get a little itchy to do some hands-on quilting. Maybe I’ll have something to show by the end of the weekend. Or not, I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep…

TTFN-

Suzanne

Quilting and other endeavors

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Suzanne

Saturday was our library brunch, it’s a fun fundraising event for the Friends of the Library. Mom and I have decorated tables at almost all of them, except maybe for the first year or 2, when we were new to town. It’s not a competition, but I’m pretty sure we “win” best table every year. Of course, all of the other tables are very pretty or cute or clever, but ours is the only one with a quilt on it. Most years I actually make a special quilt, but we just couldn’t manage that this year. Luckily, I had the perfect quilt already made — and oddly, we’d never done a Christmas theme before. (Two years ago we did a snack table)

All of the ornaments are either reindeer or angels, to go with the Angel Baby and Reindeer in the fabric of the quilt. The bows on the glasses were my idea. Mom wasn’t so sure, and had told me not to put them on, she was worried it would be too much, but she relented at the last minute, and frankly, we thought they ended up being the exactly perfect icing on the cake.

In other news, I’ve had the IQ working hard while I’ve been messing around with other stuff:

I debated about custom quilting this one, with borders and blocks and fancy-schmancy, but it’s a biggie (114 by 114), and I ended up deciding that an edge to edge design done by IQ would be just as beautiful and about 3 months faster. I used a silk batting in it, I’ll report back after I sleep under it and also after it gets washed.

OK, fine. Just as soon as I pulled it off the frame on Sunday, I took it upstairs and I took a nap underneath it. And slept for about 2 hours, so that was a pretty good test. But I’ll report back on a full night’s sleep.

This quilt is a Round Robin that I made (well, I made the center adn put on the outer borders), hmmm. 6? 7? years ago? It’s been awhile. I’ve never been really crazy about it, partly because even though I love that floral, it’s very peach, and the colors just don’t go with anything (not that things have to MATCH around here). It just didn’t quite turn out to be ME.

This one got done with another edge to edge design, and is going to be on its way to Alycia for a QOV. Yes, it’s not patriotic, yes it’s very girly, but: there are women warriors, too, and I think they deserve something pretty.

Now that we’ve got the pretty out of the way, prepare yourself for some 10 year old boy artwork.

Are you ready?

That one is Joe’s mug. Will’s Pac-man mug is a little less…in your face…

Aren’t you glad I warned you, though?

Hello there

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Suzanne

I just spent the last 20 minutes playing with the camera on my iMac. Yeah, even this photo is pretty pathetic, the lighting in here is goofy at the moment, but I’m going with it, because when I try to recreate with different lighting, I can’t seem to get it any better looking than this.

So yeah. This is what I look like right now after getting my hair cut and actually wearing makeup (and earrings and I actually stuck lipgloss on right before playing with my camera.)

I thought about using this one as my new avatar, I spend a lot of time giving people (and by people, I mean my husband and 10 year old boys) the evil eye over the top of my glasses.

The weird part about taking the photos was trying to actually look in the right direction at just the right time. I got rid of ALL of the doozies. There were lots.

My sister is probably looking at these photos gloating because her hair is still so much blonder than mine. I tell ya, my hair is a lot blonder in my mirror. And in my mind’s eye.

Next time, I’m going to get my hair colored, and I’m going to have her streak it with pink. Or red. Or maybe make it all black except for one section which we’ll die hot pink.

Or….not.

Read the Label

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Suzanne

This a Public Service Announcement, so that in the future, no one has to suffer the ridicule and humiliation I recently had to take from my husband. (Of course, the worst part is that he didn’t actually SAY anything ridiculing or humiliating, he just had to smile at me).

Anyway. The PSA.

In the future, when you are at Sam’s Club, and you are looking dishwasher detergent (because you are 100% OUT of dishwasher detergent),and you are contemplating that big jug of brand-name dishwasher detergent, but then you notice right next to it, the Member’s Mark dish soap, that’s cheaper, plus it’s phosphate-free…

Make sure you read the label to make sure it is actually dishWASHER soap. Not just dish soap.

Because you dishwasher will not like it when you load it up with regular dish soap.

On the bright side, you’ll have enough dish soap for your children to use for many years of happy hand washing.

Some day soon, I promise to get back to posting things about quilts and knitting and other crafty pursuits, but for now, I thought it was important to make sure that none of you make the same mistake I did.

You are welcome,

Suzanne

p.s. luckily for me, the dishwasher was fine, it just had to run a 2nd cycle to clear all of the suds out. and there were a lot of suds.

Scent memories

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Suzanne

Do you guys have a lot of scents that evoke particular memories? I read about it all the time, you know what I’m talking about, a character in a book is immediately transported back to a long ago place and time just from the whiff of a perfume or a flower or a loaf of bread or something.

I can’t say that my scent memory bank is very full but I had a moment yesterday that was unexpected. I bought a big pack of Chap Stick at Sam’s Club, the kind that has tubes of different “flavors.” When I opened it up, picked up the Original Scent Chap Stick, I swear, I had to turn around and make sure my Dad wasn’t in the room with me. It wasn’t some overwhelming transport back to childhood kind of thing, just a quick little thing, and of course I had to start wondering if Dad still even uses that “flavor” of Chap Stick.