WIP Wednesday

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Suzanne

MY Work In Progress post is pretty pathetic today. No pictures, the camera is at the shop and I completely forgot to grab it. I could go get Mark’s camera, but that’s waaaaaay over on the other side of the house.

NOt that anything I’ve been working in is photo-worthy at the moment. Progress has been made on a number of fronts, but nothing that really looks any different.

It’s a busy weekend at the shop and in Traer, if you have some time (and are local…) you might want to come see what’s going on — in addition to the Fiber Arts Festival, there is a craft show in town, and a craft show on Saturday in one of our neighboring towns.
This weekend kicks of the start of Holiday Happenings — a series of weekend events designed to entice people to shop locally this holiday season. I hope that wherever you live, you’ll consider shopping in your local main street shops, rather than just heading to the Big Box stores. You might find some hidden gems.

I’d like to write more, but at the moment, I just don’t have any more energy.

Suzanne

WIP Wednesday

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Suzanne

Many moons ago, Wednesdays were always the day that we posted about our WIPs on our blogs. I thought I’d revive the tradition and post about what’s been under the sewing machine or on the knitting needles this week.

Quilt Blocks that are in progress: the double nine patch is a sample for a class on Saturday.

Knitting detail: you can sort of see the definition of the ribbing starting to show just above the needle. The yarn is so yummy, it is one of the heathers and has some flecks of other colors in it:

Customer quilting:

So what Works In Progress have you been working on this week?

Suzanne

Bribery works

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Suzanne

As a parent, I know I will occasionally need to bribe my kids (on occasion) in order to get them to do something. It is a trick I try not to overuse, because I know it will backfire on me. But sometimes, “eat your supper or you won’t get dessert” is the way to go.

Lately, I’ve resorted to bribing myself to get some work done on the computer.

Admittedly, it’s an odd sort of bribery, as my reward is actually “work” — just of a different sort: dsc056571 Bribery works

It all started a couple of days ago when I saw an antique Scrappy Double Irish Chain on one of the blogs I read. I can’t remember which one right now, or I’d link.

I thought “Ooooo…pretty….”

And then I wandered into my sewing room and discovered that I had a big hunk of a white background fabric I could use.

And then pulled out the bin of 1.5 inch scrap strips and started digging. I was going to go completely scrappy, but then I thought it would be fun to go with scrappy BLUES. Well, I didn’t have enough precut strips, so I had to dig through my (neatly) folded stash to find more blues.

And then I started cutting. Ironically, I managed to miscut the white fabric, cutting a bazillion more 3.5 inch strips than I needed, but I didn’t figure this out until after I had pulled out some other white fabric with which to make up what I needed in the 1.5 inch strips.

And then I’ve been sewing. And sewing. And sewing. It’s my reward, see, for getting stuff done on the computer.

Here are the blocks I have finished. It’s a terrible picture, but the lighting in there is not conducive to good picture-taking.

dsc05662 Bribery works
Did I mention the strips are 1.5 inch cut? Which means the blocks finish at 5 inches. Am I weird, or what?

I have enough cut to make 169 blocks, which will only wind up being 65 inches square. I’m having delusions about this possibly ending up as the background for applique. Or not. We’ll see.

It’s nice mindless sewing, which is what this quilter needs.

Just don’t tell my kids that I probably spend more time on my “reward” than I’m supposed to. “Just one more strip set….and then I’ll go back to work…”

Suzanne

A long Winter’s Nap

Posted on December 9, 2007 by Suzanne

Apparently that’s what I needed today.

Technically it isn’t winter (yet, though the weather sure seems to think so…) and it was long, but it was just what I needed this afternoon. Usually I like to take my naps with the dog, but she was otherwise occupied — helping Mark shovel snow and chip at ice.

The poor school playground — now it’s an ice rink covered with several inches of snow. I wonder when the kids will get to go back outside for recess?

I managed a ton of quality sewing time yesterday — both teacher quilt tops are done and ready to be quilted. I’m really pleased with how they’ve turned out — very cheerful

The cherry fabric is a Robert Kaufman print. The green stripe looks like it was meant to go with it, but it was some random print I found at Joann’s. I wasn’t sure how much red (or white) I was going to need when I was shopping, primarily because I had no idea what I was going to make at the time. needless to say, I completely overbought. Not complaining though — my reds and whites are pretty well depleted.

I also spent hours and hours and hours sewing on my cousin’s wedding quilt. Good lord what was I thinking when I picked this block pattern? I hate sewing triangles, and this darn Corn and Beans block has FORTY-FOUR triangles. FORTY-FOUR. This is the pile of 24 center sections, there are still 4 flying geese units to add to each, plus corner triangles after that. Only 1 lonely block is actually finished. Next up: determining whether or not I’m going to follow my original sashing plan, which would entail a bazillions more hours of sewing.

Last thing for this overly long post: yesterday’s Christmas Journal page. I just realized that I didn’t put the date tag on it, yet. Oops. I’m thinking about doing something differently anyway, so…I meant to leave it off, right?

As I said last night, I had this journaling done, but I was having trouble getting the page finished. I thought I was going to just zip it quick this morning, but then…I started messing, and I ended up changing some stuff. It’s done, now, though.

I decided to use pictures of some of my favorite Christmas things, the stuff that only gets seen once a year.

Stay warm and safe!

Suzanne

Credits:
Erica Hite — A Joyful Season
Keri Schueller — Charm of Christmas
Designs by Laura — Custom fill chipboard alpha — simple
Font — Joyful Juliana
Atomic Cupcake — Cherry action and text template

WIP Wednesday, finally

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Suzanne

It’s a quilt! Waiting for binding!

(And after this picture, it got it’s binding….now to hand-finish)

And to make pillowcases!

And to help the recipient’s Mom cover a lampshade with the star fabric!

I’ll post close-ups of the quilting tomorrow — it was too late and dark to get good photos. You can kind of see what I ended up doing for borders.

I’ve been thinking it’s past due time for a gratuitous puppy picture, so I had a photo-shoot with my assistant this morning. She spent most of the time with one of those “Will you get that out of my face?” looks.

TTFN-

Suzanne

Suzanne Earley

Suzanne's Adventures in Quilting, Photography, Computers, and Life

Tag Archives: WIP

WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday

Bribery works

A long Winter’s Nap

WIP Wednesday, finally