Snowballs...and other May flowers

Our weather has been pretty yucky, but thankfully no snow and no tornadoes, so I'm not complaining (too much) about the rain and wind. Despite cold rainy days, we have some lovely snowballs of the floral variety along the side of our house this year:

I've finished a couple more Flower Garden blocks that I started over the Mother's Day weekend.

And I've been working away on Capriccio, too, and have a bigger stack of blocks now, but I don't think it will be completed by the end of May.

In fact, I'm thinking it needs to be a much bigger quilt than originally planned. If my memory is correct, the pattern calls for 30 blocks (5 x 6), but I am aiming at double that or larger (8 x 9), so this may remain a UFO for awhile....anyway, back to stitching!

Moving in the right direction........

After a rainy weekend at home to visit my mom for Mother's Day, I'm back stitching away.  And, the Roseville Album block I mentioned in my last post is finished!

That makes seven of the center blocks done, with another in process.  Here are six of the finished ones along with the single panel I finished first.  (the seventh block didn't make it into the photo)  Still a long way to go, but at least it is still an active project and not a UFO (yet).

I actually have one more block started, but with the work needed for May's UFO, not much will happen on the Roseville until June or later. (How can it be that June is the next month--we haven't had spring yet?  Today is the first sunny day in so long--rain, wind and cold has been our spring so far.)

May's UFO is Capriccio, a colorful pattern by Pie in the Sky Quilts, that I am making in "happy" colors pretty similar to the pattern model.  It involves sewing pieces together, then cutting them up, and sewing them back together.  At the beginning of May, it wasn't very far along.  In fact, it looked mostly like these strips, with a stack of these triangles:

But now there are a few of these squares,  

and a (very) few of these blocks

 
And, I am finding out that I wasn't very accurate in cutting/stitching, so the quilt police are going to have lots of violations if they choose to look. I am just matching seams where I can, and letting those problem pieces do what they must. Since some of the strips are scraps, cut over many years and left over from odd projects, it doesn't surprise me that they vary a bit in size.  Maybe that's why this was a UFO for awhile...Guess I better get busy or it will stay a UFO!
Happy Stitching!

April's UFO

April's UFO, #4, was another Roseville Album block.  And work on  it went well--until I got to the flowerpot/basket.   First I struggled to choose the right fabrics, finally deciding these were the fabrics I would use. 

The next obstacle was the reverse applique.  I am not the most experienced appliquer.  Before attempting the Roseville, I had only made two small wallhangings and a few VERY simple blocks in applique.   I just didn't enjoy it.  Then I saw the Roseville, and, well, sometimes I bite off more than I can do.  The Roseville has definitely been a challenge.   And the reverse applique here totally frustrated me.   The itty bitty tight points just would not cooperate. 

There were several issues.  The first being that my thread did not match perfectly.  Though I've shopped repeatedly for the right color, what I can find is either too light or too blue.  Next problem is my personality.  I cannot believe that a few stitches will ever hold just a few threads securely.  I just fundamentally believe that unless I nip a bit more fabric here and there, the points will wash out after one or two washes.  (I always envision a future woman washing this quilt, having it fall apart, and then using it as a dog blanket.)  I am sure the more experienced among you handle this just fine, but I don't handle it well.  

So after finishing about 1/3 of the basket, I wasn't happy.  I decided to cut new replacement pieces of the same fabrics, to buy some darker (though blue) thread, and try it again.  Practice makes perfect doesn't it?

After cutting the fabrics out a second time, though, I began thinking they were too dark.  Which led to more digging in my sewing room. 

Where I found an old favorite of mine. This is a piece of fabric I bought while vacationing in California, in May 1988 to be exact. (I can remember the date because of the ages my children were when we visited Disneyland, and that we scheduled the trip so that my daughter was able to fly free since she wasn't yet three.)

I loved the fabric from the moment I saw it and it was quite expensive (like $8 or 10 a yard! Imagine that!).  It was at some exclusive Malibu quilt shop I had demanded to stop at after seeing the word quilt as we were whizzing by.  (A risky prospect with tired two and five year olds, and my husband and our friend who was crazy enough to travel with us.)

I've saved this fabric for all these years wanting to use it for something "special" and had been hoping I could integrate a bit of it into my Roseville.  While it isn't the perfect fabric for the basket, because the stripes aren't straight and have a slight wave to them, I think I'd rather live with a waver to my basket instead of mangled reverse applique!  So here's my finished block:

I may decide to add a larger circle in the middle of the basket to distract a bit from the fact that the design waves up a bit in the center, but I'm going to wait to see how it looks when I finish the block next to this one so I can have a better idea of what color to make the circle. 

For now it's finished, and I'm looking forward to May's UFO Challenge, which is number 9--Capriccio.  Hope I can find all the half done pieces I've cut for it and remember what I've done so far! 

I've also been trying to work ahead on my Roseville blocks, so will have another one to show you soon--I hope....

Scorecard for 2011:
4 UFO's Completed, 3 Flower Garden blocks completed, and NO new projects (that's got to be a first!)

Happy Stitching!

April Update

Another flower was finished!

I'm done with three blocks from the Flower Garden so far (3 of 24).  They go pretty quickly.

I'm also continuing to work on my Roseville Album block for April's UFO that I showed here on my last post.  I am really struggling with the reverse applique on it.  The little pointy areas are just too small for me and don't look good no matter how careful I am--either that or I'm sure they will wash out on the first washing.  I'm trying to come up with a good alternative.  (Any pointers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!)

A lovely treat came in the mail!

I won these pretty batik squares from Marjorie who blogs at Applique Addict , and found out we live in the same area--it is a small world!  Thanks so much Marjorie!  They were a real treat, and just what I needed to brighten my day with all the gloomy rainy weather we've been having.  (I think I'll be sneaking them into a few Roseville blocks where I can.)

And we played at making Easter cake pops! 

Sad Little Chicks (our first try)



A first try at cake pops with my dd. 

We (roughly) followed instructions in Cake Pops by Bakerella--

Here's her link showing what the bunnies were supposed to look like.  



Some perplexed looking rabbits!

We had fun, but I'm not sure I would do them again unless I was highly motivated. Ours just don't taste worth the effort and I'd rather have a nice piece of cake. They would be fun for children though, or for cheery decorations.


Hope you have a Happy Easter! 

Spring Flowers Growing in the Roseville

I've begun work on my April UFO, #4, which is another Roseville block.  Here's the beginning--choosing the fabrics to use--quite a messy process for me.  My sewing room floor, work table and ironing board are covered in heaps of brightly colored fabrics (I was too embarrassed to take a photo to show you, so just imagine.)

I thought the fabric selection process was going pretty smoothly, but then some strange flowers began growing on my design wall, right in the middle of the Roseville blocks.  I had promised myself that if I finished March's UFO on time, I could play a little on something of my choice. These are from my playtime.
 
They are blocks from another quilt pattern designed by Kim McLean called Flower Garden.

I made the center of the one on the left larger than in the pattern.  (A stray circle from the Roseville wandered onto it and decided to stay.)  I liked the way it looked at the time, although in the photo here it looks a bit odd/unbalanced and a tad too big.  But after seeing the large circle on the flower, the smaller ones just didn't look right to me.  I let the flower choose.

I have to admit it is a relief to choose the colors and fabrics for these large flowers after the Roseville--fewer fabrics to choose and fewer colors to balance.   The stitching is easier too (although I miss all the color changes, so there's no making me happy.)

Working on these gives me something to stitch on at night since my Roseville block isn't ready for stitching--mainly because I've been dithering over which fabrics to use for the bowl on the Roseville block.   Here are the blocks which will go around it:  (X marks it's spot)

I'm planning to use the periwinkle aboriginal for the vase, but am debating the fabric to use for the cut out portions.  Here are some of the choices--which do you prefer?  (Sorry for the rotten photos--between losing my battery power and having Blogger stubbornly refuse to cooperate, these are a bit of a mess--I'd hoped the photos would make it clearer to me which to use.  Sometimes seeing a photo clarifies things a bit.)

Mably Red Scales

Jacobs Turquoise Variegated Ivy

 

Liberty Red Meadow

 

Jacobs Magenta Begonia

And that's all I've been working on this month.  I've been surprisingly good at staying away from my other projects (thus far--the month is young).  The mess in my sewing room isn't conducive to new projects (how could you even find them?!)  And the hardworking college student currently studying at my dining room table is slowing down the cutting of my large strips for the Stripping Vine quilt I started last month (I need the space to cut), so I haven't made a bit of progress on it.

I'm not really complaining--it's been absolutely wonderful to have the dd home for a bit (too short of time).  I may actually learn to stay on task, for awhile anyway... Happy Stitching!

C'est merveilleux!-- French General!

In my haste to post about my finished block for the UFO Challenge, I spaced out (do people still say that?) something I wanted to show! Look at what I won!

I was VERY lucky to win this wonderful French General kit--pattern, hexie template, and lots of gorgeous French General fabrics!   It was one of three great prizes in a giveaway celebrating Thelma's 250th post at her blog, Cupcakes 'n' Daisies.
 
Thelma always posts lots of photos of lovely quilts and her steps in the process of making them. I enjoy seeing the steps and learning about her decision making process, and it's fun to follow along, but I have to admit that Thelma makes me feel highly inefficient. She actually finishes her projects--they look great too!  And she has an organized sewing room! All right, I admit I read her blog hoping to learn her secrets!
 
Right now Thelma's leading a Quiltalong of the quilt Eventide, and it's worth reading about just to see the different fabrics variations people have chosen and how each changes the look of the quilt.  Here's her last Tuesday's Eventide posting.  Next Tuesday, April 5, is the Eventide parade, so you should visit and check all the different versions out!
 

I've never worked with (or even owned) any French General, and I'm excited to start on the kit, but admit the hexagons intimidate me a bit. They are quite large (5+ inches), and while that should be reassuring compared to the little ones, somehow the size is intimidating too. This is the pattern, Reine des Abeilles.  (I believe it means queen bee)
 
And somewhere lost in my sewing closet is a bin of little hexies and a bunch of vintage fabric and flowers garden circles I purchased already in process that I'd like to finish.  My fear of hexies needs to be conquered!  Each time someone posts photos of their hexie projects and English piecing, I'm intrigued--almost enough to give it a try.  I think winning this kit, is my nudge to get on with it.
 
So I'm going to save up courage for a couple months (and try to finish a few UFO's), but will likely give these scary hexies a try this summer or fall. So if you don't see some progress on them by fall, please remind me, and help get me past my Hexie Anxiety.  And Thank you so much Thelma--the fabrics are beautiful!  Merci beaucoup!

March UFO block--Finished!

I am happy to report that my March UFO in the Patchwork Times UFO Challenge is finished!

This month's UFO was #1, which was a block from the Roseville Album quilt by Kim McLean. I finally finished it last night--Hooray! Hooray!  And I've even started work on a couple more of the blocks too--too bad neither ended up being chosen as the April UFO block which is #4! 

I really enjoying working on the applique, but I'm very slow-- particularly slow at choosing fabrics for each piece, and then I agonize about the choices I've made.   Oh well...I am trying to just go on, promising that I will consider changing pieces only when ALL the blocks are finished and I can see them together.  It doesn't always work, but it helps stop me from changing everything.

Although I met my UFO goal for the month, I feel like it wasn't real progress because I actually started on THREE more new projects. (I just don't seem to be able to help myself--surprise surprise.) Here's a peek at one of my new unfinished projects:

This isn't how the blocks will be put together--just how they were up on my design wall.  I'll post more about these blocks as soon as I make a bit more progress, but they are destined for a quilt I saw in Material Obsession called Stripping Vine made by Kathy Doughty.

While I was cutting the pieces for those, I liked the colors together so well, I saved the scraps and cut some extra strips for another quilt (Single Girl by Denyse Schmidt) that I hope/plan to make soon.

I told myself I was just being efficient!  And while I had the cutting area clear, I cut out the background squares for the pattern, Flower Garden by Kim McLean.  I am using Kona Snow for the flower backgrounds, bright florals for the flowers, and am thinking about using a periwinkle polka dot for the border background.  I don't have any photos of that to share--there isn't much real progress.  I'll post again as soon as there's something more to see.  My dd is home from college for two more weeks and I plan to enjoy every moment, so it might be awhile.

Scorecard for 2011: Three UFO's completed (two Roseville Album blocks and one Cookbook cover) and SIX (yes SIX) new UFO's started!  Yikes!  I am beginning to understand how it is that I have so many unfinished projects!

Oh, and, everyone still reading this, please repeat after me...Happy, Happy Birthday Joanne!  Even if you don't know Joanne, I am sure she will feel the happy mental energy and positive thoughts from your birthday wishes.  Joanne H. is the nicest April Fool--well just the nicest person who happens to be born today. Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Joanne!

How UFO #10 Came to Be....and was Finished!

A couple years ago I decided to put copies of the recipes I usually make into a binder for both of my kids.  Before you start thinking sweet thoughts about my sentimental sharing of the tastes of home cooking, you should know that my main goal was to cut down on the number of last minute requests I got to "please email XXX recipe right now".  And while I worked on this idea (mostly mentally), eventually my son came home from college, became engaged to a wonderful girl, and didn't seem all that interested in cooking anymore. 

Later when thinking about a good shower gift for my future daughter-in-law, I thought of the recipe binder again.  Mainly to help her out...and not with cooking--she's a good cook already.  As I was growing up, my father would always sing the praises of the fabulously wonderful pies his mother made,  despite being busy with her eight children.  In response, my mother would try and try to make pies that would equal my grandmother's, but they never seemed to measure up.   (I didn't mind eating my mom's pies--they tasted just fine to me.)  I am guessing my dad remembers the pies as so delicious because with eight kids, pie was a real treat--not because the recipe was fantastic, but who knows.  My mom is still trying to make him the perfect pie.

 

Anyway, I decided I would complete my cookbook binder NOT so my DIL can make my "fabulous" recipes, but rather so that if her new husband raves about something his mother makes, DIL can look up my recipe, see that it isn't anything special, and make something BETTER, or can easily make the exact thing.  The gift is not so much the cookbook, but the demystifying of the MIL cooking--because believe me, my cooking isn't anything special, and one generation of pie making struggles is enough. 

I wanted to make the binder in their wedding colors which were blues and turquoises--here's her bouquet.

I put together my most frequent favorite recipes, added family photos, and pieced a cover for it in my interpretation of their wedding colors. Here are some somewhat terrible photos of it.
 

I also fixed a binder of the same recipes for my daughter, and gave it to her for Christmas. But I couldn't decide which colors to use for her cover (and to be honest, ran out of time), so this is what she got for Christmas--Christmas 2009.

 

After Christmas, my daughter suggested I use one of the blocks I had originally made for a quilt for her (another UFO!) as a basis for her cover. So I picked out some coordinating fabrics and began cutting and stitching. Then somewhere along the way I got interrupted...I'm not sure now why (probably another quilt idea), so I binned it all up.

And that is how Alex's Cookbook Cover came to be the Notorious UFO #10. 

 

 And, now only a year late, I am proud to announce that UFO #10 is Finished!

UFO #10 was not completed without a fight--it struggled to stay a UFO right up to the thready end.  It was one of those project on which things just went wrong.  First, I could not remember what the original plan was--the pieces I'd already cut just didn't fit together.   I also couldn't quite remember how I'd made the first binder cover. 

 

Eventually it was all stitched together.  I even had fun trying the decorative stitches on my borrowed sewing machine to quilt the layers together, and got a bit carried away with them.  Here's a close up of them.

Finally, I tossed the finished cover in the washer--on COLD.  (Since I always prewash all my fabrics, I didn't think anything of it.)  This is what it looked like going into the washer.

 

 

 

You can guess what happened.  Black, or maybe the dark turquoise, bled onto the yellow...it doesn't show up well here, but this is the area.

 

So...what to do?  Clearly I couldn't unpick it all.  I decided to applique some narrow bias strips of pink on top of the bad area, which wasn't easy with the stiffness of the quilted cover, but it worked.  Then, stupidly, I decided the bias pieces needed some embellishment. 

 

 

After stitching 3 times and unstitching 3 times, I finally got something semi-acceptable stitched on the front and not through the back pocket thingy.  Duh! 

 

So now the area looks like this.  I know the stitching isn't great--the machine didn't seem to want to evenly stitch across the quilted area, and this was my first time with the decorative stitches.  I would have picked it out again, but I was afraid the fabric would soon fall apart from all the wear.

 

 

 

Then I noticed there was actually a bit of a hole in the binder pocket thingy where I had apparently cut a loose thread a bit too closely. 

At this point, the whole project feels surreal, but I take it in stride.  Copying something I learned on the Glorious Applique blog, I  pull out one of the many circles I've premade for my Roseville Album quilt, and quickly applique a circle over the hole! (See the red spotted circle on the lower part) 

Finally done with the stitching, I excitedly put the cover on the binder.  What had been a desirable snug fit before it was washed, was now a very tight fit.  I'm just very glad the binder is more flexible than I am, because after an extreme backbend by the binder, the cover eventually went on!

And now UFO #10 is now FINISHED.......

Front


 although complete with a few unique and unplanned characteristics...

Back

  And now it's on to UFO #1 for March--a Roseville Album block!

Scrap Multiplication

Yikes, it's been almost a month since I last posted! Back then I had just finished the UFO Challenge for January with a few days to spare, and was feeling pretty good about keeping my resolutions (I know, I know only ONE month--big deal).

But I was also feeling ANTSY. I wanted to sew, but I hated to start something new with just a few days to go. So I decided to work on another of my UFO's (#7 -Teal Quilt to be specific.) I figured working ahead would give me some slack during the year. I managed to sew on the first of two borders, then I ran out of thread (and enthusiasm). I took a photo with the borders, but apparently it didn't work or is lost on my computer. So this is #7--just imagine narrow pink borders around it.)

Then, still being disciplined, I decided to clean up the sewing room to have working space for February's UFO.  But, after all the hand applique I'd been doing, I really was feeling the need for some mindless machine piecing. And I had a new (to me) Bernina to sew on since my old Viking machine was in the shop. (Many thanks to Patty for the loan of her machine!) Since seam allowances on different feet vary from machine to machine (at least for me), I knew I'd better not work on any old UFO's requiring precision piecing. And, didn't I need to start something new so the new machine would feel at home?

As luck would have it, I found a bin of scraps that I had (years ago) sorted by color into ziplock bags. I put the strips I found in my strip drawer, and looked at the remaining scraps. This got me thinking about a quilt named Maple Leaf Rag made by Sarah Fielke I'd seen in the book, Material Expressions 2. This quilt uses both strips and scraps, and wouldn't that free up more space in my cluttered sewing room? Surely it couldn't take that long, and I'd still have time to do UFO #10 for February, wouldn't I?

So yes, I started a new project just a couple days before February!

Maple Leaf Rag is a spiderweb type quilt. First I cut out the background pieces from some awfully stiff muslin (probably not a good choice, but I was anxious to get started, and it's done--thank goodness it will NEVER be hand quilted).



Then I used the darker small scraps to sew the background part. Of course, once these were done, I decided I should have had a better plan color wise. Oh well--I forged on. I'm just using scraps, and so be it, I thought. Then I started sewing the strips.


For the outer colors of the rings, Sarah's instructions say you need two full strips, and you do. I rarely had these, so of course I had to sort and sort to find something similar, or find the missing fabrics and cut more. So I decided to cut enough double strips so to not have to stop and cut more, and well, my drawer of strips grew into a LARGE bin of strips.

The instructions also say to pay close attention and lay the blocks out so you can keep the colors in each web put together right. This will give you a rough idea of a couple of the rings.
After making 4 blocks, I realized placement was definitely going to be a problem. I would either need to lay it all out on the floor, or to take stuff off my design wall which I didn't want to do. At this point a week of February is gone, and I realized I wasn't going to speedily finish this, so I stopped working on it. The book's directions are great, but it isn't a quick project, and the layout definitely requires you pay attention--so much for mindless stitching!

So I packed up this new project and looked at my (now) TWO bins of scraps. While stitching on the Maple Leaf Rag quilt, I had been using a fabric only once (except for the scrap backgrounds), and I had tossed the leftover strips into a basket. Some of these were quite long. I had also set aside the lighter strips that I didn't want to use. These discarded strips reminded me of another quilt I had intended to make someday--Courthouse Steps.

Since I had such a big mess of strips all over, and since I really didn't feel like working on February's UFO (#10), I figured I might as well sew these leftover strips into that quilt.  At last, some mindless stitching!  I rapidly stitched up several blocks.  (Key word is rapidly--they aren't exactly uniform in size, which will definitely make for some future finishing issues.)  Here are a few of the pinker/redder ones--they are primarily blue/black/red/pink/green.

When I had used up the larger strips (and about 40 blocks or more later), I started cleaning up again, sorting out the remaining shorter strips (4-8 inches).   Hmmmmm I thought. I can use these strips on another project with some squares I had leftover from some other cutting. (I figured it would only take a couple of hours and I'd have the shorter strips used up.)  So I stitched up the leftovers into these blocks which will have an end use (I'll show you someday--if I live long enough).

A week later, I put the rest of the short strips away, and put these half done blocks away, and FINISHED cleaning up the sewing room for February's UFO.  So where did that leave me? Did I finish anything?  Did I make more room by using up scraps? NO--I just made more scraps!

Scorecard for 2011: One UFO Roseville block completed, three, YES THREE NEW UFO's, NO quilts/projects completed!

ARRGH! And worse yet, I at that point, I hadn't even started on February's UFO with just a week to go. The UFO drawn for February was #10, Cookbook Cover.....it's NOW in process.  I've been sewing like a possessed woman, trying to make amends for starting three new projects!  More on UFO #10 later...