15 Minute Challenge Feb 18

This week, I worked on basting around the crazy quilt blocks so that I wouldn't put beads too close to the seam allowance.

Most of my sewing time, however, was spent on the On Ringo Lake blocks. They look the same as they did the last time I showed you, so I won't show you again now. I don't want you to spend all your money renting the galloping horse when you can just wait until the finished quilt top.  I have more full blocks done, and have a few more blocks to finish. Then I need to sew the sashing pieces.

I did spend some quality time with the seam ripper this week.  (Not the one in the picture, obviously. It is the only seam ripper photo I have taken and labeled as such.) I use the seam ripper for blocks that aren't quality seams (bunching, not properly lined up, seam allowance too small, not going the right way), but I don't use them for points that aren't sharp or don't match exactly. I do want this quilt to be finished in my lifetime and I am choosing not to look for perfection for this bed sized quilt. It is a bed quilt and I don't want those sharp points to hurt me while I am sleeping.

Don't worry, this was a normal amount of correcting mistakes for this big quilt with lots of pieces. I didn't make any major mistakes. I  normally correct as I go, but I was trying to show progress, so I set aside the errors. I didn't want to make new blocks when the corrections were so simple, so I had to fix them as a bunch.

I did this spreadsheet early in the week, anticipating my perfection. It takes some concentration to figure out how to tally these, since each month has a different number of days and start on different days.

This week, I missed Monday and Tuesday but I made up for it. There will hopefully be one more week of "perfection" before the downhill slide.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

Crazy Quilt Stitching

On Ringo Lake continues to make progress. It is a great procrastination tool.  Want to work on something else? Do something with Ringo Lake first.  It makes me more productive, since I am getting twice as much stuff done as I would have otherwise.

I didn't want to bring down another project that had lots of supplies, but quilting doesn't mix well with piecing, since the machine needs different settings for both.  I decided to keep doing hand work since I enjoyed doing that so much with the fabric book. This is my first ever crazy quilt block.

This quilt was started in 2009 or maybe before and it got stalled because I was trying to follow the rules, without even knowing what they were. Must piece the rest of the blocks before embellishing any. Must not add beads or other bulky things until after blocks have been joined together.  I had six of the nine blocks pieced and just a little bit of embellishment. This picture above shows how I found the block before I started working on it. The library book is for inspiration.

Since then, I have been collecting beads and trim to add to the quilt. Seriously, anytime there was any bead or ribbon sale, I bought something to add to this quilt. If it was orange or shiny, it went in this box. And if it isn't orange or shiny, it is still needed for contrast. The box was brimming over with embellishment supplies.  I have enough to make many quilts. These blocks are only 8 inches!

I decided it was time to work on this quilt so I could use some of these supplies, and be able to do handwork without guilt. I feel virtuous being able to work on such an old WIP!

This is my favorite section. I'm not done with the block yet. The bottom left side and the top right need a little something. In future blocks, I will be more careful with adding beads so close to the edge. This block might require some hand piecing to avoid crushing the beads.

Please give me ideas about what else to stitch.  This is only block one of nine and I already feel like I am stretching.

15 Minutes to Stitch

Here is my progress on the 15 Minutes to Stitch .

I did not stitch on Monday, because I didn't want people to be jealous of my perfection. But because I stitched so much the rest of the week, I had to go back and retroactively take credit for it anyway.

I have been really happy with keeping up with stitching (almost) every day. Reporting it makes me more accountable.  I have been working hard at making sure I stitch every day because I know that when the busy season comes, I won't be able to stitch at all, so I need to keep the current stats high to balance.  My guess is that last year, I probably would have been at 50% and hopefully this year, I will end above 60%. I am going to aim for above 70% though. Aim high!

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch 
Slow Sunday Stitching 
Let's Bee Social 
Off The Wall Friday

2015 Calendar

Last year, I received a coupon to get a free calendar from Shutterfly.  I gathered a bunch of photos of my quilts and threw them together into a calendar and got it printed.

This year, I received another coupon to get a free calendar from Shutterfly.  I still haven't gotten things planned enough to make a decent planned calendar, but I thought that last year's strategy worked well, so I copied it.  I grabbed some images of quilts I have made - both finished and unfinished.

I didn't want to use the same template I used last year, because I didn't want it to look the same.  Last year's template had quotes on it, and I really liked that idea. Since the template I chose this year didn't have any quotes, I needed to find my own quotes to add to the calendar.  I chose story quote as the word to search. I was planning on finding different topics for inspirational quotes, but I liked so many that I kept with the same theme for the whole year.

Some of these story quotes are about living life, and some of them are about telling a story. I felt that both kinds are applicable to me.

I didn't include names of quilts this time. I probably should have recorded them, but I don't remember the names of all of them, and since many are unfinished, I wanted the flexibility to come up with new names.

I initially thought I had more images of finished quilts than unfinished quilts this year, but it is pretty much half and half.

I added the pictures to the month that it seemed to fit best in.  When I went to the actual page, I was pleased to see that the background color of the template worked well with all of the selected quilt images.

I especially like this purple one with this quilt, although I'm not sure why, since there is very little purple in the quilt.

If you haven't done this before, I highly recommend it.  Seeing the images of these quilts professionally printed makes me feel like a real quilter!

Most of these quilts have not been shown in last year's calendar. In fact, I think there is only one repeat. It is purely accidental; if I had remembered it was on last year's, I would have used a different image.

I had to take the pictures at an angle this year, so you can't see the calendar at its best.  Trust me that it is a high quality calendar and it makes my quilts look very good.

African Crazy

My orange crazy has been transformed to an African crazy. I have decided on the motifs, and have made plans. I haven't sewn all the blocks, but I have already started on the embellishments. So far my African prince has things that are supposed to look like an African sun, spears, wheat sheaves, and decorative designs. Plans are on the way for huts, a lion, giraffe, elephant, maybe a zebra. Also water and pots, maybe a princess and children, an outline of the continent and a crane. Yes I know there are big buildings in Africa, but somehow they don't say "Africa" when you see them.

This picture is for Paula. These are the embellishments I bought at the convention. How much of my purchase have I used on my quilt? Well, none of it.

Yet. I've been using floss that I've owned more than 10 years. Maybe using it will spur me to finish the cross stitch bird afghan before I run out of all 100 colors.

Crazy Orange

Bear Picnic wanted to see a closeup of the quilt I had on the door. I'm happy to show you. It is no longer on the door, but it is on the wall in the bathroom. One day I am going to make a quilt for the kitchen too. My goal is to have at least one quilt in every room and hallway! The background is pieced in alternating colors.




The circles are appliqued on, and I did a chain stitch using crochet thread around each of the circles, thinking I might be able to make the circles look rounder. I wasn't successful in that attempt, and don't think the embellishment actually added anything, but since it didn't take anything away, I'm not taking it out. It has the lovely checkerboard border that I always like. Overall, it isn't my favorite work, but I do like it and it was fun to make.



Just to show that I wasn't showing this to get away from showing quilting progress, I made three crazy blocks over the New Year holiday. There were lots of hard decisions to make. I started out with the simple oranges that came as a kit, the same ones I used for the pumpkins - but they looked too similar to me. The inspiration quilt was mostly orange with some yellow highlights. I added other oranges to make it more interesting, which includes fabrics that I am told are African. It's the fabric that has black and green in it. Both of the pieces I used are different parts of the same fabric. The other African fabric is the orange with the shiny gold in it. I used a very small piece in this block so you'll have to look at the closeup if you want to see it. I got some from a quilt show, and have been trying to think of good uses for them. I also added shiny metallic fabric, and a velvety one. The yellow fabric with the flowers is an old dress of my mother's. That dress or fabric was actually purchased in Africa. I also added black as an accent - I hope I don't regret that. Since I wasn't using scraps, I had to decide what size and shape to cut each fabric. I'm having fun with it.

Temptation

I am thoroughly enjoying handsewing the binding down of my Purple Parfait quilt. And as I do, my thoughts are wandering about what I am going to make next. The plan is to finish up another one of my UFOs. I did promise Finn two finished quilts, and I have several quilts that simply need quilting. I enjoy quilting, and I want to have all my quilts finished, so there is no reason to not follow through with the plan, right?

As I wander through my blogs, I find a quilt from time to time that strikes my fancy, and I note that I may want to make that someday. Sometimes it is a simple design, that makes me think I can finish it off quickly. Sometimes it is more elaborate and just appeals to me. Today it is this bright orange crazy quilt made by Daniela in Romania. We won't mention that the quilt I am working on was started years ago, and I have a long list of projects I already have started, kitted up, and the recent fabric purchase which will be counted as stash unless I designate it for a project right away. This one - the orange crazy quilt - is definitely being added to the list.