Crooked House

My bathroom vanity has been broken for a few years. The big door under the sink broke off, tearing the wood, and I fixed it by installing a curtain. That's the type of fix I can easily do as someone who sews and has some extra fabric. This year, I saw a vanity on sale that had the features I wanted in a vanity and so decided to replace the broken one. The new vanity is approximately the same size and shape as the old one. Since it is built into an alcove in the wall above the steps, I measured it several times to make sure it wasn't too big for the space.

I chose a contractor who was recommended by my neighbors online. He took out the old sink and then he took a good look at the space. He said "your walls are crooked."  I thought that since the old vanity fit in the space, he could do whatever the old contractors had done to make that vanity fit. I told him to make the easy fix, and don't worry if the vanity goes in a little bit crooked. The old vanity was probably crooked too and nobody noticed or cared.

I live in an older house. My neighborhood was one that was quickly built up after the World War II to provide housing to soldiers. This house doesn't look like my neighbors so I don't know if it was already here during the housing boom or if someone decided he would make the house himself instead of  getting the standard choice.  It's a hand made house, and it has the charm of an older house.

Imagine hiring a precision traditional quiltmaker to make a repair on an improv quilt.  What we thought was two hours worth of work took more than ten. He gave me a discount so I wouldn't have to pay for ten hours of work and it does look very nice.

So anyway, he was here working for a long time. While he was doing his thing, I was getting ready for the Thanksgiving gathering. The gatherers came and went (fun times was had by all even though we didn't have use of the bathroom sink), and I was able to put the sewing machine out again.  Sunday night  was my first day off in a long time since there was no employer work, no vanity work, no house cleaning, but I made work for myself anyway. I made a block for Island Batik as a sample to show them I know how to sew. It's  part of the application to become an Island Batik ambassador. I made the block on Sunday and put it in the envelope for mailing so I could work on Monday without worrying about having things to do. I forgot to take a picture of it. 

In the morning, I put the sample block envelope in the mailbox for the mail carrier to pick it up. Since I had the sewing machine out, when he came in on Monday, the contractor said, "oh you sew can you fix this hole in my jacket?" He was working so hard on that cabinet that I decided to help him. I have no skill in fixing the hole so I patched it up with a little bit of fabric I had and hand stitched it in place. The jacket had construction stains on it so I figured an improv fix would be okay.

The mail carrier didn't come all day (or night). It is still in the mailbox this morning.  And the whole day, I am thinking about the picture I didn't take so I can't show you the block. I made a churn dash block using traditional quilt shop fabrics. I am not sure I have any Island Batik fabrics and didn't have time to dig for it. I wasn't sure if they would appreciate seeing their competitors' batik fabrics in a sample block so I used traditional fabric. It turned out to be the right size, so hopefully they just wanted the sample to see if I can sew, follow directions and meet deadlines.

15 Minutes to Sew

I made the block on Sunday and I am going to take credit for the whole week because I think I deserve it. It looks like I didn't do an update for last week. I am taking full credit for last week too. I finished quilting the Droid quilt, and I trimmed it to get it ready for binding. I hung it up on the wall unbound and nobody noticed.  It is still hanging up on the wall.

My progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  276 out of 329 sessions
Success rate: 83%

Droid Quilting Continued

I am quilting the background of the Droid quilt, and had sketched out the quilt plan to build some muscle memory and see if I could execute the design easily. I liked the sketch, but it didn't look the same on the fabric.

So I showed the sketch to the sewing machine and explained the plan. I put the sketch front and center so the sewing machine could see it while it was sewing.  Things are working much better now. I think having a wider space helps, because then the lines look more meandering when they can come from both directions. When there is only one column (between the characters), that one column doesn't look as good by itself.

I'm not really happy with my choice of background design, but I am sticking with it. You really can't see it from a distance and it doesn't affect the integrity of the quilt, so I am not ripping it out.

I ran out of bobbin so I took it out to  do a quality inspection.  I was happy to see that I had just passed being halfway done through the background quilting.  Then I realized that meant there is half left to do.

All right, enough procrastination. Back to bobbin winding and quilting.

Linked to:
Em's Moving it Forward - I don't have time to write a new post, but I did want to say that the quilting is finished. I had a hard time trimming it to a rectangular shape - since there was so much space that didn't have a border or line to follow. But that's done now too and I am moving on to binding it.

Quilting Droid Quilt

I spent this week quilting the Droid quilt again.  I have now finished the characters - Rey and BB8 and the Death Star, so all that's left is the background and I've done some of that too. Most of these pictures were taken before the background was quilted.

I gave Rey some eyelashes, a chin divot, and a nose.  There are parts that are not quilted which makes her face wrinkled, so I am considering more quilting.   Sam had quilted strands of hair across her face, and it looked good when she did it.

Her torso follows quilting that Sam used, but more organic. I also outlined the whole shape, which helps distinguish her arms from her torso.



I gave her plaid pants. And fingers. Just don't count them!

Knobby knees. You can see the diamonds on the sword on this picture.



These are the thread colors I used.  The bobbin thread ran out as soon as I was finished with the variegated orange. I found the pretty blue but it looked like it was running out after I filled the bobbin so I had to use a different blue for the quilting. The background quilting looked much better in my drawn sample. They are just supposed to be straight lines and smooth curves to go to the next row, but alternated so they don't switch at the same place. I plan to practice drawing some more and quilt it using that design, and see how much this background bothers me when I am done with that. Right  now, it does bother me enough to want to rip out.

That lumpy space besides BB8 doesn't look that bad in real life. It just looks like that because there is unquilted space besides quilted space and I think it can be quilted down.

15 Minutes to Stitch Progress

This week, all of my sewing time was spent filling bobbins and quilting this quilt. I didn't quilt every single day. Daylight savings time requires adjusting time, but I made up the lost time on the weekend.


My progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  262 out of 315 sessions
Success rate: 83%

Linked with:
15 Minutes to Stitch 
WIP Linky Party

Last Week's Quilting Progress and Beautiful Fall Colors

It's getting colder so the leaves of our trees are turning color.

I'm going to sneak in a post about my progress for last week before it is time to post this week's progress.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of quilting done.

I had an electrician come by on Saturday work on my porch light fixtures, but I figured I might as well have him check all the outlets while he was here, which meant I needed to rearrange things so he had access to outlets and clean the baseboards and under furniture, etc.  So my sewing time on Thursday and Friday was taken over by cleaning time.

Then Saturday, I spent my sewing time with the electrician. He got everything done on his list, which means I can check things off my list.  I finally now have light again from the front porch and the back porch,  just in time for daylight savings time.

On Sunday, I went to a cemetery tour to learn about the history of the city and the cemetery, and to look at the beautiful trees. I took a lot of pictures of individual burial markers we saw along the tour so I was able to sneak in some genealogy time. Even if it isn't my family, hopefully I can help someone else with their genealogy.

15 Minutes to Stitch

All of my sewing time was spent quilting Rey on the Droid quilt.  I am loving all the texture it is creating. I am not used to quilting in small time increments. I usually try to do it all at the same time, while I am in the same mood and frame of mind, so that my stitches can be consistent.  It isn't too bad though, since I am making different designs on the different sections.

My measly progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  2 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  255 out of 308 sessions
Success rate: 82%

We Now Resume Regular Programming

I didn't take this picture, but on the way to the library with my sister, I stopped in front of this stack of cars and told her I wouldn't take her any further until she took a picture for me. I thought about using the analogy of crushing my squirrels*, but something doesn't sound quite right with that analogy so let's just drop it, shall we?

We'll just say the stack of cars is here to lure readers in and distract them from the dark and fuzzy pictures on the rest of the post.

Now that my three little quilts are out of the way, and all the doors and windows have been locked tight to keep any other wayward squirrels* out, I have returned to the projects that are spread out all over my living room.

I decided to start first with the quilt that is closest to completion. The end of the year is fast approaching and I have to make a good showing for the end of the year post.  The Droid quilt is already a top. It just needed to be quilted, but things came crashing to a halt because the back needed to be pieced.  The backing fabric was a quarter of an inch shorter (width wise) than the top.

A reasonable person would think adding a strip to the side of a piece of fabric wouldn't be any big deal, especially for someone who has pieced the front of the quilt, but for some reason, this back added just enough hesitation to let all those squirrels* in the house.
 

This week, I pieced the back. I added more than a quarter inch because you need to have excess fabric when quilting to avoid crying later.  It was no big deal as you probably figured, and I thought of an idea to add a little flap for the label when piecing the two oranges together, which took the drudgery out of piecing the back. I won't have to worry about the label now!

I finished piecing the back and basted the sandwich on Friday, and I was really surprised at how excited I am now to quilt this.  You know how when you are getting ready to go on a big trip, or have a first day of school or work, you have a hard time going to sleep the night before?  That mixture of excitement and dread of things to come.  I felt that on Friday night.  I quilted the Death Star and parts of Rey on Saturday, but I had trouble sleeping Saturday night too, because I was just excited to quilt more!

You will have to trust me that the basting is done right and smooth and not as lumpy as these pictures show.

I am pretty much copying how Sam Hunter, the pattern designer, quilted the characters - why reinvent the wheel? - but my lines are a lot more organic.

15 Minutes to Stitch

The days are getting shorter, and colder and darker, and rainy so the outdoor chores have been set aside for the week.

My stitching week was all about the Droid quilt - mostly cutting long strips, and cutting away selvages, and sewing long strips, and pressing the back and top all over again.  I then basted the quilt and started the quilting.

My progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  253 out of 301 sessions
Success rate: 84%

*squirrels are those projects that distract you from your current works in process, and are especially pesky if you actually drop your WIPs to start work on them.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

My Favorite October Pictures

It's not the end of the month yet, but Wandering Camera link up is up, and I have plenty of pictures to choose from, so I am going to post early.

I've started posting the stack of books I get from the library on my High Road Reader blog. It always makes me happy to go to the library, and I can expand the joy by commemorating the visit with a post. It will be a good way to list which books I may want to check out again.

I've made three small quilts this month. Here are two of them. This one makes me think of the Elephant Parade quilt since they are both facing the same way and there is an elephant.

The three small quilts temporarily interrupted my regular quilt-making, but it makes me happy to see this quilt when I walk by it. I need to add one more row before I can call the top finished.

I have to have a reminder that it is Halloween month.

We haven't had many trees change color this month, but some have already dropped their leaves.

Finally, my favorite picture of the month.

Linked to:
Wandering Camera - October Stories

Weekly Recap

I've been stitching like mad this week so I can meet some self-imposed deadlines.

First up were two fleece blankets, both blue. I bought them more than a decade ago. They were supposed to be no sew blankets. Just trim the edges, cut some fringes and tie them to each other to make a two sided blanket.  Easy right?  No, not really, since one is about half an inch shorter than the other one. I could have trimmed one but I didn't want to mess up the design, and decided to just finish each one separately with a zigzag stitch. It might be better to have two blankets instead of one anyway - it won't get too hot and you can always use two if it is really cold. It is stitching even though it isn't quilting.

The second was the housewarming present I showed you yesterday.

The cute cat blanket in the picture is not mine.

15 Minutes to Stitch

My progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  6 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  246 out of 294 sessions
Success rate: 84%


Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch