Putting it all Together

So my weekend was not just quilty but also productive on a every day life level.
Saturday was a bit of a bust on the quilting front since I was out getting a present for my Dad who was in San Antonio playing the role of a tourist. He wanted some Blu-ray movies and I had to go out and hunt a few titles. I also had to go and get the radio of my new car adjusted so that the steering wheel controls would work (I just bought myself a 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe that has A/C!!! Yeah Me!!). I also had a few library books that needed to be returned and I had to get to the post office to mail out a paperback book to a swap I owed (I am going paperless for the most part so I have been putting most of my paperback romances up on Paperbackswap.com to get rid of them)

When I finally got home I setup my workstation for my quilty weekend and loafed around a while.

Real work started on Sunday.. I had decided to work on my rag quilt which promised to give me the immediate gratification of getting it finished. I started off with my blocks all quilted (I had done this a few weeks ago) so it was just a matter of sewing them together and then cutting up the seams to get them raggedy after washing.



I used little post it tabs (you can see it on the below picture - it's fushia) on the first block of each row to keep the rows in order. I found it to be a time saver because I don't have to keep going back to look at my block placement and wonder if that was the color alignment I found to be the most agreeable.



When I finally got all the pieces together I still was not finished but I was able to see how big it was and how it would look.



I spent about an hour clipping the seams between the blocks and by the end I had grooves in my fingers. I think this was the worst part of the project. I think I would need to get some special scissors if I decide to make more of them. I then shook the heck out of it, banged it against the doors and threw it in the wash.



An here is the final product. The quilt ended up being about 62" x 78". It's a very nice size. The backing is made out of flannel which is a sweet treat to cuddle under it.



While this was washing, I decided to pick up my room (the fringing of the quilt caused lots of threads to fall all over the place) and took on a task I had been putting aside for a few years. I had a corner of my room that had my quilting accessories piled in a hap hazard mess that made my room look shabbby regard less of how much cleaning took place. I decided to find the pile of nothings a new home in my closet. I also shredded a ton of old bills that did not fit into my filing cabinet and I can finially see the rug in that corner of the room.

This was done just in time to welcome my daughter back home (she arrives on Tuesday).

Not too bad for a weekend! How was your weekend???

The Potential for a Quilty Weekend

So I'm putting my jealousy for those going to VQF aside and am determined to have a quilty weekend of my own. My parents (who are visiting from Puerto Rico) and my sister/housemate are heading down to San Antonio for the weekend leaving the house to me. I'm thinking this is a great opportunity to put together the Rag quilt I have been working on since all it needs is to put the quilted blocks together and throw it in the wash to make it raggedy

I have a few other projects I want to tackle like the Pinwheel and Posies quilt I had started for Alba but has now become a 'just because' piece since Alba recieved her quilt last Xmas. I also have a few other UFO's in my backstash as well as a few Kits I would like to start.

I'm debating whether to start a new project or work on one that has lost it's appeal. Some of those kits are great weekend projects and I'm all about instant gratification but I thik if I add a few more hours on some of my existing projects I might see more substantial results and get the piece closer to finish.

Oh what to do, what to do?

Feeling a bit jealous

I admit it! I am feeling a bit jealous of all those heading to Vermont this weekend. I was checking facebook yesterday and saw that Joanna is going on a road trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival this weekend and I turned green.

VQF was the first Festival I ever went to and I returned every year. I took many classes there with renowned teachers (Fons & Porter, Alex Anderson, Ami Simms, Jeanna Kimball, etc). I really learned alot in those classes and met interesting quilters when I stayed in the housing facilities.

Earlier this year I had told my sister, Brenda that Harriet Hargrave would be teaching there for the festival and that I would have loved to go. I forgot that it was this weekend, until Joanna posted.

Well for all those that are in the East Coast, don't miss out on an excellent show! And for those that already have the road trip planned...

Enjoy and take lots of pictures!!

Celebrating Life

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending my daughter's College graduation. She graduated with honors from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Japanese.



I cannot express how proud I am of her, not just for reaching the end of that journey but because of how full of experiences that journey was. I went to college and before I became a mother, I really didn't do much except go to classes and parties and scrape the barrel with my grades. I did get a degree (Math w/ a minor in computer science) but I would have liked to do so much more with the experience. I know she will not have those regrets.

When we first went to visit the school she comented on how much fun the tour guide was having. She said she would like to do that and from her second year on she did just that. She became an orientation assitant the first year she was eligible and did it every subsequent year. She joined clubs and a co-ed fraternity. She fulfilled a life long dream studying abroad in Japan, she was recognized for ther leadership initiatives and was a McNair Scholar. She also fell in love and became engaged to be married.

I know she will always cherish the years she was at RIT and know she packed as much life into those years as she could. That is what I am most proud of and I celebrate her life and what she has made of it.



My sister, Brenda recently talked about the graduation on her blog (Pumpkin Patch Primitive Quilt Shoppe) and she talked about how she changed her diapers and babysat for her but she minimized what that meant for me. I was a single parent and would not have been able to get my own college degree without those days that she 'babysat' for me.

When my daughter was just a few months old I found myself without a support system and I had to choose either to stay in college by sending my baby to be raised by grandparents, or to give up my studies and raise her myself. Well, Brenda, a senior in college herself, rearranged her classes so that she would be free half of the day to care for my baby. I would go to classes in the morning and she would go in the afternoon. When she graduated and move to the states, I shortly followed and she opened her home to me and my child so I could continue to go to school in Massachusetts. When I had my own place she would drive an hour and 45 minutes after a night shift to babysit so I could go and study for finals or meet with study groups. If it was tough at times it would have been much more without the support I recieved from my sister.

Today she has a child of her own (he is wearing the graduate hat in the above picture - He was very excited about Dre's graduation!). Gene Paul is 13 and is autistic. My sister juggles being a mother and a teacher (Gene Paul is home schooled) as well as a business owner without much assistance and with an attitude that won't falter.


Today, I also celebrate her life. She turns 44 today and is one of the most caring, giving and strongest women I will ever meet in my life.

Happy Birthday Sis!! May you get many more 'extra' years!

Guilds... your source for quilty friends.

After my sis dropped by for a small holiday in March I realized that there was a lack of quilty friends in my life that would serve as motivation to get things done. With that in mind I head to the web to find a guild in my area.

There were two guilds I would think about joining in my area. One close - One far. since I missed the meeting for the Bear Creek Guild (Keller, Tx - 15 minutes from my house) in March I decided to look at the Dallas Guild (45 minutes away).

The Dallas Quilt Guild puts on one of biggest Quilt shows in the DFW area which Brenda and I had a chance to go to it during her visit (check out the pics here: Quilt Celebration 09). When I visited the Guild website I noticed that they were having Sharyn Craig as a speaker for the month of April. They also had TWO workshops!

I must note that Sharyn Craig is a scrappy queen in my book. She has several books on setting blocks into extraordinary quilts, so you can take your orphaned blocks and incorporate them into cohesive quilts that wow you. What made this a temptation that I just could not pass up was the fact that Craig retired from teaching last year. She was coming to Dallas because she had to cancel a previous commitment with them last year and was making up the classes. In other words, this would be the last chance I would have if I wanted to take a class with her. Her book Setting Solutions is a staple in my work room because it serves as inspiration as well reminding me to think outside the box.

I immediately emailed the coordinator of programs for the guild and got a spot in both classes. I then went ahead and dropped by for the trunk show Craig was giving at the regular meeting. Needless to say I was not disappointed and was all psyched out for my workshops the next couple of days.



The first workshop was on design. It was about taking your orphaned blocks and making them more. Craig has two books on the subject Setting Solutions - which is out of print but can still be found in eBook format from the publisher, and Great Sets (she joked about this one since it 'sounds' like a whole different type of book when said quickly). I love this type of class because it's not about walking out with one project but about walking out with the knowledge to make many different projects. Everyone brought a few UFOs and they were put on the wall so we could decide what to do with the blocks. It was a great workshop on ideas and how to 'think' outside the box.


The second workshop was more traditional and all about the Northwind block. Craig showed us the potential this particular block had and showed us a quick way to get it done. It was the first time I ever used a template to cut a regular triangle and was impressed at how easy it was. I'm usually about cutting in bulk with my rotary cutter and ruler but the way this block is made you really can use an acrylic template to get the more precise cut.


Note: Every block in this quilt is the same block but the triangles are layed out differently.

So my experience with this guild has been great. When you find a guild in your area my recommendation is not just to go to a meeting but sign up for a workshop they are sponsoring or join a committee or volunteer for something. Guilds can be an impersonal thing but these smaller activities give you a chance to meeting guild members on a one on one basis and you can develop a friendship with someone that just might inspire you.

You can find more pics of my classes here: Setting Sets and here Northwind

More Finished Projects...

Another quilt I 'finished' was one that I owed my sister Brenda. When I went to visit her in October she mentioned how much she would like to make a quilt that she saw in the Quilt Sampler magazine (spring/summer 2007). What was holding her back was that she was not much into piecing and the background of the quilt was pieced. This is the finished piece as it appeared in the magazine:


So I volunteered to make the background and send it to her to complete the applique portion. Among all the fabric I walked away with at the time (See Here - Runaway Stash) were a few charm packs to use for this project. When Brenda dropped by for a visit at the begining of March I saw the opportunity to get this project off the ground.



Before she left I had the large background completed but I still needed to work on the flying geese and the small squares on the top and bottom of the background.

Well this one did not sit around very long. I did work on getting this one out the door sooner than later. I knew that when I finished it the quilt would still be half done but I don't like letting people down and especially my sister who never let's me down. I put this project on the top of my list of things to finish and last weekend I completed it!


Now it's off to Brenda's house for the finishing applique.

If you liked this pattern and don't want to buy the back issue from American Patchwork and Quilting, you can find it at The Cotton Shop which is the shop that was featured in the magazine and who designed the quilt.

Finished projects...

There are a few things that I did finish recently (yeah me!!) so I need to chat you up about that.

My daughter (Dre) fell in love with a pattern by Thimble Blossoms and while she was visiting her aunt Brenda in NH convinced her to supply her with the pattern and a kit from her shop (Pumpkin Patch Primitives) to make the quilt. The original pattern is called Wallflower and can be found at http://www.thimbleblossoms.com/ under patterns.
Dre changed it a bit to make it her own.




I helped cut the larger (thicker) pieces and helped by teaching Dre how to Machine Applique using a zig-zag stich. she took it from there and built the quilt on her own. When quilting time rolled around she did all the stitch in the ditch and I took over with the free motion.


Unfortunately time ran out and Dre needed to head back to school so it was up to me to finish the quilting and bind the quilt.

She finially received the quilt in her Valentine's day care package.

The A is for Andrea.

The back of the quilt is pieced with the same fabrics that can be found in the front.

It was an excellent weekend project and yielded a beautiful lap quilt (that she appears to use!)