I'm still here!

Thelma emailed me a few days ago wondering if I was ok, since I hadn't posted in so long.  I apologize to anyone who has stopped here and found nothing new since the pillowcase post.  I've been busy with a secret sewing project that I can't share right now, and with getting the kids back to school (yesterday!) and also with getting myself prepped (mentally and physically) for an unpleasant medical procedure.  I tell ya - they can put a man on the moon, so why can't they make the colonoscopy prep even the least bit palatable?  Yikes.  Oh well, kids are back to school, I made it through my test with no complications, and I'm still sewing like a mad woman.

I'm taking a little break from stunt sewing to work on my Year of Schnibbles project.  I'm nearly 2/3 finished, and waffling between "I really like this!" and "Oh my, I'm not sure these fabrics work for this pattern!"  So I hope to have that project to show you in a couple of days.  Come back, please?  I swear I won't always be this boring!

How about some cute kid pictures to distract you?  My boys started 7th grade yesterday - MIDDLE SCHOOL!   How did that happen?   And my daughter started 4th grade - she is very excited to be at elementary school without her brothers, so now she has her own little kingdom!

You can teach an old dog new tricks!

I'm sure many of you have made pillowcases - they are a fun, quick gift to give someone special.  I haven't made one in a while, but recently a friend had surgery and a bunch of us from the quilt shop all made her pillowcases to let her know we were thinking about her during her recovery.

Now, I have made the standard pillowcase, but we have a newer pattern at the quilt shop that we hand out free with a fabric purchase, and I wanted to try the new method.  It was a little harder to wrap my head around the instructions (and harder still when using a directional print like this Monster pillowcase I made for my daughter), but now I really like this method for making a pillowcase.  Try it the next time you need a quick present for someone!  There is a good tutorial with photos at the Lazy Girl Designs website.  So try something new, you might find a method you like better than the one you use now!

Detour!

I now have all 36 star blocks finished for my 2nd Story quilt.  I have all the sashing strips cut and all my cornerstones are ready to assemble.

However, I must put this away for a short little while (sorry Karen!) so I can work on a top-secret Stunt Sewing project that I am very excited about, using some unspeakably beautiful fabrics (sneak peak below).....

I'll be back to the construction trailer soon to finish building my Beach House!

 

Halfway there!

Since this quilt pattern is 2nd Story, I guess that means the 1st Story is complete!   And actually, I am one block away from having another row done.  I am really enjoying this "construction project" with Beach House fabrics.   I have all of my red star points completed with a background and accent color.  So as I make each block, I choose a center for the star, one or two accent colors and then decide how to construct the background.   It's a challenging project but is keeping my interest.  I can't wait to see what happens next!

You may have heard that Seattle is experiencing an unprecedented heat wave.  It's been over 90 degrees for over a week here, with 2 days where the temps were over 100.   This is NOT what I signed up for, living in Seattle.  Where's my familiar drizzly rain?  And to make things worse, I worked at the quilt shop 3 days this week (unusual for me, but helping out for folks on vacation) and we do not have air conditioning in the shop, so it was pretty miserable working conditions.  At my "real job" we have a/c so cold I have to wear a sweater!  Then again, being around fabric and quilts - how bad can THAT be?

I'm spoiled - not many in this area have air conditioning at home, but we do, since my brother-in-law is in the biz and we got a good deal on a unit and installation when we first bought our house.  We don't usually need to use it much, but it's been a gold mine this summer for sure!  I imagine if I had to come home to a sweltering house, I wouldn't be feeling much like sewing.   But enough whining - today is a new week, temperatures are cooling and I have two jobs that I love - I'm a very happy girl.

Claude's Beaver

When I participated in the Parade of Quilts a couple of weeks ago, it made me think back to some of my early quilts.  I'd only been quilting for a short time when my grandfather was turning 80 and a big family party was planned.  I saw a beaver quilt in a book by Margaret Rolfe (I believe it was A Quilter's Ark), and I knew I had to make the quilt for my grandpa, who had a long-standing love/hate relationship with a family of beavers on his ranch property.

I had no idea what I was doing quilt-wise back then, but when I finished piecing this top, I thought it needed "something more" and bought a book on Seminole piecing so I could make a pieced border to liven it up.   Pretty creative for a novice!  I also took a machine quilting class so I could finish the quilt myself.

My fabric choices back then make me cringe a little now, but Grandpa loved the quilt.  Sadly, my Grandpa Claude passed away in December 2006, but now his little beaver quilt has a new happy home with my mom.

Laying the Foundation

I am finally getting back to a project I started cutting out a few months back.  I'm making a Miss Rosie's pattern called 2nd Story, using a fat quarter bundle of the fabulous Blackbird Designs' Beach House fabrics.

There are 4 different star blocks and many ways to put them together, so this is certainly not a speed piecing project, but it's also been very enjoyable experimenting and putting the combinations of fabrics together.

Well Eva, We've Done Some Excellent Work Here....

If you are a fan of the tv show Friends, like I am, you might recall a show in the first season called "The One With the Butt" where Joey portrays Dr. Sigmund Freud in a musical play called Freud!  I have all the seasons of Friends on DVD and I play them next to my Pfaff while I sew.  I've watched them so many times over, I can pretty much recite every line before the actors do.

I recently watched the first season again, so I thought I would share my latest photo of the Eva quilt and quote one of Joey's lines from that show.

I like the pink setting fabric (thanks for the advice, Carrie!) from Basic Grey's previous Moda collection, Sultry.  It coordinates well with Eva, and I think makes a nice frame around the Jacob's Ladder Jewel Box blocks.  There will be a piano key strip-pieced border added next.

The pattern is Sweet Escape, another great (and very fast!) quilt design from Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.  It uses just 2 layer cakes and 3/4 yard of one print for the setting triangles.  So if you have layer cakes that you don't know what to do with, you might want to consider making this quilt!