Quilt Shuffle

This is Seamus.  He was the finishing touch for the new look in our guest bathroom... that was until we went to retrieve my Purple Spin from the quilt shop.  When we got home I was envisioning a good place for the Purple Spin would be over the front door.  Ron asked me to consider his vision of seeing "the turtle" over the door where everyone could see him.  It didn't take me long to agree that over the door would be the perfect home for Seamus.


With his position over the door, the detail is up out of range to inspect very close, but when it was in the bathroom... the size of the bathroom didn't allow anyone to back up and get a good look at the whole picture.

 Before we went to retrieve the Purple Spin from the quilt shop, I was considering selling it because I thought I really didn't have a place to hang it. I really liked the quilt very much and did not want to have it sitting in a stack of finished quilts. Turns out some quilts just have a way of working themselves into the perfect spot.

Now the Purple Spin is quite happy taking over the bathroom.  It isn't necessary to back up to get the full impact of the color scheme.

Purple Spin

Quilt of the day is my Purple Spin. It was mostly completed at a quilt retreat I was at this past winter.  I had lots of input regarding the fabrics, and a couple of donations from other quilters.  Added the borders after I got home. There was a quilt shop owner that just happened to stop in at another retreat I was at after I had it totally done. I brought it to the retreat to inspire my quilting buddies to see it finished. The quilt shop owner wanted to take it to her shop for inspiration for her customers.  Stopped by that shop last week to find it prominently displayed behind the main cutting table.

I love the whole process of making a quilt, which means I have many more quilts around than I can display and/or enjoy.  This quilt is about 50" square... if anyone is interested in purchasing this quilt, leave a comment or send me an email.

My turtle is taking a little more shape.  I actually glued Seamus to the background.  Boston was sitting right in the middle of Seamus' shell until I was ready to take the picture... she was done posing just before I snapped it.  A couple more days and Seamus should have a whole new look.


My morning glories are starting to be glorious... although I have been warned, my sister had to pull most of  hers out because they were overtaking her flowerbed.  I planted these on the outside of the fence on the far side of the house where there are no other flowers in the flowerbed to overtake.

One of my little side projects is to make shorts from t-shirts to put in the Operation Christmas Child boxes.  We have made string backpacks and pillowcase dresses for the girls and they all  fold up and fit nicely in these boxes, but never got around to making any shorts for the little boys.

A friend that is in the screen printing business donated some of her extra t-shirts and I found a source online for some drawcord elastic that finishes off these easy to make little shorts.  With the drawcord waist there should be no sagging shorts.

This is what was left of the Key Lime Pie I was inspired to make after watching an episode of The Kitchen on Food Network.  I have made a key lime pie before, but this time I bought a mesh bag of those little key limes and had enough limes to dress it up nice and pretty. Of course there were enough limes in the bag to make two or three of these pies. Forgot to take the picture before it was cut into, but it still looked pretty cool. 

Bag of Bags

Pillowcase come in all sizes and shapes... I came up with this one, not to be a pillowcase, but a bag of bags.  I have several shopping bags that fold up pretty compact to make them easy to carry to the store.  Problem is to remember to take them into the store when you get there.  A couple weeks ago my dear friend gave me a bundle of mesh sacks to put your produce in.  I determined that if I made a sack to carry all the shopping bags and the new mesh bags... I might remember to actually use them. Quick to make and a stash buster.  So far it is working pretty nicely... I have remembered to use my shopping bags, more than a couple times already.

About a year ago I went to a quilt show and found a booth with some awesome quilts.  They made it sound like an easy process, so I just had to have one of the patterns... of course it cost way more than I should have paid.  When I got home and had a chance to sit and go through the instructions on how this quilt was done, I put it aside and determined I would have to wait until I felt like spending enough time to figure out how to proceed.  Fast forward a year and I was no further with figuring out the pattern... then I get an email from a local quilt shop that they were going to have a class on the process by this designer.  I jumped at the chance to get past the intimidation of this pattern.  Signed my friend up with me and the adventure has begun.  Downside of my pattern, that I have had for a year now is... it is one of the larger patterns.  My friend's quilt is probably one third the size of my sea turtle.  It would have been so much easier to start off small.

The process is broken down into two classes.  The first class was to explain the process and show some finished samples.  We were given homework to be done before the second class, which is to be about a month later.  These are art quilts, which is something I have not really thought about doing before.  It has taken me out of my comfort zone, which does not mean I am having difficulty doing this, but I am having a problem playing by the rules.  I can think of lots of ways to do things different than we are supposed to be doing them...




This process uses lots of Steam a Seam 2... and lots of cutouts.  The instructions basically have you fusing everything.  Not previously having a great love for fusing, I was reluctant to add SAS2 to all of the background pieces. I grabbed several scraps and started piecing them to make my background by sewing them together.  One of the homework instructions was to put SAS2 on the background pieces... but DO NOT fuse them in place.  All the pieces are supposed to be sorted and brought to class to begin the construction process.

With my background having no stability, as it would as fused background, I thought I needed to stiffen it up a bit, so I used full strength liquid starch and my backyard lawn for a dryer.  After I pressed the semi finished background, I found the hole which will be covered by the turtle, had an unstable edge, so I basted in another piece of fabric to make the background one whole piece.

One of the neat features of SAS2 is it is repositionable, and only becomes permanently fused when you use steam in the pressing process.  We were instructed to temporarily build the main character of the quilt on a stabilizer called Pattern Ease... but only to prep the background pieces... I am now potentially in hot water... I am quite sure.

Once I filled the hole to semi stabilize the background... I figured I was already in trouble, so I cut the turtle out and will be ready to start embellishing at the class.  I have more than a couple bags with cutouts of fish, shells and flowers. It is still another week before the class, so if I am already in hot water... guess I could start embellishing.

She Shed

She Shed... Not!  Okay, so maybe just a little bit. The deck was my idea.
This shed that Ron has been working on for a very long time has finally come together.  When I say a very long time, that would include the planning stage. Having a plan is an essential element of a successful project... especially important for a "Ron" project.  Working out the details is time consuming. One of the criteria for this shed is that it was not to be higher than the fence... you can not stand up straight inside. The shed is for storage, including my gardening tools.  My garden space, to be in front of the deck pictured, is going to be much less than I  previously had, but my focus is to be more of a kitchen garden with mainly herbs.  I told Ron that I needed to add a deck so I could sit and look at my garden, and maybe occasionally share a cup of tea with a friend. I have a lime tree ready to plant... probably in the spot it is sitting right now.

 I have not taken very much time for baking recently, but Ron always comes through with an awesome breakfast.  Of course I had to pretty up these fluffy wonderful waffles with some blueberry sauce and whipped cream.


 On the quilting front I started working on a Bible Sampler quilt. These blocks are 6.5" and were done with paper piecing.  Some of the pieces were as small as one of my baby fingernails.  I made several blocks before I started looking at how I was going to lay them out.  Also, one of the things that drew me to this project was each block had a scripture related to it. The more I considered the layout, the more I realized that the scripture references were going to be completely lost, or at best difficult to identify... a road map would be needed.
That is when I decided not to finish all of the 96 blocks and find a layout that would work with the blocks I had completed.  I did finish two additional blocks to finish the layout I came up with. 

 I am still in progress, but in keeping with a scrappy look I decided these blocks needed an attic window look.

Placemats

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything new.  Without any comments, I have no way to know if anyone really cares if I post or not.  I need a little nudge sometimes I guess... if you appreciate my little stories, pictures and sometimes tidbits of info... every now and then leave a note to let me know your thoughts.

Ron made an observation when we were at a friend's house for dinner a few weeks ago... How come our placemats aren't as big as hers?  I didn't think my typical placemat was too small, but he was right... hers were definitely bigger.  This is not one of hers... it is one from the new set I made in my "new" size standard.

These larger ones are 13 x 18 and really do work much nicer.  I never realized just how small my other ones were.  Overall these new ones make me smile when we sit to eat.  The placemat does not look crowded and the bright colors just have a nice effect.  I decided to use the backing fabric as the binding after I determined that I could separate the back from the binding with a little strip of green.  Back is almost just as nice as the front.  If Ron sits down before I get dinner on the table... he turns them over with the back up cause he really likes that side.