The Quiet Quilt

This afternoon I finally got the backing, batting, and top for the low-volume quilt laid out and basted:

This one is very much not in my usual mien, and there's a reason for that: it started with the center sixteen four-patches, which were among the stuff I bought at Costume College last year.  I had to trim them and then dig deep into my stash to find a fabrics that kind of went-with.  I'm trying very hard to work from my stash only.  As it is, the sashing is the back side of that particular fabric, and the fabric with the pink peonies I had to use every last scrap: a few of the patches are pieced! Fortunately the alternate blocks in the four-patches are simple undyed muslin, which I had on hand.

At this point I've done straight-line quilting in the sashing, and I know what free-motion designs I want to do in the blocks.  But that will take waiting until sometime when Jazzy is napping so I can put all the stuff on my sewing desk onto the ground in order to be able to move the quilt about freely...

Catching Up

Got the Deep Purple wallhanging dropped off at the fairgrounds on Saturday.  This was after the mommy-baby yoga class I go to, so I had both Jazzy and Squiddle with me.  I got my free ticket for my entry, and I'll get another free ticket for working my guild's booth on our day there.  So we're going to the fair this year!  We haven't gone to the fair in years, so this will be the first time for the boys.  The big Ferris wheel stays set up year round, I believe, so Squiddle really wanted to go on it on Saturday.  I had to explain it wasn't plugged in yet.

Otherwise, I have pieced together every. single. last. green string I have.  And is it enough?  No.  But I've got two sides of the final border on the workshop wallhanging, which I've decided I'm going to call Poinsettia Landing.  And the rest of the border that I've pieced set aside.  I need to beg green strings from my guildmates, I guess.

Being still in kind of a string-piecing headspace, I pulled out the foundation papers for String-X and used up all my yellow strings for another block inspired by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Then I counted up how many I had, and I have fifty quarter-blocks.  It takes forty-eight to make the quilt.  So I'm depapering them, then will do a layout and see how I want them to go.  Some are randomly scrappy, some are RSC colors, so.  Then I'll trim the corners, cut the triangles, and start assembling this into a top.

And the weather is finally turned tolerable again, so hopefully sometime in the next couple days I can get the low-volume quilt basted!

Chugging Along

I stole some cutting and sewing time today and got done the last six tumblers for the ginormous bright tumbler quilt, then sewed the last row together.  I've also stitched another length of green thread on the Christmas tablecloth, finishing off one small bouquet and moving on to the next.

Tomorrow I take the round robin wall hanging and drop it off at the county fair.  The finishes picture I have of it hanging in my guild's quilt show has lousy lighting, so here it is as a flimsy:

Coming Up Daisies

The last of the cross-stitch daisies blocks I've been working on for what seems like forever.  I was trying to get this last block to have all the crosses going the same way... then I muffed it on two flower petals.  Sigh.  Still, not like anyone is ever likely to find the flaws and critique me on them.

Ways to Beat the Heat

Ha!  I finished the last daisy block... and forgot to take a picture of it while the daycube still glowed.  Ah well, tomorrow.  I have subsequently unfolded the tablecloth (roughly 75" x 55") and started in on that.  It's three colors: red, green, and yellow, all pretty close to primary.  The red is all done.  The green, I have six small bouquets and one large along one side, and then eight small and two more large in the center.  The yellow, I have the same number of bows as bouquets, plus fifty bajillion French knots.  I might have this done by this Christmas, but next is more likely.

Thinking to switch out sewing machines and give another a workout (the 301A got put away last night as part of an effort to tidy up), I pulled out my Singer 101 that lives in a Queen Anne table.

No dice.  Something's wrong between the plug and the motor and light.  Wonderful Husband, who has taken electrician's classes far more recently than myself, wasn't able to diagnose it either let alone fix it.  So at some point I'm going to need to lay out money and take the whole thing, table and all, in for repair....

Degrees of Separation

Four more petals to go and the cross-stitch daisies will be done.  So close...!

And one of the odd things about blogland is when one of the blogs you follow shares pictures of another blog's blocks and you stop and think to yourself "Wait a minute, those look familiar.  Very familiar!"

I was sitting right next to Beth in Bonnie Hunter's class.  Small world!

To-Go Projects

I made no progress on the wallhanging today.  This morning was spent doing a lot of needful things around the house, and this afternoon the boys and I decamped coastward to my parents' place where it is routinely eight degrees or more cooler than here in Anaheim.  I plan to repeat this pattern the next couple days since it's in the nineties.

That said, I'm nearing the end on the last of the twelve cross-stitch quilt blocks.  I've dug out the next project, which is actually the previous project as well.  Handily, I even still have the floss colors in my to-go box.  But first, nine more white daisy petals to finish....

Going Small

I've been working on the Jamestown Landing blocks and have made the executive decision to do four blocks, a couple of borders, and call it good at a Christmas wallhanging.  I have small children, I don't have time to piece 168 (I kid you not, that is the actual number required) 4 1/2" neutral string blocks.  At some point, when my boys are bigger, I will revisit the pattern and make an actual bed-sized quilt to go with the wallhanging.  But that day is not today.

So far I have the four blocks sewn and put together, and the first border added on.  Next up will be the outer border, which I'm doing of green strings.  I suspect I do not have enough green strings.  I suspect I may need to e-mail one of my fellow class-goers and offer her a trade: my neutral strings for her green....

Jamestown Landing with Bonnie Hunter!

I took my first quilting class since 1992, and it was with quilt world star Bonnie Hunter!  I joined a whole new guild to be able to take this class, and signed up for it seven months in advance.  I'm lucky that she was teaching at one of the local guilds, and that my parents were able to take care of the boys that day so I could attend.

Our classroom was the clubhouse of a townhome tract in Huntington Beach.  The parking was a bit tricky to find, but the room was well-lit and the A/C worked, huzzah!  (It's turned hot again.)

Here's my workstation, with my Singer 301A.  Bonnie, a well-known lover of vintage machines, liked mine.  (I got to be her first demo girl.)  There were also four Featherweights in the class and one non-Singer vintage machine that I wanted to get a better look at but kept forgetting to.

And Bonnie herself, here teaching us how to properly use specialty triangle cutting tools:

And almost all the completed class blocks laid out together.  I think one more was added after I took this picture.  Mine's the red and green one, which I actually sewed the wrong way for the effect I wanted.  I ripped the two long seams last night and redid them correctly as well as finishing my second nearly-complete block.

And my picture with Bonnie and my block, in front of her quilt.  It was kind of funny to me: the uniform of the day seemed to be trousers and colored knit tops (many with quilty sayings like Bonnie's "Netflix and Quilt"), and here I am in a long flowing skirt and bright colors top and bottom.  Ah well.  Life is too short to wear boring skirts!

ETA: Here's Bonnie's post about the workshop.  My machine and I are in a few of her photos in the slideshow.

A Bonnie Hunter Lecture

So yesterday at the OGQG meeting we had Bonnie Hunter as our guest speaker!  (Here's her post about it. I'm probably that spot of dark blonde in the upper right of the first picture.)  I knew her talk was going to be popular, but was actually kind of funny when I got there right when doors were supposed to open and people were having to hunt for parking.  I found some pretty easily, but then I knew about parking in the back of the lot by the RVs.  There were over 50 guests attending the meeting!  Inside, it wasn't quite standing room only, but the Elk's Lodge was still rather full.

Her talk was great.  I've been following her for a couple years, so she didn't really cover anything revolutionary or ground-breaking to me, but seeing some of her quilts in person was really neat.  And when she brought out Pineapple Crazy... well, I'd seen pictures of it.  They don't do justice.  It's jaw-droppingly amazing.

I had taken the X-Plus quilt in for Show And Tell and since she was sitting in the front row I got to hear her really liking it.  And I bought her three books that I did not have, especially since she had them at a really nice "so I don't have to ship them back home" price. ^_^  I spent part of yesterday evening kitting up supplies for the Jamestown Landing class I'm taking with her tomorrow.  I'm still a bit waffly - do I want to do it in cream with green chains and stars, or do I want to make it a Christmas quilt and do it in cream with green chains and red stars?  Today I need to finish kitting up, and also catch up on stuff here around the house.

On BoMs

Survived getting the house and yard sprayed for termites.  Most things are now returned to their original positions.  My sewing area being the exception.

Got through the OCQG general meeting last night.  Despite people saying they liked the double bowtie block, only 30 were turned in. :(

We'll see how well next month goes.  I've offered both a simple and a complex variation of the Pinwheel block in patriotic colors:

(The OGQG meeting today had 65 blocks turned in for their block of the month!  But meeting attendance is roughly double for that guild.  So I guess percentage-wise it all equals out?)

Ouch

Tweaked my left shoulder this afternoon transferring the baby from his nursies-on-the-rocking-chair-pillow into his crib.  Have taken painkillers and am letting Wonderful Husband do the lion's share of work around the house this evening.

Tomorrow afternoon we have Terminix coming to deal with our flea infestation.  Prepping for this is involving cleaning the floors and putting as much stuff as possible up on beds, tables, counters.  Obviously a lot of the latter can't be done until tomorrow (we need to sleep on the beds, etc.).  Fortunately I did my sewing area before throwing out my shoulder.

That said, I still have at least four more pinwheel blocks to sew (and photograph!) tonight or tomorrow for the guild's BoM.  And my Singer 15 is now closed up and buried under baskets of sewing stuff.  So my plan is to haul the 301 onto the dining table, oil and lube it, and give it a good workout.  It's the machine I've been planning to take to the workshop with Bonnie Hunter this Friday, and I've never actually sewn on it before.  Killing multiple birds with one stone and all that.

But first I need to do more sweeping.

Blue Blocks

Okay, feeling a bit more under control.  I've got four of the eighteen pinwheel blocks done (and perhaps more importantly, worked out all the cutting sizes and written up the instructions) as well as having sewn three of the Wedding Ring blocks.  Between the two blocks, lots of blue fabrics on my sewing desk and ironing board!

*runs around, head on fire*

I've got the low-volume quilt top finished.  I solved the problem of not enough neutrals that went together by flipping one fabric to make it work and using its backside as sashing.  I also pieced a backing from the stash.  I even have enough of the backing fabric left to make either a pillowcase or storage bag to go with.  I just need world enough and time (or, more concisely, living room floor enough and time) to get it basted.

But that's going to have to wait a week and a half.  I have guild meeting #1 next Tuesday night and I need to sew my Ugly Fabric Nine-Patches for the exchange.  And at least six, but hopefully eighteen, pinwheels for the Block of the Month.  And photograph them and write up the instruction sheet for the BoM!  And then the next morning will be guild meeting #2.  And I would like to sew five Single Wedding Ring blocks for that block exchange, but we'll see.  And next Friday will be my workshop with Bonnie Hunter!  So I need to get everything together for that and give my 301 a tuneup and a workout.

Plus taking care of the two little boys and cooking and cleaning and making sure Wonderful Husband doesn't run himself into the ground.

...I may have engaged in a little retail therapy today.  Stress relief!

ETA: Nine-Patches sewn.