Baskets and Flowers

It was lovely to have company for a nice long weekend. The nieces are growing up way too fast! Can't believe one of them is already driving.*sigh We are getting too old! Most of the time when we have guests, I can get out the quilting and do a little stitching. This time I just mostly curled up in the corner of the couch and settled in for the good visiting.

A Tisket, A Tasket basket blocks are done

So yeah, in terms of quilting, there is lost time. In terms of quality of life stuff? Who cares? At some point last week I stitched the last little bit of binding down on Spring Flowers. It was very satisfying to have another completion for the year. I feel very dithery and not very focused lately with the quilting stuff. It's just all sort of whatever feels right for the moment. But even more so than usual.

Spring Flowers is a true blue finish!

I'm pretty sure this quilt will be given away eventually, but not sure to whom. Yet. I really like the sweet flowers and spunky vibe, but I'm not super attached to it if you know what I mean. Some day, a person will cross my mind and I'll think of this quilt and just that easily, a match will be made. I almost gave it away already and then changed my mind. This quilt deserves to have somebody that truly loves it. Just haven't figured that part out yet.

Totally completed!

Loving that this quilt was started with the leftover cut-out circles from another quilt project. That does seem to be my modus operandi these days! Maybe my creative imaginings are getting dull and there needs to be a weird challenge in order to get something started.

Tried to keep the hand quilting low key

Oh well. We can't be 'on' all of the time, can we? This past two years has been such a roller coaster of emotion, it's simply incredible that so many of us even show up for any little spark of creativity. Lately, all I want to do is avoid any hint of the news and hibernate at home with my new Libby reading app. Where oh where have you been all my life? Just kidding. I adore reading physical books with actual paper the very best.

Looking very snuggable

The quilt meetings have been fun and also a little tiny bit of a drain on my time. You know me. It's hard to have deadlines when it comes to my quilting.*Ughh Makes me want to rebel which is really a terrible, terrible idea when I'm the one {supposed to be} trying to keep the momentum going for everyone else! 

Just sewing to sew

I was feeling so restless the other day that I grabbed up the bag of practice strips from the free-cutting demonstration day and just started sewing. All the strips are 10" long which is a bit limiting, but I'll figure something out eventually. Paired with a cream fabric, all the uglies should be toned down and maybe even start to look interesting. Maybe. I don't even care. It was just something to do while I soothed the soul and got myself ready to dive into the Improv. Class work. I think it takes more time to figure out the plan of attack than it does to do the actual work!

The latest in the hoop

Oh well, I wouldn't have it any other way when I see how much fun people are having. That makes it all very worthwhile. As you can see, I'm still plodding along with hand quilting on the occasional evening. Moving a little slower with this particular quilt than normal {'cuz all the reading distraction}, but it's wonderful to see progress. Just a little bit more and like always, it will probably motivate me to kick it up into a higher gear. Oh, I'm out to the border already? That means I'm almost done!*wink  Don't we wish!

 

Getting Projects Prepped and Ready to Go

 I've been trying to get some of the endless applique projects prepped. The list is a little overwhelming at the moment and I know from experience it helps a lot to have things ready to go. Plus, hand work is seriously calling my name of late. So soothing when the mood is right!

Ormes Inspired getting a word added on

First up was to finally settle on a word to add to Ormes Inspired. I've know for awhile that something needed to be done about that bottom left corner, but nothing ever seemed right. Last week I took a seam ripper and just removed it completely from the quilt top. The word 'Inspired' is what I ended up with, though honestly, I don't feel especially inspired right at the moment.

AHIQhourglass Tulip blocks

Then I decided to get the third? round of tulips blocks prepped and ready to go. These are the blocks that I've been positively itching to get started on and have been making myself do other things in that 'carrot and stick' sort of thing that I do to get through the tedious stuff! I'm not 100% sure about the raspberry pink backgrounds, but I do get tired of cream and bland backgrounds. Nice to shake it up occasionally!

Big Kiss needs a border

These borders should be a very quick wrap up for the Big Kiss quilt. Totally unnecessary as the quilt top is already plenty large enough to finish as a lap quilt. However.... the quilt top just hasn't felt like a 'me' quilt and quite frankly, it looks boring as is. While I didn't want to spend a lot of time on the applique work, it needed something fun looking. I especially love the little pointy top on the pomegranate-look flower. When I free cut that part out during auditioning time, I almost jumped for joy! Yes! It's totally the little things that make us fall in love with our quilts. Why do we ever forget that?

More progress on Melon Patch Rows

All the melon petals have been sewn onto the pink chain rows and are now ready to be further stitched down to the dark red background lengths. This project is taking FOREVER and I'm not at all sure it will even be worth the effort. Still trying to come up with a brilliant idea for the every-other rows of whatever block that seems appropriate. I've mostly settled on an x shaped block, but we'll see. This could end up being an incredibly boring looking quilt too!

Moody 9-Patch quilt blocks

Then there's these very simple 9-patch blocks taking shape on the wall. I had completely forgotten that the parts and pieces were cut out back in November. Too much water under the bridge since then and for some reason I failed to add this new quilt start to my list of ufo's. Which really wouldn't have mattered too much because that list has been ignored much more than looked at lately! Sometimes when there is an excess of hand work, it just feels good to grab something and chain piece. Funny how forward progress happens so much faster with a sewing machine! 

In other happenings, I've been washing up another batch of fabric given to me of late. One of my aunts is moving to another state and wanted to know if I'd like to have the bulk of her fabric? She didn't have a lot, but the trouble is, it all smells heavily of moth balls. Ughh... After trying for most on one day and about to give up on ever eradicating the smell, I finally stumbled upon the answer. Have any of you ever attempted to wash the smell of moth balls out of fabric? The smell is so pervasive, it's almost impossible.

What eventually worked was to soak the fabric in med. sized totes with approx. 1/3 to 1/5 parts white or apple vinegar {both worked fine though I've heard apple vinegar can stain fabric?} to water for 20-24 hours. Then I washed the fabric in the washer with a cup of cleaning strength vinegar. After that I washed the fabric with 1 cup of bleach. Uh huh, really. Then after that I washed it again with about 1/4 cup of bleach and a very small amount of some lightly scented detergent. At that point there is still a faint whiff of moth balls, but after running it through the dryer, out comes wonderfully fresh smelling laundry. Am I crazy?

Okay, so why bother? What a risk! It's not like I need the fabric and we all know what bleach does to color. Mostly I wanted to be able to honestly say to my older aunt that I am using and appreciating some of her fabric. Though I did dump the lower quality and decor style fabrics, it's good to be on the list of give-Audrey-all-the-fabric-you-don't-want-anymore. Right?  Also, it became quite a challenge. And... I got some free quilt backing fabrics out of the deal. Very interesting to see how bleach can massively change the colors in a piece of fabric OR barely change it at all. What made it easy to take the risk of possibly ruining any and all the fabric, was that it was already a lost cause due to the odor issue. My family was laughing at me. Apparently I will do almost anything for free fabric!

I Did it! Finished the Big Kiss Quilt Top!

So... about a month ago, I mentioned the possibility of starting a brand new project. You know me. Can't possibly keep the volume turned down on open ended projects! Anyway, this lovely quilt is what convinced me to go ahead. I just love it to pieces.

Big Kiss quilt

It took awhile because I actually ended up having to raid three different stacks of beautifully simmering fabric. That's a little painful for me. Now some of those stacks of fabric feel like they're lacking something important. The decision had to be made whether or not it was worth it {several of those individual fabrics are now all used up}. Obviously I decided that it was, but this is now. I kind of want my cake and want to eat it too... 

From a different angle

The other thing is that my brain seems to be malfunctioning a bit right now. Stress overload probably. I pulled fabrics and sat on the idea. Checked fabrics again, rearranging and changing the sequence of how they might line up per block. Had to ditch several very good options because there wasn't enough fabric available. Then I checked the cutting directions and decided to let them sit overnight one more time. Okay. Time to start cutting. Whoops! Don't have enough of  one piece of fabric overall. Panic attack 'cuz I'd already started cutting! {Kind of saw that one coming, didn't we?}

The center is just fine...

But, yeah. That's how this entire quilt project has went. Day by day slowly working on a few things, always double checking that it was being done properly. Hoping. Crossing my fingers and plowing ahead. Don't blame Clare, her tutorial is excellent! Very clearly written and easy to understand though I did question her suggestion to iron the seams open. So not my preference, though it proved to be good in the end.

Just so you know, five of these fabrics had to be pieced just so there was enough overall length to make the expected cuts. I used the same fabric in the piecing for four of them, but look at the bottom right block in the first pic. Yep, sure enough, that middle orangey-cantaloupe fabric had to have an extra special addition to makes things work. Just couldn't make myself ditch the already cut fabric and start over fresh! I almost put it smack in the middle of the quilt 'just because'! And the center didn't line up super duper perfectly either. I tried twice and gave up. So not at the top of my priority lists these days. I'm sure you'll do better!

Whatever, it's done now. Not going back! Gotta say that I'm really happy with this little quilt. It should be a fast finish whenever it hits the top of the quilting queue some day. Not saying that it will NEVER get a border, but right now I'm leaning real hard to the side of 'no'....

A brand new ironing board cover!

On another note, I've been looking for for a cover to my counter top ironing board for quite some time. So very hard to find these little covers, and frankly, I didn't want anything flashy. Eventually I realized that it was basically cheaper to buy a brand new ironing board with cover included {then throw the board away}, than it was to buy a cover by itself. Nope. Not happening. So I ended up using a large ironing board cover someone had given me years ago. I had this vague memory of someone gifting me one, and at the time, wondering why they would think I wanted one? Finally found it hiding away in a closet somewhere, still in the packaging!

I placed it over the little board and did a rough estimate of how much was needed, chopped off the extra length and then pinned the underneath side with some large quilting pins. Was going to sew it up all proper like and then decided it didn't really matter. Who's going to be looking underneath the board? All I did was zigzag stitch along the cut cloth and then take in some of the length on the elastics attached to the clips that help tighten the cover. Easy peasy. Seriously, I think it might have taken 15 minutes from start to finish and that includes the cutting and taking it out of the package!

Why didn't I make my own pattern and sew a new one out of pretty quilting fabric you ask? Bah humbug. The purpose of an ironing board is for functionality around here. A good ironing board cover has fabric that has been specially treated to withstand extra heat. Not paying boo koo bucks for that kind of fabric when I can buy a cheapo one from Walmart! And then in the end, I found one in my closet, didn't have to wrangle a quilt pattern or spend any extra time. Win, win.