Merry Christmas!

Here is Penny contemplating how exciting the christmas tree looks:

And yes, indeed it is!

Merry christmas to all my blog readers!

Amy's Stars Top Finish

Turns out slow and steady won the race with this one. Despite being bored silly making it, I just tackled those half-square triangles one color at a time with a goal of getting two colors done each night after work.

Once all the blocks were made, it was pretty easy to get them sewn into rows. I added two borders - a narrow white one, and a thicker teal one. I don't think the stars pattern immediately jumps out at you with this - you sort of have to look for it, and mostly it just seems like a jumble of brightly colored triangles. I'm not a huge fan, but it's OK - bright colors are good!

This one is being added to the "To Be Quilted" drawer, which is full now. I think I'll be starting off January with lots of free motion quilting so that I can finish up some projects!

Friday Finish: Jingle Bird

My plans actually worked out! I was able to get this basted, quilted and bound and this is now on it's way to my cousin in Louisiana, just in time for christmas!

I think this is a gorgeous quilt, but is it christmasy? Not so much, as it turns out. This was never supposed to be straight up red and green, because her decorating is more teals, so I think the color scheme is as it should be, but I'm worried that maybe I should have added more touches of red, more berries, more birds? I know she'll love it no matter what, and I'll just have to leave it at that.

I did add a christmasy backing with more cardinals and holly and such, so at least there's that!

The quilting on this went super fast with me doing my "Maui's Hook" free motion pattern. The binding is the same material as the inner border, and I did it all by machine for speed and extra durability.

This was a fun one, but I'll be taking a break from fiddly applique for ahile, thank you very much!

Jingle Bird Top Finish

I really went to town over the past couple weeks and cranked the Jingle Bird blocks out. Gosh, I'd forgotten how fiddly these are! Each one seems to have 100 little pieces, and it just takes forever. My previous blocks were pretty traditional red and green christmas colors, with the addition of turquoise in the leaf shapes, but with the new ones I made,  I incorporated some more peach and pinks into the mix and I think it looks nice.

I had grand plans for how to set these blocks around the big center square block with a pieced triangle setting, but after I did all the math and made a prototype, I decided I didn't like it very much, so I did some more math and made each block a little larger with the colored triangles around the edges. After it was all sewn together I decided it needed a little extra something, so I added the red border around the center block by just appliqueing it on there. Ta-da!

As you can see, this is now up on my basting wall, so my project tonight is to baste and start quilting it. I want to have it in the mail by Saturday!

My Quilt Show

I've mentioned my quilt show here quite a bit over the past few months, but now that it's been hanging for a month, I thought I'd better get some pictures up of it!

I've already posted about these quilts extensively on this blog, with the exception of one, so there aren't really any surprises, but it's fun to see them actually hung up next to each other. I never really see what I make in one big display, and I was worried my exhibit wouldn't have cohesion or look complete, but I think it does and I'm happy with how everything turned out. Two quilts got hung in the sanctuary, and eight more in our social hall exhibit space.

Sanctuary Quilts: Aviatrix Medallion and Frequency

Mermaid Blossom, Wayfinder and Panache

Luminary, Hopscotch and Color Wheels

Pineapple Slice in the Corner

Solar Flare

Flying Geese Circles

Two quilts have sold so far, which was more than I'd expected (they're expensive!), and people have loved it so much, they asked if it could stay hung for an additional month! That makes me happy, to know how much people are enjoying what I make. 

Just a little update

After the bout of fast and furious sewing getting ready for the quilt show, I've enjoyed taking a break and not doing much sewing, or blogging either obviously. I got a very pointed text from a loyal reader the other day though - something like "How come you don't blog anymore loser?" that made me realize it HAS been awhile!

I've been doing a teesy bit of sewing here and there. I pulled out my bin of string scraps (strings are what quilters call long strips of material) and am turning those into some scrappy foundation pieced blocks, using old phone book pages for the foundation. It's very gratifying to see these take shape, because it's fun brainless sewing and uses up LOTS of scraps. I'm sewing colors together without much rhyme or reason, so it'll be a mystery to see how it all turns out.

I also started working on another quilt made out of solids called "Amy's Stars", and each block is made up of 16 Half-Square Triangles, which are easy, but BORING to sew after awhile. I can only tolerate making about two blocks at a time before I need to move onto something else, so the going is slow with this one.

Finally, remember the Jingle Bird quilt I promised to make for my cousin in time for Christmas which is in 27 days? Yeah, I sort of forgot about that and then just remembered a few days ago. I'm going to try to finish it. I still have 1/2 the blocks to make, and then the big center part, and the whole thing is appliqued, and I'm very slow at that. But I said I'd do it, so I'm going to try. Which means it's time to kick the sewing into high gear again, so you'll be hearing more from me soon.

Friday Finish: Abacus

This is an oldie that's been sitting in my "To Be Finished" drawer for quite awhile! It got swept up in the mad race to finish stuff for my exhibit since I wanted something to practice a free-motion quilting pattern on.

I'm calling this Abacus, because part of it is made from the very old traditional pattern called Chinese Coins (those long rows of little strips), and those combined with the angled 9-patch blocks just looked vaguely like an abacus to me.

The free-motion design is one I haven't done in awhile, but I really like it. It's swirly, but a little more spiky or angular than my usual spirals. I was calling it Bearclaw at first, but after doing it for a three hours, I decided it's like Maui's Fish Hook - you make the hook shape and then echo over it a few times.

The backing really doesn't go with anything, but you know how I am with my crazy backings! This will just be a scrappy quilt to cozy up with. It used a TON of scraps, so I'm happy.

Friday Finish: Wayfinder

Since returning from my trip, I've been working hard on getting everything ready for my quilt show, which gets hung on Monday. I haven't been taking the time to document everything since I've just been in "Sew Fast and Get it DONE" mode, but I am please to show this Friday Finish!

I quilted this in all over figure 8 loops, except for the border, which I did in diagonal lines and a sort of echoed diamond shape. I think it turned out well.

The backing is a sort of plaid print and the binding is the same material as the center star - those little seals in the moonlight just kill me!

New blog for travel posts

If you’re interested in getting travel updates while I’m in Scandinavia, I’ve set up a new blog here: www.ishouldbetraveling.wordpress.com

Stupid blogger is no longer supporting their iPad app, which made it impossible to update from my iPad...so Wordpress it is! I’ll be back in this space when I return to the states.

Scandanivia Day 1 and 2

Quick note: I’m having problems uploading pictures to this, so for now you’ll just have to imagine how it all looks. Stupid technology...

The first 48 hours on our Scandinavian adventure have been a whirlwind! We flew from Minneapolis overnight into Amsterdam, and after a short layover into we arrived in Copenhagen. 

After retrieving our luggage and meeting our guide Ken, as well as a few others from our group who’d arrived earlier, we were off on a tour of the city. We made stops at the Royal Palace Amalienborg and along the harbor to see the little mermaid statue, looking out to the sea.

The weather was a balmy 79 degrees out, bright and sunny, and being outdoors and getting some fresh air helped with the jet lag. A big first impression was the huge numbers of bicyclists out on the streets. Our guide explained this was due to the high cost of gas (something like $10 a gallon), as well as cars (a 30k car costs more like 90k here). There are wide bike lanes everywhere, and cyclists have the right of way over pedestrians, which means us green tourists had to be on the constant lookout. So far none of us have been mown over, fingers crossed.

We got to our hotel at 5, a historic place right on a big main square in the middle of lots of action. I was dying for a shower, but we had just time for a quick catnap before meeting in the hotel restaurant for dinner. Our meal was divine! We started with a crab salad appetizer topped with pickled sea buckthorn, tiny little round cucumber balls along with a flat lacy disc of seaweed and small pansies for garnish. Our main dish was pork tenderloin served with pickled pumpkin slices, shaved root vegetables and tiny little buttery potatoes. Delicious!

I was running on fumes by then, so as soon as I was finished eating I headed back to our room for a quick shower. Put my earplugs in and face mask on, and I was out like a light.

We set our alarm for 6:45 this morning, and after a slow start (why is everything so hard to find in a suitcase?) we headed down for breakfast, which was an extravagant buffet with every possible breakfast food, and even some surprises like thin discs of chocolate, and a bowl of cucumbers. I especially enjoyed croissants with rich danish butter and cloudberry and the cappuccino machine. Something about European coffee is just the best.

We were on the bus by 8, and met our guide for the day, a local guy named Klaus. He took us to another royal palace, Christiansborg Palace, which is where royal reception rooms are, as well as parliament. We got a quick overview of how the danish government works, which I think is so interesting. Because they have a multi party system, no single party has power for long, which encourages consensus building among lawmakers - quite a difference over our completely partisan politics in the US today!

From there, we drove out into the suburbs, where we visited Klaus’ small municipality. Because he’s on the village council, he had the keys to the small village church, built in the 11th century. We popped in for a quick look, only our group had so many questions about how parishes work and who pays taxes for what and to who, and who joins the church and how, and how come not enough people go to church that we ended up staying for almost an hour. Our group is mostly made up of conservative fundamentalists, and minds were blown over the whole business.

Once we finally got everyone back on the bus, we drove another 10 miles or so to the city of Roskilde. Our first stop there was the Viking ship museum. In the 1960’s they discovered that five Viking ships had been buried in the harbor as a blockade to protect the town from attack. While escalating the shops they found a bunch more, and built a museum in order to preserve everything. It was a fascinating place, and really pretty too, right on the water. I could have stayed for a few hours easily, but time was short so we just got an hour there. 

We were ready for lunch by then, so our guide let us loose in the pretty downtown of Roskilde, where the main pedestrian street had plenty of shops and cafes. I didn’t want a whole meal, just a snack, so we were happy to find a grocery store and got thing like chips, chocolate, a banana, some tuna dip, and ate it picnic-style on a bench. 

After a stroll through town, we met for a tour of Roskilde cathedral, where all the kings and queens of Denmark have been buried since it was constructed in the 12 century. Our guide explained to us that different royal families were buried in various chapels, and you could tell how well the economy was doing at the time by how grand the chapel was. 

We drove back to our hotel, and I was definitely ready for a nap by then, but managed to stay awake while we just rested in our hotel for 45 minutes before heading across the street to Tivoli Gardens for dinner. I’d heard Ticoli described as an amusement park, which didn’t sound all the exciting to me, but I loved it! It’s quaint and pretty, with lots of gardens and whimsical shops and restaurants. We enjoyed another delicious dinner at a restaurant called Groften, and by the time we were through it was dark, and we had fun walking through it and enjoying seeing everything all lit up. 

We leave for Sweden tomorrow, and I’m ready for another good nights sleep (fingers crossed!)

Vacation Time!

I know I've been away a lot lately - it seems that all my travel for this year is being crammed into about a three month timeframe!

I'll be spending the next two weeks touring around Denmark, Sweden and Norway, all countries I've never been to before, so it's exciting.

As on previous big trips, I'll try and blog a little every day so people back home can keep tabs on what I'm up to, so stay tuned if you're into that sort of thing.

Friday Finish: Panache

Hiking at Hurricane Ridge

Well, hellooo! It's been a few weeks, hasn't it? My last post was before I spent a week in WA state out on the Olympic Peninsula, and it was a wonderful visit. We rented an wonderful little cottage on the shores of Lake Crescent, and between that and the amazing hiking, and the delecious seafood, I didn't want to come home.

Our cottage

View from the cottage

Every day I'd take a dip in the amazing baptismal waters of this lake, soak in the beauty of this place and give thanks for being able to be there.

Each fall my church does a ritual where we all bring a little jar of water from a place we've visited during the summer or from somewhere that's sacred to us. We combine all our various little jars to symbolize us coming together again after our summer adventures and recommit to each other and our values that guide and sustain us. I've got my little vial of Lake Crescent water to to merge with everyone else's this Sunday, and I think it's so cool how certain places on this earth can sustain and nurture our spirits when the world seems so unsettling.

But, I digress! Back to quilts and Friday Finishes! This one was a long time coming, wasn't it?

The applique was the most intricate I've ever done, and since it was all assembled with glue, the top was really stiff afterwards. I took the risk of soaking it in the tub for a few hours, cringing as the water turned color from dyes coming out of the fabric. I quickly changed the water a few times until it was clear, and all turned out fine. I wrung it out by rolling it up and walking all over it in the tub and then carefully spread it out in a spare bedroom to dry. Amazingly, it all seemed to work out just fine.

The final challenge was quilting it, and I did a combination of things - I cross-hatched the outside wide border, taking great care to mark each line so it would all be even. I think that part took the longest. Inside the border I did some micro-stipping, and then just a bunch of my old standbys - squiggly lines, spirals, figure 8's...it all worked. 

The backing is the same one I used for the "Folk Flower" quilt, since I had just enough for this, and it seemed in keeping with the floral front. I hand-finished the binding. 

So, that finally wraps up this challenge! It was fun to do something outside my norm, and every time I do applique a learn a little something more. 

Vacation Time!

I leave for WA State this morning for some time on the Olympic Peninsula. This area is one of my very favorite in the whole wide world, and I'm looking forward to some hiking, eating of delicious seafood, and lots of relaxing with this as my view:

Lake Crescent, WA

Friday Finish: Supernova

Didn't this one turn out nicely? Usually, as I'm quilting a quilt I have a moment where I think "Well, I just ruined it!"...I don't think I've ever really ruined a quilt with the quilting, but the fear is always there. I did this in all over swirlies, and bound it in a dark navy. The backing is some print I got on sale - have no clue what.

There's a chance this one will hang in the sanctuary of my church during my 6 week exhibit there later this fall, and wouldn't that be a nice eye-popping sight?

BTW, the structure in the background is a "Catio" that we built for the kitties earlier this spring, since we've curtailed their neighborhood roaming after a dealing with worms, fleas, and too many dead bunnies or sadly alive mice being brought into the house. They're sad not to have run of the neighborhood anymore, but this seems like a pretty nice alternative to me, and they can in and out as they please though a little kitty door in the window.

Quilting and Basting

I've spent the last month not doing much sewing. It's been all about weekends away, and spending time with friends, and long summer night reading out in the screened-in gazebo instead of being holed up in my sewing room. I don't feel bad at all about that, but it does mean I don't have a whole lot to blog about.

I've had the "Supernova" quilt in my machine being free-motion quilted for the past two weeks. I've been sitting down and doing a half-hour here and there of quilting, just easy all-over spirals. I'm happy with it so far, and it's close to being done.

"Wayfinder"

I also basted two quilts at work the other night - the "Wayfinder" quilt, which I think turned out awesome, and "Panache"...which I realized just now I never finished writing about. The last you all heard, I was battling with all the tiny grapes. These were obviously conquered, along with multiple other pieces and some washing drama, and I'll tell you all about it when it gets its own Friday Finish post!

"Panache"

Wayfinder

I've been plugging away on my flying geese units for the Wayfinder quilt. So many flying geese!

I counted, and there are 368 of them in this quilt, so I'm just taking it slow and steady, and enjoying the fun fabrics and colors as I go. This one is my favorite. Look at those cute little otters lounging in the water under the moon!

I finally had enough geese made where I could sew one part of the quilt together - I think all the colors look stunning. Just a few hundred more of these to go!

Vacation Time

I've been away for my annual cabin get-away, which involves lots of swimming, reading, and sleeping. It does NOT involve any sewing, so I need to buckle down now and start cranking out some finishes!

In the meantime, I'm proud of all the reading I accomplished instead.

This and That

The blog has been quiet lately, but I've been sewing away....on clothes! Yes, I've taken a brief detour into garment making. It started with a trial subscription to Creativebug, where I became quickly seduced by all the cutesy garment-making classes they have on their for beginners. These are quick classes too - like 30 minutes, which I'm a fan of.

So far I've made a tank top out of linen and a lightweight shirt from some rayon chambray stuff. They were both really basic patterns, but challenging for me because I'm just not used to sewing clothes and they require a completely different set of techniques than quilting does. This is where the step-by-step video tutorials come in handy! Both of these tops actually fit me and look nice. I've been eyeing the pants class next.

Tank top - not the one I made, but this is how it looks

Basic Shirt - also not the one I made, but you get the idea!

I've been cutting out my next quilt project using fabric from Tula Pink's collection "Spirit Animal". I just love the colors in this collection! The quilt will be mostly made up of flying geese units and those aren't fast, so this one will take me a bit.

Finally, I basted the "Solar Flare" quilt top today at work, and getting it quilted will be my weekend project (provided I can stay away from pants classes on Creativebug). I think there's a chance that this one will be hanging in my church sanctuary during my quilt exhibit this fall, which I'm excited for.