Joyeux Noel!

I'm through with Christmas quilting, but I still have lots to do before I leave town.  I'm hacking away at the list a little each day.

Tonight's task was getting Penny a new bed to take to the kennel when she's boarded and a bag of dog food that I can leave there with them.  It's almost like getting a child ready to stay with grandma for two weeks!  At least I don't have to pack bottles!

I'm pretty stoked about getting way.  I know I was just home in June, but it's been a long six months.  I look forward to just relaxing and sewing.  A sewing machine was shipped there, so I plan on working on clamshells every night.

I probably won't post again this year unless I can figure out how to post pictures from my laptop.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!  We've all been very good this year, so I'm sure Santa will be dropping down everyone's chimney!  He came early to the Quilting Condo!!

Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee!

Clams and Things

I worked a little each night this week on clamshells.  I have over 200 in the works.  The picture shows various stages of progress from pinning to trimming, then turning/pressing, and two sewn together to see what they will look like.  It's going to be a long process, but I'm really enjoying the mindless sewing.

There's a foot for the Bernina that I might explore getting.  It has a non-stick sole, which I think might make it move more smoothly over this fabric and serving on a curve.  If anyone has used this type of foot, I'd love to hear your experience.  Those darn feet are expensive!!

I went to Upland Sew yesterday in the downtown area.  It was cold and pouring rain.  When I turned to get to the downtown area, all of the streets were blocked off for the Christmas parade!  I'll tell you, the rain didn't deter anyone from going to the parade.  I luckily found a spot to park just a block away and, amazingly, had an umbrella in the car.  It sure was fun walking to the store and seeing the parade, catching candy, and singing along with the Christmas carolers.  Darn if it didn't put me in the Christmas mood!

There's one more project to work on before my Christmas holiday begins.  I'm having my cup of coffee, and then I'm going to jump right in feet first and see what I can get accomplished today. 

It was 32 at 3:30 this morning. Now it's 40 with an expected high of 53.  I hope all of Penny's walks today are as short as the one at 3:30!  She doesn't like being cold.  She's such a weenie!!  (And so is her Mommy!)

Well, I Did It

I committed to a new project.  I took it out, gathered up everything I'd need to do it, and dove it this morning.

I said I wasn't going to tell until I figured out if I could do it.  I can, and I will now tell.

Clamshells - a Moda kit from Collection for a Cause by Howard Marcus.

The first antique quilt I fell in love with was a clamshell.  I didn't figure I'd ever be able to make it.  Just cutting with all those clamshells with a template intimidated me to no end, not to mention the handwork involved.

Years and years later, I gasped when I saw the kit at the Fat Quarter Shop.  The clamshells were laser cut, and almost everything I'd need was in that box!  So I ordered it. I sat and looked at it for a couple of weeks, and this morning I decided to dive in and see if it was doable.

The one thing I needed to order to go with the kit was the Pellon lightweight stabilizer.  I couldn't find it around here.  I asked Kimberly at the Fat Quarter Shop if she could order it for me and she got a bolt of it to me last week.  She is just the most amazing person!  I know sometimes she must think, "What now?!!" when I send her a request, but she always finds what I need.

 

 

There's a plastic template that comes in the kit that I used to mark the back of the fabric.  You can see some clams marked on the right side of the picture above.  Then I put a 2.5 x 4 strip of stabilizer on the right side of the clamshell, stitched on the line, and turned it.  That's how easy it is.  You can see the stabilizer sewn on at the bottom of the picture.  I thought I'd sew two of them together to see how that went.  It took me a couple of tries to find "the spot," but that part will be easy, too. 

 

Once I got set up and going, I did about 25 clamshells in about an hour.  Some of those are in the top left of the photo.  I'm just going to concentrate on making the clams now and not worry about assembling them just yet.  I need to enlarge the quilt a bit but I won't know how much until I can measure the bed that it will end up on.  I'll do that over Christmas.  I'm also thinking about leaving the borders off.  The antique quilt I fell in love with didn't have borders and it was gorgeous.  That decision doesn't need to be made now.

 

I am so excited about making this quilt, although I think it's more sewing than quilting at this point.  That's okay.   Having it all laser cut took away 90% of the work. 

 

So that's it!  That's my next big project.  I'm pretty sure this one will be done before I get to The Home!



 

Thanksgiving Saturday Project

"Coming Home" pattern from the book Simplify by Camille Roskelley.  A charm pack and a half yard of Apron Strings fabric by Moda.  Kona Snow background, three-quarters of a yard.  C'est tout!

This quilt top was quick and fun to make.  I need to dig through the vast amount of books here more often to look for projects!  It's been a long time since I've made a top start to finish in one day.  I need to do this more often.  It's just what the doctor ordered!

 

Lazy Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, it's been lazy so far today, at least for me.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I surely have a lot for which I am thankful!  I cooked -- gasp! -- and have tons of leftovers for the weekend.  Ham, not turkey.  I had to work yesterday until 4:00, and then went to dinner with my late boss' wife.  We had a lovely time.

This morning I got up raring to go.  I had been thinking for days that I was going to finish up a quilt top that needs very little work to get it done.  You know what?  I can't find it.  It was sitting right over there < < and now it's not right over there < < .  I think when the sewing tables were switched out, it was stuck in a tub that's now stacked in the garage.  Since I can't lift on those tubs, that project will just have to season a bit more.  Darn!

I did finish up two bindings.

I save bindings for the days when I am not able to do much else, but both were done on Thanksgiving while the food was cooking.  It was relaxing to sit watching a DVD and stitch.  Now I don't have anything to do!

I am going to try to pin a quilt today for grid stitching.  I say try.  I'm not moving very well as I took a tumble bright and early on Thursday morning.  I have a badly skinned and slightly swollen knee, and a really really sore right shoulder.  I hope I didn't undo anything there.  And to add insult to injury -- or injury to injury -- I wrapped a heating pad around my knee while I was stitching, and managed to burn a quarter size spot on the back of my calf.  I didn't notice it for a couple of hours and then it started burning like heck.  I cleaned it well, debrided it, and now it just has to heal.  I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday so I'll ask him to take a look at it, but I don't think there's anything to do for it at this point.  If I had burned myself cooking that would have been, well, honorable.  I don't think what I did counts as honorable at all!  I'm so dumb sometimes that I amaze myself.

Anyway, I was looking around this morning for something easy to sew that would use up a bit of fabric.  I just recently picked up a charm pack and a few fat quarters at a tag sale going on at Brenda Riddle's Acorn Quilt & Gift Company.  I spent a very pleasant hour or so this morning looking for something to do with them.  I pulled out Simplify by Camille Roskelley.

I'm thinking the "Coming Home" pattern might work.   I'll use Kona Snow or Moda Bella White, whichever looks best with it.  I have a bolt of both in the stash room.  I'll have to get a bit creative with the outer border, but I'll maybe just use the snow/white and do a little simple applique on it using the fat quarters.  We'll see.  I'll sew on the center guts today just to get the Bernina humming a bit.

Did I say I now LOVE the Bernina 750!  I surely have a lot more to learn about her, but I know enough now to make forward stitching progress.  Well, except when I go backwards with the seam ripper like has happened a lot lately ........

It's so quiet here today in the house.  Penny is snoring and the neighborhood is still.  I think everyone may still be in a turkey coma!

Oh, oh, don't forget it's the last day of the Fat Quarter Shop Black Friday Sale! I didn't!  Backing for Nantucket is winging its way to me, as well as new blades for my rotary cutters, and a couple of extra things!  Have fun shopping!

Nantucket Done!

I spent all morning unsewing and resewing and unsewing ....

It's done!

It was such a fun, easy quilt to make.  The problems were mine, and I take full responsibility for them!  In my next sewing room, I will definitely have a design wall.  All could have been avoided if I had one.  I see the flash washed out the colors on the bottom there.  I'm certainly not a photographer.  Heck, after making this quilt, I'm beginning to suspect I'm not even a quilter! 

For all the trouble I had, I still love this quilt, the pattern, the fabric, everything.  A huge thanks to Thelma for encouraging me to make it.

I think Penny likes it, too!

Unsewing Again!

I had one more border to put on Nantucket. 

Wrong!

I have to unsew  the last border. 

The computer guy was here fixing a problem with my computer and tethering all the devices, and I was pinning while chatting with him.  Guess I can't do two things at once!

I already have gone back and fixed a couple of like-fabrics-touching on the first border.  Now I unsew again.  You may feel free to call me Rippit!  It's been a long time since I've used the seam ripper this much on a quilt.

My Blackberry finally died after five years, so I picked up a new iPhone last night.  It may be a question of the old dog/new tricks thing, but I'm going to give it the old college try.  Famous last words - I said I wasn't buying any more "i" things!

Sigh ...

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Edit:  Turns out I have to take off two borders.  I flipped the second one. 

Sigh ...