Sometimes You Just Keep Quilting

I am not sure where I am with the hand quilting. Far from completed with it, yet, not really sure if I am halfway or not quite, or beyond. The frame is amazing because I can walk away from it and not have to struggle so much. 

Hand quilting is a huge commitment to any project and I really didn't know how much easier the frame made it. Any photos taken would look pretty much the same with it draped over the top and secured with the four boards around it. Brilliant creation.

This particular project reminds me about how I get going on daily projects and have a hard time seeing the start and finish. Its like doing dishes. Seems like the kitchen is always wanting attention. With hand quilting, there is gear that needs to go on. I use a leather thimble for my right middle finger and then these self-adhesive dots for my left pointer finger underneath the quilt. With 70 dots in a package, this is still the original one I got when I first started hand quilting. They make a huge difference. I am on my third leather finger guard. 

I went to Bakersfield with the neighbor today. We went to three stores and had lunch. It was a nice break in my routine. I picked up a couple of spools of machine quilting thread for the next two projects, got a couple of yards of a holiday chevron for binding, and a yard of fleece to use for two pet beds. 

Its tempting to cut and run seams up, but they can wait until the 22nd of some month. I started collecting fabric scraps in a basket sitting on the floor next to my closet mirrors. Over the years, I tossed wastebaskets full of them even though some folks told me about using them. Not sure what raised my consciousness about it. What is nice about this idea is actually making the bag and using it over a wastebasket. then when it is filled, just sew the top seam closed. 

The fleece was on a 50% sale with another 25% coupon off the total purchases. Although there was a doggy paw print there, this one is the non-pill type for a few dollars more. I've learned to use a better fabric. I have two grand-pups and a few grand-cats who may enjoy these. I didn't want to buy too much fleece because most of my projects are already cut and waiting to piece. It might take awhile to build up the filling. And there are always sales at JoAnn's.

Table Frame Quilting

The utility company service tech who came to my home next only came to replace the weather stripping on my outer doors and then realigned them, as well as replacing a shower head with a new Delta Hand Shower Unit with a bunch of bells and whistles. And no, he was not authorized to replace the furnace control WHICH IS WHAT NEEDS REPAIRING!!! He said it would be at least 2 weeks because they all just got back from vacation and were backed up with service orders.

Realize that the outside door must be open for him to work on it. Both doors.

Quilting. Cold fingers, disoriented thinking caused by cold everything.

I started back working on Jer's quilt over the table frame and love it. Yes I can only work one way on it but wowzer! It is magnificent for hand quilting because it holds the weight of the quilt and keeps a light tension on a larger space.

My intention for the quilt is to do the borders by machine, and to keep quilting on it in order to get it done. Right now, I am backed up to the first five spins and am quilting on both sides of all the joined seams in order to help alleviate the pucker that started to form when I did it on the hand-held frame. I am now quilting  the setting triangles. It just got out of hand once I started, and once you start, its like setting a precedence. What you do in one place, you do in every place.

Thing is about hand quilting, that almost wrinkled look is a part of what you get when you use this technique. I didn't really know that when I first started quilting & wondered why everyone allowed their quilts to look so wrinkled. And even machine quilted versions will wrinkle after they are washed. Some people like that textured, soft feel. Most quilters do not prewash their fabrics and few, if any, pre-wash batting. Bags say it will shrink 3% with the first washing. With a quilt that measures over 100", that is a 3" shrink one way over the entire piece. Quilting stabilizes the shrink and contains it within spaces of the stitched lines.

Unwashed quilts tend to lay flat, but unless they are wall hangings that never get washed, they will eventually ease into the textured-wrinkled look. Every gentle washing softens them and makes them more cozy. 

I have hope today about the quilt. Hope that it will be finished on time to ship. Hope that it will look lovely laying across his bed or sofa. Hope that it brings him comfort, joy and a smile.

Hand Quilting

Jer's Kaleidoscope quilt is really heavy and long. I am going to rant here a bit because of the cold in my house. I couldn't re-light the pilot, called the gas company by saying I could smell gas though I could not. The furnace control panel was leaking gas, therefore they shut off the furnace on 12/17. Its been a series of unkept or broken appointments, holiday office shut-downs and ...well. Its cold in the house. Then when the evaluator came or assessment was made, they also replaced some of my lighting with energy-efficient bulbs which are dimmer than I am used to.

So ok, when I laid the quilt across my bed to move the quilting hoop, I discovered that one of the parts I had worked on pulled fabric and bunched it up. Those little puckers are not going to smooth out, and now I need to rip out my stitches so it can hang and lay the way it is supposed to look. As it hangs over my ironing board, other similar places are showing up not smooth and before I do much more, I need to warm up this room, turn as many lights on as I can and fix this. It might mean taking out more of my hand work to get it right. It might even mean not having it ready for his birthday which is less than a month away!

I have another quilting frame that came from my friend Lee's estate. I haven't used it yet, however, it really looks like it might work to keep the quilt smooth.

With luck, when the tech comes this morning at 8, he will fix the furnace and things inside the house will be back to normal. Bless the people in the world who live with uncomfortable situations.

Yesterday, when we went to the Japanese celebration for the New Year, we drove through the fabric district, through the flower district, and through the homeless district. People had tents or tarps set up on the sidewalks with shopping carts filled with their possessions in trashbags. Yes, it was in the high 70's, but come on. They were living on hard cement sidewalks. Several blocks, both sides of the street, close to each other. I could barely look at them, and did bless them as I drove through, slowly, quietly, trying to breathe.

I shake my head at myself this morning, and even though my hands are freezing, my shoulders starting to feel the cold and hunching up, I have this home, this beautiful home where I am able to sleep in a bed, shower with clean towels, and quilt with these amazing fabrics. And yet I whine that I have no heat. 

Making the Cuts

Creative work is the fullest expression of being alive. There is an inner demand in my life to create things of beauty. It has always been so for me as I reflect on my life and is so for me now.

It surprises me how many cuts there are in the Constellation quilt for my older Son. Once again, I got confused by the pattern instructions. I wonder if the challenge is here because I am following instructions, where many times in my past, I have refused to do it and went my own way. Of course, being that stubborn or rebellious, things often took more time than they needed to take and in some instances, didn't work out.

There will be 50 star blocks to the entire quilt. Instructions say to cut 100 pairs of the 2.5" squares. I am not sure I will keep that bright green in it now that I see it in the photo and may find another pair cut from traditional dark fabrics. It stands out too much here.

Then, the instructions say to cut 50 sets of 4 matching 2.5" squares from light fabrics. I need one more set. 

The math of it all has my head spinning. Each of the star blocks are made up of a 4-patch in the center, and 4 corner pieces in the light 2.5" squares. Originally, I thought the darks and lights would make up the centers, but this is not so. All the darks are in the center, and all the lights make up the corners of the star blocks. When the "duh" moment finally came, and I read the pattern again, it was as though all my desires for World Peace had come to fruition. 

If this is like creating World Peace, then it does start with the individual. And it is claimed over and over again as we move through our days and nights.

Year of the Sheep

Some days are filled with errands. Minutia. Yet, the work of being at home quilting isn't possible without buying fabrics, getting birdseed for the feeder, and a part for the wiper blade, and groceries. Even telephone calls and texts from the younger Grandboy take time to be in the moment and process for hours after. If personal transformation happened just by collecting ideas, I would have been evolved even further long ago.

Looking for inspiration and all the wisdom we can find is necessary for growth, whether its personal evolution, or finding new ideas and making plans for quilts and quilt projects.

Somehow the mundane new year celebrations and well wishing makes me want to change things in how my life runs. One thing the Year of the Sheep will bring in is a gentleness of spirit.

With my list of Winter Solstice, I could see that just making projects without someone in mind might not work for me. I loved the aprons I made for last year so much that they are a project on my to-do list and so I went looking for the patterns I had collected. I plan to make them for all of my Granddaughters this year (a few years back, I did make one for my Grandson), and these will be grrrly-grrl versions.

What I found is an overflow of patterns that have just been tossed together in a now-blulging folder. I need to get some organizational tools from the store and sort what I want to keep or toss ones I will never use.

The profile for Sheep and this year, brings in thoughtfulness, generosity, and an ability to cope with with the flow of life. Unfortunately, some of their energy is also over-sensitivity and moodiness. We do see sheep here in the mountain valley because they are rented out to eat the grasses down on the rocky areas. Often, I will take time to watch the herds.

The lesson I am taking from them, and my chaotic pattern collection is to honor my artistic mind, step back into the beauty of organization and allow balance to return making a peaceful environment once again. 

Oh, and I restored the comment option. Please feel free to comment on my posts and I will reply to you as well.

Day 2, Block 2

Some days, I feel mighty humbled by my quilting. I struggle between accepting my limitations and wanting to improve. It has become a fine line to walk.

Never knowing what the recipients of my work actually think, it is all a mind game in my own head as to whether my quilting projects are 'worthy' or 'enough'. 

While the second 12" Friendship Star block I made yesterday was fine, I didn't really like it as much as the one made of holiday fabrics. So I went looking for other Friendship Star patterns and found one that took 3 fabrics and gives much better contrast. These half square triangles (HST) are still a challenge for me. I took apart one of the points three times before it finally matched up. Also, different, is the spin of the star. The first one leans to the left and this one to the right. I do like how it turned out and will send her both.

Sometimes, when I say to myself that I am not enough, its almost like a cop-out or a way out of not seeing the truth about my skills. Things I do can be changed. I can re-do or rip, like I did with this block. Other times, I just tossed the blocks into either an orphan bin or the wonky box. In one way, that is a cop-out, even though I will use them. 

I have this need to do my best almost to being perfect, and that can be a real burden. Thing is, I really do not want to send something out that isn't going to hold up to use, or in the case of these blocks won't fit in their work. Some things need to measure up. Yet, a lot of my projects are made so that I can practice. Herein is that fine line between acceptance and knowing there is room for improvement.

As I look at the pic above, I have to say that ripping and re-doing that one point was worth my efforts. It may not be perfect, but it really is enough to make me happy.

New Year, New Friends

While it is still cold in the house, the space heater in this room makes it cozy enough to work.  What I think is important to me at this time, with this situation, is that I am willing to adapt to whatever it seems to throw at me.

Being holed up in this room is almost like being in a cave that is warm in the center and cold to the touch on all the walls and floor, and I am unwilling to fall asleep...resisting a rest, as usual.

I made 12" Friendship Star blocks for the two January swaps. This first one is made with holiday fabrics for the Christmas Block Swap. I know she said she didn't want me to go to any trouble, and really this one was so much easier than the 6" versions of the same block.

And the second Friendship Star Block goes to the regular swap where the partner gets to chose the style and the colors. She wanted a gray background with the colors she named in a star block. I want to try another version of the FSB in three colors and see if the contrast will be better. Now that I see the pic, it seems that they are the same value.

I know it is hard to see the difference between a 12" and a 6" block when it is the same pattern. I didn't end up with any wonkys. Points were on and size was accurate. I was most pleased.

I spent the time of a movie video cutting more of the blocks for my older Son's quilt. It needs a bit more 'shirting' fabric for the borders and hourglass cuts. Shirting material is just a little less than regular quilting material and I would like it more consistent. I've decided to use whites with various colored dots (mostly blues) and make it scrappy too. A FQ will make up four 9.5" squares & I still need enough for 15 more. The constellation fabric squares have first cuts & will need second cuts, as well as cutting for borders, so there is a lot to do on this one before it is ready for piecing.

The room temp is dropping as it gets later in the evening and I plan to put the space heater in the bedroom shortly. Its not an intolerable situation, just dang uncomfortable.

Yet with the New Year, I am working to make this day filled with peace and positive energy.  Baaa (year of the Sheep).