Bug!

Last week was a rough week with long days, missing the bebegirls, and what was probably a sinus infection.  My mom called up and said hey want to go to Santa Fe.  I decided getting up and going would be better than sitting on the couch with a headache.  At least it was doing something.  The trip was mostly just to go some where.  We got to Santa Fe and saw signs for a clay sale.  As my mom is a potter we went.  It was a nice find.  We did a lot of our usual stops up there, Santa Fe Clay, Looking Glass yarn, Santa Fe Quilting.   With out the bebegirls we didn't do our other stops like the fabulous park or Whole Foods for lunch.  I didn't find what I was looking for at SF quilting but I found something even better.  I found these.

I picked out some fat quarters to go with it and then started with the free andover pattern using these fabrics and heavily modified it.  in the end you will be able to see it is related but only kinda sorta.

I got through the cutting funk!!!! I actually cut out all of the pieces and got to the piecing stage.

and here is the pile of sewing pieces ready to be ironed.  I don't know if the funk will continue on the other quilts but it felt good to be back at the sewing machine.  might not be as awesome tonight as I have to iron all of those pieces.  ah who cares.  the quilt is going to be awesome.

On other Quilty news.  I finally got the fish quilt on our bed.  on my side I have the throw size and then the big quilt over it.  it is so warm and cozy and wrapped in bright and cheery fish. it is so lovely. 

Trying to Break out of my quilting funk

So I am trying to break the funk. Really it isn't a quilting funk it is a cutting funk.  At the moment to get momentum on any of the current project it requires cutting.  So  I pulled out a panel out of the stash to make an advent/nativity wall hanging for the bebegirls.  Really now is the time to do it, ya know say oh before advent which is why it has been in the stash for a year cause I missed advent last year.  it is a good free motion practice because so far it involved I think two cuts.  one to cut animals and people off the bottom of the panel  and then to cut the backing fabric to roughly the right size.  I will have to square it up after I finish quilting. and then cut out all of the animals and people but that is scissor work not rotary cutter work.  As it is it is just a sit down and sew now project, it is moving faster than the non existent movement on the cutting.  Bebegirls is off visiting her Texas grandparents until Thanksgiving so I have some extra time so I got to break this funk.

Stalled out

so I have some wips in progress on my table. I have half several tops sewn. and I am at the stage where I need to cut out the second half of the blocks and I am just stalled out.  I just don't know how to find my motivation to sit at the cutting table and cut.  the blocks seem to take 5 times longer cut rather than sew.  This has been about 6 weeks that I have been sitting and staring at it.  it is hard to blog about being quilty when I keep going to cut and then I just sit and stare at it with out actually accomplishing anything.  it is much easier to pick up the knitting and just do that.

Flower Fairies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

can you tell I am really excited.

I am so going to have to get some. I want some now, like right now now now, just to pet.  I love flower fairies.  

My Needle Box - The Bebegirls Volcano

I found the kit to make these awesome needle boxes last weekend at Santa Fe Quilting.  I probably would have walked past them as I was on a mission to find binding fabric and not be distracted my oooooohh pretty and oooooh shiny, cause the last thing I really need is a new project.  My bebegirls found them and was totally enthralled.  I picked up the pyramid needle box kit cause the top is small enough for her to get her hands around to close.  In retrospect I maybe shouldn't have made the out side white but it came out quite nicely.  I made my first in case I screwed it up.  my is much more multicolored than the pattern called for but I was using scraps I had in my bin.  Bebegirls is going to be out of safari prints that she picked out while we were up there.  She is playing with my "volcano" until till I finish hers.  

Kingdom Quilt Update

Playing the lay out and rearranging game.  Seriously this quilt is going to be huge.  Bigger than the king sized top sheet that I am using to play the pieces on so i can roll it up when I am done.

I am thinking a black minky backing.  if I don't go with a batting and just do that and the quilt then it will be less bulk I have to run through my machine.  I am also thinking it will need probably a 2 in border all the way around the quilt just to frame it.

Summer Finishes

It is summer and it is hot.  We have spent most evening in the pool.  This has cut into my blogging time.  But really when it is 100 degrees out side what is better than playing in the pool.   Either that or we are playing in the rain.  

I have had some absolutely lovely finishes this summer both quilting and knitting.

My favorite is this one

this is the one that got washed with the giraffe and ended up coated in polyester fiber fill.

Then remember this quilt, the quilt I made for my daughters second birthday.  and I didnt finish the binding for like 14 months as it sat in the closet.  yeah.  I pulled it out and finished the binding on it and here it is in its loveliness.

 
Both of these quilts were long arm quilted by Sue Wyard in Santa Fe.  She does beautiful work.  This weekend I am taking this top up to her to quilt.

Then in knitting I have finished quite a few projects.

This one is my favorite.  I love the silk bamboo wool blend yarn and I love the drape of it  and the color

The problem with the previous shawl is that is just wasn't quite big enough.  so I made this one.

This was a mystery knit along.  I was having fun playing with color. 

 

This is another mystery KAL  I was going with the same color scheme but trying better to place the breaks

Pink Stripes

I like pattern on this one but I don't like the shape.

project update

I have done a fair amount of sewing but here is the problem  when you are making a gazillion hexies well 109 hexies and 24 half hexies and all of them get black sashing before sewn together it takes along time.  so I have 9 blocks to finish then I can start the lay out process.  I have been working on some block of the month blocks while I am chain pieces and my pinwheel block swap pieces.

I also finished the binding on two quilts last week.   I finished the first one on monday night.  tuesday morning I throw it in the wash machine.  bebegirls is standing next to me holding her giraffe and she asks if Raffy could take a bath with my quilt.  I agree cause well his fur was getting a bit stiff.  I come back to check the wash machine and there is stuffing floating at the surface.  Thinking oh no, oh no, my quilt, I pull a hand full out and it is polyester.  Raffy split a seam and coated everything in giraffe guts.  I let the wash machine finish.  and  cleaned it out and threw a second quilt I finished the binding on the next day and it too came out covered in polyester fiber fill.  we will be picking it off our clothes for a while.   Raffy came out of reconstructive surgery and is as good as new and back to being carried around.

Sadly I don't have photos yet of either finished quilt cause when I have had time to take the photos we have had storms and gale force winds.  not nearly enough rain to justify the lots of wind, lots more wind, thunder  and power outages.

Chasing goldfish

I haven't been scuba diving really since before I had my bebegirls.  I have been diving once since she was born but taking an infant diving was rough so I havn't dove in 3 years.  This past week I was chatting with one of my friends who was regaling me with stories of his latest dive trip,  so I say to my brother "hey we should go diving"  in that kinda nebulous well some time way.  between my daughter and his twins figured  it would be some time.  he came back to me and said "saturday."  so that is what we did.    This morning we got up and headed out to Blue Hole.  It really is just a big hole in the groups feed by a spring, but it is the closest diving spot to us.  there isn't a whole lot in the big hole in the ground, 80 feet deep water, some cray fish that will attack you and some gold fish.  we did two dives.  the first one was kinda rough getting my feet wet again so to say.  I had a totally panic attack between 10 feet and 25ft of water.  once I remembered how to breathe it was all good.  the second dive was totally awesome.  went to the bottom didn't see any crayfish then circled the way to the top chasing gold fish and koi.  I think we are going to go again in two weeks.

here is some crazy hair for you.

now to go get some quilting done.

quilty afternoon

DH works Sunday afternoons so the bebekins and I have the house to ourselves.  Today we went swimming and got about 5 minutes worth of rain while we were in the pool and 10 minutes later there was no evidence of rain.  It is a start but really we need a slow drizzle for several days.  Enough for it to soak in and not just run off into the river.

I have no idea if I have talked about this before so if I have pardon me.  DH has this incredible anti sewing machine mojo.  all he has to do is walk into a room and my machine, his friends machines, his moms machines, the machines he was learning on in home ec in school, they just act up and break.  I will be sewing along and he will come home and I will have 2 seams left to do and I will think to my self I will finish these seams and be at a good stopping point.  and those two seams will take forever cause the thread will all of a sudden break and after re threading, I will discover a loose thread has jammed something in the bobbin case.  then something else will happen and instead of taking 5 minutes to wrap up I am putting my machine back together 45 minutes later after I have fixed it.  Heaven forbid what would actually happen if he actually tried to use my machine.  I would make him use the 30 year old kenmore that is built like a tank, but even that one acts up when he is in the room.  he is for sure not allowed to touch my good machine.  well the whole point of this story is I can only sew when DH is not home.  I like quiet afternoons like today when he is at work and the bebegirls and I can set up the machine in my studio aka the living room and get some sewing done.  I have graduated from the dinning room table to a folding sewing table.

Today I assembled 4 of the rosettes for my catan quilt and got half of the sashing on the pieces for the other 2 rosettes.  I am still waiting for the tree and lake fabric to come in.  The rosettes are pretty spectacular.  here are the blue 1001 peeps rosette and the green castle peeps rosette

Then I leave you with this.  Bebegirls wanted to nap and she was wondering around trying places. She tried her bed, mommy's bed and then the couch and then the floor next to the couch.  I came back from getting her a glass of water from the kitchen and she is asleep in the glider.  Well half in the glider.  You would think the couch would be way more comfortable

progress

Got some progress made on the hexagons this weekend

more of hexy thoughts

These are the low low tech way of laying things out and then poorly photographed with my cell phone.  mostly cause my computer is cranking away running ground water models and there isn't much you can do while it computes and seriously it can be mind numbing watching the model run.  I guess it comes down to do I want a square quilt or a hexagonal quilt.  I played with the fabric last night and basically decided a modified hexagon park is pattern I am going to go with for this quilt, with black sashing.  I think there will be cutting on the project tonnight

quilt planning and inspiration

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/06/header-vignettes.html  truley lovely pictures.  I particually like the sea horses and the frogs.  I love the sturgeon one but then again I am a fish geek and sturgeons are just really cool fish.  The are living relics in one of the oldest families of ray fined fishes.  Caviar is from several species of the European species of sturgeon. These are enormous fish when the reach full size.

the hexagon quilt thinking
I am debating between Hexagon park or Sexy hexy love.  either way the hexagons will be big enough to incorporate the large print of the fabric I am using.
The fabric i will use http://lizzyhouse.typepad.com/lizzyhouse/2009/11/castle-peeps-reveal.html http://www.aboveallfabric.com/collection/1001-peeps.html and maybe some of this http://tulapink.com/2011/04/25/prince-charming/.
This will lead to a setters of catan/ civilization ish theme for the quilt

If I do the hexagon park, instead of white I am debating black or chocolate brown or an espresso brown.  I like the dark lines better since the fabric is bright and I think it will make the fabric pop.   Hexagon Park uses 30 hexys and finishs out at 70x80.  I have 18 fabrics for the castle peeps and 24 for the 1001 peeps

and that is 40 fabrics though I don't have to use them all. if I used the coral and indigo prince charming fabrics that is another 15 fabrics.  so options are 1) make it with one hexy of each fabric and just let it be a larger quilt.  2) make the hexys smaller 3) ditch the border and just have the jagged hexy edge and while the binding is more complicated it could be interesting that way. I am leaning towards combinations of 1 and 3.  while I don't want another king sized quilt.  as I finished one this year and am half way through the second,  the  8 inch hexys really show off the fabric nicely  by working with the repeat of the fabric the best.  5 inch hexys will also work with the repeat but not as well for all of the fabrics. larger blocks = less sewing for the same sized quilt.  but in this case larger blocks=larger quilt. so the larger blocks = less sewing is probably a logical fallacy on my part but half of getting a large quilt done is perseverance so having it feel like less sewing is probably beneficial.  Then the 3 question is do I group my colors in to kingdoms or mix and match.  with the catan/civ theme for this quilt having the colors grouped by kingdom could be interesting.

Sexy Hexy Love Musings

This could work with either the town buildings or the peeps in the center of each hexys with the castles and the heraldry around each center. I would modify this pattern basically using her patterns for the hexagon block and then make 18 blocks and and make a hexagon shaped large lap quilt.  there will also have to be some shrinking of each of the blocks so the quilt doesn't end up gigantic.

this quilt idea has been marinating in my brain for about 6 weeks now.  I am finally getting ready to start it even though there are still lots of questions in my head.

To paper piece or to not paper piece

I have had a hexagon quilt idea in my head for a while now.  I am going to use Lizzy House's Castle peeps and 1001 peeps and make a Civilization inspired quilt.  geeky I know. so I have been waiting for the 1001 peeps to come out.  I got my self a hexagon ruler yesterday.  to cut out lots and lots of hexagons.  for this quilt to really work I need big hexagons.  I thought about using Amy Butlers Sexy Hexy Love pattern, but the 8 inch finished blocks are a weird size when I look at them on the castle peeps fabric.  The ruler I got makes 5 inch finished blows if I go with using it to cut out the fabric.  the other option I have been thinking about is using it to for a freezer paper template and english paper piecing and then I could make the block half an inch bigger.  Both the 5 and the 5.5 inch finished blocks look better than the 8inch blocks with this fabric.  So I guess the question comes down to do I want to hand sew the top or machine sew it.  I can make the two compatible sizes.  I have a little bit of time to make a decision as I have to finish one of the quilt tops currently on the table before I can start a new project.  With the wallow fire as bad as it is in Arizona  we are still saturated in smoke.  The bebegirls is spending another week with her grandparents cause really why expose her to the smoke unnecessarily.    it means I have an extra week to get more quilting done.

when we have a smoke free day and I am not at work  I will take the finished yellow fairy quilt out side to photograph.  it is really stunning.  I did finish a shawl this week. and I will leave you with a picture of it.

Desperate Plea for Rain

These are pictures are totally unimpressive until you realize that there should be large mountains off in the distance (sorry about the windshield gook).  The mountains should fill the image, dominate the skyline, not be what mountains?!?!? I don't know what you are talking about, there are no mountains here.  The north crest of the Sandia Mountains is about 8.5 miles  as the crow flies from where I took these photos.  We are saturated in smoke from the Wallow wildfire in Arizona.  So much smoke in the air.   As of mid day today more than 311,481 acres have been burned with zero percent containment. 

http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2011/06/wallow-fire-still-zero-percent.html

So every one out there with too much rain please please sent it our way.