That was quick

I finished the first step of The Boy's quilt. That really was quick, as the title of the book that the pattern came from implies. Of course there are more steps to go. Hopefully they can each be accomplished in about an hour and a half like the first step. Though the initial cutting did take me the better part of an afternoon.

I know Halloween has passed, but this is how The Boy and Girl got decked out for trick or treat. Those are The Husband's feet in the foreground. He wanted me to be sure to point them out. I made both of the costumes, much to the detriment of the Secret Project deadline. However I still got it done so there. The Children are already talking about what they want to be next Halloween.

Be free, and give warmth

Today the Secret Project went home to it's owners. I finished the binding and attached the label The Husband made for it this afternoon and barely got it washed and dried in time. The Husband had to stay home a few extra minutes to wait for it to dry and wrap it. I took the kids off to dinner and only had to answer that he would be along shortly once or twice.



So, here is a photo of it before I finished it:





And here are the proud new owners, and me:





And the new owners admiring a childhood photo of The Husband on the quilt:





It was welcomed with open arms, to many oohs and aahs. I am a bit sad to see it go home. Not because I wanted to keep it, but more because I often feel somewhat abandoned by completed projects. Weird, I know. It was my crafty companion for the better part of a year, and now it's all grown up and leaving the nest. Sigh.

I am super happy with how it turned out. My only regret about it is that I missed two people in the family tree that really should have been on it. And I did learn some things from it:
1) You really ought to iron the top before basting it. I know I should and got lazy and didn't and when I was quilting and found some seams flopped in two different directions I wished I hadn't been so darn lazy
2) Binding isn't so hard if you use a walking foot and do the corners carefully. I had never heard of using a walking foot before. I recently saw it mentioned on a Fons & Porter episode.
3) I enjoyed doing free style hand quilted feathers (only in the center medallion)
4) I like hand piecing too, but when there is a deadline it isn't a good idea
5) Skipped stitches when machine quilting is probably from using the incorrect needle



So be free, little quilt. Don't let the dog pee on you.

Next WIP: a quilt for The Boy. I already have fabric and a pattern picked out. Hmm, when can I start?

Something other than the Secret Project

Today I joined the Quilt Studio blog ring. For awhile there I wasn't posting much, and I feel joining a ring may help me to restart the habit. Plus I'm all geeky about this stuff, you know me. I've seen these little links on people's blogs forever and I never thought, 'hey, I should join one of those' for some reason. But today I did. And the blogiversary is coming up, so maybe I'll be on the list by then.

Also in blog updates, I added a link to Quilt Otaku on my sidebar under cool quilting blogs. I discovered her site from listening to Annie Smith's podcast, which we both happen to be big fans of. Anyways. I've been reading her blog for a month or two now, so I figured it was time to add it. I even went back and read some of her archives (err, I hope that doesn't creep her out if she happens to read this.) Plus, you know how I'm always saying I'm a quilting nerd or that I'm geeked out over some quilting thing...Otaku actually means "nerd"! How funny is that? Her blog (unlike mine) seems to have a photo every post. Maybe it is time to resurrect my photo-every-other post goal, since it is way more interesting to read with pictures.

Yeah. That sounds like I am 8 instead of er, not yet in my mid-thirties-something. I meant that crafty stuff is more interesting with pictures. Show and tell at the guild would be pretty boring if people just stood around describing quilts.

And since I know that you just have to know...I did successfully create my binding and pinned it partially to the quilt. However we were watching 'Mutiny on the Bounty' (with Clark Gable, isn't he dreamy) last night so I didn't get to retreat back to the sewing machine to sew it on.

And the end nears.

I have finished quilting the top of the secret project. I actually did force The Husband to hold it up the other day so that I could take a picture, but of course I haven't downloaded it yet. Also when I post from lunchtime at work I can't upload stuff anyway.

So I started making the binding last night. I prefer bias binding for some reason, and I broke out my faithful Fons & Porter how-to book (I don't recall the title, but it was my very first quilt book and I use it quite often. That is probably why it is falling apart.) and went straight to the make-your-bias-binding pages. I followed the directions--quite accurately and carefully, I felt--and it turned out completely wrong.

Just FYI, this method is where you make two triangles, sew them together to make sort of a diamond and then you mark your strips on it and sew it into a tube. For the life of me I could not get the dang strips to line up on the tube. You are supposed to offset it one, so it doesn't lay flat and that makes it all the more difficult. But anyway. I ended up ripping a seam and cutting it into strips and I'm going to have to sew the strips together one at a time instead of in one fell swoop. Oh the humanity. Doesn't Fons or Porter realize I'm up against a deadline?

Actually I don't blame them at all, I've used the directions successfully before so I don't know what my damage was last night. Tonight hopefully I can get the binding created and begin pinning it to the top. I only have until 4 on Saturday to get it done. Yikes!!!

In other news, I think I failed to state that The Husband, along with my uncle, finished the bathroom tile in our upstairs bath. Now it just needs the beadboard and surround tile done. Hurray for The Husband!

PS - does anyone know how to make a low-flow toilet actually flush?

Countdown to Anniversary-gedon

The in-law's 40th anniversary approaches. It is only 4 days away. Thankfully the sister-in-law is also making a gift and agrees that she won't be ready on the 4th, either. So probably we will make some lame "you should spend the weekend together" excuse and plan a dinner the following weekend with a few more extended family members to celebrate.

Of course we had trick or treat the other night and both the sil and mil were in attendance. This was when the mil decided to remind us all that it was their anniversary and not ours and we should not go on about getting them presents. Um. Yeah. A little late, since I just spent about eight months making you a present.

The Husband says sil is sure that my gift will upstage hers. She is having some type of photo-album book made up. I think they will both have pretty equal weight, personally. I mean, most people have no idea how much effort goes in to making a quilt so I think I'm pretty safe there.

On another note, Chalicat has gotten engaged!!! Congratulations, bestest friend!!!!

Oh nooooo!

Alert: the anniversary is actually November 4th, not November 11th. I have a whole week less to get it done! Argh!

In other news, The Boy will be the Green Arrow (though I am not well-versed in comic book characters, let me say that I mean Green Arrow and not Green Lantern. So many well-meaning people feel the urge to correct me on this issue!) and The Girl will be Wonder Woman for Halloween. What a super-hero family we are!

Hiatus check in

Well. Now I'm sure you think I just dropped off of the face of quiltiness, but no. I'm just really busy. I've been trying really hard to run three or four nights a week and that along with quilting and just plain lazyiness cuts into the blog time quite a bit.

Updates: the secret project quilt top is all finished! I am probably safe to post a picture and someday I'll get around to it. It turned out to be about twin size. The fabric I ordered for the border didn't work out so I didn't put it on. But overall I am happy with it. I took it to the last guild meeting and was proper-pleased to hear oohs and aahs over it. Since the deadline for completion is November 11th and somewhere in there I will also have to construct two superhero Halloween costumes, I will be machine quilting it in a cross-hatch pattern. It's my first machine-quilted project, give me a break. I do also plan to do some hand feathers in the center medallion to make it a little more special.

Also: the kitchen is in the process of being repainted. Hurray! It's only been since March that the flood caused damage to the ceiling, walls, and floor. Still no floor but we did order tile to replace the torn up bathroom floor. That was also a victim of the flood.

Our front yard had dead grass yet again. Turns out we have an evil little beetle called chinch bugs and that is why our grass keeps getting all these hideous dead patches (and it only took four or five years to figure this out.) The Husband killed all of the remaining grass and replanted. We are eagerly waiting for some green to peep through, since it basically looks like hillbillies live in the house now. (Also, the reason our neighbors never got dead grass blotches is because they have a different kind of grass, which incidentally the bugs do not like. Argh!)

The guild had their annual quilt show this past weekend. I volunteered with Freeblady to white-glove and also man a raffle ticket station. We had a blast. We saw quilts, talked quilts, shopped quilts...what could be better? I bought a few packs of 5 inch charms with a Christmas theme. What the heck was I thinking? I am not generally a holiday quilt kind of person. But the colors were so fun I couldn't resist. Anyways. The stash is definitely growing, and at a rate that I could never sew up.

Checking in

I just got an email from Annie's quilting stash yahoo group that Amy, who participated in our round robin, got her quilt finished. Take a look! It really turned out nice.

I know it has been awhile since I posted but you'll never guess what. I still have more Columbus photos to show. I have probably about forty left, but I'm just going to post my five remaining favorites and be done with it. Then maybe I can post something about the progress I have been making on the secret project.

I thought this one was really impressive. It really seems to catch the spirit of the culture. Lovely.

Another very impressive work. I don't remember for sure but it looks like pure applique in the photo. It's so intricate, and so well executed!

I believe this is a whole cloth quilt for the most part. The colors and shading are achieved with colored pencils. I loved the idea of coloring it in like a kid instead of piecing or appliqueing in the color.

This one had rickrack on it. The close up below has a better view of it. Each outline of the individual swirls is a contrasting color of rickrack. Very clever.

Broken goal

Ok, I know it was my goal to include a photo in at least every other post. But I've only had time to post from work lately and no photos around.

But I thought I needed to update you on The Girl's quilt progress. I have finished quilting the main portion of the top. Ta-dah! Now I am on to quilting the border. I decided to just stitch in the ditch and add her name in script in one bar of the border.

Unfortunately I still have not finished cutting out her coat pieces, though, so that means no sewing of the coat either. I am thinking it won't be done in time for Thanksgiving wear. I am a little sad about that but not bent out of shape.

And I did finish painting the kitchen window, which had been scuffed up when we had our counters and cabinets replaced last year. I just need to scrape the slopped-on-the-glass paint and also (ahem) sew the curtain. I know, I know. It's been forever since I started that project.

Oh, and a new development. We need new living room carpet. The other day The Husband and The Boy went to get haircuts, and I was left at home to give The Girl a bath. The Husband had started a fire before he left, and while I was upstairs with The Girl in the bathroom I heard a big thump. I knew right away what it was...a giant log that The Husband put in the fire before he left fell out. I raced downstairs and found it sitting on both the hearth and carpet. I used the poker tool to get it back on the hearth, but I wasn't fast enough. We now have a pretty good-sized blackened melted area of the carpet. D'oh. Then of course I'm standing there thinking, this log is on fire for crying out loud, how am I supposed to get it back in there? After several quick fire-tool experiments I found I could lift it by balancing it on the poker and the shovel. I hoisted it back in and this time closed the glass doors. Then I threw a glass of water on the smoldering carpet so I could get back to the girl. We had originally planned to replace the carpet in January or February, so really it's not a big deal. But still. It used to look at least semi-presentable with only shadows of stains. This is like a black hole, irresistably drawing your eye as if your eye is made of of mass, light, and gravity. Ugh.

Nothing else major to report, except that I've started collecting photos for the secret project. That's been fun except the kiddies keep trying to step on them.

Photos on quilts

Chalicat asked about how I would get photos into a quilt yesterday. So here is my (hopeful) explanation. Note it is hopeful because I have not yet tried it and don't know how good the results will be.

First, you take your fabric. You wash and dry it to get all of the yucky potential residues and what-have-you out of the fabric (apparently some manufacturers put stuff on the fabric, I'm assuming to make it drape prettier or give it a softer hand or whatever). Then, you use a product called Bubble Jet Set 2000 to totally soak the fabric. You hang it up without rinsing it or wringing it and let the fabric dry.

Then once it is dry, you can cut it. You cut it into a size your printer can handle, probably roughly 8.5 by 11. Then you iron a piece of freezer paper to the back of the fabric, and give it a final trimming so that it is nice and even on all sides.

Now that the freezer paper is on it, the fabric is stiff enough that you can feed it through your home computer inkjet style printer. Print your picture on to the fabric, then peel your fabric off of the paper when dry.

Last but not least, you need to wash your fabric photo in a chemical that will attract and remove extra dyes so when the quilt is washed later the extra dye doesn't run and ruin the quilt. I chose to use a chemical called Synthrapol. I picked it because I can use it in the first step to also remove the chemical treatments on the fabric. But there are other types you can use.
Ta-da! Once the final wash has occurred and the fabric is dry it is ready to go. There are products you can use that will iron on to the fabric, but I really felt the quilt would have a much softer hand and a more professional look if the fabric itself is dyed instead of a top layer that is just fixed to the fabric with heat.

I sure hope it works. I bought both chemicals from Dharma Trading and freezer paper is readily available at the grocery store, though you can also buy it in 8.5 x 11 sheets to make the work a little easier. All you need in addition is fabric, and I bought my white muslin from Keepsake Quilting. Oh, and also the chemicals must be pretty noxious because there are lots of warnings about using it in a well ventilated area and wearing gloves. Wish me luck!

Super-secret project

In a fit of crazyness I decided to create a quilt for The Husband's parents. Next November 4th they will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. I've created a special design for them that will contain (gulp) 128 photos of their lives together as well as some applique and possibly other embellishment.

Yep. I don't know what the heck I was thinking.

But it is a pretty simple design. The applique will only be in the center medallion (is it still a medallion if it is square?) and there will be rings of photos alternating with regular fabric. There will be a total of four rings, each representing one decade, and the border will contain a quilted handprint of each family member--including the parents. The Husband and I will be making up some kind of phantom school assignment to procure those. The color scheme is dominated by the color ruby (or, my interpretation of the color ruby) because ruby is the designated anniversary gift for 40 years. Then I also included some fabric that has dogwood blossoms on it. I guess more or less because The Father-in-law has always admired the dual-colored dogwood in our yard. And it also was a coordinating fabric for my ruby choices. He. Anyways. Here is a photo of the fabric, which just arrived from Keepsake Quilting yesterday:

Note that there are pieces of The Girl's coat in progress in disarray in the background. It is taking me a long time to cut out the pieces for that. I'm excited to start sewing it, which I will hopefully begin this weekend. I'd like for it to be ready for Thanksgiving wear.