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!

Fig Tree Quilts

I forgot in my last post to mention that my name made an appearance in Fig Tree Quilt's quarterly publication, "Fresh Vintage". You can see a copy of the cover at Joanna's site. I was so thrilled to be mentioned! I provided her with the recipe. I am totally in love with the Tree of Life pattern she has in it.

Somehow, I'm not sure I have room for another project!!! Can I complete something first, please???

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.